By half-past six we were under way, and all the Syrian world seemed to
be under way also. The road was filled with mule trains and long
processions of camels. This reminds me that we have been trying for some
time to think what a camel looks like, and now we have made it out. When
he is down on all his knees, flat on his breast to receive his load, he
looks something like a goose, swimming; and when he is upright he looks
like an ostrich with an extra set of legs. Camels are not beautiful, and
their long under lip gives them an exceedingly “gallus” expression. They
have immense flat, forked cushions of feet, that make a track in the
dust like a pie with a slice cut out of it. They are not particular
about their diet. They would eat a tombstone if they could bite it. A
thistle grows about here which has needles on it that would pierce
through leather, I think; if one touches you, you can find relief in
nothing but profanity. The camels eat these. They show by their actions
that they enjoy them. I suppose it would be a real treat to a camel to
have a keg of nails for supper.
AT NOAH’S TOMB
Noah’s tomb is built of stone, and is covered with a long stone
building. Bucksheesh let us in. The building had to be long, because the
grave of the honored old navigator is two hundred and ten feet long
itself! It is only about four feet high, though. He must have cast a
shadow like a lightning-rod. The proof that this is the genuine spot
where Noah was buried can only be doubted by uncommonly incredulous
people. The evidence is pretty straight. Shem, the son of Noah, was
present at the burial, and showed the place to his descendants, who
transmitted the knowledge to their descendants, and the lineal
descendants of these introduced themselves to us to-day. It was pleasant
to make the acquaintance of members of so respectable a family. It was a
thing to be proud of. It was the next thing to being acquainted with
Noah himself.
DAMASCUS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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