theless, a favourite food with the inhabitants; and
are caught in great quantities near the town, and to a considerable
distance above it. The flesh market is sparingly served with meat, for
when Sir Robert Ker Porter visited the town, he states that the whole
contents of the market appeared to be no more than the dismembered
carcasses of two sheep, two goats, and the red, rough filaments of a
buffalo. This display was but scant provision for a population of 7,000.
The streets are narrow like those of Bagdad; a necessary evil in Eastern
climates, to exclude the power of the sun; but they are even more noisome
and filthy. In like manner also, they are crowded, but not with so many
persons in gay attire. Here are to be seen groups of dark, grim-looking,
half-naked Arabs, sitting idly on the sides of the streets, and so
numerously, as scarcely to leave room for a single horse to pass; and
even a cavalcade in line will not alarm them, so indifferent are they,
even when travellers are compelled, at some abrupt turn, almost to ride
over them. A few sombre garbed Israelites, and occasionally the Turks,
attendant on official duties of the Pashalic in this part of the
government, also mingle in the passing or seated crowd; when the solemn,
saturnine air of the latter, with their flowing, gaudy apparel, forms a
striking contrast to the daring, dirty, independent air of the almost
ungarmented, swarthy Arab.

A few paces above the bridge, stands the palace of the governor, and the
citadel, which was built by order of Ali Pasha. This imposing fortress,
externally, is a handsome, smooth-faced, demi-fortified specimen of
modern Turkish architecture, erected with ancient materials. Within is a
spacious court, partly shaded with date trees. The whole of the town
towards the desert is defended by a pretty deep ditch, overlooked by a
proportionate number of brick-built towers (all the spoil of Babylon)
flanking the intermediate compartments of wall. In this rampart are three
gates.

As far as the eye can reach, both up and down the river, the banks are
thickly shaded with groves of dates, displacing, it should seem, the
other species of trees, from which Isaiah names this scene "the Brook or
Valley of Willows," although the humble races of that graceful tribe, in
the osier, &c. are yet the prolific offspring of its shores.

G.L.S.

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CURIOUS EXTRACTS FROM CURIOUS AUTHORS, FOR CURIOUS READERS.