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such an island of verdure as nowhere else perhaps exists. Mass upon mass of dark, delicious foliage rolled like waves among garden tracts of brilliant emerald green. Here and there, the clustering blossoms of the orange or the nectarine lay like foam upon that verdant sea. Minarets, white as ivory, shot up their fairy towers among the groves; and purple mosque domes, tipped with the golden crescent, gave the only sign that a city lay bowered beneath those rich plantations.

One hour's gallop brought me to the suburban gates of Mezzé, and thenceforth I rode on through streets, or rather lanes, of pleasant shadow. For many an hour we had seen no water: now it gushed, and gleamed, and sparkled all around us: from aqueduct above, and rivulet below, and marble fountain in the walls—every where it poured forth its rich abundance; and my horse and I soon quenched our burning thirst in Abana and Pharpar.

On we went, among gardens, and fountains, and odors, and cool shade, absorbed in sensations of delight, like the knights of old, who had just passed from some ordeal to its reward. Fruits of every delicate shape and hue bended the boughs hospitably over our heads; flowers hung in canopy upon the trees, and lay in variegated carpet on the ground; the lanes through which we went were long arcades of arching boughs; the walls were composed of large, square blocks of dried mud, which in that bright, dazzling light somewhat resembled Cyclopean architecture, and gave, I know not what, of simplicity and primitiveness to the scene. At length I entered the city, and thenceforth lost the sun while I remained there. The luxurious people of Damascus exclude all sunshine from their bazaars by awnings of thick mat, wherever vine trellises or vaulted roofs do not render this precaution unnecessary.

The effect of this pleasant gloom, the cool currents of air created by the narrrow streets, the vividness of the bazaars, the variety and beauty of the Oriental dress, the fragrant smell of the spice shops, the tinkle of the brass cups of the seller of sherbets - all this affords a pleasant but bewildering

change from the silent desert and the glare of sunshine. And then the glimpses of places strange to your eye, yet familiar to your imagination, that you catch as you pass along! Here is the portal of a large khan, with a fountain and cistern in the midst. Camels, and bales of merchandise, and turbaned negroes are scattered over its wide quadrangle, and an arcade of shops or offices surrounds it, above and below, like the streets of Chester. Another portal opens into a public bath, with its fountains, its reservoirs, its gay carpets, and its luxurious inmates, clothed in white linen, and reclining upon cushions as they smoke their chibouques.

Damascus is all of a bubble with nargilehs* and fountains; the former are in every mouth, and the latter gush from every corner of the street. These fountains are in themselves very characteristic, beautifully carved with fanciful designs, that seem ever striving to evade the Moslems' law against imitating any thing in creation. The heat of the climate is turned into a source of pleasure by the cool currents of air that are ingeniously cultivated, and the profusion of ices, creams, and juicy fruits that every where present themselves. Many of the shopkeepers have large feather fans, which are in constant flutter; and even the jewellers, as they work in public, turn aside from the little crucibles, in which ingots of silver or gold are learning ductility and obedience to art, to fan their pallid cheeks, and agitate their perfumed beards with these widespread fans. I was never tired of roaming through the bazaars of Damascus; I strolled about them by the hour, watching the life and little interests of the pale people who live and die in their shadowy arcades.

The merchants sit on their counters; you stand in the street; there is no house to enter, but the whole bazaar is like one great shop, with a number of shelves ranged along its sides in little niches. On each shelf is a man or a boy, whose long draperies are arranged gracefully round them; immense

* A nargileh is a pipe, in which the smoke is drawn through water

turbans, of some costly material and very vivid colors, on their heads. Here is a pale boy, with a brilliantly gay shawl folded round his brow, working lace in a hand loom, and watching the shop at the same time; there is a man of seventy, with snowy beard, and cashmere shawl, and mulberry-colored mantle.

Here a handsome young Turk is measuring English chintz to a woman veiled from head to foot in a white, shroud-like sheet, with a dark-colored handkerchief over her face; there a water carrier walks swiftly by, jingling his brazen cups together; he has an immense glass jar, full of iced sherbet, slung under his arm; its long neck is tipped with a lump of snow and a bunch of flowers; you drink a deep draught of the nectar, your servant pays four paras, (about half a farthing,) and he moves on. Here a speculator in smoke is walking about with a sheaf of nargilehs, which he puts unasked into his customers' mouths. They smoke apparently unconsciously; and, when the proprietor returns, he receives about a farthing for his fee.

