side, the names of places that I heard in one moment escaped me in the next.

Among the many ridiculous questions that were seriously proposed to me, when talking of the different countries that I had visited, I was asked, whether I had ever been to the Belled-el-Kelb, where the men had dogs' heads? and, whether I had seen the Geziret-el-Waak, or the island in which women grow on trees, budding at sunrise, and becoming mature at sunset, when they fall from the branches, and exclaim, in the language of the country, Waak! Waak! "Come and embrace me!"

The opinions entertained by the people of Assalt on all matters beyond their own immediate sphere of observation, are like those which prevailed among the most ignorant of the ancients; and there is no fable of antiquity, however preposterous, that would not find believers here. Even now, places not a league distant from the town are made the scene of miracle; and the people seem not only to believe, but to delight in the marvellous. My guide, Mallim Georgis, who was a consequential old man, of diminutive stature, with a scanty beard confined to the extremity of his chin, small grey eyes, an aquiline nose, thin lips, high arched forehead, and a round back, might have passed for a true descendant of Æsop, for he talked incessantly, and almost constantly in fables and parables. I have no doubt, from the reputation he seemed to enjoy with every one, that he was a man of integrity, and, in matters of common intercourse in life, a person of general credit and good faith; yet even he made no hesitation to swear by the few hairs of the scanty beard he possessed, that he had seen a Muggrebin at Oom Kais, by the art of magic, transport one of the columns of the ruins from that place to his own country; that he had distinctly heard him order it to rise and begone; and that he himself, with his own eyes, had seen it take its flight through the air! Others said, that at a place called Oom-el-Russas, in the way to Karak, several Muggrebins had, by the aid of perfumes and

prayers, raised up out of the earth copper cases full of gold, and carried them off to their own countries!

Amidst these absurd stories, there were now and then mingled some useful facts that were more worthy of remembering. I learnt, for instance, from the conversation of the evening, that Mallim Moosa, or Doctor Seetzen, had gone round the Bahr-elLoot, or Dead Sea, from the outlet of the Jordan to the same point on his return, passing round from east to west, and that he had found the remains of many Greek monasteries and churches among the barren rocks that border it. Sheikh Ibrahim, or Mr. Burckhardt, had gone from hence, it was said, to Karak, and from that town round the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, by the ancient Zoar, to Egypt, with a party of Bedouins, about three years since. When I mentioned to them that I had, at Mr. Burckhardt's request, made minute enquiries into the particulars of Dr. Seetzen's death at Mokha, in my way from Egypt to India through the Red Sea, it excited a deep interest, and apparently a sincere regret ; * both these enterprising individuals being well known to most of the persons present, and being, indeed, the only Europeans that had ever, till this period, penetrated much to the east of the Jordan, as far, at least, as was known to us by any trace of such a visit.

The general topics of conversation were, however, relating to the Muggrebins, and their exploits whenever they came into this part of the country. These Muggrebins - the name being common to all the Arabs that come from any part of Africa between the Nile and the Atlantic-have the character of being profound magicians; and as the country east of the Jordan abounds with ruins, the people think that in all of them treasures are buried, and that the chief, if not the only object of all strangers coming among them, is to

The particulars here alluded to were sent by me to Mr. Burckhardt from Mokha, and by him transmitted to the Baron Von Hammer at Vienna: by whom they were published, in a letter bearing my name, in one of the numbers of a large work published at that capital under the title of "Les Mines de l'Orient.”

discover these hidden treasures, and carry them off for their own use. On the summit of Jebel-el-Belkah, or Bilgah, as it is equally often pronounced, the Pisgah of the Hebrews, from which Moses saw the promised land and died, and which is only three hours south of the reputed tomb of Joshua, on the mountain of Assalt, there grew, according to the testimony of all present, a species of grass, which changed the teeth of every animal that ate of it to silver! And in a party of twenty persons then assembled, there were not less than five witnesses who declared most solemnly that they had seen this transmutation take place with their own eyes!! This conversation led to a debate on the history of Moses, his birth, and rescue by one of the daughters of Pharaoh, his wonderful works in Egypt, and his leading the Jews through the Desert to Canaan. Mallim Georgis, who shone in all matters of recitation and narrative, took so large a share in the debate, that he was unanimously requested to give it in detail, when he accordingly cleared his throat, and began with a loud voice, as if he were addressing a larger audience. To hear this history related in the Arabic language, and in a party of Arabs, so near as we were to the principal scenes described, was like the pleasure of hearing a tale from the Arabian Nights recited near one of the old Saracen buildings of Grand Cairo, the associations in each case making the hearer almost a spectator of the scene, and giving him a personal share in the events detailed. Every one present listened to the discourse of Georgis with evident pleasure; and during the pauses which were allowed for the guests to take coffee, and the narrator to take breath, various entertaining comments were made by the hearers on the several parts of the story that struck them most forcibly, or interested them particularly from the events or places to which they principally related.

In the course of the evening I observed, as peculiarities of conversation, that when one person wanted to arrest the attention of another, or to interrupt him in his discourse, he first called him by name, and then said, "A good evening to you, my friend;" to

which the other replied, "Good evening." This was considered as an assent to listen, when the orator proceeded with his discourse. Again, when the narrator of a story wished to obtain the particular attention of any individual in the company to what he was about to say, he first called that individual by name, and then bid him pray, as thus, "O Job! pray to the Prophet!" to which the person addressed replied, "I pray ;" and then the discourse proceeded as before. These interruptions were of very frequent occurrence, and were equally in use among the Mohammedan and Christian Arabs of these parts, to whom they appeared to me peculiar, as I had not observed them in any other society of Arabs before.

The frost had been so se

ASSALT, Monday, February 26th. vere during the night, that, in the room where we slept, the water in vessels for drinking was coated over in the morning, although all the external air had been excluded and the apartment had been heated throughout the night by the breath of eleven individuals; and the snow outside the door was hardened into a solid mass of ice. The morning was, however, clear and fine, the sun beaming out in full splendour without a cloud; but when I talked of proceeding on our journey, every one opposed it as precipitate and ill-judged. My guide, indeed, refused to stir until he saw how the weather would settle, which, he said, could not be ascertained till twenty-four hours of clear sky had passed over us; and this, he