THE SYRIAN DRAGOMAN’. 
179 
expected to know all about the country, and something more. 
He is responsible for the name of every village and town on 
the route; he is responsible for every assertion made by- 
Robinson and other authorities, and if there be any incon¬ 
gruity in the name or location, it is the dragoman who is 
compelled to answer for it; he is responsible for every moral 
and physical defect in the horses and mules; for every shower 
of rain that interrupts the journey; for every headache and 
fit of indigestion suffered by any member of the party ; for the 
amount of fleas that infest every stopping-place ; for the 
sterile and unsatisfactory character of the scenery in certain 
stages of the journey ; for the roughness of the roads; for the 
uncivilized appearance of the Arabs throughout Syria; for 
the bad state of repair in which the bridges are kept; for 
every extreme of heat and cold; and all the discomforts of 
the climate and country; in short the dragoman is responsi¬ 
ble for every thing. He must be a man of courage, of energy, 
of patience, of good temper, of intelligence, of learning, of 
every thing under the sun, moon, and stars. He must know 
all that the Howadji doesn’t know, and all that the Howadji 
ought to know ; his brains must act for himself and the 
Howadji, and for the muleteers, and for the horses, mules 
donkeys, and every living thing in the company; if they don’t 
they are very poor brains indeed. He must be dragoman, 
tutor, lexicon, valet, cook, caterer, comforter, warrior—all in 
one ; always ready for duty, night and day, never tired, never 
at fault in any emergency. In effect, the dragoman has a 
pretty busy life of it, and Yusuf is a good specimen of the best 
class. If he didn’t know and do all these things, he was 
never at a loss to know and do something else equally satis¬ 
factory ; and in the end we were forced to admit that his 
resources were unlimited. When he forgot the name of a 
village or important ruin, he invented a name that fully an¬ 
swered our purpose ; when it rained he proved to us that 
rain was necessary in order to clear the atmosphere and 
make it healthy ; when there were no robbers, he showed us 
what he would do if there were robbers ; when we were dis¬ 
satisfied in any way, he was more dissatisfied with the cause 
