Lady Hester Stanhope to Lieutenant-General Oakes.
Damascus, September 30th, 1812.
My dear General,
The only letters I have received since the shipwreck are those which you directed to the care of Colonel Misset; I was quite happy to hear from you again, and that you were well, though so very busy; indeed, I fear it would not be a compliment for me to write half I have to say, even had I time.
If I was once to begin to give you my history since I left Acre, I should fill all my paper with the honours which have been paid me. The pasha here has given me two horses, but neither fit for you; another, which was presented me by the Emir Beshýr, or Prince of the Druses, would have just done; but I found he was so vicious (a rare thing in this country), that I gave him to my janissary, who is the best rider I have seen since I left Egypt.
I must now speak to you of the Druses, that extraordinary and mysterious people who inhabit the Mount Lebanon. I hope, if I ever see you again, to be able to reach Mr. North[3] in my account of them. I will only now mention a fact, which I can state as positive, having been eyewitness to it—it is that they eat raw meat. I purchased of a Druse an immense sheep, the tail weighing eleven pounds, and desired it to be taken to a village, where I ordered the people to assemble to eat. When I arrived the sheep was alive; the moment it was killed it was skinned, and brought in raw upon a sort of dish made of matting, and in less than half an hour it was all devoured. The women eat of it as well as the men: the pieces of raw fat they swallowed were really frightful.
I understand so well feeling my ground with savage people, that I can ask questions no other person dares to put to them; but it would not be proper to repeat here those I asked even the sages, and still less their answers. Any one who asks a religious question may be murdered without either the Emir Beshýr (the Prince of the Mountain), or the Shaykh Beshýr (the governor) being able to punish the offender.
Nothing ever equalled the honours paid me by these men; the prince is a mild, amiable man,[4] but the governor has proved a Lucifer, and I am the first traveller he ever allowed to walk over his palace, which has been the scene of several massacres. The two days I spent with him I enjoyed very much; and you will be surprised at it when I tell you, that he judged it necessary to make one of his chief officers taste out of my cup before I drank, for fear of poison; but I am used to that; yet this man upon his knees before me looked more solemn than usual.
Believe me, my dear General,
Ever most sincerely yours,