ntarily look down to see
whether we are really treading upon the earth, wondering, perhaps, that we
should be content to do so, when it would be so easy to soar above the
house-tops.

Chapter XII.

Baalbec and Lebanon.

Departure from Damascus--The Fountains of the Pharpar--Pass of the
Anti-Lebanon--Adventure with the Druses--The Range of Lebanon--The Demon
of Hasheesh departs--Impressions of Baalbec--The Temple of the
Sun--Titanic Masonry--The Ruined Mosque--Camp on Lebanon--Rascality of
the Guide--The Summit of Lebanon--The Sacred Cedars--The Christians of
Lebanon--An Afternoon in Eden--Rugged Travel--We Reach the Coast--Return
to Beyrout.

"Peor and Baaelim
Forsake their temples dim."

Milton.

"The cedars wave on Lebanon,
But Judah's statelier maids are gone."

Byron.

Beyrout, _Thursday, May_ 27, 1852.

After a stay of eight days in Damascus, we called our men, Dervish and
Mustapha, again into requisition, loaded our enthusiastic mules, and
mounted our despairing horses. There were two other parties on the way to
Baalbec--an English gentleman and lady, and a solitary Englishman, so that
our united forces made an imposing caravan. There is always a custom-house
examination, not on entering, but on issuing from an Oriental city, but
travellers can avoid it by procuring the company of a Consular Janissary
as far as the gate. Mr. Wood, the British Consul, lent us one of his
officers for the occasion, whom we found waiting, outside of the wall, to
receive his private fee for the service. We mounted the long, barren hill
west of the plain, and at the summit, near the tomb of a Moslem shekh,
turned to take a last long look at the bowery plain, and the minarets of
the city, glittering through the blue morning vapor.

A few paces further on the rocky road, a different scene presented itself
to us. There lay, to the westward, a long stretch of naked yellow
mountains, basking in the hot glare of the sun, and through the centre,
deep down in the heart of the arid landscape, a winding line of living
green showed the course of the Barrada. We followed the river, until the
path reached an impassable gorge, which occasioned a detour of two or
three hours. We then descended to the bed of the dell, where the
vegetation, owing to the radiated heat from the mountains and the
fertilizing stimulus of the water below, was even richer than on the plain
of Damascus. The trees were plet