Travels in Syria and the Holy Land Part 9

Aaere is the seat of the second chief of the Druses in the Haouran: he is one of the most amiable men I have met with in the East, and what is still more extraordinary, he is extremely desirous to acquire knowledge.

In the conversations I had with him during my repeated visits at Aaere, he was always most anxious to obtain information concerning European manners and inst.i.tutions. He begged me one day to write down for him the Greek, English, and German alphabets, with the corresponding sound in Arabic beneath each letter; and on the following day he shewed me the copy he had taken of them. His kindness towards me was the more remarkable, as he could not expect the smallest return for it. He admired my lead pencils, of which I had two, but refused to accept one of them, on my offering it to him. These Druses, as well as those of Kesrouan, firmly believe that there are a number of Druses in England; a belief originating in the declaration of the Christians in these countries, that the English are neither Greeks, nor Catholics, and therefore not Christians.

Upon a stone in the village I copied the following;

[x.x.xxx].

November 20th.--Being desirous of visiting the parts of the Haouran bordering upon the desert, of crossing the Djebel Haouran, or mountainous part of the district, and of exploring several ruined

HEBRAN.

[p.89]cities which I had heard of in the desert, I engaged, with the Sheikh's permission, two Druses and a Christian, to act as guides. As there was considerable risque of meeting with some hostile tribe of Arabs on the road, I gave my purse to the Greek priest, who promised to wait for my return; he did not keep his word, however, for he quitted Aaere, taking my money with him, no doubt in the view of compelling me to follow him to his village, from whence he might again have a chance of obtaining a daily allowance, by accompanying me, though he well knew that it was my intention to return to Damascus by a more western route; nor was this all, he took twenty piastres out of my purse to buy straw for his camels. On his repeatedly confessing to me, afterwards, his secret wishes that some Frank nation would invade and take possession of the country, I told him that he would by no means be a gainer by such an event, as a trick such as that he had played me would expose him to be turned out of his living and thrown into a prison. "You must imprison all the people of the country then," was his reply; and he spoke the truth. I have often reflected that if the English penal laws were suddenly promulgated in this country, there is scarcely any man in business, or who, has money-dealings with others, who would not be found liable to transportation before the end of the first six months.

Our road lay over the plain, E.N.E. for three quarters of an hour; we then began to mount by a slight ascent. In an hour and a quarter we came to two hills, with the ruins of a village called Medjmar [Arabic], on the right of the road. At a quarter of an hour from thence is the village Afine [Arabic], in which are about twenty-five Druse families; it has a fine spring. Here the ascent becomes more steep. At one hour from Afine, E.b.S. upon the summit of the lower mountain, stands Hebran [Arabic]. Here is a spring and a ruined church, with the foundations

KUFFER.

[p.90]of another building near it. Withinside the gate is the following inscription:

[Greek].

On the eastern outer wall:

[Greek].

In a ruined building, with arches, in the lower town;

[x.x.xxx].

Upon a stone over a door, in a private house:

[Greek].

The mountain upon which Hebran stands is stony, but has places fit for pasturage. The plain to the S. is called Amman, in which is a spring.

That to the E. is called Zauarat, and that to the S.W. Merdj el Daulet; all these plains are level grounds, with several hillocks, and are surrounded by mountains.

There are a few families at Hebran.

Proceeding from Hebran towards the Kelb (dog), or, as the Arabs here call it, Kelab Haouran, in one houre we came to Kuffer [Arabic], once a considerable town. It is built in the usual style of this country, entirely of stone; most of the houses are still entire; the doors are uniformly of stone, and even the gates of the town, between nine and ten feet high, are of a single piece of stone. On each side

[p.91]of the streets is a foot pavement two feet and a half broad, and raised one foot above the level of the street itself, which is seldom more than one yard in width. The town is three quarters of an hour in circ.u.mference, and being built upon a declivity, a person may walk over it upon the flat roofs of the houses; in the court-yards of the houses are many mulberry trees. Amongst several arched edifices is one of somewhat larger dimensions, with a steeple, resembling that at Ezra; in the paved court-yard lies an urn of stone. In later times this building had been a mosque, as is indicated by several Arabic inscriptions. In the wall within the arched colonnade is a niche elegantly adorned with sculptured oak-leaves.

