thus standing I received a heavy blow on the shoulder from a large stick or club. I turned round suddenly, for I was completely taken by surprise, as not a word had been spoken, or a question asked, or a sound heard. The club was again raised, and I got another stroke on the arm which had been aimed at my head, but by starting back I escaped it. Several men, armed with their clubs, now attempted to close upon me, but I leaped back, and demanded what they wanted; at the same time, throwing open my large over-coat, I drew a pistol, which I had fortunately put in my belt at Busr el-Harfry. These things quickly attracted Mr. Barnett's attention, and he saw at a glance the danger of our position, and also drew a small pistol from his pocket. The cowardly ruffians had watched their opportunity, and, as soon as they saw our little party divided, they rushed upon us. They had no doubt thought we were altogether unarmed, and, having two of us inside the church and two outside it, they felt that it would be easy to accomplish their purposes. The moment, however, they saw our pistols they rushed out of the door; but we, knowing the great number without, felt that our position was very critical. We, consequently, followed them, but the moment we appeared we received a volley of stones. In the crowd I could not see our companions or the sheikh, and I supposed they had either escaped or had been driven off. There was no possibility of my making my way to the door of the court, and to remain where I was would have been almost certain death; so, dashing forward, and pushing those before me to each side, I leaped over the wall in front to the hollow ground below. Just as I reached the ground a large stone struck me on the back, and stunned me. Exerting all my strength, I ascended a little mound of rubbish, and turned upon my assailants, who were now attempting to descend the wall. I again drew the pistol, and threatened to shoot the first who would descend. This checked them for a moment, and I then attempted to reason with them, inquiring what we had done that they should thus beat and abuse us like dogs. The only reply was a savage yell, "Kill him! kill him!" A perfect shower of stones followed this, and one of them striking me on the hand carried away the whole flesh of the sides of two of my fingers. I now observed Mr. and Nikôla, in the midst of the crowd, going out of the little gateway, and Mr. Barnett, I saw, had got round to near where I stood. The whole fury of the attack seemed directed against me, and, while I was meditating what to do, I was struck with a stone on the back of the neck, but the thick collar of my coat in part deadened the blow. Fifteen or twenty men came close to the little mound I occupied; all were afraid, however, to close upon me, though the stones came thick and fast. I saw that my only chance was in flight, for, even should I fire, it would not save my own life; and if I should kill or wound any of my assailants, I well knew that not one of our party would leave the village alive. I turned, and ran across a field, as I thought, in the direction of the house where Mahmûd and the servants were. In my way I met a respectably-dressed man, whom I took for the sheikh of the village, and I entreated him to keep back the mob, or they would murder me. He made no reply, and I continued my course. I now saw an opening in the range of houses before me, and entered it, but, to my horror, found it shut up by a lofty wall a few yards in front. I wheeled round on the moment, and ran to the summit of a mound of rubbish; here, however, some twenty or thirty men were close upon me, and flight seemed no longer possible. Before I had time to consider what I should do, the stroke of a stone on the back and another on the head brought me to the ground. Those that were before afraid to approach now rushed on me en masse. Though greatly stunned and exhausted, I was perfectly conscious, and saw one fellow deliberately aiming a blow at my head with his club. I received it on my left arm, and leaped to my feet. A vigorous effort drove a few of my assailants to some distance, and again I seized my pistol, and the crowd began to retreat, but at that moment a man from behind threw his arms round my body, and entreated me not to attempt to fire. I cast him off, after a hard struggle, but he still grasped the pistol, and prayed me not to use

it, or we should all be murdered. Looking at him, I recognised the respectably. dressed man I had met a few minutes previously. "What am I to do, then ?" I demanded. "Give me the pistol, and I will save you." He looked honest, and I thought my life would be sacrificed at any rate;. so, with a quick motion of my finger, I struck off the caps and gave up the pistol. This precaution I took lest it should be used against myself. Having got it, he told me to run. "Where?" I asked. He pointed out the path, and away I ran, while he restrained the mob behind. I soon overtook Mr. and Nikôla, who were likewise running, and the old sheikh trying to restrain their pursuers. I inquired for Mr. Barnett, but at that moment he too came up without hat or shoes, and the blood flowing from his head. We now ran along, guided by some men, and soon reached our house.

Our appearance, wounded and bleeding, surprised Mahmûd and our servants, and they quickly gathered up the arms and prepared for defence. Mahmûd rushing out confronted the angry mob, who were coming, as they said, to murder us all. He succeeded in turning them back; but as they went away they were heard to say we could not leave the village without their knowledge, and that as soon as we attempted to leave they would finish their work.

