258 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
away in the rooms and out of the rooms; in short, without 
going into particulars, the whole was quite Lalla Rookhish— 
that is to say, like all things Oriental, the first sight was full 
of enchantment. It was so strange and showy, every thing 
so fashioned out to captivate the senses ; the rooms extending 
clear up to the top of the house, with domes above ; the walls 
cornered and curved into all sorts of shapes, and painted with 
brilliant colors, in stripes and grotesque devices; marble 
floors, alcoves for the beds, running gauze curtains drawn 
across, to keep off the spray of the fountains; divans to lounge 
and smoke upon, with a pleasant mingling of the useful in the 
way of narguillas and chiboucks. Oh, you have no idea how 
luxurious it was ! Such was the effeet of these glowing feat¬ 
ures of Eastern life upon my nervous system, aided by two 
cups of excellent black tea from a box presented to the host, 
as he solemnly declared, by Mi-lord Bath, that I lost all sense 
of the dignity of Oriental travel in the enthusiasm of the occa¬ 
sion, and gave vent to my joy in such extraordinary flourishes 
on the flute as to arouse every smoking Arab and son of an 
Arab about the establishment. They pronounced it, as I 
solemnly aver on the responsibility of our dragoman, the 
most tahib music that ever was heard within the walls of 
Damascus, not excepting the famous dead march of the 
Turkish band, consisting of three notes, with variations. 
That beautiful air, called Ezepa Kouna by the Arabs, and so 
much admired by them whenever I played it, rolled magnifi¬ 
cently round the dome of our chamber, and reverberated with 
ten-fold effect throughout the court, to the great astonish¬ 
ment of two English gentlemen who had just returned from 
Palmyra, and who had probably never heard it before, or 
only knew it by the vulgar name of Zip Coon. My friends— 
the Captain and Southerner—were quite charmed, but none 
so delighted as I was myself. We all declared it was a 
glorious life, this riding, and smoking, and fluting our way 
through the land of turbans, and went to bed as jolly as pos¬ 
sible, to dream our first dream in Damascus. 
What we dreamt it would be impossible to say with any 
degree of accuracy. If I remember right, the English cap- 
