"distilling in drops," just as the same form in the Arabic at present signifies. This seems to be the radical meaning. But the desolate spirit, distilling its sorrows out in tears, suggested to the Oriental imagination this term to describe "weeping ;" and tears being the drops distilled from a sorrowing heart, they were adopted as a secondary meaning of Baca. The mulberry-tree, when bruised or pierced, always distils its sap out in drops-a fact which is familiar to many. This would naturally suggest the idea of tears; and hence the term would descriptively be given to the "mulberry-tree," as is the case in 2 Sam. v. 23, 24. Thus the sentiment appears to be, "Happy are they who, passing through the humiliation where weeping abounds, yet can make sorrow a source of refreshment." The various meanings are doubtless all derivative from the original signification given above.

In this valley of Buka'a the castor-oil bean is cultivated ; and I am told that, cold-pressed, the oil is used not only for burning, but also as an accompaniment with some kinds of vegetables. Some was presented to me at a little village to the south of this, which I used upon my boots, never imagining that it was intended to be eaten.

CHAPTER V.

ON THE WAY TO SIDON.

IN passing through the streets we found Hanna. He excused himself on the ground of not being able to furnish mules, but promised to get all things in travelling order to-night and start to-morrow; and so we turned off to pay a last visit to the mission-grounds.

The Rev. Eli Smith informed us that when he came to Beirut, in 1826, the population with the suburbs was only 5000; but it had since increased, having 15,000 in 1839, and 30,000 in 1856. This includes the suburbs. In the missionary burying-ground there were eight or nine little tombs of missionary children and one grave without a tomb, all lying side by side, and all of children under ten years of age. There are about one hundred graves,-perhaps a few more; and this little yard of less than an acre is valued at upwards of £50, being so near the city. At the ends of the arched piazzas netting was stretched over the opening to prevent bats from entering in the evening, as these creatures, not satisfied with ruined buildings, become a source of great vexation to the inhabitants.

After supper the young Syrian girls entered the parlour, and were soon engaged in their evening work of sewing and embroidering as before. They were remarkably agreeable, graceful, and sensible. After a short season of conversation we were invited down to prayer, which is always in Arabic, as the servants have a preference for their own language. The services occupied the earliest part of the evening, in anticipation of the drowsiness of the youngest of the circle

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-a plan quite desirable in many families at home, where the signal for evening worship seems to be the utter inability of the greater portion to enjoy it, and where their worship may justly be described as the "fag-end of devotion." The greater part of the number were seated around a long table, with Dr. D. and Mrs. D. at the head and foot. All read in Turkish a portion of Scripture, from the old Arabic servant in turban and Turkish trousers to the smallest in the circle, and, after a few words from Dr. B., they were led in prayer, nearly all kneeling. In the after-employments and amusements of the evening they exhibited a lively interest; and we had the pleasure of joining them in singing, to one of their Arabic hymns, a tune well known at home.

After leaving, we passed through the dark, narrow lanes, made darker by the overhanging prickly pear, rising from the walls several feet overhead, and yet occasionally protruding a leaf armed with its thorns almost into our faces. It bears a fruit somewhat in shape like the banana, though red and smaller, appearing after a bright yellow blossom; and the Arab will sit down in the market, swallow a dozen or two as if they were oysters, and then, as if mindful of the safety with which he has passed the peril of strangulation, exclaim, as he rises, "El ham du Allah!" (Praise be to God!) and sail off as if he had only taken in a freight of two ounces' weight. This habit of using the name of Allah is almost universal, even on the most trifling occasions; and though expecting it from what I had previously heard, yet I did not imagine the extent to which it prevailed. The habit is by no means modern; it can be distinctly traced for centuries back, not only in blessing, but in cursing.

In the morning Hanna appeared with the news that the mules and horses were ready; and nothing but the packing of baggage prevented our departure. So, Providence permitting, we reach Sidon to-night. From the balcony we perceive seven or eight mules and horses, and a little company helping to pack and increasing the noise and bustle, without which not even a funeral in this country can be

"performed." After having been roused at six o'clock or before, and our toilet made in the utmost haste, with the expectation of immediate departure, hope is deferred until twelve minutes after nine, when we leave the yard duly mounted, my friend and myself, with a new and very incomprehensible companion, purporting to be an Italian, and Hanna with Nicolo-the same Nicolo who was our cook at quarantine. Some of the Arabs are in advance, and some follow with the baggage, consisting of tents, tables, chairs, "kitchen," and a little shopful of crockery, carpet-bags, and other minor bodies, the names of which came to light only after days and weeks of travel. Our Italian friend speaks a poor Italian, a few words of French, and a strange-sounding Arabic. He has come from Egypt, where he has been engaged in some trade for years, which we learn from some fragments of French on his part, and what must appear to him as wrecks of Italian on ours, accompanied by smiles and signs. He is armed with a double-barrelled gun, two pistols, and what else I know not; but the rest of us have nothing but our fists to fight with in case there should be occasion for any such excitement. Passing beyond the suburbs, we cross a red sand-hill to the south-west of Beirut, which we were told was travelling at the rate of several feet per annum towards the sea, being blown thus by the winds. Sometimes the air is so filled with the particles as to obscure the sea-view; and thus, little by little, it is marching along. The track runs south-east by east, and appears like an ordinary road, forty feet in width, well trodden by mules and camels. On our left are the mountains of Lebanon; and in less than an hour's walking from the town, we see near the base of the mountains a little pine grove, composed of young trees which have branches like those of the apple-tree, with pine-leaves, or "tags," and generally from fourteen to fifteen feet in height. The grove is apparently only a few hundred feet in length, called "Hursh Beirut," and is said to have been planted by Fakir ed Din, of whom we have spoken in Chap. III. Yet

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extensive pine forests are said to have existed here, running up to the mountains, in the twelfth century, nearly five hundred years before the time of Fakir ed Din. At a little more than an hour's ride, or rather walk-about two miles and three quarters-our road closes up into a mere horsepath, and on the right we have a distant view of the Mediterranean. Here we make way for two camels. They deliberately bite into the leaves of the prickly pear, and crush them in their mouths as though the thorny fruit was bread, caring as little for the terrible thorns as for the wind. I shuddered when I saw the fragments moving up and down in their mouths. A little after an hour's ride from Beirut, the blue streak of the Mediterranean could be seen in a direction south-south-west; and in about half-an-hour we turn suddenly to the right, meeting the first olive-grove, of fourteen trees, near a little stream four or five inches deep, and about three feet wide. This is our first rivulet; and though dry in summer, it nevertheless bears a name here quite common, pronounced Shwàyfert; the same name is given to the valley down which the rivulet runs, and to a village built on two ridges of the flank of Lebanon, nearly due east of us, and to the grove at the base of Lebanon, which is the largest olive-grove in Syria, nearly four miles long, so thickly planted that no ground can be seen between the trees at this distance. The pine and the olive are thus far the only trees which we have met, excepting a few of the singular kind of oak which we first saw in Beirut, and which averages in height about sixteen feet.

The Lebanon flanks generally present a grey appearance, from the want of verdure, and perhaps from the nature of the basis-rock, which is light-coloured limestone; and hence, most probably, its title "Lebanon," "white," or "grey," is derived, more from the natural colour than from the snows, which exist even in summer, and are brought to Damascus and other places to cool the wine and more necessary articles of diet; and, though the thermometer to-day at twenty minutes past eleven stands at 72° in the sun, the snow is