BAALBEK. 
£09 
appeared to commence at the place of our encampment, and 
to continue with an almost unbroken surface to the base of 
the Anti-Lebanon range ; but now it seemed as if we were 
scarcely more than half way down. The road from the ruined 
village is through a very rocky and broken region, studded 
over with patches of scrub-oak bushes, and altogether uncul¬ 
tivated. The only signs of habitation we saw were a few 
miserable huts rudely built of loose stones, the back part be¬ 
ing against a hill or mound of earth, and the front barely 
high enough to admit of a doorway. These wretched hovels 
are inhabited by a swarthy and half-savage race of Arabs, 
who live on the flesh and milk of goats, many flocks of which 
we saw browsing among the rocks. In fact, goats, sheep, 
dogs, men, women, and children seem to live together upon 
terms of perfect equality. They were the most uncivilized 
people we had yet seen, and we had seen a good many on the 
road from Tripoli. 
It was evident that but few travelers in our style of cos¬ 
tume had been in the habit of passing, from the apparent as¬ 
tonishment which our appearance created. Some women at 
one of the huts laughed so immoderately that we were in¬ 
duced to ask them, through our dragoman, what was the oc¬ 
casion of their mirth. Why, said they, we never saw people 
before with saucepans on their heads for turbans. Do the 
Christians all wear saucepans ? The shape of our trowsers 
also afforded much merriment. “ Don’t you burst when you 
sit down?” they asked, and this sally of wit was so irresist¬ 
ible that we could hear their shouts of laughter long after we 
had passed. Following for several hours down the course of a 
small stream, we at Jength reach in good earnest the plain of 
Bukaa. This magnificent valley stretches on the left, as we 
faced Baalbek, as far as we could see ; on the right it seem¬ 
ed to merge into a sea of bright water studded with islands, 
the reflection of which appeared in its surface as distinctly as 
if it was in reality a sea or lake, reminding me forcibly of 
the Salinas plains in California. In fact there was much in 
the general character of this part of Syria to bring up remin¬ 
iscences of California. The two great ranges of mountains, 
