"Shall men give into your bosom?"—The usual dress here, is a long robe, not much unlike a woman's gown. It is fastened about the waist with a girdle. This is a long, large piece, often as large, and even much larger than a sheet, but of a fine texture; usually of the shawl kind. They wrap this round them four or five times, forming a band from four inches to a foot wide, as the taste of each may be,—then give such a fastening to the end as each may choose. It is odd, and to us laughable to see them putting them on. I have seen them fasten the end of their long girdle to a door, post, or table—adjust its folds—regulate its width—put one end to their body, and turn round and round until they have wrapped it all to their liking. Yea, I have seen them do it on the road. On my visit to Nice, not long after I left that plain, I passed a man on the road who from some cause wished to adjust his girdle. Possibly it was a preparation before he entered that city of ancient name. He had stopped, taken off his girdle, adjusted its width, arranged its folds, fastened one end of it to a bush, drew it out to its full length, applied the other end to his side, and holding it, turned round and round carefully, attending to its width and the adjustment of its folds. I felt strongly disposed to laugh, and had there been any one to join me in it, I doubt not should have laughed heartily, the danger of offending the gravity of the Turk to the contrary notwithstanding. But there is no fun in laughing alone; and my old Greek guide looked as grave as if he saw nothing amusing, in seeing a man winding himself in a shawl. But to the point I meant to illustrate. The part of the dress above the girdle having an opening, is used for stowing away all sorts of things; handkerchiefs, when they have any; bread, fruit, &c., nothing comes amiss; they put it into the bosom. As the receptacle goes all round the body, it is equal to three or four of those large pockets our great-grandmothers used to wear.
[LETTER IV.]
Bru-ma-nah, July 23d, 1836.
I have just returned from a tour of four days among the mountains. The ladies rode on donkeys, which are not much larger than the largest kind of sheep; they have great strength and a pleasant gait. They are also sure-footed, which in such rough roads is no small recommendation. I hired a mule, the owner of which, as is usual in such cases, went along to take care of his animal. The other two gentlemen had their own horses. It is not here as in Europe, where you can find taverns and beds. There are no such things here. We, of course, had to take all things needful for eating and sleeping. We carried two tents—one for the ladies, the other for the gentlemen; our bedding, provisions, utensils for cooking, a pot, a pan, plates, knives, forks, spoons, coffee, tea-cups, sugar, salt, towels, &c. We required, of course, two or three mules to carry these, and a servant to take care of them and cook for us. Although our plan was to take no more than was really necessary, we made quite a cavalcade.
You have, no doubt, heard that coal has lately been found in the mountains near Beyroot. The chief mine that is worked lies near a village called Corneil, about three or four hours' ride from Brumanah, and up near the main ridge of the mountain. Our first object was to visit those mines which lay south-east of Brumanah. We passed up the ridge on which Brumanah stands, but gradually wound along its south-east side, until we reached the bottom of the ravine which separates it from the ridge which lies to the south. Much of the higher part of the ridge on which Brumanah stands is of the sandstone formation; it is, however, singularly mixed with patches of limestone. We found the ravine a most rugged and rocky one, and almost wholly of limestone. We saw many loose masses of green stone at the bottom, which must have been brought from some distance, as there was no appearance of that rock in sight.
In crossing the next ridge, we passed a village, in the midst of a well-cultivated spot. There were more trees, and vines, and garden herbs, than I had seen at any of the villages that I had passed. The prince of this village has a pretty good-looking palace, of considerable size. We passed close by it, and as the people within assembled to see the party of Franks, it gave us an opportunity to see them. After ascending about half way up this ridge, we again passed into the sandstone formation, which occupies the top, except some small locations of limestone, which appears in some strange way to have got out of its proper place. But of this hereafter. We passed over this ridge, and at the foot, near the lower part of the sandstone formation, we found the coal mines. Mr. Brattle, the English superintendant, received us most kindly, and took us through and showed us the mine. He has made four or five openings, and finds ample stores of coal. It is from three to four feet thick—dips a little into the mountain—has several considerable falls in the strata, which will require more labour in working it. There is another mine south of the next ridge, which is also now worked. The coal is not, however, as good as at the one we visited. None of the coal yet found is as good as the English coal, but most probably a further search may discover coal of a better quality.
It is about ten or fifteen years since this coal was first discovered. Several men were sent to examine it, but were not skilful, and did not report favourably. There was an attempt to work it a few years since, but no good resulted. At length Mr. Brattle, who is acquainted with the business, was induced to come out, and under his direction they are becoming more and more important. He labours under great disadvantages, from the absence of most of those aids and facilities which are so needful in carrying on such work. He has proved, or is proving, however, that they are valuable. This coal is carried on mules and donkeys to Beyroot, over a most villanous road. Were a good road made, and proper coal wagons used, it would greatly facilitate the matter. But that day is not yet come. There is no such thing as a wheeled conveyance here, at least I have seen none, nor the track of one of any description.
There is a great irregularity in the sandstone strata near and above the coal, it is thrown about in all sorts of ways. But I shall have occasion to notice this repeatedly in my tour. After spending several hours at the mine, Mr. Brattle took us to his house at Corneil (the old palace, the best house in the village), and entertained and lodged us with great kindness and hospitality. From the terrace of the palace, which looks towards Beyroot, we had one of the most splendid views I have ever seen. We saw the sun set in the ocean behind Cyprus; could distinctly see the island in the full blaze of the setting sun. It lies so far to the west, that it is only in peculiar states of the air it can be seen. Corneil stands on a rocky knoll on the top of a ridge. At this place the limestone is thrown up, while both above and below on the ridge the sandstone prevails. It is surrounded with vines, mulberry, fig and other kinds of trees. But they stop here. This is the highest point on this part of the mountain where trees are seen. Almost immediately after leaving Corneil we saw no more trees, not even bushes, except occasionally a very low evergreen, which appeared to be a kind of thorn. It grows in bunches, spreads over the ground, but seldom rises above from six inches to a foot. Occasionally we saw some heather and fern in wet places, and more frequently furze and thistle; a few low flowers appeared, and some other mountain plants that were new to me. The whole face of the mountain was bare rocks, rocks, rocks. The ridge on which Corneil stands leads up to a very high point of the mountain called, if I recollect right, Jebal Knee-se. There are now, it is said, the remains of a church and monastery on the top. It was a place of some interest as an ecclesiastical establishment. It really must have looked like literally getting up, if not to at least towards heaven, to live upon the top of a mountain which is supposed to be from nine to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. It was, no doubt, a monastic establishment. Why it was deserted I know not. I felt a wish to visit it, but the labour would have been considerable, and as another point which lies several hours' ride north-east is still higher, and is the one that is usually ascended, and as we thought the ascent of one would be quite enough for our invalids, we passed round the foot of the high peak of Jebal Knee-se, and made for the top of the ridge, at a low place between Jebal Knee-se and Jebal Sun-neen.
The upper part of Jebal Knee-se is regularly stratified limestone, and horizontal. It has many shells in it; we stopped and collected some fine specimens of four or five different kinds. About the middle of the day, we reached the top of the ridge of Lebanon, at the low place between the two points before named. This place is above the limits of trees and cultivation. The mountain is barren even of bushes. There are, however, some of the smaller plants which I mentioned a few lines above.