ked "--or rode--away in the morning, leaving the room he
had tenanted as bare as he found it. Everybody had to bring his own
cooking utensils, provender and materials for making a fire.

What in other countries is left for commercial enterprise to effect
for the sake of profit is accomplished here by pious people, who leave
legacies for the purpose, and never figure in newspapers, before or
after death, as the reward of their munificence or charity. Many a
wayworn traveler has blessed the memory of those truly religious men
or women on reaching the rugged walls of a khan after a long
day's ride under a Syrian sun or the pitiless down-pours of rain
characteristic of the same region.

Some of these khans on the road to Damascus or other large Eastern
cities are spacious buildings, and the scene presented within them
when some caravan stops overnight, or several parties of travelers
meet there, is picturesque in the extreme. Everybody wears
bright-colored garments and everybody is armed, and the grunt of the
camel and bray of the donkey make night, if not musical, certainly
most melancholy to the untrained ear.

But innovation has crept in, and the city khan is now a kind of
bastard hotel, with a rude host, who makes you pay for your own
lodging and the provender of your animal; and as part and parcel of
the establishment you also find a coffee-shop, coffee being the primal
necessity of Oriental well--being, taking precedence even of tobacco,
which, however, always accompanies it. There is always a bazaar close
by, at which you can purchase savory _kibabs_ of mutton and other
cooked food. Men are no more ashamed to eat in the street than they
are to pray there; so you may see multitudes taking their meals _al
fresco_ at the hours of morning, midday or sunset, after prayers.

Neither does the Mussulman need elaborate bed and bedding for his
repose. He does not undress as we do, but only loosens his garments,
without taking them off, and stretches himself on top of his bed or
rug, as the case may be. When the weather is cold, he takes off his
shoes, but wraps his head and the upper part of his person tightly
in his blanket or shawl, at apparent risk of suffocation. Keeping
the feet warm and the head cool, which is our great sanitary law,
is reversed by the Turk, for he keeps his head covered and his feet
uncovered as much as he possibly can. In the morning he gets up,
shakes himself, tightens his garments, performs his m