CHAPTER VIII.

Departure from Hamah—Encampment on the bank of the Orontes—Transformation of aquatic to winged animals—Vale of the Orontes—Calât el Medýk—Bridge and village of Shogre—Topal Ali makes himself independent of the Pasha of Aleppo—Singular application of a Jewess—Poverty of the inhabitants of Shogre—Visit to Topal Ali—Gebel el Kerád—Beautiful Scenery—Tribe of Ansáry—Lady Hester stays behind among them—Latakia.

On the 10th of May, Lady Hester and Mr. B. left Hamah. A sick servant, the Emir el Akhûr, who was dismissed from his place, but to whom I was willing to render service as long as I could to put him out of danger, kept me one day after the rest had departed. On the 11th I quitted the suburbs at noon. The road seemed to lead aslant to the chain of mountains which is seen west of Hamah, and which, by a pocket compass, as well as the distance would allow, I found to run north by east, and south by west. The country was cultivated and the soil rich, like that to the south of Hamah. I was accompanied by a servant and a muleteer, with his mule to carrymy luggage. At three o’clock we came abreast of Shayzer, where is a castle, which, from the distance I saw it, seemed to have been a place of great strength. This place is the ancient Larissa, built at the confluence of some stream with the Orontes, which is described in Abulfeda as falling from a mound fourteen cubits high. This mound is called El Kherteleh. Here we turned short to the right, and arrived at a bridge over the Orontes or Aâsy. We crossed it, and in a few minutes reached the spot where Lady Hester was encamped, on the right bank of the river, and whence, at the moment, the baggage-mules were setting off for the next station.

Her ladyship was not yet on horseback, nor was her tent struck, and Mr. B. was asleep on a bank by the river-side; so I dismounted, sending my servant and muleteer forward with the rest, and I sat down by the side of the Orontes, at an elbow of the stream, which formed an eddy, where hundreds of small fish of the size of shrimps were playing on the surface of the water. They attracted my attention: over them numbers of a kind of butterfly were skimming about.[60]A shoal of large fish was mixed with the small fry, not seeming to devour or harm them; but whenever any of the butterflies incautiously touched the surface of the water, they were immediately swallowed up by them. Observing more closely, I saw that the business of these butterflies was to fastenthemselves, by means of two long trailing feelers which grew from their tails, to the head of the little fish swimming in the water; then, exerting all the force their wings gave them, they pulled and pulled until by degrees they extricated another animal like themselves from the filmy skin which had just now covered it. No sooner was it at liberty than, flying to and fro, the newly metamorphosed one, now a butterfly, seemed to seek to perform the same office for another fish. Many were eaten by the large fish in the very act of shedding their skin, and as many escaped to be devoured afterwards.

I caught one of the butterflies. Its body was an inch long, covered with circular scales one line in breadth and of a golden colour; the wings were of a blackish dove-colour; the head, which was small and black, was furnished with two curved horny antennæ, seemingly for defence; the tail, besides the two trailing feelers, which were two inches long and jointed, and which, as it flew, draggled in the water, had a double-horned and curved forceps like those on the head.

Near the bridge of Shayzer were several Arab encampments, but I did not learn the name of the tribe. They were shepherds, and paid tribute. Their huts were made of reeds, which they, however, principally occupy in winter, quitting them in summer for tents.

We did not leave this place until six o’clock, when the sun had lost its power, and the air was somewhatcooled. It soon grew dark, so that I saw nothing of the country through which we passed. At nine we arrived at Calât el Medýk; and, descending a hill into the valley below the village, we reached our station in about half an hour. As it was late, and the tents were already fixed, we dined immediately and retired to rest: but the musquitoes were exceedingly troublesome, owing to the low marshy ground which the tent-men had chosen for the encampment, and which made me dread, moreover, the worst consequences for the health of the party. The grooms, in the morning, said that the horses had been much bitten by the flies during the night.

