The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton, vol 2 | Page 3

his heels
and threw all the radishes about a hundred yards around. The poor little
boy set up a howl. I ran to help him, but the more I tried the more the
donkey ran away, and at last I understood by signs that the donkey was
shying at me, so I threw the boy a coin and retreated, and sent another
boy to help him. We called to an old man riding a shabby-looking horse,
but the moment the horse saw me it did exactly the same thing, and
nearly flung the old man off. My sides ached with laughing. Fancy
being so queer that the animals take fright at one!
I think before I go further I ought to give some general idea of the city
of Damascus as it appeared to me. I have already said that my first sight
of the city was one of disappointment; but when I got to know it better
its charm grew upon me, and I shall never till I die like any place so
well. Damascus, as I suppose every one knows, is the largest town in
Syria. In shape it is rather like a boy's kite, with a very long tail. The
tail of the kite is the Maydan, the poorest part of Damascus, but rich in
ruined mosques and hammams, and houses which at first sight look as
though they are in decay. But when we got to know these houses better,
we found that marble courts, inlaid chambers, arabesque ceilings, often
lay behind the muddy exteriors. The city itself is divided into three
districts: the Jewish in the southern part, the Moslem in the northern
and western, and the Christian in the eastern. The Moslem quarter is
clean, the Christian quarter dirty, and the Jewish simply filthy. I often
had to gallop through the last-named holding my handkerchief to my
mouth, and the kawwasses running as though they had been pursued by
devils. Everywhere in Damascus, but especially in this quarter, the
labyrinthine streets are piled with heaps of offal, wild dogs are gorged
with carrion, and dead dogs are lying about. One must never judge
Damascus, however by externals: every house has a mean aspect in the
way of entrance and approach. This is done purposely to deceive the
Government, and not to betray what may be within in times of looting.
You often approach through a mean doorway into a dirty passage; you
then enter a second court, and you behold a marvellous transformation.

You find the house thoroughly cleaned and perfumed, paved courts
with marble fountains and goldfish, orange and jessamine trees,
furniture inlaid with gold and ebony and mother-o'-pearl, and
stained-glass windows. In the interior of one of the most beautiful
houses I visited in Damascus the show-room was very magnificent,
upholstered in velvet and gold, and with divans inlaid with marble,
mother-o'-pearl, ebony, and walnut, and there were tesselated marble
floors and pavements and fountains; but _en revanche_, God knows
where they sleep at all. One of the ladies I went to call on first was a
very pretty bride, only a fortnight married. She was gaudily dressed,
with about 2,000 pounds sterling worth of diamonds on her head and
neck, but the stones were so badly set they looked like rubbish. She
strolled from side to side in her walk, which is a habit very chic.
Notwithstanding her internal grandeur, Damascus is but a wreck of her
former splendour, albeit a beautiful wreck. Ichabod! her glory has
departed; not even the innumerable domes and minarets of
multitudinous mosques can reinstate her.
I think I ought to touch on the bazars, as they form such an integral part
of the life of Damascus. Many of them were very beautiful, all huddled
together in a labyrinth of streets, and containing almost everything
which one could want. I used to love to go with my Arab maid and
wander through them. There was the saddlery bazar, where one could
buy magnificent trappings for one's Arab steeds, saddle-cloths
embossed with gold, bridles of scarlet silk, a single rein which makes
you look as if you were managing a horse by a single thread, and
bridles of silver and ivory. There was a shoemaker's bazar. How
different from a shoe shop in England! The stalls were gorgeous with
lemon-coloured slippers, stiff red shoes, scarlet boots with tops and
tassels and hangings, which form part of the Bedawin dress. There was
a marqueterie bazar, where one found many lovely things inlaid with
choice woods, mother-o'-pearl, and steel. And there was the gold and
silver bazar, where the smiths sat round in little pens, hammering at
their anvils. Here one could pick up some most beautiful barbarous and
antique ornaments, filigree coffee-cup holders, raki cups of silver inlaid
with