Above an hour from these tombs we came to another stream, which stopped our march again. These mountain rivers are ordinarily very inconsiderable, but they are apt to swell upon sudden rains, to the destruction of many a passenger, who will be so hardy as to venture unadvisedly over them. We took a more successful care at this place; for, marching about an hour higher up by the side of the stream, we found a place where the waters by dilating were become shallower, and there we got a safe passage to the other side. From hence we bent our course to recover our former road again; but we had not got far before there began a very violent storm of hail, followed by a hard and continued rain, which forced us to make the best of our way to Jebilee, leaving our baggage to follow us at leisure.
Our whole stage this day was about six hours, pointing for the first hour west, and for the remaining part near south, having the sea on the right hand, and a ridge of mountains at about two hours' distance on the left. And in this state our road continued for several days after, without any difference, save only that the mountains at some places approach nearer the sea, at other, retire farther off. These mountains go under different names in several places, as they run along upon the coast, and are inhabited by rude people of several denominations. In that part of them above Jebilee, there dwell a people, called by the Turks Neceres[529], of a very strange and singular character; for it is their principle to adhere to no certain religion, but, chameleon-like, they put on the colour of religion whatever it be, which is reflected upon them from the persons with whom they happen to converse. With Christians they profess themselves Christians; with Turks they are good Mussulmans; with Jews they pass for Jews; being such Proteuses in religion, that nobody was ever able to discover what shape or standard their consciences are really of. All that is certain concerning them is, that they make very much and good wine, and are great drinkers.
March 5.—This whole day we spent at Jebilee, to recruit ourselves after our late fatigues; having the convenience of a new khan to lodge in, built at the north entrance into the city, by Ustan, the present pasha of Tripoli.
Jebilee is seated close by the sea, having a vast and very fruitful plain stretching round about it, on its other sides. It makes a very mean figure at present; though it still retains the distinction of a city, and discovers evident footsteps of a better condition in former times. Its ancient name, from which also it derives its present, was Gabala, under which name it occurs in Strabo, and other old geographers. In the time of the Greek emperors, it was dignified with a bishop's see, in which sometimes sat Severian the grand adversary and arch-conspirator against St. Chrysostom.
The most remarkable things that appear here at this day are a mosque, and an almshouse just by it, both built by sultan Ibrahim. In the former his body is deposited, and we were admitted to see his tomb, though held by the Turks in great veneration. We found it only a great wooden chest, erected over his grave, and covered with a carpet of painted calico, extending on all sides down to the ground. It was also tricked up with a great many long ropes of wooden beads hanging upon it, and somewhat resembling the furniture of a button-maker's shop. This is the usual way the Turks adorn the tombs of their holy men, as I have seen in several other instances; the long strings of beads passing in this country for marks of great devotion and gravity. In this mosque we saw several large incense pots, candlesticks for altars, and other church furniture, being the spoils of Christian churches at the taking of Cyprus. Close by the mosque is a very beautiful bagnio, and a small grove of orange-trees, under the shade of which travellers are wont to pitch their tents in the summer-time.
The Turks that were our conductors into the mosque, entertained us with a long story of this sultan Ibrahim who lies there interred; especially touching his mortification, and renouncing the world. They reported that, having divested himself of his royalty, he retired hither, and lived twenty years in a grotto by the sea-side, dedicating himself wholly to poverty and devotion; and, in order to confirm the truth of their relation, they pretended to carry us to the very cell where he abode. Being come to the place, we found there a multitude of sepulchres hewn into the rocks by the sea-side, according to the ancient manner of burying in this country. And amongst these they showed one, which they averred to be the very place in which the devout sultan exercised his twenty years' discipline; and, to add a little probability to the story, they showed, at a small distance, another grotto twice as large as any of its fellows, and uncovered at the top, which had three niches or praying places hewn in its south side. This they would have to be sultan Ibrahim's oratory; it being the manner of the Turks always to make such niches in their mosques and other places of devotion, to denote the southern quarter of the world; for that way the Musselmans are obliged to set their faces when they pray, in reverence to the tomb of their prophet. These niches are always formed exactly resembling those usually made for statues, both in their size, fabric, and every circumstance. I have sometimes reflected for what reason the Turks should appoint such marks to direct their faces toward in prayer. And if I may be allowed to conjecture, I believe they did it at first in testimony of their iconoclastic principle, and to express to them both the reality of the divine presence there, and at the same time also its invisibility. The relators of this story of sultan Ibrahim were doubtless fully persuaded of the truth of it themselves. But we could not tell what conjectures to make of it, having never met with any account of such a sultan, but only from this rude tradition.
From these Mahomedan sanctuaries, our guide pretended to carry us to a Christian church, about two furlongs out of the town on the south side. When we came to it, we found it nothing but a small grotto in a rock, by the sea-shore, open on the side towards the sea; and having a rude pile of stones erected in it for an altar. In our return from this poor chapel, we met with the person who was the curate of it. He told us that himself and some few other Christians of the Greek communion were wont to assemble in this humble cell for divine service, not being permitted to have any place of worship within the town.
Jebilee seems to have had anciently some convenience for shipping. There is still to be seen a ridge composed of huge square stones running a little way into the sea, which appears to have been formerly continued farther on, and to have made a mole. Near this place we saw a great many pillars of granite, some by the water-side, others tumbled into the water. There were others in a garden close by, together with capitals of white marble finely carved, which testify in some measure the ancient splendour of this city.
But the most considerable antiquity in Jebilee, and the greatest monument of its former eminence, is the remains of a noble theatre just at the north gate of the city. It passes amongst the Turks for an old castle, which (according to the Asiatic way of enlarging) they report to have been of so prodigious a height, when in its perfect state, that a horseman might have rode, about sun-rising, a full hour in the shade of it.
As for what remains of this mighty Babel, it is no more than twenty feet high. The flat side of it has been blown up with gunpowder by the Turks. And from hence (as they related) was taken a great quantity of marble, which we saw used in adorning their bagnio and mosque before mentioned. All of it that is now standing is the semicircle. It extends from corner to corner just a hundred yards. In this semicircular part is a range of seventeen round windows just above the ground, and between the windows all round were raised, on high pedestals, large massy pillars, standing as buttresses against the wall, both for the strength and ornament of the fabric; but these supporters are at present most of them broken down.