(Photo: Bonfils.)
The open court soon presented another attraction. We were favoured there with two exhibitions of Damascene physical prowess. A pair of wrestlers, after baring themselves to the waist and greasing their bodies plentifully enough to suit Homer himself, displayed their skill to their own satisfaction; and a pair of doughty swordsmen engaged in a desperate combat, in which shouting and stamping seemed to bear an important part. They were certainly very careful not to hurt each other, only delivering in turn careful blows to be parried by the opponent's little shield, and then spinning round with the force of the blow to begin a new series of feints and shoutings and stamping. It was not a thrilling spectacle, though, of course, the surroundings gave it a certain interest. So our day in Damascus drew to its close, and we must be ready for an early start to-morrow.
A glorious morning saw us betimes at the railway station, where some of our friends from home came to see us off. About nine the train steamed away; up the valley, over the mountains, into the clouds and the snow, till the blue waves of the Mediterranean came in sight once more; then down, down, down the steep descent, till we ran just ere nightfall into Beirut.
GREAT ANNIVERSARIES
IN JANUARY.
By the Rev. A. R. Buckland, M.A., Morning Preacher at the Foundling Hospital.
