One Hundred Rotolas Of Saline Earth Give From One To One And
A Half Rotola Of Salt-Petre.
I was told by the Sheikh of the village,
who is the manufacturer
MISSEMA.
[p.115]on his own account, that he sends yearly to Damascus as much as
one hundred Kantars. Here is also a gunpowder manufactory.
December 2d.--The Greek priest, who had not ventured to accompany me
into the Ledja, I found again at Shaara. I wished to see some parts of
the northern Loehf, and particularly the ruins of Missema, of which I
heard much from the country people. I therefore engaged a man at Shaara,
to conduct me to the place, and from thence to Damascus. We set out in
the morning, proceeded along the limits of the War, in an easterly
direction, and in three quarters of an hour came to the sources of water
called Sheraya [Arabic]; they are five or six in number, are situated
just on the borders of the War, and extend as far as Missema, watering
all the plain before them. Here, in the spring, the people of Shaara
grow vegetables and water melons, and in summer the Arabs of the Ledja
sometimes sow the neighbouring fields with wheat; but the frequent
passage of the Bedouins renders the collection of the harvest somewhat
precarious. Missemi, or Missema, is situated in the Ledja, at one hour
and a half from Shaara; it is a ruined town of three miles in circuit.
Over the door of a low vaulted building I read the following inscription
in well executed characters:
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