CHAPTER XI.

Plague at Abra—Terror occasioned by it—Peasants forsake the village—Alarm of Lady Hester—Imaginary virtues of bezoar and serpent stone—Funerals—Embarrassment of the Author—Illness of his servant—Increase of the contagion—Medical Treatment—Arrival of the Kite sloop of war—Number of victims of the plague—Pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Haneh—Prickly heat—Lady Hester goes to reside at Meshmûshy—Costume of the Drûzes—Maronite monastery—Camel’s flesh eaten—Bridge of Geser Behannýn—Journey of the Author to Bteddyn—Sons of the Emir Beshýr—Wedding at Abra—Moorish Conjuror—Return of Giorgio—Vineyards—Wines—Dibs—Raisins—Olive Harvest—Figs—Country between Abra and Meshmûshy.

From the end of March the plague had been reported to have shown itself in Sayda: still, up to the middle of April, no sure information could be obtained. At last, however, the number of deaths put the matter beyond doubt, and the more prudent part of the inhabitants began to prepare for shutting up their houses: and in the village of Abra, thepeasants consulted me on the propriety of forbidding any person to go to Sayda under any pretext whatever.[104]The order was easy of execution as far as regarded Sayda, but it was not so in respect to the gardens. Many of the peasants bred silkworms by mulberry leaves brought thence, which they fetched night and morning; and, as these poor people calculated on the profits of their silk, as those of Kent do on hop-picking, they conceived any risk preferable to such a loss.

On the 26th the repairs of the convent being concluded, Lady Hester desired a cask of wine to be given away among the workmen and the villagers. This was done at the door of my cottage, and both men and women drank with such avidity that one woman fell drunk in the road, and others were inebriated. A dance was performed by some of the young men, accompanied by singing in dialogue, which was very amusing. A group represents a party of Arabs, who, by a description of the charms of a damsel of their tribe, invite a youth to take her for his bride. In proportion as the youth’s imagination is warmed by their eulogy, they increase their demands for her price: at last, they work upon him so greatly, that, after having given his camel, mare, tent, and all he is possessed of, piece by piece, he strips off everyarticle of dress from his person, and offers them also.[105]

On the 29th one of the peasants, named Constantine, who had been present at this ceremony, died; and his death, which was immediately attributed to plague, excited great consternation; as every body had mixed in the crowd before my door where he was. No suspicion was entertained even that he was ill, until the day of his death, when, of his own accord, he expressed a wish to confess himself; and the curate immediately afterwards gave notice that he was dying. The circumstances of his death were remarkable. He was about sixty years old, and had not, for many years, been to the hot bath; when, in an unlucky hour, the fancy took him to go to one at Sayda, wherein, or at which time, he caught the plague. It was not certainly known how many days he had been ill, but it was generally supposed seven or eight: although every body averred that he had been walking about, or at his accustomed labour of ploughing, up to the day preceding his death. Even on the morning of the day on which he died, he went with some other peasants to Dayr Makhallas, on business with his landlord, the patriarch. He saw the prelate, obtainedhis answer to his demands, and returned, as he went, on foot. At two he took to his bed; about three said he wished to confess; and at eight was a corpse. I afterwards witnessed some other remarkable instances of the sturdy resistance which these mountaineers made to sickness.

No sooner was the cause of the death of Constantine ascertained than the peasants took the necessary steps for their security. Application was made to Lady Hester for an order to turn the family of the deceased, and those who were known to have been near him in his illness, out of the village: which was immediately granted, and the performance of it was fixed for the ensuing morning. I made use of what arguments I could to persuade them of the necessity of burying the corpse; but nobody was found willing to carry it to the grave. At length, filial duty and the ties of kindred induced his son and a young man betrothed to his daughter to perform this last office for him: and, about nine o’clock at night, without any of the customary funeral ceremonies, the body was borne to the churchyard, on an opposite hill a quarter of a mile off, and thrown into a cave. The next morning at daylight the family retired from their cottages to a valley under the village, where was a spring of water and a grotto in the rock, which afforded them a tolerable habitation and a cover from the sun.

It is not to be imagined that, in Syria, in themonth of May, there is any hardship in being compelled to live in the fields. A fine climate renders the shade of a tree more agreeable than the most commodious apartment. The natives, indeed, profess that they would often reside from choice in the fields, were it not that the security of their persons and property against robbery, as well as against soldiers, obliges them to live within doors.

In a day or two the consternation and prudence of the peasants subsided, so that they again resorted to the gardens as before. But on Sunday, May the 8th, their terror was renewed by the certainty that four of Constantine’s family had fallen ill at once, nine days from his death. This marked interval between infection and the manifestation of the disease will show that, such persons as magnify the powers of contagion by statements that the plague can communicate and declare itself within twenty-four hours, nay, within one hour, are probably deceived; for, in this case and some others which I observed, an interval of eight, eleven, or more days, elapsed. Thus it was, that, on the 4th of May, a man died of the plague at the village of Salhyah, one mile from Abra: and, a fortnight after, his father, mother, and sister, were attacked and died in three days.

The next day three children in the village were found to be infected; and, on the 10th, Constantine’s son, a youth of twenty, who was taken ill on the 8th, died. The children were immediately expelled from thevillage, and betook themselves to the same place as the others, now a sort of lazaretto. On the 11th, six more fell ill. The panic became general. Each family in the village packed up bed and baggage, and fled to the neighbouring fields, where, constructing huts of stakes, canes, and leafy boughs, sufficient for themselves and their silkworms, which they took with them, they mutually avoided each other. I and my servants, with four families besides, alone remained. Giovanni was so alarmed, that, had he known where to seek refuge, he would have left me also.

