with a priest, till a curtain was drawn aside, and there,
behold! were the lady-president and her flock, curious to see a consul,
and blaming the servants for not having admitted me together with my
companions.

The latter gave me afterwards as their opinion of the establishment, that
it very much resembled a comfortable asylum or almshouse for old women.

By this deviation from the high roads we lost the fairy view in that
neighbourhood which had charmed me so much in 1849.

There is a pleasing novelty to us non-Lebanonites in being in a native
Christian country. Every hill there has its convent, every convent its
bells; clergy are continually passing along the road; and on our descent
of the hill we met a nice old gentleman in clerical dress, with a very
white beard, holding a crimson umbrella over his head, (this is not
uncommon in Palestine,) and preceded by a kawwas with a silver-headed
official staff, also accompanied by a few peasants carrying guns,--this
was a Maronite bishop.

Crossed the river Barook at _Bisrah_, and ascended the usual highway
leading to Hhasbeya.

At the village of _Ineer_ we took further directions, and followed over a
very wild scene to nearly the summit of a mountain called
_Rummet-er-Room_, (the Ramah, or high-place, of the Greeks,) from which
the glorious landscape surpasses all power of description--it is one not
to be forgotten.

At _'Azoor_, a clean pleasant village, the women and girls ran in crowds
to gaze at my ladies; one of the women shouted "Bon soir" in good French,
and a man, accompanied by his wife, saluted us in Italian.

Rested in a beautiful wood of pines, though rather late for luncheon, as
the sun was falling below the western mountains. Rising higher on the
march we got into rolling misty clouds, and the brilliant effect of
sunbeams between the hills and clouds could not but be surprising. Our
clothes, however, got damp and chill.

At _Jezzeen_ our tents were found ready pitched in a grove of noble
walnut-trees, with the brook _Zaid_ running among them; near alongside
was a Maronite convent, with a bridge.

The muleteers having left us in the morning, lost their way, and had
taken the more precipitous road by _Dair Mushmushi_.

Here the people behaved with great hospitality to us.

The night was very cold, and in the morning the water for washing felt
like ice. The position of our encampment, as perceived by daylight, was
so low between hills that the