The Thistle and the Cedar of Lebanon Part 15

The word of excommunication or anathema, amongst the Maronites, is "_fra-ma.s.soon_"; and he or she on whom it is p.r.o.nounced, is as much avoided and abhorred as the plague-stricken. All houses are closed against a "_fra-ma.s.soon_," and he may starve of cold and hunger amongst his own family and friends, with none to compa.s.sionate him. I remember being told by a person not overburdened with common sense, that upon one occasion, some years ago, a friend of his had given shelter and food to a "_fra-ma.s.soon_"; and that, happening unfortunately, soon after, to quit this world, his body was put aside in a cave, in accordance with the usual custom. Ten years afterwards, the coffin was accidentally opened, and the spectators saw with horror that the corpse was quite fresh, and presented no signs of decomposition. So unusual an occurrence excited great curiosity, and enquiries being made, it soon became known that the departed had transgressed the laws of the Church, by giving hospitality to one whom its ministers had cursed. The relatives of the deceased instantly went to the priest, and, after feeing him pretty freely, obtained his services to read a certain number of prayers over the corpse, and to p.r.o.nounce upon it the forgiveness of the Church. Hereupon nature resumed her usual course, and nothing further was heard of the subject.

The Maronites, under the influence of their priesthood, are noted as being most inhospitable to all excepting those professing their own creed; and even European travellers have been refused a shelter for the night, supposing that they were missionaries. They are a very superst.i.tious and credulous people, and delight in absurd legends. They perform pilgrimages to Jerusalem and also to the tomb of Noah, supposed to be situated in the village of Kerak, between Beyrout and Baalbec; and about this they have endless ridiculous stories. They also pretend to have discovered the tomb of Moses, at a place a short distance from where the late Lady Hester Stanhope used to live.

One great advantage which the Maronites possess, and which must eventually prove very beneficial to them, is the fact, that education is spreading universally amongst them. There is a native printing-press at work in one of the monasteries; but though the generality of the men are well-bred, the women are grossly ignorant and rude. Lady Francis Egerton found cause to complain of this sadly: "If I fastened my door," says her ladyship, "they called and knocked and battered at it, until I feared it would yield to their efforts; and this at five o'clock in the morning, whilst I was in bed."-A pardonable curiosity, however, amongst a semi-barbarous people; for so the women must be termed, until they are admitted to the privileges conferred by education, and social intercourse with civilised English women.

The Maronites, in common with the Greeks and the Armenians, pay an annual visit to the Cedars of Lebanon, for the celebration of the feast of the Transfiguration. Here they celebrate ma.s.s on a rough stone altar, at the foot of the Cedars: in the open air-in "a temple not made with hands"-some of them offer up prayers and thanksgivings, quoting those very Psalms of David which were composed and written expressly to commemorate G.o.d's mercy and loving-kindness, as in connection with the immediate spots which surround these cedars.

A wedding amongst the Maronites differs in some material points from the ordinary marriages in Syria; in the first place, the priest is considered the princ.i.p.al negotiator, and on his report as to the suitableness of the match, much of the future happiness of the young people may be said to depend. After preliminaries have been arranged, gifts of dresses, and the like, are exchanged, but the bashful _fiancee_ is supposed to be in utter ignorance of all that transpires, to spurn these gifts, and to dislike even the mention of her future husband's name. The priest blesses the bridal clothes of the bridegroom before he adopts them. When the friends go to fetch the bride, a mock combat ensues, in which, however, without bloodshed or bruises, the bridegroom's party is invariably victorious, and the women carry off the veiled bride in triumph, attended by her female relation. The bride's house mourns her departure, and she herself makes no secret of her sorrow to leave; but the _arus_ (bride) no sooner makes her appearance than the shouts and acclamations, and firing of muskets by the a.s.sembled mult.i.tude, seem effectually to drown any discordant sounds of lamentation; the procession, however, moves at a funeral pace, for it is thought highly indecorous that the bride should appear as though anxious to arrive at her new abode. On crossing the threshold, she is saluted by the women with the cry of welcome, and clapping the hands; and after her veil has been removed, she is covered with one of red gauze, and then made to sit in state on the divan at the upper end of the room. Here she neither smiles nor speaks, but rises on the entry of each venerable female friend, to embrace her, and kiss her hand. Both men and women, though in separate apartments, pa.s.s the night in noisy hilarity. Before sunset, the bishop, or in his absence the senior priest, attends at the bridegroom's house to perform the ceremony; all symptoms of mirth are immediately abandoned, silence is proclaimed, and then the service proceeds very much after the fashion of the Greek Church, only that both the groomsman and bridesmaid are crowned by the priest as well as the couple being married, and the _bridegroom_ places the ring given him by the priest on the bride's finger. Towards the end of the marriage ceremony, the priest puts a piece of blue ribband, with the picture of a saint attached to it, round the bridegroom's neck. The newly married bride is confined to her house for the s.p.a.ce of a month after her marriage.