During this time everybody in the Convent was in good health: so that, when the cases of infection multiplied in the village, Lady Hester became frightened, and thought it better, surrounded as I had been with the infected, that I should converse with her in the outer court of the convent, without entering any of the rooms: and during the remainder of this plague I continued to do so. When at Latakia, she had purchased some bezoar and serpent stones, in which Orientals have great faith; and she was now desirous of trying their efficacy on those infected with the plague. The results were, as might be expected, not satisfactory. She next went in person to the spot where Constantine’s family was, and gave them Dr. James’s powders to take, and money to buy themselves provisions; but her humanity and courage could not save them.

From the 11th to the 17th persons were daily taken ill, and deaths daily happened; so that, fromthe 8th to the 17th, I reckoned thirty cases of infection and thirteen deaths. On the event of a death in a village, it was customary before the plague for everybody to join the funeral, and mourn and howl over the corpse; the women beating their breasts, whilst the men loosened their shawls from their heads, and used other tokens of despair. On such occasions, too, the peasants from the neighbouring villages would assemble and join in the ceremony. The corpse was carried on a bier, dressed; as coffins are not in use among the Christians of Mount Lebanon. But when Nicôla, son of Constantine, died, it was impossible to find any one to bury him; and men were sent for from Sayda, who devoted themselves, for the sake of a trifling gain, to almost certain destruction; since, for three piasters a head, they came a distance of three miles, and carried a pestiferous corpse to a charnel-house.

The burying-ground of Abra was near the church, on a hill facing the village. The cries of his intended brother-in-law (who alone followed him to the grave) were heard very distinctly in the stillness of noon-day, the hour that he was carried to his last home. It was a mournful scene, and the young man’s moans haunted me in my sleep for some nights afterwards. Nor by day was my mind free from trouble on my own account: for it will readily be conceived that, in cases like the present, every one must labour under many apprehensions and difficulties. The springfrom which water was brought was half a mile off; and, whilst my maid servant was gone to fetch it, for I durst not employ any one else, I was in a state of constant apprehension lest her imprudence should expose her to infection. Nor could I be sure, when from home myself, that she or the man would not have communication with dangerous persons. I durst not send out my linen, which, in consequence, she was obliged to wash. On the 17th of May, Giovanni was suddenly seized with vomiting and giddiness, both symptoms of the plague. I immediately hired two men to build a hut in a retired spot under some olive-trees, and sent for a Turk from Sayda to come and nurse him: then, communicating to Lady Hester my apprehensions that Giovanni had caught the infection, which from him would almost certainly be caught by me, I returned to my cottage. My maid servant fled, and I remained alone, with the agreeable reflection that I must now cook and wash for myself; for I was become a dangerous person to approach. I could not hire a Turkish servant for myself also; for a Turk may have touched an infected person before coming to you, and, when shut up, may be found himself to be infected. I fumigated my cottage throughout, in which, too, I was somewhat unfortunate; for, after the plague was over, a peasant woman laid claim to compensation from me, because, she said, I had caused all her silkworms to die by the smell of my drugs.

The weather, on the 1st of May, had set in withgreat heats, and the 14th and 20th were intolerably oppressive, augmenting, as it would seem, the violence of the contagion; for the deaths and new cases of infection continued to increase. In Sayda, likewise, the deaths now amounted to ten a day. On the 21st, Giovanni’s indisposition having turned out to be nothing but a bilious fever, and having yielded to the remedies I had given him, I took him back again to my cottage, to his and my own great satisfaction.

The difficulty of finding persons to bury the dead was greater than ever. The same men, who before had risked their lives for three piasters a head, now obtained nine, and a chicken besides, for burying an interesting young girl, named Berjût, the daughter of a peasant, whose beauty was of no common cast. Those of Constantine’s family who continued to die were buried in holes close to the cave where they had lived, and became a prey to the jackalls.

On the 17th, a villager named Shahûd buried his own son. He was a poor peasant, whose only means of maintenance were derived from an ass, which he hired out to carry persons and burdens. Poor as he was, he loved his boy beyond measure. The body of Constantine had been thrown into a charnel pit, which was the common receptacle of the dead, where corpses were heaped one on another; the entrance being merely blocked up with a large stone and mud cement. When Shahûd reopened it, to place his child there,the sight of the corpse of the man whose imprudence had first brought the malady into the village so enraged him, that he endeavoured to drag it out, that he might vent his rage upon it, by leaving it to the jackalls: but it was too corrupt; and the limb by which he seized it separated (as he told me) from the trunk, and remained in his hand.

I now felt more comfortable, and renewed my visits, which, during Giovanni’s illness, I had discontinued, to the infected around me. My plan was each day at two o’clock to ride out on an ass. I approached them within ten or twelve feet, and saw only those who could come out of their tents or grottoes to me. The mode of cure (I mean theirs) was confined to a bleeding, if they had strength enough to go down to Sayda to a Turkish barber, who for twenty paras, or fourpence, immediately opened a vein in the arm: but, if too weak for that, nothing was done. For, although to many I gave pills, powders, and potions, and they accepted them, I have reason to think they were seldom used. Plasters on their swellings they would readily apply, and would show them, to convince me they had done so; but I never was aware that this or any other remedy changed much the event of the malady; nor did I find any preventive of use but keeping out of its way.[106]

Besides the preceding instance of manly resistance to disease, I had an opportunity of seeing another, as remarkable, in the case of a girl nine years old. I went to her on the fourth day of her illness, and, as she had many times when in health received paras from me in charity, I called her to me from the hut in which she was, with her father, mother, two brothers and sister, her mother and brother being as ill as herself. She tottered out, and presented a most aggravated example of affliction by the hand of the Almighty. She had a carbuncle, which occupied the right corner of her mouth, another over the jugular vein, and a third on her right instep, which made her hobble in her gait; and, added to all this, she stood under a burning sun of perhaps 130° Fahrenheit, parched with fever, whilst her head, she said, ran round, her limbs failed her, and, as she expressed it, she wished to eat, but could not. Her mother told me she had been delirious all the preceding night; and the husband added that his wife was suffering herself from two femoral swellings.

