I received, on the 9th of August, a letter from the village of Joon, requesting my attendance on Syt Frosiny Kerasáty, the lady of Damietta, of whom mention has already been made, when speaking of that city. I went on the following day, and found that this lady, having lain in of a boy, in Egypt, had thought it prudent to embark for Syria, there to bring up the child. Syt Frosiny’s husband was by birth a Damascene; and there is a common belief that the offspring of Syrians, born in Egypt, if left there, never arrive at puberty. This was certainly verified in the case of Mâlem Kerasáty’s family; for she had already borne him three children, which had died in infancy. When pregnant with this last, her husband had become paralytic, and she had no hope, if this one did not survive, of bearing him another. Accompanied, therefore, by her mother, who was blind, she embarked for Sayda, and had arrived a few days before at the village of Joon, in the house of Mâlem Jusef Sewayeh, whose father Mâlem Kerasáty had once served as clerk.
I was fearful of sleeping away from the convent, and returned to dinner. Whilst dining at my cottage, the peasants came to inform me that the gang of robbers had been seen passing the village. As it was now dark, I recommended to them great vigilance, and, retiring to Mar Elias, went to bed. Not very long afterwards, the man on the roof of the chapel saw a person coming up a footpath at the back of the convent. He hailed him; and, as he received no answer, fired. It was not known until the day after that this was a poor pedlar, travelling towards the mountain, totally ignorant why he was fired at, and not aware that any one could possibly want an answer from him.
Thus did this alarm continue night after night for a fortnight; but no banditti ever attacked us: still I could not absent myself for twenty-four hours together, since Miss Williams, unacquainted with the language, necessarily felt much inquietude when I was away. One night, I was awakened suddenly by the old Drûze woman, Um Riskh, who entered my chamber, and begged me, for God’s sake, to get up. The robbers immediately came into my mind; I seized the brace of pistols, which I kept constantly at my bedside, and followed her into the court. I opened the great door. “There he is!” she said. I looked, expecting to see a man; but, to my astonishment, found that her agitation had been caused by her having seen, from her window, her favourite pack-horse cast, by having entangled his legs and neck in his halter, so as nearly to have strangled himself. The rope was immediately cut, and the kedýsh saved; but, as we had made some bustle, I hastened in doors, and found Miss Williams and the black slave trembling and expecting every moment to see some huge, ferocious ruffian enter to cut their throats. By degrees, the report of robbers lost ground, and at last died away entirely. On the 10th of August, I went again to Joon, to see the Syt Frosiny, who had caught an ague. Another lady was added to the inmates of Joon Place, by the arrival of Yusef Sewáyeh’s wife, married from a family well known to English travellers as occupying a house in Damascus, which is shown as one of the best in the city. But the contrast between the manners and dress of these two ladies was much in favour of the Damiettan. Frosiny was in person somewhat small, but well made, with an engaging smile ever on her countenance, a playful wit, and with features that everybody pronounced charming. Syt Sewáyeh was stout even to fatness, heavy in conversation, formal, bedecked from her head to her fingers’ ends with jewels and precious stones. But what seemed most unbecoming to her was the form of the turban, which is worn by the women of Damascus of a prodigious size.
I was now revelling in all the abundance of the fruits growing in the gardens of Sayda. The autumn was always to me the most delightful season of the year; and, but for the musquitoes, would have left little to desire as far as the enjoyment of the senses goes. Having now so much leisure time on my hands, I delineated several fish which were brought to me fresh from the nets; but, such was the heat of the weather, that they often smelt before I could finish the drawing.[99]
About this time, Sulymán Pasha sent off Hassan Aga as bearer of some very rich presents to Mohammed Ali, pasha of Egypt. This is the mode of keeping up a friendly intercourse between potentates in the East. In the same way, he was accustomed to send annually to Muly Ismael a caravan of camels, loaded with rice, preserved dates, raisins, figs, and such other articles of consumption as were with difficulty, or at an increased price, to be had in Hamah and its neighbourhood.
M. Beaudin, Lady Hester’s dragoman, arrived also on the same day, with news that her ladyship was on her return by sea. Fearful of the continued heats of the season, she determined to pass a few weeks higher up in the mountain, and had requested the Shaykh Beshýr to assign her a village as her residence. Rûm was fixed on, and on the 20th I rode up to see if there was a house fit for her reception. Rûm is a village of about forty families, Metoualis and Christians, occupying the peaked summit of a conical mountain, about three miles south-west of Meshmûshy. The road to it is most difficult, by a path where it is necessary to clamber up rather than walk. Having inadvertently quitted the path, I lost my way, and wandered about among the rocks for some time, being obliged to dismount and lead my horse. The place was in sight and over my head, but I still had much difficulty in getting to it.
On my arrival, I addressed myself to the shaykh for whom I had a letter and a buyurdy, and whom I found to be a most venerable old Drûze, cousin of the shaykh Beshýr, and consequently a man of importance. He received me with much civility. He had a son, named Habýb, a most beautiful boy seven years old, who attached himself to me the moment that we met. The shaykh’s name was Kelayb. As it was just breakfast time, (noon) I sat down with him to four dishes, viz., melinjáns[100] boiled and beat up with oil, eggs fried in oil, melinjáns sliced, fried in oil, with some sour cream cheese. Custom had now reconciled me to such a repast as this.
The houses of Rûm were of stone, but with mud floors, as elsewhere on the mountain. The chief produce of the village was tobacco, which was considered as the best in the district of Aklym el Tufáh, that being the name of the district. Charcoal was likewise made from the stunted oaks, arbutuses, turpentine trees, and underwood, in which the mountain hereabouts abounded, and was an article of trade between the village and Sayda.
I took three cottages for Lady Hester, desiring that the one belonging to Joseph the Ironmonger (Yusef el Hadád) should be fitted up for her. For these three the rent was fixed at thirty-eight piasters for the season, and I paid eight more to a cottager, who was to admit Yusef el Hadád as a lodger in the interim. The houses were all built on the east side of the summit, to avoid the cold.
I returned in the evening, and on the following day sent up Miss Williams and Hanyfy, the black slave, under the care of a servant, to put the cottages in order. It was my custom to go almost weekly to the public hot bath at Sayda. On entering the sudatory from the tiring-room, the bathman would always ask me “Do you use dewa to-day?” I knew very well that he meant “Do you depilate to-day?” As I constantly said no, he suggested to me that a want of cleanliness in this respect would not be excusable in a pauper if a Mahometan, and, although I was a Christian, he was sure I should be more comfortable for adopting the custom. As I knew how much importance was attached to such matters, I did not like to persist in my refusal, and, on the 22d of September, for the first time I depilated. The preparation with which this is done is a mixture of orpiment and quick lime, smeared on for three or four minutes, or sometimes for a less time, whilst the body is in a state of perspiration. As I was unused to the application, I kept it on too long, and inflamed my skin most severely, so as to be incommoded with the heat and redness for nearly a week. This application does not prevent the return of hair where removed: it merely corrodes or burns it off for a couple of months.