Plague at Abra--Terror occasioned by it--Peasants forsake the
village--Alarm of Lady Hester--Imaginary virtues of bezoar and
serpent stone--Funerals--Embarrassment of the Author--Illness
of his servant--Increase of the contagion--Medical
Treatment--Arrival of the Kite sloop of war--Number of victims
of the plague--Pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Haneh--Prickly
heat--Lady Hester goes to reside at Meshmûshy--Costume of
the Drûzes--Maronite monastery--Camel’s flesh eaten--Bridge
of Geser Behannýn--Journey of the Author to Bteddyn--Sons of
the Emir Beshýr--Wedding at Abra--Moorish Conjuror--Return
of Giorgio--Vineyards--Wines--Dibs--Raisins--Olive
Harvest--Figs--Country between Abra and Meshmûshy.
From the end of March the plague had been reported to have shown itself
in Sayda: still, up to the middle of April, no sure information could
be obtained. At last, however, the number of deaths put the matter
beyond doubt, and the more prudent part of the inhabitants began to
prepare for shutting up their houses: and in the village of Abra,
the peasants consulted me on the propriety of forbidding any person
to go to Sayda under any pretext whatever.[104] The order was easy of
execution as far as regarded Sayda, but it was not so in respect to the
gardens. Many of the peasants bred silkworms by mulberry leaves brought
thence, which they fetched night and morning; and, as these poor
people calculated on the profits of their silk, as those of Kent do on
hop-picking, they conceived any risk preferable to such a loss.
On the 26th the repairs of the convent being concluded, Lady Hester
desired a cask of wine to be given away among the workmen and the
villagers. This was done at the door of my cottage, and both men and
women drank with such avidity that one woman fell drunk in the road,
and others were inebriated. A dance was performed by some of the young
men, accompanied by singing in dialogue, which was very amusing. A
group represents a party of Arabs, who, by a description of the charms
of a damsel of their tribe, invite a youth to take her for his bride.
In proportion as the youth’s imagination is warmed by their eulogy,
they increase their demands for her price: at last, they work upon him
so greatly, that, after having given his camel, mare, tent, and all he
is possessed of, piece by piece, he strips off every article of dress
from his person, and offers them also.[105]
On the 29th one of the peasants, named Constantine, who had been
present at this ceremony, died; and his death, which was immediately
attributed to plague, excited great consternation; as every body had
mixed in the crowd before my door where he was. No suspicion was
entertained even that he was ill, until the day of his death, when, of
his own accord, he expressed a wish to confess himself; and the curate
immediately afterwards gave notice that he was dying. The circumstances
of his death were remarkable. He was about sixty years old, and had
not, for many years, been to the hot bath; when, in an unlucky hour,
the fancy took him to go to one at Sayda, wherein, or at which time,
he caught the plague. It was not certainly known how many days he had
been ill, but it was generally supposed seven or eight: although every
body averred that he had been walking about, or at his accustomed
labour of ploughing, up to the day preceding his death. Even on the
morning of the day on which he died, he went with some other peasants
to Dayr Makhallas, on business with his landlord, the patriarch. He saw
the prelate, obtained his answer to his demands, and returned, as he
went, on foot. At two he took to his bed; about three said he wished to
confess; and at eight was a corpse. I afterwards witnessed some other
remarkable instances of the sturdy resistance which these mountaineers
made to sickness.
No sooner was the cause of the death of Constantine ascertained than
the peasants took the necessary steps for their security. Application
was made to Lady Hester for an order to turn the family of the
deceased, and those who were known to have been near him in his
illness, out of the village: which was immediately granted, and the
performance of it was fixed for the ensuing morning. I made use of
what arguments I could to persuade them of the necessity of burying
the corpse; but nobody was found willing to carry it to the grave. At
length, filial duty and the ties of kindred induced his son and a young
man betrothed to his daughter to perform this last office for him:
and, about nine o’clock at night, without any of the customary funeral
ceremonies, the body was borne to the churchyard, on an opposite hill
a quarter of a mile off, and thrown into a cave. The next morning at
daylight the family retired from their cottages to a valley under the
village, where was a spring of water and a grotto in the rock, which
afforded them a tolerable habitation and a cover from the sun.
It is not to be imagined that, in Syria, in the month of May, there is
any hardship in being compelled to live in the fields. A fine climate
renders the shade of a tree more agreeable than the most commodious
apartment. The natives, indeed, profess that they would often reside
from choice in the fields, were it not that the security of their
persons and property against robbery, as well as against soldiers,
obliges them to live within doors.
In a day or two the consternation and prudence of the peasants
subsided, so that they again resorted to the gardens as before. But on
Sunday, May the 8th, their terror was renewed by the certainty that
four of Constantine’s family had fallen ill at once, nine days from his
death. This marked interval between infection and the manifestation
of the disease will show that, such persons as magnify the powers of
contagion by statements that the plague can communicate and declare
itself within twenty-four hours, nay, within one hour, are probably
deceived; for, in this case and some others which I observed, an
interval of eight, eleven, or more days, elapsed. Thus it was, that, on
the 4th of May, a man died of the plague at the village of Salhyah, one
mile from Abra: and, a fortnight after, his father, mother, and sister,
were attacked and died in three days.
The next day three children in the village were found to be infected;
and, on the 10th, Constantine’s son, a youth of twenty, who was taken
ill on the 8th, died. The children were immediately expelled from the
village, and betook themselves to the same place as the others, now a
sort of lazaretto. On the 11th, six more fell ill. The panic became
general. Each family in the village packed up bed and baggage, and
fled to the neighbouring fields, where, constructing huts of stakes,
canes, and leafy boughs, sufficient for themselves and their silkworms,
which they took with them, they mutually avoided each other. I and my
servants, with four families besides, alone remained. Giovanni was so
alarmed, that, had he known where to seek refuge, he would have left me
also.
During this time everybody in the Convent was in good health: so that,
when the cases of infection multiplied in the village, Lady Hester
became frightened, and thought it better, surrounded as I had been
with the infected, that I should converse with her in the outer court
of the convent, without entering any of the rooms: and during the
remainder of this plague I continued to do so. When at Latakia, she
had purchased some bezoar and serpent stones, in which Orientals have
great faith; and she was now desirous of trying their efficacy on those
infected with the plague. The results were, as might be expected, not
satisfactory. She next went in person to the spot where Constantine’s
family was, and gave them Dr. James’s powders to take, and money to buy
themselves provisions; but her humanity and courage could not save them.
From the 11th to the 17th persons were daily taken ill, and deaths
daily happened; so that, from the 8th to the 17th, I reckoned thirty
cases of infection and thirteen deaths. On the event of a death in a
village, it was customary before the plague for everybody to join the
funeral, and mourn and howl over the corpse; the women beating their
breasts, whilst the men loosened their shawls from their heads, and
used other tokens of despair. On such occasions, too, the peasants from
the neighbouring villages would assemble and join in the ceremony. The
corpse was carried on a bier, dressed; as coffins are not in use among
the Christians of Mount Lebanon. But when Nicôla, son of Constantine,
died, it was impossible to find any one to bury him; and men were sent
for from Sayda, who devoted themselves, for the sake of a trifling
gain, to almost certain destruction; since, for three piasters a head,
they came a distance of three miles, and carried a pestiferous corpse
to a charnel-house.
The burying-ground of Abra was near the church, on a hill facing the
village. The cries of his intended brother-in-law (who alone followed
him to the grave) were heard very distinctly in the stillness of
noon-day, the hour that he was carried to his last home. It was a
mournful scene, and the young man’s moans haunted me in my sleep for
some nights afterwards. Nor by day was my mind free from trouble
on my own account: for it will readily be conceived that, in cases
like the present, every one must labour under many apprehensions and
difficulties. The spring from which water was brought was half a mile
off; and, whilst my maid servant was gone to fetch it, for I durst not
employ any one else, I was in a state of constant apprehension lest
her imprudence should expose her to infection. Nor could I be sure,
when from home myself, that she or the man would not have communication
with dangerous persons. I durst not send out my linen, which, in
consequence, she was obliged to wash. On the 17th of May, Giovanni
was suddenly seized with vomiting and giddiness, both symptoms of
the plague. I immediately hired two men to build a hut in a retired
spot under some olive-trees, and sent for a Turk from Sayda to come
and nurse him: then, communicating to Lady Hester my apprehensions
that Giovanni had caught the infection, which from him would almost
certainly be caught by me, I returned to my cottage. My maid servant
fled, and I remained alone, with the agreeable reflection that I must
now cook and wash for myself; for I was become a dangerous person to
approach. I could not hire a Turkish servant for myself also; for a
Turk may have touched an infected person before coming to you, and,
when shut up, may be found himself to be infected. I fumigated my
cottage throughout, in which, too, I was somewhat unfortunate; for,
after the plague was over, a peasant woman laid claim to compensation
from me, because, she said, I had caused all her silkworms to die by
the smell of my drugs.
The weather, on the 1st of May, had set in with great heats, and the
14th and 20th were intolerably oppressive, augmenting, as it would
seem, the violence of the contagion; for the deaths and new cases of
infection continued to increase. In Sayda, likewise, the deaths now
amounted to ten a day. On the 21st, Giovanni’s indisposition having
turned out to be nothing but a bilious fever, and having yielded to the
remedies I had given him, I took him back again to my cottage, to his
and my own great satisfaction.
The difficulty of finding persons to bury the dead was greater than
ever. The same men, who before had risked their lives for three
piasters a head, now obtained nine, and a chicken besides, for burying
an interesting young girl, named Berjût, the daughter of a peasant,
whose beauty was of no common cast. Those of Constantine’s family who
continued to die were buried in holes close to the cave where they had
lived, and became a prey to the jackalls.
On the 17th, a villager named Shahûd buried his own son. He was a poor
peasant, whose only means of maintenance were derived from an ass,
which he hired out to carry persons and burdens. Poor as he was, he
loved his boy beyond measure. The body of Constantine had been thrown
into a charnel pit, which was the common receptacle of the dead, where
corpses were heaped one on another; the entrance being merely blocked
up with a large stone and mud cement. When Shahûd reopened it, to place
his child there, the sight of the corpse of the man whose imprudence
had first brought the malady into the village so enraged him, that
he endeavoured to drag it out, that he might vent his rage upon it,
by leaving it to the jackalls: but it was too corrupt; and the limb
by which he seized it separated (as he told me) from the trunk, and
remained in his hand.
