III. THE TINKLING OF THE CAMEL'S BELL.




BOOK II. WEDDED (Continued).


CHAPTER XI. IN AND ABOUT DAMASCUS. (1870).


When I nighted and day'd in Damascus town,
Time sware such another he ne'er should view;
And careless we slept under wing of night,
Till dappled morn 'gan her smiles renew,
And dewdrops on branch in their beauty hung
Like pearls to be dropt when the zephyr blew,
And the lake was the page where birds read and wrote,
And the clouds set points to what breezes roll.

_Alf Laylah wa Laylah_ (Burton's"Arabian Nights").


During the first weeks at Damascus my only work was to find a suitable
house and to settle down in it. Our predecessor in the Consulate had
lived in a large house in the city itself, and as soon as he retired he
let it to a wealthy Jew. In any case it would not have suited us, nor
would any house within the city walls; for though some of them were quite
beautiful--indeed, marble palaces gorgeously decorated and furnished