It will be recollected that, when the plague showeditself, the peasants were busied in the feeding of silkworms preparatory to their spinning; and that, when they were driven out of the village, they did not, on that account, abandon their worms. The family of Constantine, even in the midst of their calamities, made a hut near their cave, and fed and nourished the worms as usual, from their own mulberry trees, which were close by.[107]

Up to the first of June, there were every day fresh cases, after which they suddenly ceased; and, with the exception of a few deaths of those who had fallen ill in May, the daily reports were more consolatory.

Lady Hester’s fears were by this time somewhat abated, and I again re-entered the convent, from which I had now been excluded since the beginning of May.

If there were anything capable of relieving the irksomeness of such a confinement as that which we now suffered, it was the lively interest excited in us by the events which had recently occurred in Europe. On the 12th of June, the news of Buonaparte’s exile to the island of Elba reached the monastery, and extinguished, as it was then thought, the prodigious splendour of his career. It was remarkable that the first account of this decision of the belligerent sovereigns was communicated to us, not from our consuls on the sea-coast, but from Dayr el Kamar, through a priest of the country, who had received his information from his correspondent at Rome; and there were many circumstances which occurred, demonstrating that these Eastern countries maintained a constant and sure correspondence with the western world, and were early informed of the changes in it. The common people did not fail to picture the downfall of a usurper in the colouring borrowed from their own customs, and he was said to have been carried about Paris in an iron cage, like Bajazet.

On the 14th of June, arrived in the port of Sayda H.M. sloop of war the Kite, commanded by Captain T. Forster, who came up to the convent, and had a long and private conversation with Lady Hester. He almost immediately sailed again to the south, and on the 22nd returned.

It appeared afterwards that her ladyship had required the assistance of a ship of war from Sir RobertListon, to be enabled to ascertain the state of the ruins of Ascalon, preparatory to certain excavations proposed to be there made, by authority from the Porte, in search of hidden treasures; and that Sir Robert Liston had despatched Captain Forster with orders to act according to Lady Hester’s instructions. When Captain Forster quitted Sayda the first time, he went thither, reconnoitred the shore, and found it unfit for landing.

Although there was no wind, whilst moored behind the reef of rocks, which forms the haven of Sayda, the sloop rolled her gunwales under water. The presence of Captain Forster and the officers of the Kite was a source of enjoyment scarcely to be conceived by those who have not, like us, suffered for so long a period a total privation of the society of their countrymen. After stopping a week, they left us. On the 20th of June, a slight shock of an earthquake was felt.

On St. John’s day, the 24th of June, the Franks of Sayda opened their houses, and no fresh cases of plague happened afterwards. From a list of deaths, kept by M. Bertrand, to whom the whole population of the place was known, it appeared that 360 persons had fallen victims to it. How little are those reports, inserted in the European journals, to be relied on, by which a city, like Cairo or Damascus, is made to lose 2000 or 3000 a day; so that, in one month, in which the virulence of the disease is at the highest, the total loss would amount to more than the total population. It would be a fair average to reckon, in a most severeplague, the proportion of deaths at one to one thousand inhabitants per day. Thus, in Malta, the maximum was sixty a day: and 60,000 may be calculated as the population of La Valetta. So, for Sayda, where the maximum was eleven a day, the same ratio would perhaps hold just. In Abra, twenty persons died in forty days, and the number of families being forty, with five persons belonging to each family, gives a population of two hundred.

My servant had obtained permission to go to the shrine of St. Haneh, (St. Joan) at the village of Kurka, on the 6th of July, to celebrate the festival of that saint. A small church stood there to her honour, on the side of a mountain, commanding a fine view of the wild and romantic scenery through which the river Ewely runs. A crowd of people annually assembles on this day from Sayda, and from the neighbouring villages. They go, on the vigil of the saint’s day, and, mixing together promiscuously, pass the night in the open air round the walls of the chapel. Many cures are attributed to the leaves of an oak tree, which overshadows the chapel, and to the water of a spring which trickles from the rock beneath the altar within it. Setting aside any supposed medicinal virtues in trees and stones, the place may no doubt be very healthy. I rode to the spot, and saw a motley assemblage of Christians. Two Mahometans were likewise there, induced, from the reported miracles of the place, to try them in their own cases, being sorely afflictedwith chronic diseases. These pilgrimages to Christian shrines by Mahometans are not unusual, and bring no scandal on the pilgrim.

July the 9th, Lady Hester was seized with the prickly heat. This is a miliary eruption, alternately disappearing and returning, which excites the most intolerable itching. The heat oppressed her so much that I thought it advisable to remove her to a cool situation on some elevated part of the mountain. Pierre, who had been recalled since Captain Forster’s arrival, had mentioned a house above Beyrout as extremely commodious and airy; upon which he had been immediately despatched to request it of the emir. The emir returned for answer that the house in question was inhabited by a branch of his own family, whom he could not turn out. Meshmûshy, a village upon a very high part of the mountain, enjoying a fine air and excellent water, distant about five hours’ journey from the monastery, was then fixed on, and a second application was made.

On the 20th of July, an answer arrived from the Emir Beshýr to Lady Hester’s application for the house at Meshmûshy. He did not say positively she could not have it: his expressions were equivocal and shuffling; but, as she could not bear the least appearance of opposition to her will, or a show of disrespect, she wrote back, in very strong terms, that, “whether he gave her a house or not, she should set off next day, and would pitch her tents on the mountain, if she found nothing better.”

