I Had Letters For Him, And Met With A Most Friendly
Reception:
His intimate acquaintance with the affairs of the mountain,
and of the Druses, which his residence of upwards of twelve years, and a
sound understanding, have enabled him to acquire, renders his
conversation very instructive to the inquisitive traveller.
March 15th--I left Antoura in the evening, to visit some convents in a
higher part of the mountains of Kesrouan. Passed Wady Kheredj [Arabic],
and at three quarters of an hour from Antoura, the ruined convent of
Bekerke [Arabic], once the residence of the famous Hindye, whose history
Volney has given. Now that passions have cooled, and that the greater
part of the persons concerned are dead, it is the general opinion that
Hindye's only crime was her ambition to pass for a saint. The abominable
acts of debauchery and cruelty of which she was accused, are probably
imaginary: but it is certain that she rigorously punished the nuns of
her convent who hesitated to believe in her sanctity, or who doubted the
visits of Jesus Christ, of which she boasted. Hindye died about
HARISSA--GHOSTA.
[p.184]ten years since in retirement, in the convent of Seidet el Hakle.
At one hour and a half from Antoura, on the top of the mountain, is the
convent of Harissa, belonging to the Franciscans of Terra Santa, and
inhabited at present by a single Piedmontese monk. On the breaking out
of the war between England and the Porte, Mr. Barker, the Consul at
Aleppo, received from the Emir Beshir an offer of this convent as a
place of refuge in his territory.
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