stream of water, green trees, and shade. As we returned to our house, I heard a most fearful crying; it was the funeral lamentation over an Arab woman just dead, a practice universally prevalent among the Arabs, and something similar perhaps to an Irish wake. I walked to the hut, at the door of which the melancholy ceremony was going on. In the centre of a group of women, sitting round in a circle, was the corpse, and by the side of it an Arab woman kneeling, her expressive looks and gestures manifested that she was speaking to it; while the women around kept up an occasional low chaunt. In a short time she began to talk very loud to the body. Her gestures were so peculiarly expressive, that it was perfectly easy to comprehend every thing that was said, and the interpretation I put upon her actions I found afterwards substantially correct. You are only asleep, said she wake and comfort us. She recalled the pleasant hours they had spent together, then appeared to chide the dead body for not responding to her emotions. Fear then appeared gradually to steal over her; she looked wildly around; she began to beat her breast, then to tear her hair, and gradually worked herself up to a paroxysm of grief, which, little by little, stole over the rest, and ex ARAB FUNERAL LAMENTATION. 71 tended to the whole circle, who began to shed abundance of tears, and make loud and bitter lamentation. When I first went up, the young girls were spinning, and seemed much amused and almost inclined to laugh at the oddity of my appearance. As, however, the discourse of the old woman became more passionate, one by one they laid down their little spinning apparatus, the tears gathered in their eyes, and in a short time they all began to sob and cry most bitterly. The corpse lying extended on the ground, the old woman supporting its head and shading the pallid features with her long gray hair, which she every now and then frantically tore out by the roots, her wild gestures, the energy of her manner, and the occasional mournful touching tones of her voice as she spoke something in admiration of the deceased, which drew forth a fresh burst of grief from the sorrowing circle of females, altogether presented a scene so saddening that I was obliged to retire to prevent the infection of grief extending to myself. The little village of Baalbec is situated to the eastward of the ruins, and is in a sad state of wretchedness and decay. It is little more than a heap of rubbish, the houses are built of mud or sun-burnt brick, and they are covered in with flat roofs composed of poles, over which are laid the branches of trees, and then a composition of dry grass and mud. The population of 5000, which the town contained in 1751, has now dwindled down to barely 200 persons, and the two handsome mosques and fine serai of the Emir mentioned by Burckhardt are now no longer distinguishable; nor does each house continue to possess its "ten or fifteen cows, besides goats and sheep, the goats being of an uncommon species, worth from £30 to £35 apiece!" The grapes, the pomegranates, and the fruit, at one time so abundant, we inquired for, but could not obtain. Land formerly in good cultivation, and watered by manual labour from the river, is now a portion of the desert plain; its decline has been rapid and constant, and the day may not be far distant when, like other places, man may cease to exist, and the jackal and the hyena be the only tenants of the deserted ruins. Strange it is, one is tempted to exclaim, that human industry does not avail itself of a fine soil and plentiful supply of water, and that the population should thus decay; but it is only necessary to recollect the nature of the government and the state of parties for many years past to comprehend all. The different wars and marauding expeditions of the rival Pashas of VILLAGE OF BAALBEC. 73 Damascus, Acre, and the Emirs of the Druses have desolated the spot, the successful parties always laying heavy contributions on the country, and draining the people of their cattle, corn, and fruits, and whatever they possessed. Famine, the pestilence, and the sword gradually thinned the inhabitants, always destroyed more easily than restored. CHAPTER III. MOUNT LEBANON. CEDARS. ANTI-LIBANUS. ARABS. SURGAWICH.-ARAB VISITORS.-ARAB WOMEN.-ZEBDENI. -EL SOUK.-HUSSEIN.-RIVER BARRADA.-DUMAR.-DAMASCUS. A step as fleet, an eye more bright, Inhabitants more fair. The cedars wave on Lebanon, But Judah's statelier maids are gone. HEBREW Melodies. OCT. 8th.-At five in the afternoon, as the sun was declining behind the blue range of mountains, I accompanied three of our party across the plain of Baalbec, on the way to the cedars of Lebanon. The evening was clear and lovely, and a beautiful blue haze spread itself along the mountain sides. Mount Lebanon, the highest point, and which gives its name to the range, is the most beautiful |