Damascus, a House at aṣ-Ṣāliḥīya

COURT OF A TURKISH COUNTRY HOUSE AT SALAHYEH. NEAR DAMASCUS

 This is a very good specimen of the villas about Damascus; it is situated in the midst of a garden: entering from the street by a garden gate, you pass into the court, which has a fountain in the middle; the recess, which is mostly seen in the courts of Eastern houses, is in front. The private apartments are on the opposite side, and also the offices; the staircase leads to the gallery at top, which looks into the garden, and over the city and hills. The arch in front is Moorish and the lightness of the architecture of the dwelling, and the coolness of the apartments, well suited to the climate. The recess in the court is the favourite seat and lounge of the inmates during the heat of day: two or three steps ascend to it, the floor is carpeted; it is furnished with a divan, is open to the air and light, and shaded from the sun. The fountain falls directly in front.

This house was a few years since occupied by one of the wealthiest merchants of the East, or rather by his four wives, for whose peculiar use he kept it; here they dwelt together in much comfort and luxury.

An English physician, an acquaintance of the writer, used to visit these ladies here; the husband was one of the strictest Muslims as to etiquette about women; yet he allowed him to have interviews with them at first in his presence, or in that of his son, and at last without any witness, save one of the eunuchs. The ladies were extremely unwilling to uncover their faces, and wished to compound with the feeling the pulse, putting out the tongue, &c., till the physician was absolute, that to do them any good, he must consult their looks. Their charms, and those of other female patients, were not powerful enough to rob him of his presence of mind.

They use no stays, and appear, when seated, or when the outer robes are laid aside, to have little grace or symmetry of shape, but they have a good deal of grace of manner and gesture; and they walk well, holding themselves very erect, and with dignity. Their beauty, when young, is the mere beauty of the rose, red or white, unintellectual, unsentimental, unexpressive of esprit or fancy. Lamartine's indiscriminate rhapsodies about Oriental loveliness have little foundation in truth; it is probable he saw many fine eyes, and heard sweet tones of voice. The accents of Oriental ladies are not generally sweet; the want of energy, excitement, and variety of feeling, is visible in their monotonous and charmless intonations of voice.

A startling change has come over the interior of this house of aṣ-Ṣāliḥīya: from being the home of the rich man of Baghdad and his many wives, it is now the residence of Mr. T., a merchant, and correspondent of the Bible Society; the traveller sometimes rests his wearied limbs in the chambers, and perhaps on the divan where reclined the four pilgrims on their return from Mecca. The consul-general Mr. Farren (*) occupies a similar but larger house at a short distance.

John Carne. Syria, the Holy Land, Asia Minor, &c.

(*) The British Consul-General in Syria, John William Perry Farren, who was stationed in Damascus