At Half An Hour From It Is The
Spring Called Ain Bahr; Three Quarters Of An Hour Beyond It Is A High
Level Country, Still On The Western Side Of The Summit Of The Mountain.
This District Is Called Watty El Bordj
WATTY EL BORDJ.
[P.26] [Arabic], from a small ruined tower. It is three or four hours in
length, and two in breadth. In the spring the Arabs Abid, Turkmans, and
Kourdines, here pasture their cattle. These Kourdines bring annually
into Syria from twenty to thirty thousand sheep, from the mountains of
Kourdistan; the greater part of which are consumed by Aleppo, Damascus,
and the mountains, as Syria does not produce a sufficient number for its
inhabitants. The Kourd sheep are larger than those of Syria, but their
flesh is less esteemed. The Kourd sheep-dealers first visit with their
flocks Aleppo, then Hama, Homs, and Baalbec; and what they do not sell
on the road, they bring to pasture at Watty el Bordj, whither the people
of Zahle, Deir el Kammar, and other towns in the mountains repair, and
buy up thousands of them, which they afterwards sell in retail to the
peasants of the mountains.
They buy them for ready money at twenty to thirty piastres a head, and
sell them two months afterwards at thirty to forty. The mountaineers of
the Druse and Maronite districts breed very few sheep, and very seldom
eat animal food. On the approach of their respective great festivals,
(Christmas with the Maronites, and Ramadan with the Druses) each head of
a family kills one or two sheep; during the rest of the year, he feeds
his people on Borgul, with occasionally some old cow's, or goat's flesh.
It is only in the largest of the mountain towns of the Druses and
Maronites that flesh is brought daily to market.
There are no springs or water in the Watty el Bordj; but the melting of
the snow in the spring affords drink for men and cattle, and snow water
is often found during the greater part of the summer in some funnel-
shaped holes formed in the ground by the snow. At the time I passed no
water was any where to be found. In many places the snow remains
throughout the year; but this year none was left, not even on the
summits of the mountain, [p.27] except in a few spots on the northern
declivity of the Libanus towards the district of Akkar. Watty el Bordj
affords excellent pasturage; in many spots it is overgrown with trees,
mostly oaks, and the barbery is also very frequent. We started
partridges at every step. Our route lay generally S.W. by S.
Four hours from Ain Bahr, we entered the mountain, a part of which is
considered to belong to Kesrouan. It is completely stony and rocky, and
I found some calcareous spath. I shall here remark that the whole of the
mountain from Zahle to Belad Akkar is by the country people comprehended
under the general name of Djurd Baalbec, Djurd meaning, in the northern
Arabic dialect, a rocky mountain.
Crossing this part of the mountain Sannin for two hours, we came to a
spring called Ain Naena, from whence another road leads down north-
eastwards, into the territory of Baalbec. This route is much frequented
by the people of Kesrouan, who bring this way the iron ore of Shouair,
to the Mesbek or smelting furnaces at Nebae el Mauradj, two hours from
hence to the north-east, Shouair, which is at least ten hours distance,
affording no fuel for smelting. The iron ore is carried upon mules and
asses, one day's journey and a half to the Mesbek, where the mountain
abounds in oak. From Aine Naena we gradually descended, and in three
hours reached Zahle.
October 6th.--At Zahle I found the Catholic bishop, who was absent on
his episcopal tour during my first visit to this place. He is
distinguished from his countrymen by the politeness of his manners, the
liberality of his sentiments, his general information, and his desire of
knowledge, though at a very advanced age. I had letters for him; and he
recommended himself particularly to me by being the friend of Mr.
Browne, the African traveller, who had lived with him a fortnight, and
had visited
ZAHLE.
[p.28] Baalbec in his company. His diocese comprises the whole Christian
community in the Bekaa, and the adjoining villages of the mountain. He
is, with five other bishops, under the orders of the Patriarch at
Mekhalis, and there are, besides, seven monasteries under this diocese
in Syria. The Bishop's revenue arises from a yearly personal tax of half
a piastre upon all the male adults in his diocese. He lives in a truly
patriarchal manner, dressing in a simple black gown, and black Abbaye,
and carries in his hand a long oaken stick, as an episcopal staff. He is
adored by his parishioners, though they reproach him with a want of
fervour in his intercourse with other Christian sects; by which they
mean fanatism, which is a striking feature in the character of the
Christians not only of the mountain, but also of the principal Syrian
towns, and of the open country. This bigotry is not directed so much
against the Mohammedans, as against their Christian brethren, whose
creed at all differs from their own.
It need hardly be mentioned here, that many of those sects which tore
Europe to pieces in the earlier ages of Christianity, still exist in
these countries: Greeks, Catholics, Maronites, Syriacs, Chaldeans, and
Jacobites, all have their respective parishes and churches. Unable to
effect any thing against the religion of their haughty rulers the Turks,
they turn the only weapons they possess, scandal and intrigue, with fury
against each other, and each sect is mad enough to believe that its
church would flourish on the ruins of those of their heretic brethren.
The principal hatred subsists between the Catholics and the Greeks; of
the latter, many thousands have been converted to Catholicism, so that
in the northern parts of Syria all Catholics, the Maronites excepted,
were formerly of the Greek church:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 17 of 232
Words from 16255 to 17286
of 236498
