Damascus is one of the most holy and most celebrated cities of the East. The prophet Mahommed considered it thrice blessed, because the angels spread their wings over it, and he, on perceiving the beautiful view, did not conquer it, as to man but one paradise was promised, and he was to find his in heaven. In the Koran God swears by the fig and the olive, that is, by Damascus and Jerusalem, and the Arabian geographers call it “the mole on the cheek of the world,”--“the plumage of the bird of paradise,”--“the necklace of beauty;” in the titles of the sultans, “the paradise-scented Dimishk.”[154] According to the saying of the eastern Christians, Adam was made here out of the red earth; and the neighbouring mountain Kassiûm the legend points out as the place where Cain murdered Abel. The Bárada, which we had followed from its first spring, runs somewhat south of Damascus into the great plain, then turns to the left towards the town, which it traversed in seven arms, and then runs into a lake. It was the golden-streamed Chrysorrhoas of the ancients, the celebrated Farfar of the eastern poets. It is this stream which causes the whole of this paradise; and through it this ancient city, which was known even to Abraham, and conquered by David, has had its importance secured. Formerly Damascus was the centre of Arabian literature and learning, and it is said that a disciple of the prophet gave instruction in the Koran to 1,600 believers at the same time (according to the Lancastrian method) in the great mosque of the Ommiades. The town appeared to us, at first, not to respond to its glorious environs. Tolerably wide but bare streets received us, with low houses, plaster walls, in which were little doors, and hardly any windows. There were none of the beautiful wood-carvings or stone ornaments to be seen either by the doors or at the corners. Only some mosques and wells which we passed formed an exception; and the many single trees in the streets and squares gave a pleasing appearance. As we came more into the interior of the city, the almost massive bazaars and the full shops; the richness of heaped-up fruit of all sorts; the gay crowd of large and small in the numerous costumes; and the never-ending turnings from one street into another;--everything forced upon us the idea that we were in a large and rich oriental city. We rode to the Prussian Consul’s, but he was lying ill of a fever. We then went further to a newly-established hotel. Here, also, as well as at the consul’s, we entered by a narrow door in an unsightly outer wall into a little dark court, and from thence into a low, crooked passage. Then, however, there opened before us a beautiful, spacious court, surrounded by stately, shining marble walls, in the middle of which was a fountain, overshadowed by lofty trees. At the further end was an arched niche, whose vaulted top was twenty-five feet high. To this one we mounted a few marble steps, and then found ourself