Accordingly, on the 25th, we set off: Lady Hester rode on an ass, which the emir had given her some time before. In order to enjoy the fine scenery of Mount Lebanon, the journey was divided into four days. The first day, passing Salhyah, a clean village, we went no farther than Ayn el Hager, a spring of water distant one league from the convent, where the tents were fixed. The second day we reached Libâ, a village of Christians and Metoualis, which is about three miles farther. Libâ is a village of forty-four houses. The shaykh, or bailiff, was a Drûze named Sumyn. The weather was so hot that I would not have my tent up, and slept under some fig-trees upon a small carpet. A fat little man, who was the curate, amused me much by his curiosity and talkativeness. The third day brought us to Isfarýn, a hamlet celebrated for its tobacco. The next morning, we passed Iktány, and on the 4th, encamped at Bisra, close to Ayn Bisra,[108]a small spring of excellent water. On the 28th, we ascended half way the steep mountain on which Meshmûshy stands, and on the 29th, in the morning, arrived there.

The situation of Meshmûshy is commanding and romantic. The house was small; it was, therefore, resolved to get rid of all unnecessary servants. Lady Hester’s maid had been left behind at Mar Elias:Pierre was dismissed: there remained only a mountain lass, who understood nothing but Arabic; Um Risk, an old woman, who was in the same predicament; and an out-door man, named Ayd. Ten weeks were passed in this retirement; and Lady Hester several times said that she never had been more comfortable since she left Malta than she was then.

MESHMÛSHY.

Meshmûshy is a hamlet of twelve or fourteen families,[109]situate nearly at the summit of a mountain,forming, as it were, the promontory of a chain: so that, towards the valley of Bisra, it is almost perpendicular, making a very difficult ascent. The air is good; but fogs every evening were seen to hang on the summit and around us, giving an excessive chilliness to the atmosphere. Dysenteries and hooping-coughs were prevalent at our first coming.

I have endeavoured to give a representation of the costume of the natives of this village, which will serve for that of all the Maronite population.

Of the two figures, that on the left was the chief of the village of Meshmûshy. His companion was a less considerable person; but still was a sort of squire, as he kept a horse, which is the test of gentility throughout Syria. Yellow shawls are very much worn by the Christians of respectability. The blue striped close abah of the other figure is affected chiefly by the Drûzes themselves, who use much simplicity in their garment, and mostly dress alike. All such as are above the level of labouring peasants carry khanjàrs, or daggers, in their girdles.

The long red skull cap (tarbûsh), seen pending from the head of the right hand figure, was at thistime peculiar to Syria, and more especially to Mount Lebanon. In the towns and cities it is only partially worn.

COSTUME OF THE DRÛZES.

About five hundred yards from the hamlet, and on the same level, was a large monastery of Maronite friars, called Dayr el Sayda, peopled with seventy or eighty monks and lay brothers. As their rules never allowed them to eat meat, their whole maintenance consisted of cheese, milk, leben, (curds and whey), dibs, (grape-juice concentrated) and vegetables. They were, for the most part, very ignorant; but there were two who were ingenious as artificers,[110]and two or three who passed among them for scholars; their scholarship consisting in being able to read Syriac, (in which the service of their church is performed) in Syriac characters; whilst the greatest number read Syriac inArabic characters, into which it is transferred for the use of the uninformed. These two friars spoke a little Syriac likewise. They had a painter among them, who would not have ranked higher than a dauber in any other country. Their chapel was considered as one of the finest on the mountain. The building was of rough stones, found on the spot: their cells had nothing superfluous in them, having only a raised bench on one side, on which was a mattress, and upon it a wadded coverlet; sheets being considered as unnecessary luxuries. The windows had no casements nor shutters; and, when the elevation of the spot is considered, and that snow falls frequently, they must have suffered much from the cold. Women were not admitted within the monastery; but, by an evasion of an easy nature, there was a small chapel, separated by a wall, through which was a door from the monastery into it, where the women heard mass, prayed, and confessed.

The Maronites are not found more to the south than Meshmûshy. Maronites and their monasteries abound most in the northern districts of the mountain. They distinguish themselves by the name of belledýah (indigenous,) from those of Aleppo, who are called Aleppine Maronites. The Maronites are of the order of St. Anthony, the Egyptian.

A great deal of tobacco was cultivated at Meshmûshy, and with great success. This sort, when lighted, sparkles and hisses slightly, as if impregnatedwith saltpetre, which salt, in fact, gave it that property, and is derived from the goats’ dung, with which the ground is manured.

There were many fine springs at Meshmûshy, the water of which was delicious and cool; but not in sufficient quantity for the purposes of irrigation.

On the very pinnacle of the mountain is a small level of an acre’s breadth. Here was the tomb of Nebby Meshwah, covered with a small cupola, which could be seen at a great many miles’ distance. This tomb was held in reverence by Moslems and Drûzes. It was surrounded by old oak trees, less large, however, than the English oak. Below Meshmûshy was a Turkish village, called Benywaty. Some one of these villages kept the sepulchre clean, and lighted a lamp in it every night.

One day, whilst standing at the gateway of the house, I observed several peasants in succession pass by with pieces of meat, on wooden skewers, in their hands. I asked them what meat it was, and they told me camel’s flesh, upon which I bought a piece of about half a pound from one of them, and ordered it to be dressed. The cook turned up her nose, and expressed much wonder at my taste, by which I understood that camels’ flesh was no dainty in her eyes; and, although many travellers have affirmed that it is considered so in the Desert by the Bedouins, yet I never saw any eaten there but once. The peasants whom I spoke to were inhabitants of the village of Benywaty, and Mahometans.The Christians pretended to hold the camels’ flesh as unclean; but whether because their priests told them so, or because they love to do contrary to what Mahometans practise, which is a common motive with them for many of their actions, I could not learn.

