76

ASCENT OF BAROUK.

chosen a lovely resting-place at the head of a beautiful valley. Between the two villages of Feridies or Fridesk and Barrouk, passing the two villages of Rilla Barouk and Barouk,-the one Christian and the other Druse,-we commenced the ascent of the pass of Barouk. Burckhardt had passed it in March, and makes a remark we may repeat, that it is dreadful and covered with snow.

We were one hour and a quarter on the ascent. Naturally steep, the half frozen stream rendered it a work of desperation. The mountain, magnificently awful in its sterility, rose above us; mists of spectral aspect stalked noiselessly about athwart the snow-athwart the rocks, as if they had their homes in its solitary glens. The whole scene was grandly sublime, barrenly magnificent. "Oh, Lebanon where is thy thistle now, where thy cedar? -Why did thy father beget thee?"* But at last we surmounted the steep, and putting the baggage to rights, crossed the snow-drifts.

It was pretty to see where the roaring torrents of the hills and the fertilising stream of the valleys

*

2 Kings, xiv. 9. See the Visnu Purana, Bhogavat Purana, and others. There the Lebanon is said to be the son of Haviosta, cousin of Casius Anti-Lebanus, &c.

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were born; how gently at first, ushered by the warm rays of the sun, they parted out of the bosom of the snow bank; anon how joyously they flung themselves from crag to rock, till joined by others, young and fresh as themselves, they disdained restraint and roared down towards the plains. Meanwhile, the poor mother exhausted by the labour, melts away her snowy bosom, dries, and, her offspring gone, dies out. The snow lay in every gulley, and following the track of a man. who had luckily gone before us, we passed—not, however, without many falls and bruises-and arrived at the further side. The plain of the Bekaa or Colo-Syria lay before us, and sending the baggage on, we lighted our pipes and made kief, while our eyes feasted on the view.

At our feet was the Bekaa, tinted to every shade; here red from the plough, there whitening with advancing harvest, there green with fresh pastures; the Anti-Libanus rose before us, with Mount Hermon towering up. To the north the plain stretched away beyond the ken; while,

*Kief: this word it is quite impossible to translate: it means repose, perfect, thorough and complete.

78

ARRIVAL AT JEB JENIN.

south, blue mountains, faint from distance, closed in the view. The descent was easy, taking an hour or so; and then a smart gallop over the plain brought us to the Liettiani, a pretty, though lazy stream, the ancient Leontes, which takes its rise a few miles north-east of Baalbec, and flows into the sea, a large river north of Tyre, which we crossed by a long, badly-built, worse-kept bridge; from thence a quarter of an hour brought us to Jeb Jenin, one of the principal villages of the Bekaa.

The keen evening air drove us from our tent, and we gladly sat over a fire, in a house prepared for us. Burckhardt divides this plain into two districts, the Bekaa and Belbech; but doubt may be entertained if they are not two names for the same place. Bekaa means, in in the Hebrew, mulberry, which constitutes one of the principal sources of its wealth. The natives frequently call the northern portions also Bekaa. Its principal

inhabitants are Mussulmans, with some few Greek Christians. It is, however, scarcely half in cultivation. This arises from the indolence of the Mussulmans, who are sedentary Arabs; the oppression to the Christians; the enormous rents

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levied by the holders of the property which, belonging principally to the Sultan, is farmed out

to inhabitants of Damascus; and, worse than all, particularly in the northern districts, the incursions of the Metualis, who are a restless, lawless people.

It is disputed whether this is the ancient ColoSyria, some ancient geographers giving that name to the country east of the Anti-Lebanon, commonly known as the Haoran, while some give the name to more northern plains.

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AN INTIMATE COMPANION.

CHAPTER VI.

Zea-Some Account of him-Prejudice of Jews against Dogs-Hills around the Anti-Lebanon-Pharpar and Abana-The Keblah— What are its Points-Mahomet and his Commentators-First View of Damascus-Four Paradises of Persian Poets-Damascus one of them-Arrival at Damascus-Certain social Changes in the City— Multitude of Dogs—Their Persecution—Take Refuge in the Hotel de Palmyra.

APRIL 5TH.-Job Jenin to Damascus, thirteen hours. The morning was keen; went off early, and, leaving the baggage, pushed on at a fast walk. Zea chose our company in preference to that of the more slothful baggage.

It would be but a poor tribute to his worth to pass over this companion of many wanderings, without a more lengthened description. He was one of the most intelligent of his species, and more travelled than any. Originally a gift from an Albanian chief, he was the perfection of a Grecian greyhound. Well-built, tall, and strong, of a perfect white, of great speed, bottom and pluck, he kept up with my horses for many