We Repassed Ain Mourdouk, And Continued Our Way On The Sloping Side Of
The Mountain To Saleim, A Village One
Hour from the spring; it has been
abandoned by its former inhabitants, and is now occupied only by a few
Poor Druses, who take refuge in such deserted places to avoid the
oppressive taxes; and thus sometimes escape the Miri for one year. They
here grow a little tobacco. In the village is a deep Birket. At the
entrance of Saleim are the ruins of a handsome oblong building, with a
rich entablature: its area is almost entirely filled up by its own
ruins. Just by is a range of subterraneous vaults. The Wady Kanouat
passes near the village. The day was now far gone, and as my priest was
afraid of travelling by night, we quickened our pace, in order to reach
Soueida before dark. From Saleim the road lies through a wood of stunted
oaks, which continues till within one hour of Soueida. We had rode three
quarters of an hour when I was shewn, E. from our road, up in the
mountain, half an hour distant, the ruins of Aatin [Arabic], with a Wady
of the same name descending into the plain below. In the plain, to the
westward, upon a hillock one hour distant, was the village Rima el
Khalkhal, or Rima el Hezam [Arabic] (Hezam means girdle, and Khalkhal,
the silver or glass rings which the children wear round their ankles.)
Our road from Saleim lay S. by E. over a stony uncultivated ground, till
within one hour of Soueida, where the wood of oaks terminates, and the
fields begins, which extend up
[p.80]the slope of the mountain for half an hour to the left of the
road.
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