The Day After My Arrival Under
His Tent, He Set Out With Me Towards The Deir, And We Reached It After A
Ride Of Four Hours Over The Rocky Hills Which Encircle The Mountain Of
St. Simon, Called Djebel Samaan, Or Sheikh Barekat.
The Deir Samaan
consists of the ruins of a church, monastery, or episcopal palace, built
upon the top of an insulated hill, bearing from the top of the mountain
of St. Simon, N. 20 E., about eight miles distant.
It is now inhabited
by several families of Kurds, who have their black goat hair tents
pitched in the middle of the ruins. They received us with much
hospitality; a sheep was immediately killed, and all the delicacies of
the season were served up to us. After dinner and coffee, Tshay[FN#1]
was served round, which the Aleppines and all Syrians esteem as one of
the greatest dainties: it is a heating drink, made of ginger, cloves,
rosewater, sugar and similar ingredients, boiled together to a thick
syrup. Mursa Aga, the chief, a handsome young man, then took up his
Tamboura or guitar, and the rest of the evening passed in music and
singing.
The whole summit of the hill, which is six hundred paces in length and
one hundred and seventy in breadth, was once covered with stately
buildings. A thick wall of square hewn stones, is traceable all round.
The principal ruins consist of two separate buildings, a palace, and a
church, or monastery, which were separated from each other by a court-
yard one hundred and ten paces in length.
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