Ayd, the man-servant, was dismissed, without his wages, on the 19th, for refusing to go a journey on foot to fetch articles wanted for the house. He betook himself to Dayr el Kamar, and complained to the emir; upon which the dragoman, M. Beaudin, was summoned to Bteddýn, the emir’s residence, to answer the charge, and I accompanied him. In the afternoon of the 20th, we descended the north-east side of the mountain into the valley of Bisra. The side of the mountain was covered with aromatic herbs, especially lavender. Half way down, there is a small river, which, rushing over a precipice at Gezýn, a village about one mile to the right, in a cascade of a single sheet of water, tumbles from rock to rock through a deep descending glen, until it reaches the vale of Bisra, and joins the river Ewely. This glen is overtopped, to the south, facing Meshmûshy, by a chain of lofty precipitous rocks, upon which were seen the ruins of an old castle, rendered memorable by the stout resistance which Fakhr ed Dyn,[111]emir of the Drûzes, made in it to the forcesof the sultan for the space of seven years. At our feet was a small bridge crossing the torrent, and close to it a water-mill, to grind the corn of the neighbouring villages. Leaving this on the right hand, and below us, and, inclining to the left, we descended into the vale, which we traversed.

About one mile from the foot of the mountain, we crossed a small stream which sometimes becomes a torrent, on a single arched bridge, made in steps, close to which, four granite pillars were still standing, the remains of some ancient building. This bridge was called Geser Behannýn.

GESER BEHANNÝN.

Close below the bridge, the stream emptied itself into the river Ewely, which we forded. Thescenery hereabout is magnificent. This spot answers to the situation assigned by Abulfeda to a city, called Mashgara; but the inhabitants have a tradition that these pillars are the remains of the edifice which Sampson pulled down on the heads of the Philistines.

We mounted against the course of the stream for about an hour; and then, turning short to the left, ascended a path cut in a rock almost perpendicular, which was the steepest road I had ever seen for four-footed animals. On the top, we found ourselves on a spacious and almost level ridge of the mountains; and, passing through some fine olive plantations, we arrived at nightfall at the village of Muzrât el Shûf, whose inhabitants are Drûzes and Christians. We repaired to the centre of the village, where was a square plot of ground shaded by a noble tree, under whose branches was a stone platform, where we spread our carpets, having tied up our asses close to us. We had some difficulty in getting a little bread and treacle, with a small dish of eggs fried in oil, for supper; after which we slept under the tree.

On the following morning we pursued our journey, and for an hour or two travelled over a most stony soil upon a tolerably level path, until we reached Bteddýn, the emir’s residence. He was from home, being gone to superintend the construction of an aqueduct to bring water from a distance of several miles, to his palace: for the Orientals think no house orplace enviable that has not running water in it, or near it. We tied up our asses, and spread our carpets under some olive trees, and then presented ourselves at the door, saying who we were. Orders were immediately given for providing us with a room in the palace, and we were conducted to the emir’s sons, Khalyl and Emyn Casem, who received us with much politeness. The elder had on a quilted robe like a bedgown; the younger a white ermine pelisse covered with white satin. No Englishman appeared at this place, without being questioned on the health of Sir Sydney Smith, and they asked if Mr. B., whom they had seen in our former journey, was royally born.

M. Beaudin went to seek the emir, and I remained and breakfasted with Selûm, the chief katib of the emir, reputed to be a very shrewd old man, but fat and bloated, and looking like a glutton; and, indeed, he ate and drank like one. With him was a priest, named Abûna Shâby, exercising the profession of physician, and now in attendance on the emir, by whom he was said to be pensioned. As usual with such persons, they questioned me on many strange things, but generally with some object in view, either for their own or for their employer’s purposes.

As M. Beaudin did not come back when I expected him, at 11 o’clock I mounted my ass to return home alone. I lost my way, and, but for the civility of a Drûze gentleman, who found me wandering among themountains, and who set me right, himself conducting me for a whole league, I might have been exposed to danger; although I began now to look upon travelling in these countries as perfectly secure, and to see no reason to doubt my safety in Mahometan lands any more than I did in Christendom.

I passed the village of Ayn Bàt, consisting of Drûzes and Christians; and, proceeding down a deep valley, through which was the bed of a torrent now dry, I arrived at the village of Guffûra (or some such name) then at Zahûr, where I descended into the vale of Bisra by a steep path, and came to a hamlet called Mûsa kellem allah. I crossed the river, ascended the opposite mountain: and, after seven hours’ riding, reached Meshmûshy. M. Beaudin returned the following day, and Ayd was sent by the emir to beg her ladyship’s pardon.

The 26th of August, I rode down to Abra. It happened that, on the 28th, three weddings were to be celebrated in the village, and I took the opportunity of being present at them. The parties were peasants. The weddings lasted two days. On the first evening the bridegrooms, dressed in their best clothes, with daggers in their girdles, and with other marks of finery, which native Christian peasants are commonly forbidden to wear, seated themselves on the bare ground, in an open place in the middle of the village. The villagers were assembled around them. Each, ashe entered the circle, saluted the bridegrooms, and invoked a blessing upon them; whilst they rose up and returned the compliment. With this exception, they were obliged to remain quiet, preserving a very sober and grave demeanour. The party smoked their pipes, each person from his own tobacco-bag. A pipe and tabor, with a long drum, kept up incessantly a noisy music, discordant to me, but very pleasing to the people of the country. In the middle of the ring, those who chose stood up, one by one, and danced a slow dance. A few of the young men danced in couples, with swords in their hands, and acted a sham combat. To these succeeded hired dancers, the buffooneries of a Jack-pudding, a man dressed in woman’s clothes, and some other mummery. These diversions were kept up until a late hour.

