I Was Informed Afterwards That
Many Greek Inscriptions Are To Be Found At Szanamein.
From Szanamein the Hadj route continues in the same direction as before
to Tafar and Mezerib; we left it and took a route more easterly.
That
which we had hitherto travelled being the high road from the Haouran to
Damascus, is perfectly secure, and we met with numerous parties of
peasants going to and from the city;
but we had scarcely passed Szanamein when we were apprised by some
Felahs that a troop of Arabs Serdie had been for several days past
plundering the passengers and villages in the neighbourhood. Afraid of
being surprised, my companions halted and sewed their purses up in a
camel's pack saddle; I followed their example. I was informed that these
flying parties of Arabs very rarely drive away the cattle of the Haouran
people, but are satisfied with stripping them of cash, or any new piece
of dress
EZRA.
[p.56]which they may have purchased at Damascus, always however giving
them a piece of old clothing of the same kind in return. The country
from Szanamein to one hour's distance along our road is stony, and is
thence called War Szanamein. After passing it, we met some other Haouran
people, whose reports concerning the Arabs so terrified my companions,
that they resolved to give up their intention of reaching Ezra the same
day, and proceeded to seek shelter in a neighbouring village, there to
wait for fresh news. We turned off a little to our left, and alighted at
a village called Tebne [Arabic], distant one hour and a half from
Szanamein. We left our beasts in the court-yard of our host's house, and
went to sup with the Sheikh, a Druse, at whose house strangers are
freely admitted to partake of a plate of Burgoul. Tebne stands upon a
low hill, on the limits of the stony district called the Ledja, of which
I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. The village has no water but
what it derives from its cisterns, which were at this time nearly dry.
It consists wholly of ancient habitations, built of stone, of a kind
which I shall describe in speaking of Ezra.
November 10th.--We quitted Tebne early in the morning, and passing the
villages Medjidel [Arabic], Mehadjer [Arabic], Shekara [Arabic], and
Keratha [Arabic], all on the left of the route, arrived, at the end of
three hours and a quarter, at Ezra [Arabic]. Here commences the plain of
the Haouran, which is interrupted by numerous insulated hills, on the
declivities, or at the foot of which, most of the villages of the
Haouran are seated. From Tebne the soil begins to be better cultivated,
yet many parts of it are overgrown with weeds. On a hill opposite
Manhadje, on the west side of the road, stands a Turkish Meziar, called
Mekdad. In approaching Ezra we met a troop of about eighty of the
Pasha's cavalry; they had, the preceding night, surprised the above-
mentioned
[p.57]party of Arabs Serdie in the village of Walgha, and had killed
Aerar, their chief, and six others, whose heads they were carrying with
them in a sack. They had also taken thirty-one mares, of which the
greater number were of the best Arabian breeds. Afraid of being pursued
by the friends of the slain they were hastening back to Damascus, where,
as I afterwards heard, the Pasha presented them with the captured mares,
and distributed eight purses, or about £200. amongst them.
On reaching Ezra I went to the house of the Greek priest of the village,
whom I had already seen at the Patriarch's at Damascus, and with whom I
had partly concerted my tour in the Haouran. He had been the conductor
of M. Seetzen, and seemed to be very ready to attend me also, for a
trifling daily allowance, which he stipulated. Ezra is one of the
principal villages of the Haouran; it contains about one hundred and
fifty Turkish and Druse families, and about fifty of Greek Christians.
It lies within the precincts of the Ledja, at half an hour from the
arable ground: it has no spring water, but numerous cisterns. Its
inhabitants make cotton stuffs, and a great number of millstones, the
blocks for forming which, are brought from the interior of the Ledja;
the stones are exported from hence, as well as from other villages in
the Loehf, over the greater part of Syria, as far as Aleppo and
Jerusalem. They vary in price, according to their size, from fifteen to
sixty piastres, and are preferred to all others on account of the
hardness of the stone, which is the black tufa rock spread over the
whole of the Haouran, and the only species met with in this country.
Ezra was once a flourishing city; its ruins are between three and four
miles in circumference. The present inhabitants continue to live in the
ancient buildings, which, in consequence of the strength and solidity of
their walls, are for the greater part in complete preservation
[p.58]They are built of stone, as are all the houses of the villages in
the Haouran and Djebel Haouran from Ghabarib to Boszra, as well as of
those in the desert beyond the latter. In general each dwelling has a
small entrance leading into a court-yard, round which are the
apartments; of these the doors are usually very low. The interior of the
rooms is constructed of large square stones; across the centre is a
single arch, generally between two and three feet in breadth, which
supports the roof; this arch springs from very low pilasters on each
side of the room, and in some instances rises immediately from the
floor: upon the arch is laid the roof, consisting of stone slabs one
foot broad, two inches thick, and about half the length of the room, one
end resting upon short projecting stones in the walls, and the other
upon the top of the arch.
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