52
DEPARTURE FROM DAMASCUS.
greater weight among the Greeks than the Bouyourdi was among
the Turks.
Being thus furnished with what I considered most necessary,
I assumed the dress of the Haouran people, with a Keffie, and a
large sheep-skin over my shoulders : in my saddle bag I put one
spare shirt, one pound of coffee beans, two pounds of tobacco, and
a day’s provender of barley for my horse. I then joined a few
Felahs of Ezra, of one of whom I hired an ass, though I had
nothing to load it with but my small saddle-bag; but I knew this
to be the best method of recommending myself to the protection
of my fellow travellers ; as the owner of the ass necessarily becomes -
the companion and protector of him who hires it. Had
I offered to pay him before setting out merely for his company on
the way, he would have asked triple the sum I gave him, without
my deriving the smallest advantage from this increase, while he
would have considered my conduct as extraordinary and suspicious. ¬
In my girdle 1 had eighty piastres, (about 24. sterling
and a few more in my pocket, together with a watch, a compass,
a journal book, a pencil, a knife, and a tobacco purse. The
coffee I knew would be very acceptable in the houses where I
might alight; and throughout the journey I was enabled to treat
all the company present with coffee.
My companions intending to leave Damascus very early the
next morning, I quitted my lodgings in the evening, and went
with them to sleep in a small Khan in the suburb of Damascus,
at which the Haouaerne, or people of Haouran, generally alight.
November 9th.—We departed through this gate of the Meidhan,
three hours before sun-rise, and took the road by which the Hadj
annually commences its laborious journey; this gate is called
Bab Ullah, the Gate of God, but might with more propriety be
named Bab-el-Maut, the Gate of Death; for scarcely a third ever