Daylight enabled us to examine the spot where we were. About six or seven hundred yards to the north of us, and at the very extremity of the ridge of a jutting hill, stood Calât el Medýk, a village enclosed in a ruinous fortress. This hill is the termination of a chain of some loftier ones which seemed to run to the north: but the view was so bounded, that their direction and extent were uncertain. Between the encampment and the castle, at the foot of the hill, stood a large quadrangular caravansery, handsomely built, but falling, from neglect, into ruins. To the north and by west, and to the west, extended a spacious vale, bounded on the west by lofty mountains, which seemed about two leagues distant from us, and are inhabited, as we shall afterwards see, by the Ansárys. On the east the vale is shut in by the hills abovementioned.The valley near us, and as far as the eye could see, had now the appearance of a fenny marsh, full of small lakes, formed by the inundation of the Orontes.[61]

The Orontes could be seen at first running north-west, and then winding along the foot of the Ansáry mountains. The vale, where not overflowed, was highly verdant.[62]I walked up the road by which we had descended the preceding evening, and found it to be through a steep defile. At the top of the hill, I turned off to the left towards the castle. Calât el Medýk is a piece of indifferent masonry of no great antiquity, though built probably anterior to the use of cannon: it has been repaired at different times, and there are only patches of the original structure. By these it seems to have consisted of a vaulted rampart,surmounted by battlements, enclosing a space of sufficient size to contain, as it does at present, several habitations.

CALAT EL MEDYK.

On the north-east side of the castle I was fortunate enough to discover what I conjectured to be the ruins of the ancient city of Apamea.[63]The walls are inpart still standing, and their extent might easily be measured. There are the remains of a long colonnade running nearly north and south, which must have been extremely grand. The pillars are of the Corinthian order, all fallen, but in several places lying in ranges as they stood. The stones of which the edifices were composed are of very large dimensions, but less so than those of Palmyra, and of an inferior quality of stone, seemingly quarried from the hills in the environs; for the effects of the atmosphere were strongly marked upon them, showing them to want hardness. There are severalspiralfluted columns, which seem to have belonged to a temple. Within the walls are two small eminences, but too diminutive to have been the sites of fortresses. What buildings stood on them, or what purposes they served, I could only conjecture. Apamea was built by Seleucus Nicator, and named after his wife.

There are many bee-hives at Calât el Medýk, which resemble in shape our earthenware chimney-tops; they are made of clay, baked in the sun. I tasted the honey, but it was not particularly good.

We left Calât el Medýk at half-past two in the afternoon. On quitting Hamah, Muly Ismäel had assigned us a guard of two Delibashes.

The road now lay at the foot of the hills to the east of the vale;[64]for it would have been impossible to keep a north-west direction, the point of the compass towards which Latakia lay, owing to the many lakes there are in the vale; and, had not that obstacle existed, prudence forbade, at any time, the crossing the Ansáry mountains, unless by the usual road, as no security is afforded for the traveller out of it.[65]

A few minutes after three we came to a fine spring of water, issuing from the foot of the hill, which fed a number of pools to the left of us. The name of this spot is the Shreah Water. A short distance before arriving at it were two stone uprights, parts of a gateway of some large building, of the same style of architecture as the ruins of Apamea. Due west of the Shreah Water, about two miles, is Gemmyah, a hamlet of Arab huts, the inhabitants of which live by fishing. They spear the fish; and one of our soldiers informed us that so abundant are fish in the Orontes, and in the small lakes, that it is sufficient, after dark, to thrust a barbed spear into the water, to bring out one every time.

We pursued our way, and at every little distance encountered a rivulet crossing the road, issuing as before from the foot of the hills, which were now terminated by a low precipice. These springs were so copious as to form pools, and the waters of all of them were very clear. Some, we were told, were tepid, but those we tasted were not so; we did not, however, try them all.

Towards sunset we passed a Tel or conical mound, differing in nothing from those seen in the desert; our guides called it Tel el Amjyk. I had quickened my pace for the last two hours, in order to superintend the encampment myself, and to avoid the torment of the musquitoes by placing it on high ground: but when I had chosen it, the cook grumbled at being far removed from running water, so that, at half-past seven, we halted at another spot, Tel Kely-ed-dýn, close to a fine spring. During the whole of the day the flies had rendered the horses almost unmanageable; and we were half inclined to believe the assertion we had often heard made, that, during autumn, cattle were sometimes stung to death by them in this vale.[66]The grass hereabouts was so luxuriant, that a horse could not in twenty-four hours consume more than what he covered as he stood. During these first daysnone of the animals had any corn. Clover and sweet herbs were mixed with the grass. We thought it strange that hay was never made of it, considering how abundant the grass grew; and we easily conceived how Seleucus fed here so large a number of elephants and mares—if indeed elephants eat grass.

