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do not cause any devastation, as they flow almost per- 
pendicularly downwards. These cupolas, as well as the 
rest of the buildings, are covered with a coat of reddish 
white marl, very smooth, which gives them a very 
pretty aspect. 
The houses in the interior of the city are built with 
more solid materials, and have generally two stories and 
flat roofs, as in the other cities of Africa; they have but 
few windows, small doors, and unadorned fronts; this 
appearance, joined to the silence that reigns in the 
streets, gives a dull and monotonous aspect to the city. 
The streets are well paved, and have elevated foot- 
paths on each side; they are of a regular width, but not 
in regular lines. 
It is generally understood in the country, that the 
city of Damascus contains four hundred thousand in- 
habitants. This calculation is exaggerated without doubt; 
yet I am persuaded that the population of the city, the 
suburbs, and the gardens, amounts to about two hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants, amongst whom are reckoned 
nearly twenty thousand Catholic Christians, five thou- 
sand Schismatics, and one thousand Jewish families. 
It is the reverse in almost all the cities of the East, 
which commonly contain many more Schismatics than 
Catholics. 
The grand mosque is magnificent, on account of fts 
extent; at the outside of the entrance there is a most 
superb fountain, the water of which is thrown to the 
height of twenty feet; around this fountain there is a 
coffee-house which is crowded continually with the 
idlers of the city. 
; There is in the inside of the mosque a large court 
surrounded with galleries and arches, resting on square 
