CHAPTER XVI.
Dayr el Kamar—Palace of Btedýn—The Shaykh Beshýr—Mukhtâra—The Shaykh Beshýr’s wife—His palace—- Rivalship of the Shaykh Beshýr and Emir Beshýr—Horns worn by the Women—Mercenary hospitality of the Emir—Drûzes eat raw meat—Butrus or Pierre—Mr. B. attempts to see a Khalwa or place of worship of the Drûzes—Shaykh el Okal—Cure for rabid animals—Libertinism punished with the bastinado—Mr. B. goes to Aleppo—Aleppo bouton—Departure for Damascus—Presents distributed—The Cury Marûn—Sedition at Damascus—Siege of the Citadel—Disdar Aga strangled—River Ewely—Village of El Barûk—Ayûn el Bered—Chokadar sent to escort Lady Hester—Turkish harým travelling—View from the summit of Mount Lebanon—River Letanus and plain of the Bkâ—Palma Christi oil—Jub Genýn—Gebel es Shaykh—Anti-Lebanon—Springs—Sepulchres—Vultures—Village of Demâs—Chalky soil—Rocky plain—Distant view of Damascus—Garden walls—Salhéah—Damascus—Courtyard of the palace—Haym’s brothers—Simple manner of doing business—Ejectment of a family from their house—European dress not seen at Damascus—Danger for a woman to go unveiled—Lady Hester’s entry into Damascus.
Dayr el Kamar—Palace of Btedýn—The Shaykh Beshýr—Mukhtâra—The Shaykh Beshýr’s wife—His palace—- Rivalship of the Shaykh Beshýr and Emir Beshýr—Horns worn by the Women—Mercenary hospitality of the Emir—Drûzes eat raw meat—Butrus or Pierre—Mr. B. attempts to see a Khalwa or place of worship of the Drûzes—Shaykh el Okal—Cure for rabid animals—Libertinism punished with the bastinado—Mr. B. goes to Aleppo—Aleppo bouton—Departure for Damascus—Presents distributed—The Cury Marûn—Sedition at Damascus—Siege of the Citadel—Disdar Aga strangled—River Ewely—Village of El Barûk—Ayûn el Bered—Chokadar sent to escort Lady Hester—Turkish harým travelling—View from the summit of Mount Lebanon—River Letanus and plain of the Bkâ—Palma Christi oil—Jub Genýn—Gebel es Shaykh—Anti-Lebanon—Springs—Sepulchres—Vultures—Village of Demâs—Chalky soil—Rocky plain—Distant view of Damascus—Garden walls—Salhéah—Damascus—Courtyard of the palace—Haym’s brothers—Simple manner of doing business—Ejectment of a family from their house—European dress not seen at Damascus—Danger for a woman to go unveiled—Lady Hester’s entry into Damascus.
We remained at Dayr el Kamar until the 26th of August. During this time Lady Hester paid a visitto the Emir at his palace at Btedýn. Great preparations were made for her reception. When there, the whole day was taken up in viewing the apartments, drinking sherbet, smoking, and eating. The palace is destitute of beauty. It is new, but irregular, having no two parts alike, and built by additions made as fancy or convenience suggested, and money and leisure permitted. The Emir presented Lady Hester with a handsome horse, richly caparisoned.
A visit was next projected to the Shaykh Beshýr, a Drûze by birth, and in consideration not inferior, among his own sect, to the Emir himself.[84]He dwelt at Makhtâra, a considerable village, distant three or four hours from Dayr el Kamar, in a district abounding in vines, olive, fig, and mulberry trees, tobacco, &c. He possessed the power of life and death,emanating nominally from the Emir, but in truth totally independent of him.
