vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender
grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give
thee my loves.

The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner
of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee,
O my beloved.

_The Song of Solomon_.


During the next few weeks at Damascus there was an outbreak of cholera,
which gave me a great deal of trouble at the time. Several people died
in great agony, and I did what I could to check the outbreak. I made the
peasants wash and fumigate their houses and burn the bedding, and send
to me for medicine the moment a person was taken ill. Fortunately these
precautions checked the spread of the disease; but along the cottages at
the river-side there was also an epidemic of scarlet fever more difficult
to keep within bounds. I secured the services of a kind-hearted French
surgeon, who attended the patients, and I myself nursed them. I wore
an outside woollen dress when attending cases, and this I hung on a
tree in the garden, and never let it enter my house. I also took a bag
of camphor with me to prevent infection. However, after a time I was
struck down by one of those virulent, nameless illnesses peculiar to
Damascus, which, if neglected, end in death, and I could not move without
fainting. An instinct warned me to have a change of air, and I
determined to go to Beyrout. Two hours out of Damascus I was able to
rise, and at the half-way house at Buka'a I could eat, and when I arrived
at Beyrout after fourteen hours' journey I felt almost well. I had three
weeks' delicious sea-bathing at Beyrout; and while there we kept Her