Saracens. They were always executed by these last, however, with an approximation to the pointed arch, and in a way to be easily distinguished from those of the Roman age. Around the battlements, I observed, also, a sort of frieze, formed of large fleur-de-lys reversed; but whether this ornament had any reference to the defeat of the Christian powers, who bore it among their emblems during the time of the crusades, it would be difficult to determine.

There were here, also, as in most old Mohammedan fortresses, many circular stones jutting out from the walls, like guns projecting through the closed port of a ship's side; and on all these were in-scriptions in relief, for which purpose they seemed to have been placed there. In the oldest buildings this is the use to which they are applied, and this was, no doubt, their original intention; though in some, perhaps later buildings, fragments of granite and marble pillars have been used, to project from the walls in this way, when the buildings were erected near the site of any ruined city, and were thus already formed to the builder's hands; but their ends were not then used as inscriptive tablets.

Around the whole of the front of the eastern gate was a long band of smooth stone, containing an inscription in characters of highrelief, and well cut; but it was in such ancient complicated forms that none of our party could understand it, although we had many who could read the old Cufic character with facility, and who understood the most learned style of Arabic in use at the present day.

Beer is under the dominion of the Pasha of Orfah, and is governed by an Aga, who has only a few personal attendants, and no troops. The sum paid on the entrance of goods from Syria, is four piastres and a half, or about half a Spanish dollar per camel-load, of whatever commodity; one hundred paras, or about half-a-crown sterling per head, is also demanded from all Christians returning from the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and crossing the Euphrates into Mesopotamia, of which there were several in our caravan.*

* According to Olivier, the passage of the Euphrates at Bir (as it is spelt by him)

Without the eastern walls, where we encamped, was a large cave, supported within by columns, left in the rock; and it appeared to have been once used as a place of shelter for cattle. In the sides of the rock itself, and in every one of its pillars, were holes and bars hollowed out for fastening the halters of the beasts; and these had certainly been used for this purpose during many years, as the originally rough stones were worn quite smooth by continued friction, though it had long ceased to be appropriated to such a purpose.

At this place I saw none of the boats, formed of rafts buoyed up by inflated skins, with which the river Euphrates was anciently navigated from Armenia to Babylon, as described by several of the Greek writers; though an application of the principle still remained in use, probably as a last vestige of its gradual decay.* The stream is often crossed by men and boys, who, stripping off their clothes, place them on their heads, and throw their bodies along on a sheep or goat-skin, tightly filled with air. They completely embrace this highly-buoy

was performed, in his time, in a large boat, directed by a helm and a long pole. The river, he observes, seemed to resemble the Rhone in size and rapidity; while its volume is considerably increased in the beginning of spring, and in autumn, by the melting of the snows, and the rains which fall in those seasons. The town of Bîr contained, according to his conjecture, about three or four thousand inhabitants.—Vol. ii. p. 327. In the time of Otter, Bîr was under the jurisdiction of the Pasha of Aleppo.

* In the "Description du Pachalik de Bagdad," by Mons. Rousseau, formerly Consul for France at that capital, the following passage alludes to this decay

:

"Sans remonter jusqu'à leurs sources, et sans vanter la bonté de leurs eaux, je commencerai par dire que si l'Euphrate et le Tigre eussent traversé la Grèce, ou l'Italie, on auroit vu les poètes s'empresser de chanter à l'envi leur magnifique aspect, et se plaire à célébrer les grâces naïves, et les jeux folâtres des divinités imaginaires, dont auroient été peuplées leurs ondes argentines: alors, ils n'auroient cédé en rien pour la renommée au Pactole, ou au Tibre. Au reste, les deux fleuves dont il s'agit produisent en abondance d'excellens poissons, et sont également navigables, l'Euphrate, depuis Bir, à cinq journées d'Alep, et le Tigre, depuis Moussol, jusqu'à Bassora. Il y a quarante ans que les communications par eau, entre Bir et Hilla, étoient très-fréquentes: elles sont aujourd'hui totalement interrompues, par la négligence des habitans du premier de ces lieux, qui ont laissé périr tous leurs bateaux, sans vouloir se donner la peine d'en construire de nouveaux, propres à cette navigation.

