CHAPTER X.

Mode of Life of Lady Hester Stanhope—Imaginary treasures of Gezzàr Pasha—Road to the Convent of Mar Elias—Description of the Convent—Village of Abra—Interior of a cottage—Poverty of the people—Change in the character of Lady Hester—Abra purchased by a Greek Patriarch—Revenues—Tenure of land—Occupations of the peasantry—Herdsmen—Village overseer—Notions of propriety in the behaviour of females—Dread of the plague—Precautions against the infection suggested by Lady Hester to the Emir Beshýr—Visit of the Shaykh Beshýr to Abra—Good breeding of the Turks—Greek monasteries—The patriarch Macarius—M. Boutin—Hanýfy, a female slave sent to Lady Hester—Specification of her qualities—Discovery of an ancient sepulchre—Paintings in it copied by Mr. Bankes, and by the Author—Various forms of sepulchres.

We are now arrived at a new period in Lady Hester’s peregrinations, in which, from a traveller, she becomes a sojourner in a strange land; and, abandoningEurope and its customs altogether, conforms herself entirely to the modes of life of the Orientals. Not that it is clear whether she was fixed in such a determination at first; but, unwilling to return to England, with which country she had become, for several reasons, disgusted, and, finding no other on the Continent sufficiently quiet to insure a permanent asylum, she thought she would remain some time longer in Syria, where, looking down on the world from the top of Mount Lebanon, she might calmly contemplate its follies and vicissitudes, neither mixed up with the one, nor harassed by the other.

The state of retirement in which we now lived gave me time to turn my attention more particularly to a consideration of the geographical conformation of the country. A traveller, newly arrived in Syria, or passing hastily through it, will find much difficulty in doing this: for, although there are many prominent features to guide him, he will necessarily have few books, and perhaps only a bad map or two to refer to;[84]and he will sometimes seek in vain for the divisions of provinces, for the precise termination of mountains, forthe course of rivers occasionally dried up, or for the sites of cities now overgrown with grass, which are placed on paper so distinctly; besides which his inquiries will always be impeded or stopped by the ignorance of those through or to whom he is necessarily obliged to direct them.

A general notion of Syria can be obtained from no author better than from Abulfeda, an impartial writer, dwelling in it, and distinguished for his knowledge on the subject. His words are, “Syria is a magnificent country, rich in its productions, blessed with fertility, adorned with gardens, woods, meadows, valleys, and mountains, watered by rivers, abundant in vegetables, game, flocks, and domestic animals. It is seasonably refreshed and fertilized by annual rains, and bears on its mountains perpetual snows.”

Strabo divides Syria into four provinces—Seleucia, Phœnicia, Palestine (subdivided into Galilee, Samaria, and Judea), and Cœle-Syria. Cœle-Syria was either Proper, or Common. Proper Cœle-Syria seems (for there is some confusion in the account) to have comprehended those extensive vales, embosomed between Mount Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and the best demarcation of which is by following the course of the river Leontes, or the modern Casmya, up between the modern provinces of Shkyf and Bsharra, and the valley of the Bkâ, and by continuing on with the course of the Orontes down to Antioch; then the country to the right and left of these two rivers included between the mountainswill be Cœle-Syria Proper. Common Cœle-Syria consisted of the plains spreading out towards Hems and Hamah to the north, and towards Damascus to the south, cut off from the sea-coast by the intervention of great mountains: whilst that slip of land between the mountains and sea-coast, running the whole length of Syria, from Antioch down to the river Eleutherus, or the modern Nahr el Kebýr,[85]is Seleucia; Phœnicia, thence to the Promontorium Album, or modern Ras el Nakûra; and Palestine from the Nakûra, down to the sandy Desert, which divides it from Egypt: or by another division, Strabo makes Phœnicia to extend from the river Eleutherus down to Damietta, and Palestine to be a district of it.

It was also probable that there was another motive which induced Lady Hester to delay yet awhile her departure. Among the many stories which were related of the celebrated Pasha el Gezzàr, one was, that he had amassed immense wealth, and, having in his lifetime hid it under ground, had disappointed the Porte at his death in the acquisition of it. She was possessed with the idea that she had obtained a clue to the discovery of some of his treasures, and she had applied to the Turkish government (as it was afterwards known) for permission to dig for them. This I conceive to have been one main reason for her stay.

In the mean time, as for myself, my thoughts wouldoften involuntarily turn towards England, and then the prospect of a long residence in the Levant somewhat disquieted me. But I banished these anticipations; determined that no trivial cause should make me leave her ladyship alone and unprotected in so distant a country. Not that my presence could add materially to her safety; for there never was a person who relied more on his own resources than she did; besides, gloomy reflections could take no hold of an individual in this fine climate; for they were forgotten as soon as he emerged from the house into the air, where the inspiration of the balmy atmosphere and the scenes which surrounded him always begat cheerful sensations.

