OUR COOK AND KITCHEN.

39

more than one dollar and sixty cents. On the arrival of our cook, whom we shall hereafter refer to by his name, "Nicolo," we found him ignorant of any language save Arabic and Italian. We were desperately hungry, and Nicolo seemed as desperately determined that we should continue so, and, in execution of his intent, consumed much time "fixing" the "patent bedsteads," which became loose as soon as they were "fixed." After various delays, a room used for a kitchen was furnished, and preparations for dinner commenced. Our kitchen was primitive in other respects than that of simplicity. A little stone room, one door, one window, and one little hole in the mortar of the stone floor to let out such water as would not stay in, -this was all that was unfurnished in our kitchen, the furniture consisting only of a little sheet-iron box of coals on four wires or rods. Upon this little contrivance our cook with considerable adroitness completed a variety of preparations which could not have been surpassed upon any of the modern and more extensive cooking-apparatus.

From the window we obtained our first quiet and magnificent view of the Mediterranean and the grandeur of the long range of Lebanon, on the northeast, with the snow-covered peak lying back of all,—the summit of the "Jebel Sunnim," among the highest points, if not the highest point, of the Lebanon range, which is

1

1 A piastre by U. S. Mint regulations of 1857 is rated at four cents, four mills.

40

LEBANON BY MOONLIGHT.

generally considered as about nine thousand feet above the sea. There is nothing here deserving the name of a harbor; and the waves, dashing fiercely, leap high up the bank, nearly beneath our window.

It was six o'clock before dinner was announced, and then, nearly exhausted in our patience and hope, we sat down to a meal which, even without our vigorous appetites, would have caused surprise from its variety and excellence. Our helplessness at night was thrust suddenly upon us; for, wishing to take advantage of a view under a full moon, and descending for this purpose, we found that we were prisoners, the door being locked with a padlock. Our effort being defeated in that direction, we returned, and, putting a ladder up to the cupola-window, crept out upon the house-top, where the view was, for its extent and sublimity, superior to any thing we had previously enjoyed. The billows almost at our feet threw their white foam high up into the moonlight, and an occasional silence made more solemn the distant moaning of the waves as they rolled in upon those lonely shores of the north, shadowed by the huge walls of the gray mountains, under whose cliffs a line of merchant-ships sought the mouth of the little river as a harbor against the winds. Far to the northeast the snow-ridge of Sunnim, made larger by our elevation, appeared like an island exceedingly bright amid the dark and countless peaks and ridges around. Behind us lay the crouching, flattop houses of Beirût, with a few elevated buildings and some distant villas, and the whole beneath the light

MEMORIES OF THE PAST.

41

of a full and cloudless moon, from almost every direc tion darting a mysterious power to quicken into life some recollection that up to this time had always been like

"after-tones of some old tower-bell Tolling departed memories,"

but now merged into a

66

Career of recollections vivid as the dreams of midnight."

From this point we determined on a morning view; and, descending, we sought our room and the little frail iron-wire bedsteads, which refused to perform their office and made the presence of Nicolo necessary again. Our Jewish friend Zadoc begged permission to share our room, and, gaining our consent, he stretched his blanket in the corner, and after prayer, in which he appeared devout, lay down to sleep. Soon after we also had closed our first day in Syria.

THE QUARANTINE-KITCHEN.

42

LEBANON BY SUNRISE.

CHAPTER II.

PHOENICIA: ITS EARLY INFLUENCES.

THE time spent in quarantine is not of necessity lost time. Several of our fellow-prisoners were well acquainted with the country, and with peculiarities that were important to the objects we had in view, and many suggestions were made of which we availed ourselves. Desirous of obtaining all the advantage of the scenery which the lights and shades of early morning might develop, we ascended before sunrise to our evening's position. Towering clouds crimsoned with the first rays of the sun, the strange light thrown upon the sea, the white ridges of Lebanon tinged pink by the early light, the dashing waves, and the generally attractive scenery around Beirût,-all in themselves were objects of unusual admiration; and, with the charms of historic association added, no desire was left us for a better light, nor for a more favorable position. The prominent snow-top of Jebel Sunnim' bears east, and must be nearly twenty miles distant, being a ridge of about

1 The accurate bearing, which I took afterward from the piazza of our hotel, (Belle Vue,) was N. 84° 15′ E., this being the apparent centre of the top ridge,―magnetic meridian variation being about 8°.

three and a half miles in length. Several miles to the north of this peak are furrowed mountains, on which the first sources of the Nahr Ibrahim-the classic Adonis-may be traced, running to the sea, fifteen miles westerly, in some parts through a brown soil, with which in spring-time it is profusely tinged before it empties into the Mediterranean.' Here, then, is the occasion for the name and for the ancient celebrations connected with that name.

It brings up the seed-grain from which sprang so much trouble to the Israelites, to which reference is made in various parts of Scripture. A knowledge of its history adds greatly to an appreciation of the difficulties under which Moses labored in attempting to suppress a singular idolatry, against which various prophecies were uttered. It is known that the ancients were prone to make gods of their benefactors, and of men of eminence and success, after their death. Belus, being a great hunter of wild beasts and successful in defending the land against them, finally turned his arms against men; and Diodorus tells us he was the first inventor of arms and military tactics. He is the Nimrod of Scripture, the "mighty hunter before the Lord,”—a term signifying his power and success.3

Hence, being the founder of Babylon, from a famous

1Hence the ancient notion expressed by Lucian and others, that the river at certain times presented the color of blood.

2 Gen. x. 9.

Cat. of Berosus, by Alex. Polyhistor. Chron. Antiq. Jackson, vol. i. p. 233. London, 1752.

• Gen. x. 10.