I now felt more comfortable, and renewed my visits, which, during
Giovanni’s illness, I had discontinued, to the infected around me. My
plan was each day at two o’clock to ride out on an ass. I approached
them within ten or twelve feet, and saw only those who could come out
of their tents or grottoes to me. The mode of cure (I mean theirs) was
confined to a bleeding, if they had strength enough to go down to Sayda
to a Turkish barber, who for twenty paras, or fourpence, immediately
opened a vein in the arm: but, if too weak for that, nothing was done.
For, although to many I gave pills, powders, and potions, and they
accepted them, I have reason to think they were seldom used. Plasters
on their swellings they would readily apply, and would show them, to
convince me they had done so; but I never was aware that this or any
other remedy changed much the event of the malady; nor did I find any
preventive of use but keeping out of its way.[106]
Besides the preceding instance of manly resistance to disease, I had
an opportunity of seeing another, as remarkable, in the case of a girl
nine years old. I went to her on the fourth day of her illness, and, as
she had many times when in health received paras from me in charity,
I called her to me from the hut in which she was, with her father,
mother, two brothers and sister, her mother and brother being as ill
as herself. She tottered out, and presented a most aggravated example
of affliction by the hand of the Almighty. She had a carbuncle, which
occupied the right corner of her mouth, another over the jugular vein,
and a third on her right instep, which made her hobble in her gait;
and, added to all this, she stood under a burning sun of perhaps 130°
Fahrenheit, parched with fever, whilst her head, she said, ran round,
her limbs failed her, and, as she expressed it, she wished to eat, but
could not. Her mother told me she had been delirious all the preceding
night; and the husband added that his wife was suffering herself from
two femoral swellings.
It will be recollected that, when the plague showed itself, the
peasants were busied in the feeding of silkworms preparatory to their
spinning; and that, when they were driven out of the village, they did
not, on that account, abandon their worms. The family of Constantine,
even in the midst of their calamities, made a hut near their cave, and
fed and nourished the worms as usual, from their own mulberry trees,
which were close by.[107]
Up to the first of June, there were every day fresh cases, after which
they suddenly ceased; and, with the exception of a few deaths of those
who had fallen ill in May, the daily reports were more consolatory.
Lady Hester’s fears were by this time somewhat abated, and I again
re-entered the convent, from which I had now been excluded since the
beginning of May.
If there were anything capable of relieving the irksomeness of such a
confinement as that which we now suffered, it was the lively interest
excited in us by the events which had recently occurred in Europe. On
the 12th of June, the news of Buonaparte’s exile to the island of Elba
reached the monastery, and extinguished, as it was then thought, the
prodigious splendour of his career. It was remarkable that the first
account of this decision of the belligerent sovereigns was communicated
to us, not from our consuls on the sea-coast, but from Dayr el Kamar,
through a priest of the country, who had received his information
from his correspondent at Rome; and there were many circumstances
which occurred, demonstrating that these Eastern countries maintained
a constant and sure correspondence with the western world, and were
early informed of the changes in it. The common people did not fail to
picture the downfall of a usurper in the colouring borrowed from their
own customs, and he was said to have been carried about Paris in an
iron cage, like Bajazet.
On the 14th of June, arrived in the port of Sayda H.M. sloop of war
the Kite, commanded by Captain T. Forster, who came up to the convent,
and had a long and private conversation with Lady Hester. He almost
immediately sailed again to the south, and on the 22nd returned.
It appeared afterwards that her ladyship had required the assistance
of a ship of war from Sir Robert Liston, to be enabled to ascertain
the state of the ruins of Ascalon, preparatory to certain excavations
proposed to be there made, by authority from the Porte, in search of
hidden treasures; and that Sir Robert Liston had despatched Captain
Forster with orders to act according to Lady Hester’s instructions.
When Captain Forster quitted Sayda the first time, he went thither,
reconnoitred the shore, and found it unfit for landing.
Although there was no wind, whilst moored behind the reef of rocks,
which forms the haven of Sayda, the sloop rolled her gunwales under
water. The presence of Captain Forster and the officers of the Kite was
a source of enjoyment scarcely to be conceived by those who have not,
like us, suffered for so long a period a total privation of the society
of their countrymen. After stopping a week, they left us. On the 20th
of June, a slight shock of an earthquake was felt.
On St. John’s day, the 24th of June, the Franks of Sayda opened their
houses, and no fresh cases of plague happened afterwards. From a list
of deaths, kept by M. Bertrand, to whom the whole population of the
place was known, it appeared that 360 persons had fallen victims to
it. How little are those reports, inserted in the European journals,
to be relied on, by which a city, like Cairo or Damascus, is made to
lose 2000 or 3000 a day; so that, in one month, in which the virulence
of the disease is at the highest, the total loss would amount to more
than the total population. It would be a fair average to reckon, in a
most severe plague, the proportion of deaths at one to one thousand
inhabitants per day. Thus, in Malta, the maximum was sixty a day: and
60,000 may be calculated as the population of La Valetta. So, for
Sayda, where the maximum was eleven a day, the same ratio would perhaps
hold just. In Abra, twenty persons died in forty days, and the number
of families being forty, with five persons belonging to each family,
gives a population of two hundred.
My servant had obtained permission to go to the shrine of St. Haneh,
(St. Joan) at the village of Kurka, on the 6th of July, to celebrate
the festival of that saint. A small church stood there to her honour,
on the side of a mountain, commanding a fine view of the wild and
romantic scenery through which the river Ewely runs. A crowd of people
annually assembles on this day from Sayda, and from the neighbouring
villages. They go, on the vigil of the saint’s day, and, mixing
together promiscuously, pass the night in the open air round the
walls of the chapel. Many cures are attributed to the leaves of an
oak tree, which overshadows the chapel, and to the water of a spring
which trickles from the rock beneath the altar within it. Setting aside
any supposed medicinal virtues in trees and stones, the place may no
doubt be very healthy. I rode to the spot, and saw a motley assemblage
of Christians. Two Mahometans were likewise there, induced, from the
reported miracles of the place, to try them in their own cases, being
sorely afflicted with chronic diseases. These pilgrimages to Christian
shrines by Mahometans are not unusual, and bring no scandal on the
pilgrim.
July the 9th, Lady Hester was seized with the prickly heat. This is a
miliary eruption, alternately disappearing and returning, which excites
the most intolerable itching. The heat oppressed her so much that I
thought it advisable to remove her to a cool situation on some elevated
part of the mountain. Pierre, who had been recalled since Captain
Forster’s arrival, had mentioned a house above Beyrout as extremely
commodious and airy; upon which he had been immediately despatched to
request it of the emir. The emir returned for answer that the house in
question was inhabited by a branch of his own family, whom he could not
turn out. Meshmûshy, a village upon a very high part of the mountain,
enjoying a fine air and excellent water, distant about five hours’
journey from the monastery, was then fixed on, and a second application
was made.
On the 20th of July, an answer arrived from the Emir Beshýr to Lady
Hester’s application for the house at Meshmûshy. He did not say
positively she could not have it: his expressions were equivocal
and shuffling; but, as she could not bear the least appearance of
opposition to her will, or a show of disrespect, she wrote back, in
very strong terms, that, “whether he gave her a house or not, she
should set off next day, and would pitch her tents on the mountain, if
she found nothing better.”
Accordingly, on the 25th, we set off: Lady Hester rode on an ass, which
the emir had given her some time before. In order to enjoy the fine
scenery of Mount Lebanon, the journey was divided into four days. The
first day, passing Salhyah, a clean village, we went no farther than
Ayn el Hager, a spring of water distant one league from the convent,
where the tents were fixed. The second day we reached Libâ, a village
of Christians and Metoualis, which is about three miles farther. Libâ
is a village of forty-four houses. The shaykh, or bailiff, was a Drûze
named Sumyn. The weather was so hot that I would not have my tent up,
and slept under some fig-trees upon a small carpet. A fat little man,
who was the curate, amused me much by his curiosity and talkativeness.
The third day brought us to Isfarýn, a hamlet celebrated for its
tobacco. The next morning, we passed Iktány, and on the 4th, encamped
at Bisra, close to Ayn Bisra,[108] a small spring of excellent water.
On the 28th, we ascended half way the steep mountain on which Meshmûshy
stands, and on the 29th, in the morning, arrived there.
The situation of Meshmûshy is commanding and romantic. The house was
small; it was, therefore, resolved to get rid of all unnecessary
servants. Lady Hester’s maid had been left behind at Mar Elias: Pierre
was dismissed: there remained only a mountain lass, who understood
nothing but Arabic; Um Risk, an old woman, who was in the same
predicament; and an out-door man, named Ayd. Ten weeks were passed in
this retirement; and Lady Hester several times said that she never had
been more comfortable since she left Malta than she was then.
[Illustration: MESHMÛSHY.]
Meshmûshy is a hamlet of twelve or fourteen families,[109] situate
nearly at the summit of a mountain, forming, as it were, the
promontory of a chain: so that, towards the valley of Bisra, it is
almost perpendicular, making a very difficult ascent. The air is good;
but fogs every evening were seen to hang on the summit and around us,
giving an excessive chilliness to the atmosphere. Dysenteries and
hooping-coughs were prevalent at our first coming.
I have endeavoured to give a representation of the costume of the
natives of this village, which will serve for that of all the Maronite
population.
Of the two figures, that on the left was the chief of the village of
Meshmûshy. His companion was a less considerable person; but still was
a sort of squire, as he kept a horse, which is the test of gentility
throughout Syria. Yellow shawls are very much worn by the Christians
of respectability. The blue striped close abah of the other figure is
affected chiefly by the Drûzes themselves, who use much simplicity in
their garment, and mostly dress alike. All such as are above the level
of labouring peasants carry khanjàrs, or daggers, in their girdles.
The long red skull cap (tarbûsh), seen pending from the head of the
right hand figure, was at this time peculiar to Syria, and more
especially to Mount Lebanon. In the towns and cities it is only
partially worn.
