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28 September 1879 — Damascus | |
Sunday. 28th [September 1879]. We made an early start getting up abt 3 & leaving before daylight. When we got to the place from whence the dilligence started we found Ahmed Ayub P. & the troops all drawn up to do us honour & he was profuse in polite speeches & offers to have us escorted &c &c wh proved that he had had a tremendous blowing up from the Sultan for his insulting behaviour on our arrival. We parted with our good old host Said P. the Pasha of Mecca. Wassif accompanied us. We had it cold on starting but the sun rise was lovely and it got hot eno’ as we got on. On nearing Staura we met a lot of Bedouin Arabs—wild looking people who had come out to meet us. They rode round the carriage performing the fantasia throwing the Jereed—& playing all kinds of antics. They accompanied us to the inn at Staura where we found an excellent breakfast. The costumes of the Arabs were most picturesque they wore the Keffieh, some wore coats of chain armour, with cold cloaks or rings over them, bare legs—& some were very good looking with bright eyes & white regular teeth & curly locks coal black. We sent the most of our luggage & servants including Jerry on to Aley in the Lebanon to wait for us & with a cavass, Hill & Giovanni we branched off to Baalbek. We had a very good road to start off with. We were accompanied by Wassif & the engineer of the road a very nice French man. Every effort had been made to finish the carriage road to Baalbek for us & we started in a carriage. At every village the population came out & at one large one the name of wh I forget they pressed round the carriage when we stopped & the women shouted their shrill cry of Lallilah! (the origin of the “Hallelujah”) & some pretty girls actually came up into the carriage. After a couple of hours the road got so bad & we were so shaken that we preferred riding & so we left Hill in the carriage & I mounted a delightful roan pony of Midhat’s which jogged along at a great pace without fatiguing me. The others rode. We got to Baalbek just before sunset– We were accompanied a part of the way by the Bedouins & at every village the men came out on horse back & performed the Fantasia. From Baalbek they also came out to meet us, & our arrival & the time of day was a very picturesque sight. We passed a small temple by the road side & then the great quarries from wh the great temples were built & where there remains a huge monolith wh has never been made use of after it had been prepared– We went to a little inn where we were very comfortable & everything had been prepared beforehand. Sir Alfred & Mr Nicholson met us (having ridden on before us) with long faces. It appears that being hot & thirsty they had asked for some effervescing drink on their arrival & after having had it discovered that they had been given seidlitz powders! While waiting for the luggage & dinner Alice & I were resting in my room when we looked up & saw a great light in Alice’s room & became aware that it was on fire. We rushed in & found the muslin curtain of the window on fire. Alice dragged it down & I threw water & in a minute it was out, but had we left the room & gone down the house must have burnt. Hill arrived a couple of hours later & the carriage was the first that had been seen at Baalbek. We were all tired & went early to bed. | |
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