The day after our arrival at Sayda, I rode up to the monastery, in which we were to reside. I had never seen it before, not having been with Lady Hester and Mr. B. when the French consul had led them to it, during their former visit to Sayda. On quitting the city gate, we passed through several hedged lanes, between orchards and gardens filled with trees which shrink from the cold blasts of northern climates. Oranges were as thick on the branches as apples are accustomed to grow; and the broad leaf of the banana tree, which flourishes in great vigour hereabout, was an object singularly striking. The hedges were in most places rendered almost impenetrable by the prickly leaf of the cactus indicus.

At the distance of half a mile we came to the skirts of the gardens, at the foot of Mount Lebanon. It was not very steep, and about a quarter of a milebrought us to the top of the first hill, where we looked down before us into a deep valley; then, carrying our eyes up on the opposite mountain, we descried a low building, which I was told was the monastery. The descent was rugged, but the asses are accustomed to mountains. The soil was bare, rocky, and apparently sterile; and here and there an olive or a fig-tree was the only thing which it seemed capable of nourishing. In ascending on the opposite side, the path, over a loamy soil, was so slippery from recent rains, that I dismounted and walked up, as the ass could not make good his footing.

CONVENT OF MAR ELIAS.

On arriving at the monastery, I found it to be a quadrangular stone building, of one story, with flatroofs or terraces, according to the custom of the country, enclosing a small square paved court, which had a little mould in the centre, with a few flowers, and two small orange trees. The rooms were as neat as whitewashed walls could make them, but without chairs or tables; and in one or two was a long sofa bench of solid masonry against the wall on one side only. There was a small chapel attached to the south-east corner, with an altar in it. A discolouration in one of the walls, in which a staircase ran up to the roof, led me to inquire what it was; when the servant told me that the late patriarch was buried there, seated in an arm-chair. Although his body was said to have been embalmed, it smelt most offensively; and I anticipated that this unusual burial would give rise to many ghost-stories. This chapel is dedicated to St. Elias, whose name the building bears, being called Dayr Mar Elias, or the Monastery of St. Elias, although I could not learn that, within the memory of any one, it had served for anything but the residence of the patriarch of the Greek schismatics, or of the bishop of Sayda: nor were the rooms in any respect adapted for the cells of friars.

The situation is picturesque, but lonely and barren, on the top of a mountain without verdure, surrounded on every side with mountains equally sterile; excepting a few olive and mulberry trees on a shelving bank at the back of the building, which were not tobe come at but by a circuitous path, or by leaping down a perpendicular rock of twenty feet. Though now on Mount Lebanon, where the imagination of the reader will supply him with umbrageous cedars at every step, fiction alone could throw their shade over Dayr Mar Elias. From its elevated situation, the monastery commands a most extensive view of the sea, from which it is distant in a straight line about two miles. But the sea, on the Syrian coast, is only a vast waste, where small craft are seen coasting before the wind, and now and then a three-masted vessel in the distance. The magnificent spectacle of a passing fleet, so common in the British Channel, is here unknown.

I found that, during the late rains, the roofs had leaked, and some of our baggage had been damaged. This was an unpromising prospect for the new residence; and several repairs, which were absolutely requisite to render the rooms habitable, must necessarily retard Lady Hester’s removal from Sayda some weeks. The four sides of the quadrangle were not equally commodious. On the west were three good rooms, convertible into saloons or bed-rooms; so that one as a drawing-room, one as her ladyship’s bed-room, and one for her maid, occupied the whole of that side. The north side was made up of a kitchen, a kelár or store-room, and a corner room, in which the patriarch had died. The east side had three small rooms, and an oil and wine cellar; and, as it had already been decidedthat two of these were to be converted into a vapour bath, the dwelling became reduced to five rooms. This confined space rendered it necessary for me to look out for a cottage for myself in the village, which was a quarter of a mile off, on somewhat higher ground than the monastery: I therefore rode to it. Its name is Abrah, or Abra. I little thought, on first beholding it, that I was destined to spend there nearly three years of my life.

Abra consisted of forty cottages, each of one story, and of the rudest construction. The cement for the unhewn stones, of which they were built, was mud from the road. Rough trunks of poplars or other slight trees formed the beams for the roofs, which were flat, and made in the following manner. Over the trunks were laid rough stakes for rafters, over these brushwood, and the coating was common loam, rolled and trodden down, until it resisted in some degree the passage of wet: but there were few roofs that appeared to be waterproof. Within, the walls were covered with a rough plaster of mould and water without lime, and this was whitewashed.

INTERIOR OF A SYRIAN COTTAGE: WOMEN GRINDING CORN.

