When the sun
became cooler, all the sick and poor within fifteen or sixteen miles
round would come to be doctored and tended. The hungry, the thirsty,
the ragged, the sick, and the sore filled our garden, and I used to
make it my duty and pleasure to be of some little use to them. I seldom
had fewer than fifteen patients a day, half of them with eye diseases,
and I acquired a considerable reputation as a doctor. We used to dine
at seven o'clock on the terrace. After dinner divans were spread on
the housetop, and we would watch the moon lighting up Hermon whilst the
after-dinner pipe was being smoked. A pianette from Damascus enabled
us to have a little music. Then I would assemble the servants, read
the night prayers to them, with a little bit of Scripture or of Thomas
a Kempis. The last thing was to go round the premises and see that
everything was right, and turn out the dogs on guard. And so to bed.
Richard used to ride down into Damascus every few days to see that all
was going well; so I was often left alone.
I must not linger too long over our life at Bludan. Mr. E. H. Palmer,
afterwards Professor of Arabic at Cambridge, and Mr. Charles Tyrwhitt-
Drake, who had done much good work in connexion with the Palestine
Exploration, came to us about this time on a visit, and we made many
excursions from Bludan with them, some short and some long. We used
to saunter or gypsy about the country round, pitching our tents at
night.
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