He was married to a beautiful woman, and had by her some very pretty children. It would naturally be supposed that the chief of the Drûzes must be enrolled among the âakel, seeing that they claim a superiority over the jahel. But it was not so; nay, he was even excluded from their body by the duties of his situation, which obliged him to drink coffee, smoke tobacco, use money raised by taxation, (which in the code of the âakels is not permitted) and to partake in many more worldly indulgences than they allow. His wife, not called to the exercise of public duties, was a rigid âakely: but, although there was so wide a difference between the supposed piety of these two, still I did not find that the family harmony was interrupted by it. His palace, like that of the Emir, was new, and of his own building. It stood in a very conspicuous situation, and may be seen some miles off in several directions. It was particularly celebrated for its fountains, and streams of crystal water, which traversed every apartment, giving a most agreeable freshness in the hot months of the year. This water was brought from the river Ewely, almost close to its source, by an aqueduct of the Shaykh’s construction.
He generally ate and drank, even at his own table, of such things only as he knew to be prepared particularly for him. Poisoning is often in the thoughtsof Eastern chieftains, no doubt; for they cannot but be an object of jealousy to their rivals, who are scarcely their superiors in power and influence.[85]
The Drûze women affect a singular ornament, worn on the head, and called by travellers the horn, though not made of that substance. The Arabic name of kern is sometimes used for it, as also that of tontûra and of tassy. I endeavoured to learn the origin of this ornament, but was obliged at last to satisfy myself with an etymological signification drawn from my own conjectures. Tassy signifies a drinking-cup, and a drinking-cup in the East (for water, at least) is generally shaped like an English decanter-stand, and is made of silver or tinned copper. A cup inverted, of precisely this shape, is worn in some places (as in Sayda, Beyroût, &c.,) on the women’s heads, and is possibly the original and old-fashioned form, which the fancy of some might have changed for a deeper cup, when we should have the resemblance of a large tumbler or the tontûra. In process of time, this, by continued elongations, would be brought to its present shape; or an intermediate generation might effect the change to a bell form, as worn still by the women of Botrûn. I have said the tassy is made either of silver or tinned copper, and bythe very poor of pasteboard. When of the long sort, it is fastened on by a handkerchief, that goes under the chin, and by another round the forehead. The women sleep with it on, and only pull it off when in the bath or when combing their hair, which is but rarely. In some villages the horn is worn perpendicularly, in some horizontally, in others at an angle between the two. But this is not done indifferently; for the Catholics, it is said, affect one way; the Maronites, another; and the Drûzes, whose distinguishing emblem it more properly is, another. No traveller, who passes hastily through the mountain, can get a woman to show her horn to him: as it is a greater breach of decorum to unveil the horn than it is the face.Nothing can look more ugly than it does without the veil; but, with it on, the appearance becomes graceful.
DRUZE WOMEN.
DRUZE WOMEN.
The dress of the Drûze women generally consists of a blue gown, open in front (excepting where it is buttoned at the waist) and ill-concealing the neck and bosom, which, so industriously covered by European women, are here shown with the utmost indifference. The horn, if of silver, is more or less chased, or even studded with precious stones. It seems contrived to hang the veil upon, which is, in some districts, white, in some black, and of linen or silk according to the wearer’s means. It gives great beauty to the folds of the veil, and adds much majesty to the figure. From the hair behind fall down three silken cords, to which are suspended three silk tassels, about ten inches or a foot long, red or black or blue or green according to the custom of the district. A pair of embroidered trowsers, a shift hanging out of the trowsers, and a pair of yellow shoes, make up the costume, which is both graceful and (saving the horn) convenient. A woman of respectability, instead of a blue gown, wears satin and over it a cloth vest.
Our table was entirely supplied by the Emir, one of whose cooks was established in a house adjoining our residence; and nothing necessary to housekeeping was allowed to be bought. It was hinted, however, by one of his emissaries, that he expected at Lady Hester’s departure a present equivalent to all the expenses he had been at. This insinuation, accordingto the usages of the country, was neither to be considered unreasonable nor indecorous. Hospitality on so large a scale has something princely in it: but it loses all its merit in an Englishman’s eyes from the dishonourable sentiment which is rooted in every inhabitant of Turkey, from the Grand Signor down to his lowest subject, that they may look for a return of the same or of greater value than any favour which they confer: and, shameless on this point, where it is not given, they fail not to demand it. We have been somewhat circumstantial on this subject, because Eastern hospitality has become proverbial, and is, by most persons, supposed to be gratuitous; we shall often have occasion to show that it is not always so.