I have already mentioned the extreme facility with which the Maronites believe many fables and superst.i.tions that have any connection with religious matters; and perhaps I shall be pardoned for introducing in evidence of this, a fact which occurred about eighty years ago, which attracted the attention of the traveller Volney, and which is still spoken of very frequently among the inhabitants. There are several nunneries belonging to the Maronites in the Lebanon, and it was in one of them, about the period mentioned, that Hindyeh, a young nun, forced herself into great notoriety by the severity of her penances, and the extraordinary piety she displayed. Having found many friends, her reputation increased to such an extent, that she was at last declared capable of working miracles; and the simple-minded Maronites, having provided the funds, she was duly installed in a religious establishment of her own. Her nunnery, and the other establishments in connection with it, had flourished for more than twenty years, when a suspicion was suddenly excited, that several of the nuns, of whom many had died, had met their death by unfair means, and that most improper practices prevailed within the cells. An unhappy merchant of Sidon, who had placed two of his daughters in the establishment, disturbed by these reports, determined to visit the place and make inquiries. On his arrival, he was told he could not see his daughters because they were ill, and finding that all entreaties were in vain, he proceeded to Deyr al Kamar, and obtained an armed force from Emir Yusuf, the chief of the mountain, and the attendance of the bishop to enquire into the matter. The result shewed the existence of a system of wickedness and profligacy, exceeding in iniquity anything ever known, to which one of the daughters of the merchant in question had already fallen a victim, the other being at the time almost dead. The holy, or rather unholy, Hindyeh, was seized and imprisoned, with her accomplices, and the examinations which were made fully criminated them all. The arch-priestess of all this wickedness managed to escape from the convent in which she was imprisoned, and to reach a locality in which she possessed a large body of adherents and believers. Notwithstanding the disclosures which were made, the hypocritical career pursued by this nefarious woman, so completely imposed upon the weak and credulous Maronites, that she died respected and revered, and to this day is acknowledged as a saint. Need I say anything more to prove the extent to which this weakness is carried among the _fellahen_.

The number of Roman Catholics in Syria, including both the Armenians, and the Greek Roman Catholics, as one portion of them is called, may be stated at about 200,000, and, as they differ in no important points from the Roman Catholics of the West, they may be pa.s.sed over without further mention. I may observe, however, that the Armenians are not so generally respected as their Christian brethren of other denominations; and, in ill.u.s.tration, I would remark, that at the grand ceremony on Easter-day of bringing down fire from heaven, the Armenians are driven to obtain a portion of it as best they may; their priests and pilgrims being generally forced into the most remote corner of the sacred edifice.

The Copts, or, as we are accustomed to call them in the East, "the Oobbeet," are the followers of one "Mar Yackoob." Their chief doctrine is that Christ possessed but one nature; and they agree with the Church of Rome in saying that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father to the Son. They are governed by a patriarch who resides at Cairo, and is called patriarch of Alexandria, whose authority is very great over the whole sect; indeed, their most prominent characteristic may be said to be an almost slavish obedience to their priests. Like the Maronites, they invariably kiss the hand of any priest they may encounter in the open street, or country; and many of them prostrate themselves before the holy man. Though they conform to the Hebrew practice of circ.u.mcision, they also baptize their infants. It is customary with them to pray seven times during the twenty-four hours, according to the rules prescribed by the patriarchs; and it is, moreover, a common practice with many of them to learn by heart the whole of the Psalms, some of which they invariably repeat before proceeding to transact any business, in the belief that this devout recurrence to the Psalmist will insure prosperity to the affair they have in hand.

Generally they are very clever, especially at figures. A few of them have recently joined the Orthodox Eastern Church, with which they have many practices and doctrines in common; and a small section has been very powerfully worked upon by a Lazarite mission, the members of which succeeded in persuading several parents to part with their children for the purpose of having them educated in Paris.

