, 1860-10-12
From the London News.
Life in Syria.

four terrestrial paridses Of Mohammed.
Not Anew English travellers have seen it
from the Salahieh by evening light T; and
they are probably all agreed that nowhere
on earth have they beheld q scene SO love
ly. The dense but varied verdrre which
lies in the midst of the desert, an oasis Of
thirty miles round the creamy city peep
ing out of it-sending up its forty minnrets
among the slim polars, and disclosing little
bridges where the rivers of Damascus,
Pharpar and Abana wind among the thick
cts Of fruit trees and Towering shrubs; the
villages standing in and out of the verge Of
tho towering forest the yellow plain
stretching around, with its shifting sbad-
ows and islands of mist, and the red and
purple hills which frame the whole this
picture may well be beloved by the Mussul-
man as the prophets favorite and the sui
tana of cities. But, once within the gates,
all is changed. The gaiety, which is the
great external feature, the harmony and
brightness, which exhilirate more than
they melt the heart, have vanished.
Like Syria generally, Damascus is full of
ruins which tell of religious strife. Here
we pass mosque now rooAess, where the
carved stonework lies hidden in the long
grass, and the water runs to waste from
the broken tank; and there we may see by
little climbing, the shattered portico of
the once grand Christian cathedral, round
whose broken columns the Arabs have
built their mud novels. The Jews have
their Holy Places where Elisha annointed
the King of Syria, and where the law was
preserved when Jerusalem fell
The old heather faints of Syria are also
represented there All have ruins to show;
and oil cherish deep resentments, imputing
the ruin to one another. This wrath en-
ters into the whole life Of Damascus, for
the newcomers are compelled to take it in
to account in all their concerns. The
doom of blood-fued hangs over every rela-
tion and every transaction Of life there ;
and every class of believers calumniates
every other All Christians regard all
Mohammedaps as impatiently waiting for
the race of infdels;" the Mohammedans
point with disgust to the idols of the Greek
Church and the stupid legends of the Latin
monks.
These last tell travellers every Holy
week that Jews in the next street crnci6ed
child the week before. The Jews shrug
their shoulders at Christianity being called
by the missionaries a religion of peace,
while the Maronites, who are in communion
with Rome, cherish their institution Of the
avenger Of blood as the dearest part Of
their religion While their women and
peasants are at work in the fields and
groves, their monks are poring over Thos.
Aquinas In the converts, and kindling up
the scorn of their dependents against the
Druses, who keep up heather mysteries,
and make a Messiah, and even god, Of
the Hakim, whom Jew and Christian alb
hor.
Amidst this stormy chaos Of religious
passions, life is neither tranquil nor gay in
the first Of earthly paradises. Sometimes
the Jews are tortured to death; sometimes
the Christians are shut up in their dwell
ings sometimes Mussulman is left dead
in the street, and very often there are
skirmishes on the mountain roads when
Druses and Maronites encounter. In 60
ing along the streets men glance before
and behind; every group in the enyirons is
watched every stranger who crosses o
bridge is inspected; every evening party is
conducted with caution and tact to obViate
offence, and broken up at the first ruffie.
This is an epitome of life everywhere in
the Holy Lands Of the earth, where the
great faiths of mankind have for the most
part originated, and where they are now
collected as if on purpose to jar. 1t is be-
lieved in Syria that there are mountain re-
cesses where BaaI and Ashtaroth are still
worshiped. The reflection of the 6re-wor-
ship is still seen, we are told, in certain
gorges Of the Lebanon aud Jezebel her
self and the priests at Baalbec were not
more devoted sun-worshippers than some
who are now watching the slaughter in
Colo Syria from their perches on either
hand.
COL Forbes, an old comrade Of Garibal-
| Il; hoe hepn onnointed rommandant of the