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PREFACE. 



The following pages sufficiently explain how the 

 journey described in them was planned and carried 

 out. In the course of our wanderings, we visited two 

 countries, well known, indeed, by name to the general 

 reader, but concerning which vague, and in some 

 respects incorrect impressions are frequently enter- 

 tained. A truthful traveller may do as good service 

 by destroying illusions as by bringing forward fresh 

 information, and I have felt bound to record our con- 

 viction that the belief that there are ' Giant Cities ' 

 in Bashan is as unfounded as the still more prevalent 

 idea that all the men in the Caucasus are brave, and 

 all the women beautiful. 



Our Syrian travels owed their chief interest to a 

 sudden access of vigour on the part of the Turkish 

 Pashas, which enabled us to visit, with httle risk or 

 expense, the remarkable ruins of the Hauran and Lejah, 

 and to form our own opinion as to their date — a question 