There was nothing which engaged Lady Hester’s attention more than the peculiarities of the Drûzes: and, among other things, she was desirous of verifying what she had heard of their feeding on raw flesh. Accordingly, on an appointed day, a sheep was bought, and notice given that such Drûzes as chose to partake of it would be welcome. A spot was fixed on for this extraordinary feast about half a mile from the burgh, and the time appointed was at the close of the day, when the inhabitants of Eastern countries generally make their fullest meal. I accompanied her ladyship. The sheep was killed, blown, skinned, and cut up: and, whilst yet reeking, was placed before the people assembled. As they knew wherefore they were invited,they probably added a few grimaces of pretended voraciousness to their customary manner: but the fact was well established before us that they eat mutton raw as we do when roasted. It may be observed that the sheep was of the large-tailed breed; and the tail itself, although a mass of fat, was cut into mouthfuls, and swallowed with the same avidity as the fleshy parts.[86]
My servant Jachimo, bearing in recollection the flesh-pots of Egypt, had been induced by the Mamelukes to accompany them back. On my arrival at Dayr-el-Kamar, a thin, lively, dirty-looking man had offered himself to replace him. He was named Butrus Abu Ayûb. In the early part of his life he had made a voyage to Marseilles, where he had learned Provençal and cooking: and he now presented himself as a person equal to the multifarious functions of a cook, valet, and interpreter, and dubbed himself Pierre. As this man was more or less a servant in the party for seven years afterwards, it is necessary to premise thus much concerning him. Among the various scenes of his motley life, he had been an under-interpreter, and then a subaltern officer, in Buonaparte’s Syrian army, and knew more anecdotes, he said, of that great manthan he chose to tell me—enhancing the value of his communications that they might attract the notice of Lady Hester, who was so much amused with him that she soon afterwards took him for her cook.
Mr. B. had resolved in his own mind to obtain a sight of the secret worship of the Drûzes: and, one day, in riding out, he contrived to approach very near to a khalweh. There was some danger in the experiment, and he had been warned of the jealous seclusion of that people when in prayer. The event justified the caution. The Drûzes, who, as it is customary, were hanging about the precincts of the building to keep watch, immediately drove him off, with many expressions of dissatisfaction at his intrusion.
I went one evening to the only bath there was in the place. During my ablutions, the Shaykh El Aâkal arrived for the purpose of bathing also. He is the chief of the initiated Drûzes, and is held in much veneration by his sect, as his learning and exemplary life alone procure him his elevation, which is founded on no positive titular rank, but solely on consideration. He would not enter the vapour chamber until I had quitted it, for he would have been defiled by so doing.
The Mountain occasionally produces men and women who acquire considerable celebrity for the cure of diseases. At this time, there was a woman at Kilfair, near Hasbeyah, who had an antidote for the bite of rabid animals. The Emir in conversation hadsaid that on the Mountain grew a plant, called Abu Mensheh, which was entirely efficacious as a cure for the bite of a mad dog. A Turk in 1815 died of hydrophobia at Sayda: I saw him just before his death; but the virtues of the plant, Abu Mensheh, were not relied on in his case.
I was one day entreated by a Christian in the service of the Emir to go and look at his favourite mare, dying, as he said, of the cholic. I found her lying down, and occasionally, by violent kicks, groans, and pitiable looks towards her belly, denoting the severity and place of her sufferings. The remedies usual among the Syrians, and mentioned in the case of Selim’s horse, which died on the road from Nazareth, had been ineffectually tried: I bled her in the neck, and ordered repeated clysters (both these remedies being not in use in farriery, among the Syrians), and I succeeded in curing her.
