The Kurds Have Spread Themselves Over Some Parts Of The Plain Which The
Afrin Waters, As Well As Some Of The Neighbouring Mountains.
They live
in tents and in villages, are stationary, and are all occupied in
agriculture and the rearing of cattle.
They form four tribes, of which
the Shum, who live in the plain, are the most considerable. The Kurds
seem to be of a more lively disposition than the Turkmans; the Aleppines
say that their word is less to be depended upon than that of the
Turkmans. My hosts at Deir Samaan asked me many questions relative to
European politics. I found the opinion prevalent among them which
Buonaparte has taken such pains to impress upon the winds of the
continental nations, that Great Britain is and ought to be merely a
maritime power. This belief, however, proves very advantageous to
English travellers in these countries. A Frenchman will every where be
taken for a spy, as long as the French invasion of Egypt and Syria is in
the memory of man, but it seems never to enter into the suspicions of
these people that the English can have any wish to possess the countries
of the Levant. I was astonished to find that all the Kurds spoke Arabic
fluently, besides the Turkish and their own language, which latter is a
corrupted mixture of Persian, Armenian, and Turkish. On the other hand,
I only met three or four Turkmans who knew how to express themselves
[p.647] in Arabic, though both nations are alike in almost continual
intercourse with Arab peasants and Aleppines.
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