The reverse of the brilliant side of the medal is sad enough: deserted
palaces, and crowded hovels scarce good enough for pigstyes. 'One day
man see his dinner, and one other day none at all,' as Omar observes; and
the children are shocking from bad food, dirt and overwork, but the
little pot-bellied, blear-eyed wretches grow up into noble young men and
women under all their difficulties. The faces are all sad and rather
what the Scotch call 'dour,' not _mechant_ at all, but harsh, like their
voices. All the melody is in walk and gesture; they are as graceful as
cats, and the women have exactly the 'breasts like pomegranates' of their
poetry. A tall Bedaween woman came up to us in the field yesterday to
shake hands and look at us. She wore a white sackcloth shift and veil,
_und weiter nichts_, and asked Mrs. Hekekian a good many questions about
me, looked at my face and hands, but took no notice of my rather smart
gown which the village women admired so much, shook hands again with the
air of a princess, wished me health and happiness, and strode off across
the graveyard like a stately ghost. She was on a journey all alone, and
somehow it looked very solemn and affecting to see her walking away
towards the desert in the setting sun like Hagar. All is so Scriptural
in the country here. Sally called out in the railroad, 'There is Boaz,
sitting in the cornfield'; and so it was, and there he has sat for how
many thousand years,--and Sakna sang just like Miriam in one war-song.

_Wednesday_.--My contract was drawn up and signed by the American Vice-
Consul to-day, and my Reis kissed my hand in due form, after which I went
to the bazaar to buy the needful pots and pans. The transaction lasted
an hour. The copper is so much per oka, the workmanship so much; every
article is weighed by a sworn weigher and a ticket sent with it. More
Arabian Nights. The shopkeeper compares notes with me about numerals,
and is as much amused as I. He treats me to coffee and a pipe from a
neighbouring shop while Omar eloquently depreciates the goods and offers