In the mean time, the brides, each in her separate cottage, were seated on a mat or carpet, closely veiled, and preserving unbroken silence. As a doctor, I was permitted to enter the rooms where they were. I found the first, a girl of twelve or thirteen, in a long white veil, with a crowd of women round her. To gratify me, as a stranger, they bade her show herself a little. She was dressed in a silk kombáz or gown. Round her arms and legs she had bracelets; gold ornaments encircled her neck; and pieces of tinsel were stuck on her dress here and there. Her look was downcast, and she was not permitted to utter more than a single salutation, almost in a whisper. I found the othereating her supper: both looked very like the women that go about with morris-dancers or chimney-sweepers, on May-day. Although I knew the girl by sight extremely well, yet now she was obliged to use the same reserve as if she had never set eyes on me. The women also had a pipe and tabor, and dancing boys, with castanets, to amuse them.

Thus the first evening passed. On the second day the ceremony of visiting continued. In the evening, the parties went to church. The priest performed the marriage ceremony, which I did not see. They then were led, bride and bridegroom, in procession to their houses. Here it was optional whether they would retire and consummate the marriage, or join the company, where music and dancing still went on as before, with the firing of small arms; for the lower classes in Turkey never feel their joy complete, unless a great deal of powder is wasted. As one of the bridegrooms, who was to marry the maid of fifteen, was himself not thirteen, he seemed disposed to enjoy the music a little longer. He was the son of that Constantine who died of the plague. His brother, twenty years old, had been betrothed to Mariam, the bride; but, he dying, it devolved on the next brother, according to the usage of the mountain, to espouse her. Hence the disparity of years on the wrong side.[112]

The other bridegroom was a fine young man, and retired immediately.

When the evening was far advanced, the drummer went round to collect his presents. Each person dealt out small money piece by piece, naming to each piece, as he gave it, a toast. The drummer then bawled out the toast, with the name of him who proposed it, and the number of paras he had received for it, and an eulogium on the person in honour of whose name the gift was made. During the whole of the ceremony, the loo loo of the women was incessant.

Persons before marriage are affianced, and this ceremony precedes the wedding sometimes a year, sometimes several, more or less. Thus, I was once present, when Rufka bint Yusef Kobryn was affianced to Michael, the mason of Medjdelëûn; and it was done in the following way. The curate of the village came to Rufka’s father’s house at sunset, and Rufka was desired to go out to one of her neighbour’s. The young mason came with his friends, and the curate said a prayer over him. He gave to the father, as a present for Rufka, two handkerchiefs, a pair of red shoes, one white veil of English muslin, nine rubbias, (about £1) all which was to be forfeited if he refused afterwards to marry her. Brandy was then introduced; pipes were lighted; singing took place; and all the party vociferated, in set phrases in rhyme, long life and happiness to the future bride and bridegroom.

Generally the bridegroom’s friends go to fetch thebride on a mare in fantastic housings. When she enters the village of the bridegroom, he receives her with a gentle tap on the head with his pipe, his hand, or something, whilst she bows submissively in token of future obedience to his will. At a second marriage, which I witnessed at Salhiyah, one mile from the Convent, the young men, his companions, conducted the bridegroom on horseback to the village of the bride, they being on foot, singing in turns with the women who followed in the rear. The song of the men was more like hallooing than music. The women always finished with a loo loo.

This son of Constantine, of whose marriage we have just been speaking, supposed that his father had concealed a considerable sum of money somewhere in or about his cottage: and, in conjunction with his sisters, he hired a Moor from Sayda to show the spot. I have already said how great the reputation of the Moors, or men of the West (Mogrebyns) is, as fortune-tellers, discoverers of stolen goods, and conjurors. The Moor, when brought to the cottage, read certain forms of charms, during which, the bystanders, two women, the lad, and three other peasants, relations of the deceased, fancied they heard the voices of spirits under ground. The Moor pretended to address them in these words—“Show me the treasure—show me the treasure.” “We will,” answered the spirits; “but first fumigate us.” The Moor then pretended that spirits would not becontented with common incense, and demanded threemetcalsof ambergris, or money to buy it. Ambergris is nearly a crown a metcal. The poor peasants declared they had not so much money in the world; the Moor said he could not go on with the incantation without it, and went away with a few piasters he had first obtained as earnest money.

This man, as being at hand, was employed by the côoly or bailiff of the village, one Nassr Allah, to find a purse of money which he had lost. The Moor promised to do it, if Nassr Allah would give him forty paras. “So I will,” said Nassr Allah, “if you will first tell me what sum was in the purse lost.” The Moor would not venture upon this, happening to have no clue. The parties, therefore, were at issue; and here the matter ended.

When this anecdote was related to me, I was led to inquire what the nature of inheritance was in the village. I was told that Constantine’s son would take equal to the two daughters; and, if there had been no surviving son, then the male first cousin or cousins take equal to the two daughters. This law of inheritance is founded on the maxim that females pay no miri.

Giorgio, the young Greek who was hired at Constantinople, had departed, it will be recollected, with Mr. B., from Latakia, in November of last year, and had obtained permission before returning, to go to his native place, the island of Syra, to see his friends. He returned the 25th of September. At Constantinople,he had purchased several curious articles of dress for Lady Hester. And indeed the monastery, by little and little, became almost too small to contain her collection of costumes, in which were many things whereof any one, opportunely worn in England by a lady of fashion, would have created both admiration and jealousy among the fair sex.

