The process of embalming has something congenial to filial piety, and abates the horror which a worm-eaten corpse inspires. Those embalmed, after preservation for centuries, are sometimes found to have become a mass of odoriferous gum, and can be handled without disgust.
On the 17th, it rained the whole day. Confined within the walls of the Temple of the Sun, this opportunity was taken for examining such of the cottages as might be best adapted for the residence of Lady Hester. There were three that stood in the north-west angle of the temple, and these were chosen as the most commodious. The seven pillars are those delineated in one of the plates of Wood and Dawkins, as occupying the angle where we still found them.
The people of the village had talked a great deal to me about a cavern three leagues from the ruins, which contained, they said, several curious natural productions: accordingly, on the 18th, I joined a party who were going thither to bring away alum, sulphur, and vitriol. The company was composed of thirty-nine persons, the greater part armed with muskets and matchlocks, to defend themselves from the Bedouin Arabs, should they meet any. They were mounted on asses, and carried empty sacks. The shaykh accompanied us, purely out of civility, as he said to me (who had been strongly recommended to his care by Mahannah), but, in reality, to secure his share of the profits. The cave had been represented to me as extremely curious; the road to it is due north from the ruins, parallel with the chain of mountains which runs north and south from the castle until it unites at right angles with the White Mountain, at the foot of which the cave in question is situate. On the highest part of the ridge of this chain, there is a Mahometan shrine, already alluded to, called Ebn Ali. Upon these mountains are found hyenas and stags, whose antlers, of which Lady Hester some months afterwards obtained a pair, show them to be of a prodigious size. Under the santon’s tomb is, as I was told, another cavern worthy the examination of the traveller. Nearly abreast of it, and about a mile distant in the plain, is the mkatáa, or quarry, where the Palmyrenes obtained their stone for building. The rock is quarried with great regularity: several masses lie hewn as if ready for removal; and such is their size that they would exceed the power of common machines of the present day:—they were of a pink-tinted carbonate of lime.
Arrived at the cave, every one pulled off all his clothes, excepting his shirt and drawers. The mouth of it was perhaps thirty feet in breadth, and ten or twelve in height: it continued of these dimensions for a short distance, when two shafts went off in opposite directions: one of these we entered by a hole, through which we crept on our stomachs; for it appeared at this point to be choked up by rubbish from the falling in of the rock. We had with us rudely-made torches and bees-wax candles, brought for the purpose. The main shaft had been worked nearly strait, and was rudely arched; the depth of it might be from thirty to fifty yards. From it issued occasionally lateral excavations, but apparently of subsequent date to the principal one, and in some places the matrix of the rock was strongly sulphureous, for it took fire on holding the candle awhile to it. Beautiful efflorescent crystals of plumose alum, resembling tufts of snow-white silk, hung from the roof in certain places, or jutted from the sides, but were too perishable to bring away. In parts a yellow clay, wet and plastic, was found. Portions of both the sulphur and the alum were collected by the Arabs, who sell them in the manufacturing towns for the use of dyers. In some places, the walls of the cave were nearly pure argil. Thus the production of alum is constantly taking place in the cave from the presence of the principles necessary to its formation; viz. sulphur and alumine. I likewise found some pieces of selenite. The heat was so suffocating that I could not remain in long. We next visited the shaft running in an opposite direction to the first two: it was less deep and more irregular. In this the roof caught fire, wherever a taper was applied; an experiment I did not choose to see repeated a third time, for fear of suffocation from sulphureous fumes. The cave is of high antiquity, according to the tradition of the inhabitants, and probably coeval with Palmyra. It is well worth examination, and will repay the curiosity of the general traveller. The asses being all loaded, we returned in the same order in which we came.
The 19th and 20th were spent in walking over the ruins. In the plan of Palmyra, so accurately taken by Wood, as far as it goes, the remains of the wall of Justinian, to the east and south-east, are not inserted. They are, however, very distinctly visible, running north and south, distant a little more than a quarter of a mile from the Temple of the Sun. This seems to be the quarter of the private residences, as there are few fragments of columns hereabouts.
Having now gratified my curiosity, though not satisfied it, circumstances obliged me to think of departing. The ample accounts we possess of the ruins of Palmyra render it unnecessary to say anything on that head. The few observations I had time to make on its climate and present productions, on the manners and dress of the inhabitants, as well as on their diseases, may be comprehended in a very brief space, and they can apply only to that season of the year in which I made them.
Palmyra stands in latitude 30° 20′ north. To the west and north it is sheltered by mountains. Towards the other two cardinal points it looks over plains bounded by the horizon. The salt marshes lie to the east, about one league off, and their extent varies according to the winter rains. The mountains and plain are bare of trees. To the south of the Temple there were a few orchards; and a few acres of land were sown with maize and corn. These are irrigated by the waters of the sulphureous spring.
As far as my observation went, those places in the Levant are healthy which are not surrounded with gardens and orchards, whilst such as are encompassed by them demonstrate in the looks of the inhabitants the diseases to which they give rise. Thus, at Damascus, at Tripoli, at Hamah, and such towns as are celebrated for their gardens, the season is marked by the prevalence of intermittent and remittent fevers, which are always obstinate, and sometimes, from bad treatment and other circumstances, assume a malignant character. For, as the manner of irrigating grounds consists in laying them under water by trenches dug in a variety of directions, an artificial marsh is thus created, the evaporation of which, in the great heats of autumn, gives rise to noxious effluvia and to evening damps which check perspiration. On the contrary, such places as are built on mountains or at the foot of them, or in bare plains, enjoy a fine air; and this because the close of the day brings with it no sudden change of temperature, and no unwholesome vapours.[34]
Of this latter class is Palmyra: hence it is renowned among the Arabs for its fine climate. During a residence of six days, from the 14th to the 20th of January, in the very depth of winter, I found that it was agreeable to undress and bathe in the open air, and that a few showers, always succeeded by sunshine, and once a slight fall of snow, constituted the utmost severity of the season, in the severest winter that had been known for half a century; whilst, on the same days, the snow at Hamah, in the same parallel of latitude, was six inches deep, and covered the ground for some time: nay, the inhabitants of Tadmûr went so far as to say that the very appearance of snow was a miracle among them. It is mentioned by Wood that, in the month of March, the heats were very great: it is therefore likely that in autumn they are scarcely less intense than those of Egypt.
The few orchards and corn-fields which the inhabitants had, and which were no more than scraps of ground scooped out among the ruins, served to show that, with little care, all the plants of Syria might be reared on this spot. Wood mentions having seen fig-trees there; at this time there were perhaps a hundred. Palm-trees are numerous, and ripen their fruit, which they will not do at Damascus; I ate of their dates. To olive-trees the climate seems peculiarly congenial, as they have a richness of foliage not observable elsewhere. Pomegranates, sweet melons, water melons, almond trees, with apples and apricots and some other fruits, were also to be found.