open, and every face has a
smile for the guest. There is one particular spot here, called the Three
Wells, where my evening's walk has ever brought before me images fraught
with recollection of Rebecca's introduction to Isaac, or of Jacob wooing
Rachel. We now passed into the open country, where the road, leading
over a low ridge of hills, becomes of less definite track. And the last
village was passed, and thenceforward we were to meet stations only as
rare landmarks. Hereabouts sugar, as a general luxury, disappears; the
caffedgis supplying the mere coffee, unless some more luxurious stranger
demand the drug. It is then dealt out from a small private store, and
notified by a separate charge in the bill. The homely old Turks are
ignorant of the uses of sugar; and it would seem that their language
does not supply a descriptive term, as their "_shuk-kar_" is evidently a
mispronunciation of our word. One could not, without romancing, say much
of the beauty of the country through which we were passing at this early
stage of our journey. It is even flat, and tame; and appears to be so
more decidedly by contrast with most that lies in this region. Almost
every where else the prospect is bounded by beautiful hills, here and
there aspiring to the character of mountains, whose sides vary
constantly in tint as they rangingly receive the rays of the rising or
the setting sun. Or sometimes one has to pass through vast plains, where
neglect and desolation have, in the exuberance of nature, assumed the
appearance of luxuriant cultivation. Few artificial pastures could equal
the natural beds of oleander that are sometimes found here stretching
far away till lost behind the crags of a ravine; and which, in their
unconstrained vegetation, show colours that the hothouse might envy. And
particularly are the wildernesses of myrtle remarkable, which for miles
grow in thick jungle, through which it is difficult to preserve the
narrow track kept for passage. It is curious to pass through these
odorous thickets, where you can never see around you, and seldom many
feet before you, on account of the windings of the way. Long are heard
the tinklings of the camel's bells, and the heavy plod of their feet,
before the train comes into sight, and many are the manoeuvrings to
effect a passage in peace. The camels, however many, are all linked
together, and to the preceding donkey; and as they cannot be always
persuaded to observe due distance, so as t