Half An Hour Further, Is Husseine,
A Small Village In The Lower Part Of The Valley.
Three-quarters of an
hour, El Souk; here the Wady begins to be very narrow.
A quarter of an
hour beyond, turning round a steep rock, the valley presents a very wild
and picturesque aspect. To the left, in the mountain, are six chambers
cut in the rock; said to be the work of Christians, to whom the greater
part of the ancient structures in Syria are ascribed. The river was not
fordable here; and it would have taken me at least two hours to reach,
by a circuitous route, the opposite mountains. A little way higher up is
the Djissr el Souk, at the termination of the Wady; this bridge was
built last year, as appears by an Arabic inscription on the rock near
it. From the bridge the road leads up the side of the mountain, and
enters, after half an hour's ride, upon a plain country. The river has a
pretty cascade, near which are
ZEBDENI
[p.3] the remains of a bridge. The above mentioned plain is about three-
quarters of an hour in breadth, and three hours in length; it is called
Ard Zebdeni, or the district of Zebdeni; it is watered by the Barrada,
one of whose sources is in the midst of it; and by the rivulet called
Moiet[Moye--Water.] Zebdeni [Arabic], whose source is in the mountain,
behind the village of the same name. The latter river, which empties
itself into the Barrada, has, besides the source in the Ard Zebdeni,
another of an equal size near Fidji, in a side branch of the Wady
Barrada, half an hour from the village Husseine. The fall of the river
is very rapid. We followed the plain of Zebdeni from one end to the
other: it is limited on one side by the eastern part of the Anti-
Libanus, called here Djebel Zebdeni. Its cultivable ground is waste till
near the village of Beroudj [Arabic], where I saw plantations of
mulberry trees, which seemed to be well taken care of. Half an hour from
Beroudj is the village of Zebdeni [Arabic], and between them the ruined
Khan Benduk (the bastard Khan). Zebdeni is a considerable village; its
inhabitants breed cattle, and the silk-worm, and have some dyeing
houses. I had a letter for the Sheikh of Zebdeni from a Damascene; the
Sheikh ordered me an Argile[Argile--A Persian pipe, in which the smoke
passes through water.] and a cup of coffee, but went to supper with his
household, without inviting me to join them. This being considered an
insult, I left his house and went to sup with the muleteers, with whom I
slept upon an open piece of ground before a ruined bath, in the midst of
the village. The inhabitants of Zebdeni are three-fourths Turks, and the
remainder Greek Catholics; it is a place much frequented by those
passing from Damascus to the mountain.
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