We had now leisure to examine our wounds and consider our position. My bruises were comparatively slight-I was much stunned, but not deeply cut. Mr. had received a severe cut in the arm; but Mr. Barnett's injuries were by far the most serious of all. He had got several blows on the head and face, and was so much exhausted as to be unable to stand; and we had great doubts of his being able to sit on horseback, even should we manage to get away. I discovered that a small leather case, in which I had carried my note-books, letters, and the coins and medals I had collected, had been lost in the struggle.

It was with great difficulty that the party made their escape during the darkness of midnight from these bigoted and ruffianly villagers. Nor was the treatment they met with at some of the other villages of a much less hostile and inhospitable character. And no wonder, for the Arabs of the Hauran acknowledge themselves to be thieves by profession, as may be deduced from the following colloquy:

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"What brought you to the Deir when you saw us there?" I asked him."To strip you," he coolly replied." And why did you not do it ?"-" Because Mahmud was with you.' "But why would you plunder us? we are strangers, and not your enemies."-" It is our custom." "And do you strip all strangers?"- Yes, all we can get hold of."—"And if they resist, or are too strong for you ?"- "In the former case we shoot them from behind trees; and in the latter we run."-"How do the people of your tribe live? Do they sow or feed flocks?"-"We are not fellahin. We keep goats and sheep, hunt partridges and gazelles, and steal!"—" Are you all thieves?"-" Yes, all!”

Notwithstanding all these difficulties, Mr. Porter was enabled to accumulate a mass of curious and important details and discovery, which will render his work one of permanent importance to the student of sacred and classical geography.

THE MAN IN THE WHITE HAT.

A SKETCH FROM RAILWAY LIFE.

BY A SEASON TICKET.

FOR Several months during the year I am an habitué of one of those main arteries which distribute the teeming life of the metropolis to the various extremities of the kingdom, and in due course of time restore it to the fountain head (considerably purified, let us hope), in accordance with those laws of circulation which may be deduced with tolerable accuracy from our railway statistics. The directors on this particular line, in a spirit of economy which is powerfully suggestive of an increased dividend at the next half-yearly meeting of their constituents, have recently. adopted a method of enlarging the capacity of their first-class carriages, at the expense of the passengers in the same, to which I (not being a shareholder), in common with many of my daily fellow-travellers, find it difficult to reconcile myself. I remember to have heard in the days of my infancy a maxim propounded by one who was profoundly versed in the science of domestic economy, that "what is dinner for one is dinner for two;" and though receiving it at the time with a scepticism natural enough at the age of jackets and "flats," to whose preconceived notions of feeding this doctrine stands in startling opposition, I can well believe that these directors, imbued with the same principle, have come to the conclusion that where there is room for three, there is room for four. It is, of course, unnecessary to point out to what inconvenient results the adoption of this fallacious maxim, in its fullest extent, may lead; I will simply confine myself to a description of the means by which our iron rulers elicit the expansive properties of their "plant." A first-class carriage-whose compartments were originally intended to hold no more than six-is slightly drawn out at the sides-like an accordion-and a single partition is then fixed in the centre of each seat, so as to divide the interior into four sections. The result is, that as the natural modesty of mankind, and the sharp eyes of the railway officials are repugnant to the entire occupation of a single section by one person, eight individuals are deposited where the capacity of the vehicle would have been satisfied by six. Now I hate encroachments. I object to the Czar of Russia when he lays his rapacious hands upon some thousands of square miles of territory, to which he has about as much right as my excellent neighbour Brown can pretend to the half acre of cabbages that I have planted under his hedge; and I equally object to the authorities of this or any other line when they deprive me of four inches of my lawful seat, more especially as in the latter case the ambition assumes solely a financial, and therefore more revolting, aspect. So long as one is located with a man of moderate dimensions the inconvenience is not greatly felt, but should! fortune select as the partner in your allotment-once my unhappy fate! -an individual who might have competed with the great Daniel at a prize show with some reasonable chances of success, the victim of oppres→ sion is driven inch by inch from his ground, in spite of constant sorties to recover his position, and in the end is probably outflanked by the over

whelming masses of the enemy. I have said that I am not yet reconciled to the proceeding. When I shall have narrated the little incident which is recorded below, the unprejudiced reader-assuming always that he is neither a director nor a shareholder of the line aforesaid-will probably be disposed to think that my repugnance is not altogether unjustifiable.

