that guard the Valley of Diamonds. My most satisfactory remembrance of
Damascus will be this room.

My walks through the city have been almost wholly confined to the bazaars,
which are of immense extent. One can walk for many miles, without going
beyond the cover of their peaked wooden roofs, and in all this round will
find no two precisely alike. One is devoted entirely to soap; another to
tobacco, through which you cough and sneeze your way to the bazaar of
spices, and delightedly inhale its perfumed air. Then there is the bazaar
of sweetmeats; of vegetables; of red slippers; of shawls; of caftans; of
bakers and ovens; of wooden ware; of jewelry---a great stone building,
covered with vaulted passages; of Aleppo silks; of Baghdad carpets; of
Indian stuffs; of coffee; and so on, through a seemingly endless variety.
As I have already remarked, along the line of the bazaars are many khans,
the resort of merchants from all parts of Turkey and Persia, and even
India. They are large, stately buildings, and some of them have superb
gateways of sculptured marble. The interior courts are paved with stone,
with fountains in the centre, and many of them are covered with domes
resting on massive pillars. The largest has a roof of nine domes,
supported by four grand pillars, which inclose a fountain. The mosques,
into which no Christian is allowed to enter, are in general inferior to
those of Cairo, but their outer courts are always paved with marble,
adorned with fountains, and surrounded by light and elegant corridors. The
grand mosque is an imposing edifice, and is said to occupy the site of a
former Christian church.

Another pleasant feature of the city is its coffee shops, which abound in
the bazaars and on the outskirts of the gardens, beside the running
streams. Those in the bazaars are spacious rooms with vaulted ceilings,
divans running around the four walls, and fountains in the centre. During