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produce. This produce consists of white and yellow silks, which are sold at Beirout, some corn and wines, which, for want of demand, are sent as presents to their benefactors, or consumed in the house. Formerly the monks abstained from drinking wine, but they have gradually relaxed from their primitive austerity: they have also begun to allow the use of tobacco and coffee, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the older monks. The same regulations are observed in all the houses of the Order, which about thirty years since amounted to twelve: the whole number of monks is estimated at one hundred and fifty.

THE GREAT TEMPLE OF BALBEC.

The facilities and conveniences of an Eastern journey are greatly increased within the last few years: the resting-places at night are no longer so precarious or repulsive; travellers, formerly "few and far between," now arrive annually and numerously; the muleteers, &c. find it their interest to use greater speed, and the scheichs of the villages to be more liberal and provident in their accommodations. The distance from Beirout to Balbec occupied two days; it is now only a long day's journey. By starting very early from the coast, the ruins may be reached at night. When the writer was there, his little party were the only visitors; and this was no slight luxury. Now the tourist may lay his account with meeting natives of every part of the civilized globe-the American from Massachusetts and New York, with probably his wife and children, a family party; the Russian, from his cold land; the German, the Pole, and the Greek; and if he cannot see Balbec in the majesty of her desert solitude, he will have society, tents, watch-fires, mingled voices, many tastes and imaginations in wild contrast. The expense, also, of this journey is greatly diminished; the exactions levied by the petty governors and chiefs, and the necessary presents made them, are moderated, and in some places entirely done away with, under the rule of Ibrahim Pasha. If the traveller does not bring introductions to the consuls of the cities or towns, he can procure comfortable lodgings at Beirout, Tripoli, or Damascus, which are not expensive; the monasteries, which must often be his home, are still less so; and the khans, in which bad weather, or their peculiar position, will sometimes oblige him to stay a few days, are the cheapest of all. It is unfortunate, that at the two most celebrated ruins of the East, Balbec and Palmyra, there is little save discomfort and discourtesy to be met with. The time will, perhaps, come, if the stream of travelling continues to roll on, that a little Syrian hotel will be established during the season near Balbec: it is vain to expect any similar attempt at the Palmyrene temple, as the Arabs would never suffer one stone to be laid on another; their monopoly of travellers is exclusive and intolerable, but it cannot be resisted. To whatever deities these temples of Heliopolis may have been dedicated, or at whatever period they might have been built, they bear ample testimony to the prosperity and wealth of the city they adorned. This prosperity Balbec could only derive from commercial enterprise: her splendid and central situation enabled her largely to share in the

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