[Illustration: COSTUME OF THE DRÛZES.]
About five hundred yards from the hamlet, and on the same level, was
a large monastery of Maronite friars, called Dayr el Sayda, peopled
with seventy or eighty monks and lay brothers. As their rules never
allowed them to eat meat, their whole maintenance consisted of cheese,
milk, leben, (curds and whey), dibs, (grape-juice concentrated) and
vegetables. They were, for the most part, very ignorant; but there
were two who were ingenious as artificers,[110] and two or three
who passed among them for scholars; their scholarship consisting in
being able to read Syriac, (in which the service of their church is
performed) in Syriac characters; whilst the greatest number read
Syriac in Arabic characters, into which it is transferred for the use
of the uninformed. These two friars spoke a little Syriac likewise.
They had a painter among them, who would not have ranked higher than
a dauber in any other country. Their chapel was considered as one of
the finest on the mountain. The building was of rough stones, found on
the spot: their cells had nothing superfluous in them, having only a
raised bench on one side, on which was a mattress, and upon it a wadded
coverlet; sheets being considered as unnecessary luxuries. The windows
had no casements nor shutters; and, when the elevation of the spot is
considered, and that snow falls frequently, they must have suffered
much from the cold. Women were not admitted within the monastery; but,
by an evasion of an easy nature, there was a small chapel, separated by
a wall, through which was a door from the monastery into it, where the
women heard mass, prayed, and confessed.
The Maronites are not found more to the south than Meshmûshy. Maronites
and their monasteries abound most in the northern districts of the
mountain. They distinguish themselves by the name of belledýah
(indigenous,) from those of Aleppo, who are called Aleppine Maronites.
The Maronites are of the order of St. Anthony, the Egyptian.
A great deal of tobacco was cultivated at Meshmûshy, and with great
success. This sort, when lighted, sparkles and hisses slightly, as
if impregnated with saltpetre, which salt, in fact, gave it that
property, and is derived from the goats’ dung, with which the ground is
manured.
There were many fine springs at Meshmûshy, the water of which was
delicious and cool; but not in sufficient quantity for the purposes of
irrigation.
On the very pinnacle of the mountain is a small level of an acre’s
breadth. Here was the tomb of Nebby Meshwah, covered with a small
cupola, which could be seen at a great many miles’ distance. This tomb
was held in reverence by Moslems and Drûzes. It was surrounded by old
oak trees, less large, however, than the English oak. Below Meshmûshy
was a Turkish village, called Benywaty. Some one of these villages kept
the sepulchre clean, and lighted a lamp in it every night.
One day, whilst standing at the gateway of the house, I observed
several peasants in succession pass by with pieces of meat, on wooden
skewers, in their hands. I asked them what meat it was, and they told
me camel’s flesh, upon which I bought a piece of about half a pound
from one of them, and ordered it to be dressed. The cook turned up her
nose, and expressed much wonder at my taste, by which I understood that
camels’ flesh was no dainty in her eyes; and, although many travellers
have affirmed that it is considered so in the Desert by the Bedouins,
yet I never saw any eaten there but once. The peasants whom I spoke
to were inhabitants of the village of Benywaty, and Mahometans. The
Christians pretended to hold the camels’ flesh as unclean; but whether
because their priests told them so, or because they love to do contrary
to what Mahometans practise, which is a common motive with them for
many of their actions, I could not learn.
Ayd, the man-servant, was dismissed, without his wages, on the 19th,
for refusing to go a journey on foot to fetch articles wanted for the
house. He betook himself to Dayr el Kamar, and complained to the emir;
upon which the dragoman, M. Beaudin, was summoned to Bteddýn, the
emir’s residence, to answer the charge, and I accompanied him. In the
afternoon of the 20th, we descended the north-east side of the mountain
into the valley of Bisra. The side of the mountain was covered with
aromatic herbs, especially lavender. Half way down, there is a small
river, which, rushing over a precipice at Gezýn, a village about one
mile to the right, in a cascade of a single sheet of water, tumbles
from rock to rock through a deep descending glen, until it reaches the
vale of Bisra, and joins the river Ewely. This glen is overtopped, to
the south, facing Meshmûshy, by a chain of lofty precipitous rocks,
upon which were seen the ruins of an old castle, rendered memorable
by the stout resistance which Fakhr ed Dyn,[111] emir of the Drûzes,
made in it to the forces of the sultan for the space of seven years.
At our feet was a small bridge crossing the torrent, and close to it
a water-mill, to grind the corn of the neighbouring villages. Leaving
this on the right hand, and below us, and, inclining to the left, we
descended into the vale, which we traversed.
About one mile from the foot of the mountain, we crossed a small stream
which sometimes becomes a torrent, on a single arched bridge, made in
steps, close to which, four granite pillars were still standing, the
remains of some ancient building. This bridge was called Geser Behannýn.
[Illustration: GESER BEHANNÝN.]
Close below the bridge, the stream emptied itself into the river
Ewely, which we forded. The scenery hereabout is magnificent. This
spot answers to the situation assigned by Abulfeda to a city, called
Mashgara; but the inhabitants have a tradition that these pillars are
the remains of the edifice which Sampson pulled down on the heads of
the Philistines.
We mounted against the course of the stream for about an hour; and
then, turning short to the left, ascended a path cut in a rock almost
perpendicular, which was the steepest road I had ever seen for
four-footed animals. On the top, we found ourselves on a spacious and
almost level ridge of the mountains; and, passing through some fine
olive plantations, we arrived at nightfall at the village of Muzrât
el Shûf, whose inhabitants are Drûzes and Christians. We repaired to
the centre of the village, where was a square plot of ground shaded
by a noble tree, under whose branches was a stone platform, where we
spread our carpets, having tied up our asses close to us. We had some
difficulty in getting a little bread and treacle, with a small dish of
eggs fried in oil, for supper; after which we slept under the tree.
On the following morning we pursued our journey, and for an hour or two
travelled over a most stony soil upon a tolerably level path, until we
reached Bteddýn, the emir’s residence. He was from home, being gone
to superintend the construction of an aqueduct to bring water from a
distance of several miles, to his palace: for the Orientals think no
house or place enviable that has not running water in it, or near it.
We tied up our asses, and spread our carpets under some olive trees,
and then presented ourselves at the door, saying who we were. Orders
were immediately given for providing us with a room in the palace,
and we were conducted to the emir’s sons, Khalyl and Emyn Casem, who
received us with much politeness. The elder had on a quilted robe like
a bedgown; the younger a white ermine pelisse covered with white satin.
No Englishman appeared at this place, without being questioned on the
health of Sir Sydney Smith, and they asked if Mr. B., whom they had
seen in our former journey, was royally born.
M. Beaudin went to seek the emir, and I remained and breakfasted with
Selûm, the chief katib of the emir, reputed to be a very shrewd old
man, but fat and bloated, and looking like a glutton; and, indeed,
he ate and drank like one. With him was a priest, named Abûna Shâby,
exercising the profession of physician, and now in attendance on the
emir, by whom he was said to be pensioned. As usual with such persons,
they questioned me on many strange things, but generally with some
object in view, either for their own or for their employer’s purposes.
As M. Beaudin did not come back when I expected him, at 11 o’clock
I mounted my ass to return home alone. I lost my way, and, but for
the civility of a Drûze gentleman, who found me wandering among the
mountains, and who set me right, himself conducting me for a whole
league, I might have been exposed to danger; although I began now to
look upon travelling in these countries as perfectly secure, and to see
no reason to doubt my safety in Mahometan lands any more than I did in
Christendom.
I passed the village of Ayn Bàt, consisting of Drûzes and Christians;
and, proceeding down a deep valley, through which was the bed of a
torrent now dry, I arrived at the village of Guffûra (or some such
name) then at Zahûr, where I descended into the vale of Bisra by a
steep path, and came to a hamlet called Mûsa kellem allah. I crossed
the river, ascended the opposite mountain: and, after seven hours’
riding, reached Meshmûshy. M. Beaudin returned the following day, and
Ayd was sent by the emir to beg her ladyship’s pardon.
The 26th of August, I rode down to Abra. It happened that, on the
28th, three weddings were to be celebrated in the village, and I took
the opportunity of being present at them. The parties were peasants.
The weddings lasted two days. On the first evening the bridegrooms,
dressed in their best clothes, with daggers in their girdles, and with
other marks of finery, which native Christian peasants are commonly
forbidden to wear, seated themselves on the bare ground, in an open
place in the middle of the village. The villagers were assembled around
them. Each, as he entered the circle, saluted the bridegrooms, and
invoked a blessing upon them; whilst they rose up and returned the
compliment. With this exception, they were obliged to remain quiet,
preserving a very sober and grave demeanour. The party smoked their
pipes, each person from his own tobacco-bag. A pipe and tabor, with a
long drum, kept up incessantly a noisy music, discordant to me, but
very pleasing to the people of the country. In the middle of the ring,
those who chose stood up, one by one, and danced a slow dance. A few of
the young men danced in couples, with swords in their hands, and acted
a sham combat. To these succeeded hired dancers, the buffooneries of a
Jack-pudding, a man dressed in woman’s clothes, and some other mummery.
These diversions were kept up until a late hour.
In the mean time, the brides, each in her separate cottage, were seated
on a mat or carpet, closely veiled, and preserving unbroken silence. As
a doctor, I was permitted to enter the rooms where they were. I found
the first, a girl of twelve or thirteen, in a long white veil, with a
crowd of women round her. To gratify me, as a stranger, they bade her
show herself a little. She was dressed in a silk kombáz or gown. Round
her arms and legs she had bracelets; gold ornaments encircled her neck;
and pieces of tinsel were stuck on her dress here and there. Her look
was downcast, and she was not permitted to utter more than a single
salutation, almost in a whisper. I found the other eating her supper:
both looked very like the women that go about with morris-dancers
or chimney-sweepers, on May-day. Although I knew the girl by sight
extremely well, yet now she was obliged to use the same reserve as if
she had never set eyes on me. The women also had a pipe and tabor, and
dancing boys, with castanets, to amuse them.
