Very soon after my arrival I went to the house of the Levantine to whom my credentials were addressed.  At his door several persons (all Arabs) were hanging about and keeping guard.  It was not till after some delay, and the passing of some communications with those in the interior of the citadel, that I was admitted.  At length, however, I was conducted through the court, and up a flight of stairs, and finally into the apartment where business was transacted.  The room was divided by an excellent, substantial fence of iron bars, and behind this grille the banker had his station.  The truth was, that from fear of the plague he had adopted the course usually taken by European residents, and had shut himself up “in strict quarantine”—­that is to say, that he had, as he hoped, cut himself off from all communication with infecting substances.  The Europeans long resident in the East, without any, or with scarcely any, exception are firmly convinced that the plague is propagated by contact, and by contact only; that if they can but avoid the touch of an infecting substance they are safe, and that if they cannot, they die.  This belief induces them to adopt the contrivance of putting themselves in that state of siege which they call “quarantine.”  It is a part of their faith that metals, and hempen rope, and also, I fancy, one or two other substances, will not carry the infection; and they likewise believe that the germ of pestilence, which lies in an infected substance, may be destroyed by submersion in water, or by the action of smoke.  They therefore guard the doors of their houses with the utmost care against intrusion, and condemn themselves, with all the members of their family, including any European servants, to a strict imprisonment within the walls of their dwelling.  Their native attendants are not allowed to enter at all, but they make the necessary purchases of provisions, which are hauled up through one of the windows by means of a rope, and are then soaked in water.

I knew nothing of these mysteries, and was not therefore prepared for the sort of reception which I met with.  I advanced to the iron fence, and putting my letter between the bars, politely proffered it to Mr. Banker.  Mr. Banker received me with a sad and dejected look, and not “with open arms,” or with any arms at all, but with—­ a pair of tongs!  I placed my letter between the iron fingers, which picked it up as if it were a viper, and conveyed it away to be scorched and purified by fire and smoke.  I was disgusted at this reception, and at the idea that anything of mine could carry infection to the poor wretch who stood on the other side of the grille, pale and trembling, and already meet for death.  I looked with something of the Mahometan’s feeling upon these little contrivances for eluding fate; and in this instance, at least, they were vain.  A few more days, and the poor money-changer, who had striven to guard the days of his life (as though they were coins) with bolts and bars of iron—­he was seized by the plague, and he died.