Not very many months since I was charged with the pleasant duty of escorting to town two ladies (whom I will christen for the nonce Mrs. and Miss Smith), who were en route to effect a junction with a party of their friends, with the view of creating a diversion in favour of the Crystal Palace. I had deferred the usually early hour of my departure, and the train by which we proposed to leave E- was one much affected by the sojourners along the line, being termed by courtesy semiexpress, which, being interpreted, signified that it was scarcely so slow as the ordinary trains, and made fewer pauses in its transit. The consequence was that when it came up, and we had commenced instituting an investigation for an empty carriage, we could discover nothing better than a moiety of one of those objectionable bisected compartments which I have attempted to describe, and in which we accordingly proceeded to take up our quarters, leaving a vacancy between Mrs. Smith and one of the carriage windows. Scarcely had the ladies concluded that necessary disposition of their dress which appears to be inseparable from the two actions of rising up and sitting down, when a man of a somewhat gentlemanly cast of countenance, but "got up" in a white hat and a loose tweed overcoat, with general indications of running to seed about his extremities, and who-judging from his moist appearance-had only just caught the train, came hurriedly up to our carriage. He paused for a second on the step, as though pondering whether our compartment was not too uncomfortably full for him, but at that moment the words "Take your places, gents!" ringing sharply in our ears, silenced his doubts, if any, and he stepped quietly into the vacant seat. Immediately the door was shut to with a smart bang, that gave a pleasing sensation of being well shaken up to everybody and everything-the porter and guard executed a rapid concerted movement on their respective instruments, the bell and whistle-the engine once more woke up into life-and we were off.

It was an undeniably hot day. Such a day as is of rare occurrence in these degenerate summers of ours (when the sun appears to do piecework only, and even then to take up but very small contracts at a time), with a glorious blue sky overhead, unshadowed scarcely by those fleecy vapours which are rarely absent from the most cloudless atmosphere, and the bright sunlight playing fitfully over the waving corn-fields, whose ears still green gave but faint indications of the coming harvest. The weather was likely enough to induce drowsiness, and yet I could not help being struck by the rapidity with which my vis-à-vis in the white hat sank into a profound slumber. Experience teaches that the afternoon siesta (Anglicè, nap) of southern climates is not altogether unknown to the more wide-awake inhabitants of the north, and there are few places, probably, where so many specimens might be collected as in a downtrain on a warm afternoon; but the appearance of this exotic at so early

an hour of the morning was something quite out of the common way. However, a lively discussion with the ladies on the respective merits of the different points of rendezvous in the Palace at Sydenham entirely diverted my attention from the sleepy passenger, and we continued to argue for our several protégés with such earnestness as could scarcely fail to have disturbed the slumbers of any-but one of the seven sleepers. So the time passed pleasantly enough, until our slackening speed gave notice that we were approaching Kthe last station at which we were to pull up before reaching London. Laughing and talking, as the train was running joltingly in over the "points," we were suddenly interrupted by a violent shock, which brought us up-in the expressive phraseology of the Yankees-"all of a heap;" in this case, perhaps, almost more literally than figuratively. There was a faint scream from the ladies, an ejaculation of a somewhat more forcible description from one of the other sex, whilst I thrust my head out of the window with the view of discovering what had happened. A guard was hurrying by, so I hailed him.

"What's wrong?" I inquired.

"She's run into some trucks, sir"-trains, by the courtesy of guards, are always feminine-" and the engine's damaged a bit-nothing more. We've telegraphed to town for another, which will be down under the half hour."

The delay was annoying, but at any rate it was satisfactory to find that no human machinery had been put out of order; so I drew in my head, and proposed to Mrs. Smith that we should follow the example of the multitude and leave the train. In doing so, however, my attention was again attracted to our somnolent friend; and-marvellous to relate -there he was, still as sound asleep as ever. Indeed, had another collision of a more violent character at that moment caused the carriage to collapse and driven us into one another, I could scarcely have felt greater surprise at seeing him-white hat and all-doubled up in a state of slumber. If Mr. Montague Tigg, of distinguished memory, had put to me upon the spot the question which so irritated Mr. Jonas Chuzzlewit, "What is a light sleeper?"-I, following the example of certain lecturers who always propose to tell you what a thing is not when they cannot inform you what it is, was perfectly prepared to answer, "Certainly not the man in the white hat." Indeed, for the instant, I felt tempted to commit myself to a mild joke with reference to the napless condition of this particular article of dress (which certainly, so far as could be seen, enjoyed a striking monopoly of hue among the rest of his toilette-linen not excepted), but fortunately the recollection of the age of the joke, and the knowledge that the nerves of my fellow-passengers had already been severely tried that day, induced me to refrain, and we stepped tranquilly upon the platform.

It so happens that K- is one of the favoured stations upon our line, where the ubiquitous Mr. W. H. Smith, who with the "Son" constitutes an entire Society for the Diffusion of Universal Knowledge, has pitched his wandering tent, and established a depôt whence the intellects of her Majesty's subjects in that district are provisioned and supplied with greater attention and regularity than are their physical wants from some other stores that I could name. A staple article of consumption