Thus the first evening passed. On the second day the ceremony of
visiting continued. In the evening, the parties went to church. The
priest performed the marriage ceremony, which I did not see. They then
were led, bride and bridegroom, in procession to their houses. Here it
was optional whether they would retire and consummate the marriage, or
join the company, where music and dancing still went on as before, with
the firing of small arms; for the lower classes in Turkey never feel
their joy complete, unless a great deal of powder is wasted. As one of
the bridegrooms, who was to marry the maid of fifteen, was himself not
thirteen, he seemed disposed to enjoy the music a little longer. He was
the son of that Constantine who died of the plague. His brother, twenty
years old, had been betrothed to Mariam, the bride; but, he dying, it
devolved on the next brother, according to the usage of the mountain,
to espouse her. Hence the disparity of years on the wrong side.[112]
The other bridegroom was a fine young man, and retired immediately.
When the evening was far advanced, the drummer went round to collect
his presents. Each person dealt out small money piece by piece, naming
to each piece, as he gave it, a toast. The drummer then bawled out the
toast, with the name of him who proposed it, and the number of paras he
had received for it, and an eulogium on the person in honour of whose
name the gift was made. During the whole of the ceremony, the loo loo
of the women was incessant.
Persons before marriage are affianced, and this ceremony precedes the
wedding sometimes a year, sometimes several, more or less. Thus, I was
once present, when Rufka bint Yusef Kobryn was affianced to Michael,
the mason of Medjdelëûn; and it was done in the following way. The
curate of the village came to Rufka’s father’s house at sunset, and
Rufka was desired to go out to one of her neighbour’s. The young mason
came with his friends, and the curate said a prayer over him. He gave
to the father, as a present for Rufka, two handkerchiefs, a pair of red
shoes, one white veil of English muslin, nine rubbias, (about £1) all
which was to be forfeited if he refused afterwards to marry her. Brandy
was then introduced; pipes were lighted; singing took place; and all
the party vociferated, in set phrases in rhyme, long life and happiness
to the future bride and bridegroom.
Generally the bridegroom’s friends go to fetch the bride on a mare in
fantastic housings. When she enters the village of the bridegroom, he
receives her with a gentle tap on the head with his pipe, his hand, or
something, whilst she bows submissively in token of future obedience
to his will. At a second marriage, which I witnessed at Salhiyah, one
mile from the Convent, the young men, his companions, conducted the
bridegroom on horseback to the village of the bride, they being on
foot, singing in turns with the women who followed in the rear. The
song of the men was more like hallooing than music. The women always
finished with a loo loo.
This son of Constantine, of whose marriage we have just been speaking,
supposed that his father had concealed a considerable sum of money
somewhere in or about his cottage: and, in conjunction with his
sisters, he hired a Moor from Sayda to show the spot. I have already
said how great the reputation of the Moors, or men of the West
(Mogrebyns) is, as fortune-tellers, discoverers of stolen goods, and
conjurors. The Moor, when brought to the cottage, read certain forms
of charms, during which, the bystanders, two women, the lad, and three
other peasants, relations of the deceased, fancied they heard the
voices of spirits under ground. The Moor pretended to address them in
these words--“Show me the treasure--show me the treasure.” “We will,”
answered the spirits; “but first fumigate us.” The Moor then pretended
that spirits would not be contented with common incense, and demanded
three _metcals_ of ambergris, or money to buy it. Ambergris is
nearly a crown a metcal. The poor peasants declared they had not so
much money in the world; the Moor said he could not go on with the
incantation without it, and went away with a few piasters he had first
obtained as earnest money.
This man, as being at hand, was employed by the côoly or bailiff of the
village, one Nassr Allah, to find a purse of money which he had lost.
The Moor promised to do it, if Nassr Allah would give him forty paras.
“So I will,” said Nassr Allah, “if you will first tell me what sum was
in the purse lost.” The Moor would not venture upon this, happening
to have no clue. The parties, therefore, were at issue; and here the
matter ended.
When this anecdote was related to me, I was led to inquire what the
nature of inheritance was in the village. I was told that Constantine’s
son would take equal to the two daughters; and, if there had been no
surviving son, then the male first cousin or cousins take equal to the
two daughters. This law of inheritance is founded on the maxim that
females pay no miri.
Giorgio, the young Greek who was hired at Constantinople, had departed,
it will be recollected, with Mr. B., from Latakia, in November of last
year, and had obtained permission before returning, to go to his native
place, the island of Syra, to see his friends. He returned the 25th
of September. At Constantinople, he had purchased several curious
articles of dress for Lady Hester. And indeed the monastery, by little
and little, became almost too small to contain her collection of
costumes, in which were many things whereof any one, opportunely worn
in England by a lady of fashion, would have created both admiration and
jealousy among the fair sex.
Her ladyship now began collecting fresh people about her, intending to
make a journey to the ruins of Heliopolis, or, as it is called, Bâlbec.
Pierre had sent for a young woman from Acre, whom he recommended as a
useful servant. Her name was Werdy (Rose.)[113]
There is an occupation unknown in England, but which employs a great
many persons in Syria, where no such things as letter-mails exist: it
is that of foot-messenger to carry letters. These foot-messengers will,
for a stated sum, half generally paid in advance, and half on their
return with an answer, go to any distance. They travel with a good
thick stick, light trowsers and a jacket, bare-legged, and sometimes
without shoes. Their food on the road is often bread and water only,
sometimes with the addition of fruit, if in season, or of leben, if to
be had. They thus escape being plundered by carrying nothing to excite
cupidity; for a simple letter is not an object to tempt robbers.
I have said above that the village of Meshmûshy was surrounded with
vineyards. The grapes ripened under our eye, and we could eat to
satiety: so could the meanest peasant; and in this respect it must
be allowed that the lot of the poor in hot climates is preferable to
that of the like class of people in cold ones. I counted no fewer than
twenty-one sorts of grapes.
The vineyards at Meshmûshy, and elsewhere on the mountain, were planted
in rows; and the inequality of the ground, from the preference that
was always given to the sides of the hills, rendered it necessary to
support the soil at the foot of each row by a stone wall; and thus a
vineyard became a succession of steps or terraces, rising one above
another. The vines were planted among the stones of the walls, which
were not cemented.[114] They were carefully manured and pruned every
year.
Great quantities of wine were annually made at the monastery of
Meshmûshy by the monks; and, as the vintage happened this year whilst
we were there, I had an opportunity of being present at it. They
exposed the grapes, principally white ones, and for the most part of
a small white sort called _muksaysy_, seven or eight days to the
sun, with the stalks of the bunches turned upwards; as, the more the
stalks are dried, the better is the juice. At the end of eight days
they squeezed out the juice, by the naked feet, in a basket, through
the bottom of which it ran, or sometimes on a stone pavement on an
inclined plane, into a receiver, which is either a pan, or oftentimes
a hole sunk in the pavement. Those, who wished to have a dry wine, put
the juice, thus expressed, into large earthenware jars, which hold from
9 to 18 gallons or more, where it remained to ferment. At the end of
forty days the mouth of the jar was covered with a board fitted to it,
which was carefully luted round the edges. When wanted for drinking,
which is generally within the year, or, at the most, within two years,
the luting is broken, the lid taken off, and a portion every day laded
out for use.[115] Those who are desirous of having a sweet wine, put
the juice on the fire in a cauldron, and heat it short of boiling,
until a scum forms on the surface, which they take off. They then put
it in the same kind of jars for fermentation.
It was impossible, on seeing wine made, not to be shocked at the
dirtiness of the process, particularly in what regards the feet of the
persons who tread it, generally peasants. Were it done by Mahometans,
even of the lowest class, there would be nothing offensive in it;
because they use so many ablutions, that they are as clean in their
feet as their hands. But the Christians of the East partake with the
poor of European countries in the filth of their lower extremities.
This was indeed a busy season of the year for the mountaineers. At
the same time with the wine was made likewise _dibs_, called in
French raisiné, which in taste and appearance resembled treacle, and
formed an important article of food throughout Syria, more especially
among the middle and lower classes. On a pavement, either of stone or
hewn out of the rock, and on an inclined plane, surrounded by a ledge
about a foot high, vast heaps of grapes are thrown. These are trodden
by men with their naked feet, and the juice runs off through one or
more scupper-holes, perforated in the ledge, into pits or cisterns.
These pits are square, four or five feet deep, and plastered on the
inside so as not to leak. The husks of the grapes, thus trodden, are
afterwards submitted to a second operation. They are raked together
in a heap, and, being covered with a broad stone, a rude press is
contrived by means of a large trunk of a tree, one end of which is
thrust into a hole in the wall (raised for this purpose at the back of
the pavement), whilst to the other is fastened a heavy block of stone:
and the trunk or beam, being let down on the broad flag-stone, acts as
a powerful lever. The pressure, continued thus for some time, forces
out what juice remains; and the process is completed by one or two
washings, which they give to the husks, by means of water poured upon
them.[116] The juice, first being allowed to settle, is laded from the
pits into a large copper cauldron, placed over a furnace. It is there
boiled very quickly; and the scum, which rises abundantly, is taken off
by a man whose business this is, whilst the watery parts of the juice
are carried off in vapour. In a few hours the whole assumes a brownish
yellow colour, and, after a farther continuance of the boiling, becomes
of the consistence of oil or liquid honey, when it is put into the
receiver, where it cools, and is carried off to the houses in jars.
To these operations succeeded another, less laborious, which was the
curing of raisins. Such grapes as were considered most fit for the
purpose were gathered when quite ripe: these were the _muksaysy_
for the small yellow raisins, and the _cury_ for the black raisin.
A spot of ground was swept clean, and the grapes were spread out in the
sun, but were dipped previously in a mixture of ley with a little soap
and oil. On the second, third, and fourth days of exposure, they were
sprinkled (by means of a rod made of the herb _tyûn_) with the
same ley, but not soaked. After this they were suffered to lie night
and day until the drying was completed. This was the manner generally
practised on Mount Lebanon, and was performed by the wives of the
peasants; whilst the men made the wine dibs.
