It Is A Low But Very
Rocky Chain, Little Fit For Culture, Except In The Valleys; But It
Abounds In Game, Especially Wild Boars; And Ounces Have Sometimes Been
Killed In It.
We left the inhospitable Bara at mid-day, with two armed men, to escort
us over the mountain into the valley of the Orontes.
In half an hour we
passed a ruined stone bridge across a narrow Wady; it rests upon piers,
which are formed of immense blocks
EL GHAB.
[p.133]of stone piled upon one another. In one hour and twenty minutes
we came to Kon Szafra, in a fertile valley on the top of the mountain,
where a few families live in wretched huts amidst the ruins of an
ancient town. N.W. about three quarters of an hour is the village of
Mezraa. In an hour and forty minutes we reached the ruined town Djerada,
and at the end of two hours and a half, Kefr Aweyt, a small village;
Kefr, in the vulgar dialect, means ruins. Here the mountain is much less
rocky, and more fit for culture. Our road lay S.W. b. S. The village of
Feteyry, lies about one hour and a half south of Aweyt. After travelling
three hours we came in sight of the Orontes, and then began to descend.
The mountain on this side is rather steep, and its side is overgrown
with herbs which afford an excellent pasturage. The plant asphodel
(Siris [Arabic]) is very common; the inhabitants of Syria, by
pulverising its dried roots, and mixing the powder with water, make a
good glue, which is superior to that made with flour, as it is not
attacked by worms. In the summer the inhabitants of the valley pasture
their cattle in these mountains, as do likewise a few tribes of Arabs;
among these are the Akeydat, of whom we passed a small encampment.
The part of Djebel Rieha which, beginning at Kon Szafra, extends to the
valley of the Orontes, on the one side towards Kalaat el Medyk, on the
other towards Djissr Shogher, bears the appellation of Djebel Shaehsabou
[Arabic]. The continuation of the same mountain towards Rieha, besides
its general name of Djebel Rieha, is likewise called Djebel Zaouy
[Arabic]. In four hours and a quarter we reached the plain below, near
an insulated hill, called Tel Aankye [Arabic], which seems to be
artificial.
The valley bordered on the E. side by Djebel Shaehsabou, and on the W.
side by the mountains of the Anzeyry, is called El Ghab [Arabic]. It
extends almost due north from three hours S. of
HOWASH.
[p.134]Kalaat el Medyk to near Djissr Shogher: its breadth is about two
hours, but becomes narrower towards the north; it is watered by the
Aaszy [Arabic], or Orontes, which flows near the foot of the western
mountain, where it forms numerous marshes. The inhabitants of El Ghab
are a mongrel race of Arabs and Fellahs, and are called Arab el Ghab.
They live in winter time in a few villages dispersed over the valley, of
which they cultivate only the land adjacent to their villages; on the
approach of hot weather they retire with their cattle to the eastern
mountains, in search of pasture, and in order to escape the immense
swarms of flies and gnats [Arabic], which infest the Ghab in that
season. In the winter the Aaszy inundates a part of the low grounds
through which it flows, and leaves many small lakes and ponds; the
valley is watered also by numerous springs and by rivulets, which
descend from the mountains, especially from those on the east. To the N.
of Tel Aankye, on the E. side towards Djissr Shogher, which is eight
hours distant from Aankye, are the springs Ayn Bet Lyakhom [Arabic], Ayn
Keleydyn [Arabic], Shaouryt [Arabic], Kastal Hadj Assaf [Arabic], Djob
Soleyman [Arabic], Djob el Nassouh [Arabic], Djob Tel el Tyn [Arabic].
Having passed to the left of Aankye, where is a small village, we
continued our road up the valley due south; we passed near the spring
Ayn el Aankye; in a quarter of an hour farther Ayn el Kherbe, and at the
same distance farther south, the copious spring Ayn el Howash [Arabic],
from whence we turned to the right into the plain, and at the end of
four hours and three quarters from El Bara, reached the village Howash,
where we alighted at the Sheikh's house.
February 21st--Howash is the principal village of the Ghab; it is
situated on the borders of a small lake, formed by the rivulet of Ayn el
Howash. The surrounding country was at this time for
[p.135]the greater part inundated, and the Arabs passed in small boats
from one village to another; in summer the inundation subsides, but the
lakes remain, and to the quantity of stagnant water thus formed is owing
the pest of flies and gnats abovementioned. There are about one hundred
and forty huts at Howash, the walls of which are built of mud; the roofs
are composed of the reeds which grow on the banks of the Orontes; the
huts in which these people live in the mountain during the summer are
formed also of reeds, which are tied together in bundles, and thus
transported to the mountain, where they are put up so as to form a line
of huts, in which the families within are separated from each other only
by a thin partition of reeds.
The Arabs of Howash cultivate Dhourra and wheat, and, like all the Arabs
of the Ghab, rear large herds of buffaloes, which are of a small kind,
and much less spirited than those I saw in the plains of Tarsous. It is
a common saying and belief among the Turks, that all the animal kingdom
was converted by their Prophet to the true faith, except the wild boar
and buffalo, which remained unbelievers; it is on this account that both
these animals are often called Christians.
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