A curious method for arresting the spread of infectious disease is to surround the patient with a circle of some disinfectant, and during a cholera scare I saw it applied to a man on the Galata bridge who had an apoplectic stroke. The case was considered suspicious, and his body was removed, but a circle of whitewash, like the markings of a tennis-court, was drawn round the place where he had fallen, and the infection thus imprisoned! Scraps of paper thrown in the street are held in reverence and removed by pious Moslems, because the Name of God may be written on them and profaned if trodden upon; but another version is that all scraps not thus collected by the Moslem will be scattered over the burning soil through which he is to pass, after death, on the way to Paradise, and will make his passage more painful. CHAPTER VIII SYRIANS, DRUSES, MARONITES, AND BEDOUINS An account of Palestine having been given in "Peeps at the Holy Land," I will not allude specially to it, although it belongs to Turkey. Arabic is the language also spoken in Syria, which lies north of Palestine, and in Mesopotamia, which is to the east. Of the ancient towns of Tyre and Sidon, once famous as the capitals of Phoenicia, nothing now remains but ruins on which fishermen dry their nets. The inhabitants in the surrounding regions, however, still keep up many of their ancient customs and superstitions, and, in a modified way, Baal and Astarte are still worshipped. The slopes of the Lebanon adjoining Beyrout are inhabited by the Druses and the Maronites, who, since the year 1860, have obtained semi-independence, and are ruled by a Christian Governor appointed by the Sultan. The Lebanon Ranges are very beautiful; they abound in aromatic flowers, and bees yield an enormous production of excellent honey. They are also the home of the cedar. As already stated, a railway, starting from Beyrout, crosses the Lebanon and connects it with Damascus, one of the most ancient cities of the world. Damascus is also one of the most beautiful, the plain on which it stands being a continuous garden, over fifty miles in circuit, rich in oranges, lemons, pomegranates, mulberries, figs, plums, apricots, walnuts, pears, quinces, etc. The town, through which flows a river, contains several magnificent structures, including a splendid mosque, which was once a Christian church, but the streets of the city are squalid and dirty. One of the most interesting is that called Straight, which St. Paul traversed. Damascus has a large manufacturing industry, and among other articles produces beautiful silks. It formerly produced those remarkable Damascus swords, inimitable for hardness, elasticity, sharpness, and tenacity, as well as for the beauty of their ornamentation. It gives its name to the plums which we call "damsons."