by a deep murmuring sound, which was like subterranean thunder, and I felt my bed trembling beneath me. At first I thought a wind storm had risen, but that was impossible, for the muslin musketo curtains were not more agitated than my brass bedstead, which rocked from east to west. I was very soon satisfied that I was for the first time in my life experiencing a shock of earthquake. I rose immediately. The room was bright with moonlight, which streamed through the rattling Venetian shutters. I opened the window. The moon was nearly full; and, just above the range of Carmel, it was as red as the sun appears to be when seen through an English fog. The ground trembled violently three distinct times, the second shock being the strongest. There were heavy storm-clouds resting over Hâifa, their western edges were tinged with the lurid light of the red moon. My maid-servant was sleeping soundly. I walked out into the open court of the house. The two kawasses were rolled up in their wadded quilts on their mattresses in the arched corridor, and seemed undisturbed. A storm of thunder and lightning followed, and I walked through the house from room to room, watching the progress of the storm and the breaking up of the clouds.
The next morning, early, the Governor, several of the vice-consuls, and many Arab friends, called to hear if I had been disturbed and alarmed by the earthquake. Those who lived near the mosque told me that they had taken the precaution of moving out of their houses in the night, for the minaret rocked so violently, that every one who watched it expected that it would fall. Happily no accident of consequence occurred—a few old walls only were cracked and shaken. Mons. A. told me that during the shock he had observed that the sea was violently agitated, and covered with foam, though there was no wind.
The Arabs were all in great consternation, for they regarded this convulsion of nature as an ill omen. For several subsequent days nothing else was talked of. The
