In Three Quarters Of An Hour We
Reached The Village Of Medjel, Inhabited By Druses, With Four Or Five
Christian Families.
The Druses who inhahit the country near Damascus are
very punctual in observing the rites of the Mohammedan religion, and
fast, or at least pretend to do so, during the Ramadan.
In their own
country, some profess Christianity, others Mohammedism. The chief, the
Emir Beshir, keeps a Latin confessor in his house; yet all of them, when
they visit Damascus, go to the mosque. Medjel is situated on a small
plain high up in the mountain; half an hour further on is a spring; and
at one hour and a quarter beyond, is a spacious plain. The mountain here
is in most places capable of cultivation. In one hour more we reached
the top. The oak tree is very frequent here as well as the bear's plum
[Arabic] (Khoukh eddeb), the berries of which afford a very refreshing
nourishment to the traveller. The rock is partly calcareous, and partly
of a porous tufa, but softer than that which I saw in the Houle. At one
hour and a quarter farther is the Beit el Djanne (the House of
Paradise), in a narrow Wady, at a
REITIMA.
[p.46]spot where the valley widens a little. On its western side are
several sepulchral caves hewn in the chalky rock. Another quarter of an
hour brought us to the Ain Beit el Djanne, a copious spring, with a mill
near it; and from thence, in half an hour, we reached the plain on the
eastern side of the mountain.
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