Once, when at dinner, soon after our arrival, we were alarmed on hearing the loud cries of a man beneath the window of the room where we were sitting. It overlooked the market-place; and a culprit was undergoing the chastisement of the bastinado. He made frequent appeals to her ladyship’s pity, whom he knew to be within hearing, by the epithet ofmelekyor queen, a title she now generally went by. The dragoman, M. Bertrand, strongly solicited her interference to suspend the punishment, and to obtain hispardon, which, by the received usage of Eastern nations, could not be denied to a guest. But Lady Hester immediately told him to desist from asking such a thing: for, she said, she saw no merit in interrupting the course of justice anywhere, and least of all where she was not acquainted with the nature and degree of the man’s crimes. We afterwards found that he had been detected in visiting too frequently, and at unseasonable hours, a woman whose character was stigmatized as disreputable: and it appeared that the Emir exerted unusual severity in guarding the morals of the women.
Mr. B. resolved, about this time, to make a journey to Aleppo. It was not unlikely that the fear of the Aleppo bouton[87]deterred Lady Hester from going also: the more especially as she rejected a second and more favourable opportunity for visiting this beautiful city. Her avowed reason was her dislike to Levantine Franks, a race of people neither Turks nor Europeans,and against whom she always inveighed with much acrimony. But my own conviction as to the real motive of Lady Hester Stanhope’s route to Damascus at this time was, that she had already formed a scheme of visiting, by herself, the Bedouin Arabs, and which she afterwards put into execution. It will be seen that, at Damascus, she contrived a plan for keeping me away also, and threw herself on the protection of the robbers of the Desert, alone and unescorted.
Mr. B., accompanied by his dragoman, M. Bertrand, set off by the direct road for Aleppo; and, a day or two afterwards, being the 27th of August, we departed for Damascus. Her ladyship previously distributed presents to the different persons who had been employed in her service during her stay at Dayr-el-Kamar. Of these presents, it may be well to enumerate a few, to exemplify the manner of paying for one’s entertainment in a gentleman’s house in Syria. To the Emir himself were sent 2,000 piasters in money, equal to £100, half of which he kept and returned half; to his chief secretary, the efficient director of the detail of most of his measures, a piece of Aleppo brocade, worth about 200 piasters; to his deputy, a stuff of less value. The maître d’hôtel, cook, and other servants, had their vails, each according to his station. There was one person, whom I have omitted to mention, who yet was a chief actor in all transactions during our stay here. On the day of our arrival, this gentleman was deputed to receive us atthe mansion-gate, and signified that he should be always in attendance to execute Lady Hester’s commands. He was a respectable-looking Maronite priest, who had been educated at Rome, and spoke Italian with considerable purity and fluency. As he was often at a loss how to dispose of his time, I was indebted probably to his ennui for frequent conversations in my room, to which he came to loiter away the day. The information which he gave me chiefly regarded the people and country around us, and is already embodied in this journal.
We were four days on the road to Damascus, a journey generally of two: for, besides the advantage of seeing more leisurely the country as we proceeded, we were anxious to assure ourselves of the tranquillity of the city before we entered; news having reached us that civil warfare was raging between a newly-arrived pasha and a rebel disdar aga, or commandant of the garrison. Sayd Sulimàn, formerly Selictár Aga or sword-bearer to Sultan Selim, had been appointed pasha of Damascus, and had recently arrived to take possession of his new dignity. The military commander, I know not upon what grounds, refused submission to his new master, and, throwing himself into the castle with the troops under his command, assumed a posture of defiance.
So weak was the citadel, as scarcely to deserve to bear the name. Its chief protection was a ditch, and the want of cannon on the part of the assailants. Wewere told that three six-pounders were the artillery planted to batter in breach. Persons accustomed to the scale of warfare in European countries will laugh at these pigmy sieges; but it is of use to detail them, as illustrative of the politics of the country, and to show, when heretofore Buonaparte advanced with such rapid strides through Syria, what were the castles that retarded his progress.