In the first days of November comes on the olive harvest. The first
part of the harvest consisted in collecting the windfalls. From these
olives an inferior oil was pressed. Then a second crop was beaten
down[117] from the trees with long sticks, and carried to the mills.
It was a pleasing sight, early in the morning, to see a whole village
deserted: men, women, and children, hastening with their asses and
baskets of provisions to pass the day in their olive grounds; although
the year was far advanced, and the weather, especially in elevated
situations like Meshmûshy, by no means warm.
With respect to olive grounds, some have trees of their own: others
hire, at a given sum, so many trees, and take their chance in the
harvest. That oil is best which is made by the process of boiling
the olives, when the oil separates and floats on the surface, and is
skimmed off by the hands.
The oil was pressed out in the following manner. The olives, collected
as we have above described, were thrown into a cylindrical hole, called
the tanûr, where the olives were completely smashed; certain iron
crosses were turned round rapidly by means of a waterwheel, whilst a
man, seated by the tanûr, with his hand dexterously introduced between
two arms of the cross, was continually employed in drawing out the
pounded olives. So prepared, this paste was put into the hollow of a
straw bowl, roughly braided into shape, until fifteen or twenty bowls
were filled. There was prepared a trunk of a tree (for the whole
apparatus is rough,) hollowed out like a tube, whose bore was exactly
the size of the straw bowls, but whose circumference was incomplete,
so much being left as was necessary for a lever to pass up and down.
One end of the lever had a piston, whilst the other was fixed, and
to the intermediate part a vast stone was suspended. The piston end
being unpinned, and let down on the pile of straw bowls, these were
compressed, and the oil oozing out, was received into the cistern
below. Thus, in twenty-four hours, a hundred weight of oil may be
obtained.
Nor did the fig harvest cause less bustle. Figs were gathered in the
morning, and laid to dry in the sun on stalks of _shumar_ and _fekua_,
plants like tansy. Each parcel required to be exposed five or six
days, and was then heaped into the general lump on the terrace, on the
house-top, where they were accumulated until the whole crop had been
dried. The women then boiled _zata_ (pennyroyal), _shûmar_ (tansy), and
_gaut_ or _gat_, and dipped the figs in the decoction, after which they
were again exposed to the sun; and, when dry, were put into jars of
sunburnt clay, where they were kept for use.
In some journeys, which I made backward and forward from Meshmûshy to
Abra, I had an opportunity of observing more attentively the valleys
through which I passed, and the soil of the country. From Abra to
Salhiah the road is level, the soil white and unproductive. Salhiah had
fifty houses, and a parish priest, who is also a weaver. Three steep
hills bring you to Ayn el Hager, opposite to which is the village of
Keffergerra, upon a hill. After a level of a mile you reach Libbâ, when
the road descends with considerable steepness into a valley, where is
a trickling rivulet, and a fountain with a basin for cattle to drink
out of. By a very steep ascent you come to Kefferfelûs, a village of
twenty-five houses, standing in the midst of a grove of olive and
fig-trees. From the left of the road you look down into a deep valley,
descending into which the colour of the soil changes from white to
red. Ascending through a low wood, by a path peculiarly difficult, you
come to Isfaryn, a hamlet of thirty houses without water. Here much
tobacco is grown, of a very superior quality, and greatly sought after
at Acre, Sayda, and Beyrout.
The road winds round to the left, through a wood of arbutus,
turpentine-trees, shumac, stunted oaks, &c., when, on a sudden,
it comes directly on the edge of a precipice, down which, to a
considerable depth beneath, you look on the river Ewely, here rushing
over a rocky bed in noisy and foaming cascades. Across the valley, on
the opposite mountain, are seen, in addition to the natural scenery,
the three large white convents, Dayr Mkhallas, Dayr el Benát, and Dayr
Saida, distant a mile or two from each other. Of Dayr Mkhallas some
mention has been made. Dayr el Benát is a convent for women, of which
there are two more on Mount Lebanon. The nuns are generally taken from
the lowest classes. They lead a laborious life, and, when not busied in
their sacred duties, are employed in spinning, weaving, trimming vines,
and the most menial occupations.
The road takes a direction, on a descent, to a level with the river.
Half way down is Iktály, a hamlet perched on a projecting rock. To the
left of it is Musrat el Tahûn, also a hamlet. Here, upon three or four
different occasions tempted by the beauty of the view, we pitched our
tents, until it was discovered that the miller, who owned the spot, had
made a clandestine use of Lady Hester’s name to obtain favours from
the Pasha of Acre, when she abandoned him. The rocks hereabout, which
are black and bare, look as if they had just emerged from the deluge.
The scenery, which succeeds to Musrat el Tahûn, is beautiful, when,
quitting the mountain, you traverse the vale of Bisra. The village
on the side of the vale is a striking feature in it, being built in
ascending terraces, which diminish as they rise, and are crowned by a
church. About half way through the vale there is a path by which the
mountain whereon Meshmûshy stands is to be ascended. Few places, which
are at all accessible to beasts of burden, can be more rugged and steep
than this. About half-way up begins a forest of firs, which bear cones
or apples, from which excellent kernels are extracted, and much used in
pastry and confectionary. They are called, in Arabic, _snobar_.
For the first quarter of an hour the appearance of the mountain is so
wild that one scarcely believes it possible to find habitations higher
up. You are however agreeably undeceived, when, quitting the forest
of firs, you come upon a small hamlet beset with vineyards, tobacco
fields, fig and walnut-trees. You now see above you the monastery with
its steeple, and your ears perhaps are saluted with the tolling of a
bell, always a pleasing sound among rocks and woods. One quarter of an
hour more brings you to a second flat, where stands the monastery: and
some friars were generally seen basking in the sun, and, for a moment,
forgetting their listless habits to stare at the passing traveller,
whose business they often unceremoniously inquired into, as necessarily
connected with nobody but themselves in this retired spot. A level path
through highly cultivated mulberry grounds, and occasionally under
large shady walnut-trees, leads to the hamlet of Meshmûshy; where,
close by the fountain, stood the house we lived in, so deeply shaded
by plane and walnut-trees that the weary pedlar or tired peasant was
invited to rest his limbs and to drink of the refreshing stream.
END OF VOL. II.
Frederick Shoberl, Junior, Printer to His Royal Highness Prince Albert,
51, Rupert Street, Haymarket, London.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Abulfeda’s description of it runs thus:--“The river, which flows to
Damascus, takes its rise beneath a Christian church, called El Faÿgeh,
and becomes at once a rivulet, which is increased in its course by many
other small springs. It then unites with a stream, called the Barada,
and forms one river, which, at its entrance into the plain of Damascus,
divides itself into six or seven branches running to the different
quarters of the town.” At this division there is a cascade, and an
inscription on the rock in Cufic characters, which Mr. Burckhardt told
me he had copied.
[2] These walls were known to the ancients, and called parietes
formacei. The same composition is still used at and near Lyons in
France, and called pisé: as also in Cornwall.
[3] The late Lord Guildford.
[4] How different from the opinion Lady Hester Stanhope afterwards
formed of him, when she knew him better!
[5] The fanaticism of the people of Damascus surpasses that of the
inhabitants of Egypt, since a European cannot, without danger, show
himself in the streets in the dress of his country, but is obliged
to assume the costume of the East. A Christian or Jew cannot ride on
horseback in the town: they are not permitted even to have an ass to
ride upon.--_Ali Bey’s Travels_, vol. ii., p. 273.
[6] This warning is generally made by the word _testûr_, which is
bawled out by a eunuch who precedes you as you enter the harým.
[7] She was without colour on her cheeks, and it would seem that rosy
cheeks do not form part of Eastern beauty. Lady Hester used often to
repeat a compliment which was paid to her own pale looks in Egypt.
“My white face,” she would say, “in this country pleases the people
amazingly, and the Turks consider the red faces of the English women
odious. Witness the story told of those who were left behind by the
English army after the expedition to Egypt in 1805, and were taken by
the Turks. Their new masters washed them and washed them, hoping to get
the brick-dust out of their cheeks; and, when they found it impossible,
they sent them about their business. Black women, the Turks said, they
knew and liked, and white ones; but red women they never heard of till
then.”
[8] In the plague of 1814, the bey’s wife and twenty of his household
died. Suliman Bey had the plague, but got over it. About a year
afterwards, he fell from the terrace of the house and was killed. Ahmed
Bey never recovered his spirits after these accumulated misfortunes.
[9] To this custom of looking out of one eye allusion is made in
Solomon’s Song, c. iv., v. 9. “Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister,
my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes.”
[10] Fathah, the opening chapter of the Koran.
[11] Dr. John Fiott Lee, F.R.S., of Hartwell House.
[12] Sir David Dundas.
[13] A term always used wherever the source of a rivulet is.
[14] Abulfeda speaks of Carah in the following terms:--“Among the noted
places is Carah. It is a large village between Damascus and Hems,
and serves as a station for caravans. Most of the inhabitants are
Christians.”
[15] Ali Bey says the mean breadth is fifty feet (vid. p. 209, vol. ii.)
[16] Abulfeda quotes Ebn Hokal, who says that “Hems is placed in a
most fertile plain, and that it is more healthy than any part of the
district of Damascus: he adds that neither serpents nor scorpions are
found there.... Not quite a mile from the town runs the river Maklûb,
or Oront, and upon its banks are orchards and vineyards.”
[17] “The lake Cades is from north to south almost the third part of a
day’s journey: and its breadth is that of the mound, which was built,
to the north, (as is reported) by Alexander, and which is 1287 cubits
long, and 18 in thickness. Were this mound destroyed, the lake would
cease to be. There are fish in the lake.”--(Abulfeda, p. 157.) Ebn Abd
el Hak gives a breadth of four miles.
[18] Abulfeda says 965 yards, or more than half a mile long.
[19] Ali Bey, (p. 275) speaking of the neighbourhood of Damascus, says,
“The labourers or villagers in general are in easy circumstances ...
if, under these burthens, this class of people are rich, what would
they be under a just and liberal government?”
[20] Of the dishes was one for which, whilst in Syria, I always
retained a great liking. It is sour milk curdled, called leben, into
which cucumber is cut, with grated mint leaves sprinkled on the surface.
