[p.29] of course see with indignation the proselytism of their brethren,
which is daily gaining ground, and avenge themselves upon the apostates
with the most furious hatred. Nor are the Greek and original Latin
Christians backward in cherishing similar feelings; and scenes most
disgraceful to Christianity are frequently the consequence. In those
parts where no Greeks live, as in the mountains of Libanus, the
different sects of Catholics turn their hatred against each other, and
the Maronites fight with the converted Greek Catholics, or the Latins,
as they do at Aleppo with the followers of the Greek church. This system
of intolerance, at which the Turkish governors smile, because they are
constantly gainers by it, is carried so far that, in many places, the
passing Catholic is obliged to practise the Greek rites, in order to
escape the effects of the fanatism of the inhabitants. On my way from
Zahle to Banias, we stopped one night at Hasbeya and another at Rasheya
el Fukhar; at both of which places my guide went to the Greek church,
and prayed according to its forms; in passing through Zahle, as he
informed me, the Greeks found it equally necessary to conform with the
rites of the Latin Catholics. The intrigues carried on at Jerusalem
between the Greek and Latin monks contribute to increase these diputes,
which would have long ago led to a Christian civil war in these
countries, did not the iron rod of the Turkish government repress their
religious fury.
The vineyards are estimated at the exact number of vines they contain,
and each vine, if of good quality, is worth one piastre. The Miri or
land tax of every hundred [Arabic] vines is ten paras. For many years
past a double Miri has been levied upon Zahle.
October 7th.--Remained at Zahle, and enjoyed the instructive
conversation of the Bishop Basilios.
October 8th.--I went to see the ruined temple called Heusn Nieha, two
hours from Zahle, in the Djebel Sannin, and half an hour
[p.30] from the village of Fursul. These remains stand in a Wady,
surrounded by barren rocks, having a spring near them to the eastward.
The temple faced the west. A grand flight of steps, twelve paces broad,
with a column three feet and a half in diameter at each end of the lower
step, formed the approach to a spacious pronaos, in which are remains of
columns: here a door six paces in width opens into the cella, the fallen
roof of which now covers the floor, and the side walls to half their
original height only remain. This chamber is thirty-five paces in length
by fifteen in breadth. On each of the side walls stood six pilasters of
a bad Ionic order. At the extremity of the chamber are steps leading to
a platform, where the statue of the deity may, perhaps, have stood: the
whole space is here filled up with fragments of columns and walls. The
square stones used in the construction of the walls are in general about
four or five cubic feet each, but I saw some twelve feet long, four feet
high, and four feet in breadth. On the right side of the entrance door
is a staircase in the wall, leading to the top of the building, and much
resembling in its mode of construction the staircase in the principal
temple of Baalbec. The remains of the capitals of columns betray a very
corrupt taste, being badly sculptured, and without any elegance either
in design or execution; and the temple seems to have been built in the
latest times of paganism, and was perhaps subsequently repaired, and
converted into a church. The stone with which it has been built is more
decayed than that in the ruins at Baalbec, being here more exposed to
the inclemency of the weather. No inscriptions were any where visible.
Around the temple are some ruins of ancient and others of more modern
habitations.
Above Fursul is a plain called Habis, in which are a number of grottos
excavated in the rock, apparently tombs; but I did not visit them.