It is presumed, from the remarkably Jewish cast of their features, and from their adherence to the Hebrew law, that they are of Jewish origin; but other evidence on this point is wanting. Though I have said that they were called after one Mar Yackoob, their existence as a Christian sect at an earlier period is clearly established; and indeed it has been said by many of the learned visitors to Syria, that they are as old as the Nestorians. At all events they were only organised by Mar Yackoob, who founded a perfect theocratic form of a.s.sociation or government.

Indeed, wherever we turn, whether it be to the several Christian sects or denominations in the East, or to any one of the pagan forms of religion, we find the same fact in all. They have all been founded and organised by a priest, and, whether for good or evil, priestly influence has, in most instances, prevailed until the present day. It is also believed that the Armenians were in some way connected with, or absolutely descended from, the Copts; and there is very good evidence of great intimacy between the latter and the Nestorians, the last of the Christian bodies in Syria, and now to be described. In point of numbers the Copts are very unimportant. They do not exceed 300 in Syria; but there are a great many of them to be found in Egypt.

The Nestorians now claim my attention; but as very little is known concerning them in my own neighbourhood, and as I have never had an opportunity of visiting them in their own mountain-homes, I can only relate what has been told me by travellers.

It is believed that they are of Jewish origin; but there is no positive evidence on the point, beyond their features, their observance of certain Jewish customs, and their respect for portions of the Hebrew code of laws. It cannot be doubted, however, that they have maintained Christianity in the East for more than sixteen hundred years; and that, as primitive Christians, who have not degenerated from the simple form of worship enjoined by the Apostles of our Lord, they are ent.i.tled to our deepest respect and veneration.

They are divided into two sects, the Simple and the Papal Nestorians; but the former do not acknowledge the latter as a part of their body, and declare that they are in no way connected with the Nestorian Church.

They have two patriarchs, who reside in the mountains near Julamerk, and whose influence, together with that of all the priesthood, is very great indeed. Here again we find existing a purely theocratic form of government. The priesthood legislate politically and socially, and they administer the laws judicially, as well as attend to the religious wants of the community over which they preside.

The habits and manners of life of the Nestorians are so primitive, that their simplicity has become proverbial in the East. Their belief differs from the Orthodox Eastern Church, by declaring the existence of two persons in the Saviour, as was propounded by their founder, Nestorius, in the beginning of the fifth century. The sacrament of bread and wine is administered to all by the officiating priest, in almost the same way as this ceremony is performed in the Greek Eastern churches. They are most hostile to the Roman Catholics, whom they hate.

Including the Nestorians inhabiting Persia, I believe there may be altogether about 100,000. On the confines of Persia, they are engaged in perpetual warfare with the Koords.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE POPULATION OF SYRIA, CONTINUED.-THE PAGAN INHABITANTS.

Having dwelt at some length upon the several bodies of Christian inhabitants of Syria, I must entreat my readers' pardon if I endeavour to make my description of the unbelieving portion as brief and condensed as possible. Of course, I need not advert to the Mahommedans, the faithful followers of the Prophet. As I have stated before, they comprise by far the largest proportion of the inhabitants of the towns and lowlands of Syria, and are lords and masters over the rest of the population.

But, besides the orthodox Mahommedans, we have in Syria a very large number of heterodox followers of the Mahommedan faith, who are called Metawali; and who, though they are certainly less numerous than their orthodox brethren, are an infinitely more interesting people. They are followers of Ali, the other sect adhering to Omar. They may amount, in round numbers, to about 35,000; but as they have selected for their homes some of the most inaccessible parts of the mountainous districts of the country, their numbers cannot be very accurately ascertained. They are said, by many persons, to belong to the same section of the Mahommedan faith as the Persians, who also believe in Ali; but they exhibit some peculiar doctrines and customs, which establish an essential distinction between the two.

Like the former, they expect the advent of the Messiah in the person of the twelfth Imam of his line, whom the Turks allege to have been slain in the battle of Karbela in which he engaged with the Caliph of Bagdad; but whom the Metawali believe to have been transported to Arabia, by the miraculous interposition of the Divinity, and from whence he is to return in triumph to re-establish the race of the Imams on the throne, and to punish all who opposed him or his followers. When the expected Messiah does appear, they believe that he will a.s.sume the government of the whole world-that he will visit with the most dreadful punishments all who shall have denied him-and that he will render unto all true believers eternal happiness.

