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the suburbs of the city, we gained its long bridge of boats, flanked by coffee-houses with open balconies, verandahed mansions, and solemn-looking madresehs, or colleges; while the rapid river, with its circular coracles flitting about, swept past, to lose itself in an interminable forest of date-trees; a few steps more, and the musquito mound of the Babylonian lake was exchanged for the carpeted saloons of the British Resident, and we were gliding in pumps and silk stockings to a savoury repast, served up in the cellar, or serdaub, where a current of air was kept up by two enormous punkahs, or fans, suspended from the ceiling, and worked by machinery from without.

The next morning, after visiting the curiosities of the Residency, which possesses a stud of horses of various Arab breeds, several wild beasts and birds, (among the former of which were a lion of the Tigris and a beautiful tame hunting-tiger,) a good library, and admirable garden, we prepared to visit the Pasha, who was encamped with his troops outside the city, in anticipation of an expedition against the Kurd Bey of Rowandiz .

We proceeded through the bazaars in procession:—first, a kawass, with silver stick and scarlet coat; second, a green-silk-garmented gentleman, a sub-secretary of the Residency; next the dragoman of the Residency; then four ordinary kawasses, in scarlet uniform, on foot; lastly, the officers of our party within a file of sipahis, and mounted on horses gaily decorated with a profusion of scarlet and purple satin saddle-cloths and harness glittering with brass, enough to delight the eye even of a native of sumptuous Baghdad.

Ali Pasha received us in a capacious time-worn tent, onthe floor of which water had been thrown to cool the air, till it formed so many puddles. He was a fine old man, very fat, but his eye animated, his forehead good, his aspect benevolent, and manners courteous. He was very anxious that we should see his guns and warlike preparations; and when he rose to walk with us, his appearance partook highly of the ridiculous. His full trousers did not reach to his ankles, and made him appear like a fat boy just breeched; a light, and almost transparent mashallah, or cloak, was thrown over his shoulders, the train of which was upheld by bearers, while the inverted cone which his figure represented, was terminated by a pair of European shoes, which did not tally with the Oriental portions of his habiliments.

We next visited the General commanding the troops, who was honoured by the title of Sarkosh Pasha, or the drunken pasha, a poor, weak, debilitated looking wretch, who had won his title by his habits, and his rank by a mad feat of courage, in capturing a Russian officer. The ceremonies of visits over, we had time to proceed to a somewhat hurried exploration of the bazaars, khans, jamis, colleges, and other curiosities of this renowned city, but which have been too often made the object of description to detain us long on paper. The cupolas of some of the jamis are superbly decorated with coloured brick-work laid in mosaic, as are also some of the menarehs. The houses are flat-roofed, and the roofs, whither in summer the inhabitants repair to sleep, are surrounded by a low wall. The evening hour displayed to us no small number of beauties, both of the lily and the ebony kinds, and who, loving the sunset and the long shadows of the date-trees, stole occasional glances from their circumscribed domiciles that overhung the