Travels in Syria and the Holy Land Part 22

The Bedouins eat locusts, which are collected in great quant.i.ties in the beginning of April, when the s.e.xes cohabit, and they are easily caught; after having been roasted a little upon the iron plate [Arabic], on which bread is baked, they are dried in the sun, and then put into large sacks, with the mixture of a little salt. They are never served up as a dish, but every one takes a handful of them when hungry. The peasants of Syria do not eat locusts, nor have I myself ever had an opportunity of tasting them: there are a few poor Fellahs in the Haouran, however, who sometimes pressed by hunger, make a meal of them; but they break off the head and take out the entrails before they dry them in the sun. The Bedouins swallow them entire. The natural enemy of the locust is the bird Semermar [Arabic]; which is of the size of a swallow, and devours vast numbers of them; it is even said that the locusts take flight at the cry of the bird. But if the whole feathered tribe of the districts visited by locusts were to unite their efforts, it would avail little, so immense are the numbers of these dreadful insects.

At eight hours and three quarters from Aaere, and at a short distance to the right, is the village Obta [Arabic]; our route N.W. by N. Nine hours and a quarter, we saw, at one hour to the left, the village El Kherbe [Arabic]. Nine hours and three quarters, Shemskein [Arabic], one of the princ.i.p.al villages in the Haouran. As we had rode at a very brisk pace, the above distance of nine hours and three quarters may be computed at nearly twelve hours of the common travelling. Shemskein, a village containing upwards of one hundred families, is situated on the Hadj road, on the side of Wady

[p.240]Hareir [Arabic], over which a solid bridge has been built on one side of the village: this Wady comes from the north-east at four or six hours distance, and flows south-west. It is one of the largest torrents of Haouran, and was at this moment full of water, while most of the other Wadys were nearly dried up. The Sheikh of Shemskein has the t.i.tle of Sheikh el Haouran, and holds the first rank among the village Sheikhs of the country. In the time of Hadj he collects from the Haouran and Djolan about fifteen hundred camels, and accompanies them to Mekka. His income is considerable, as the peasants of the different villages of the Haouran, when engaged in disputes with neighbouring villagers, or with their Sheikhs, generally apply in the first instance to his tribunal.

We alighted at the Sheikh's house, in the court-yard of which we found almost the whole population of the village a.s.sembled: there had been a nuptial feast in the village, and the Nowars or gypsies, were playing music. These Nowar [Arabic], who are called Korbatt [Arabic] at Aleppo, are dispersed over the whole of Syria; they are divided into two princ.i.p.al bodies, viz. the Damascenes, whose district extends as far as Ha.s.sia, on the Aleppo road; and the Aleppines, who occupy the country to the north of that line. They never dare go beyond the limits which they have allotted to each other by mutual consent; both bodies have an Aga, who pays to the Grand Signior about five hundred piastres per annum, and collects the tribute from his subjects, which in the Damascus territory amounts annually to twenty piastres a head for every full grown male.

April 30th.--As I wished to visit from Shemskein the Mezareib, and to ascend from thence the mountains of Adjeloun, I set out in the company of an old acquaintance of Aleppo, a Janissary, who had entered into the service of the Pasha of Damascus, and was now stationed at Mezareib.

Following the Hadj road, in a S.S.E. direction, in an hour and a quarter from Shemskein we crossed the

EL MEZAREIB.

[p.241]Wady Aar [Arabic], coming from the east. Half an hour to the left of the road is Daal [Arabic], a considerable village; and between Daal and Mezareib, but more to the eastward, lies the village of Draa [Arabic], the ancient Edrei. Two hours, Tefas [Arabic], with a well built mosque.

At the end of three hours, we arrived at El Mezareib [Arabic], El Mezareib is the first castle on the Hadj road from Damascus, and was built by the great Sultan Selym, three hundred and eight years ago. It is the usual residence of the Aga of the Haouran; but that office is now vacant, the late Aga having been deposed, and no one has yet been appointed to succeed him. The garrison of the castle consisted of a dozen Moggrebyns, whose chief, a young black, was extremely civil to me.

The castle is of a square form, each side being, as well as I can recollect, about one hundred and twenty paces in length. The entrance is through an iron gate, which is regularly shut after sunset. The interior presents nothing but an empty yard enclosed by the castle wall, within which are ranges of warehouses, where the provisions for the Hadj are deposited; their flat roofs form a platform behind the parapet of the castle wall, where sixteen or eighteen mud huts have been built on the top of the warehouses, as habitations for the peasants who cultivate the neighbouring grounds. On the east side two miserable guns are planted.

