Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . short term, and the creditor takes care to secure himself againstall contingencies by exacting a pledge from his debtor, often of double thevalue of the money Beyroot must have presented a peculiarly animated appearance in thewinter of 1840-1 when the bay was crowded with vessels of all kinds, fromthe English line-of-battle ship down to the crazy Arab skiff, and the townand its environs swarmed with soldiers of fifty different races. A Germantraveller J has given
Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . short term, and the creditor takes care to secure himself againstall contingencies by exacting a pledge from his debtor, often of double thevalue of the money Beyroot must have presented a peculiarly animated appearance in thewinter of 1840-1 when the bay was crowded with vessels of all kinds, fromthe English line-of-battle ship down to the crazy Arab skiff, and the townand its environs swarmed with soldiers of fifty different races. A Germantraveller J has given a lively account of the impressions made on him by themotley bustling scene: the following is a free translation of his remarkswith some additions from other sources. I found the streets here, he says, far more interesting than those even ofStamboul. For, whereas in the latter city everybody is engaged in peace- * Dr. Bowring, Report on the Commercial Statistics of Syria, 1840. + Perrier. X Hacklander, Daguerreotype*) aufgenommen wahreud einer Reise in den Orient in den Jahren1840 and 1841. 12 SYRIA AND THE HOLY Mountaineer of Lebanon. ful occupations, which he seeks to despatch with reasonable speed, here theparti-coloured mob, all bristling with weapons, whom the chance of war hasso oddly assembled, go sauntering about withleisurely and grave composure. The vigorousmountaineers of Lebanon, in their wide, showy-coloured, trousers, scarlet embroidered jackets,and white turbans, are usually seen congre-gated in large groups. They are all in highspirits, for they have, every man of them, oncemore a gun on his back, that darling weaponthey had been so long prohibited from carry-ing, on pain of death, since it had been wrestedfrom them by Ibrahims strong hand. Theyfill the whole street of the armourers, and keepthe smiths as busy as they can be, repairingand furbishing up the weapons the Turkishgovernment has been so obliging as to bestowupon them. I rather fear these same
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