Sport in Syria. 343 



fearful scars behind. This disfigurement unfortun- 

 ately attacks the face principally. I have seen women 

 who would probably have been beautiful, almost 

 hideous from their effects. As I had a young family 

 I did not care to subject them to such a fell disease, 

 and much as I liked Aleppo I made up my mind to 

 leave it alone. 



In my searchings, I found that to get a suitable 

 home for a family was almost impossible. A Greek 

 at Lataquie offered to let me the upper part of a 

 large house for 36 a year ! This rather astonished 

 me ; not much of the 40 limit assigned by the 

 Consul as an annual expenditure remained ; then, 

 and not till then, did I discover that the book was 

 forty years old. In the early forties living in Syria 

 may have been moderate enough, but in 1879 it was 

 bad, and the expense not much short of some cheap 

 locality in England, while the inconveniences were 

 much greater. 



I purchased furniture, a piano, &c., and made my 

 people as comfortable as I could. I bought two 

 good horses at Aleppo for 12 a piece, a mare in 

 Lataquie for 12 more, and a couple of donkeys for 

 5 each. I brought with me from India, iron beds 

 and bedding, saddlery, &c., and a large stock of 

 eatables and drinkables. The hotel proprietor at 

 Beyrout told me to leave it to him and he would 

 clear all my baggage, free. In three days, after 

 considerable delay, I think he brought to the hotel 

 three boxes out of a hundred ! Then I told him to 

 mind his own business, secured an interpreter, and 

 knowing the value of backseesh, by doling out two 

 pounds I got the rest of my traps passed without 