As little resistance was made on the part of the besieged, who were picked off as fast as they appeared on the battlements, the citadel was taken, and on the following morning the aga was put to death. It was said that, from some fear of resistance on his part, he was strangled by throwing a noosed cord over his head, conveyed unperceived behind him through the gratings of his prison window; the end being drawn tight by two soldiers placed ready on the outside for that purpose.
It will not be out of place to mention here that the notions entertained in Europe, of the manner of putting to death by the bowstring, are extremely erroneous. It is supposed that a condemned person submits to his fate without a murmur, and kisses the sentence that announces to him his doom. But repeated inquiries lead me to affirm that it is otherwise, and that Mahometans seldom die magnanimously by the hand of an executioner: they often utter piercing cries, or else, a prey to despair, become insensible: the executioner generally stabs or shoots them first,and then, if not quite dead, strangles them with the shawl snatched from his head, or with the girdle from his waist, or with the first rope at hand.
We left Dayr el Kamar on the 27th of August, and, uncertain of the tranquillity of Damascus, our journey was far from a hurried one. The road lay along the sides of the mountains, sometimes approaching to the tops, sometimes descending towards the valleys. After an hour’s march we came to the edge of a precipice, at the bottom of which is a deep valley, well planted with mulberry-trees, through which runs, with considerable rapidity, the river Ewely, of which mention has been already made as emptying itself at Sayda. Farther on we passed a village, beyond which our course, hitherto north-east, took a northerly direction, and we kept along the edge of a valley until we reached El Barûk.
El Barûk is a populous village, situated about 300 yards from the sources of the river Ewely, which, rising in four or five springs, form immediately a stream capable of turning a mill. This stream runs through a small valley, entirely embosomed among the mountains, so that, on every side, the view is bounded, at the distance of two or three hundred yards, by precipitous rocks. This valley, unlike the other parts of the mountain we had passed through, is of a fine soil, and not stony: numerous rivulets, sometimes directed for the culture of the ground, sometimes running neglected along, increase the fertilityand beauty of the place: melon plants were crawling across the very road on which our horses trod, and fruits of all the sorts that were in season at the time were hanging luxuriantly around: but, as this spot is much elevated above the level of the sea, we found few of them as yet ripe. The village, built a few yards up the mountain, overlooks the plantations. Its inhabitants are chiefly Drûzes, with a few Christians and some Moslems. Vineyards surround the village. Colonel Boughton, an Englishman, had left some recollections of his passage through this place, and the villagers spoke much of him.
The cold and crystal sources of the river Ewely have obtained a name for themselves independent of that of the river, being always spoken of as Ayûn el Bered, or thecold springs. The evening air was very chill: our tents were pitched close to the springs on a green plot of ground which the dampness of the spot and the fogs of the mountain keep in perpetual verdure—the situation was altogether picturesque.
In a general view of that part of Mount Lebanon over which we had passed, it appeared to me, that the summits and sides of the different chains of which it is composed were for the most part arid, rocky, and thinly studded with trees; whilst in the valleys, and more especially in those which had a river running through them, there was much fertility and verdure. But the mountaineers seemed not to choose these valleys, however fertile, for the sites of their villages, butto prefer the slope or summit of a mountain; the reason for which I conceive is, that the great heats of summer are tempered by the constant breezes from the sea; besides, that their commanding situations, sometimes very difficult of access, serve them as a means of defence in troublesome times.
Scanty as the soil was on the heights, the mountaineers had, by their industry, turned it to great advantage. The population of a given number of square miles, taken anywhere on it, was not exceeded by the number of inhabitants, on an equal space, in the plains; the cause of which was owing, in a great measure, to the protection which Christians enjoyed from the Emir Beshýr, who, if not himself a Christian, which some dared openly to affirm, made no distinction between them and his Drûze or Mahometan subjects.
I had forgotten to mention that, previous to quitting Dayr-el-Kamar, Lady Hester had written to apprize the pasha of Damascus of her purposed visit to his capital. In answer, she had received a courteous invitation; and a chokadàr, or page, the bearer of it, was commissioned to be our conductor to Damascus. He was shivering with cold at this place, as he sat smoking his pipe, cross-legged on his carpet, in front of his tent. He nevertheless wore two pair of thick cloth breeches, two pelisses, and other clothes in proportion. He was however good-humoured, and amused us.