Within the castle is a small mosque. There are no houses, beyond its precincts. Close by it, on the N. and E. sides, are a great number of springs, whose waters collect, at a short distance, into a large pond or lake, of nearly half an hour in circ.u.mference, in the midst of which is an island. On an elevated spot at the extremity of a promontory, advancing into the lake, stands a chapel, around which are many ruins of ancient buildings. The water of the lake is as clear as crystal, neither weeds

[p.242]nor gra.s.s growing in it; its depth in the middle is much more than the heighth of a man; the bottom is sand, and gravel of the black Haouran stone. It abounds with fish, particularly carp, and a species called Emshatt [Arabic]. In summer time, after the harvests of the Haouran have been gathered in, when the Aeneze approach the more populous parts of the country, the borders of the lake are crowded every evening with thousands of camels, belonging to these Arabs, who prefer filling their water skins here, as they say that the water keeps better than any other. The water of the springs is slightly tepid, and nearly of the same temperature as that of the springs near Kalaat el Medyk, in the valley of the Orontes. According to the Arabs the springs emit a copious steam in the winter mornings. An ancient mill stands near one of them, with a few broken stones around it; but it does not appear that any village or city of note stood here, though the quant.i.ty of water seems inviting to settlers. The springs as well as the lake are known by the name of El Budje [Arabic].

The pilgrim caravan to Mekka collects at the Mezareib, where the Pasha, or Emir el Hadj, remains encamped for ten days, in order to collect the stragglers, and to pay to the different Arab tribes the accustomed tribute for the pa.s.sage of the caravan through the desert. The warehouses of the castle are annually well stocked with wheat, barley, biscuit, rice, tobacco, tent and horse equipage, camel saddles, ropes, ammunition, &c. each of which has its particular warehouse. These stores are exclusively for the Pasha's suite, and for the army which accompanies the Hadj; and are chiefly consumed on their return. It is only in cases of great abundance, and by particular favour, that the Pasha permits any articles to be sold to the pilgrims. At every station, as far as Medina, is a castle, but generally smaller than this, filled with similar stores.

[p.243]The Haouran alone is required to deliver every year into the store houses of the Mezareib, two thousand Gharara of barley, or about twenty or twenty-five thousand cwt. English. The town of Damascus has been fed for the last three months with the biscuit stored in the Mezareib for the Hadj.

As far as the Pasha was concerned, the affairs of the great Caravan were generally well managed; but there still reigned a great want of economy, and the expenses of the Hadjis increased every year. Of late years, the hire of a single camel from Damascus to Mekka has been seven hundred and fifty piastres; as much, and often more, was to be paid on coming back; and the expenses on the road, and at Mekka, amounted at least to one thousand piastres, so that in the most humble way, the journey could not be performed at less than two thousand five hundred piastres, or 125.

sterling. A camel with a litter cost fifteen hundred in going, and as much in coming back. Of the whole caravan not above one-tenth part were real pilgrims, the rest consisted of soldiers, the servants of soldiers, people attached to the Pasha's suite, merchants, pedlars, camel-drivers, coffee and pipe waiters, a swarm of Bedouins, together with several tents of public women from Damascus, who were so far encouraged, that, whenever they were unable to obtain from their lovers the daily food for their horses or mules, they obtained a supply from the Pasha's stores.

The greater part of the pilgrims usually contract for the journey with one of the great undertakers, or Mekouam [Arabic], as they are called; this agreement is only for a beast of transport and for water; as to eating, the pilgrims generally mess together at their own expense, in bodies of about half a dozen. The Mekouam, on agreeing to furnish a beast of burthen, are bound to replace whatever may die on the road, and are therefore obliged to carry with them at least one unloaded camel for every loaded one. It is a general

[p.244]practice with the Mekouam to obtain as large sums as possible on account from the pilgrims who engage with them for the journey; they generally agree among each other upon the sum to be demanded, as well as the moment at which it is to be called for: so that if the pilgrims resist the imposition, the Hadj sometimes remains encamped on the same spot for several days, the Mekouam all refusing to proceed, and feeing the Pasha for his connivance at their injustice. On their return to Damascus, if they have already extorted from the pilgrims in the course of the journey more than the amount of their contract, as often happens, they generally declare themselves to be bankrupts, and then the value of a few camels is all that remains to pay their debts to the pilgrims.