ant vessel by clasping their arms around it, near to one extremity, till their hands lock together beneath it, throwing their thighs more loosely over the sides near the other end. By the simply propelling motion of the feet, and the occasional use of one of the hands, as an oar or rudder, they get across faster than the largest boats, and with much less loss of way from the force of the stream.*

The language of Beer is almost entirely Turkish, by far the greater portion of the inhabitants not even understanding Arabic. The dress of the men is nearly the same as at Aleppo; and among them are quite as great a proportion of green-turbanned Shereefs.† It would seem remarkable that these immediate descendants of the Prophet should be so numerous throughout the northern parts of Syria, where neither himself nor any of the family of his own times ever reached, while they are so comparatively few in Yemen and the Hedjāz, his native country, and the scene of his principal exploits, were it not known that this honour is as frequently purchased by money as any other distinction in the Turkish empire. The women of Beer dress like those of Asia Minor, and among the few that I saw loosely veiled, were some as fair as the women of southern Euwith more healthy ruddiness of colour.

rope,

We passed our evening on the summit of the hill above the

* On this singular practice, Monsieur Rousseau has the following passage:"Tous les voyageurs ont parlé avec surprise de la coutume qu'ont les Arabes de ces contrées, de faire de très-longs trajets à la nage, au moyen d'une outre enflée qu'ils s'attachent au ventre. Cette outre n'est autre chose qu'une peau de chèvre dont ils cousent exactement toutes les ouvertures, excepté celle d'une jambe, par laquelle ils soufflent cette peau jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit remplie d'air et bien tendue; ensuite ils tortillent cette partie, et la tiennent bien serrée. Après cette préparation, ils se dépouillent nus, font un paquet de leurs habits qu'ils attachent sur l'épaule, et se posent à plat sur l'outre; de cette manière ils voguent très-lestement à fleur d'eau, en remuant les pieds et se gouvernant avec les mains, tandis qu'ils tiennent à la bouche leur pipe toute allumée. Ce que je viens de dire ne regarde pas les hommes seulement, on voit aussi très-souvent des troupes nombreuses de femmes et de jeunes filles, se transporter d'un rivage à l'autre sur leurs ballons enflés, et faire retentir l'air de leurs chants pendant la traversée."

+ Pretended lineal descendants of the Prophet Mohammed.

town; where, while we smoked our pipes on the grass, and drank the cool freshness of the western breeze, we were gratified with the most agreeable prospect. Immediately before us were the walls, the towers, and the broken turrets of the Saracenic Town and Castle, with a bright moon throwing her silver touches along the line of its battlements, and producing the finest contrast between the dark outline of their ragged points, and the clear blue sky, on which they were so distinctly traced. Beyond the eastern wall, the camels of the caravan were dimly seen, the twilight of the broad shade in which they reposed, being still more darkened by the smoke of the fires, around which their drivers had assembled to sing away their Behind us, was a white chalky valley, with abrupt cliffs on either side, and well wooded throughout with thick foliaged trees. Before us, at our feet, flowed the majestic Euphrates, winding its way through innumerable little islets. The stream was bordered, on its eastern side, by a narrow slip of plain, filled with productive gardens; but from its opposite bank, towards the horizon of the west, the eye ranged over a level tract of land, without a marked feature or a prominent object to be seen throughout its illimitable extent.

cares.

JUNE 1st. We quitted Beer with the dawn, though it was long past sun-rise before all the caravan had cleared the hill above; not so much from its steepness or its length, as from the unfitness of the camel, particularly when loaded, to tread any roads but level

ones.

As we were among the last in motion, we were surprised by a party who had been despatched from the Aga to seize a Janissary on his escape from Aleppo, and who laid hold of me as the person in question. It had been observed at the Custom-house, that I had no merchandise in the caravan, and it was therefore concluded that I was not a trader. As I wore the Musulman turban, it was decided that I was not a Christian pilgrim from Jesusalem; my