[p.64]he loaded his horse with all his church furniture, and at almost
every village where we alighted he fitted up a room, and said mass; I
was, in consequence, seldom able to leave my night's quarters before
mid-day, and as the days were now short our day's journey was not more
than four or five hours. His description of me to the natives varied
with circumstances; sometimes I was a Greek lay brother, sent to him by
the Patriarch, a deception which could not be detected by my dress, as
the priesthood is not distinguished by any particular dress, unless it
be the blue turban, which they generally wear; sometimes he described me
as a physician who was in search of herbs; and occasionally he owned
that my real object was to examine the country. Our road lay S.E. upon
the borders of the stony district called Ledja; and at the end of two
hours we passed the village of Bousser [Arabic] on our left, which is
principally inhabited by Druses; it lies in the War, and contains the
Turkish place of pilgrimage, called Meziar Eliashaa. Near it, to the S.
is the small village Kherbet Hariri. In one hour we passed Baara, a
village under the control of the Sheikh of Ezra; and at half an hour
farther to our right, the village Eddour [Arabic]. The Wady Kanouat, a
torrent which takes its rise in the mountain, passes Baara, where it
turns several mills in the winter season; towards the end of May it is
generally dried up. At one hour from Baara is the Ain Keratha, or
Geratha, according to Bedouin and Haouran pronunciation [Arabic]. At the
foot of a hill in the War are several wells; this hill is covered with
the ruins of the ancient city of Keratha, of which the foundations only
remain: there had been such a scarcity of water this year, that the
people of Bousser were obliged to fetch it from these wells. A quarter
of an hour E. of them is the village Nedjran [Arabic], in the Ledja, in
which are several ancient buildings inhabited by Druses. In the Ledja,
in the neighbourhood of Keratha,