The Thistle and the Cedar of Lebanon

by Habeeb Risk Allah

One great advantage which the Maronites possess, and which must eventually prove very beneficial to them, is the fact, that education is spreading universally amongst them. There is a native printing-press at work in one of the monasteries; but though the generality of the men are well-bred, the women are grossly ignorant and rude. Lady Francis Egerton found cause to complain of this sadly: “If I fastened my door,” says her ladyship, “they called and knocked and battered at it, until I feared it would yield to their efforts; and this at five o’clock in the morning, whilst I was in bed.”—A pardonable curiosity, however, amongst a semi-barbarous people; for so the women must be termed, until they are admitted to the privileges conferred by education, and social intercourse with civilised English women.

The Maronites, in common with the Greeks and the Armenians, pay an annual visit to the Cedars of Lebanon, for the celebration of the feast of the Transfiguration. Here they celebrate mass on a rough stone altar, at the foot of the Cedars: in the open air—in “a

temple not made with hands”—some of them offer up prayers and thanksgivings, quoting those very Psalms of David which were composed and written expressly to commemorate God’s mercy and loving-kindness, as in connection with the immediate spots which surround these cedars.

A wedding amongst the Maronites differs in some material points from the ordinary marriages in Syria; in the first place, the priest is considered the principal negotiator, and on his report as to the suitableness of the match, much of the future happiness of the young people may be said to depend. After preliminaries have been arranged, gifts of dresses, and the like, are exchanged, but the bashful fiancée is supposed to be in utter ignorance of all that transpires, to spurn these gifts, and to dislike even the mention of her future husband’s name. The priest blesses the bridal clothes of the bridegroom before he adopts them. When the friends go to fetch the bride, a mock combat ensues, in which, however, without bloodshed or bruises, the bridegroom’s party is invariably victorious, and the women carry off the veiled bride in triumph, attended by her female relation. The bride’s house mourns her departure, and she herself makes no secret of her sorrow to leave; but the arus (bride) no sooner makes her appearance than the shouts and acclamations, and firing of muskets by the assembled multitude, seem effectually to drown any discordant sounds of lamentation; the procession, however, moves at a funeral pace, for it is thought highly indecorous that the bride should appear as though anxious to arrive at her new abode. On crossing the threshold, she is saluted by the women with the cry of welcome, and clapping the hands; and after her veil has been removed, she is covered with one

of red gauze, and then made to sit in state on the divan at the upper end of the room. Here she neither smiles nor speaks, but rises on the entry of each venerable female friend, to embrace her, and kiss her hand. Both men and women, though in separate apartments, pass the night in noisy hilarity. Before sunset, the bishop, or in his absence the senior priest, attends at the bridegroom’s house to perform the ceremony; all symptoms of mirth are immediately abandoned, silence is proclaimed, and then the service proceeds very much after the fashion of the Greek Church, only that both the groomsman and bridesmaid are crowned by the priest as well as the couple being married, and the bridegroom places the ring given him by the priest on the bride’s finger. Towards the end of the marriage ceremony, the priest puts a piece of blue ribband, with the picture of a saint attached to it, round the bridegroom’s neck. The newly married bride is confined to her house for the space of a month after her marriage.

I have already mentioned the extreme facility with which the Maronites believe many fables and superstitions that have any connection with religious matters; and perhaps I shall be pardoned for introducing in evidence of this, a fact which occurred about eighty years ago, which attracted the attention of the traveller Volney, and which is still spoken of very frequently among the inhabitants. There are several nunneries belonging to the Maronites in the Lebanon, and it was in one of them, about the period mentioned, that Hindyeh, a young nun, forced herself into great notoriety by the severity of her penances, and the extraordinary piety she displayed. Having found many friends, her reputation increased to such an extent, that she was at last declared capable of working miracles; and the

simple-minded Maronites, having provided the funds, she was duly installed in a religious establishment of her own. Her nunnery, and the other establishments in connection with it, had flourished for more than twenty years, when a suspicion was suddenly excited, that several of the nuns, of whom many had died, had met their death by unfair means, and that most improper practices prevailed within the cells. An unhappy merchant of Sidon, who had placed two of his daughters in the establishment, disturbed by these reports, determined to visit the place and make inquiries. On his arrival, he was told he could not see his daughters because they were ill, and finding that all entreaties were in vain, he proceeded to Deyr al Kamar, and obtained an armed force from Emir Yusuf, the chief of the mountain, and the attendance of the bishop to enquire into the matter. The result shewed the existence of a system of wickedness and profligacy, exceeding in iniquity anything ever known, to which one of the daughters of the merchant in question had already fallen a victim, the other being at the time almost dead. The holy, or rather unholy, Hindyeh, was seized and imprisoned, with her accomplices, and the examinations which were made fully criminated them all. The arch-priestess of all this wickedness managed to escape from the convent in which she was imprisoned, and to reach a locality in which she possessed a large body of adherents and believers. Notwithstanding the disclosures which were made, the hypocritical career pursued by this nefarious woman, so completely imposed upon the weak and credulous Maronites, that she died respected and revered, and to this day is acknowledged as a saint. Need I say anything more to prove the extent to which this weakness is carried among the fellahen.

The number of Roman Catholics in Syria, including both the Armenians, and the Greek Roman Catholics, as one portion of them is called, may be stated at about 200,000, and, as they differ in no important points from the Roman Catholics of the West, they may be passed over without further mention. I may observe, however, that the Armenians are not so generally respected as their Christian brethren of other denominations; and, in illustration, I would remark, that at the grand ceremony on Easter-day of bringing down fire from heaven, the Armenians are driven to obtain a portion of it as best they may; their priests and pilgrims being generally forced into the most remote corner of the sacred edifice.

The Copts, or, as we are accustomed to call them in the East, “the Oobbeet,” are the followers of one “Mar Yackoob.” Their chief doctrine is that Christ possessed but one nature; and they agree with the Church of Rome in saying that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father to the Son. They are governed by a patriarch who resides at Cairo, and is called patriarch of Alexandria, whose authority is very great over the whole sect; indeed, their most prominent characteristic may be said to be an almost slavish obedience to their priests. Like the Maronites, they invariably kiss the hand of any priest they may encounter in the open street, or country; and many of them prostrate themselves before the holy man. Though they conform to the Hebrew practice of circumcision, they also baptize their infants. It is customary with them to pray seven times during the twenty-four hours, according to the rules prescribed by the patriarchs; and it is, moreover, a common practice with many of them to learn by heart the whole of the Psalms, some

of which they invariably repeat before proceeding to transact any business, in the belief that this devout recurrence to the Psalmist will insure prosperity to the affair they have in hand.