Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/309

 the size of a firkin. She masticated aniseeds as a remedy against dyspepsia, and smoked them sprinkled on the tobacco of her pipe: of course, they were very injurious to her, but it was idle to remonstrate.

February 29.—Lady Hester's first topic of conversation to-day was her maids. "What a hywán [beast] is that Sâady!" she said: "when she awakes in the morning, she crawls on all-fours exactly like an animal. I am convinced she is nothing more: her back is only fit to carry a pair of panniers." I agreed with her ladyship, and told her what I had seen her do the day before. With one springing lift she raised from the floor to her head a circular mankàl or chafingdish, two feet in diameter, and piled up with live coals—and, without holding it, but merely balancing it on her head, she stooped perpendicularly, and seized with her two hands another mankàl of baked earth of equal size, filled with live coals also, and, lifting it, carried them both at once into the drawing-room to warm the apartment. These are the feats of dexterity and strength in which Syrian women excel, and in which they far surpass all European maids.

March 1.—Monsieur Henry Guys, the French consul, having been advanced to the superior situation of Aleppo, and being about to quit our part of the country, arrived unexpectedly at Jôon to take his leave. It was Tuesday, and just after sunset, when