I entered the best cottage in the village. It consisted of a single room. One end of it was occupied by two cows and an ass, the other end, somewhat raised, by the family. The floor was of yellow clay, beaten down to hardness. In the middle of the room was a small plaster fireplace, about the size of a chafing-dish; the door and windows served forchimneys. Three or four unbaked earthen jars, as big as tubs, stood in a corner to contain wheat, barley, rice, figs, &c.; a jar for water; a spinning-wheel; a wheel for winding off cotton; a couple of copper saucepans; a handmill, to grind corn; with a mat spread on the ground to sit on, formed the furniture and utensils of the family, which consisted of a stout man, a pretty woman, her mother with two children, and the grandmother. The walls of the rooms had holes through them, high up, to let in the air; and, on a level with the waist, were small recesses which served for putting away a dish, a saucepan, or a drinking jug. Cupboards there were none; one chest alone seemed to be sacred from theexamination of any one. There was a bed rolled up, but I discovered afterwards that the peasantry very seldom had more than a cotton quilted coverlet, sleeping in their clothes. Few have a change of their outward dress, although I had occasion afterwards to observe that they were more particular than English peasants in changing the linen next their skin.

The inhabitants of Abra were Greek Catholics. The village perhaps is more pleasantly situate than the monastery. It had several plantations of mulberry trees for silkworms, and of fig-trees. It is in the division called Aklým-el-Tafâh, in the district of Gebâa, where one Ali Aga resided at this time, as motsellem or governor. Though close to the coast, and belonging, as a part of Ali Aga’s district, to the pashalik of Acre, the peasants rather clung to the Emir of the Drûzes.

The patriarch owned two-thirds of the village. The villagers seemed very poor. They had not even coffee to offer, which I never yet had found wanting anywhere. Tobacco, from an old pipe and a still older bag, seemed their only indulgence. When I told the owner of the cottage that I was under the necessity of turning him out of his home, he said he was willing to comply, if I would bring him an order from the patriarch, his master, to that effect, and that he would soon build himself another.

As I returned to Sayda, in descending the steep hill close under the monastery or dayr, I observed aspring of clear water, running from a stone lip in a stream not larger than my thumb; and this, I was told, supplied the village and monastery. Close by was a cave, formerly a sepulchre, as the recesses in the bottom and sides, still visible, denoted. In it were several naked female peasants, who were washing themselves with water from the spring. Though the path was within forty yards of them, they did nothing but turn their backs, and squat on their haunches until I had passed by.

The masons were sent up to Mar Elias, and the repairs were begun immediately: but it was the middle of February before the house was ready for Lady Hester’s reception; the building of a bath having more especially occupied a great deal of time. Masons, carpenters, and workmen of that class in these countries give infinitely more trouble than they do in England. There it is necessary for their employer himself to purchase every article they stand in need of. The mason, for example, says he wants so much lime, so much powdered pottery, so many tiles, &c.; all these are to be sought out and bargained for by the employer. The mason, indeed, would take the trouble off your hands, but he requires money in advance, and cheats besides.

Lady Hester was but indifferently lodged in the French caravansery, where Damiani’s house was. Her spirits seemed lately to have been somewhat depressed by her protracted illnesses. She had a relapse of herague, and was again confined to her room. To increase her sufferings, her maid Mrs. Fry was attacked with a most violent dysentery, which threatened her life: she, however, recovered slowly under my hands. All communication with the French consul was dropped, as also with every person in Sayda. Just at this time, M. Beaudin was attacked with a paralytic affection, which deprived him of the use of his limbs and speech. My troubles were now at their height. However, by the end of January, Lady Hester felt strength enough to ride out into the gardens; and never shall I forget this, as it were, her new return to life. From that time her character changed deeply. She became simple in her habits, almost to cynicism. She showed, in her actions and her conversation, a mind severe indeed, but powerfully vigorous. Scanning men and things with a wonderful intelligence, she commented upon them as if the motives of human actions were open to her inspection. Sometimes she looked into futurity like the sybil of old; and, as she reasoned on the great changes which were taking place in Europe, she scattered her prophetic leaves, which, as subsequent events have shown, may almost be supposed to be the effect of inspiration.[86]

I endeavoured to collect such information respecting the taxes and revenue of the village of Abra as might illustrate the general nature of property in Mount Lebanon. It was not so easy to do this as might at first be imagined: for the peasants and more particularly the bailiff of the village (or Kûly, as he is called in Arabic) fancied that Lady Hester had an intention of purchasing it of the patriarch. And, as the thing was desirable for them, on account of the increased opportunities which must necessarily occur for cheating, they were apt to answer my inquiries as best suited their purpose of inducing her to buy. The population amounted to about forty families, most of them descendants of peasants who had for generations inhabited the same spot. The man who for twenty years only had been settled in the village was still looked on, when disputes called forth the expression of any spiteful remarks, as an alien. I have heard a woman, with scarcely a rag on her back, when quarrelling with another, cite the respectability of her descent from ancestors established time immemorial in Abra.

