about 40 ft. high, and 4 ft. in diameter, and are formed of only three or four stones; and in the centre of the avenue are four granite columns, about 30 ft. high, each formed of a single stone; only one of these is still standing. We found the tombs very interesting; their construction is different from that of any we had elsewhere seen. They consist of a number of square towers, three, four, and five stories high, and are situated without the walls of the ancient city. The most perfect are on the sides of the valley which leads to Homs and Hamah. These tombs are not ornamented on the exterior, with the exception of a few figures in basso-relievo over the door, and a tablet bearing a Greek inscription. There are generally five sepulchral chambers one over the other; and on each side are eight recesses, each divided into four or five parts, for the reception of corpses; the lower chamber, in some instances, fronts an excavation in the side of the hill contiguous to it. Some of these lower apartments are very handsome, the sides being ornamented with sculpture and fluted Corinthian pilasters, though the walls were of plain white stucco, without any figures or emblematical representation. The ceiling, on which the paint is still very perfect, is ornamented, like that of the peristyle court of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, with the heads of different heathen deities, disposed in diamond-shaped divisions. We were much interested by the remains of some mummies and mummy cloths, which appear to have been preserved very much after the manner of the Egyptians, only that the gum had lost all that odour resembling frankincense, which we noticed in Egypt. We found a hand in tolerable preservation; but these sepulchres are not in any way so interesting as the Egyptian buryingplaces. You here look in vain for those beautiful paintings, &c., which so well portray the manners and customs of the ancients. Over the inside of the door-way, we saw a tablet in basso-relievo, of seven or eight standing figures dressed in long robes, with

their hands on their breasts; we supposed them to represent priests. We also noticed a sarcophagus, with the sides ornamented much in the same manner. The marble folding doors of some of the grander tombs, which are situated in the town, are still erect, but much dilapidated. They are carved in panels, but are ill-executed and unpolished. The lines of the streets and the foundations of the houses are distinguishable in some places. We agree with Mr. Bankes, that many of the small square rows of columns which Wood and Dawkins suppose to have inclosed temples, were no other than the open courts of private edifices, inclosing fountains. Mr. Bankes was led to this conclusion from there being one of only four columns, which never could have inclosed a temple or solid building within it: moreover, similar remains at Pompeii unquestionably belonged to private edifices. On the right hand, as you pass down the great avenue of columns, there is a door-way standing: within are the remains of the building it belonged to, having a Hebrew inscription on the architrave, which is interesting on three accounts; first, as the foundation of Tadmor was by Solomon; secondly, as Zenobia is said by some to have been of the Jewish religion; and thirdly, as Bishop Riddle states that in his time 2000 Jews dwelt at Tadmor. This inscription was discovered by Mr. Bankes. There is at Palmyra a tepid spring of mineral water, having a strong sulphureous taste and smell; a subterraneous aqueduct supplied the town. There is a great quantity of salt in the desert adjoining Tadmor, which forms a lucrative branch of commerce to the natives.

January 31.-Having finished our examination of the ruins, we started on our return at 2 P. M., and continued till ten at night. After dark the Arabs implored us not to sing, for fear the robbers should hear us, and appeared to be as fearful in their own desert, as it was possible for a stranger to have been.

