We marked out a green plot of ground, close by the place, for our encampment, and, overpowered by the heat, I removed a little way off to bathe. I had not been in the water long when I observed a horseman in scarlet, with a cocked hat, arrive at the Khudder, and, dismounting, fix his attention on me. I hastened to dress myself, and joined him. He spoke to me in Italian, and declared himself to be Signor Damiani,[70] formerly dragoman to Sir W. Sydney Smith, and now established at Sayda as a self-created English agent. The object of his journey was to invite Lady Hester to take up her abode at his house during her stay there. With considerable energy he likewise vilified the character of the French consul of that place, stating his unjustifiable severities towards himself, and his dislike to the English name. New to the world, and to the sort of character I had to deal with in this man, I thought that he was an aggrieved and deserving person, and as such introduced him to her ladyship, who, however, dismissed him with a refusal.

The Khudder[71] was kept by a man, whose wife was a sprightly middle-aged woman. The building upon the consecrated spot was a square small chamber, surmounted by a cupola, and around it were three small rooms, little better than sheds, for the accommodation of travellers and their horses. For, as the Khudder lies in the high-road from Sayda to Tyre, the passage of travellers is frequent and the resort to the house considerable, owing to its equidistant situation from the one and the other place; by which persons departing late from either, and under fear of being benighted or shut out from the city, where the invariable rule is to close the gates soon after sunset, can enter it early enough for business on the following morning. The Khudder, in fact, was no more than a coffee-hut, similar to many which exist throughout the country: and the entertainment to be found will serve as a sample of what the others produce. Provender for horses, mules, and asses, consisting of barley and chopped straw, is the chief article of sale: for the traveller himself are kept dried figs, bad bread, dibs (a kind of treacle,) coffee of the most common quality, tombac for the narkeely, and perhaps a few raisins. Leben or sour milk is generally to be procured from the neighbouring village. Our hostess had much the air of having departed somewhat from the strict rules of female reserve prescribed by the Mahometan faith: although her husband and she were Metoualys, whose notions regarding the privacy of the female sex are still more rigid than those of any other Mahometan sect. Her gallantries did not seem to be unknown to the camel-drivers, whose occupations often led them along that road; and her coquettish air, and the studied affectation of hiding her face in her veil in a way that constantly showed it, were indubitable signs of a wanton. In speaking of her thus, the reader will observe how much similar situations tend to form similar characters in all countries. This woman subsequently ran away with a muleteer, and her husband married a young girl of 18 or 20: but, finding her, although more comely, less capable of serving him in the way of getting money, he recalled the first wife, and kept them both. During five years that we were in the habit of seeing her as we passed that road, we had often occasion to admire her activity and her complaisant attentions to her guests; whilst it was curious to see the divided empire which the one held by the precarious tenure of her personal charms, but which the other built on the more lasting foundation of her utility.

It should be observed that the portion of Mount Lebanon, that runs parallel with the coast, from Gebel el Msherify to Sayda, is inhabited entirely by Metoualys. Of this race of people we shall have to speak more at large hereafter. We have already seen the remarkable neglect of decency shown by them in the display of the naked persons of the women at Ras-el-ayn.