[21] Mention is made of this lady in the Memoirs of Buonaparte,
published by Las Cases, vol. 3, part v., p. 148.
“The Emperor said that he renewed at Turin, in the person of Madame
de Lascaris, the gracious gallantry exercised at Troyes; and that,
in both instances, he had reason to be gratified with the fruits of
his liberality. The two families gave every proof of attachment and
gratitude.”
[22] For farther information respecting this extraordinary man, the
reader is referred to the “Souvenirs de l’Orient,” of M. de Lamartine.
What Lady Hester first thought of him may be gathered from an extract
of a letter she wrote to a friend.
“I have met with an extraordinary character here, Monsieur Lascaris de
Vintimille. He is certainly flighty, but has considerable talents, and
a perfect knowledge of the Arabic language; he is extremely poor, and
very active. Should he fall into the hands of the French, we might in
future have reason to repent it; at present he is quite English, and it
might be worth while to keep him so. In the _Chancellerie de l’ordre
de Malte_, and likewise in the hands of l’avocat Torrigiani, are all
the papers which refer to his family and to his _humble claims_,
which are merely a little pension that he may have bread to eat--he
does not look to more. Now you are settling the affairs of this kind,
it might be worth while to consider and represent this subject to
government, as it would ensure them an agent in parts where few persons
could live--I mean upon the borders of the desert; and I can assure
you, this in future would be of great importance; for the Arabs are now
so strong, as hardly to be managed by the pashas; besides, it would be
a great act of humanity to a once great man. The French are sending
agents in all directions (at an immense expense) into the desert, and
why do not we do the same?”
[23] A mustaby is a piece of solid masonry, about as high as, and twice
the breadth of, a bench, built generally at the street-doors of houses
for men to sit on and smoke, or wait, or sleep.
[24] So the tribes of the Bedouins are collectively called which range
the desert in the rear of the midland part of Syria, leading to Palmyra.
[25] It may be worth mentioning that a servant, whom I employed for a
few days at Damascus, was a poet, and had written many verses, some of
which Shaykh Ibrahim (Mr. Burckhardt) bought as specimens of modern
Arabic poetry. There are no Mecænases at Damascus, or it may be he was
no Horace, for he was in great poverty.
[26] This tribe is spoken of in Niebuhr’s travels, as pasturing in his
time on the shores of the Persian Gulph at Sehat el Arab; unless there
are more tribes than one of the same name.
[27] It is to be observed that this journal is given as written
from day to day, with recent impressions upon me; but, as I became
acquainted, with the country and the people, many of these impressions
on maturer reflection were considered as erroneous. I ought likewise to
observe, that I have considerable doubt of the accuracy of the names
of places in this journey to Palmyra, because I wrote them down by the
sound, and had no one to give them to me in writing, a method I always
pursued, for the sake of correctness, wherever it was possible.
[28] M. Lascaris thought they had been Roman camps; but that these
tels had once fortresses upon them may be collected from a passage in
Abulfeda, (Tab. Syr. p. 24) who, speaking of Tel Basher near Aleppo,
styles it “The fortress Tel Basher.”
[29] I extract a description of Nasar and his father from the Travels
(I think, for I have lost the reference,) of Captains Mangles and Irby.
“Mahannah, his father, was a short, crooked-backed, mean-looking, old
man, between 70 and 80 years of age, dressed in a common sort of robe:
his son, Narsah, (Nasar) to whom he had in consequence of his age
resigned the reins of government, was a good-looking man about 30 years
of age, with very dignified and engaging manners.”--P. 261.
[30] Subsequently, the Wahabees, having been defeated by the son of the
Pasha of Egypt, were compelled to quit the holy cities of Mecca and
Medina, and the pilgrimage was again performed. The camels that were
furnished by the Bedouins were as follow, according to a memorandum I
took from the mouth of one of Mahannah’s people at the close of our
journey:--Nasar’s tribe, 1,000; Dookhy Weled Aaly, 1,000; El Hawáreh,
2,500; Ismaar Shaykh Gerud, 400: Tuláa, Chief of Suchay, 1050; Regeb,
Selim, and Abas, shaykhs of the villages of Caryetayn and Hems, a
proportionate quota.
[31] These bludgeons are what an Irishman would term a shilalee, with a
round knob at the end: they are called Nabût.
[32] I was on one occasion witness, whilst in the Desert, to the
setting of the leg of a sheep, which had been accidentally broken.
This was effected by means of two splints of rough wood. To save
the animal from injury in walking, a network, consisting of ropes
passed lozenge-fashion, as is sometimes seen on jars in England, was
contrived, so as to go round the sheep’s body, and the sheep was then
slung on one side of a camel, where it was carried in a state of great
suffering. Whether it recovered or not I could not learn.
[33] It is affirmed by many travellers that the Bedouins travel by
the stars by night, and they are all made out to be astronomers; but,
by night, they can obtain a general notion of their direction, as any
common person will do in any country, and by day they rely on landmarks
only. They know the use of the compass, and were only surprised at the
one I showed them, in our second journey, on account of its smallness,
being one of those which are of the size of a crown piece.
[34] This observation is not to be taken in its full extent as far as
regards places on mountains; for there the sudden chill of the air,
after the sun’s rays are withdrawn, condenses the moisture elevated
from the plains, and as suddenly checks the perspiration. Hence it
has happened to me, in Syria, to find intermittents prevalent in very
elevated spots, where not even a pool or a level spot was to be found
for leagues around; arising (certainly not from marsh miasmata, but)
from the sudden effect of cold on open pores, which, after all, is
probably the cause of intermittent fevers in marshy situations, owing
to the damp cold which they generate, rather than to any specific
quality in decayed vegetable matter.
[35] Rings of silver, worn just above the ancle in the manner that
bracelets are worn above the wrist. The bracelets and jamblets are
generally one solid ring, not tight, but moveable up and down. They are
passed on the arm or legs, generally in youth, by soaping the extremity
of the limbs, and by repeatedly rubbing them upwards until the rings
slide over, where they remain until death or until they are filed off;
for they scarcely can be removed in any other way.
[36] I learned here the composition of an excellent sweet sauce for
hare, which was made by pounding stoned raisins in a mortar and boiling
or stewing them in chopped onions and butter, putting in the raisins
when the butter and onions are first stewed. It is then kept over
the fire for a few minutes, and is scarcely to be distinguished from
currant jelly.
[37] This Fathallah afterwards assumed the quality of a dragoman, and,
from a MS. furnished by him, M. de Lamartine drew up his narrative of
M. Lascaris’s adventures.
[38] M. Lascaris remained but a very short time in Palmyra. After a
variety of reverses, he died of a fever in Egypt five or six years
afterwards.
[39] I have in vain made researches on different maps after some place
to which these ruins might belong. Mr. Burkhardt had told me that there
was a temple in ruins on Gebel el Abiad; but I was now far away from
that mountain.
[40] In the fourth chapter of Ruth--“Boaz said unto the reapers--The
Lord be with you: and they answered him the Lord bless you.” This is
exactly the salutation of the Christians to this day: Allah mâkûm:
Barak Allah. The salutation of the Mahometans is different: that
is Salám alëikûm, Peace be unto you--and the reply is Alëikûm el
salám--unto you be peace. The observance of this rule is so strict that
if, in entering a room where Mahometans alone are seated, a Christian
should presume to make use of the Mahometan salutation, they would not
reply to him. We may infer that, when Mahomet first established his
new religion, he endeavoured to draw a line between his proselytes
and the Jews and Christians. Thus their day of worship was neither
instituted on Saturday nor Sunday, but on Friday: so he appears to have
appropriated a mode of salutation to them. Circumcision he did not get
rid of, because he claimed to be a descendant of the patriarchs who had
instituted or adopted it.
[41] They are used for this purpose in some places even now. If the
reader happens to have in his library Dr. Clarke’s Travels in Syria, he
may amuse himself by reading the Doctor’s lucubrations on these holes,
which are (as much of his conjectural learning is) somewhat ridiculous;
yet, as such, they were more read than the dictates of common sense
would have been.
[42] Mûly is explained by prince, captain, lord, or patron.
[43] Yahyah Bey, of the house of Adam; the principal people of the
place were branches of this family.
[44] Besides, she had to fear the attacks of the Faydân, a powerful
Bedouin tribe, at war with the Anizys, and whose superiority had been
established in a recent battle, of which mention has been already made.
[45] Her ladyship’s real motive for not going to Aleppo was the fear of
the Aleppo tetter, which attacks strangers, and often disfigures the
face.--See Russell’s Aleppo.
[46] The butter generally used throughout Syria is made by the Bedouin
women in the spring, and brought in skins, on camels, for sale to the
principal villages and towns on the confines of the Desert, whence it
is carried to all the inhabited country, and every good housewife lays
in a store for the year. To do this, the butter must have, of course, a
great deal of salt in it; and, as butter is only used in cookery, its
salt flavour does not deteriorate it. But the great difficulty Lady
Hester had to contend with was to procure fresh butter for breakfast,
and she consequently had to teach her maids to make it, without a
churn, and without all the requisites for such a purpose. This was a
fatiguing business with servants, who never showed any anxiety to learn.
[47] This dance was just such as is represented in the plates to Mr.
Belzoni’s work on Egypt, published 1820; and I think he has mistaken a
funereal ceremony for a dance of recreation.
[48] The ancient Salaminias.
[49] I should conjecture Jarryat Theap, were it somewhat more south,
to be the _Centum Putei_. It is proper to observe, that little
reliance can be placed on the names of places in this journey. They
are spelt as they sounded to my ears when pronounced by the Bedouins,
and were written down at the time. But, when it is considered that the
Bedouins give entirely different sounds to the letters of the alphabet
from what is customary in the towns, it is impossible not to have
committed many errors where the words in Arabic were unknown to me.
[50] The Faydân were said to have 2,000 tents.
[51] Charlotte, wife of George III.
[52] Abulfeda, p. 105.
[53] Our sufferings on the journey were, after all, not very severe.
Oxley, in his Researches in the interior of Australasia, underwent
more; for, as he relates, about June the 1st, he found no water for
thirty-six hours either for his people or horses, with a want of
herbage likewise; but then he had no great heat to contend with.