February 1.-We moved at sun-rise, and did not reach Mahannah's camp

until dark; we were conducted back by a different road, and met with two parties of his people on horseback, one of seven, and the other of twelve, most of them armed with spears; we also met a small party on dromedaries richly caparisoned, sent, as we thought, on purpose to show his importance, They asked us in passing, how much we had paid for visiting Palmyra, taking it as a thing of course that we were obliged to give money. Our change of road naturally gave some mystery to our proceeding. On our arrival at the camp, old Mahannah came out of his tent and began feeling the saddles; and took from the poor Arabs all the salt which they had purchased at Palmyra. We were pretty well received by the chiefs; Narsah had on the old robe this time, and his father the new one. We soon found out the meaning of this, as Narsah urged our interpreter to request us to give him a new dress; but the latter said it was a thing impossible, as we had made our bargain for six hundred piastres, and would give nothing besides. We obtained a promise that everything should be in readiness for us to depart early in the morning, and Narsah told us he should write a letter to the King of England, which we were to take with us. He sent one to his dear friend Lady Hester, with whom they all seem to be enchanted. They call her "El Malaka," (the queen ;) some say she is "Bint-el Sultan" (daughter of the king,) and others favour her with the appellation of the Virgin Mary. February 2. -We were detained until 9 A.M., and had much difficulty in procuring a draught of water before starting; but we absolutely refused to move without it. In consequence of this detention we were benighted before we had completed our day's journey, and had a bitterly cold bivouack in the open air, the Arabs being afraid even to light a fire. We, however, managed to lay down between two of our camels, which, from their kneeling posture, kept some of the cold air off; sleeping was out of the question, as it was freezing hard, with a strong, cutting wind.

On the 3rd, at dawn, we were on route; we saw twenty-three white gazelles,

*

and witnessed the removal of an Arab camp; the movables were all placed on the camels' backs; the women, with the children slung over their shoulders, and the flocks followed, presenting altogether an interesting sight. At a small encampment we breakfasted off a thick mess of lentiles and bread, highly seasoned with pepper, and very good. Towards noon we passed a valley, furrowed up in all directions, by the wild boars; † the soil had the appearance of having been literally ploughed up. In the evening we reached Homs; we were highly satisfied with our conductors, and therefore gave them each twenty piastres, as voluntary backsheeish. One of these men had already received twenty for carrying the message to Narsah, as before mentioned. We also sent a turban of the value of twenty piastres to the sheikh of Tadmor, for his civility to us, and gave 100 piastres to Pierre; so that our whole expenses in visiting Palmyra amounted to 800 piastres, 200 of which consisted of voluntary gifts.

The behaviour of these Arabs to each other, whatever may be their conduct to strangers, presents an agreeable picture of domestic harmony and comfort, and is in unison with all the ideas the poets have given of the peaceful contentment of the pastoral life; in fact, they are a nation of shepherds, and I question much if, in our most polished circles, more real dignity of deportment and urbanity of manners are to be met with than in the humble tent of the Arab. It appeared to us that all that was good amongst them was centred in the lower orders; the chiefs monopolising to themselves all that cunning and roguery which render them contemptible in the eyes of a stranger. An Arab, on arriving in a strange camp, goes to the first tent that comes in his way; he does not wait to be asked in, but without any ceremony makes his camel lie down, unloads it at the entrance, and, entering the tent with the simple salutation

imprisoned in Damascus a short time for some tricks he had been playing there. The pasha wished to cut off his head, but a strong remonstrance from the merchants of Aleppo and Bagdad, setting forth the disastrous consequences which would attend the execution of this man, by rousing the vengeance of the Arabs, procured his release; and, instead of losing his head, he was dismissed with a present of a robe and some backsheeish.

Requiring a little rest on our return from Tadmor, we remained at Homs till the 7th February, on which day we set out and travelled for about seven hours, passing over rich plains, and rounding the point of a mountain which we took to be the end of AntiLebanon. The next day we proceeded for nine hours through a mountainous country. On the 9th, after journeying for seven hours, we stopped at a khan in a plain, around which the mountains were barren, uninteresting, and partly covered with snow.

February 10.-Leaving this place we again entered a hilly country, when, on arriving at the brow of a descent, the extensive and beautiful plain of Damascus opened on our view, with the town surrounded by woods, amidst which were several villages. The land was highly cultivated; to the eastward the plain extends as far as the eye can reach; in other directions it is bounded by hills, Lebanon rising conspicuous above them all. In about two hours we reached the plain, and in five more arrived at the convent of the Terra Sancta in Damascus. For the last three hours of our journey, the road was extremely beautiful, passing through rich olive groves, and gardens inclosed by walls of sun-burnt brick, and surrounded and irrigated by streams of

water, partly natural and partly conducted by art.