On the following day, we mounted by a very zigzagpath to the summit of Lebanon. For three hours the ascent continued with different degrees of acclivity over a stony and rocky soil. Nearly at the top, we met with a Turkish harým, or, in other words, the female part of a Turkish family. The order of their march, and the manner of their equipage, will give a general idea of the mode that women adopt in travelling in this country. First of all, upon two mules, covered with saddle-bags or wallets and small carpets, sat astride two female black slaves, veiled. A leathern bottle of water hung down by the side of each of their pack-saddles: two muleteers walked by the side of them. Next followed a stout mule; on each side of which was suspended an oblong box, tilted, large enough to hold one person seated with his legs doubled under him. In one of these sat the lady, and in the other her two children, squatting on their hams, and whose weight seemed to balance hers. Each step of the mule gave a vibrating or swinging motion to the boxes, and the sensation must have been that of a rickety boat on a short sea. Behind came several mules with luggage; and the whole was closed by a chokadàr, or confidential servant, who generally accompanies the women, and is most times an elderly man.
We gained the summit of the mountain; and, after traversing a somewhat level surface for a couple of furlongs, with little patches of snow lying here and there wherever they were sheltered from the southernsun, we began to descend. At this part, the mountain was thinly covered with low firs. Suddenly we came upon a glade, where the extensive view of the plain of the Bkâ broke upon us, bounded to the east by the Anti-Lebanon, whose bare and craggy sides ran parallel to the mountain on which we were. Before us was the lofty summit of Gebel el Shaykh, covered with everlasting snow. The fertile plain beneath our feet presented a surface variegated with yellow and green; having low hamlets scattered about, and now and then a considerable village. Throughout its whole length, but nearer the Lebanon than the Anti-Lebanon, ran the river Casmia (the ancient Leontes, or Letanus), which takes its rise beyond Baâlbec; towards whose ruined temples we turned our eager eyes, and indistinctly beheld them, although at thirty miles’ distance, as they reflected the rays of the luminary in whose honour they had been erected.
Having halted at noon, after a rest of four hours, we renewed our journey, descending by a rapid zigzag path. The cook, with his horse, fell over a small precipice, but without sustaining any injury. When we had reached the plain, we came to the village of Keferea. We conceived ourselves to be still on very high land, as we had descended from the summit in so short a time in comparison with that which it required to ascend it. We quickened our pace to reach the village of Jûb Genýn, where wewere to encamp that night. Here for the first time I beheld the Palma Christi, or castor-oil plant, cultivated in fields as we sow beans in England, and now about two or three feet high. The berries were nearly ripe, and, as I learned, would soon be harvested for the purpose of extracting the oil; which is done by roasting them in the same manner as coffee, and afterwards boiling them. The oil floats on the surface of the water, and is skimmed off. This oil is used for lamps only, its medicinal properties being, nevertheless, not unknown to the natives; but when called into use it is customary to administer one berry in substance, which acts as a most violent and uncertain purgative.
After one hour’s march from the foot of the mountain, we reached the village of Jûb Genýn, and encamped on a spacious greensward, close to a bridge which crosses the river. On the opposite bank is a piece of ruinous masonry, which is called a caravansery. The village itself is beautifully situate at the distance of half a mile or more from the bridge, and on a rising ground, at the foot of Gebel el Shaykh. The village looked somewhat large and respectable, and excited my curiosity so much as to induce me to go and examine it. It proved to be half in ruins, from the effect of pillage and desertion, to which it had been subjected more than once in the contentions between the Emir of the Drûzes and the pasha of Damascus. The greatest part of the plain of theBkâ belongs to the Emir of the Drûzes; so that we were yet within his territory, and consequently his officers caused provisions of all sorts to be brought to us.