The village of Abra was bought by a patriarch of the Greek Catholics, not many years before our arrival in Syria, from a Drûze family, whose property it was. As far as I could gather, it cost him eighteen purses, £450 sterling. I could not learn its extent in acres; but the whole of the land belonging to it produced eighteen gararas ofcorn, a garara being equal to seventy-two mids, each mid equal to a gallon or thereabouts.

Abra, being a limitrophe village, bordering on the Metûaly district to the south, on the Drûze district to the east and north, and on the parish of Sayda to the west, seemed to share in the vexations of all three governments. To the motsellem of Gebâa it paid two hundred and forty-five piasters a year, which was the miri of the land: to the Emir Beshýr two hundred piasters a-year, the miri of the houses: to the governor of Sayda one hundred and fifty piasters a-year. These sums were collected by the kûly or shaykh at stated periods, and delivered to the persons respectively claiming them.

The patriarch received, as yearly rent of the houses, from five to ten piasters each. Thus, when I threw two cottages into one, I paid for two as though not consolidated. The tenant made all repairs, excepting when the main beam of the ceiling broke, which was supplied by the proprietor.

The proprietor received of whatever grew from the leaf a half: as, of tobacco, figs, oil, mulberry leaves for feeding silkworms (which last two were commuted for a certain portion of the products, viz., silk and oil) and a quarter of all kinds of corn. Besides these certain receipts, he had incidental ones on particular occasions, and certain perquisites: all which may be put down as follows:

The patriarch therefore had here a gain of thirteen hundred and eighty-nine piasters, or about £68 per annum. There were of course other sources of gain, with which I was not acquainted, and I may have even underrated the different products which I have enumerated.

I could never clearly understand the nature of the tenure of the land and other property. Thus the patriarch was the proprietor of the houses and could build or pull them down, or eject a tenant from them, when he liked. All trees, not bearing fruit, seemedto be his: for, whenever the peasants were in want of a rafter or joist, it was necessary to apply to the kûly for permission to cut. Yet, in those bearing fruit, as olive or mulberry trees, the peasants had a right of possession, and of transmission to their children; of which I saw repeated examples. With regard to the soil, that, too, was not the patriarch’s; for each family would speak of certain pieces of land as belonging to them. Still it was odd that, when Lady Hester wanted a field any where for sowing or for any other use, it was always given to her, let her have cast her eye on what piece she would. I concluded therefore that the purchaser of a village became the proprietor of the tithe, rather than the possessor of the soil, which was partitioned into smaller or greater farms or estates, as prosperity and adversity appropriated or alienated it, by purchase or sale, from man to man.[87]

A small village like Abra, away from any high road, was seldom visited by strangers. Occasionally, a pedlar selling soap, kadámy, or parched peas, and a little halàwy or sweetmeat, would pass through, crying his wares: for the purchase of which he would receive money, or, in default of it, eggs, or chickens, which he resold, in the towns, to advantage. Sometimesa pauper, after begging from house to house, would sleep through the night in the village tanûr or oven, a favourite lodging both in towns and villages for the wretched.[88]

The life which these peasants lead is simple enough. At sunrise the husband goes to his field to plough, or sow, or reap, or plant his tobacco, or to cut leaves for his silkworms. The women wash, bake, grind at the handmill, feed the silkworms, gather the figs, the olives, and, iffathy, as they call it, or having nothing to do, they spin. Were I desired to describe a peasant woman in her most customary occupation, I should represent her as seated at the door of her cottage, spinning with a hand-spindle, and having a long cane lying by her side to drive away the chickens, which she talks to and scolds as if they were children, giving to each a name. When at the tanûr, baking, she gossips. She generally cooks once in the twenty-four hours, for the evening repast, to which her husband returns when his day’s work is over.

Midwifery at Abra was entirely in the hands of women.[89]A woman lay-in of her first child soon after I came to the village. She was half an hour in labour. All the married females of the village assembled on the occasion, and they instructed her how to act in her new situation. She was placed in the chair used on these occasions, a sketch of which I have annexed, having caused it to be brought to me for that purpose, and having thought it sufficiently curious to interest the Scriptural reader, who might find in it the explanation of a passage otherwise not quite intelligible.[90]

MIDWIFERY CHAIR.

