1829.] Nubia, and Palestine. 167 



" To one who knows the Arabs well, the natural simplicity of their charac- 

 ter, their generosity, and their kindness of heart, there is no small pleasure in 

 remaining amongst them, and especially in the character of a benefactor and 

 a chief, who is looked up to by them, not only as a ruler, but as a being of a 

 Buperior order ; and, in this light, both the Arabs of Mount Lebanon and the 



Bedouins of the Desert look upon Lady H S . But her influence over 



the Turkish Pachas of Syria has, uideed, diminished greatly. 



" She has now been seventeen or eighteen years in the country ; and, for 

 many j^ears after her arrival, to gain their protection, which was very desirable 

 in such an unsettled region, it was necessary to make considerable presents 

 annually, which no private fortune could be equal to for any length of time. 

 So long as the presents were made, the Pachas were all courtesy, and the 

 name o{ the Sittee Inglis was a passport over Syria; but, latterly, that her 

 hand has ceased to lavish the shawls of Cachmire, the silver mounted pistols 

 of England, the swords of Damascus, the muslins of India, on these rapacious 

 governors, their friendship has waxed cold ; and, in some instances, has been 

 converted into enmity : such is the case with Abdallah, Pacha of Acre, and the 

 Emir Bechir of the Druses. The latter has taken every occasion of thwarting 

 her, and has latterly issued a firman, which he procured from Acre, forbidding 

 any jMahometan subject, on pain of death, to remain in her service, or to carry 

 water to her house, with which it is supplied from a river three or four miles 

 distant. The consequence of this edict is, that she has been left without 

 servants, and her beautiful garden has gone to ruin for want of irrigation. 



" Her establishment formerly consisted of thirty or forty domestics, and a 

 great number of girls whose education was her employment : but they have 

 all deserted her, with the exception of five servants, and on their fidelity her 

 life is now dependent. Several attempts have been lately made to break in at 

 night ; people have been found murdered, who were attached to her, and the 

 corpse of a stranger, a few days ago, was found lying near the gate. 



" Her great enemy is a certain Yacouh Aga, the converted Bishop whom I 

 have already mentioned, a man of infamous character, and who has contrived, 

 with the wages of his infamy, to purchase a village, which is about an hour's 

 journey from D'Joim. Some time ago this man seized on her Ladyship's 

 camels, on pretence of employing them for some work of the Emir's. The 

 servants resisted, and one of them was bastinadoed : the servants of Lady 

 H retaliated, some time after, on some people of the Emir's, and bastina- 

 doed them : this produced a great deal of ill will between the Emir and her 

 Ladyship ; and Yacoub Aga took every opportunity of insulting the people of 

 the latter, wherever he met them." 



The opinions of this lady on some subjects, appear sufficiently extra- 

 ordinary. She believes that medicine, and all other sciences, are only to 

 be effectually studied in the stars ; that " the pole of a star is in this 

 order : at the top are the angels ; a little lower, the spirits of the air ; 

 still lower, the intelligences of the earth ; of the vegetable, then of the 

 mineral kingdom ; and beneath the centre, the seven regions of hell, and 

 the seven great beings." Her ladyship, however, was so good as to say 

 to ]\Ir. Madden, that she saw these things were above his comprehension, 

 and therefore she would talk of other matters. We are as glad, as we 

 dare say our author was, to be relieved from such frantic rubbish, and 

 therefore turn to what is by comparison, more rational — her opinions 

 upon English politics and statesmen, of the latter of whom, it must be 

 remembered, she speaks from personal knowledge : — . 



" Having smoked and conversed till half-past three in the morning, I retired, 

 delighted with a conversation in which the natural eloquence of this lady was 

 only surpassed by the originality of her observations. Her habits are peculiar; 

 she retires to rest at the dawn and rises in the afternoon ; she takes her meals 

 in her own apartments, and never with her guests ; she drinks no wine, and 



