On
The Side Of The Road Is A Large And Very Neatly Cut Ancient Well.
The
face of the country is hilly with a rocky soil, here and there
cultivated.
At the end of five hours and a half we reached Byszyn
[Arabic], a village inhabited by Anzeyrys, where we slept.
February 28th.--One hour and a half from Byszyn is the village of
Shyghata [Arabic] The road ascends, through a rocky country, overgrown
with shrubs and low trees. At two hours and a half is a ruined bridge
over the winter torrent El Saroudj, which we had passed in the plain
below, between Seidjar and Hamah; it was now so much swelled by the
heavy rains, that we were trying in vain to cross it in different
places, when a shepherd came to our assistance, and shewed us a ford.
Considerable as the stream was, it is dried up in summer. We proceeded
from the bridge in a W.N.W. direction, and, after a march of an hour and
three quarters, during [p.150]which we crossed several torrents, we
reached the castle of Maszyad [Arabic], or, as it is written in the
books of the Miri, Meszyaf [Arabic]. The approach to the castle on two
sides is across a large moor; to the N. of it are the highest points of
the mountain of Maszyad, at the foot of which it stands, upon a high and
almost perpendicular rock, commanding the wild moor in every direction,
and presenting a gloomy romantic landscape.
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