ship of these bodies, as that between the "New Schools" and the "Old Schools" of which he hears in his own land. Of the ten places of Christian worship, he can see nothing to choose, except in the size of the rooms and the gorgeousness of the decorations. In all there is the same style, the same arrangement, the same intolerable whining at the altars, and the same profane mummery. Only one of the chapels is honored in keeping a Scriptural association. In the northwestern corner of the city, near the wall, the Latin monks say mass in the cavern where St. Ananias received the angel's message. It is astonishing, we may remark, that so great a proportion of the Biblical worthies were dwellers in caves. The house of Judas, in the street called Straight, was once a shrine, but is now owned by a fanatical Turk, who warns all Infidels off from the premises.

The Christian education of Damascus is but little better than the Moslem. The schools are of the poorest description, and even the boasted excellence of the Lazarite seminary seems only to amount to this, that French is taught there. It is the consolation of the Protestant missionaries for their scanty conversions, that they have successfully introduced a higher grade of secular instruction. Their high school contains upwards of fifty pupils, and has already been long enough in operation to test the possibility of a liberal education in an Eastern city. The mission has been in existence about a dozen years. It is supported partly from England and partly from the United States, and has five gentlemen in its service, one of them a physician. Its first intention is to convert the Jews, and the Christians whom it can win over are an additional gain.

In spite of Moslem prejudices, and the obstacles which suspicion, bigotry, and rapacity have thrown in their way so long, the Christians of Damascus are rapidly gaining in wealth and influence, and have the lead already in many of the chief branches of traffic. They are largely interested in the manufacture of those splendid, gold-embroidered shawls and scarfs, which some travellers have set down as among "the lost arts of Damascus. Their average morality is better than that of the Moslems, except in the item of veracity, in which they

have and deserve the reputation of the ancient Cretans. The better class are fond of display, and spend a great deal upon dress and the decoration of their houses. An occasional panic alarms them; and from time to time they imagine that the rabble of the suburbs will break in upon their quarter and cut their throats. But they are getting gradually over their fears, and are parading the wealth which they have secretly accumulated. The spectacle may now frequently be witnessed of a Christian effendi, in his robes of silk and fur, followed in the bazaars by his train of servants and pipe-bearers, a degree of presumption which, a few years ago, would have been met with a shower of curses and a volley of stones. The real security of Damascus Christians, however, is in the flags of the consulates.

The Jews in Damascus are less numerous than the Christians. Their whole number is registered at 4,630, but probably amounts to six or seven thousand. They are still, as they have been for ages, the money-changers of the city, and no great transaction of trade, no important movement of government, can go on without them. Their history here has been as checkered and romantic as in Spain or Germany; but after long ages of oppression they have reached a point where they can feel at ease, and display fearlessly their great riches. and their domestic luxuries. The chief Jewish bankers are the most powerful men in Damascus, and have an influence like that of the Rothschilds in Europe. They live together in the southern section of the city.

The richness and magnificence of the houses in Damascus have given every traveller a chance to indulge in high-wrought extravagance of epithet. The court-yards, shaded by orangetrees, cooled by fountains, illuminated by polished tiles of porcelain and marble,—the sumptuous divans of damask and satin, with their cushions of down, their figures of silver and gold, and their long tasselled fringes, the lofty walls, studded with mirrors and jewels, and the quaint ceilings, with their myriads of horseshoe arches, wrought in green and purple and crimson, the luxurious arcade, with its furniture of dignified chibooks and perplexing nargilehs, the balcony on the roof, where on a summer evening the family come to

breathe the cool air and look out upon the moon-lighted gardens and towers, the precious woods, and the precious stones, and the precious metals, of these Damascus houses, have seemed to realize all the legends of the days of Haroun Al Rashid. The number of these fine houses is not so large as to make them characteristic of the general domestic luxury of the Damascenes. Only a few of the more wealthy have mansions which exceed the beauty of an English cottage, or the comforts of a Western cabin. The blank and bare exterior corresponds with the most frequent view of the interior. Very little magnificence is shown on the outer walls, and the principal door-way is seldom high enough to be entered without stooping. Here and there are palaces painted in alternate stripes of red and white, like the new Church of All Souls in New York, and in a few instances fragments of ancient architecture are so arranged as to produce a pleasing effect. The domes of the warehouses and mosques are often beautiful and symmetrical, but it is impossible to see them except from the tops of the houses; the narrowness of the streets and the awnings which are flung across quite hide them from view. It requires some ingenuity and more patience to trace the line of the wall, concealed by rubbish and by crowded buildings, as a large part of it is. In some places it is double, and even treble, and all along there are marks of extreme antiquity. The Sultans of different epochs, as well as the earlier Grecian and Roman rulers, have left their memorials in the graceful shaping of the towers and the gate-ways. Several of these bear the signature of Nûr ed-Din, the famous Atabek conqueror, who prepared the way for Saladin, and inaugurated the second age of Moslem grandeur. The east gate, near which modern Catholic tradition has strangely fixed the scenes of St. Paul's conversion and escape, is a very perfect specimen of the ancient Roman arch, deformed, like the tomb of Cecilia Metella at Rome, by the mediaval battlements which frown above it. There are eight of these gate-ways now in use. None are so rigidly guarded as the gates of Jerusalem, and the rule about sunset closing does not here apply.