Those pilgrims who do not engage with the Mekouam, as is generally the case with those who come from Armenia and the borders of the Black sea, perform the journey somewhat cheaper upon their own beasts; but they are ill-treated on the road by the Mekouam, are obliged to march the last in the caravan, to encamp on the worst ground, to fill their water skins the last, and are often even avanized by the Pasha. It is difficult to conceive the wretched condition of the greater part of the Hadjis, and the bad conduct of the troops and Arabs. Thieving and robbery have become general among them, and it is more the want of sleep from fear of being plundered, which causes the death of so many pilgrims, than the fatigues of the journey. The Pasha's troops, particularly those called Howara, which bring up the rear of the caravan, are frequently known to kill the stragglers during the night, in order to strip them of their property. The Pasha, it is true, often punishes such delinquents, and scarcely a day pa.s.ses without some one being empaled alive; the caravan moves on, and the malefactor is left to be devoured by the birds of prey. The Bedouins are particularly dexterous in pilfering; at night they sometimes a.s.sume the

[p.245]dress of the Pasha's infantry, and thus introduce themselves unnoticed amongst the camels of the rich Hadjis, when they throw the sleeping owner from his mule or camel, and in the confusion occasioned by the cries of the fallen rider, drive off the beast.

The caravan marches daily from a.s.ser, or about three hours after mid- day, during the whole of the night, and till the followingmorning, when the tents are pitched. It never stops but during prayers. The Arabs of Sokhne, Tedmor, and Haouran, together with the Bedouins who let out their camels, precede or follow the caravan at the distance of one day's march. They transport the provisions for the Pasha's troops, of which they steal, and publicly sell at least two-thirds. They march during the day, and encamp in the evening. Their caravan is called El Selma [Arabic]. It pa.s.ses the great caravan once every two or three days, and then encamps till the latter comes up, when they supply the Pasha's suite with provisions. The cheapest mode of performing the pilgrimage is to agree for a camel with one of those Arabs; but the fatigue is much greater in following the Selma.

The last year in which the Hadj quitted Damascus, the pilgrims reached the gates of Medina, but they were not permitted to enter the town, nor to proceed to Mekka; and after an unsuccessful negotiation of seven days, they were obliged to return to Damascus. About two hundred Persian Hadjis only, who were with the caravan, were allowed to pa.s.s on paying a large sum of money. Ibn Saoud, the Wahabi chief, had one interview with Abdullah Pasha, accompanied by the whole of his retinue, at Djebel Arafat, near Mekka; they exchanged presents, and parted as friends.

Of the seven different pilgrim caravans which unite at Mekka, two only bear the Mahmal, the Egyptian and Syrian; the latter is the first in rank.

We left Mezareib towards the evening, and were obliged to proceed

EL TORRA.

[p. 246]alone along the Hadj route, the fear of the Aeneze rendering every one unwilling to accompany us. In a quarter of an hour we came to a bridge over the Wady Mezareib, called Djissr Kherreyan [Arabic]; to the left, near the road, is the ruined village Kherbet el Ghazale [Arabic], where the Hadj sometimes encamps. It often happens that the caravan does not encamp upon the usual spots, owing to a wish either to accelerate or to prolong the journey. Past the Akabe, near the head of the Red Sea, beyond which the bones of dead camels are the only guides of the pilgrim through the waste of sand, the caravan often loses its way, and overshoots the day's station; in such cases the water-skins are sometimes exhausted, and many pilgrims perish through fatigue and thirst.

At one hour from the Mezareib, following the river that issues from the small lake, are several mills: from thence, south-west, begins the district called Ollad Erbed [Arabic]. Half an hour to the right, at some distance from the road, is the village Tel el Shehab [Arabic]; forty minutes, Wady Om El Dhan [Arabic], coming from the eastward, with a bridge over it, built by Djezzar Pasha. In winter this generally proves a very difficult pa.s.sage to the Hadj, on account of the swampy ground, and the peasants of the adjacent villages are, in consequence, obliged to cover the road with a thick layer of straw. At one hour to the right of the road is the village El Torra [Arabic], on the top of a low chain of hills, forming a circle, through the centre of which lies the road.

Here, as in so many other parts of the Haouran, I saw the most luxuriant wild herbage, through which my horse with difficulty made his way.

Artificial meadows can hardly be finer than these desert fields: and it is this which renders the Haouran so favourite an abode of the Bedouins.

The peasants of Syria are ignorant of the advantages of feeding their cattle with hay; they suffer the superfluous gra.s.s to wither away, and in summer and winter feed them on cut straw. In one

REMTHA.

[p. 247]hour and a quarter we pa.s.sed Wady Torra; our road lying S.S.E.

