For a part of two days I wound under the base of the snow-crowned Djibel el Sheik, and then entered upon a vast and desolate1 plain, rarely pierced at intervals2 by some sort of withered3 stem. The earth in its length and its breadth and all the deep universe of sky was steeped in light and heat. On I rode through the fire, but long before evening came there were straining eyes that saw, and joyful4 voices that announced, the sight of Shaum Shereef — the “holy,” the “blessed” Damascus.
But that which at last I reached with my longing5 eyes was not a speck6 in the horizon, gradually expanding to a group of roofs and walls, but a long, low line of blackest green, that ran right across in the distance from east to west. And this, as I approached, grew deeper, grew wavy7 in its outline. Soon forest trees shot up before my eyes, and robed their broad shoulders so freshly, that all the throngs8 of olives as they rose into view looked sad in their proper dimness. There were even now no houses to see, but only the minarets9 peered out from the midst of shade into the glowing sky, and bravely touched the sun. There seemed to be here no mere10 city, but rather a province wide and rich, that bounded the torrid waste.
Until about a year, or two years, before the time of my going there Damascus had kept up so much of the old bigot zeal11 against Christians12, or rather, against Europeans, that no one dressed as a Frank could have dared to show himself in the streets; but the firmness and temper of Mr. Farren, who hoisted14 his flag in the city as consul-general for the district, had soon put an end to all intolerance of Englishmen. Damascus was safer than Oxford15. 44 When I entered the city in my usual dress there was but one poor fellow that wagged his tongue, and him, in the open streets, Dthemetri horsewhipped. During my stay I went wherever I chose, and attended the public baths without molestation16. Indeed, my relations with the pleasanter portion of the Mahometan population were upon a much better footing here than at most other places.
In the principal streets of Damascus there is a path for foot-passengers, which is raised, I think, a foot or two above the bridle-road. Until the arrival of the British consul-general none but a Mussulman had been permitted to walk upon the upper way. Mr. Farren would not, of course, suffer that the humiliation17 of any such exclusion18 should be submitted to by an Englishman, and I always walked upon the raised path as free and unmolested as if I had been in Pall19 Mall. The old usage was, however, maintained with as much strictness as ever against the Christian13 Rayahs and Jews: not one of them could have set his foot upon the privileged path without endangering his life.
I was lounging one day, I remember, along “the paths of the faithful,” when a Christian Rayah from the bridle-road below saluted20 me with such earnestness, and craved21 so anxiously to speak and be spoken to, that he soon brought me to a halt. He had nothing to tell, except only the glory and exultation23 with which he saw a fellow-Christian stand level with the imperious Mussulmans. Perhaps he had been absent from the place for some time, for otherwise I hardly know how it could have happened that my exaltation was the first instance he had seen. His joy was great. So strong and strenuous24 was England (Lord Palmerston reigned25 in those days), that it was a pride and delight for a Syrian Christian to look up and say that the Englishman’s faith was his too. If I was vexed26 at all that I could not give the man a lift and shake hands with him on level ground, there was no alloy27 to his pleasure. He followed me on, not looking to his own path, but keeping his eyes on me. He saw, as he thought, and said (for he came with me on to my quarters), the period of the Mahometan’s absolute ascendency, the beginning of the Christian’s. He had so closely associated the insulting privilege of the path with actual dominion28, that seeing it now in one instance abandoned, he looked for the quick coming of European troops. His lips only whispered, and that tremulously, but his fiery29 eyes spoke22 out their triumph in long and loud hurrahs: “I, too, am a Christian. My foes30 are the foes of the English. We are all one people, and Christ is our King.”
If I poorly deserved, yet I liked this claim of brotherhood31. Not all the warnings which I heard against their rascality32 could hinder me from feeling kindly33 towards my fellow-Christians in the East. English travellers, from a habit perhaps of depreciating34 sectarians in their own country, are apt to look down upon the Oriental Christians as being “dissenters” from the established religion of a Mahometan empire. I never did thus. By a natural perversity35 of disposition36, which my nursemaids called contrariness, I felt the more strongly for my creed37 when I saw it despised among men. I quite tolerated the Christianity of Mahometan countries, notwithstanding its humble39 aspect and the damaged character of its followers40. I went further and extended some sympathy towards those who, with all the claims of superior intellect, learning, and industry, were kept down under the heel of the Mussulmans by reason of their having OUR faith. I heard, as I fancied, the faint echo of an old crusader’s conscience, that whispered and said, “Common cause!” The impulse was, as you may suppose, much too feeble to bring me into trouble; it merely influenced my actions in a way thoroughly41 characteristic of this poor sluggish42 century, that is, by making me speak almost as civilly to the followers of Christ as I did to their Mahometan foes.