In the course of this day’s journey we observed several patches of an ancient paved road. The country, we were told, had no robbers hereabouts, and we slept in perfect security. We indeed saw, at every little distance, small encampments of Arabs, but these are stationary, and live by their flocks. They make rush mats, which are in request for fifty miles round.

It was near two o’clock when we left Tel Kely-ed-dýn; for Lady Hester found the heat so intolerable that she would not stir earlier. This used to vex much the two guards, who, thinking themselves qualified to instruct us how to travel in their own country, were constantly enforcing the necessity of rising early and of travelling in the cool of the morning, so as to reach betimes our evening station, and thus to enable the tent-men to pitch by daylight, as their work was exceedingly difficult to do in the dark. This counsel was very good but very useless, as Lady Hester would not change her hours for anybody; excepting on our return from Palmyra, when prudence perhaps got the better of her habits.

It was near four when we came to Tel Ketýn, from the top of which I observed, by compass, that ourcourse, during the morning, had been S.S.W. ½ S.: looking onward it was N. From Tel-Kely-ed-Dýn the hills on the right had receded considerably, forming a half-moon, the centre of the curve being due E. of Tel-Ketýn. After quitting this Tel, the appearances of a paved road were very manifest for half a league, during which we continued on it; until, inclining to the left, we struck across a most fertile plain, nearly covered with corn-fields, and abounding, where uncultivated, with grass four feet high, intermixed with clover. About seven, we ascended a small eminence, from which the Orontes again became visible, winding at the foot of finely wooded mountains. We descended once more, and arrived in half an hour at the bridge called Geser el Shogr, where we pitched our tents on a green plat of ground close by the river.

The Orontes here is not broader than at Hamah. In its broadest parts, thus far, it scarcely exceeds the Isis at Oxford, and does not seem deeper, but is much more rapid. There are numerous islets in and about it, but fewer gardens than at Hamah, owing to the height of its banks, which renders it impossible to make a wheel with a diameter sufficient to dip. The town of Shogr is miserable and poor; yet its situation, commanding the bridge of communication across the Orontes and the great caravan road from Aleppo and Hamah to the coast, makes it a place of considerable importance. It is a dependency of the pashalik of Aleppo: but Topal Ali, an officer of the Deláti, appointedto the government of it, having turned rebel, set himself up as a petty chieftain, and had contrived to become master of a considerable tract of the mountains, with so much of the plain as lies between the river and Tel-Kelyeen. Rageb, pasha of Aleppo, on one occasion, endeavoured to reduce him to obedience, and for that purpose assembled an army of three or four thousand men. But Topal Ali, although with fewer soldiers, had so little fear, that, instead of shutting himself up in his fortress, or fleeing to the inaccessible parts of the mountains, he marched out to meet him; and, the pasha’s army being principally composed of Deláti, would not fight against their old comrade and officer, and remained neuter. The other mercenaries, seeing themselves deserted, fled, and were pillaged by Topal Ali’s troops. Not wishing, however, to irritate the pasha, Topal Ali afterwards restored his artillery, camp equipage, &c. At this time, by means of bribes, he had obtained permission to hold his government as the apanage of some person in the Seraglio: but it was evident that he thought himself insecure, as he was obliged to keep in his pay more troops than his means could afford. He was lame (hence his appellation of Topal), and seemed about forty years old.

We had not been long encamped when a rather ludicrous circumstance occurred. Lady Hester had, on more than one occasion, related the prophecy of the fortuneteller respecting her—that she shouldone day be queen of the Jews. It appeared that this had been retold, with, as is usual, some exaggerations, one of which we will suppose was that she was herself a Jewess: for a woman of the people of Israel really came from the town to the tents, and asked to see her ladyship; when, being referred to me, she gravely asked me whether she might be employed to kill her meat. I did not at first comprehend her: and told her that the Aga had sent us lambs, which the cook would kill. “What! he is a Jew then?” said she. (It is known to most persons that Jews may eat only of what has been killed by people of their own religion.)—“Why, what if he is not?”—“What, if he is not?” cried she: “is not the meleky [the queen] one of us, and how can she eat from other hands than ours?” I now comprehended the woman’s drift; for I had so often heard Turks say they were sure she was a daughter of the Grand Signor by some English lady, and the Jews convert prophecies from holy writ to her person, that I was no longer astonished at any thing of this kind. I related the story to Lady Hester, who sent the woman a small present. Topal Ali in the mean time had sent a couple of lambs, rice, fowls, sugar, and whatever could be wanted for eating—the customary way, as has been more than once said, of welcoming distinguished strangers.

