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dogs, and the general effect of the surrounding scenery, all combined, was powerfully impressive.

We were well received by our friends at Assalt; and, as the adventures of our excursion formed an object of general interest, we were kept up by visitors till a late hour in recounting them.

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FURTHER DETENTION AT ASSALT, AND A THIRD VISIT TO JERASH.

ASSALT, Sunday, March 4.-It was necessary to remain at least a day at Assalt, for the purpose of giving my horse some repose, as well as to think of what steps it would be most advisable to pursue under existing circumstances, and how I could best further the ultimate object of my journey.

It being a day of freedom from business, (though to me, at least, far from a day of rest,) as soon as the morning service of the church was over, which was at an early hour, the house in which I lodged was filled with visitors; some professedly to know the reason of our return; others probably out of a desire to see us, and ascertain that we were well; and some, certainly, because they had nothing else to do, and thought it the least tedious method of passing away a tiresome day of idleness and gossiping.

The adventures of our way were recounted twenty times in succession to every fresh visitor by my guide, Abu Fārah-elSemaan-ibn-Semaan-ibn-Daood (for so he called himself); and although he interlarded his narrative with the most solemn exclamations, such as, "Salat el Nebbé! Ya towal Oomruck!" &c. Pray to the Prophet! May your life be lengthened!" and similar expressions, yet he was a perfect Falstaff in progressive exaggeration, and every time that he repeated the same incident, it became magnified in importance by the additional embellishments which it was certain of receiving as it passed through his hands.

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It may be remarked here, that nothing is more fallacious, or less worthy of being implicitly received, than the information of the people of the country, either with regard to the inhabited places near them, their distance and direction of bearing from each other, or as to the site of ancient ruins in the neighbourhood, with their extent, position, or present state. In illustration of this uncertainty on topics like these, we had a long dispute among our morning visitors on the question whether Karak, and Karak Shaubak, were one and the same place, or whether they were distinct and separate from each other. One would have imagined, that in a town so near to these as Assalt, and inhabited, too, by a people frequently making journies in the country around them, as well as being occasionally visited by persons from Karak, such ignorance as this could not well happen; yet some among our party contended warmly, that to the south of Karak there were neither towns nor villages of any kind, the people all living in tents; while others maintained as stoutly, that two days' journey to the south of Karak was a place called Karak Shaubak; and a day further on, in the same direction, was a spot called Wadi Moosa, in which were several other smaller villages.

Of the remains of ancient cities in this district of Belkah, many of the inhabitants of Assalt did not even know the existence; others confounded names and descriptions in such a manner as to render both unintelligible, from the details given as descriptive of

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one place proving much more applicable to some other. Many of the party went so far as to say, that Deer el Nassara, at which there is not a vestige of architectural grandeur or beauty, was a far more interesting spot, and more worthy of a stranger's visit, than either Amman or Jerash, two of the finest groups of ruins on the east of the Jordan. Some of our visitors asserted, that at Irak-elEmir, which we had passed without entering, were stone doors, sarcophagi, subterranean chambers, galleries of undetermined extent, and inscriptions in unknown characters graven on the doors and walls, a description that would lead one to expect Egyptian tombs like those of the kings at Thebes. Others contended that there were neither stone doors nor large chambers, but sarcophagi only, and these sunk deep into the earth; and others again insisted that there was neither writing over the doors nor sculpture of any kind; though all admitted the existence of the stone boxes, or sarcophagi, which were large and numerous.

The unaccountable part of these discrepancies and total want of agreement is, that each of the speakers swore he had seen the place spoken of at least twenty times, and knew every part of it as well as his own dwelling, yet all were equally positive in maintaining the accuracy of their statements, and no one person would submit to acknowledge himself as even probably in error.

The fine remains at Jerash and Amman, which my guide had often seen, were scarcely at all esteemed by him; while, in describing the shapeless masses at Jelool, Hhuzbhān, and Oom-elRussas, which he had only seen at a distance before, and had never entered or examined until during our late excursion, in which we took them in our way, he exclaimed, "Never were cities in the world like these three; there is no counting the number of the houses, and every house is as big as the castle of Assalt! the pillars are larger round than the circle of the whole company; the writings are so numerous that no one could copy them; and the tower of Oom-el-Russas is as high as a mountain!"

After every allowance that I was disposed to make for oriental

exaggeration, this style was so extravagantly hyperbolic, and appeared so ridiculous to me, who had but so recently viewed the objects described, that I could not refrain from laughter. I have recorded these facts, however, because they not only illustrate the character of the people here, and of human nature generally, among all people in a similar state of civilization, but they will also serve to show how little dependance can be placed by travellers on the relations and descriptions of the native inhabitants of these countries, and how much more frequently they are liable to be tempted to visit an uninteresting spot, than to pass by any considerable one. Mr. Burckhardt, who had been unable to visit Oom-el-Russās, but had collected such information as he could obtain from the Arabs respecting it, had been assured that there were green columns at that place; which induced a supposition that these might be columns of verd antique, and that the ruins existing there might correspond in magnificence to the costliness of such a material; but the remains seen at Oom-el-Russās, are so far from the description given of them in the instance mentioned, that there was not a single column, nor even the fragment of one, visible to us in our late visit to that spot.

In the evening we repaired to the house of Aioobe, where a new pack of German picquet cards were introduced for the amusement of the company; and the noise and confusion to which this Sunday evening's diversion gave rise, was almost distracting. In the course of our stay there an incident occurred which was quite new to me, and curious enough to deserve mention. The salutations usual in many ancient and modern nations, offered to persons after sneezing, are well known *; but salutations after an act by which nature relieves a person oppressed with flatulencies, are certainly uncommon. On this occasion, the infant child of Aioobe being in its mother's arms, and alarming the company by a sound unusually loud and distinct for an infant of its tender age,

* Hobhouse's Travels, page 512.

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