The following day, soon after sunrise, the march was resumed. From the Khudder, Sayda bore E.N.E. Sarfend was on the right, and the ruins of Sarpentum were scattered around us. In twenty minutes we passed a spring called Ayn-el-Kantara,[72] overhung by a gemaizy or sycamore tree. There were some naked women bathing in the sea, at a small distance from the road. In twenty minutes we came to Burge el Akbeia (the tower of Akbeia) a ruined watch-tower close to the water’s edge. There is an appearance of a small port which, even now, occasionally serves as a nook for fishing-boats. Shallow tanks likewise have been here and there for the evaporation of sea-water to obtain salt. Portions of foundations on two sides of the gully, which here carries off rains running in winter from the neighbouring mountains, but was now dry, showed that it once had a bridge. In a few minutes more we crossed a small stream, scarcely up to the horse’s fetlocks, called, however, a river, the name of which was not noted down. Close beyond it there is a most plentiful and clear spring, issuing from the crevices of a large angular cistern in masonry, of antique date, and now crumbling away. It is called Berkyt-et-tel,[73] or the reservoir of the hill, there being a hill or mound facing the reservoir, which bears the name of Tel Yea. At the distance of a quarter of an hour from the reservoir are some portions of columns lying on the ground, and by them a river called El Zahràny,[74] over which is a modern stone bridge of tolerable neatness. Beyond the Zahràny we observed, in the middle of the road, a loose conical heap of bowlders. To account for their lying so piled up, our muleteers related a long story, of a certain black, named Sayd el Abd, and his wife Luky, one or both of whom were murdered on the highway; and, to perpetuate the memory of their untimely end, every passer-by is expected to throw a stone on the grave. The gradual accumulation has now formed a very considerable heap.[75] In fourteen minutes more we observed some rubbish and stone masonry as of an old caravansery, and six minutes beyond it a dry watercourse. Fourteen minutes farther, the road being still by the sea-side, we passed another dry bed of a river, on the banks of which are some wells, that serve for shepherds to water their flocks.

We were now abreast of a considerable Metoualy village, half a mile off, at the foot of the neighbouring hills, and distant from Sayda two leagues or thereabouts. Guzzeah is partly in ruins, otherwise it would be a pretty place, commanding a fine view of the plain and of the sea. It seems to have been populous, and to have had mosques. Guzzeah may be said to be the Northern boundary of the Metoualys; for their district is comprehended in two strait lines drawn from W. to E. through Gezýn to the N. and through Gebel el Msherify and Bussa to the South, including a length of about twelve leagues. Their principal burghs are Gebâa and Tibenyn, at which latter resided at this time the motsellem deputed by the Pasha of Acre, who was called Ibrahim Aga el Kûrdy, and his soldiers were, for the most part, Kûrds also.[76]

Before reaching Sayda, we crossed the beds of three other rivers, or more properly, watercourses, the first Nahr Kutýshy; the second Nahr Essýn, or Nahr Derb es syn; and the last, immediately before entering the town, and over which there is a bridge, Nahr Burgût. Derb es syn lies on the right within a nook of the mountain, through which the river runs: its inhabitants are Christians. Another Christian village, Mëah-wy-mëah, overlooks the other valley, out of which runs the Burgût river.[77] Winding round the foot of the castle, through orchards now in full leaf, we turned by a short angle to the left, traversed a cemetery, and, continuing for four or five hundred yards close to the outside of the city wall, which appeared no stronger than gaol-walls in England, entered the city gate by the water side. As our file of camels and horses was of more than ordinary length, we attracted some notice as we traversed the narrow streets, and the arrival of the English Princess was already noised through the city.

Thus far the face of the country through which we had passed had seemed delightful. Palestine presents all the different varieties of plain and mountain, hill and valley, river and lake; and has likewise an exceedingly fine climate. The luxuriance of vegetation is not to be described. Fruits of all sorts, from the banana down to the blackberry, are abundant. The banks of the rivers are clothed naturally with oleander, myrtle, arbutus, and other flowering shrubs.

Mount Lebanon, through the whole of the distance from Acre to Sayda, seldom recedes from the sea more than a mile, and generally not so much, excepting immediately behind Acre, where there is a plain bounded by Mount Carmel, nine miles south of the city, and on the north by the promontory of Msherify.[78] The inhabitants there are Mussulmans, Christians, and Drûzes. The vestiges of ancient cities, bridges, and roads, denote the vast population that once dwelt on the coast.

CHAPTER XV.

Governor’s visit—Mons. Taitbout—Streets—Shops—City gate—Castles—Ports—Ancient Sidon—Population of Modern Sidon—Revenue—Fertility of the soil—Bridges—Invitation from the Emir of the Drûzes—Salsette frigate—Mamelukes, considered as spies, are dismissed—Departure for Gebel ed Drûz—Stefano, Messieurs Bertrand—Masbûd—Difficulty of obtaining money—River Hamàm—Dayr el Kamar—The Emir’s character—The Drûze country—The Drûzes—Their supposed tenets—Akel and Jahel—Customs and real tenets of the Drûzes—Their resemblance to Quakers—Their hypocrisy.