One hour and three quarters, we came to Wady Shelale [Arabic], a torrent descending from the southern hills, and flowing in a deep bed, along which the road continues for some time. In two hours and three quarters quick walking, we came to Remtha [Arabic], a station of the Hadj; which encamps near two Birkets or reservoirs formed in the bed of the Wady by means of three high walls built across it. A large tribe of Aeneze were watering their cattle as we pa.s.sed. The surrounding country is hilly: the village is built upon the summits of several hills, and contains about one hundred families. In its neighbourhood are a number of wells of fresh water. We met with a very indifferent reception at the Sheikh's house, for the inhabitants of the villages on the Hadj route exceed all others in fanatism: an old man was particularly severe in his animadversions on Kafers treading the sacred earth which leads to the Kaabe, and the youngsters echoed his insulting language. I found means, however, to show the old man a penknife which I carried in my pocket, and made him a present of it, before he could ask it of me; we then became as great friends as we had been enemies, and his behaviour induced a like change in the others towards me. A penknife worth two s.h.i.+llings overcomes the fanatism of a peasant; increase the present and it will have equal effect upon a townsman; make it a considerable sum, and the Mufti himself will wave all religious scruples. Remtha is the last inhabited village on this side of the Haoun: the greater part of its houses are built against the caverns, with which this calcareous country abounds; so that the rock forms the back of the house, while the other sides are enclosed by a semicircular mud wall whose extremities touch the rock.

May 1st.--From Remtha I wished to cross the mountains directly to Djerash, which, I had reason to believe, was not more than seven

WADY WARRAN.

[p.248]or eight hours distant. It was with difficulty that I found a guide, because I refused to be answerable for the value of the man's horse and gun, in case we should be plundered by Arab robbers. A sum of twelve piastres, however, at last tempted one of the Fellahs, and we rode off late in the morning, our road lying toward the southern mountains, in a direction S. by W. Remtha is on the boundary line of the Haouran; which to the south-eastward runs by Om el Djemal and Szamma, two ruined towns. The district bordering upon the Haouran in this part is called Ezzoueit [Arabic], and stretches across the mountain nearly as far as Djerash. To the E. of Remtha runs a chain of low hills, called Ezzemle [Arabic], extending towards the S.E. nearly to Kalaat Mefrek, a ruined castle situated on the eastern extremity of Djebel Zoueit. At one hour and a quarter, brisk walking of our horses, we saw to the right, or west, about one hour distant, the ruins of a town called Eszereikh [Arabic], at the foot of Djebel Beni Obeyd. From thence the village of Hossn bore W. by S. The Kalaat el Mefrek, or, as the Arabs call it, El Ferka, lay in a S.E. direction, distant about three hours. About one hour and a half distant, in a S.W. direction, is the ruined village of Remeith [Arabic], with several large columns lying on the ground. At two hours and a half from Remtha we pa.s.sed a Tel, with the ruined village Dehama [Arabic], on its top; near the foot-way lay several broken shafts of columns. At three hours, on reaching the Wady Warran [Arabic], our route began to ascend. The Wady, which descends from the mountain Zoueit, was at this time dry. Three hours and a quarter brought us to three fine Doric columns lying on the ground. We met several Arabs, but they did not venture to attack three men armed with musquets, and gave us a friendly Salam Aleyk.u.m. We now ascended the mountain, which is calcareous with flint, in following the windings of the Wady. Wild pistachio trees abound;

SOUF.

[p.249]higher up oaks become more frequent, and the forest thickens; near the top, which we reached in five hours and a quarter from Remtha, are some remains of the foundations of ancient buildings. The Djebel Kafkafa [Arabic], as this summit is called, commands a beautiful view over the plain of Djerash and the neighbouring mountains of Zerka and Belka. The ruins of Djerash, which were distinctly seen, and the highest points of Djebel Belka behind them, bore S.S.W.; the highest points of Djebel Zerka S. The district of Zoueit terminates at Djebel Kafkafa; and the country called El Moerad [Arabic], lying S.W. and W. commences: to the S. the Zoueit runs parallel with the Moerad as far as Wady Zerka.

On gaining Djebel Kafkafa, our guide discovered that he had gone astray, for it was not our intention, on setting out, to make directly for Djerash, but to rest for the night in the village of Souf, and from thence to visit the ruins on the following morning. We therefore turned more to the westward on quitting the Djebel, and fell in with the road, which continued through a thick wood, till we saw Souf, an hour and a half distant before us, bearing W.S.W. At the end of seven hours and a quarter from Remtha, we reached the spring of Souf, and allayed our thirst, for we had been without water the whole day; there being very few springs in the Djebel Zoueit; though it abounds in luxuriant pasture, and is full of hares and partridges. In seven hours and a half we reached the village of Souf [Arabic], where I alighted, at the house of the Sheikh El Dendel, an honest and hospitable man.