A rope was made fast to the ceiling, by which the woman held, and hauled on it during her travail: at thesame time the bystanders supported her under her armpits.[91]

It has occurred to all travellers, among people styled uncivilized, to observe with how much less pain and trouble the process of gestation and parturition goes on than among ourselves and other so called polished nations: as also how little care is bestowed on women during the days succeeding childbirth in comparison with the nursing they are said to require with us. But, what is more extraordinary still, such women, so neglected, seem to be less liable to bad accidents than those over whose welfare, physicians, midwives, nurses, and fond and foolish husbands, have watched with tender and unremitting anxiety. Does not this, or ought it not at least, to awake some doubts in our mind, as to which party pursues the right method; and whether over-officious zeal in some and mercenary motives in others have not tended to make of a natural act a very complicated and artificial one? for otherwise it would imply a defect of wisdom in our Creator to have left the great work of peopling the earth subject to the control and help of man. There are daily examples occurring of parturient women,whether with a view to hide their shame arising from a guilty connection, or whether from accident of warfare, or navigation, who are left without aid from their own sex or obstetrical assistance from the other: yet they bring their offspring into the world in safety, and are often observed to recover from this (certainly) painful act, quicker than if delivered by the rules of art. But these are partial and individual instances, and are nothing in the account with whole nations, where the office of accoucheur or midwife is hardly known, and where women think no more of bringing a child into the world, than of the maturation of a boil, which, when ripened, will heal and discharge its contents as a matter of course.

In a cold climate, and among a disgusting people, Dr. Clarke in his travels in Scandinavia (p. 403) says—“The journeys with raids (sledges) are of course liable to danger and to the utmost degree of fatigue: yet women, far advanced in pregnancy, are often the drivers; and such is their easy labour in parturition, that childbirth hardly occasions any interruption to the progress of the raid.”

In England, the causes of unfavourable gestation and parturition, together with the subsequent danger to which women are supposed to be liable, I consider to be, first, stays; secondly, neglect of exercise and its consequences in impeded functions of the bowels; thirdly, the medicating of sickness; fourthly, unnecessary interferenceof accoucheurs; fifthly, heated rooms and the want of fresh air; sixthly, hurried and forced delivery; seventhly, hot beds; eighthly, unnecessary and prolonged confinement.

As there were no enclosed fields in the country, cattle turned out to graze were tended by a herdsman. Hence the place of herdsman to a village was of some importance in the eyes of the peasants, and was annually assigned to a man of approved vigilance. For this service he received by the year, from each owner of a pair of oxen, one mid and a half of wheat; for sheep and asses something less; and thus in proportion for all animals that graze. Every day, when daylight appeared, he walked through the village, and each cottager drove out of his cottage-stable his ass, goats, or oxen, which he purposed to send to pasture that day. The herd was thus assembled, and the herdsman, called in Arabicrâay, conducts them afield, taking care to prevent them from straying into corn-fields, vineyards, and the like. For such trespasses he was fined according to the decision of thenatûr(or overseer) of the village. The natûr was always known by a stout stick, which he carried about with him; and his chief employ was to patrole day and night through the corn fields, orchards, vineyards, &c., to see that no damage was done.

Women seldom mixed in public diversions. On one occasion, after I had resided some time in the village, and was in some degree looked up to, Butrûs, apeasant, came running into my cottage, with a stick in his hand, and out of breath. “For God’s sake,” (cried he) “there is my niece, Mariam, in the street, among a parcel of strange men, skipping about to a fellow who is beating a drum;—do interpose, sir, and send her away. The village will get a bad name, and they will say of her that Bint Sulyba (the daughter of Sulyba) is a street-walker.” This anecdote will serve to show the kind of demeanour which was expected in women, even of the lowest class, and in a small village. In France, an itinerant piper, in a similar place, would have all the lads and lasses dancing around him, and the old folks looking on.

It was about the 20th of February, 1814, that Lady Hester took possession of the monastery of Mar Elias, and I of my cottage at Abra. I had added to it a second cottage for a servants’ room, opened a larger door, and endeavoured to make it habitable. Lady Hester’s establishment was now very much reduced. As Beaudin recovered but slowly, she hired for a time, as interpreter, the same Damiani whose house we had inhabited.[92]Pierre was gone home to Dayr el Kamar, and had sent down as cook in his place a woman named Um Risk, who remained, as it will afterwards be seen, three years with her ladyship. Mariam hadgone back to Latakia, and Stefano, who was in love with her, had followed her. I might be accused of inserting very frivolous details, were it not that the domestic incidents which, in travelling in Europe, would be but a counterpart of what occurs in every man’s family every day, are here often novel, and always serve to render the picture of Turkish manners more complete. Lady Hester had no horses and no grooms: she rode out daily on a small ass, and was now fast recovering from the debility which successive illnesses had brought upon her.

