INTERIOR OF A HOUSE IN DAMASCUS.
"On the right of the fountain there is an open recess, where it is pleasant to sit in a warm afternoon; it contains chairs and divans, and is altogether an attractive spot. On the opposite side of the court is the parlor, which we entered by an ordinary door. There is a marble floor about six feet wide, and as long as the room is broad, and on each side of this marble floor there are steps to the rest of the room, which is about two feet higher. The marble part is entirely bare, with a small fountain in the centre, but the rest is richly carpeted, and has plenty of divans and large chairs. The chairs do not properly belong here, as they are not Oriental, but are kept out of regard for the wants of European visitors.
"How high do you suppose the ceiling is in the centre of this parlor?
"We had a curiosity to know, and so we measured it. Dmitri supplied us with ladders and a cord, and after a good deal of trouble we ascertained that it lacked only a few inches of thirty feet!
"We have been much interested in the house, as it is one of the best types we have seen of the Oriental dwelling. There are finer houses than this in Damascus, but it is not easy for a foreigner to see more of them than the outside walls. Some of the houses have cost a great deal of money, even in this country where labor is very cheap.
"Having looked at the house, we will go into the streets and take a glance at the distinctive features of Damascus.
"To begin with, Damascus is supposed to have a population of one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty thousand. Nobody can tell exactly, as the census is never taken as we take it in America, and quite probably nobody cares very much to know what it is. Here is the most accurate statement of the subject that we can find:
"Eighty-nine thousand five hundred Moslems, twelve thousand Christians, five thousand Jews, and about five thousand Druses, Bedouins, and other miscellaneous classifications. About half the Christians belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, and the rest are Latins, Maronites, Syrians, and Armenians.
"As you are well aware, Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world. It is mentioned in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, and very often in other books of the Bible, but the scriptural references do not tell us how old it is. The traditions of the Jews, Christians, and Moslems concerning the origin of Damascus do not agree, but by sifting them down, and harmonizing as much as possible, we may suppose it was founded by Uz, the son of Aram, and was a well-established city before the birth of Abraham. The kings of Syria lived here for more than three hundred years; one of them was conquered by King David, but the subjection did not last long. Afterward it was conquered by the Assyrians and added to their empire, and subsequently it was a possession of Persia.
"It would take several pages for me to tell you the history of Damascus, and as it might be tedious, and you can find it in any good encyclopædia, we will take a jump of three thousand years or less and come down to our own times. The most exciting event of modern days in Damascus was the massacre of the Christians in 1860, when five or six thousand people were killed for no other reason than their belief in the religion of Bethlehem. The whole of the Christian quarter was burnt, not a house being left uninjured. About half of it has been rebuilt, but some of the buildings are very frail, and it will be a long time before this portion of Damascus resumes its former appearance.