There are 200 troops stationed at the castle under Colonel Saleh, to
whom we paid an official visit; as also to the Kaïd of Gharian. In both
cases we were hospitably treated to pipes, coffee, and lemonade. In this
canton are said to be the fanciful number of "one hundred and one" Arab
districts, inhabited by the Troglodytes. All the villages, indeed,
hereabouts, are underground: not a building is to be seen above, except
at wide intervals an old miserable, crumbling, Arab fort. The people are
easily kept in order by the summary Turkish method of proceeding; for
they are entirely disarmed, and matchlocks, powder and ball, are
contraband articles. The first word of an Oriental tax-gatherer is
"Pay!" and the second is "Kill!"

The outset of a journey in the East is usually employed in finding out
the vices of one's servants. Their virtues, I suppose, become manifest
afterwards. We were on the point of sending our chaouch back from
Gharian for dishonesty; but as we reflected that any substitute might be
still worse, we passed over the robbery of our barley, and merely
determined to keep a good look-out. This worthy, though useful in his
sphere, often, as I had anticipated, proved a sad annoyance to us. When
he seemed to refrain from cheating and stealing, he rendered our lives
troublesome by constant quarrellings and rows--he and his fellow
attached to my German companions--_Arcades ambo!_

Mr. Frederick Warrington and the American Consul took leave of us on the
morning of the 5th. Starting afterwards about nine, we soon left the
Castle of Gharian behind, and continued our course in a direction about
south-west, amongst olive-woods and groves of fig-trees. The country was
varied enough in appearance as we proceeded. Great masses of rock and
cultivated slopes alternated. The vegetation seemed all fresh, and
sometimes vigorous. Few birds, except wild pigeons, appeared. Many of