I had established a fixed plan of encampment, with regular distances assigned for each tent, which was adhered to every night; but here the tents were brought closer than usual. I was not at ease in my bed, and, awaking M. Beaudin, the interpreter, he and myself patrolled the ground alternately through the night. The moon shone bright, and the scene wore a lonely appearance. Fortunately we had to deal with a woman whose composure of mind was never ruffled by real danger, and whose sleep was never broken by the apprehension of false.
The Letanus passed very near the Tel, from which circumstance it is evident that the slope of Anti-Lebanon extends across two-thirds of the plain. At this season of the year, and in this spot, a man might leap over the river. Higher up, one day’s journey west of Bâlbec, there is, according to Abulfeda, (p. 155) a pool or lake, reedy and stagnant, where this river takes its source, and the bed of the stream had many reeds in it where we saw it.
On the 24th we crossed it, and at noon reached Bâlbec. The luxuriant scenery which the imagination readily lent to the city and ruins as seen at a distance, intermixed with the deep green foliage of trees, vanished on a nearer approach. The gardens near the ruins were no more than orchards, sown, in the intervals between the trees, with maize, turnips, and other vegetables: nor did the Temple of the Sun impress us with all its grandeur until close to it. The inequalities of the soil in a manner buried the ruins, and their magnificence, at the first glance, seemed, like that of Palmyra, to be less than, on a farther examination, it proved to be.
CHAPTER II.
Residence at Bâlbec—Visit to the governor, the Emir Jahjáh—Wretchedness of Bâlbec—Bath Scene—Encampment of Lady Hester at Ras el Ayn—Sepulchral caverns—Greek bishop of Bâlbec—Catholic priest—Climate—Departure from Bâlbec—Ayn Ayty—Hurricane—Bsharry—Mineral springs—Dress of women—Village of Ehden, conjectured by some to be the site of Paradise—Resort of native Christians—Arrival of Selim, son of Mâlem Musa Koblan, of Hamah—The Cedars of Lebanon—Maronite monastery of Mar Antaniûs—Lady Hester enters it in spite of the monks—Arrival at Tripoli.
We encamped under the south-west angle of the temple, in an open field, through which ran the rivulet that traverses the town; but, considering that the water we thus drank was no better than the washings of the houses, and fearing also, from the concourse of women and children who were constantly surrounding our encampment, that the plague might be introduced among us, it was resolved to remove to a spot of ground near the spring where the rivulet takes its rise, called Ras el Ayn, the fountain head, about a mile from the town to the south-east. Here, in the ruins of an old mosque, her ladyship’s tent was screened from the wind; for tempests were now expected; whilst the rest of the party encamped in the open fields.
The day after our arrival I paid a visit to the governor, Emir Jahjáh, of the family of Harfûsh, whose exactions from travellers passing through this place have been recorded by more than one sufferer. He was a needy prince, who ruled, indeed, the district, but was surrounded by too many chieftains as powerful as himself ever to feel secure. For, on the one hand, the Pasha of Damascus, to whom he was tributary, was said to take annually from him sixty purses: on the other, the Emir of the Drûzes, towards the west, was watching, upon every occasion, to make encroachments upon him; and the Emir of Derny, a neighbouring district of Mount Lebanon, was his enemy whenever it served his turn to be so. Jahjáh had been on one occasion displaced by his brother, the Emir Sultan, backed by the Pasha of Damascus: but he afterwards restored the usurped province to Jahjáh, and they were now living in amicable relations with each other.
I found the emir in a house with little appearance of splendour about it. The room in which he received me had no more than four whitewashed walls, with a mud floor covered with a common rush mat. What his harým was I had no opportunity of judging: but the harým of one of his relations, to which I went to see a maid servant who was ill of a tertian ague, was very much of a piece with this. His brother, Emir Sultan, to whom I next paid a visit, seemed somewhat better lodged: for his sofa was covered with yellow satin, with a cushion of the same stuff to lean on, but his guests were obliged to sit on the floor on a common mat. An earthenware jug to drink out of, a towel to wipe his face and hands, a pipe and tobacco-bag, a sword, a pair of pistols, and a gun—these formed the furniture of his, as they do that of the rooms of many other chieftains in the East.
I dined with Emir Sultan, a compliment from him which I did not expect, as the rules of the Metoualy religion prohibit eating and drinking from vessels defiled by Christians. Wanting to drink during the repast, I called for some water, which to the other guests was handed in a silver cup. To me it was given in an earthenware jug: and, when we had risen from table, this jug was broken by the servant close by the door of the room, that no one of the house might make use of it afterwards. I felt my choler rise at this unjust distinction made between man and man, but I pretended not to observe it. Why it was done in sight of us all I do not know, unless it were to remove the imputation which might lie at his door if it could be surmised that an impure drinking-cup still remained in his house.
Twice, when I was on a morning visit to Emir Sultan, the butcher came, weighed his meat at the door of the room, and minced it in the window-seat before him, in order, as I guessed, to avoid all suspicion of poison, the constant dread of eastern potentates, or else to fulfil to the letter some precept of his religion touching meats.