[54] See pp. 215 to 222 of Mr. Salt’s Travels, for a comparison of
the sum paid by Lady Hester to go to Palmyra, with that paid by Mr.
Salt at Arhecko, to get to Gondar, where, after all, he never arrived.
Chateaubriand pretended that it cost him 5,000 piasters to go to the
Dead Sea.
In another book of Travels, published about 1829, I find the following
passage; the author is speaking of Mahannah and his son:--“After much
prevarication, during which they endeavoured to make us pay for the
camels extra, they at length consented to our terms, as they said, for
the love of the Malaka or queen, for such they were pleased to call
Lady Hester, who gave £500 for this trip. Had we paid them as much
money, no doubt, they would have called us two kings; for, like the
Nubians, flûs, (money) is their idol.”
[55] The yzzár is a covering of white calico or cambric muslin,
precisely of the form of a sheet when spread out, which is so put
on as to envelop the whole body, and is worn by every female of any
respectability throughout Syria. It is called likewise setarah and
melaêah.
[56] Generally the legs of the culprit are passed through two nooses on
a bar, which bar is held up at the two ends, the sufferer being on his
back. This bar is called falak. Mr. B. on one occasion, being justly
offended at the neglect of his groom, sent him to the governor, with a
request that he might be punished: but the governor refused to do it,
unless paid for it.
[57] In confirmation of this position, let us see what an English
gentleman says, who, in relating what he saw in Egypt, was evidently
not aware that Turkish women of any degree above paupers never bathe in
_cold_ water, and always use the hot baths of their own houses,
if they have them, or of the city in which they reside. “At the end
of the garden farthest from the palace, the pasha is amusing himself
in erecting, round a large artificial sheet of water, an enclosed
colonnade, with several apartments connected with it. In the centre
of the colonnade, is a chamber with a large balcony for the use of
the great man himself, from which he will enjoy the singular, and in
Turkey alone not indelicate pleasure, of seeing his ladies bathe,
and frequently, when he orders it, splash each other with water, and
play various other pranks for his amusement.” Diary of a Tour through
South India, Egypt, and Palestine, by a Field Officer of Cavalry, p.
238. Hatchard, 1823. Now, without having seen the sheet of water in
question, I will venture to say, that, so long as there continues to be
water in the basin, not a woman will ever bathe in it. The balcony is a
place intended to sit and smoke in, and the water to contribute to the
coolness always so eagerly sought after in such climates.
[58] As soon then as it is known that danger of infection threatens,
people shut themselves up in their houses, lay in a stock of provisions
of every kind, admit nobody to enter, and suffer nobody to go out:
for which purpose the master of the house keeps the key of the street
door. A Turk, (and some one is always to be found among the poor) for
a small gratuity, purchases and brings every day meat, vegetables,
and such things as form no part of the dry stock. All letters are
received in vinegar, or over the fumes of nitre and sulphuric acid, or
of assafetida, or of burnt feathers and the like. All cats are killed.
Bread is aired for a day before being used: meat and vegetables are put
in water to soak, and the hairs, &c. are carefully picked off by small
tongs. Where a family is large, and has a spacious house or garden,
there are no great hardships: as there is only the confinement and the
interruption of business to complain of. But they fall very heavily on
the poor, whose labour is suspended for so long a period, sometimes six
months or more, and who are thus reduced to the miserable alternative
of dying of the plague or of hunger. There is one great disadvantage
resulting from the strictness of these regulations. No doctor can visit
such as are infected; for, if he do, all other patients will refuse
him admittance to their houses. If he be a stranger, and consequently
a lodger, even the door of his own house would be shut against him.
Hence no researches can be made on the disease, no experiments tried:
and, excepting what light the French expedition in Egypt may have
thrown on it, and the experiments of a few devoted men in the hospitals
at Constantinople--mankind is no wiser than it was an age ago. In
a word, the plague makes about as much impression in Turkey as a
malignant epidemic in England. Its ravages are generally confined to
the Mahometans, whose system of fatalism allows them to make use of few
or no precautions against it; although there are many who do not hold
so strong to their principles but they would willingly shut themselves
up if they dared. But the zealots of the Mahometan religion immediately
cry shame upon them, and thus compel them to submit to their destiny.
Such however have a strong struggle between their fears of death and
the dread of imputed dereliction of the tenets of their holy prophet.
[59] When he leaneth on my hand.--ii Kings, v. xviii.
[60] History of Insects, order _Trichoptera_.
[61] Abulfeda, who lived not far from Calât el Medýk, and most likely
had often been there, describes these inundations as permanent. His
words are--“The lake of Apamea (Calât el Medýk) consists of innumerable
small pools and reed banks: but of these two are most remarkable, one
to the south and one to the north. That to the south is more peculiarly
called the Apamean lake, and is nearly half a league broad, but nowhere
deeper than the height of a man. The soil is boggy, the banks are
hedged with reeds and osiers. The papyrus is found here. The other lake
is called the lake of the Christians, because the fishermen who live on
it are chiefly of that religion. It is four times as large as the first
mentioned.”
[62] The grass near our tents was rich to rankness, and of the height
of a man. This vale once fed 500 elephants and 30,000 mares. (See
Strabo, l. xvi.)
[63] In the preface to the second volume of Burckhardt’s Travels in
Syria, the discovery of the site of Apamea is attributed to that
gentleman, who was not, however, active enough to go in search of
the ruins, which are not difficult to find. I, unluckily, was not
aware that these ruins had not been seen or described by any modern
traveller, and therefore did not make so correct an account of them as
I otherwise should have done. The situation does not accord entirely
with Strabo’s description. He says (l. xvi.)--“Apamea stands in a level
hollow, as it were on an island, made by the Orontes and two adjoining
lakes.” Strabo argues that it was once a very great city, because it
was called by the Macedonians Pella, and Pella was their capital. For
Apamea, see also Sozomeni Hist. vii. 15. Pococke says (because he did
not chance to hit on these ruins)--“Upon the whole, it is not certain
where Apamea was situated.”
[64] These hills extend from Calât el Medýk to Ryah.
[65] Colonel Boutin, a Frenchman, was assassinated soon afterwards, in
these very mountains, in consequence of quitting the high road.
[66] “In summer the inundation subsides, but the lakes remain, and to
the quantity of stagnant water thus formed is owing the pest of flies
and gnats above mentioned.” Burckhardt’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 135.
[67] It appears that at the distance of bow-shot from Shogr there was
another castle.
[68] Laodicea, as I conceive. Josep. de Bel. Jud., i. xxi., relates
that Herod built an aqueduct near this spot.
[69] Or Sehyûn (Abulfeda, p. 122). This is called by him an impregnable
fortress, and one of the most celebrated in Syria. In the neighbourhood
is a valley where grows an abundance of fruits.
[70] “The news that a foreign hakým or doctor was passing through the
country was very soon spread abroad, and at every halt our camp was
thronged with the sick, not only of the village near to which we were
encamped, but of all the surrounding villages.” Morier’s Second Journey
through Persia, p. 52.
[71] It was built by Seleucus Nicator, and named after his mother
(Strab. i. xvi). Formerly it was famous for its vineyards, which
occupied the hills behind the city.
[72] Abulfeda speaks of this building (p. 113). “In it (_i. e._
Ladakyah) is a monastery ... called El Farûs, a beautiful structure.”
[73] “Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither
was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore
fruit.”--Amos, vii. 14.
[74] Kumrukgi, the collector of the customs and captain of the port.
[75] I observe, in a recent publication, however, that an Egyptian
pasha caused several Arabian chiefs at Sennāar to be impaled. These
were Mahometans, and therefore my assertion is not quite correct.
[76] It was remarkable that these words were said to me by a man who
was so like me in person, that I once had been spoken to for him, even
by the fanatic shaykh, who, finding his mistake, went away repeating
“Istagfar Allah--deliver me, Lord:” _i. e._ forgive me for having
given the selàm to a Christian instead of a Mussulman.
[77] Vide Gibbon, vol. x., p. 103, 8vo.
[78] Ebn Hani is probably the site of the ancient Heraclia.
[79] One motive for going to Sayda was to prosecute a search for hidden
treasures at Sayda and Ascalon, of which an account will be given in
its proper place.
[80] We had been out shooting francolins two days before, and, after
being much heated with walking, I had seated myself on the edge of the
river to wait for Mr. Barker, whom I saw coming up. I there received a
check of perspiration, to which I attributed my illness.
[81] This gentleman afterwards changed his name to Kinneir, and is
author of a volume of travels in Asia.
[82] _Hadj_, a pilgrim; _hadjy_, feminine.
[83] Mount Cassius, near to Seleucia.--Str. l. xvi.
[84] Of all the maps of Syria which I have yet seen, that of
d’Anville, or more particularly that portion of it which he calls
the map of Phœnicia, is the one chiefly to be relied on. Recent maps
have generally been drawn up, with supposed corrections after late
travellers; d’Anville seems to have drawn up his from a comparison of
both modern and ancient authorities, and no subsequent geographer has
equalled him.
[85] There is another Nahr el Kebýr close to Laodicea, which must not
be mistaken for this, situated a little to the north of Tripoli.
[86] For the truth of this, I appeal to those letters written by her to
Mr. Coutts, the banker, at this period; to his grace the late Duke of
Buckingham; to the Honourable General R. Grenville; and to others.
[87] Upon some occasions, where land was newly appropriated for
tillage, it was customary for the peasants to draw lots for particular
parcels, these having been first staked out by the head men of the
village.
[88] Tanûr, in Arabic, means a large earthenware jar, as big as a
barrel, but deeper, which, let into the ground up to the rim, is
heated within by brushwood or brambles, and serves to bake bread. It
is generally covered with a shed, and serves for the use of all or a
portion of the village, according as there is one or more. It is in
this way I conceive that the passage “or ever your pots be made hot
with thorns” is to be explained, by brambles thrown into the tanûr.
[89] C’est une chose terrible, que, depuis que les femmes se mêlent
de faire des enfans, elles ne savent pas encore accoucher toutes
seules.--_Mem. et Corresp. de Madame d’Epinay_, p. 272.
[90] “And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, and he said,
when ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them
upon the stools,” &c.