In expectation of the advent of this Messiah, the Metawali keep horses, money, and clothing constantly in readiness for his arrival; and whatever is once set apart for this purpose, is held sacred for ever after, and cannot be used by an ordinary mortal. {318}

They believe in the transmigration and gradual purification of the soul, which, according to their belief, eventually becomes a bright star in the heavenly firmament. The first apostle of Ali, in Syria, was Abou-Abdallah-Mohammed, who was most successful in making converts, but, having excited the envy and hatred of some of the chief people in Damascus, he was imprisoned and burned to death as an infidel and blasphemer. From this circ.u.mstance he has been styled the first martyr.

Though the first apostle of the new faith was thus summarily extinguished, the light of his doctrines was not smothered with him, and it may be considered certain that the manner of his death was mainly the cause of the rapidity with which they spread over the country immediately afterwards. As is generally the case, persecution lent strength and vitality to the cause, and many sought the honour of a martyrdom similar to that which had befallen Abou-Abdallah-Mohammed. However, the faster the new religion spread, the greater activity did the Orthodox authorities develop in putting it down. Priest after priest was being drawn and quartered, hundreds of men, women, and children were butchered or buried alive, to gratify the atrocious pa.s.sions of an ignorant people, and still more barbarous government. Nevertheless, the new faith prospered, and the Metawali began to a.s.sume a position of influence and power in the country; but after numerous vicissitudes, the butcher Djezzar, who had been made governor of Syria, succeeded by cunning and treachery in prostrating their power, and destroying their strongholds.

Thousands of them were executed by his orders, and even under his eye, and, like Mehemet Ali, who watched the destruction of the Mamelukes, so did Ahmed Djezzar amuse himself by watching the death struggles of hundreds of the Metawali who had been hurled from the battlements of Nabatieh into the Kasmich.

Under persecutions like these, the strong arm of the authorities, aided by the pa.s.sions of a fanatical body combining together against them, the Metawali gradually lessened in numbers, and consequently lost the influential and powerful position they were beginning to acquire.

Politically this sect may now be said to be prostrate, but they cherish the memories of those of their forefathers who fell in the defence of their religious independence, and many an evening's hour is pa.s.sed by the people listening in rapt attention to the numerous anecdotes of the firmness, the courage, and the devotedness of the martyrs for their faith.

The localities they live in entails habits and customs which naturally tend to rear a hardy and courageous race. Their method of living is simple in the extreme; but, though the stranger who may visit their mountain-villages is sure of the greatest hospitality, it is nevertheless, of a peculiar character. They never admit within their dwellings any person who does not belong to their own persuasion, nor do they allow any one but a Metawali to use their furniture or domestic utensils. Should a Frank or a Jew by accident touch a mat or a pot belonging to them, it is instantly cast away as defiled and unclean. To receive the wandering stranger there is erected in every village, a house for the purpose, in which the visitor is ever most bountifully provided for. Strange to say, however, their dislike to contact with others, extends no further than their own dwellings. In the open air, or in a house belonging to a person of a different persuasion, they are alike indifferent to the presence of Christian or Jew, conversing and a.s.sociating with them as freely as they zealously avoid permitting them to enter their own dwellings. They are an exceedingly clean people, never sitting down to a meal without having performed their ablutions.

It is owing, perhaps to the paucity of their numbers, but still more, I think, to the gradual decline of the power of the Maronite, that the Metawali exist untroubled in their mountain fastnesses. But should any attempt be made by any government, or by any other religious body in the East, to wrong or subjugate them, I am convinced that they would not submit without a very severe struggle, in which their native ferocity would once more appear on the surface, to their own disadvantage, perhaps, but still more to that of their enemy.

A good deal has been written respecting the Druses, who are the most curious, and least known section of the population of Syria. The cause of the ignorance which prevails concerning them, and which I am unable to dispel will be seen in the following account of this interesting and courageous people.

I have been told that several learned men have, at different times, diligently endeavoured to acquire a thorough insight into the religious theories possessed by the Druses, but I have never yet met with any author who has given an explanation or description of them, satisfactorily to his readers. Where others, whom I have been taught to respect and revere, have failed, I hesitate to make the attempt, knowing that I shall be unsuccessful. In point of fact, the great mystery which surrounds the religion of the Druses is, I fear, a mystery even to themselves, a shadowy outline, which the initiated are told they understand, and which the uninitiated worship in the depth of their ignorance.

