ever received such an
inauguration.

Returning to the village, we found our lodging provided in the house of a
Greek Catholic family; unlike to our south country houses, it was built
with ponderous rafters of timber in the roofs, and these rafters and
planks between them are painted in coloured patterns. It was a cheerful
scene as the family sat inquiring about Jerusalem, or chatting otherwise
on the mustabeh (a wide stone seat) outside, with the effulgence of the
setting sun reflected on the convent before us, and then the twilight
pink and violet tints upon the mountain-range behind.

Then again in the early morning, how delicious were the air and the
scenery of the mountains!

"Yet sluggards deem it but a foolish chase
And marvel men should quit their easy chair,
The weary mile and long, long league to trace;
Oh, there is sweetness in the mountain air,
And life that bloated ease may never hope to share!"

While mounting for the departure, our host pressing his hospitality upon
us, adjured us in these words:--"May your religion be your adversary if
ever you pass my door without entering it."

Arriving at Dair el Mokhallis we were there also received with
cordiality. In the church a service was going on, gabbled over by a
priest arrayed in white silk and gold, waving incense before the altar,
his congregation consisting of one person, a sort of sacristan or beadle.
There were some good pictures on the walls, but others together with them
of degraded rank as works of art.

On being invited to visit the President, we found him a jovial, handsome
man of middle age, reclining on cushions at a large window with wide
views of the sea and the mountains before him, besides _Dar Joon_, Lady
Hester's house.

This establishment is not only the largest convent and church of the
Greek Catholic sect, but also a college for clerical education; their
most celebrated clergy have been trained there. The inmates at this
time, of all employments, were 110 in number, exclusive of servants.
Those whom we saw appeared very well fed, and we were not a little
surprised to find so many women servants employed within the walls.

A nunnery of the same rite, and rules of St Basil, with forty persons
under vows, is a good building at half-a-mile distance, between which and
the male institution a very excellent road has been made, notwithstanding
the hilly nature of the ground; other roads are being impro