[91] Funem umbilicalem nunquam ligant, nisi retardetur secundarum
disjunctio; quo in casu, funem, cultello divisum, parturientis femori
nodo annectunt: nec memini, per tres annos, quibus hoc pago commoratus
sum, ullam feminam hæmorrhagiâ mortuam esse.
[92] Extract from Let. xxiii. of a work entitled “Letters of a Prussian
Traveller;” Sayda, Sept. 1814.
“The day before our departure, the French Consul introduced us to a
Christian in the Levantine costume,” (Damiani) “who, during the late
war, acted as interpreter to Sir Sydney Smith, and is now major-domo to
Lady Hester Stanhope, who, for several years past, has been travelling
in the Levant. He informed us she was in a convent near the Drûze
mountains, where she had been confined by indisposition, from which,
however, she was fast recovering. When this lady visited Sayda, she
wore a Turkish dress, and rode an Arabian charger, to the astonishment
and admiration of the Turks, who hold her in the highest estimation;
and we heard, in many places, that she was actually imagined to be an
English princess.”
[93] Franks, of course, decline performing this ceremony.
[94] I was generally in the sepulchre, from ten in the morning until
four in the afternoon, and was obliged to have three assistants, two
holding candles, whilst a third sponged the paintings, as I copied
them, in order to bring out the colours, which method I learned from
Mr. Bankes. Every thing was begun and completed on the spot, nothing
being worked up at home; a custom too common with some persons, whose
recollection is made to supply the place of reality.
[95] The sepulchre shown as that of Our Saviour at Jerusalem, as well
as that of Nicodemus at Bethlehem, is of this kind.
[96] It was found near the spring which supplies the village of Abra
with water. A French gentleman, at that time residing near the village,
heard of the circumstance as a matter of gossip among the servants of
his house, but too late to save it. It had been broken to pieces by the
peasant boys, who attached no more value to it than to a common piece
of useless pottery. A gold ring and a pair of ear-rings of the same
metal were in it, and were sold to the goldsmiths of Sayda, who melted
them down to make more modern trinkets.
[97] “Near it there are many sepulchres cut in the rock; some of them
like stone coffins above ground: others are cut into the rocks like
graves, having stone covers over them.”--_Maundrell._
[98] “The chests were carved on the outside with ox heads, and
wreaths hanging between them, after the manner of adorning heathen
altars.”--_Maundrell_, p. 11, f. ed.
[99] A flat tablet, once in my possession, was found, together with
the earthenware coffin, near Abra spring. I could not gain correct
information as to the position which it occupied.
[100] I have found among my papers the copy of an inscription which I
believe to have been taken from one of them. It is as follows:
ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΣΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΥΦΙΛΙΟΣ
ΛΕΟΝΙΔΟΥΑΛΥΠΟΙΧΑΙΡΕΤΕ.
[101] Maundrell seems to have thought that they were calculated for
places of security, for he says (page 117, Oxford, 1732, 8vo.)--“We
were carried ... to see a place ... which very well deserves a
traveller’s attention. At about the distance of a mile from the sea
there runs along a high rocky mountain, in the side of which are hewn
a multitude of grots, all very little differing from each other. They
have entrances of about two feet three quarters. On the inside you find
in most of them a room of about four yards square, on the one side
of which is the door, on the other there are as many little cells,
elevated about two feet above the floor.... The great doubt concerning
them is whether they were made for the dead or for the living.”
[102] Maundrell bears testimony to the neat workmanship of places of
this description in Syria. He says, “But, within, you arrive in a large
and fair room about seven or eight yards square, cut out of the natural
rock. Its sides and ceiling are so exactly square, and its angles so
just, that no architect, with lead and plummet, could build a room more
regular, and the whole is so firm and entire that it may be called a
chamber hollowed out of one piece of marble.”
[103] Pauca adhuc dicenda restant de floribus, coronis, et sertis
variis, quæ in hoc multisq: aliis sepulchris picta et sculpta
reperiuntur. Nimirum pertinet ad morem veterum Romanorum, à Græcis
derivatum, non solum coronandi mortuos suos, sed etiam sepulchra
eorum quotannis honorandi sparsione florum, rosarum, et unguentorum;
quoniam existimabant hæc defunctis esse gratissima. Mos hic adeo erat
receptus, ut quidam, moribundus, hæredes suos, in tabulis testamenti,
officii hujus præstandi necessitate adstringeret; ingenti pecuniæ
summâ huic fini destinatâ. Quod testantur, non solum auctores Græci
et Latini, sed etiam--inscriptiones et ornamenta sepulchralia, quæ,
ut hodieque ex antiquis monumentis apparet, ex coronis, sertis,
frondibus, et floribus, constabant. Neque solum præcipiebant ut sibi
quotannis rosis et odoribus parentaretur, sed etiam, eum in finem, sibi
comparabant hortos, sepulchris suis vicinos, ut ex illorum reditibus
parentalia ille fierent: quod ex sequenti inscriptione colligitur.
Long: Patrollus, secutus pietatem col: centum hortos cum ædificio huic
sepul. juncto vivus donavit, ut ex reditu eorum largius rosæ et escæ
patrono suo et quandoque sibi parentaretur.--Forma usitata est in
antiq: inscrip.--Ut quotannis rosas ad monumentum ejus deferant. Rosæ,
minirum, præ omnibus aliis floribus in maximo habebantur pretio. Sed,
&c.--Vid. eod. vol. _De jure manium_ à Jacobo Gutheri, lib. 2.
cap. xxviii.
Again,--Porro solenne fuit antiquis Græcis et Romanis cænas ferales
apparare statis et anniversariis sæpe temporibus, cùm in honorem ac
memoriam defuncti, tùm ut per vini cibique lenimen ejus desiderium
levaretur. Petebat autem stulta gentilitas mortuorum animas ab inferis
reduces iis vesci et delectari.
[104] The provisions for the monastery were:--4 kilos of borgûl; 75
rotolos of oil; 2 cwt. of figs; butter, dibs, raisins, wood, and
charcoal in proportion: also flour, rice, &c.
[105] I chanced afterwards to hear the same ballad sung on other
occasions, but I remarked that those who sung it always arranged
themselves in file, and assumed an attitude such as is seen on Egyptian
monuments, where all the arms and legs have the same position.
[106] “And here we may remark that, in our minds, the notion is
altogether ill-founded, which attributes a preventive efficacy
in cases of fever to certain drugs; such as camphor, aromatic
oils, and perfumes, which are probably all of them worse than
nothing.”--_Quarterly Review_, No 54, for Oct. 1822, p. 527.
The names in Arabic for the plague are webá, the plague; cubbeh,
a cupola, as marking the shape of the swelling; (Koubeh and webá,
or vebi, are terms now used to designate the plague.--_Brown’s
Travels_;) also el derebeh el tâaûn, which was the term most in use;
el fená.
[107] Sir James Porter, in his _Letters from the Levant_, speaking
of the importation of silk during the time of plague (page 446), says:
“We may safely affirm that the plague scarce ever rages in those parts
of the country where silk is--namely, at and about Antioch, at Tripoli,
and Latakia. An accident may indeed appear once in fifteen or twenty
years.” Is it possible that an ambassador, residing in the capital
of the empire, and enabled by his situation to procure every kind of
information he might desire, should yet have taken up with notions so
diametrically opposite to the truth! although it must be confessed,
that those who can afford it do build themselves huts of canes and
branches of trees, in which they rear their worms; and the reason of
this is, that the smells arising from cooking, and other offensive
odours, may not, as was the case in my fumigation, kill the worms.
[108] Ayn means spring, and Ayn Bisra means Bisra spring. Who would
think that Maundrell contrives, out of these two words, to make
_Ambuslee_, which he gives as the name of the village?
[109] These families are all descendants of four brothers, who fixed
their residence here about a century ago, promising to till the
neighbouring slopes, upon condition of being exempted from all taxes.
The head of the family, named Jahjáh Abu Yusef, and who had given
up his house for us, pretended that he still retained the firman,
or grant, although the emirs of the Drûzes had encroached on the
privileges granted by it. Hence they were now compelled to pay the
miri, or tax for sown land; but their houses were still free from
land-tax.
[110] I bought of one, for three shillings, a powder-horn, made
with his own hand.
[111] Fakhr-ed-dyn flourished in the reign of Sultan Murad. He was
fourth emir of the Drûzes. In March, 1816, I visited this castle, in
company with Mr. W. Bankes.
[112] I believe there was an Athenian law of the same nature, on
which the incidents of one of Terence’s comedies are founded.
[113] Service in Syria is the last resource of the wretched, but not
all kinds of service; for that of a great family is often considered as
very desirable for youth of both sexes. There was also a peasant lad
hired, named Elias, concerning whom I learned the following anecdote.
His mother, when in childbirth, fearing her situation to be dangerous,
had made a vow to St. Athanasius on the Mountain, that, if she
survived, not a razor should touch the head of her offspring until she
had made a pilgrimage to his shrine, distant about five days’ journey
from Meshmûshy, where she lived. Poverty prevented her from fulfilling
her vow; and the boy arrived at the age of 7 or 8 years, a period at
which it is considered as disgraceful not to have the head shaved: for
it is the custom in the East at that age to leave only a small lock on
the forehead, in the same way as the head of old Time is represented
by painters. So, to get over the difficulty, she made use of scissors,
affirming that she had sacredly kept her vow; for scissors were not a
razor. “Avec le ciel il y a des accommodements.”
[114] The appearance of vineyards in Syria and in the Pays de Vaud
in Switzerland is precisely alike. The manner of cultivation likewise
seemed to be the same.
[115] For lading, a calabash is generally used, which is a species
of pumpkin, which, when dried, has had its pulp and seeds scooped out,
and becomes fit for the purposes of a ladle.
[116] Three quintals of grapes are necessary to make one quintal of
dibs, which sells at one pound per quintal.--_Burckhardt_, p. 156.
[117] “When thou beatest thine olive trees, thou shalt not go over
the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and
for the widow.”
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
original.
3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.
4. Superscripts are represented using the caret character, e.g. D^r. or
X^{xx}.
5. Italics are shown as _xxx_.