Syrians.—The ancient Syrians have, as a rule, become absorbed in the races who have conquered them; their language, however, is still spoken by the Christian population of Mesopotamia and Chaldea, the Sourianis and the Yakoubis or Chaldeans.
Beyrout, at the foot of the mountains of Libanus ([fig. 81]), is a town and port which is the commercial centre of all Syria. Thither Libanus sends its wine and its silks; Yemen, its coffee; Haman, its corn; Djebaïl and Lattakiah, their pale-coloured tobaccos; Palmyra, its horses; Damascus, its arms; Bagdad, its costly stuffs; and all Europe, the countless productions of its industry.
81.—BEYROUT.
The very first glance at Beyrout shows how commerce prospers in that town. The Maronite in his gloomy and coarse garments, the Druze in his white or parti-coloured turban, armed with the most costly weapons, the Arab displaying his picturesque rags, the Turk, the Greek, the Jew, and the Armenian, all hurry to and fro, jostling one another in the crowd. It is a regular Babel of language and costume: in which, however, the Christian element predominates.
But the streets of Beyrout, like all those of Eastern towns, are not in unison with such a brilliant panorama.
The houses are massive shells of stone; the streets are narrow and steep, communicating sometimes by tunnelled passages; some of the broader ones are occupied by cafedjis, inside which squatting Arabs tranquilly smoke their chibouks, sheltered from the rays of the sun by awnings of coarse rush-matting hung above their heads. In the middle of the street the children roll about in the dust.