while behind us the mountains, rich in vineyards,
olive-plantations, and pine-woods, stretched downward to the sea-
shore. We had mounted to such a height, that the clouds soaring
above the sea and the town of Beyrout lay far beneath us, shrouding
the city from our gaze.

Vineyards are very common on these mountains. The vines do not,
however, cling round trees for support, nor are they trained up
poles as in Austria; they grow almost wild, the stem shooting
upwards to a short distance from the ground, towards which the vine
then bends. The wine made on these mountains is of excellent
quality, rather sweet in flavour, of a golden-yellow colour, and
exceedingly fiery.

We still continued to climb, without experiencing much inconvenience
from the heat, up a fearful dizzy path, over rocks and stones, and
past frightful chasms. Our leathern bottles were here useless to
us, for we had no lack of water; from every crevice in the rocks a
clear crystal flood gushed forth, in which the gorgeously-coloured
masses of stone were beautifully mirrored.

After a very fatiguing ride of five hours we at length reached the
ridge of the Anti-Libanus, where we found a khan, and allowed
ourselves an hour's rest. The view from this point is very
splendid. The two loftiest mountain-ridges of Lebanon and Anti-
Libanus enclose between them a valley which may be about six miles
long, and ten or twelve broad. Our way led across the mountain's
brow and down into this picturesque valley, through which we
journeyed for some miles to the village of Maschdalanscher, in the
neighbourhood of which place we pitched our tents.

It is, of course, seldom that a European woman is seen in these
regions, and thus I seemed to be quite a spectacle to the
inhabitants; at every place where we halted many women and children
would gather round me, busily feeling my dress, putting on my straw
hat, and looking at me from all sides, while they endeavoured to
converse with me by signs. If they happened to have any thing
eatable at hand, such as cucumbers, fruits, or articles of that
description, they never failed to offer them with the greatest good-
nature, and seemed highly rejoiced when I accepted some. On the
present evening several of these people were assembled round me, and
I had an opportunity of noticing the costume of this mountain tribe.
Excepting the head-dress, it is the same as that worn throughout all
Palestine, and indeed in the whole of