February 17.-Not having slept on a bed, or with our clothes off, since we left Aleppo, thirty-eight days ago, we now fully appreciated the luxury of good beds. Our time since the 10th has been occupied in writing letters, and in visiting different parts of the town, such as the place of the Vision of St. Paul outside the eastern gate; the place where he was let down the wall in a basket; the house of Ananias; the street called Straight, &c., alluded to in the Acts of the Apostles. The Turkish name for Damascus is Shum, Sha or Shem, and the friars of the convent think it was originally founded by Shem, the son of Noah; the earliest information we have of this place is in the time of Abraham.*

In

We purpose proceeding to the Holy Land in a few days by Panias, near to which place is the source of the Jordan; thence crossing the bridge of Jacob, we shall go to Nazareth, Tiberias, Nablous, Jericho, and Jerusalem. consequence of a letter from Mr. Barker, we have received great assistance from Monsieur Chaboceau, physician to the pasha of this place, and through his good offices have got another firman for the pashalic, and a letter to the governor of Jerusalem, from whom we hope to get guides to conduct us to Mount Sinai. Whether we succeed or not in getting to Mount Sinai, we shall return by Jerusalem to Acre, and then embark for Cyprus, whence we shall proceed to the coast of Asia Minor, beginning by Tarsus, which will conduct us to Smyrna, the site of Troy, and finally to Constantinople.

*Genesis xiv. 15.

On the 23d Feb. we quitted Damascus, and passing over a slight eminence entered a plain, through which runs a fine stream, but being destitute of wood, it has less beauty than the country around Damascus, though the soil is rich. About four in the afternoon, we stopped at the khan of the village of Sasa. Hitherto we had followed the road from Damascus to Jacob's Bridge, at that part of the Jordan which lies between the lakes Houle and Tiberias.

February 24. We passed to the westward for Panias. The first part of the road led through a fine plain, watered by a pretty, winding rivulet, with numerous tributary streams, and many old ruined mills; we then began to ascend over very rugged and rocky ground, quite void of vegetation; in some places there were traces of an ancient paved way, probably the Roman road leading from Damascus to Casarea Philippi; as we ascended we had the highest part of Djebail Sheikh (Anti-Lebanon), on our right; we found the snow, occasionally, of considerable depth, and it was with difficulty we got our horses through it. The road now became gradually less stony, and we saw flocks of goats browsing on a rich herbage, in places from which the stones had been cleared away and piled up in great heaps. The shrubs gradually increased in number, size, and beauty, and we presently descended into a very rich little plain immediately at the foot of Djebail Sheikh. There is a conspicuous tomb in this valley, and a rivulet, which appears to take its source at the foot of the mountains, passes along the

western side of the plain in a southerly direction, its course then turns more to the westward, and rushing in a very picturesque manner, through a deep chasm, overhung by shrubs of various descriptions, joins the Jordan at Panias; it is marked in Arrowsmith's chart as the real source of the Jordan, but the fountains at Panias, which are by far the most copious, though not the most distant from the Dead Sea, where the river terminates, are generally considered to be the source; an opinion in which both of us agree. From this plain we ascended up the southern side of Djebail Sheikh, and after passing a very small village about one o'clock, we saw on our left, close to us, a very picturesque lake, of little more than a mile in circumference, apparently perfectly circular, and surrounded by sloping hills richly wooded. The singularity of this lake is, that it has no apparent supply or discharge; its waters appeared perfectly still, though clear and limpid; a great many wild-fowl were swimming in it. This lake has been remarked only by Burckhardt and Seetzen, other travellers who have gone from Damascus to Panias having taken the route by Raschia and Hasbeya; Arrowsmith's map notices it by the name of the Birket-el Ram, on the authority of Seetzen. Josephus mentions it under the name of “Phiala” (a cup), in allusion to its shape. It was supposed by the ancients to be the real source of the Jordan; Josephus states, that they threw straw into the lake, which came out at the apparent source at Panias. A short distance from Phiala, we crossed a stream which