Her ladyship now began collecting fresh people about her, intending to make a journey to the ruins of Heliopolis, or, as it is called, Bâlbec. Pierre had sent for a young woman from Acre, whom he recommended as a useful servant. Her name was Werdy (Rose.)[113]
There is an occupation unknown in England, but which employs a great many persons in Syria, where no such things as letter-mails exist: it is that of foot-messenger to carry letters. These foot-messengers will, for a stated sum, half generally paid in advance, and half on their return with an answer, go to any distance. They travel with a good thick stick, light trowsers and a jacket, bare-legged, and sometimes without shoes. Their food on the road is often bread and water only, sometimes with the addition of fruit, if in season, or of leben, if to be had. They thus escape being plundered by carrying nothing to excite cupidity; for a simple letter is not an object to tempt robbers.
I have said above that the village of Meshmûshy was surrounded with vineyards. The grapes ripened under our eye, and we could eat to satiety: so could the meanest peasant; and in this respect it must be allowed that the lot of the poor in hot climates is preferable to that of the like class of people in cold ones. I counted no fewer than twenty-one sorts of grapes.
The vineyards at Meshmûshy, and elsewhere on the mountain, were planted in rows; and the inequality of the ground, from the preference that was always given to the sides of the hills, rendered it necessary to support the soil at the foot of each row by a stone wall; and thus a vineyard became a succession of steps or terraces, rising one above another. The vines were planted among the stones of the walls, which were not cemented.[114] They were carefully manured and pruned every year.
Great quantities of wine were annually made at the monastery of Meshmûshy by the monks; and, as the vintage happened this year whilst we were there, I had an opportunity of being present at it. They exposed the grapes, principally white ones, and for the most part of a small white sort called muksaysy, seven or eight days to the sun, with the stalks of the bunches turned upwards; as, the more the stalks are dried, the better is the juice. At the end of eight days they squeezed out the juice, by the naked feet, in a basket, through the bottom of which it ran, or sometimes on a stone pavement on an inclined plane, into a receiver, which is either a pan, or oftentimes a hole sunk in the pavement. Those, who wished to have a dry wine, put the juice, thus expressed, into large earthenware jars, which hold from 9 to 18 gallons or more, where it remained to ferment. At the end of forty days the mouth of the jar was covered with a board fitted to it, which was carefully luted round the edges. When wanted for drinking, which is generally within the year, or, at the most, within two years, the luting is broken, the lid taken off, and a portion every day laded out for use.[115] Those who are desirous of having a sweet wine, put the juice on the fire in a cauldron, and heat it short of boiling, until a scum forms on the surface, which they take off. They then put it in the same kind of jars for fermentation.
It was impossible, on seeing wine made, not to be shocked at the dirtiness of the process, particularly in what regards the feet of the persons who tread it, generally peasants. Were it done by Mahometans, even of the lowest class, there would be nothing offensive in it; because they use so many ablutions, that they are as clean in their feet as their hands. But the Christians of the East partake with the poor of European countries in the filth of their lower extremities.
This was indeed a busy season of the year for the mountaineers. At the same time with the wine was made likewise dibs, called in French raisiné, which in taste and appearance resembled treacle, and formed an important article of food throughout Syria, more especially among the middle and lower classes. On a pavement, either of stone or hewn out of the rock, and on an inclined plane, surrounded by a ledge about a foot high, vast heaps of grapes are thrown. These are trodden by men with their naked feet, and the juice runs off through one or more scupper-holes, perforated in the ledge, into pits or cisterns. These pits are square, four or five feet deep, and plastered on the inside so as not to leak. The husks of the grapes, thus trodden, are afterwards submitted to a second operation. They are raked together in a heap, and, being covered with a broad stone, a rude press is contrived by means of a large trunk of a tree, one end of which is thrust into a hole in the wall (raised for this purpose at the back of the pavement), whilst to the other is fastened a heavy block of stone: and the trunk or beam, being let down on the broad flag-stone, acts as a powerful lever. The pressure, continued thus for some time, forces out what juice remains; and the process is completed by one or two washings, which they give to the husks, by means of water poured upon them.[116] The juice, first being allowed to settle, is laded from the pits into a large copper cauldron, placed over a furnace. It is there boiled very quickly; and the scum, which rises abundantly, is taken off by a man whose business this is, whilst the watery parts of the juice are carried off in vapour. In a few hours the whole assumes a brownish yellow colour, and, after a farther continuance of the boiling, becomes of the consistence of oil or liquid honey, when it is put into the receiver, where it cools, and is carried off to the houses in jars.
To these operations succeeded another, less laborious, which was the curing of raisins. Such grapes as were considered most fit for the purpose were gathered when quite ripe: these were the muksaysy for the small yellow raisins, and the cury for the black raisin. A spot of ground was swept clean, and the grapes were spread out in the sun, but were dipped previously in a mixture of ley with a little soap and oil. On the second, third, and fourth days of exposure, they were sprinkled (by means of a rod made of the herb tyûn) with the same ley, but not soaked. After this they were suffered to lie night and day until the drying was completed. This was the manner generally practised on Mount Lebanon, and was performed by the wives of the peasants; whilst the men made the wine dibs.
In the first days of November comes on the olive harvest. The first part of the harvest consisted in collecting the windfalls. From these olives an inferior oil was pressed. Then a second crop was beaten down[117] from the trees with long sticks, and carried to the mills. It was a pleasing sight, early in the morning, to see a whole village deserted: men, women, and children, hastening with their asses and baskets of provisions to pass the day in their olive grounds; although the year was far advanced, and the weather, especially in elevated situations like Meshmûshy, by no means warm.
With respect to olive grounds, some have trees of their own: others hire, at a given sum, so many trees, and take their chance in the harvest. That oil is best which is made by the process of boiling the olives, when the oil separates and floats on the surface, and is skimmed off by the hands.