I do not know, but I think they used that tank between the rooms to draw

drinking water from; that did not occur to me, however, until I had

dipped my baking head far down into its cool depths. I thought of it

then, and superb as the bath was, I was sorry I had taken it, and was

about to go and explain to the landlord. But a finely curled and scented

poodle dog frisked up and nipped the calf of my leg just then, and before

I had time to think, I had soused him to the bottom of the tank, and when

I saw a servant coming with a pitcher I went off and left the pup trying

to climb out and not succeeding very well. Satisfied revenge was all I

needed to make me perfectly happy, and when I walked in to supper that

first night in Damascus I was in that condition. We lay on those divans

a long time, after supper, smoking narghilies and long-stemmed chibouks,

and talking about the dreadful ride of the day, and I knew then what I

had sometimes known before--that it is worth while to get tired out,

because one so enjoys resting afterward.

In the morning we sent for donkeys. It is worthy of note that we had to

send for these things. I said Damascus was an old fossil, and she is.

Any where else we would have been assailed by a clamorous army of

donkey-drivers, guides, peddlers and beggars--but in Damascus they so

hate the very sight of a foreign Christian that they want no intercourse

whatever with him; only a year or two ago, his person was not always

safe in Damascus streets. It is the most fanatical Mohammedan purgatory

out of Arabia. Where you see one green turban of a Hadji elsewhere (the

honored sign that my lord has made the pilgrimage to Mecca,) I think you

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The Innocents Abroad