The People Water The Fields For Three Or Four Days Before
They Sow The Seed.
Akoura has a bad name amongst the people of this country; its
inhabitants, who are all Greek Catholics, are accused of avarice, and
inhospitality.
The mountaineers, when upon a journey, never think of
spending a para, for their eating, drinking, or lodging. On arriving in
the evening at a village, they alight at the house of some acquaintance,
if they have any, which is generally the case, and say to the owner, "I
am your guest," Djay deyfak [Arabic]. The host gives the traveller a
supper, consisting of milk, bread, and Borgul, and if rich and liberal,
feeds his mule or mare also. When the traveller has no acquaintance in
the village, he alights at any house he pleases, ties up his beast, and
smokes his pipe till he receives a welcome from the master of the house,
who makes it a point of honour to receive him as a friend, and to give
him a supper. In the morning he departs with a simple "Good bye." Such
is the general custom in these parts; the inhabitants of Akoura,
however, are noted for refusing to receive travellers, to whom they will
neither give a supper, nor sell them provision for ready money; the
consequence of which conduct is, that the Akourans, when travelling
about, are obliged to conceal their origin, in order to obtain food on
the road. My guide had a friend at Akoura, but he happened to be absent;
we therefore alighted at another house, where we obtained with much
difficulty a little barley for our horses; and we should have gone
supperless to rest, had I not repaired to the Sheikh, and made him
believe I was a Kourdine (my dress being somewhat like that of the
Kourds) in the service of the
[p.25] Pasha of Damascus, on my way to the Emir Beshir.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 58 of 870
Words from 15667 to 15989
of 236498