A messenger had been sent to Laodicea or Latakia, to ascertain whether the plague raged there or not;and it was resolved to await his return before proceeding any farther.

Close to our encampment was the gibbet on which malefactors were executed. It consisted of two rough forked stakes with a cross piece, scarcely trimmed with a hatchet. When a felon is caught, he is forthwith taken before the governor, and, if the evidence of his guilt is clear, he is, in the same instant, conveyed to the gallows, and hanged without any formality; or he is tied hand and foot and thrown over the bridge.

I walked into the town, and was shocked at the misery that displayed itself. A large mosque, the governor’s house,[67]and a bath, formed, as it were, the whole of it: for the houses of the inhabitants were so mean that wretchedness itself could not be lodged worse. The clothes of the artisans and mechanics at work in their shops indicated either real or affected misery: for the garb of poverty is generally so common in Turkey, wherever the law cannot control the oppression of the ruler and his deputies, that no argument can be drawn from it of the real state of people’s pockets. Nor is a province always accounted the poorer because apparently groaning under oppressive management—nay, it often happens that, under a licentious soldiery, the profits of manual labour andgoods are greater: witness the desire so often expressed in Cairo for the return of the Mamelukes, under whose reign there was so little security for property, and so much rapacity on the part of the Beys: yet were large fortunes often amassed, and much more speedily than now.

In the bazar lazy soldiers were sitting, smoking and drinking iced water; for the weather was become exceedingly hot: others were at the doors of barbers’ shops. A few squalid and poorly dressed Christians were moving about on their business. Wishing to hear the news of the day, I entered a barber’s shop. As is customary, a round looking-glass with a handle to it (such as mermaids are represented as holding,) was handed to me to see my face in. This is the usual compliment to such as merely enter to gossip, and they place a para or two upon it when presented to them.

Surgery forms part of a barber’s education in the East. Whilst sitting there, a man came in to have blood taken from his ears, which was very expeditiously and neatly done in the following manner. The patient held a handkerchief round his neck, which he was desired to draw as tight as he could bear, and this he did so effectually that he soon became black in the face: scarifications were then made on the upper edge of the ear by scoring it with a razor. Not much blood came away; although, on other occasions, I have seen it flow very freely.

Mr. B. paid a visit to Topal Ali, and on his return to the tents a horse was sent to him as a present. Topal Ali desired his katib (or secretary) to seek me out, and ask me to call on him, which I did. He assumed more importance than I had observed in several of the first men of the empire, and seemed a vain-glorious man. He asked me for remedies to render him more amiable in the eyes of his harým: but I told him I was unable to afford him the assistance he required.

In the evening, we were disquieted by an officious peasant, who came to inform us, with much mystery, that twelve soldiers had been seen lurking at a short distance from the encampment, and that, as the gates of the town were shut, these men could not be there with any good intention. This information created some alarm, and we were somewhat on the alert throughout the night; but nobody molested us.

To-day the messenger returned from Laodicea, and brought letters which denied the existence of the plague there: we accordingly set off the next day at eight o’clock. On quitting Shogr, the road begins to ascend into the mountains. These, unlike Mount Lebanon, were clothed with trees and covered with verdure. Their ascent was more gentle, and their breaks were less precipitous: there were slopes for corn fields, and levels capable of irrigation. We continued to mount, and passed a large village called Damat. We then came to a small river, near whichis Castel el Frange, which is the extent of Topal Ali’s district in this direction, and may be about three hours and a half from Geser. At three o’clock we came to another river, Ayn-el-Zerky, and encamped there for the night.

At half-past seven in the morning, we left Ayn-el-Zerky. Soon after eight, we crossed a small bridge, built over a cleft in the rock thirty feet deep, at the bottom of which ran a small river. It is called Shaykh-el-Agûf. It is not more than six feet over, but, when looked into, had so much the appearance of a horrible chasm as to make us shudder.

