told me that he was induced to sleep in one of the houses, and in the middle of the night woke in a fright, imagining that he had been seized with fever, but after a little consideration, he found that the heat which he experienced had been caused by the bites of innumerable fleas. This night we encamped in the open country, far from any village, and had to draw on our stores for the night's repast. There was good pasturage for our animals, but I was afraid to let mine go far from the tent, as that part of the country was none of the safest; at least, so said some men who were engaged in the neighbourhood in guarding their crops from the depredations of wild boars. They went so far as to declare that they saw armed men roaming about in the neighbourhood, and my muleteer asserted that he had seen some sitting for a long time near my tent. However, he went off to feed his mules at some little distance, and left me and my servant to take care of ourselves. Knowing that I could only watch part of the night, and that my servant would not keep awake during the other part, I made a virtue of necessity, and piling the luggage in the

centre of the tent, got into bed, and did not awake till the morning of the next day, which, after some six hours' riding, saw us at Antioch.

CHAPTER III.

ANTIOCH-FELLOW LODGERS-MURDER OF PADRE-RENEWAL OF ACQUAINTANCE-ANSYREEH GEOGRAPHER-ANSYREEH LYING -THE DEACON-CHRISTIAN LEGEND-WHISPERINGS OF ANSYREEH-VISIT TO PATRIARCH-ANTIOCH NOBILITY-BIGOTRY OF THE MAHOMETANS- OPPRESSION OF THE ANSYREEHPROSPECTS OF A SCHOOL

CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURARLE TO

ITS FORMATION CHEAPNESS OF PROVISIONS - -BEAUTY OF SCENERY AND CLIMATE.

ON my return to Antioch, I received intelligence by letter, from Ladikeeh, that the conscription in the mountains would not be over for a month or two, and advising me to wait till it was completed before I made my visit. I therefore determined to remain where I was for that time, both because the climate of Antioch was far preferable to that of Ladikeeh, and because there was a large number of Ansyreeh in the town and neighbourhood. As, for many reasons, it was undesirable to remain in my tent for so long a period, my first step was to look out for a house, and I

quickly procured one into which I removed my luggage and self. It had been unoccupied for some three months since the death of its owner, and had rather a melancholy appearance at first sight, but one soon got reconciled to it.

The reader must not suppose when it is said that the house was unoccupied, that anything more is meant than that it was unoccupied by human beings; with other beings it was thickly populated, and of visitors there were plenty.

In the first place there were the ants. The house consisted of one large room with several windows without glass, a tolerably large paved court, some dilapidated outbuildings, and a long passage leading from the court to the street, for the house was perfectly secluded. My camp stool had become ricketty, from exposure to the sun, and my light iron bedstead had never been made to sit upon. I spread my carpet on the earth floor, and placing my mattress on it, sat à la Orientale. Now the ants had been in possession long before me, and did not confine themselves to the court, but entered at the several windows, and made roads for themselves across the floor and up the opposite walls, on which they travelled night and day. It was in vain that we en

deavoured to intercept the communication, by placing ashes, &c., across their path. It was only giving them a little more trouble, without in any way benefiting ourselves. At last they had the impertinence to establish a road over my pillow, but as that was removed continually, they could not maintain their position.

There were no less than five species, forming quite a study for a naturalist. A large black ant, which confined its operations principally to walking off with the horse's barley, while he was engaged in eating it; a large red ditto, called the Persian ant, which seemed of a weakly constitution, and appeared but in small numbers; a small black ditto, with largish head and short thick body, whose bite was so venomous that my servant, having happened to sleep outside one night, was ready to cry from the pain of their bites when he awoke; a small black ditto, with longer and thinner body than the other, which was harmless to our persons, but then it carried our cupboards by storm, one after another, till at last it discovered and entered the last refuge of our eatables; lastly, a very minute red ditto, which seemed to come from nowhere, and covered the sugar, &c., with its swarms. Not less