The Castle of Damascus, which stands at the northwest

corner of the city wall, has still a formidable look, which justifies its history of terror and blood. The walls are but little dilapidated, and stately towers stand high and strong around it. From the gardens of the Grand Café, where some hundreds of indolent smokers seek at evening their quiet pleasure, may be studied across the intervening moat the art of Romans, Byzantines, and Saracens in castle-building. In form and proportions the structure reminds one of Warwick Castle in England. It has lost its ancient importance; its rich apartments are all dismantled, the arabesques have been torn from its ceilings, and even for barracks it is but little used. All that one sees within it is a meagre armory and immense piles of rubbish. Arabic and Persian chroniclers have described in the most glowing language the strength and the massiveness of this building. Even Tamerlane, the Mogul Alexander, was for a long time unable to capture it, and the most bloody of his numerous butcheries was perpetrated on those who here dared to resist his arms. The castle was once the Governor's palace. But now that functionary lives just outside the wall, in a barrack-like building, which is in style eminently characteristic of its practical and economical builder, Ibrahim Pacha. It is to be regretted that this sagacious general had so brief a lordship in Syria, and that he could not carry his common-sense views of policy a little farther. His name to the Arabs is the synonyme for cruelty, but to Franks, wherever mentioned in the East, it means the reform of abuses and the clearing away of nuisances.

The rivers of Damascus have been its boast ever since the indignant answer of Naaman to Elisha. An unprejudiced observer will confess that Naaman had reason for his wrath. There is no water in Syria comparable to that clear mountain stream which still sends fertility through the fields and gardens, and coolness into the streets, court-yards, and chambers of the Arabic capital. The Barada, which Mr. Porter has demonstrated to be the "Abana" of Scripture, is the chief source of the prosperity and beauty, pleasure and health, of Damascus. A thousand channels, great and small, convey it into every quarter. In a Moslem city, where wine is a prohibited beverage to the faithful, where copious ablutions

are the preliminary to every meal and every prayer, and where even the smoke must be robbed of its fouler properties by passing through liquid, the demand for water is far greater than in a Christian city,—and it is fully met. All night long the music of a trickling fountain is the Damascene's lullaby. In the centre of every mosque gigantic fonts of marble or porphyry receive and disperse a perpetual stream. The winding course of the river through the suburbs and around the walls may be traced by the long rows of stately trees which line its border. Numerous cafés on its margin form the centres of resort for those who come out to enjoy the quiet laziness which is a Moslem's ideal of pleasure, to look passively upon the gambols of children, upon the frantic feats of horsemanship, or the ponderous grandeur of a Turkish military review. The heart of Paradise is fixed on the banks of this river, and the elders daily sit, as they believe, where Adam sat beneath the Tree of Life, untroubled by any such devilish sophistry as seduced him. It is remarkable that so small a river (for its whole length is less than a hundred miles), should furnish such a large and unfailing volume of water. It has no tributary streams of importance, and its chief supply is from its fountain near Zebdâny, about a day's journey northward in the Anti-Libanus range. Its mouth is in a shallow lake, some twenty miles east of the city. The current is rapid, and the water is always bright and sparkling. Several of the canals are nearly as large as the main stream. Small mills are built along their sides. The "Pharpar," which is coupled with the "Abana" in Scripture, has been by Mr. Porter identified with the modern 'Awaj. Its proper stream flows in an easterly direction, some seven or eight miles to the south of the city, but its waters are brought by canals nearly to the suburbs.

Not the least attractive spots in Damascus are the cemeteries, Christian and Moslem. The monuments are generally well cared for, of white stone or of marble, some of them enclosed in a sort of tabernacle. At one end of the grave, or upon the top of the oblong stone, is usually a pot, in which myrtle is planted, and by pious hands kept fresh and green. Trees grow thickly in the enclosure, more than others, the