INTERIOR OF A SYRIAN COTTAGE: WOMEN GRINDING CORN.
I entered the best cottage in the village. It consisted of a single room. One end of it was occupied by two cows and an ass, the other end, somewhat raised, by the family. The floor was of yellow clay, beaten down to hardness. In the middle of the room was a small plaster fireplace, about the size of a chafing-dish; the door and windows served for chimneys. Three or four unbaked earthen jars, as big as tubs, stood in a corner to contain wheat, barley, rice, figs, &c.; a jar for water; a spinning-wheel; a wheel for winding off cotton; a couple of copper saucepans; a handmill, to grind corn; with a mat spread on the ground to sit on, formed the furniture and utensils of the family, which consisted of a stout man, a pretty woman, her mother with two children, and the grandmother. The walls of the rooms had holes through them, high up, to let in the air; and, on a level with the waist, were small recesses which served for putting away a dish, a saucepan, or a drinking jug. Cupboards there were none; one chest alone seemed to be sacred from the examination of any one. There was a bed rolled up, but I discovered afterwards that the peasantry very seldom had more than a cotton quilted coverlet, sleeping in their clothes. Few have a change of their outward dress, although I had occasion afterwards to observe that they were more particular than English peasants in changing the linen next their skin.
The inhabitants of Abra were Greek Catholics. The village perhaps is more pleasantly situate than the monastery. It had several plantations of mulberry trees for silkworms, and of fig-trees. It is in the division called Aklým-el-Tafâh, in the district of Gebâa, where one Ali Aga resided at this time, as motsellem or governor. Though close to the coast, and belonging, as a part of Ali Aga’s district, to the pashalik of Acre, the peasants rather clung to the Emir of the Drûzes.
The patriarch owned two-thirds of the village. The villagers seemed very poor. They had not even coffee to offer, which I never yet had found wanting anywhere. Tobacco, from an old pipe and a still older bag, seemed their only indulgence. When I told the owner of the cottage that I was under the necessity of turning him out of his home, he said he was willing to comply, if I would bring him an order from the patriarch, his master, to that effect, and that he would soon build himself another.
As I returned to Sayda, in descending the steep hill close under the monastery or dayr, I observed a spring of clear water, running from a stone lip in a stream not larger than my thumb; and this, I was told, supplied the village and monastery. Close by was a cave, formerly a sepulchre, as the recesses in the bottom and sides, still visible, denoted. In it were several naked female peasants, who were washing themselves with water from the spring. Though the path was within forty yards of them, they did nothing but turn their backs, and squat on their haunches until I had passed by.
The masons were sent up to Mar Elias, and the repairs were begun immediately: but it was the middle of February before the house was ready for Lady Hester’s reception; the building of a bath having more especially occupied a great deal of time. Masons, carpenters, and workmen of that class in these countries give infinitely more trouble than they do in England. There it is necessary for their employer himself to purchase every article they stand in need of. The mason, for example, says he wants so much lime, so much powdered pottery, so many tiles, &c.; all these are to be sought out and bargained for by the employer. The mason, indeed, would take the trouble off your hands, but he requires money in advance, and cheats besides.
Lady Hester was but indifferently lodged in the French caravansery, where Damiani’s house was. Her spirits seemed lately to have been somewhat depressed by her protracted illnesses. She had a relapse of her ague, and was again confined to her room. To increase her sufferings, her maid Mrs. Fry was attacked with a most violent dysentery, which threatened her life: she, however, recovered slowly under my hands. All communication with the French consul was dropped, as also with every person in Sayda. Just at this time, M. Beaudin was attacked with a paralytic affection, which deprived him of the use of his limbs and speech. My troubles were now at their height. However, by the end of January, Lady Hester felt strength enough to ride out into the gardens; and never shall I forget this, as it were, her new return to life. From that time her character changed deeply. She became simple in her habits, almost to cynicism. She showed, in her actions and her conversation, a mind severe indeed, but powerfully vigorous. Scanning men and things with a wonderful intelligence, she commented upon them as if the motives of human actions were open to her inspection. Sometimes she looked into futurity like the sybil of old; and, as she reasoned on the great changes which were taking place in Europe, she scattered her prophetic leaves, which, as subsequent events have shown, may almost be supposed to be the effect of inspiration.[86]
I endeavoured to collect such information respecting the taxes and revenue of the village of Abra as might illustrate the general nature of property in Mount Lebanon. It was not so easy to do this as might at first be imagined: for the peasants and more particularly the bailiff of the village (or Kûly, as he is called in Arabic) fancied that Lady Hester had an intention of purchasing it of the patriarch. And, as the thing was desirable for them, on account of the increased opportunities which must necessarily occur for cheating, they were apt to answer my inquiries as best suited their purpose of inducing her to buy. The population amounted to about forty families, most of them descendants of peasants who had for generations inhabited the same spot. The man who for twenty years only had been settled in the village was still looked on, when disputes called forth the expression of any spiteful remarks, as an alien. I have heard a woman, with scarcely a rag on her back, when quarrelling with another, cite the respectability of her descent from ancestors established time immemorial in Abra.
The village of Abra was bought by a patriarch of the Greek Catholics, not many years before our arrival in Syria, from a Drûze family, whose property it was. As far as I could gather, it cost him eighteen purses, £450 sterling. I could not learn its extent in acres; but the whole of the land belonging to it produced eighteen gararas of corn, a garara being equal to seventy-two mids, each mid equal to a gallon or thereabouts.
Abra, being a limitrophe village, bordering on the Metûaly district to the south, on the Drûze district to the east and north, and on the parish of Sayda to the west, seemed to share in the vexations of all three governments. To the motsellem of Gebâa it paid two hundred and forty-five piasters a year, which was the miri of the land: to the Emir Beshýr two hundred piasters a-year, the miri of the houses: to the governor of Sayda one hundred and fifty piasters a-year. These sums were collected by the kûly or shaykh at stated periods, and delivered to the persons respectively claiming them.