The Druses inhabit the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, or rather the southern portions of the mountain, in which they possess a great deal of land and villages; but they are also mixed up with the Maronite and other Christian populations of more than two hundred other villages. They are divided into two cla.s.ses; the initiated into the mysteries of their religion are called Akkals, and the uninitiated are called Djahils. Both s.e.xes are alike eligible for initiation among the Akkals; in this respect there is that perfect equality for the female s.e.x, which I so often hear some of my fair friends in England sighing for. But the woman who is a Akkaliah may not marry a Djahil. There is an easy remedy for this, however, since I am told that initiation may be effected on very short notice and without expense or examinations. Every Thursday the Akkals meet in Khalueh, a temple, or building, erected expressly for the purpose, and in which their religious books, their war trophies, and standards are kept. Here they sit talking of politics, or reading religious books, and when the general discussions are concluded, the majority go away, leaving only the highest in social rank to discuss the interests of the tribe with the priests. The chief priest, or as I take the liberty of calling him, their great mystery-man, lives at Bakleen, whence he rules over the whole body. As I have said previously, the nature of their religious belief is a mystery. It is neither Christian nor Jewish, nor Mahommedan nor Pagan. They believe in the unity of G.o.d, and in the transmigration of souls, but while they themselves profess to be Mahommedans, they exhibit in their social customs as well as in their features, many points of resemblance with the Jews, and they have no hesitation whatever in denouncing Mahommed as a false prophet, and in disregarding the most sacred festivals of the Moslem faith.

Though so little is known of their present religion, it has been tolerably well ascertained that it was founded by one Darazi, who about the middle of the eleventh century traversed Syria, preaching the doctrine that the real Caliph Hakeem was the incarnation of G.o.d, and the most perfect manifestation of the Deity. Name and strength was, however, first given to the new creed by one Hamza, who denounced Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahommed as impostors, and declared himself to be the incarnation of the spirit of universal intelligence. In his creed, he either forgot or wilfully omitted all notice of a future state of existence. Since that period, this peculiar faith has gained many proselytes; and the Druses are now, next to the Maronites, the most numerous religious body in Lebanon who are not Mahommedans.

Leaving their mysterious creed, to deal with the people themselves, I may state, that they are easily distinguished by their features, being, generally speaking, muscular, well-made men, active and middle-sized, and enabled to undergo great fatigue. Their courage is not to be daunted.

The women are generally very handsome, with tall, slim figures, black hair, and beautiful blue eyes. The disposition of the men is a strange mixture of open-hearted hospitality and morose vindictiveness; but they are strictly honourable, and have never been known to break a promise.

In all their transactions they deal uprightly with one another; but this cannot be said to be the case when they transact business with others: their creed admits of their practising imposition upon infidels to their own faith.

I have already observed, that there exists a great resemblance between the ancient Scottish clans and the mountaineers of the Lebanon. In support of this, I cannot do better than to quote what Volney says, when speaking of the Druses:-"As soon as the emir and sheikhs had determined on war at Deyr al Kamar, criers went up at night to the summit of the cliffs, and cried aloud, 'To war, to war! Take your guns, take your pistols! n.o.ble sheikhs, mount your horses; arm yourselves with the lance and the sabre: meet to-morrow at Deyr al Kamar. Zeal of G.o.d! zeal of combat!' This summons, heard in the neighbouring villages," continues the same author, "was repeated there; and as the whole country is nothing but a chain of lofty mountains and deep valleys, the proclamation pa.s.sed through its length and breadth in a few hours. These cries, from the stillness of the night, the long-resounding echoes, and the nature of the subject, had something awful and terrible in their effect. Three days after, fifteen thousand men were a.s.sembled at Deyr al Kamar, and operations might have been immediately commenced."

To strengthen their respective clans, is the Druses' main object through life; and to effect this, they almost invariably marry amongst themselves-preferring their own relations with poverty, to the richest dowry with a foreigner. Their creed admits of but one wife; but they allow of divorces. If a Druse says to his wife, "Go to your father's house," and does not say to her, "Come back," it is considered a divorce.

Their jealousy far outstrips the Mussulman's: any conjugal infidelity is certain of being requited by death: no intercession, however powerful, can avail aught in these cases; even where fathers have made intercession, brothers have become the executioners of their own sisters.

