At half an hour is
the ruined village Dsakeir [Arabic], in the Ledja, which here turns to
the E. in the direction of Tel Shiehhan. On its S.E. corner stands the
ruined town Sowarat el Dsakeir [Arabic],
OM EZZEITOUN.
[p.218] where we found a party of Arabs Szolout encamped, with whom we
breakfasted. In one hour and a quarter we passed Redheimy [Arabic],
where the ground was covered with remains of ancient enclosures. One
hour and a half, El Hadher [Arabic]; one hour and three quarters, El
Laheda [Arabic]; two hours, Omten [Arabic]; two hours and a half,
Meraszrasz [Arabic]; three hours, Om Haretein [Arabic]; three hours and
a half, Essammera [Arabic]. All the above villages and towns are in
ruins, and prove the once-flourishing state of the Ledja. In four hours
we reached Om Ezzeitoun [Arabic], a village inhabited by Druses. The
advantages of a Wady like the Lowa are incalculable in these countries,
where we always find that cultivation follows the direction of the
winter torrents, as it follows the Nile in Egypt. There are not many
Wadys in this country which inundate the land; but the inhabitants make
the best use of the water to irrigate their fields after the great rains
have ceased. Springs are scarce, and it is from the Wadys that the
reservoirs are filled which supply both men and cattle with water, till
the return of the rainy season. It is from the numerous Wadys which rise
in the Djebel Haouran that the population of the Haouran derives its
means of existence, and the success of its agriculture.
Om Ezzeitoun is inhabited by thirty or forty families. It appears, by
the extent of its ruins, to have been formerly a town of some note. I
here copied several inscriptions.
Upon a broken stone in the wall of a public building over the great
reservoir of the town, was the following:
[Greek]
[p.219] [Greek].
The only ancient building of any consequence is a small temple, of which
an arch of the interior, and the gate, only remain; on each side of the
latter are niches, between which and the gate are these inscriptions:
[Greek].
The two last syllables are on the frame within which the inscription is
engraved.
[Greek].
Upon a stone lying on the ground near the temple is the following:
[p.220] [Greek].[[Greek]. Ed.]
Upon a long narrow stone in the wall of a court-yard near the temple:
[Greek].
I had intended to sleep at Om Ezzeitoun, but I found the Druses very
ill-disposed towards me. It was generally reported that I had discovered
a treasure in 1810 at Shohba, near this place, and it was supposed that
I had now returned to carry off what I had then left behind. I had to
combat against this story at almost every place, but I was nowhere so
rudely received as at this village, where I escaped ill treatment only
by assuming a very imposing air, and threatening with many oaths, that
if I lost a single hair of my beard, the Pasha would levy an avania of
many purses on the village. I had with me an old passport from Soleiman
Pasha, who, though no longer governor of Damascus, had been charged pro
tempore with the government till the arrival of the new Pasha, who was
expected from Constantinople. Soleiman had retired to his former
government at Acre, but his Mutsellim at Damascus very kindly granted me
strong letters of recommendation to all the authorities of the country,
which were of great use to me in the course of my journey.
I left Om Ezzeitoun late in the evening, to proceed toward the mountain
of Haouran. Our road lay on the N. side of Tel Shiehhan,
BEREIT.
[p.221]close to which runs the Ledja; and the Wady Lowa descends the
mountain on the west side of it. We proceeded in the direction of
Soueida, and in an hour and a quarter from the village stopped, after
sunset, at an encampment of the Djebel Haouran Arabs. My companion, and
a guide whom I had engaged at Om Ezzeitoun, persuaded me to appear
before the Arabs as a soldier belonging to the government, in order to
get a good supper, of which we were in great want, that of the preceding
night, at the saltpetre works, having consisted of only a handful of dry
biscuit. We were served with a dish of rice boiled in sour milk, and
were much amused by the sports and songs of the young girls of the
tribe, which they continued in the moonlight till near midnight. One of
the young men had just returned to the encampment, who had been taken
prisoner by the Aeneze during a nightly predatory expedition. He showed
us the marks of his fetters, and enlarged upon the mode of treating the
Rabiat, or prisoner, among the Aeneze. A friend had paid thirty camels
for his liberation. In spring the Arabs of the Djebel Haouran and the
Ledja take advantage of the approach of the Aeneze, to plunder daily
among their enemies; they are better acquainted with the ground than the
latter, a part of whose horses and cattle are every spring carried off
by these daring mountaineers.
April 25th.--At half an hour from the encampment is the hill called Tel
Dobbe [Arabic], consisting of a heap of ruins, with a spring. To the
N.E. of it, a quarter of an hour, is the ruined village of Bereit, which
was inhabited in 1810, but is now abandoned. The Haouran peasants wander
from one village to another; in all of them they find commodious
habitations in the ancient houses; a camel transports their family and
baggage; and as they are not tied to any particular spot by private
landed property, or plantations, and find every where large tracts to
cultivate,