In the mean time, people were busy in their conjectures as to the reappearance of plague. It had not discontinued raging at Damascus, and St. Jean d’Acre was said to be newly infected. Every reason led to suppose that it would reappear at Sayda this year: we accordingly prepared for it in the manner usual in the country. In times of insecurity, whether from plague or insurrection, or any other cause, the markets were in part or entirely shut up, and he who had nothad the precaution to provide against such contingencies found himself sorely straitened. It is with this view that annually a store is made, sufficient for the year’s consumption, by every family that can afford it. About two hundred head of poultry were bought, with some sheep and lambs; rice, flour, wheat, figs, raisins, in fact everything that could be called dry stores, was laid in, enough for six or eight months, with oil, butter, candles, soap, &c. Thus provided, it was considered that, in a spot so retired, and so out of everybody’s way, we could not very easily be exposed to danger. We were precisely like the crew of a well-victualled ship at sea: we had everything necessary within the walls; with this advantage, that instead of salt beef and hard biscuit we had abundance of fresh provisions. Individually, I must confess I did not look forward to this confinement with much satisfaction. Solitude is no disagreeable thing with a good library: rather otherwise; but books were not to be procured; Lady Hester never had any, and I had lost mine in the shipwreck.

Endowed with a very active mind, and convinced that neglect alone of many common precautions against the introduction of the plague caused the loss of a great number of lives, her ladyship bethought herself of writing to the Emir Beshýr, to advise him how to guard against its encroachments. She considered that the establishment of a patrole, which should watch all the outlets of the mountain, would be sufficient to keepout persons suspected of infection; and she suggested that a post should be established, as in Europe, by which all letters should be transmitted to and from the mountain, subject, in every direction where danger lay, to be fumigated or immersed in vinegar. Some correspondence passed on this subject, and M. Beaudin was sent to explain what was not clearly understood; but nothing was adopted otherwise than had been customary in former cases. It is not unusual for Europeans, impressed with the notion that the Turks are an ignorant people, to offer them advice on many subjects, which, after all, are connected with a country with whose government, manners, usages, and climate they are unacquainted, and in which they arrive as strangers.

A month passed away at the monastery without any particular occurrence. I built a wall round my cottage, as a farther protection against danger from the plague, in imitation of Lady Hester, who had built one round her residence. The rains had occasionally been very violent, and the roofs of two cottages fell in from the additional weight given by a thorough soaking to the mould with which they were covered. There was not a roof in the village that was not leaky.

It will be recollected that, two years before, Lady Hester paid a visit to the Shaykh Beshýr, the chief of the Drûzes, at Mukhtâra. It was a custom with him to make a circuit annually through the Drûze villages, to administer justice, correct abuses, and collect hisrents. For though, as the supreme power was vested in the emir, he could not, properly, arrogate to himself more than the rights of a landlord, still it would seem that, acknowledged as the second person of the mountain, he was in fact the equal of the emir, and, acting accordingly, what he dared not do himself, he caused to be done by his influence. For his domains in villages, farms, orchards, vineyards, and plantations, were always equal to those of the emir himself, and, being by religion a Drûze, he was looked up to by that people as their lawful master.

In his tour he combined pleasure and business. He was accompanied by about fifty attendants, on foot and on horseback, some with guns, some with hawks and dogs, and he sported from village to village. This was his manner: his footmen scoured the neighbouring hills, and drove the game (chiefly red-legged partridges and antelopes) into the valleys, through which he rode in the midst of his falconers and dogs. In the mean time those on foot made the mountains re-echo with shouts; whilst the horsemen occupied the sides of the hills, between the ridges where the footmen were, and drove down the game that was started into the valleys in which the shaykh rode, where it was hawked, or shot, or run down by the dogs. In this way he arrived at Abra on the 20th of March, some servants having preceded him to prepare a cottage for his reception. A few carpets were spread over the mud floor, a cushion or two placed againstthe wall for his sofa, and this was all that was thought necessary to make him comfortable; nor had he at night a bed to sleep on. When the shaykh was accommodated, his katibs and chief attendants laid their hands on the next best cottages; nor did the peasantry dare on such occasions to do otherwise than yield them up immediately. There was, however, no confusion, and a stranger passing through the village would not have perceived any stir more than usual. Immediately on his arrival, the peasantry hastened to ask permission to be admitted to tell their grievances; but, on the circuit of this year, he confessed his dread of the plague by dispensing with the usual custom of having the hem of his robe, or his hand, kissed by all those who entered.

In the evening Lady Hester sent the dragoman to the shaykh with a message, expressing her regret at not being able to see him, from indisposition: the shaykh, in return, signified the pleasure he felt that she had finally fixed her abode among his people. It cannot be denied that the Orientals are well bred. His conduct on this occasion was very delicate. Fearful that Lady Hester would think it necessary to send him provisions for the night (as is customary on the arrival of any great person who is travelling) he had previously ordered them to be prepared. He was likewise exceedingly strict in commanding that, for the accommodation of himself or his people, not the slightest disturbance should be given to any person orthing appertaining to Lady Hester. He left Abra on the morrow.

