In Half An Hour

EL BARA.

[P.129] we passed a copious spring, enclosed by a square building, called El Monboaa [Arabic]. In the plain to the right we saw the village Kefrzebou [Arabic], and half an hour to the west of it another, called Ourim [Arabic]. We met with several sepulchral caves on our road. Wherever, in these parts, the soil admits of culture, wheat and barley are sown among the rocks. If such spots are distant from a village, the cultivators pitch a few tents for the purpose of watching the seed and crop; such encampments are called Mezraa [Arabic]. In an hour and ten minutes we reached Nahle; two hours and forty minutes the village Meghara [Arabic], with many remains of ancient buildings. Here I saw a neat sepulchral cave with a vaulted portico supported by two pillars. In three hours we reached the village Merayan [Arabic]; the direction of our route sometimes S.W. sometimes S.S.W. Just by Merayan is a large coffin, cut in the rocky ground, like those of Kefr Lata; and near it a spring, with ancient walls. In three hours and twenty minutes we came to Ahsin [Arabic], half an hour to the west of which is the village Eblim [Arabic]. The principal produce of all these villages is grapes, which are carried to the Aleppo market, and there sold, in ordinary years, at about nine shillings per quintal; or else they are boiled to form the sweet glutinous extract called Debs, which is a substitute for sugar all over the East.

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