Her ladyship now began collecting fresh people about her, intending to make a journey to the ruins of Heliopolis, or, as it is called, Bâlbec. Pierre had sent for a young woman from Acre, whom he recommended as a useful servant. Her name was Werdy (Rose.)[113]

There is an occupation unknown in England, butwhich employs a great many persons in Syria, where no such things as letter-mails exist: it is that of foot-messenger to carry letters. These foot-messengers will, for a stated sum, half generally paid in advance, and half on their return with an answer, go to any distance. They travel with a good thick stick, light trowsers and a jacket, bare-legged, and sometimes without shoes. Their food on the road is often bread and water only, sometimes with the addition of fruit, if in season, or of leben, if to be had. They thus escape being plundered by carrying nothing to excite cupidity; for a simple letter is not an object to tempt robbers.

I have said above that the village of Meshmûshy was surrounded with vineyards. The grapes ripened under our eye, and we could eat to satiety: so could the meanest peasant; and in this respect it must be allowed that the lot of the poor in hot climates is preferable to that of the like class of people in cold ones. I counted no fewer than twenty-one sorts of grapes.

The vineyards at Meshmûshy, and elsewhere on the mountain, were planted in rows; and the inequality of the ground, from the preference that was always given to the sides of the hills, rendered it necessary to support the soil at the foot of each row by a stone wall; and thus a vineyard became a succession of steps or terraces, rising one above another. The vines were planted among the stones of the walls, which were notcemented.[114]They were carefully manured and pruned every year.

Great quantities of wine were annually made at the monastery of Meshmûshy by the monks; and, as the vintage happened this year whilst we were there, I had an opportunity of being present at it. They exposed the grapes, principally white ones, and for the most part of a small white sort calledmuksaysy, seven or eight days to the sun, with the stalks of the bunches turned upwards; as, the more the stalks are dried, the better is the juice. At the end of eight days they squeezed out the juice, by the naked feet, in a basket, through the bottom of which it ran, or sometimes on a stone pavement on an inclined plane, into a receiver, which is either a pan, or oftentimes a hole sunk in the pavement. Those, who wished to have a dry wine, put the juice, thus expressed, into large earthenware jars, which hold from 9 to 18 gallons or more, where it remained to ferment. At the end of forty days the mouth of the jar was covered with a board fitted to it, which was carefully luted round the edges. When wanted for drinking, which is generally within the year, or, at the most, within two years, the luting is broken, the lid taken off, and a portion every day laded out for use.[115]Those who are desirous ofhaving a sweet wine, put the juice on the fire in a cauldron, and heat it short of boiling, until a scum forms on the surface, which they take off. They then put it in the same kind of jars for fermentation.

It was impossible, on seeing wine made, not to be shocked at the dirtiness of the process, particularly in what regards the feet of the persons who tread it, generally peasants. Were it done by Mahometans, even of the lowest class, there would be nothing offensive in it; because they use so many ablutions, that they are as clean in their feet as their hands. But the Christians of the East partake with the poor of European countries in the filth of their lower extremities.

This was indeed a busy season of the year for the mountaineers. At the same time with the wine was made likewisedibs, called in French raisiné, which in taste and appearance resembled treacle, and formed an important article of food throughout Syria, more especially among the middle and lower classes. On a pavement, either of stone or hewn out of the rock, and on an inclined plane, surrounded by a ledge about a foot high, vast heaps of grapes are thrown. These are trodden by men with their naked feet, and the juice runs off through one or more scupper-holes, perforated in the ledge, into pits or cisterns. These pits are square, four or five feet deep, and plastered on theinside so as not to leak. The husks of the grapes, thus trodden, are afterwards submitted to a second operation. They are raked together in a heap, and, being covered with a broad stone, a rude press is contrived by means of a large trunk of a tree, one end of which is thrust into a hole in the wall (raised for this purpose at the back of the pavement), whilst to the other is fastened a heavy block of stone: and the trunk or beam, being let down on the broad flag-stone, acts as a powerful lever. The pressure, continued thus for some time, forces out what juice remains; and the process is completed by one or two washings, which they give to the husks, by means of water poured upon them.[116]The juice, first being allowed to settle, is laded from the pits into a large copper cauldron, placed over a furnace. It is there boiled very quickly; and the scum, which rises abundantly, is taken off by a man whose business this is, whilst the watery parts of the juice are carried off in vapour. In a few hours the whole assumes a brownish yellow colour, and, after a farther continuance of the boiling, becomes of the consistence of oil or liquid honey, when it is put into the receiver, where it cools, and is carried off to the houses in jars.

To these operations succeeded another, less laborious, which was the curing of raisins. Such grapes as wereconsidered most fit for the purpose were gathered when quite ripe: these were themuksaysyfor the small yellow raisins, and thecuryfor the black raisin. A spot of ground was swept clean, and the grapes were spread out in the sun, but were dipped previously in a mixture of ley with a little soap and oil. On the second, third, and fourth days of exposure, they were sprinkled (by means of a rod made of the herbtyûn) with the same ley, but not soaked. After this they were suffered to lie night and day until the drying was completed. This was the manner generally practised on Mount Lebanon, and was performed by the wives of the peasants; whilst the men made the wine dibs.

In the first days of November comes on the olive harvest. The first part of the harvest consisted in collecting the windfalls. From these olives an inferior oil was pressed. Then a second crop was beaten down[117]from the trees with long sticks, and carried to the mills. It was a pleasing sight, early in the morning, to see a whole village deserted: men, women, and children, hastening with their asses and baskets of provisions to pass the day in their olive grounds; although the year was far advanced, and the weather, especially in elevated situations like Meshmûshy, by no means warm.

