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About two o'clock we crossed a three-arched bridge, over a stream called Nahr-el-Hannah, which goes into the Ahssy, and before El-Assr we came to the latter river, or the Orontes, which we crossed over a larger bridge, and immediately entered the gate of Antioch, when, winding through some narrow streets, we alighted at the house of a young Christian merchant, called Abd-el-Messiah, or the Slave of the Saviour, to whom we had been directed by our host, Abdallah, at Swedeea. Our reception was cool, and many enquiries were made of us, as if we were suspected; but as our stay was intended to be only for the night, we endeavoured to be content. During the interval which yet remained to us before sunset, I profited by our stay here, to see something of the town, and the remains of antiquity in its neighbourhood.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH, AND JOURNEY FROM THENCE TO ALEPPO.

THE city of Antioch, now called by its inhabitants Antaky, is seated at the foot of a steep and bare hill, which terminates the range of Jebel Okrah, the Mount Casius of the ancients, standing on its north-western side, and having open before it a wide valley, and the range of Jebel Ahhmar from West to North, at the distance of from ten to fifteen miles. It thus resembles, very nearly, the situation of Balbeck in the valley of the Bukhāh; as these mountains are not much inferior to Libanus and Anti-Libanus in height, and the valley between them is about the same breadth, and takes the same direction of N.E., leaving an unbounded plain in that quarter: but here the hill that overlooks the town is steeper and more abrupt than at Balbeck, and the vale in which it stands is more

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thickly wooded and highly cultivated, as the course of the Ahssy through it distributes fertility along its winding way.

*

The town, though inferior only to Aleppo, Damascus, and Hamah in size, and, consequently, larger than any of those on the coast, is not so well built as these generally are, and has no large public buildings of any beauty. The houses are mostly constructed of stone, and are all pent-roofed and covered with red tiles; many of them are three stories high, but more generally two, and the upper part is then constructed of wood. The streets are narrow, having a high raised causeway of flat pavement on each side for foot passengers, and a very narrow and deep passage between these for horses, seldom wide enough to admit of two passing each other. The bazārs are mostly open, and resemble those of the country generally. They are unusually numerous, however, in proportion to the size of the town, as this is a mart of supply for an extensive tract of country around it. All the articles in demand are found here in abundance; and the manufactures of the town itself consist in coarse pottery, cotton, cloth, some silk twist, several tanneries, and sadlery; for which last article, particularly bridles, martingales, &c. of fancy work in leather, the workmen of Antāky are celebrated.

The population here is thought to exceed ten thousand, among which there are counted about 150 Christian families, and 20 Jewish ones. The language of the people is Turkish, the Mohammedans speaking no other, and the Christians only understanding Arabic from their connection.with the country to

* In describing Syria, as contradistinguished from Phoenicia, and alluding to the importance, as well as beauty, of the place, the historian says—

"La Syrie s'ouvre et s'étend en une belle plaine; elle se distingue par la fameuse ville d'Antioche, à la quelle il n'en est point qui puisse la disputer, soit par les richesses qu'elle renferme, soit par celles qui y abondent de tous côtés; par Laodicée, Apamée, et Seleucie, qui fleurissent depuis leur origine.”—Ammian. Marcellin. liv. xiv. c. 8.

Antioch is described by Benjamin of Tudela to be situated in the valley of Jabok, upon the river Pir, which comes from Lebanon through the land of Hamath. It was thought, in his day, to be the best fortified place in the hands of the Gentiles.

the southward in their commercial transactions. The Mohammedans have fourteen mosques, six of which are ornamented with tall and slender white minārehs with round close galleries, and blue pointed tops, surmounted by the crescent, in the purely Turkish taste; six others have lower and thicker minārehs of octangular shafts, with open galleries, and a sort of flat dome or umbrella top, in the Syrian-Arabian style, and two are merely small venerated tombs used as places of prayer. There are two khans, and several fountains, all of them of a very ordinary kind. We noticed one of the last, called Ain-el-Omra, or the fountain of life, between the stones of which were driven in some thousands of nails. Its waters are, indeed, excellent, and, being esteemed as possessing several medicinal virtues, the afflicted who drink of them drive in a nail near the spot, either as a propitiatory offering, or a token of gratitude after recovery, to the supposed genius of the stream. There is a cavern, too, within the town, which is celebrated for bestowing fecundity on barren women, as well as opening the springs of life to the infant, in the breasts of mothers before destitute of milk; but, for the obtaining of these blessings certain rites are necessary to be performed, and women only are admitted to them. Both of these would seem to be vestiges of ancient superstitions, though now difficult to be traced up to their original source.

The Christians have made several unsuccessful efforts to build a church for themselves here; but, though they are not wanting in wealth, and successive firmans have been obtained from Stamboul for that purpose, yet, the fanaticism of the Turks and some unfortunate fatality which they think attached to the town itself, has hitherto always obstructed its execution. They resort, therefore, to a cave on the east of the town for the performance of their religious duties, in which they are additionally devout, from the apparent persecution under which they live, in this respect at least. The Jews assemble on their Sabbath in a small room devoted to

their synagogue in the house of their chief, and are there unmolested.

The government of the town is in the hands of a Moteséllem, subject to Aleppo, who has only 50 or 60 personal guards. The men dress mostly in the Turkish manner, with large cloth kaooks, long robes, red shalloon trowsers, and yellow boots and slippers. The women wear upper cloths of white muslin, and veil their faces with a stiff black gauze, also in the Turkish style. The fashion of their boots is to have them as small and tight about the foot and ancle as possible, while the upper part swells out suddenly to a size large enough to admit the thigh, and loosely overhangs the lower part; they are made invariably of yellow leather, reach to about the beginning of the calf of the leg, and are bound with blue, raised in front, and furnished there with a blue silk tassel, resembling very much, in general form, the wide mock Hessian boots formed in the loose overhauls of some of our dragoon regiments.

The amusements of all classes are also as purely Turkish as their dress and language; for, instead of the more retired and solitary pleasures of the Arab, either in the corner of the coffee house or in his own divan, the people here repair to the banks of the Ahssy, which flows immediately before their town, and there enjoy upon its banks the united gratifications of wood and water, shade and verdure, the freshness of the summer breeze and a cool and healthy air.

The river at the bridge is from 100 to 150 feet wide, and its stream flows at the rate of about three miles an hour. It might, if its channel be clear below, be easily navigated, as Pococke had before observed. It is remarkable, that Mr. Volney, who seems never to have been here, takes occasion to contradict that traveller upon a point in which he betrays his own ignorance of the subject on which he writes. The English traveller had observed, that boats might easily sail up here; but Volney says, "L'on pourroit rémontre ce fleuve à la trainée, mais non pas à la voile,

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