From Mehadje we entered the Ledja, and
continued in it, at half an hour's distance from the cultivated plain,
in the direction N.E., till we reached Khabeb [Arabic] at the end of two
hours. Between Tebne and Khabeb lies the village Bossir. From Khabeb the
Kelab Haouran bears S.S.E. This is a considerable village, inhabited for
the greater part by Catholic Christians, who, as I have mentioned above,
emigrated from Szalkhat. The Sheikh is a Druse. I met here a poor Arab,
a native of the country three days journey from Mekka; he told me that
the
DHAMI.
[p.110]Wahabi had killed four of his brothers; that he fled from home,
and established himself at Dael, a village in the Haouran, which was
ransacked last summer by the same enemies, when he lost the whole of his
property. This man corroborated what I have repeatedly been told, that a
single person may travel over the Wahabi dominions with perfect safety.
November 29th.--I here took two Druses to conduct me into the interior
of the Ledja. The Arabs who inhabit that district pay some deference to
the Druses, but none whatever to the Turks or Christians of the
neighbouring villages.
