ACRE. Ill 
Avery extraordinary accident happened upon chap. 
the third day after our arrival, which had like ^ 
to have put an end to all our pursuits in this 
or in any other part of the world. We had 
been in the morning to visit Djezzar, and 
had passed the day in viewing the Bezesten 
(a covered place for shops, very inferior to that 
of Constantinople or of Mosco?v), the Custom-house, 
and some other objects of curiosity in the place. 
Signor Bertocino, Interpreter to the Pasha, and 
the Imperial Consul, Signor Catafago, came to 
dine with us on board the Romulus. In the 
evening we accompanied them on shore, and 
took some coffee in the house of the Consul, 
where vv^e were introduced to the ladies of his 
family. We were amused by seeing his wife, 
a very beautiful woman, sitting cross-legged bv 
us upon the divan of his apartment, and smoking 
tobacco with a pipe six feet in length. Her 
eye-lashes, as well as those of all the other 
women, were tinged with a black powder made 
of the sulphuret of antimony; having by no 
means a cleanly appearance, although it be con- 
sidered as essential to the decorations of a 
woman of rank in Syria, as her ear-rings, or 
the golden cinctures of her ankles. Dark streaks 
were also penciled, from the corners of her 
eyes, across her temples. This curious practice 
instantly brought to our recollection certain 
