SYRIA 103 



at first in the house of a medical man who enabled 

 me to witness some gorgeous Jewish domestic cere- 

 monies. I also took elementary lessons in Hebrew 

 at his house, for which the little I knew of Arabic 

 made an excellent preparation. A sad grief befell me 

 there in the death of my faithful dragoman, Ali, 

 through violent dysentery. All the last duties to the 

 Moslem dead, the washings, the shrouding, and the 

 wailings, took place in the courtyard. My own 

 presence, as a Christian, at the funeral would have 

 been seriously resented by the Moslems, though I 

 was able to arrange about his tombstone. The 

 sculptors here adopt a very simple process for their 

 illiterate workmen. A flat face is given to the stone, 

 on which the inscription is painted in black. Then 

 all that is not painted is chipped away. The populace 

 at Damascus was then in a fanatical humour and 

 Christians had to be careful. There had been a 

 frightful persecution of Jews a little previously, and 

 there were others of Christians subsequently. 



Ali had some trifling personal property, and 

 wages were due to him. I sent these to his wife in 

 Cairo, who was the only relative I ever heard him 

 mention, together with a little present for herself, 

 and thought my duty fulfilled and that all was 

 finished. On the contrary, I had inadvertently 

 roused a hornet's nest of greedy claimants. An 

 official Arabic letter was sent to me demanding 

 various payments to numerous relatives, together 

 with a threat of legal proceedings if not attended to. 

 My banker, to whom I referred it, advised me to 

 get out of the reach of the law as soon as I con- 

 veniently could, or I might find myself fleeced, and 



