Meat is at present sold for thirty-six paras the rotal, or four-pence sterling the pound Avoirdupois. A quantity of bread, sufficient for a meal for four persons, might be purchased for a para. It is very white and good, and remarked to be best when the Janizary Aga, who has a censorial power over the bakers, is not in the city. Grapes, of the finest flavour, the rotal three or four paras. Fish, from the river, is to be had at a moderate price, but not remarkably good. Milk, cheese, and butter, very cheap. Wild-fowl abounds on Mount Libanus, and partridges, in the season, are sold for five paras the brace. Tame fowls for four or five paras each, pigeons, a pair for the same sum.
The air or water of Damascus, or both, are supposed to operate powerfully against that loathsome disease the leprosy (borras). The inquiries I had occasion to make tended to prove, that if the disease were not too far advanced, it was always stopped in its progress, while the patient remained there.
The whole expense of the sacred caravan from Damascus to Mecca used formerly to amount to four thousand five hundred purses, and an increase has since taken place. The Pasha carries with him, exclusively of this, one thousand purses for his own use. Jezzâr was accustomed to take two thousand for the purpose of buying coffee, which he resold to vast advantage. The 4500 purses are deducted from the imperial treasury (chosné), and the Pasha is rendered accountable for the safety of the caravan. He receives the Senjiak Sherîfî, or Ensign of the Prophet, from the governor of the castle, giving an acknowlegement in writing, before witnesses, in which he solemnly pledges himself to bring it back. Similar forms are observed on restoring it to its place. As soon as the Pasha arrives near the city on his return, a messenger is dispatched to Constantinople, who is obliged to perform the journey in twenty-five days. He carries water from the famous well Zem-zem, near Mecca, and some dates from Mediné, which are presented to the Emperor on his visit to the mosque. After this, the Wizîr presents a list of the Pashas for the ensuing year; the Sultan reads it, and if he object to any name, affixes to it a mark, after which the firmâns are made out in due form.
CHAP. XXVI.
Journey from Damascus to Balbec — Syriac language — Balbec — Recent discoveries — Zahhlé — Printing-office — Houses of Damascus — Return to Aleppo.
On Thursday the sixteenth of August 1797, set out from Damascus for Balbec or Heliopolis, attended only by the owner of the mule I rode on. Arrived at the convent of Seidnaia, which commands a fair view of the city of Damascus, and the plain. Vines and fig-trees adorn the country through which I travelled. The wine has less flavour and body than that of Kasrawân, but is esteemed more grateful to the stomach.
From Seidnaia I proceeded to Malûla, a village situated in the mountain, where is a convent, said to be of the time of Justinian. Thence went to Yebrûd, the antient Jabruda, a place higher up the mountain, in a romantic situation; the inhabitants are chiefly Mohammedans. I met there a Greek bishop, who was going to a place near Balbec, an intelligent and curious man. We proceeded in company till we came to Balbec.
Soon after arrived at Mara, a small town on the North of the road. It is remarked that at this town and at Malûla alone the Syriac still continues to be a living language; descending from father to son, without the use of books. Two of the muleteers I observed to converse together more willingly in that language, than in the Arabic, which in sound it nearly resembles.
On the 19th passed under Dahr-el-chûr, supposed to be the highest summit of the Anti-Libanian chain of mountains. The following day having set out four and a half hours before day-break, the muleteers lost the road, and we were obliged to wait for sunrise, chilled with the intense cold of these high mountains, which we felt severely in our hands and feet. Arrived at Balbec about noon the same day, after descending for nearly three hours through a ravine, or deep glen in the mountain, a rugged and, in some places, a steep road.