ABSTRACT
Small mud villages are scattered upon the grassy level. The inhabitants are very interesting to look at, tall, very handsome, men, women, and children, strong, good-tempered, healthy, and intelligent, also well dressed. They wear long robes of most brilliant colours, bright red predominant. Even if a man is in tatters, his rags were crimson. The better sort have embroidered coats and earrings (not in the lobe of the ear, but in the small projecting flesh), and their faces were tattooed. The plain of the Abana is considerably lower than that of the Pharpar, and a canal leads from the Pharpar to the Damascus plain. In one place it is crossed by a Roman bridge, so it must have existed in Roman times. A chain of far distant pools shone with light to the south— Bala Lake, and the long streams of Nimrim—while the oak forests darkened the way to Bozrah.
