38 NOTES ON A SOJOURN IN THE LEVANT. 
The other river which runs through Damascus is the Abana, 
familiar to us in connection with the name of Naaman the Syrian. 
The mosque of Damascus is believed to have been built on the 
site of the temple of Rimmon, where Naaman is said to have 
sacrificed (see 2 Kings v. 17 and 18). This temple was destroyed, 
and afterwards a Christian church was built on the site; and now 
on the same site stands a Mohammedan mosque. 
The celebrated Saladin was born in the suburb called Salei- 
keeyah. 
Next to Mecca, Damascus is the most fanatical place in the 
Turkish empire. Here Europeans are frequently called “ Christian 
Dogs ” and “ Giaours ” in the streets by the natives, and the tone 
of voice in which these names are uttered betray the deep scorn 
and hatred of the faithful Mussulman for the renegade and 
idolatrous Christian. It is a fact that the very street dogs of 
Damascus bark at Christians. This statement may seem hardly 
to be founded on fact, nevertheless it is as nearly true as any 
general statement is; for since Orientals invariably wear the 
tarboosh on their heads, and Europeans do zof wear it, the dogs 
let pass anyone who wears a tarboosh, but the luckless European, 
who is usually some kind of Christian, is saluted in the way I have 
stated. 
Let us now leave Damascus and go to Baalbec. In order to 
get there from Damascus you go back by the French road to a 
point about midway between the Anti-Lebanon and the Lebanon, 
called Shtaena. Here you leave the road and travel on horseback, 
first of all to Zahleh, a town of about 14,000 people. Not far 
from this town, near a village called Kerak, is the traditional 
tomb of Noah. Noah is one of the chief Mohammedan prophets, 
the word ‘‘ prophet ” being used in its primary sense of “ preacher.” 
The tomb consists of a long low narrow building of one storey, 
containing one room. In this incense is kept burning night and 
day. Down the middle of this room, from end to end, nearly, 
runs a brick thrall about two feet in height, and on the top of this 
thrall is a plaster or mortar sarcophagus, running the whole 
length of the thrall. In this the prophet is said to be lying. 
