My equipment consisted of the clothes on my back; a halter and a corn-bag for my horse, tied behind my groom; a pair of common woollen saddle-bags under me; my sabre by my side, and my pipe carried by my servant. The mode of journeying was this: we mounted at sunrise, and, proceeding always at a footpace, halted somewhere at noon, and generally, if possible, near a spring. There the horses drank, and a little chopped straw was put into their bags: often for myself bread and dried figs were all that was served for a breakfast; and a little dried dung (for in this part of the country there is not a bit of wood), scraped together, made fire enough to boil a cup of coffee. Remounted, we generally contrived to arrive before or soon after sunset at a caravansery; and for the last half hour there would be some contention between the fastest walking horses to get beforehand, in order to secure the best corner of the stable, or to obtain the best lodging.
Caravanseries are buildings of a quadrangular form, with no windows outwards, and no outlet but the gate, which is made strong enough to resist any nocturnal attack from Arabs and other robbers. The interior presents generally a very filthy court, with perhaps a well or basin in the middle, and around it an arcade, with the arches open, or walled up half way. The floor is the ground, not often bare, as being most usually covered with the dung of cattle. In a caravansery the traveller is not certain of finding anything. The peasants, perhaps, of some adjoining village, expose to sale barley-bread, figs, raisins, a species of wheat-meal to make gruel, straw, and sometimes, but not always, coffee, with tobacco and tombàk for smoking. About ninepence buys provisions for rider and horse. He ties up his animal, gives him his barley in the corn-bag; then, supping on fresh bread and a dish of rice, a few dried raisins, a cup of coffee and a pipe, he lies down, with his carpet for his bed, and his saddle-bags for a pillow. His horse sleeps with his saddle on, as in Turkey it is never thought safe to take it off when travelling in the winter season, excepting at sunrise for five minutes, just to air the horse’s back, and afford an opportunity of currying him a little. At sunrise, or before, the caravan renews the journey as on the preceding day; the traveller has nothing to pay for his lodging, goes through the same routine, and finds at night another caravansery to rest in.
The reader will consider all this as very uncomfortable; but let him recollect the difference which climate makes, and he will find that for nine months in the year the weather invites to sleep in the open air in preference to enclosed rooms. In the latitude I now was in, December is often milder than the June of England.
The road which the caravan took was not the same by which I had gone the first time, but inclined more to the eastward. As we departed late from Damascus, a halt was made at Kosayr, where we slept, within a very short distance of Damascus, for the purpose of awaiting and of collecting together the different merchants and travellers who were to make up the caravan. On the morrow we left Kosayr, and proceeded to Ketayfy. Not choosing to avail myself of the buyurdy, I had caused Ibrahim to purchase such things as were necessary for myself and the horses; but the head muker, or makairy (such is the name muleteers bear in Arabic), had been on business to the shaykh of the village, and the bare mention that I was physician to the meleky, or queen, as he called Lady Hester, who had passed so recently, brought down a peremptory invitation that I must go up and sup with him. Accordingly, I went, and found a Turk (not a Syrian Mahometan, for there is a wide distinction between them) of great breeding and civility, who seemed highly impressed with Lady Hester’s importance; nor did he interrupt his questions about her except to eat. His servant, a respectable-looking young man, of about twenty-two, who stood waiting submissively before him to serve our pipes, and who put the supper on the table, after all were seated, sat down with us. This is one of the patriarchal customs of the East.
On the 9th we reached Nebk. During the day, a military-looking gentleman belonging to our caravan, well mounted and armed, who had probably heard something of the shaykh’s civility to me on the preceding night, showed himself very adroit in courting my acquaintance, and constantly rode by my side, pointing out the objects of curiosity that presented themselves. As we approached Nebk, he asked me where I should lodge; and I told him in the caravansery. “Well, but have you no buyurdy?” I told him I had. “Then why not use it?” he said, “and let me accompany you to see to your lodgings: you need only say I am your guard. You have authority to demand good entertainment, and I will take care it shall be provided.” To this I objected, and was unwilling to let him go with me to the shaykh’s; but, when we arrived at Nebk, he clung to me with such an air of assurance that I did not know how to get rid of him. On presenting myself to the shaykh, he immediately ordered rations of barley for the horses to be given to us, and desired one of his people to conduct us to the bishop’s, where he said we were to lodge. He did not ask me if the Turkish officer was of my party; but, concluding him to be so, bade him accompany me.
I was angry with my own forbearance, when, on presenting myself to the venerable Syrian bishop, whom I had known on my former visit to Nebk, I saw, mixed with the hearty welcome he gave me, many a side glance of timidity and distress at my companion, who, the moment he entered, began to put himself at his ease, like officers on a march, by throwing off his accoutrements, asking for coffee, &c. My groom had warned me on the road that I should not suffer this man, who, he said, looked like an adventurer, to be too familiar with me: and I fully saw the propriety of his warning now that it was too late. The bishop gave me a good supper. He told me that the English princess had stopped at the village a whole day, and that she had taken away with her Abu Hanah and his wife: by whom he meant M. and Madame Lascaris, who having had a son named John or Hanah, were hence called, according to the custom of the East, he Abu Hanah or John’s father, and she Um Hanah, or John’s mother: for the pride of parents, in the East, is their first-born, more especially if a boy.
The khan or caravansery of Nebk is one of the most spacious and best built between Damascus and Hamah, but of the same plain form as that already described. Ibrahim woke me early. I had slept on the sofa in one of the bishop’s rooms in my clothes, and to rise from bed and shake myself was all the preparation necessary except washing. The night had been very cold, and the maid brought me warm water. The mode of washing in the East is quite different from that in use among us: the servant pours water from a ewer, like an old-fashioned coffee-pot, upon the hands, which is carried in splashes to the face and neck, and a basin held beneath, or on the ground, receives it, as it falls.
On the 10th in the morning we resumed our journey. The air was piercingly cold, for it now swept across the Desert. We arrived in the afternoon at Carah, where I was known, but I did not go to my old habitation, preferring the caravansery. On the 11th we reached Hassyah. There was a woman in the caravan, rather pretty, whose object on the journey appeared to be somewhat mysterious. She seemed to be a native of some of the Arab villages, as her face and arms were tatooed. She attached herself to the muleteer who had the care of my luggage, and who was very officious in attending to her wants, as in spreading out sacks and other things to render her rest during the night comfortable, &c.
When the business of the day was over, the muleteer made up a fire on the ground; and, seated at it with this woman, would carouse until a late hour in the night. Coffee, however, was their only liquor, and seldom could they afford more than two cups each. The intervals were filled up in smoking the narkýly, which passed from mouth to mouth between the muleteer and his dulcinea.
Prudence obliged me to sleep as near to my luggage as possible, and I was often, when not better lodged, compelled to lie down close to where they were. So, drawing my cloak over my face, I peeped out from time to time to see that my goods and chattels were safe, and thus undesignedly had occasion to observe their conduct, which was always conformable with that reserve of character for which Mahometan women are proverbial in the presence of strangers.