About noon we reached the foot of Mount Sekûn. The tract we had passed, which begins at Damat and ends here, is called Gebel-el-Kerád. The road this day had presented some of the most beautiful scenery that nature can boast of. Our course, as it wound among the mountains, led us sometimes through groves of plum, fig, and pomegranate trees; sometimes over a wild of myrtles, arbutuses, and other flowering shrubs: again it conducted us along the banks of a river, which, taking its source from the spring where we had encamped over night, had now increased to a large stream, and, as it meandered in the valley, or rushed down some descent, gave an admirable finish to the landscape. Oaks and firs covered the highest mountains; corn-fields and agricultural produce the valley. Scattered cottages, here and there, wore the appearance of English farms, and recalled the idea of mycountry, with embellishments in which a colder climate cannot be dressed. Altogether, the valley of Sekûn was a most rich and luxuriant scene.

On our way, the remains of an aqueduct, made of finely cemented brick-work, were to be seen in one or two small patches. It is probable that the water of the river, or a portion of it, was anciently carried to some town,[68]and there were certain indications that a road had once run along by its side.

When our tents were pitched, several inhabitants of the neighbouring hamlets came to stare at us. We were now in the midst of the Ansáry, a tribe of mountaineers, of whom we had heard many strange stories. Gebel Sekûn,[69]which overhung our encampment, is said to contain many impregnable fortresses, to which, when attacked by a superior force, the inhabitants flee for refuge. It is one of the highest of that chain of mountains which runs parallel to the sea-coast, north and south, from the termination of Mount Lebanon, a few miles to the north of Tripoli, up to Antioch; and seems to be one of the strongholds which secure the independence of this warlike race; for all those who dwell upon and about it are comparativelyfree, whilst those between it and the sea pay tribute to the governor of Latakia.

Our guards, who were now two of Topal Ali’s soldiers, beheld the Ansárys with distrust, and endeavoured to inspire us with it too: but their demeanour was peaceable; and, although there was nothing like timidity in their manner, their address was not rude. As I was seated at the door of my tent smoking, they came and placed themselves close by me. Soon after arrived others; and then those already seated rose, and, with most prolonged ceremoniousness, gave place to the new comers, or preserved their precedence. The Drûzes likewise are reproached with being much given to useless ceremony and complimentary speech. The Ansárys were all armed, some with a brace of pistols in their girdle, and all with khanjárs.

Lady Hester thought their appearance and air so military that she resolved to encamp a day longer among them. I have no doubt, too, that she was anxious to learn something of a people of whom such extraordinary things are reported; and when she was intent on any plan which required much penetration and great conduct, she generally chose to be alone. Under pretence, therefore, of staying behind until a house was prepared for her, she requested us to depart next day for Latakia.

Next morning accordingly Mr. B. and I, with the principal part of the luggage, set off at seven in themorning. We had to ascend until we reached the summit of the mountain, from which the descent is gradual, and leads almost imperceptibly, on a level with the sea, to the city of Laodicea, now called in Arabic el-Ladkýah. But the river which we had seen on the preceding day winds, by a circuitous course, round the foot of Mount Sekûn, and reappears on the other side, emptying itself afterwards, under the name of Nahr-el-Kebýr, at a short distance from the city.

The season of the year was calculated to produce a favourable impression of the beauty of the country. There was no similarity whatever between the coast here and at Sayda. Round Latakia all was verdure, and the climate seemed to be just at that point at which the sun’s rays are insufficient to burn up the soil, but still capable of producing the fruits that are generally thought to require considerable heat. Here the date, it is true, does not bear; but there are melons, grapes, and figs, in the greatest abundance. Such were our first impressions, as we traversed the environs of Latakia. A residence of seven months, the latter part of which was a continued scene of suffering, caused me to view the same picture with such different feelings, that I quitted it at last with more pleasure than I ever did any place in my life.

Lady Hester did not arrive until two days afterwards, and it was said that she had completely gained the hearts of the mountaineers among whom she hadbeen encamped. This may be readily believed, for there never was a person who could, like her, when she thought it worth while, on all occasions, and with all classes, engage and secure admiration and attachment.

Back to Index Next