Any man can divorce his wife upon paying a certain sum; but divorces are of very rare occurrence.

The every-day life of the Druse is monotonous in the extreme; even their children at an early age inherit their insipid manner of life, and leave the healthful recreation of a good game at _damah_, to sit down in a circle, and ape their parents in discussing politics. The Druse, like most of the natives of Syria, is an early riser; and the first thing he does after he has gone through his morning ablutions, is to command his wife to set before him a large bowl of freshly-drawn goat's milk, or _dibs_. In this he sops his bread; and making a hearty and wholesome breakfast, shoulders his gun, sticks his kanjur in his girdle, lights his pipe, and then goes forth to attend to his daily occupations till mid-day. If it be the season to plough, he harnesses his oxen, and treads heavily after the furrows till nigh upon mid-day, at which time his wife or one of the family brings him out his substantial mid-day repast. In this interval he has perhaps rested himself half a dozen times, to sit and smoke a pipe: or, if a fellow-creedsman pa.s.sed, he has stopped to exchange a few words-complain of the heat, ask the news, the lowest price quoted for wheat, and so on; but you seldom hear them laughing or joking with one another, and never by any chance singing or whistling; they have no idea of a tune, no taste for music, unless it be the music of money rattling in their pockets; and this has greater charms for them than the pipe of t.i.tyrus had over the sylvan woods. At this mid-day meal there is another fresh bowl of _laban_ milk in addition to a goodly supply of _borghol_, and, in summer, cuc.u.mber and some chillies, or the batingan stuffed with hashed mutton and rice.

As the sun sinks behind the conical tops of the western hills, the Druse unyokes his cattle and drives them homeward, himself shouldering the plough. Now it is that, if ever he enjoys himself, the Druse indulges in a little relaxation. If he be fortunate enough to be possessed of a supply of powder and shot, he deviates from his right path, leaving the oxen to find their way home untended, and shouts and throws stones into every bush and down every glade he pa.s.ses. Sometimes a hare starts up, sometimes a covey of partridges, or, may be, a jackal; but, whatever the game chance to be, he fires, and that with so steady and correct an aim, as to be almost certain of securing the victim. Even jackals' skins are valuable, and will fetch their price.

Of an evening they a.s.semble at one anothers' houses, and there, with pipe in hand, seated in such an att.i.tude that their knees are on a level with their nose, they talk politics by the hour. They are generally a dissatisfied, gloomy, and grumbling people; and their usual topic of conversation is exactly what John Bull is so much laughed at for, viz., the hardness of the times. They pull to pieces the pasha, the emir, the effendis-lament over the prospects of a bad silk crop, or a worse wheat harvest, speaking feelingly of the general lack of money-foretell that things will be certain to go on from bad to worse-predict a famine-prophesy a murrain amongst the cattle-see in the yellow tinge of the western atmosphere the cholera-smell out of the heavy night-dew an interminable catalogue of maladies, as absurd and unknown as any of the foregoing calamities; and having worked themselves up to an extreme pitch of wretchedness, they disperse for the night, and retrace their steps to their respective homes, croaking the while, or hooting gloomily to one another just as a parcel of ravens would croak or owls hoot as they wing their way to roost, when the distant growl of thunder foretells the coming storm.

The Druses are great hypocrites in religious matters. One of their religious books gives them this liberty, for it says:-"_Embrace the religion of those who have power over you_; _for such is the pleasure of our_ MAOULA, _till he_, _to whom the best times are known_, _shall unsheathe the sword_, _and display the power of his unity_." Hence with the Turks, they pretend to be devout Moslems-fast when they fast, and feast when they feast. With the Christians they are equally devoted to the Adrah Mariam-the Virgin Mary; and in private they despise and detest both: but I believe that the Druses have really great faith and confidence in the English, whom they suppose to be all Protestants; and their idea of a Protestant is that their religion is a species of freemasonry, which very much resembles their own. Of late years political struggles on the mountains have served rather to strengthen this belief; for the Druses were invariably supported by the English, and the native attaches, agents, and other people, not only of the Consulates in the neighbouring towns, but also English travellers, lost no opportunity of impressing this fact upon the minds of the Druses' who were already predisposed to such a belief from the fact of a tradition long existent amongst them, that many of their n.o.blest families were descended from some of the princes amongst the Crusaders.