I occasionally rode out in the neighbourhood; and, among other places, went to a large monastery, distant about two hours, called St. Saviour’s, or Dayr Mkhallas. The monasteries in the mountain, of which there are several, are generally very respectable but plain structures. They are, for the most part, quadrangular, with vaulted cells opening into the court, but which are arranged with little regard to symmetry. St. Saviour’s was of the first rank, having a fraternity of fifty friars; and, from its situation on the very top of a mountain, wears an imposing appearance. The road to it was a rugged mule path, which wound and turned in a way unknown in England. Within a short distance, but with the intervention of a deep valley, was the village of Jôon, inhabited by Christians and Metoualis.

The monasteries of the Greek Catholics are as follow:—Dayr Mkhallas (Our Saviour’s, near Jôon), with seventy friars; Dayr Sayda (our Lord’s) with twelve friars; Dayr el Mezairy, near Gezýn, with six friars; Dayr Arnêk, above Dayr el Kamar, with six friars; Dayr Aishmayeh, with five friars; Dayr Ayn el Joze (or the walnut-spring,) in the Bkâa, with twelve friars; Dayr el Benât, (the maids’) for women, near Dayr Mkhallas, with thirty to thirty-five nuns.

The Greek Catholics are called, indifferently,malky, orkuwetly, of the meaning of which words I must confessmyself ignorant. They have bishops at all the cities along the coast, also at Bâalbek, at Carah, at Nebk, &c. There is a sect of thekuwetly, which goes by the name of theShuwarya. The Greek Catholic monks adopt the order of St. Basilius, and they smoke tobacco, drink wine, and eat flesh.

A GREEK MONK.

These Greek schismatics retain the dress peculiar to the monks of the Greek Church—a felt hat without a brim, the hair of the head unshorn, and a black woollen gown, girded with a black leather belt. They have blue cotton drawers, and, in the winter, are allowed to wear a coarse jacket over their gown. Their shoes are black, which, in a country where everybody but a priest wears them yellow or red, becomes a singularity also. Thereare several monasteries of these monks in Mount Lebanon. Of these, the largest is that of St. Saviour, near to the village of Jôon, where reside the superior-general and the patriarch. The Maronites, with whom they are intermingled over the mountain, and who likewise own the supremacy of the pope, hold them nevertheless in aversion, principally, perhaps, because the Greek Catholics are permitted by their rules to smoke, drink coffee, and eat meat, (when not in seasons of fasting) whilst the Maronites are interdicted from every one of these indulgences throughout the year.

There are to be found among the Malkys men of great acuteness, and who are well versed in church learning; but the major part of them are no better than peasants, being employed in rearing silkworms, in ploughing land, and other works of husbandry. Such, indeed, are always their occupations during their noviciate; and, in case they exhibit no striking talents, for the rest of their lives also. It must be observed that every article of food and raiment is manufactured by their own body.

At Dayr Mkhallas resided the patriarch of the Greek Catholics, proprietor of Dayr Mar Elias, and successor of him who died there just before our arrival. His name was Macarius, which he had assumed on his elevation to the patriarchal dignity. He was a man of little conversation, and rather awkwardly professed his hope that Lady Hester would long continue to occupy his humble residence. These dignitaries of theEastern church are accessible to the lowest person, and are not those of old, who could make an emperor tremble on his throne: the most they can now do is to tamper in the intrigues of the mountain, a field too small to give scope to the ambition of a churchman; but even now they are approached with the greatest respect, and persons of their own sect kiss the ground before a patriarch, and then his robe.[93]He is waited upon by priests and deacons, who light his pipe, and do other menial offices about his person. In the East, all distinctions of rank are lost in the presence of a superior, if he be a great man, whether Christian or Moslem. Before a pasha, his vizir, or kekhyah, stands, nor dares sit, unless told to do so. In the same manner, a patriarch keeps his bishop on his legs; but, let the pasha or the patriarch disappear, the kekhyah and bishop will play the same farce with those next inferior to themselves. As the Porte acknowledges but one legitimate Christian church, which is the Greek, the Catholic patriarch cannot be seen in public in his robes, or, indeed, reside anywhere comfortably, but in Mount Lebanon.

