Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . henedwith their finery, their attendants carrying djerids beside them ; whilemore sober figures, upon white asses or mules, move deliberately along withtheir amber-mouthed pipes at their lips. The women, seated at the graves of their kindred, indulge their woeeither in loud and cla-morous wailings, or inmore expressive the head of everygrave is a pot sunk inthe earth for receivingflowers; and few ofthese are left unfilled. A little beyond thegate there is a c
Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . henedwith their finery, their attendants carrying djerids beside them ; whilemore sober figures, upon white asses or mules, move deliberately along withtheir amber-mouthed pipes at their lips. The women, seated at the graves of their kindred, indulge their woeeither in loud and cla-morous wailings, or inmore expressive the head of everygrave is a pot sunk inthe earth for receivingflowers; and few ofthese are left unfilled. A little beyond thegate there is a clearspace of about twoh undred feet long, wherethe Turks practise thedjerid ; above it, at oneend, is a heap of earththat has grown into alittle hill; at the foot of which trickles a small brook, detached from the river, for the purpose of irrigat-ing the patches of barley, where stand a few poplars and walnut-trees. TheBarrada runs with great swiftness at the termination of this scene. On its * From a little old book, by one Mr. Robert Withers, published in 1650, and entitled ADescription of the Grand Signors Arab Women in a Cemetery. DAMASCUS. 219 banks are many grave parties seated with their pipes in their mouths on therich carpets they have carried out to repose on ; while the Turks are gallopingtheir horses about till they can hardly stand. The women sit upon thehillock admiring the cavaliers ; for the women in Damascus, though theymay not be seen, have ample privilege to see. When Jewish or Christianwomen join this scene, they generally sit apart, resting against the trunk ofa tree, or grouped in the most retired corner of the rivers brink. Theychat and smoke sometimes with their veils removed ; and if the travellerhave the good fortune to come upon them in one of these unguardedmoments, he will* be enraptured with the sight of the most beautifulcountenances he ever beheld. The women of Damascus are esteemed the handsomest in the East; and,though the fame of t
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