But It Too Often Happens That The Pasha Is A Man Who
Sets No Bounds To His Rapacity, And Extraordinary
Sums are levied upon
the village, by the simple command issued from the Hakim el Haouran to
the village Sheikh
To levy three or four hundred piastres upon the
peasants of the place. On these occasions the women are sometimes
obliged to sell their ear-rings and bracelets, and the men their cattle,
to satisfy the demand, and have no other hope than that a rich harvest
in the following year shall make amends for their loss. The receipt of
the Miri of the whole Pashalik of Damascus is in the hands of the Jew
bankers, or Serafs of the Pasha, who have two and a half per cent. upon
his revenue, and as much upon his expenditure. They usually distribute
the villages amongst their creatures, who repair thither at the time of
harvest, to receive the Miri; and who generally extort, besides,
something for themselves.
The Druses who inhabit the villages in the Loehf, and those on the sides
of the Djebel Haouran, are to be classed with the Fellahs of the plain
with regard to their mode of living and their relations with the
government. Their dress is the same as that of the Fellahs to the W. of
Damascus; they seldom wear the Keffie, and the grown up men do not go
barefoot like the other Fellahs of the Haouran. I have already mentioned
that their chief resides at Soueida, of which village he is also the
Sheikh.
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