There is a man selling colored ices at a halfpenny a saucer full. Their trays of fruit attract your eye-plums, apricots, and enormous watermelons that melt in the mouth like snow; here comes a donkey laden with cucumbers, apparently the favorite refreshment, for almost every one stops him; here a string of tall, awkward camels fills the narrow street; there, seated on his shop board, is an old man drowsily nodding among the silks of India and Syria; and there are two pale boys playing dominos in an armorer's shop, from the roof of which daggers hang like the sword of Damocles, and quantities of ivory-handled knives, that make the niche look like a cave of stalactites. On the whole, the bazaars are much better and more striking than those of Cairo, though still rather mean and contemptible when you come to examine or value them. Many of the shopkeepers are mere amateurs who have land or houses, but who amuse themselves by sitting cross-legged from morning till night, and selling their quaint commodities in the cool shade.

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XLIV HOW THE HOOPOES CAME TO HAVE CROWNS AN EASTERN LEGEND.

[This story is taken from Visits to Monasteries in the Levant, a very entertaining book of travels, by Hon. ROBERT CURZON, JR., an English gentleman, published in 1849. The legend was related to the author by a Mussulman cobbler, in Upper Egypt.]

IN the days of King Solomon, the son of David, who, by the virtue of his cabalistic seal, reigned supreme over genii as well as men, and who could speak the language of animals of all kinds, all created beings were subservient to his will. Now when the king wanted to travel, he made use, for his conveyance, of a carpet of a square form. This carpet had the property of extending itself to a sufficient size to carry a whole army, with the tents and baggage; but at other times it could be reduced so as to be only large enough for the support of the royal throne, and of those ministers whose duty it was to attend upon the person of the sovereign. Four genii of the air then took the four corners of the carpet, and carried it, with its contents, wherever King Solomon desired.

Once the king was on a journey in the air, carried upon his throne of ivory over the various nations of the earth. The rays of the sun poured down upon his head, and he had nothing to protect him from its heat. The fiery beams were beginning to scorch his neck and shoulders, when he saw a flock of vultures flying past. "O vultures," cried King Solomon,

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come and fly between me and the sun, and make a shadow with your wings to protect me; for its rays are scorching my neck and face." But the vultures answered and said, "We are flying to the north, and your face is turned towards the south. We desire to continue on our way; and be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not turn back on our flight; neither will we fly above your throne to protect you from the sun, although its rays may be scorching your neck and face.” Then King Solomon lifted up his voice and said, "Cursed ye, O vultures; and because you will not obey the com

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mands of your lord, who rules over the whole world, the feathers of your necks shall fall off; and the heat of the sun, and the cold of the winter, and the keenness of the wind, and the beating of the rain, shall fall upon your rebellious necks, which shall not be protected with feathers like the necks of other birds; and whereas you have hitherto fared delicately, henceforward ye shall eat carrion and feed upon offal; and your race shall be impure to the end of the world." And it was done unto the vultures as King Solomon had said.

Now it fell out that there was a flock of hoopoes flying past; and the king cried out to them and said, "O hoopoes, come and fly between me and the sun, that I may be protected from its rays by the shadow of your wings." Whereupon the king of the hoopoes answered and said, "O king, we are but little fowls, and we are not able to afford much shade; but we will gather our nation together, and by our numbers we shall make up for our small size." So the hoopoes gathered together, and flying in a cloud over the throne of the king, sheltered him from the rays of the sun.

When the journey was over, and King Solomon sat upon his golden throne, in his palace of ivory, whereof the doors were emerald, and the windows of diamonds, he commanded that the king of the hoopoes should stand before his feet. "Now," said King Solomon, "for the service that thou and thy race have rendered, and the obeisance thou hast shown to the king, thy lord and master, what shall be done unto thee, O hoopoe? and what shall be given the hoopoes of thy race for a memorial and a reward?” Now the king of the hoopoes was confused with the great honor of standing before the king; and making his obeisance, and laying his right claw on his heart, he said, "O king, live forever! Let a day be given thy servant to consider, with his queen and counsellors, what it shall be the king shall give unto us for a reward." And King Solomon said, "Be it so ;" and it was so.

But the king of the hoopoes flew away, and he went to his queen, who was a dainty bird, and he told her what had hap

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