1904! A Last Visit to Damascus 80 



stop the Somali campaign, and to provide for the safety of the ' friendly 

 tribes,' on the Arab principle of paying blood money so as to end the 

 feud between them and the Mullah. ' The British forces should then 

 retire to the seaports and leave the interior strictly alone. If there 

 are any friendly chiefs who feel themselves too much compromised 

 they should be given handsome pensions and invited to live at Berbera 

 under English protection. The rest of the tribes will very soon come 

 to terms with the others, only don't leave British garrisons anywhere 

 in the interior, and forbid all travelling and sporting expeditions by 

 our officers for some years to come. You should consult Zoheir's 

 Ode in the Moallakat as to peacemaking by payment.' " 



We left the same day for Damascus and arrived at Beyrout on 

 the 20th by sea from Port Said. 



" 21st March (Sunday). — By train to Baalbek, a slow business, 

 the pace being but little, if at all faster than formerly by diligence, 

 which used to run between Beyrout and Damascus, and was so capitally 

 horsed. We travelled from Zahleh with a respectable man and his wife, 

 Christians of the place who, finding we talked Arabic, gave us a 

 good deal of information. The country of the Lebanon is very pros- 

 perous now, entirely, so he told us, through the emigration there has 

 been to America, the emigrants coming back with money made there 

 in trade. Every cultivable acre of land is taken up and prices have 

 gone up prodigiously. He pointed out to me a property in the Bekaa 

 which had been bought as derelict forty years ago by Dervish Pasha 

 for £6,ooo and which is now worth £60,000 or £70,000. The taxation 

 is not excessive, certainly not as compared with Egypt. There is a 

 yearly tax of 4 per mil. on the capital value of all land, and 12^ per 

 cent, is taken on the gross produce besides being paid in kind. Cer- 

 tainly, the people look prosperous new houses and new plantations of 

 mulberry trees everywhere, children with rosy cheeks, and men and 

 women well dressed. He puts the population of the Lebanon at 

 150,000 Christians, 100,000 Moslems, and 40,000 Druses, with as many 

 more Druses in the Hauran. I had no idea of such prosperity. 



" At Baalbek we went to the ruins which I had never seen. They 

 are, I think, the most splendid in the world. They have been to a cer- 

 tain extent remis a neuf for the Emperor William when he was here, 

 and there is an absurd tablet commemorating the event of his visit, 

 evidently of Constantinople origin, with the names of the Emperor 

 and the Sultan side by side. Otherwise the repairs have been sensibly 

 done. There are the usual American tourists here, fortunately not 

 more than half-a-dozen, the most senseless type of human nature, being 

 quite insensible to beauty or decorum and with the manners of shop- 

 boys, who ramble through the gardens of the ancient world with as 

 little knowledge of their value as beasts have, defiling all and tramp- 



