t, I went to dine
with the Governor Mohammed 'Abdu'l Hadi; it was a miserable degrading
scene of gorging the pilaff with the hands and squeezing the butter of it
through the fingers, without even water for drink supplied by the
servants. The guests were about a dozen in number, and they were crowded
so closely round the tinned tray as only to admit of their right arms
being thrust between their neighbours, in order to do which the sleeves
had to be tucked back; there was but little conversation beyond that of
the host encouraging the guests to eat more.

Previous to eating, the governor and his younger brother performed their
prayers in brief, after experiencing some difficulty in finding the true
Kebleh direction for prayer, the rest of the company gossiping around
them all the time. Above our heads was suspended a rude copper lamp, and
the terrace just outside the door was occupied by slaves and other
attendants; boughs of adjoining palms and other trees were softly stirred
by an evening breeze, and the imperial moon shone over all.

After washing of hands and a short repose, (the other guests smoking of
course their chibooks and narghilehs, and chatting upon topics of local
interest,) I asked leave, according to Oriental etiquette, to take my
departure.

_Sunday_, 6_th_.--Read the eighth chapter of Acts in Arabic, and some of
our English liturgy in that noble language, with one of my companions. I
feel certain, concerning the dispute whether the word [Greek word]
(desert) in the twenty-sixth verse of the above chapter, refers to the
city or to the road, that the true sense of the passage is this, "Go
toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto
Gaza"--_i.e._, the way which is desert or free from towns and
villages--as in Matt. iii. 1, and other places where the word in question
does not imply the common European idea of any desolate wilderness.

I enjoyed a Sabbath stillness during most of the day, the people having
been instructed that English Christians observe the Lord's-day with more
serious composure than it is the habit of native Christians to do.

In the afternoon, however, the governor came on a visit with a long train
of attendants mounted on beautiful horses, for which, indeed, this
district is famed--there were specimens of Manaki, Jilfi, K'baishan,
Mukhladiyeh, etc., etc. Mohammed, of course, discoursed as well as he
could on European politics, and stayed long.

After his de