The Druses never introduce the subject of their religion before others; that is to say, never in such a form as to hold it forth as an argument, or an inducement for others to become proselytes, or to inform strangers of their doctrines, but they confidently affirm that a great number of their co-religionists inhabit the vast continent of India, and declare that they are to be met with even in China, from which they believe they themselves came.

They suppose, that in England there are to this day many of the Akkals, or initiated, but of later years their confidence has been much shaken; and _apropos_ of this, I quote an extract of a letter from one of the Akkals of the Druses, sent to me from Lebanon in 1845:-

"There are many English travellers, and some men apparently of much wisdom, who have visited us and conversed on subjects of religion; and they endeavour to persuade us that in their country there are many people who profess a creed similar to our own: this was particularly mentioned by a tall English emir. I wish you would enquire into this matter, and write us your opinion clearly; and should the report be verified, the existence of such co-religionists would at once ent.i.tle us to proclaim the protection of the English upon the same grounds as the Maronites are protected by France."

It is said that, in the official report of M. Desmeloises, then a French Consul in Syria, this belief of the Druses that they were allied to, and descended from, n.o.ble European families, was found serviceable to the French agents, when the allied forces appeared off the coast of Syria, for the purpose of expelling Ibrahim Pasha and the Egyptian troops; and they acted upon the imagination of the Druses so powerfully, that little or no inducement was requisite to cause them to side with the Europeans.

There is one thing to which the Druses are much addicted, and which sadly deteriorates from their general character for civilization-this is, their fondness for raw meat. Whenever a gazelle is shot, or a kid killed, the raw kidneys and heart are luxuries for which the Druse epicure will contend with angry words; and such is the force of example, that even Christians in the neighbourhood have adopted this system of cannibalism, washing down every mouthful with a gla.s.s of strong _arakey_. European authors accuse the Christians of the plains, and especially the women, of being guilty of a like atrocity, saying that they eat meat in their _kubbas_, but the fact is what meat they use in these is first so finely sliced up, and then so unmercifully thumped, that it becomes a perfect paste, and the very friction and heat more than half cook it; besides which, this meat is mixed with chillies, onions, and borghol, and the proportion of meat to wheat is one to ten.

Outwardly the Druses keep up the appearance of friendship with their neighbours, but the intrigues of political agents, and the wary cunning of Roman priests, have of late years tended sadly to interrupt the harmony that existed between the Druses and the Maronites.

The Yezidees, of whom there are some thousands in the country next claim attention. They are most numerous in Koordistan, where they are all comprised in one general body. In Syria, however, we are accustomed to divide them into three tribes-the worshippers of the sun, the Shemisees; the worshippers of the devil, the Sheytanees; and the cut-throats. I do not mean to say that the latter portion are greater cut-throats than their co-religionists of the other two sections, for like the Mahommedans, with whom they come chiefly into collision, the whole of the three divisions are equally distinguished by the same murderous inclinations. Like the religion of the Druses, that of the Yezidees is an indescribable mixture of nearly all the religious creeds of the East and West. They respect Christ and the Christian saints; but they do not disavow Mahommed and Moses. They baptize their children, but they conform also to the Hebrew practice of circ.u.mcision. They commemorate the birth of the Saviour, but they also celebrate the feast of the Pa.s.sover with all the forms and solemnities customary among the Jews; and they also abstain from all the food which is considered unclean by the Israelite. While worshipping but one G.o.d, they profess profound veneration for Ahriman, the prince of darkness, and they also adore the fiery element, bowing before the rising sun. In praying, they are careful to kneel with their faces towards the East. Indeed, it would seem as if, doubtful of salvation under a simple faith of their own, the presiding minds of the Yezidees had collected the princ.i.p.al points from all religions in the world, in order to make sure of the right one. Some of them even do not hesitate to make an avowal of this kind. The most peculiar feature of their religion, is the extreme respect which they pay to the devil, who is never mentioned by his right name, but is always mysteriously spoken of _as the great incognito_, _the bird of Paradise_, and whose worship is always carried on after sunset. I am a.s.sured too, that his Satanic eminence is always present on these sacred occasions, and is accustomed to acknowledge the honours paid to him by his credulous worshippers by a yell or scream of a most unearthly kind, its effect being to prostrate on their faces the whole of the parties present.

Their head-priest possesses an extraordinary amount of influence over the whole body.