On the 28th of March, M. Boutin, a French gentleman, arrived at Sayda, and lodged at his consul’s. Lady Hester had known him at Cairo, where, on occasion of a dinner at the house of the French consul, she had turned into ridicule the mysterious air whichhe assumed, and had laughingly denounced him as a spy of Buonaparte’s, as, in fact, he was: for he had served as colonel of engineers, and was now on a mission connected with his department. He was said to have been a great friend of Moreau’s. He was much urged to remain at Sayda until the plague, which now began to reappear everywhere, should have subsided: but, not being willing to do so, he departed about the 5th or 6th of April, taking with him a servant of Lady Hester’s, whom she ceded to him as likely to be useful on the journey; and so he would have been, but they were destined never to return. The servant was carried off by the plague, and M. Boutin was assassinated by his own Turkish domestics in an unfrequented part of the Ansáry mountains! His story will be related in another place.

It was now the time of Lent, which was kept with much strictness by the Greek Catholics: but their rigid observance of fasts savoured strongly of pride; and, even in my own little family, between Giovanni, who was a Roman Catholic, and the kitchen girl, who was a Greek Catholic, I was often made very angry. Whatever I left at dinner was thrown to the dogs. What was cooked for me would neither do for man nor maid: and what was cooked for the man would not do for the maid, because their fasts fell at different times, according to the old and new style. Yet would they drink drams, lie, cheat, or do anything morally wrong, and then look me in the face,and justify their conduct, because, forsooth, they had not broken the fast.

The rains this year had continued somewhat later than usual; but the weather was now become very fine and warm, and the breeding of silkworms had begun to busy the whole of the peasantry. On the first days of April, the worms were hatched from their eggs, by being carried for a day or two in the bosoms of the women; that kind of warmth, or that degree of it, being found to be most fit for the purpose.

Nasýfa, widow of Murad Bey, once the ruler of Egypt, whose acquaintance Lady Hester had made whilst she was at Cairo, sent her about this time a black slave, named Hanýfy. She was thirteen years old, and exceedingly well made. Much pains were taken to render her a good servant; and, as she had been bred a Mahometan, her ladyship never would allow any attempts to be used to convert her to Christianity, but caused an old imàm of Sayda to come, day by day, to give her instructions in her religion, and to teach her the forms of prayer. Many pious persons may be disposed to blame Lady Hester, who thus shut out from a young mind the light of the Gospel; but she was accustomed to say, “I am a philosopher and not a missionary, and, between millions of Mahometans and millions of Christians, who dispute which is the right way to Heaven, I never pretend to set myself up as a judge which is the best.”

When Hanýfy came from Egypt to Syria, a letter was sent with her, describing her merits by negatives; there being, in a new bought slave, few positive qualities ascertainable, until he or she has been some time in the possession of a purchaser. This letter was written by the person at Cairo into whose trust Hanýfy had been delivered, and by whose wife all proper examination had been made of her fitness for her new station. The slave-sellers are accustomed to give three days’ trial, and the result was that, Hanýfy did not snore, did not talk or walk in her sleep, had a pleasant voice, seemed docile; that her back was not crooked; and that she had no bodily deformity. Such was the character she brought with her; and whether she was virtuous and good never seemed to have troubled the inquirer’s mind.

Just at this time, I was exceedingly delighted by an unexpected discovery of an ancient sepulchre, made not far from my residence. As I now spoke Arabic, the news of the day often formed a subject of conversation between me and the villagers, my neighbours. One evening, a peasant, who was sufficiently aware of the curiosity which European travellers feel upon matters connected with the ancient history of these countries, informed me, that a cavern, full of painted figures, had been discovered, the preceding evening, within a short distance of Sayda. He added other circumstances sufficient to excite in me a desire to see it. Having, therefore, acquainted myself with thesituation of the place, I went to it on the following morning.

The spot to which I had been directed was about half a mile to the north-east of Sayda, close to a deep glen, named Wady Abu Ghyás, and within a hundred yards of one of the gardens to the east. A camel, whilst grazing here, sunk into a hole knee-deep, where it remained without being able to extricate itself. The driver, having relieved it from its distressing situation, was naturally induced to look down, and examine the hole; and, as it appeared to go to some depth, the constant notion which prevails (as has been before said) among all classes of people in the East, of hidden treasures, led him to fancy that it might be an opening to something of this kind; so he proceeded to enlarge it. The soil readily yielded, and presented the appearance of an underground chamber. Eager to realize the good fortune which awaited him, as he now supposed, he procured a light, and, letting himself down into the opening, found himself in a spacious vault, the walls of which were covered with painted figures almost as large as life. He cautiously proceeded to examine the place, when, having convinced himself that his search would turn to no profitable end, he ascended to the open day, and went and communicated his discovery to the people of a caravansery, the resort, as in the inns of other countries, of many idlers. Some of these returned with him to the cavern: and the superstition of a part ofthem immediately converted the figures into a representation of Christian mysteries, a circumstance not worth mentioning, if it were not that this notion was afterwards the cause of their being defaced by the Turks.

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