We dined in the church, upon the Kattas [Arabic] which my guides had killed. These birds, which resemble pigeons, are in immense numbers here; but I found none of them in the eastern parts of the Djebel Haouran.

To the N.E. of Kutfer is the copious spring already mentioned, called Ain Mousa, the stream from which, we had pa.s.sed at Ezzehhoue. There is a small building over it, on which are these letters:

[Greek].

We arrived, after sunset, in one hour from Kuffer, at an encampment of Arabs Rawafie, immediately at the foot of the Kelab; and there took up our quarters for the night. The tent of our host was very neat, being formed with alternate white and black Shoukes, or cloth made of goat's hair. I here found the Meharem to the right of the man's apartment. We were treated as usual with coffee and Feita. I had been rather feverish during the whole day, and in the evening the symptoms increased, but, cold as the night was, and more especially on the approach of morning

Wady Awairid.

[p.92]when the fire which is kept up till midnight gradually dies out, I found myself completely recovered the next day. This encampment consisted of ten or twelve tents, in the midst of the forest which surrounds the Kelab.

November 21st.--The Kelab is a cone rising from the lower ridge of the mountains; it is barren on the S. and E. sides, but covered on the N.

and W. with the trees common to these mountains. I was told that in clear weather the sea is visible from its top, the ascent to which, from the encampment, was said to be one hour. The morning was beautiful but very cold, the whole mountain being covered with h.o.a.r frost. We set off at sun-rise, and rode through the forest one hour, when we breakfasted at an encampment of Arabs Shennebele, in the midst of the wood. From thence I took two Arabs, who volunteered their services, to guide me over the mountains into the eastern plain. We soon reached the termination of the forest, and in half an hour pa.s.sed the Merdj el Kenttare [Arabic], a fine meadow (where the young gra.s.s had already made its appearance), in the midst of the rocky mountain, which has no wood here. A rivulet called El Keine [Arabic], whose source is a little higher up in the mountain, flows through the meadow. Three quarters of an hour farther, and to the right of the road, upon a hill distant half an hour, are the ruins of the village El Djefne; to the left, at the same distance, is Tel Akrabe. We pa.s.sed many excellent pasturing places, where the Arabs of the mountain feed their cattle in the spring; but the mountain is otherwise quite barren. Half an hour farther, descending the mountain, we pa.s.sed Wady Awairid [Arabic], whose torrent, in winter, flows as far as Rohba, a district so called, where is a ruined city of the same name, on the eastern limits of the Szaffa.[The Szaffa [Arabic]

is a stony district, much resembling the Ledja, with this difference, that the rocks with which it is covered are considerably larger, although the whole may be said to be even ground. It is two or three days in circ.u.mference, and is the place of refuge of the Arabs who fly from the Pasha's troops, or from their enemies in the desert. The Szaffa has no springs; the rain water is collected in cisterns. The only entrance is through a narrow pa.s.s, called Bab el Szaffa, a cleft, between high perpendicular rocks, not more than two yards in breadth, which one ever dared to enter as an enemy. If a tribe of Arabs intend to remain a whole year in the Szaffa, they sow wheat and barley on the spots fit for cultivation on its precincts. On its E. limits are the ruined villages of Boreisie, Oedesie, and El Koneyse. On its western side this district is called El Harra, a term applied by the Arabs to all tracts which are covered with small stones, being derived from Harr, i.e. heat (reflected from the ground.)] Our route lay to the north-east; we

ZAELE.

