EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 397 
Near the mountain are fome Saracenic remains of a mofque 
and palace, with many infcriptions in Cuphic charadlers. Thefe 
are veftiges of the deftru£live warfare condudted by Timur 
Leng, the hero, the robber, the warrior, the fcourge. The 
walls are antient, not very lofty, but ftrong. Gates nine. The 
city is divided into twenty-three diftridts, each under its diftin<St 
magiftrate. 
That beautiful tree, the Lombardy poplar, abounds all over 
the plain. It is a native of Syria. When old it becomes rag- 
ged and uncouth, as ufual in other regions, a monument of 
fugitive beauty. 
Damafcus is the feat of a confiderable trade ; and its manu- 
fadures afford a fupport to a great number of Mohammedans 
and Chriftians : they confift of filk and cotton, mixed or fepa- 
rate, but chiefly mingled together, in the form of what they 
call Cottoni or Alleja *. Much foap is alfo fabricated f , which 
* The machine ufed in the manufaflure is very fimple, but the fabric is very 
complete, and executed with tolerable expedition. To make a cottoni requires one 
hundred and tvi'enty-five drams of filk. Half that quantity is fulEcient for a 
light alleja. The wages of a manufadlurer for making the former are fixty paras. 
The fabric of white fiik is technically called in Arabic craijln; the alleja^ darekli% 
the cottoni, daddr. The ordinary length of each of thefe is about ten pikes (draa). 
The width about a pike. 
f The manner of making foap here deferves mention. They ufe oil of olives, 
putting to an hundred weight twenty-five pounds of kali, and five pounds of 
pulverized chalk. The latter articles are boiled till the water be fufficiently im- 
pregnated ; the oil is then poured in, and the whole boils for three days over a 
fire compofed of ftones of olives. 