We departed next day in the usual manner; and, in the afternoon, reached the foot of Anti-Lebanon, into which we entered, by a winding path and by a very gentle ascent, through valleys surrounded by low mountains: and, in two hours and a half from the time of our departure, we encamped at the village of Ayta, noted for its pottery. The village might contain about fifty families, who wore the appearance of squalid poverty.
On the 30th of August, early in the morning, I quitted the party, accompanied by one of the chokadàr’s soldiers and my groom, Ibrahim, in order to precede Lady Hester by a day and prepare a house. For two hours I continued still winding through the mountains, which by degrees became lofty, totally uncultivated, and very abrupt. At the distance of one hour from Ayta there is a small spring of water, and three hours farther there are two or three springs, which unite and form a rivulet. Close by the rivulet are the ruins of a caravansery, and, on the adjoining mountain, some patches of a wall that once, apparently, belonged to a castle. Excavations in the rocks mark out, likewise, the mansions of the dead of earlier times. A flock of vultures, perched on the pinnacles of the rocks, testified who were the present tenants of this wild spot. Caravanssometimes, as we could see by the traces they had left, had been tempted to make this place a station, and might have enlivened the scene with momentary bustle: but now a mournful silence reigned around.
A little further on, we passed close by the village of Demás, on our left. The small stream, which took its rise near the caravansary, had continued its course to Demás, where it was diverted into trenches to irrigate several gardens. The mountains now changed their appearance, and the soil, from a sandstone, became chalky. Demás looked like a miserable village. Some women, who were coming out of it, were remarkably tall.
At a quick foot-pace, we pursued our way, and, in fifteen minutes, entered a plain, which proved to be about six miles across, totally rocky and barren. At the extremity of it was a rivulet, and here commenced the orchards and gardens of Damascus. Throughout the whole plain the rock had been of a gray stone: the soil became again chalky, and the gardens, with the stream running between them down the valley, formed by their verdure a singular contrast with the whiteness of the hills. Following the course of the stream, we came soon afterwards to a river, where the adjoining grounds were in a still higher state of cultivation. Upon its banks stood a small village, called Dymmásh. Here we crossed a rickety bridge about a dozen feet over, close to which was a water-mill, and now began to ascend a mountain,whence my guide told me I should see the city of Sham.[88]At the summit stands a sanctuary, built in memory of some holy Mahometan, and by it is a spring of water, which is said never to fail. I was somewhat amazed at this my guide’s assertion, when I saw that we were some hundred feet above the plain, and on the ridge of a mountain: but I was less surprised, when, on looking around, I beheld another mountain top, still higher, at no great distance, communicating by a sloping ridge with that on which I was.
It was on the 30th of August, in the afternoon, that, as we came upon the brow of the mountain which overlooks Damascus, the view of that beautiful city and its environs broke upon me. I was much struck at the sight. The plain of Brusa had hitherto dwelt upon my memory as the richest scenery I had ever beheld: but I now did not hesitate to consider this far beyond it. Descriptions, when best painted, although they may come home to the imagination, must necessarily be fallacious: I shall therefore forbear enlarging upon it.
Having indulged a short time in the pleasure which the view afforded, I descended the mountain, and soon arrived among the orchards and gardens. These are all enclosed by mud walls, of considerable thickness and durability, which would have made the road somewhat monotonous, but for the overshadowing branchesof the fig, mulberry, apricot, and other fruit-trees, with here and there rich festoons of vine-branches clustered with grapes, which most agreeably diversified it.
In a large suburb, called Salhiah, were the first houses we approached. A broad paved road, evidently Roman remains, gave an impression of grandeur to the entrance of the city, which the streets, upon advancing farther, were not calculated to maintain. They were narrow, mean, and unpaved, obstructed with filthy puddles and unseemly ordure.