Souf is situated on the declivity of the mountain, on the western side of a Wady called El Deir, the stream of which, called also El Kerouan [Arabic], is supplied from three copious springs that issue from under a rock near the village, at a short distance from each

[p.250]other. They bear the names of Ain el Faouar [Arabic], Ain el Meghaseb [Arabic], and Ain el Keykabe [Arabic], and with their united waters the narrow plain of Djerash is irrigated. Souf is a village with about forty families, whose princ.i.p.al riches are some olive plantations on the sides of Wady Deir: it is the chief village in the country called Moerad [Arabic], in which the following are also situated: Ettekitte [Arabic], one hour distant from Djerash, and abandoned last year; Bourma [Arabic]; Hamtha [Arabic]; Djezaze [Arabic]; and Debein [Arabic]. It is customary in these mountains for every house to manufacture gunpowder as well for its own consumption, as for sale to the neighbouring Arabs. In every house which I entered I saw a large mortar, which was continually in motion, even when a fire was kindled in the midst of the room: the powder is formed of one part of sulphur, five and a half parts of saltpetre, and one part of the charcoal of the poplar tree [Arabic]; it is not very good, but serves very well the purposes of this people.

I pa.s.sed a most unpleasant night here. It is the custom, for the sake of saving lamp-oil, to light every evening a large fire, for the supply of which, there is plenty of dry wood in the neighbouring mountain. The room where I lodged was thus soon filled with smoke, which had no other issue than a small door, and even this was shut to keep out the cattle.

The peasants seemed to delight in the heat thus occasioned; they took off all their clothes except the Abba, and sat smoaking and laughing till midnight; I wished to imitate them, but did not dare to strip, for fear of shewing the leathern girdle containing my money, which I wore under my clothes. Towards the morning the fire went out, and the company was asleep: I then opened the door to let the smoke out, and slept a few hours under the influence of the morning breeze.

[p.251]There is an ancient ruined square building at Souf, with several broken columns. From one of them I copied the following inscription, written in very small characters:

[Greek].

Upon a pillar near it is a fine inscription, but now quite illegible.

At the spring of Ayn Keykebe, which is covered by a small arched building, I copied some characters from a broken stone lying in the water; the following were the ending of the inscription:

[Greek].

Near the sources are numerous caverns, in which the poor families of Souf reside.

May 2d.--Being impatient to reach Djerash, I left Souf early in the morning, taking with me a guide, who was afterwards to have conducted me towards Szalt, in the Djebel Belka. Our road lay along the mountain on the west side of Wady Deir. On the E. side of the wady, half an hour from Souf, is the ruined place called Kherbet Mekbela [Arabic]. Three quarters of an hour from Souf, in our road, and just over the ruined city of Djerash, are the ruins called Kherbet el Deir, with a Turkish chapel named Mezar Abou Beker. Our road lay S.S.E. In one hour we pa.s.sed, n the declivity of the mountain, descending towards Djerash, a place which I supposed to have been the burying place of

DJERASH.

[p.252]Djerash. I counted upwards of fifty sarcophagi, and there were many more; they are formed of the calcareous stone with which the Zoueit and Moerad mountains are composed. Some of them are sunk to a level with the surface of the ground, which is very rocky; others appear to have been removed from their original position. The largest was ten spans in length, and three and a half in breadth; but the greater part are much smaller, and are not even large enough to contain the corpse of a full grown person. On the sides of a few of them are sculptured ornaments in bas-relief, as festoons, genii, &c. but in a mutilated state, and not remarkable for beauty of execution; I saw only one that was elegantly wrought. The whole of these sarcophagi had flat covers, a few of which still remain. Upon one of the largest of the sarcophagi, and which is one of those first met with in going from Souf, is a long inscription, but so mutilated as to be almost wholly illegible. In the neighbourhood are several heaps of large square stones, the remains of some building.

In an hour and a half from Souf we reached the city walls of Djerash, or Kerash, [Arabic], the Dj being the Bedouin p.r.o.nunciation of the letter [Arabic], which in the language of the city corresponds with our K.

Djerash was built upon an elevated plain in the mountains of Moerad, on uneven ground, on both sides of Wady Deir, which, besides the name of Kerouan [Arabic], bears also that of Seil Djerash [Arabic], or the river of Djerash. This river empties itself, at a short distance from the town, into the Wady Zerka [Arabic], probably the Jabock of the ancients.

The princ.i.p.al part of the city stands on the right bank of the river, where the surface is more level than on the opposite side, although the right bank is steeper than the other. The present ruins prove the magnitude and importance of the ancient city; and the modern name leads to the belief that it was the ancient Gerasa, one of the princ.i.p.al