1 66 TRAVELS TO THE EAST. 
from falling into the fame ftate as her filler Tyre* 
They load yearly twenty and more veffels for France* 
The goods exported from this place confift chief / 
in fpun cotton, with fome filk, and amount annually 
to at leaft a million of livres. Next to them wut 
be reckoned the filks, particularly the line watere 
half-filks which come from Damafcus, and a* e 
brought hither in conliderable quantities for the 
French, who carry them to Italy ; for they are p r °' 
hibited in France, though the French make nofl s 
equal to them in goodnefs. Alhes, Oil and Gai s » 
make likewife a fmall part of this town’s product 
They import Cloths, Spices, Spanilh Iron, and Dru-^ 
for dying, the greateft part of which is fent to D 3 
mafcus, which town fupports Scide and Baruth, 1 
be confidered only as its harbours. They recei^ 
alfo a large quantity of Piafters yearly from 
feilles, which moftly go to Damafcus; where, 
well as on the whole Syrian coafl, this coin has w 
greateft circulation, but moft of all, the Qp art 
piafters, called Ratines, which are valued at fh te _ a 
Med. On the road from Acra to Seide, we fa • ^ 
herdfman, who refted with his herd of goats, vvll £j e 
was one of the largeft I faw in this country. ^ 
was eating his dinner, conllfting of half ripe ear 3 
wheat, which he roafted and eat with as good an ‘ft 
petite, as a Turk does his Pillaus; he treated ^ 
guefts with the fame diih, and afterwards g aVe lf5 
milk, warm from the goats, to drink. Roafted 2 '^ 
of wheat are a very ancient diih in the Ean> ^ 
which mention is made in the book of Ruth* g 
Egypt fuch food is much eaten by the poor, v e , f 
the ears of Maize or Turkilh wheat, and of 1 . fl . 
Dura, a kind of Milium. When this food was » r j 
vented in the earlft ages of the world, artvtas 6 
fimple ftate ; yet the cultom is ftill continued in ^ 
nations, where the inhabitants have not, even 3 