This “holy” Damascus, this “earthly paradise” of the Prophet, so fair to the eyes that he dared not trust himself to tarry in her blissful shades, she is a city of hidden palaces, of copses and gardens, and fountains and bubbling streams. The juice of her life is the gushing44 and ice-cold torrent45 that tumbles from the snowy sides of Anti–Lebanon. Close along on the river’s edge, through seven sweet miles of rustling46 boughs48 and deepest shade, the city spreads out her whole length. As a man falls flat, face forward on the brook49, that he may drink and drink again, so Damascus, thirsting for ever, lies down with her lips to the stream and clings to its rushing waters.
The chief places of public amusement, or rather, of public relaxation50, are the baths and the great cafe; this last, which is frequented at night by most of the wealthy men, and by many of the humbler sort, consists of a number of sheds, very simply framed and built in a labyrinth51 of running streams, which foam52 and roar on every side. The place is lit up in the simplest manner by numbers of small pale lamps strung upon loose cords, and so suspended from branch to branch, that the light, though it looks so quiet amongst the darkening foliage53, yet leaps and brightly flashes as it falls upon the troubled waters. All around, and chiefly upon the very edge of the torrents54, groups of people are tranquilly55 seated. They all drink coffee, and inhale56 the cold fumes57 of the narghile; they talk rather gently the one to the other, or else are silent. A father will sometimes have two or three of his boys around him; but the joyousness58 of an Oriental child is all of the sober sort, and never disturbs the reigning59 calm of the land.
It has been generally understood, I believe, that the houses of Damascus are more sumptuous60 than those of any other city in the East. Some of these, said to be the most magnificent in the place, I had an opportunity of seeing.
Every rich man’s house stands detached from its neighbours at the side of a garden, and it is from this cause no doubt that the city (severely menaced by prophecy) has hitherto escaped destruction. You know some parts of Spain, but you have never, I think, been in Andalusia: if you had, I could easily show you the interior of a Damascene house by referring you to the Alhambra or Alcanzar of Seville. The lofty rooms are adorned61 with a rich inlaying of many colours and illuminated62 writing on the walls. The floors are of marble. One side of any room intended for noonday retirement63 is generally laid open to a quadrangle, in the centre of which there dances the jet of a fountain. There is no furniture that can interfere64 with the cool, palace-like emptiness of the apartments. A divan65 (which is a low and doubly broad sofa) runs round the three walled sides of the room. A few Persian carpets (which ought to be called Persian rugs, for that is the word which indicates their shape and dimensions) are sometimes thrown about near the divan; they are placed without order, the one partly lapping over the other, and thus disposed, they give to the room an appearance of uncaring luxury; except these (of which I saw few, for the time was summer, and fiercely hot), there is nothing to obstruct66 the welcome air, and the whole of the marble floor from one divan to the other, and from the head of the chamber67 across to the murmuring fountain, is thoroughly open and free.
So simple as this is Asiatic luxury! The Oriental is not a contriving68 animal; there is nothing intricate in his magnificence. The impossibility of handing down property from father to son for any long period consecutively69 seems to prevent the existence of those traditions by which, with us, the refined modes of applying wealth are made known to its inheritors. We know that in England a newly-made rich man cannot, by taking thought and spending money, obtain even the same-looking furniture as a gentleman. The complicated character of an English establishment allows room for subtle distinctions between that which is comme il faut, and that which is not. All such refinements70 are unknown in the East; the Pasha and the peasant have the same tastes. The broad cold marble floor, the simple couch, the air freshly waving through a shady chamber, a verse of the Koran emblazoned on the wall, the sight and the sound of falling water, the cold fragrant71 smoke of the narghile, and a small collection of wives and children in the inner apartments — these, the utmost enjoyments72 of the grandee73, are yet such as to be appreciable74 by the humblest Mussulman in the empire.
