[168] "The number of lizards I saw one day in the great court of the
Temple of the Sun at Balbec amounted to many thousands; the ground, the
walls, and stones of the ruined buildings, were covered with
them."--_Bruce_.
[169] "The Syrinx or Pan's pipes is still a pastoral instrument in
Syria."--_Russel_.
[170] "Wild bees, frequent in Palestine, in hollow trunks or branches of
trees, and the clefts of rocks. Thus it is said (Psalm lxxxi.), _'honey
out of the stony rock.'_"--_Burder's_ Oriental Customs.
[171] "The River Jordan is on both sides beset with little, thick, and
pleasant woods, among which thousands of nightingales warble all
together."_--Thevenot_.
[172] The Temple of the Sun at Balbec.
[173] "You behold there a considerable number of a remarkable species of
beautiful insects, the elegance of whose appearance and their attire
procured for them the name of Damsels.--_Sonnini_.
[174] "Such Turks as at the common hours of prayer are on the road, or so
employed as not to find convenience to attend the mosques, are still
obliged to execute that duty; nor are they ever known to fail, whatever
business they are then about, but pray immediately when the hour alarms
them, whatever they are about, in that very place they chance to stand on;
insomuch that when a janissary, whom you have to guard you up and down the
city, hears the notice which is given him from the steeples, he will turn
about, stand still, and beckon with his hand, to tell his charge he must
have patience for awhile; when, taking out his handkerchief, he spreads it
on the ground, sits cross-legged thereupon, and says his prayers, though
in the open market, which, having ended he leaps briskly up, salutes the
person whom he undertook to convey, and renews his journey with the mild
expression of _Ghell yelinnum ghell_, or Come, dear, follow me.
Pages:
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891