The Ledja, Which Is From Two To Three Days Journey In Length, By One In
Breadth, Is Inhabited By Several Tribes Of Arabs; Viz.
Selman [Arabic],
Medledj [Arabic], Szolout [Arabic], Dhouhere [Arabic], and Siale
[Arabic]; of these the Szolout may have about one hundred tents, the
Medledj one hundred and twenty, and the others fifty or sixty.
They
breed a vast number of goats, which easily find pasturage amongst the
rocks; a few of them also keep sheep and cows, and cultivate the soil in
some parts of the Ledja, where they sow wheat and barley. They possess
few horses; the Medledj have about twenty, and the Szolout and Dhouhere
each a dozen. But I shall have occasion to speak of these Arabs again in
describing the people of the country.
The tent in which we slept was remarkably large, although it could not
easily be perceived amidst the labyrinth of rocks where it was pitched;
yet our host was kept awake the whole night by
THE LEDJA.
[p.112]the fear of robbers, and the dogs barked incessantly. He told me
next morning that the Szolout had lately been very successful in their
nightly depredations upon the Medledj. Our host having no barley, gave
my horse a part of some wheat which he had just brought from the plain,
to bake into bread for his family.
December lst.--We departed at sunrise, the night having been so cold
that none of us was able to sleep. We found our way with great
difficulty out of the labyrinth of rocks which form the inner Ledja, and
through which the Arabs alone have the clue. Some of the rocks are
twenty feet high, and the country is full of hills and Wadys. In the
outer Ledja trees are less frequent than here, where they grow in great
numbers among the rocks; the most common are the oak, the Malloula, and
the Bouttan; the latter is the bitter almond, from the fruit of which an
oil is extracted used by the people of the country to anoint their
temples and forehead as a cure for colds; its branches are in great
demand for pipe tubes. There are no springs in any part of this stony
district, but water collects, in winter time, in great quantities in the
Wadys, and in the cisterns and Birkets which are every where met with;
in some of these it is kept the whole summer; when they are dried up the
Arabs approach the borders of the Ledja, called the Loehf, to water
their cattle at the springs in that district. The camel is met with
throughout the Ledja, and walks with a firm step over the rocky surface.
In summer he feeds on the flowers or dry grass of the pasturing places.
In the interior parts of the Ledja the rocks are in many places cleft
asunder, so that the whole hill appears shivered and in the act of
falling down: the layers are generally horizontal, from six to eight
feet, or more, in thickness, sometimes covering the hills, and inclining
to their curve, as appears from the fissures, which often traverse the
rock from top to bottom. In
[p.113] many places are ruined walls; from whence it may be conjectured
that a stratum of soil of sufficient depth for cultivation had in
ancient times covered the rock.
We had lost our road, when we met with a travelling encampment of
Medledj, who guided us into a more open place, where their companions
were pitching their tents. We breakfasted with them, and I was present
during an interesting conversation between one of my Druse companions
and an Arab. The wife of the latter, it appeared, had been carried off
by another Arab, who fearing the vengeance of the injured husband, had
gone to the Druse Sheikh of Khabeb, and having secured his Dakhil
[Arabic], or protection, returned to the woman in the Ledja. The Sheikh
sent word to the husband, cautioning him against taking any violent
measures against his enemy. The husband, whom we here met with, wished
to persuade the Druses that the Dakhil of the Sheikh was unjust, and
that the adulterer ought to be left to his punishment. The Druse not
agreeing with him, he swore that nothing should prevent him from
shedding the blood of the man who had bereft him of his own blood; but I
was persuaded that he would not venture to carry his threat into effect;
for should he kill his enemy, the Druses would not fail to be revenged
upon the slayer or his family.
The outer Ledja is to be distinguished from the inner, on this side as
well as on that by which we entered it, the former being much less
rocky, and more fit for pasturage than the latter. On the borders of the
inner Ledja we passed several places where the mill-stones are made,
which I have mentioned in a former part of my journal. The stones are
cut horizontally out of the rocks, leaving holes of four or five feet in
depth, and as many in circumference; fifty or sixty of these excavations
are often met with in the circumference of a mile. The stones are
carried to be finished at Ezra, Mehadje, Aeib, Khabeb, and Shaara.
SHAARA.
[p.114] In one hour and a half from the borders of the Ledja, we came to
Kastal Kereim, a ruined village, with a Birket; half an hour from it,
Kereim, a Druse village. Between Kereim and Khabeb in the Loehf, is Aeib
[Arabic], a Druse village, in which is a powder manufactory; there is
another at Khabeb. Half an hour from Kereim is Kalaat Szamma [Arabic], a
ruined village, with several towers. One hour and a half, Shaara, a
village inhabited by about one hundred Druse and Christian families. We
travelled this day about eight hours and a half. Shaara was once a
considerable city; it is built on both sides of a Wady, half an hour
from the cultivated plain, and is surrounded by a most dreary barren
War.
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