But its gardens are the delight, the delight and the pride of Damascus. They are not the formal parterres which you might expect from the Oriental taste; they rather bring back to your mind the memory of some dark old shrubbery in our northern isle75, that has been charmingly un-“kept up” for many and many a day. When you see a rich wilderness76 of wood in decent England, it is like enough that you see it with some soft regrets. The puzzled old woman at the lodge77 can give small account of “the family.” She thinks it is “Italy” that has made the whole circle of her world so gloomy and sad. You avoid the house in lively dread78 of a lone79 housekeeper80, but you make your way on by the stables; you remember that gable with all its neatly81 nailed trophies82 of fitchets and hawks83 and owls84, now slowly falling to pieces; you remember that stable, and that — but the doors are all fastened that used to be standing38 ajar, the paint of things painted is blistered85 and cracked, grass grows in the yard; just there, in October mornings, the keeper would wait with the dogs and the guns — no keeper now; you hurry away, and gain the small wicket that used to open to the touch of a lightsome hand — it is fastened with a padlock (the only new looking thing), and is stained with thick, green damp; you climb it, and bury yourself in the deep shade, and strive but lazily with the tangling86 briars, and stop for long minutes to judge and determine whether you will creep beneath the long boughs and make them your archway, or whether perhaps you will lift your heel and tread them down under foot. Long doubt, and scarcely to be ended till you wake from the memory of those days when the path was clear, and chase that phantom87 of a muslin sleeve that once weighed warm upon your arm.
Wild as that, the nighest woodland of a deserted88 home in England, but without its sweet sadness, is the sumptuous garden of Damascus. Forest trees, tall and stately enough if you could see their lofty crests89, yet lead a tussling life of it below, with their branches struggling against strong numbers of bushes and wilful90 shrubs91. The shade upon the earth is black as night. High, high above your head, and on every side all down to the ground, the thicket92 is hemmed93 in and choked up by the interlacing boughs that droop94 with the weight of roses, and load the slow air with their damask breath. 45 There are no other flowers. Here and there, there are patches of ground made clear from the cover, and these are either carelessly planted with some common and useful vegetable, or else are left free to the wayward ways of Nature, and bear rank weeds, moist-looking and cool to the eyes, and freshening the sense with their earthy and bitter fragrance95. There is a lane opened through the thicket, so broad in some places that you can pass along side by side; in some so narrow (the shrubs are for ever encroaching) that you ought, if you can, to go on the first and hold back the bough47 of the rose-tree. And through this wilderness there tumbles a loud rushing stream, which is halted at last in the lowest corner of the garden, and there tossed up in a fountain by the side of the simple alcove96. This is all.
Never for an instant will the people of Damascus attempt to separate the idea of bliss43 from these wild gardens and rushing waters. Even where your best affections are concerned, and you, prudent97 preachers, “hold hard” and turn aside when they come near the mysteries of the happy state, and we (prudent preachers too), we will hush98 our voices, and never reveal to finite beings the joys of the “earthly paradise.”
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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wavy
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| adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的 | |
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throngs
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| n.人群( throng的名词复数 )v.成群，挤满( throng的第三人称单数 ) | |
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minarets
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| n.（清真寺旁由报告祈祷时刻的人使用的）光塔( minaret的名词复数 ) | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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molestation
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| n.骚扰，干扰，调戏；折磨 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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pall
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| v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕 | |
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saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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alloy
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| n.合金，(金属的)成色 | |
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dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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rascality
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| 流氓性，流氓集团 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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depreciating
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| v.贬值，跌价，减价( depreciate的现在分词 )；贬低，蔑视，轻视 | |
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perversity
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| n.任性；刚愎自用 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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42
sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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50
relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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tranquilly
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| adv. 宁静地 | |
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inhale
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| v.吸入(气体等)，吸(烟) | |
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fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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joyousness
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| 快乐，使人喜悦 | |
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reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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divan
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| n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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obstruct
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| v.阻隔，阻塞(道路、通道等)；n.阻碍物，障碍物 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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contriving
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| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的现在分词 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
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consecutively
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| adv.连续地 | |
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refinements
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| n.（生活）风雅；精炼( refinement的名词复数 )；改良品；细微的改良；优雅或高贵的动作 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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enjoyments
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| 愉快( enjoyment的名词复数 )； 令人愉快的事物； 享有； 享受 | |
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grandee
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| n.贵族；大公 | |
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appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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81
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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82
trophies
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| n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖 | |
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83
hawks
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| 鹰( hawk的名词复数 )； 鹰派人物，主战派人物 | |
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84
owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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85
blistered
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| adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂 | |
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86
tangling
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| （使）缠结， （使）乱作一团( tangle的现在分词 ) | |
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87
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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wilful
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| adj.任性的，故意的 | |
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91
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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92
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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95
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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96
alcove
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| n.凹室 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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