Damascus! A City Of The Long
Ago, Practically Unchanged, Where The Occidental May Look To-Day
With Unfeigned Interest Upon Architecture, Costumes, And Customs
Similar To Those That Prevailed In The East While Greece And Rome
Were Yet Young.
Damascus!
A city celebrated for a thousand years
for its bazaars, work-shops, and roses; a city so beautiful
thirteen hundred years ago that Mohammed, viewing it for the first
time from a distance, is said to have exclaimed: "Man can have but
one paradise. My paradise is heaven; I cannot enter yonder city!"
a city to-day of unsurpassed beauty, when viewed from the
distance, with its white domes and slender minarets rising above
the shrubbery and trees of its thirty thousand gardens. Here in
this old city; in this historic city; in this beautiful city; in
Damascus, I greet you and extend to you an invitation to join me
in my proposed trip through Gilead.
My party as yet consists of but two persons. My dragoman, William
Barakat, of Jerusalem, in response to a telegram sent from
Constantinople, met me several days ago at Beyrout. He is a native
Syrian, talks good English, dresses like an American, (save that
he wears a red fez,) and is a Christian in faith. Before reaching
this city he has already rendered me excellent service. He is
intelligent, having attended the American College at Beyrout. I
can trust him.
My arrangements with my guide are simple. He is to take me over my
desired route by best possible methods of travel; to furnish the
best of fare and lodging obtainable; to guarantee me a safe
escort; and he is to do all this within a specified time and for a
stipulated price. I did not then know how little I was asking as
to fare and lodging, but when I knew that he was fulfilling his
part of the agreement I had little cause for just complaint.
By early dawn, on October thirtieth, we had breakfasted and had
bidden good-by to all the servants about the hotel, (many of whom
I did not know to exist, but who, somehow, had learned of me, and
had risen thus early to witness my departure and to ask a fee for
services that I am quite sure some of them had had no part in
rendering,) and had ordered the driver to lose no time in reaching
the station of the Damascus-Hauran Railroad, about two miles
distant. But, notwithstanding the early hour, the streets were
already crowded with people, mules, donkeys, dogs, and other
things. It was only with great effort that we could make any
headway, and at times it seemed that the crowd, angered at our
persistence, would stop us entirely in our struggle to pass
through. We did the best we could, but we missed the train. Since
there were ONLY THREE TRAINS A WEEK on that road, it meant that I
must go back to that same hotel and spend two more days in
Damascus at the rate of ten dollars a day, and then, again, on
leaving, must fee those same servants for service that I did not
want, and, generally speaking, did not get. But, though the
disappointment was great, it brought additional opportunity to
study the wonders and ways of the wonderful city wherein I was
forced to remain.
A second time my dragoman prepares food for our journey; and
again, on the morning of November first, we hurry to the station.
This time we do not miss the train - we wait for it - and we wait a
long time; but with the waiting there is contentment, for, if the
train move south, I, too, am sure of going.
"Through Bashan"
CHAPTER II.
At the time of this writing there is a railroad extending from
Damascus to Mecca, but at the time of my visit the terminus was at
Mezarib, a small town about fifty miles south of Damascus, near
the northern boundary-line of Gilead. It was in my plan to travel
that distance by rail; hence my presence at the city railroad
station.
The ride to Mezarib, through Bashan, especially that part of it
now known as the Hauran, is one of more than ordinary interest.
For the first twenty-five miles the land is literally covered with
black basaltic rocks, as is also part of the remaining distance.
How it is cultivated I can scarcely understand, for I am sure that
the American horse could not be made to serve well here. But I was
told that the natives do cultivate it, and that they raise
excellent crops of grain. When I looked upon them at work with
their crude wooden plows and brush harrows, and then heard that
they raise excellent crops of grain, I was satisfied that the land
must be very fertile; and I was reminded of a certain humorist's
remark about the fertility of some land in Kansas, of which he
said, "All you need to do is to tickle the ground with a hoe, and
it will laugh with a big harvest." Farther on the rocks almost
entirely disappear, and there is spread out a beautiful valley,
extending far to the south, whose fertility and pasturage
attracted the Israelites on their march to Canaan, and which, ever
since, has caused the name "Bashan" to be a synonym for "plenty."
And, because of its abundant production of grain, which finds a
ready market in Damascus, it has been aptly called the "granary of
Damascus."
The manner in which this grain is put on the market is quite novel
to me. I see hundreds of camels loaded with large sacks of grain
moving with slow, swinging tread toward Damascus, or returning
unloaded to the desert. The camels proceed in single file, usually
ten or more in a train, and each is led by means of a rope
fastened to the animal next in front - the rope of the foremost of
all being fastened to the saddle of a donkey, on which the owner,
or driver, usually rides.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 2 of 15
Words from 1047 to 2062
of 14974