[p.93]descended by the banks of the Wady into the plain, and at a short distance from where the Wady enters it, arrived at Zaele [Arabic] in two hours and three quarters from the Arab encampment where we had breakfasted.

Zaele owes its origin to the copious spring which rises there, and which renders it, in summer time, a much frequented watering place of the Arabs. The ruined city which stands near the spring is half an hour in circuit; it is built like all those of the mountain, but I observed that the stone doors were particularly low, scarcely permitting one even to creep in. A cupola once stood over the spring, and its basin was paved.

I found the following inscription upon a stone lying there:

[Greek].

And another above the spring, upon a terrace adjoining the ruins of a church:

[Greek].

The spring of Zaele flows to the S.E. and loses itself in the plain.

[p.94]One hour and a half to the eastward of Zaele stands Tel Shaaf [Arabic], with a ruined city. E. four hours, Melleh [Arabic], a ruined city in the plain; and upon a Tel near it, Deir el Nuzrany. The plain, for two hours from Zaele, is called El Haoui. Towards the E. and S.E. of Zaele are the following ruined places: Boussan [Arabic], at the foot of the mountain; Khadera [Arabic]; Aans [Arabic], Om Ezzeneine [Arabic]; Kherbet Bousrek [Arabic]; Habake [Arabic].

The great desert extends to the N.E.E., and S.E. of Zaele; to the distance of three days journey eastward, there is still a good arable soil, intersected by numerous Tels, and covered with the ruins of so many cities and villages, that, as I was informed, in whatever direction it is crossed, the traveller is sure to pa.s.s, in every day, five or six of these ruined places. They are all built of the same black rock of which the Djebel consists. The name of the desert changes in every district; and the whole is sometimes called Telloul, from its Tels or hillocks. Springs are no where met with in it, but water is easily found on digging to the depth of three or four feet. At the point where this desert terminates, begins the sandy desert called El Hammad [Arabic], which extends on one side to the banks of the Euphrates, and on the other to the N. of Wady Serethan, as far as the Djof.

I wished to proceed to Melleh, but my Druse companions were not to be prevailed upon, through fear of the Arabs Sheraka, a tribe of the Arabs Djelaes, who were said to be in that neighbourhood. We herefore recrossed the mountain from Zaele, and pa.s.sed its south-eastern corner, on which there are no trees, but many spots of excellent pasture. In two hours from Zaele we came to a spring called Ras el Beder [Arabic], i.e.

the Moon's Head, whose waters flow down into the plain as far as Boszra.

From the spring we redescended, and reached Zahouet el Khudher [Arabic], a ruined city, standing in a Wady, at a short distance from the

ZAHOUET EL KHUDHER.

[p.95]plain. One hour from these ruins a rivulet called Moiet Maaz [Arabic] pa.s.ses through the valley, whose source is to the N.W. up in the mountain, one hour distant, near a ruined place called Maaz. This is a very romantic, secluded spot; immediately behind the town the valley closes, and a row of willows, skirting both banks of the rivulet in its descent, agreeably surprise the traveller, who rarely meets in these districts with trees raised by the labour of man; but it is probable that these willows will not long withstand the destroying hands of the Arabs: fifteen years ago there was a larger plantation here, which was cut down for fire wood; and every summer many of the trees share the same fate.

Zahouet el Khudher was formerly visited by the Christians of the Haouran, for the purpose of offering up their prayers to the Khudher, or St. George, to whom a church in the bottom of the valley is dedicated.

The Turks also pay great veneration to this Saint, so much so that a few goats-hair mats, worth five or six piastres, which are left on the floor of the sanctuary of the church, are safe from the robbers. My Druse guides carried them to a house in the town, to sleep upon; but returned them carefully on the following morning. The Arabs give the name of Abd Maaz to St. George. The church has a ruined cupola. On the outer door is this inscription:

[Greek].

On an arch in the vestibule

[x.x.xxx].

ARD AASZAF.

[p.96] Within the church:

[Greek].