they often expose their ancles,) but at Beirout they cover their entire

faces with dark-colored or black veils, so that they look like mummies,

and then expose their breasts to the public. A young gentleman (I

believe he was a Greek,) volunteered to show us around the city, and said

it would afford him great pleasure, because he was studying English and

wanted practice in that language. When we had finished the rounds,

however, he called for remuneration--said he hoped the gentlemen would

give him a trifle in the way of a few piastres (equivalent to a few five

cent pieces.) We did so. The Consul was surprised when he heard it, and

said he knew the young fellow's family very well, and that they were an

old and highly respectable family and worth a hundred and fifty thousand

dollars! Some people, so situated, would have been ashamed of the berth

he had with us and his manner of crawling into it.

At the appointed time our business committee reported, and said all

things were in readdress--that we were to start to-day, with horses, pack

animals, and tents, and go to Baalbec, Damascus, the Sea of Tiberias, and

thence southward by the way of the scene of Jacob's Dream and other

notable Bible localities to Jerusalem--from thence probably to the Dead

Sea, but possibly not--and then strike for the ocean and rejoin the ship

three or four weeks hence at Joppa; terms, five dollars a day apiece, in

gold, and every thing to be furnished by the dragoman. They said we

would lie as well as at a hotel. I had read something like that before,

and did not shame my judgment by believing a word of it. I said nothing,

however, but packed up a blanket and a shawl to sleep in, pipes and

tobacco, two or three woollen shirts, a portfolio, a guide-book, and a

491

The Innocents Abroad