212 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
power, and his mandates are disregarded. These village 
governments are in fact petty republics, though nominally 
founded and conducted on the principle of hereditary despot¬ 
isms. This has reference, however, only to their municipal 
economy ; they are all under the sway of the Pashas who 
govern the large cities in virtue of the powers given them 
from the Sublime Porte. Strictly as the women were watched, 
they could not restrain their curiosity, but crowded around us 
the moment we entered the village. Their sovereign lords 
now and then sharply reproved them, and added force to the 
reproof, when it was too often disregarded, by a sharp slap 
on the side of the head. As usual our dragoman went to 
the best looking hut, where he procured us a tolerably clean 
mat, and spread it near the door on a sort of mud seat. Here 
we were surrounded by all the idlers in the village. Our 
manner of eating excited the most undisguised astonishment, 
especially the use of knives and forks, which from the chat¬ 
ter of tongues we imagined to be the subject of much in¬ 
teresting speculation. Every mouthful was watched from 
its incipient carving to the cutting upon the plate, the trip on 
the fork to the mouth, its disappearance and mastication 
there, and final passage down the throat, and presumed 
lodgment in the stomach. The salting and peppering, the 
nice turning over with the fork, seemed to be regarded as a 
miracle of dexterity. Ill suppressed Mashallas were heard 
whenever two pieces could be pinned together and made to 
disappear at the same time. Yusef was greatly mortified at 
this annoyance, and told us it was not the Arab fashion, but 
that these poor devils were no better than Kelb , or dogs, and 
had never seen Christians eat before. He took particular 
pains to assure us that respectable Arabs, whom he claimed 
as his countrymen, had as much delicacy about looking at 
people while eating as any Europeans. 
Before reaching the village, we had an indistinct view of 
the columns of the grand Temple of the Sun ; but it was not 
until we had approached to within a few miles that the whole 
magnificent pile of ruins and columns loomed up in distinct 
outline against the slopes of Anti-Lebanon. 