I came to the quarter of the city where the Christians live, and alighted at the house of a gentleman to whom I was recommended. He told me I must go in person to the serai, or governor’s palace, where I should immediately be furnished with an order for a house. But his tribulation was excessive when he heard that I intended to present myself to the governor without a benýsh, or coat of ceremony.[89]He begged me to wear one of his, and dwelt much on the necessity of not appearing before him in a dusty riding-dress: but, as I was not then acquainted with the extreme punctiliousness of the Turks, I declined his offer.
Accompanied by my guard, I rode strait to the palace, and entered a spacious courtyard. Neighing steeds were picketed in a row on one side of it: andgaily dressed officers and attendants were smoking in the corridors above them. Busy faces were seen crossing and re-crossing the area of the court, whilst everything argued the presence of a viceroy.
I dismounted at the door of the seráfs, to whom the letter I bore was addressed. These seráfs, or bankers, were Jews, the brothers of that Mâlem Haÿm Shäaty, of whom so much has been said, under the head of Acre. I was shown into a little room, about twelve or fourteen feet square, where I found Mâlem Rafaël, squatting, cross-legged, with an inkstand only before him, transacting the affairs of a large province. The apparatus of desks, tables, records, journals, and all the necessaries of a public office in England, is here almost unknown; nor are books and papers lying in confusion round an official person a necessary mark of business. Mâlem Rafael despatched some other matters, and then took my letter and read it. He said some civil things, and told me to follow him. We went into an adjoining office, a larger room, where sate the kakhyah, Ibrahim Pasha, the pasha’s prime minister. We stood before him for a while, when the Jew desired me to be seated, and remained standing himself. Some discourse, in a low tone, passed between him and the kakhyah, after which the Jew beckoned me to follow him out. We returned to his own room, and he desired a servant to lead me to a house in the Christian quarter, which was destined fur us. I here left my guide, the soldier, telling him to come in a dayor two, and claim his reward for his trouble. The house was a very good one: indeed one of the best in the Christian quarter. Being very much fatigued, and it being now late, I dined, and retired to rest.
As I was furnished with an order for turning out the inhabitants of the house, they saved me the pain that such a proceeding must necessarily cause, by removing themselves and such little articles as they wished to take with them to an adjoining street, not without expressing much discontent.
September 1.—I rode out of Damascus to meet Lady Hester.
The reader is aware that, throughout the East, women, above the level of peasantry, dare not go unveiled. It is therefore always with sentiments of contempt that European ladies, who may chance to visit or to reside at the seaports of the Ottoman Empire, are beheld by the natives when they are seen unveiled out of doors. But the protection afforded by consuls, on the one hand, and the necessity of being on a good understanding with the Frank merchants, from whom they gain so much, on the other, together with other causes, induce them to tolerate the custom. It is not so in the interior, where the intercourse is less; and it was an opinion then current in the Levant that no man even could venture to appear at Damascus, the inhabitants of which place were considered as most bigoted, in European clothes. Lady Hester, therefore, needed no little courage to undergo the trial thatawaited her. A woman, unveiled, and in man’s attire, she entered in broad daylight one of the most fanatic towns in Turkey.
From the moment of quitting Dayr el Kamar, the Turkish chokadàr had once or twice hinted to Mr. Bertrand, the interpreter, that it would be necessary for her ladyship to veil herself on entering Damascus, otherwise the populace might insult her. Mr. Bertrand, moved by his own terrors, did not fail to back the chokadàr’s opinion, and was utterly dismayed when he understood, from her own mouth, that she should brave public opinion, dressed as she was, and by day. I think it was at this time that she began to wear a fine Bagdad abah, or mantle, which Mrs. Rich[90]had sent her. About four in the afternoon the cavalcade which consisted of fifteen or eighteen horsemen and as many loaded mules, reached the suburbs, where I met it as it advanced. The people gazed at us, and all eyes were turned towards her ladyship. Her feminine looks passed with many, without doubt, for those of a beardless youth. More saw at once that it must be a woman; but, before they could recover from their astonishment, we had passed on. Thus we arrived, followed by a few boys only, at the Christian quarter of the city, and went to the house which had been prepared, as above mentioned, for her reception.