The Abana—Sources—Abana and Pharpar—Their Names—Canalettes —Start on Abana—Change to the Taura—How to do it—Pleasant Toil—Procession.

The Mississippi flows into the Missouri, but as the former was probably seen first, it gives its name to the united stream, though the Missouri is the longest and is also the largest of the two at their junction. The splendid gushing forth of the Fiji under the cliff at the end of the Antilebanon is at once the most striking and most copious source of the Abana, and passes straight through Damascus, the oldest inhabited city in the world, and so we may linger on its wavelets with the deep interest aroused by the far gone past, while telling how the stream flows now as newly seen. After a careful reading of what is written by the best authorities upon this subject, it seems plain that the Barada is the old Abana, and the Awaj is the Pharpar, which latter name in Chaldee means “crooked,” as Awaj does in Arabic.