Coffee Garden, Damascus
This is a scene taken by our artist in another of the numerous coffee gardens of Damascus.The women whom we see are Christians. This is manifest from the fact that their faces are uncovered. It is not thought out of place at all in Damascus for the women to smoke. Even Christian women do that. There is now in the city of Damascus a population, according to recent good authority, of one hundred and eighty thousand. Twenty thousand of these are Christians, eight thousand Jews and the rest Mohammedans.
This large majority is not as fanatical as it was thirty years ago. The influence of the French and of foreigners who visit the city every year is gradually tending to give the natives a better opinion of the Christians. The influence of trade is also felt. More and more is Damascus coming to be a center of trade. We have here a specimen of the nargileh, of which we speak so often.
Through its amber mouthpiece the smoke passes into the mouth from a cup on the top, where the tobacco is lighted by a coal of fire, through the perfumed water in the bulb below, and is very palatable.
How finely these trees reach over toward the river! Refreshments in Damascus are not confined to cafĂ©s and gardens, numerous as these places are in the city. In these places one hears oriental music—curious instruments, bursts of song, a violin, flutes, tambourine, kettle-drum, a harp, and sometimes castinets are added. But these people know nothing of harmony.
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