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One observing that the Sultan's was a good government, another that no people got through so easily, and a third that if these refugees had to make their escape out of Europe, and to come to Turkey, it was better to be here than there. On my intimating that I wished to write a little, the whole party rose, and were gone in the twinkling of an eye. My host returned to say that before I took my departure in the morning, they wished to have some conversation about the collection of the miri and charatch. I then sat down on my bed to my notes. This has been a delightful day, finishing with a prospect of a quiet night, for the fleas have disappeared as by magic; they have vanished like the hordes of Xerxes, not one can now be found for love or money, even if wanted for the British Museum. This too is an advantage of winter, to say nothing of flies and mosquitoes.

CHAPTER II.

THE CAIMACAN OF THE MARONITES.

December 21st.-As the morning first penetrated the crevices of the apartment, I opened a small window two feet by three: the day was breaking exactly opposite. In front was a dark level bank, below it the valley grey as it seemed with hoar frost on the top of the bank were lines of pine, the tall stalks scarcely visible, the dark tufts fretting the dawn. The morning star was amongst them, the heavens pure and cloudless, the air still, the village asleep. The star slowly ascended through the air, growing pale as it rose; the air. was becoming like a star, and then the dark bank revealed rich brown, mottled and mixed; at first indistinctly seen, then more clear, beautifying as it changed the green of the pine and the sward came out on its sides: as you watched, it waned, you wished each tint to stay, yet rejoiced to see it change. It was a bank only, no cliffs, no summits, no groups; a plain field where colour was spread for light to play upon. My eye ranged over no space: confined by the small window back from which I sat, it was a master-piece in a frame, going through the scale. of tints of its own accord; soft as that fabled music

too exquisite to be heard, and listened to without the ear. Forms then entered on the stage: a small pyramid of rock became visible in the foreground, on which were habitations, descriable by their level lines, and whitewashed doors. The hoar frost in the valley turned out to be smoke, which with its vapoury web, concealed yet revealed, the ground below; two thrifty furnaces sent it forth; it rose to fall again, as water from the rock; then, as water spreading to its level, it filled the chasm; at first I could not tell whether it was the reflection of its glassy surface, or the transparency of its airy nature, that gave forth the image of other objects than itself. Now, spot by spot became distinct, as if a lens before each were being adjusted to its focus. The brown mantle, as if cast over an under-coating of gold, seemed to glow with inward light. The stalk of the pine, the shadow of its heavy head, the green of its ostrich-like plumes, came forth from the yellow and brown: the seared leaf of the oak, the figure of the stone, were distinct as day in the whispering light, and by the docile and transmitting air. Then the sky was covered with thin streaks of clouds ; which were grey and sober, as if fearful to disturb the performance of that hill on the instrument specially its own. A change came over the valley. The two falls of smoke rose up as columns. The neighbouring cottages resumed their toil, and one by one sent also forth its signal. While watching them, the brown hill had disappeared as a dream

;

and the sun broke in through the copse where a little while ago the quiet star had been; and, bearing for a moment the heads of a dozen cedars on his disc, as the blazon of Lebanon on a shield, he rose all up into his heavens, dispelling and overpowering by his presence the beauty which had been evoked by his approach.

At this moment, that is after the lapse of the few minutes taken to write these lines, I see from my little window (from which I am driven by the sun) nothing but an unmeaning hill, a valley filled with mist and an unenlivened sky. Beauty is to be caught before the sun is up, and this the people know. The first prayer of the Mussulmans is at the first light. Then is the hour of tranquil enjoyment. With the sun they resume the course of life. If anything is to be represented as delicious, it is compared to the morning cup of coffee, or the morning pipe: if a man is to be signalized for indecorum, he is represented as one who would disturb you your morning kef.

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So by my "sabba keffisi" I reckoned back the days, which were "the mornings and the evenings," by the rising and setting of the sun. We attach the idea of extreme rapidity to these changes in these climes at this season these exquisite moments are doubled, and the twilight hours are so adapted in duration, that you remain at their close with that contentment which the body experiences after a repast which has sufficed. You can say, "I

have eaten," and yet know that when the proper time comes round again, you will be ready for your share. These mornings have been of old, and this land may not entirely owe its title of "land of the morning," to its being illuminated at an earlier hour.

Finding I could go by the monastery I had visited yesterday to Bekfaya, and that the distance was only four or five hours, I sent the horses round, and resumed the road by the broken steps up the cliffs that overhang Sourie. Mar Elias overlooks the sea at a distance of some ten miles, and is a point of survey for the country. I did not now visit the Maronite convent, but a Greek one close by. I found a decrepid monk, some dirty lads, and a serving man or two, all squalid and forbidding. Here too the grain of the silkworm was suspended in the church. This hill is a spur projecting south-west towards the sea, occupying at the back a third of the horizon. The remainder of the circle sweeps round from Beyrout, which you see on a point running out into the sea, on the extreme left to Mount Sonin.

The sea spreads over another third of the horizon, and then the rocks cut it as they arise in disorder. The shore is visible at the point of Beyrout, about twenty miles distant; and then again at the nearest point of the coast for a short interval; each wave may be distinctly seen as it surges on the land. Carrying the eye thence straight across the picture, strike the summit of Sonin, both being equally,

you