Some distance beyond the village we pitched our camp beside a small stream.

This night we suffered much from cold and damp.
The inhabitants of Bscharai paid us a visit for the purpose of demanding backsheesh.

We had considerable difficulty in getting rid of them, and were obliged almost to beat them off with sticks to escape from their contagious touch.
The practice of begging is universal in the East.

So soon as an inhabitant comes in sight, he is sure to be holding out his hand.
In those parts where poverty is every where apparent, we cannot wonder at this importunity; but we are justly surprised when we find it in these fruitful valleys, which offer every thing that man can require; where the inhabitants are well clothed, and where their stone dwellings look cheerful and commodious; where corn, the grape- vine, the fig and mulberry tree, and even the valuable potato-plant, which cannot flourish throughout the greater part of Syria on account of the heat and the stony soil, are found in abundance.
Every spot of earth is carefully cultivated and turned to the best account, so that I could have fancied myself among the industrious German peasantry; and yet these free people beg and steal quite as much as the Bedouins and Arabs.

We were obliged to keep a sharp watch on every thing.