176 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
time in rambling about the Levant, and had just a month or 
six weeks to spare, and it was Palestine now or never. 
Demetrie, a fine looking Greek, who carried every thing 
before him by his splendid Albanian costume, pushed the 
babbling crowd aside, and took possession of us without oppo¬ 
sition. His mustache was the blackest and thickest and most 
conspicuous I ever saw : it had killed half the Arab girls in 
Beirut, and well entitled the bearer to his distinguished repu¬ 
tation as Demetrie, the conqueror of the female sex. But 
Demetrie is also distinguished as a dragoman. He has been 
the guide of English lords and Russian counts without num¬ 
ber ; has made fortunes and spent them with a facility 
unknown to the cool-headed inhabitants of more temperate 
Himes. He has gone through all the varieties of life ; and is 
now proprietor of the principal hotel beyond the walls of 
Beirut; and I can conscientiously say to all travelers that he 
is a prince of a fellow, and that his hotel is the cleanest and 
most commodious in Syria. 
Long before oitr arrival at the hotel' we were beset by 
guides, all eagerly thrusting at us their certificates of charac¬ 
ter. Brief as our experience had been in Oriental life, we 
were discreet enough not to compromise ourselves by accept¬ 
ing the services of any of these ragamuffins, who, to say the 
least of them, were a very shabby-looking set. Besides, we 
were cautioned against them by a very distinguished person¬ 
age who accompanied Demetrie to the steamer, and who 
seemed to be the bosom friend and confidant of Demetrie. 
That personage inspired me with profound sentiments of 
admiration for his character and genius from the moment I 
first saw him. There was a cool air of self-reliance about 
him; an off-hand, dashing style of address in the man ; a 
contempt for all rivalry and opposition; an unmistakable 
superiority over all the other Arabs, that took both myself and 
friend captive at once. We belonged to him ; we were his 
subjects from the very beginning. Demetrie held us by force 
of a fine mustache ; but the great unknown held us by force 
of character. We were at once under mesmeric influence; he 
could have taken us to the public bazaars and sold us without 
