The oil was pressed out in the following manner. The olives, collected as we have above described, were thrown into a cylindrical hole, called the tanûr, where the olives were completely smashed; certain iron crosses were turned round rapidly by means of a waterwheel, whilst a man, seated by the tanûr, with his hand dexterously introduced between two arms of the cross, was continually employed in drawing out the pounded olives. So prepared, this paste was put into the hollow of a straw bowl, roughly braided into shape, until fifteen or twenty bowls were filled. There was prepared a trunk of a tree (for the whole apparatus is rough,) hollowed out like a tube, whose bore was exactly the size of the straw bowls, but whose circumference was incomplete, so much being left as was necessary for a lever to pass up and down. One end of the lever had a piston, whilst the other was fixed, and to the intermediate part a vast stone was suspended. The piston end being unpinned, and let down on the pile of straw bowls, these were compressed, and the oil oozing out, was received into the cistern below. Thus, in twenty-four hours, a hundred weight of oil may be obtained.
Nor did the fig harvest cause less bustle. Figs were gathered in the morning, and laid to dry in the sun on stalks of shumar and fekua, plants like tansy. Each parcel required to be exposed five or six days, and was then heaped into the general lump on the terrace, on the house-top, where they were accumulated until the whole crop had been dried. The women then boiled zata (pennyroyal), shûmar (tansy), and gaut or gat, and dipped the figs in the decoction, after which they were again exposed to the sun; and, when dry, were put into jars of sunburnt clay, where they were kept for use.
In some journeys, which I made backward and forward from Meshmûshy to Abra, I had an opportunity of observing more attentively the valleys through which I passed, and the soil of the country. From Abra to Salhiah the road is level, the soil white and unproductive. Salhiah had fifty houses, and a parish priest, who is also a weaver. Three steep hills bring you to Ayn el Hager, opposite to which is the village of Keffergerra, upon a hill. After a level of a mile you reach Libbâ, when the road descends with considerable steepness into a valley, where is a trickling rivulet, and a fountain with a basin for cattle to drink out of. By a very steep ascent you come to Kefferfelûs, a village of twenty-five houses, standing in the midst of a grove of olive and fig-trees. From the left of the road you look down into a deep valley, descending into which the colour of the soil changes from white to red. Ascending through a low wood, by a path peculiarly difficult, you come to Isfaryn, a hamlet of thirty houses without water. Here much tobacco is grown, of a very superior quality, and greatly sought after at Acre, Sayda, and Beyrout.
The road winds round to the left, through a wood of arbutus, turpentine-trees, shumac, stunted oaks, &c., when, on a sudden, it comes directly on the edge of a precipice, down which, to a considerable depth beneath, you look on the river Ewely, here rushing over a rocky bed in noisy and foaming cascades. Across the valley, on the opposite mountain, are seen, in addition to the natural scenery, the three large white convents, Dayr Mkhallas, Dayr el Benát, and Dayr Saida, distant a mile or two from each other. Of Dayr Mkhallas some mention has been made. Dayr el Benát is a convent for women, of which there are two more on Mount Lebanon. The nuns are generally taken from the lowest classes. They lead a laborious life, and, when not busied in their sacred duties, are employed in spinning, weaving, trimming vines, and the most menial occupations.
The road takes a direction, on a descent, to a level with the river. Half way down is Iktály, a hamlet perched on a projecting rock. To the left of it is Musrat el Tahûn, also a hamlet. Here, upon three or four different occasions tempted by the beauty of the view, we pitched our tents, until it was discovered that the miller, who owned the spot, had made a clandestine use of Lady Hester’s name to obtain favours from the Pasha of Acre, when she abandoned him. The rocks hereabout, which are black and bare, look as if they had just emerged from the deluge.
The scenery, which succeeds to Musrat el Tahûn, is beautiful, when, quitting the mountain, you traverse the vale of Bisra. The village on the side of the vale is a striking feature in it, being built in ascending terraces, which diminish as they rise, and are crowned by a church. About half way through the vale there is a path by which the mountain whereon Meshmûshy stands is to be ascended. Few places, which are at all accessible to beasts of burden, can be more rugged and steep than this. About half-way up begins a forest of firs, which bear cones or apples, from which excellent kernels are extracted, and much used in pastry and confectionary. They are called, in Arabic, snobar. For the first quarter of an hour the appearance of the mountain is so wild that one scarcely believes it possible to find habitations higher up. You are however agreeably undeceived, when, quitting the forest of firs, you come upon a small hamlet beset with vineyards, tobacco fields, fig and walnut-trees. You now see above you the monastery with its steeple, and your ears perhaps are saluted with the tolling of a bell, always a pleasing sound among rocks and woods. One quarter of an hour more brings you to a second flat, where stands the monastery: and some friars were generally seen basking in the sun, and, for a moment, forgetting their listless habits to stare at the passing traveller, whose business they often unceremoniously inquired into, as necessarily connected with nobody but themselves in this retired spot. A level path through highly cultivated mulberry grounds, and occasionally under large shady walnut-trees, leads to the hamlet of Meshmûshy; where, close by the fountain, stood the house we lived in, so deeply shaded by plane and walnut-trees that the weary pedlar or tired peasant was invited to rest his limbs and to drink of the refreshing stream.
END OF VOL. II.
Frederick Shoberl, Junior, Printer to His Royal Highness Prince Albert, 51, Rupert Street, Haymarket, London.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Abulfeda’s description of it runs thus:—“The river, which flows to Damascus, takes its rise beneath a Christian church, called El Faÿgeh, and becomes at once a rivulet, which is increased in its course by many other small springs. It then unites with a stream, called the Barada, and forms one river, which, at its entrance into the plain of Damascus, divides itself into six or seven branches running to the different quarters of the town.” At this division there is a cascade, and an inscription on the rock in Cufic characters, which Mr. Burckhardt told me he had copied.