With respect to olive grounds, some have trees of their own: others hire, at a given sum, so many trees, and take their chance in the harvest. That oil is best which is made by the process of boiling the olives, when the oil separates and floats on the surface, and is skimmed off by the hands.

The oil was pressed out in the following manner. The olives, collected as we have above described, were thrown into a cylindrical hole, called the tanûr, where the olives were completely smashed; certain iron crosses were turned round rapidly by means of a waterwheel, whilst a man, seated by the tanûr, with his hand dexterously introduced between two arms of the cross, was continually employed in drawing out the pounded olives. So prepared, this paste was put into the hollow of a straw bowl, roughly braided into shape, until fifteen or twenty bowls were filled. There was prepared a trunk of a tree (for the whole apparatus is rough,) hollowed out like a tube, whose bore was exactly the size of the straw bowls, but whose circumference was incomplete, so much being left as was necessary for a lever to pass up and down. One end of the lever had a piston, whilst the other was fixed, and to the intermediate part a vast stone was suspended. The piston end being unpinned, and let down on the pile of straw bowls, these were compressed, and the oil oozing out, was received into the cistern below. Thus, in twenty-four hours, a hundred weight of oil may be obtained.

Nor did the fig harvest cause less bustle. Figs were gathered in the morning, and laid to dry in the sun on stalks ofshumarandfekua, plants like tansy. Each parcel required to be exposed five or six days, and was then heaped into the general lump on the terrace, on the house-top, where they were accumulated until the whole crop had been dried. The women then boiledzata(pennyroyal),shûmar(tansy), andgautorgat, and dipped the figs in the decoction, after which they were again exposed to the sun; and, when dry, were put into jars of sunburnt clay, where they were kept for use.

In some journeys, which I made backward and forward from Meshmûshy to Abra, I had an opportunity of observing more attentively the valleys through which I passed, and the soil of the country. From Abra to Salhiah the road is level, the soil white and unproductive. Salhiah had fifty houses, and a parish priest, who is also a weaver. Three steep hills bring you to Ayn el Hager, opposite to which is the village of Keffergerra, upon a hill. After a level of a mile you reach Libbâ, when the road descends with considerable steepness into a valley, where is a trickling rivulet, and a fountain with a basin for cattle to drink out of. By a very steep ascent you come to Kefferfelûs, a village of twenty-five houses, standing in the midst of a grove of olive and fig-trees. From the left of the road you look down into a deep valley, descending into which the colour of the soil changes fromwhite to red. Ascending through a low wood, by a path peculiarly difficult, you come to Isfaryn, a hamlet of thirty houses without water. Here much tobacco is grown, of a very superior quality, and greatly sought after at Acre, Sayda, and Beyrout.

The road winds round to the left, through a wood of arbutus, turpentine-trees, shumac, stunted oaks, &c., when, on a sudden, it comes directly on the edge of a precipice, down which, to a considerable depth beneath, you look on the river Ewely, here rushing over a rocky bed in noisy and foaming cascades. Across the valley, on the opposite mountain, are seen, in addition to the natural scenery, the three large white convents, Dayr Mkhallas, Dayr el Benát, and Dayr Saida, distant a mile or two from each other. Of Dayr Mkhallas some mention has been made. Dayr el Benát is a convent for women, of which there are two more on Mount Lebanon. The nuns are generally taken from the lowest classes. They lead a laborious life, and, when not busied in their sacred duties, are employed in spinning, weaving, trimming vines, and the most menial occupations.

The road takes a direction, on a descent, to a level with the river. Half way down is Iktály, a hamlet perched on a projecting rock. To the left of it is Musrat el Tahûn, also a hamlet. Here, upon three or four different occasions tempted by the beauty of the view, we pitched our tents, until it was discovered that the miller, who owned the spot, had made a clandestineuse of Lady Hester’s name to obtain favours from the Pasha of Acre, when she abandoned him. The rocks hereabout, which are black and bare, look as if they had just emerged from the deluge.

The scenery, which succeeds to Musrat el Tahûn, is beautiful, when, quitting the mountain, you traverse the vale of Bisra. The village on the side of the vale is a striking feature in it, being built in ascending terraces, which diminish as they rise, and are crowned by a church. About half way through the vale there is a path by which the mountain whereon Meshmûshy stands is to be ascended. Few places, which are at all accessible to beasts of burden, can be more rugged and steep than this. About half-way up begins a forest of firs, which bear cones or apples, from which excellent kernels are extracted, and much used in pastry and confectionary. They are called, in Arabic,snobar. For the first quarter of an hour the appearance of the mountain is so wild that one scarcely believes it possible to find habitations higher up. You are however agreeably undeceived, when, quitting the forest of firs, you come upon a small hamlet beset with vineyards, tobacco fields, fig and walnut-trees. You now see above you the monastery with its steeple, and your ears perhaps are saluted with the tolling of a bell, always a pleasing sound among rocks and woods. One quarter of an hour more brings you to a second flat, where stands the monastery: and some friars were generally seen basking in the sun, and, for amoment, forgetting their listless habits to stare at the passing traveller, whose business they often unceremoniously inquired into, as necessarily connected with nobody but themselves in this retired spot. A level path through highly cultivated mulberry grounds, and occasionally under large shady walnut-trees, leads to the hamlet of Meshmûshy; where, close by the fountain, stood the house we lived in, so deeply shaded by plane and walnut-trees that the weary pedlar or tired peasant was invited to rest his limbs and to drink of the refreshing stream.

END OF VOL. II.

Frederick Shoberl, Junior, Printer to His Royal Highness Prince Albert, 51, Rupert Street, Haymarket, London.

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