CHAPTER XVI.
Dayr el Kamar—Palace of Btedýn—The Shaykh Beshýr—Mukhtâra—The Shaykh Beshýr’s wife—His palace—- Rivalship of the Shaykh Beshýr and Emir Beshýr—Horns worn by the Women—Mercenary hospitality of the Emir—Drûzes eat raw meat—Butrus or Pierre—Mr. B. attempts to see a Khalwa or place of worship of the Drûzes—Shaykh el Okal—Cure for rabid animals—Libertinism punished with the bastinado—Mr. B. goes to Aleppo—Aleppo bouton—Departure for Damascus—Presents distributed—The Cury Marûn—Sedition at Damascus—Siege of the Citadel—Disdar Aga strangled—River Ewely—Village of El Barûk—Ayûn el Bered—Chokadar sent to escort Lady Hester—Turkish harým travelling—View from the summit of Mount Lebanon—River Letanus and plain of the Bkâ—Palma Christi oil—Jub Genýn—Gebel es Shaykh—Anti-Lebanon—Springs—Sepulchres—Vultures—Village of Demâs—Chalky soil—Rocky plain—Distant view of Damascus—Garden walls—Salhéah—Damascus—Courtyard of the palace—Haym’s brothers—Simple manner of doing business—Ejectment of a family from their house—European dress not seen at Damascus—Danger for a woman to go unveiled—Lady Hester’s entry into Damascus.
We remained at Dayr el Kamar until the 26th of August. During this time Lady Hester paid a visit to the Emir at his palace at Btedýn. Great preparations were made for her reception. When there, the whole day was taken up in viewing the apartments, drinking sherbet, smoking, and eating. The palace is destitute of beauty. It is new, but irregular, having no two parts alike, and built by additions made as fancy or convenience suggested, and money and leisure permitted. The Emir presented Lady Hester with a handsome horse, richly caparisoned.
A visit was next projected to the Shaykh Beshýr, a Drûze by birth, and in consideration not inferior, among his own sect, to the Emir himself.[84] He dwelt at Makhtâra, a considerable village, distant three or four hours from Dayr el Kamar, in a district abounding in vines, olive, fig, and mulberry trees, tobacco, &c. He possessed the power of life and death, emanating nominally from the Emir, but in truth totally independent of him.
He was married to a beautiful woman, and had by her some very pretty children. It would naturally be supposed that the chief of the Drûzes must be enrolled among the âakel, seeing that they claim a superiority over the jahel. But it was not so; nay, he was even excluded from their body by the duties of his situation, which obliged him to drink coffee, smoke tobacco, use money raised by taxation, (which in the code of the âakels is not permitted) and to partake in many more worldly indulgences than they allow. His wife, not called to the exercise of public duties, was a rigid âakely: but, although there was so wide a difference between the supposed piety of these two, still I did not find that the family harmony was interrupted by it. His palace, like that of the Emir, was new, and of his own building. It stood in a very conspicuous situation, and may be seen some miles off in several directions. It was particularly celebrated for its fountains, and streams of crystal water, which traversed every apartment, giving a most agreeable freshness in the hot months of the year. This water was brought from the river Ewely, almost close to its source, by an aqueduct of the Shaykh’s construction.
He generally ate and drank, even at his own table, of such things only as he knew to be prepared particularly for him. Poisoning is often in the thoughts of Eastern chieftains, no doubt; for they cannot but be an object of jealousy to their rivals, who are scarcely their superiors in power and influence.[85]
The Drûze women affect a singular ornament, worn on the head, and called by travellers the horn, though not made of that substance. The Arabic name of kern is sometimes used for it, as also that of tontûra and of tassy. I endeavoured to learn the origin of this ornament, but was obliged at last to satisfy myself with an etymological signification drawn from my own conjectures. Tassy signifies a drinking-cup, and a drinking-cup in the East (for water, at least) is generally shaped like an English decanter-stand, and is made of silver or tinned copper. A cup inverted, of precisely this shape, is worn in some places (as in Sayda, Beyroût, &c.,) on the women’s heads, and is possibly the original and old-fashioned form, which the fancy of some might have changed for a deeper cup, when we should have the resemblance of a large tumbler or the tontûra. In process of time, this, by continued elongations, would be brought to its present shape; or an intermediate generation might effect the change to a bell form, as worn still by the women of Botrûn. I have said the tassy is made either of silver or tinned copper, and by the very poor of pasteboard. When of the long sort, it is fastened on by a handkerchief, that goes under the chin, and by another round the forehead. The women sleep with it on, and only pull it off when in the bath or when combing their hair, which is but rarely. In some villages the horn is worn perpendicularly, in some horizontally, in others at an angle between the two. But this is not done indifferently; for the Catholics, it is said, affect one way; the Maronites, another; and the Drûzes, whose distinguishing emblem it more properly is, another. No traveller, who passes hastily through the mountain, can get a woman to show her horn to him: as it is a greater breach of decorum to unveil the horn than it is the face. Nothing can look more ugly than it does without the veil; but, with it on, the appearance becomes graceful.
DRUZE WOMEN.
The dress of the Drûze women generally consists of a blue gown, open in front (excepting where it is buttoned at the waist) and ill-concealing the neck and bosom, which, so industriously covered by European women, are here shown with the utmost indifference. The horn, if of silver, is more or less chased, or even studded with precious stones. It seems contrived to hang the veil upon, which is, in some districts, white, in some black, and of linen or silk according to the wearer’s means. It gives great beauty to the folds of the veil, and adds much majesty to the figure. From the hair behind fall down three silken cords, to which are suspended three silk tassels, about ten inches or a foot long, red or black or blue or green according to the custom of the district. A pair of embroidered trowsers, a shift hanging out of the trowsers, and a pair of yellow shoes, make up the costume, which is both graceful and (saving the horn) convenient. A woman of respectability, instead of a blue gown, wears satin and over it a cloth vest.