Upwards Of
Fifteen Hundred Families Fled To Their Countrymen In The Libanus, Where
They Were Received With Great Hospitality; Upwards Of Two Hundred Purses
Were Collected For Their Relief, And The Djonbelat Assigned To Them
Convenient Dwellings In Different Parts Of The Mountain.
Some of them
retired into the Haouran.
March 21st.--It was with difficulty that I got away from Beteddein. The
Emir seemed to take great pleasure in conversing with me, as we spoke in
Arabic, which made him much freer than he would have been, had he had to
converse through the medium of an interpreter. He wished me to stay a
few days longer, and to go out a hunting with him; but I was anxious to
reach Damascus, and feared that the rain and snow would make the road
over the mountain impassable; in this I was not mistaken, having
afterwards found that if I had tarried a single day longer I should have
been obliged to return along the great road by the way of Beirout. The
Emir sent one of his horsemen to accompany me,
WADY DHOBBYE.
[p.206] and we set out about mid-day. Half an hour from Beteddein is the
village Ain el Maszer [Arabic], with a spring and many large walnut
trees. To the left, on the right bank of the Nahr el Kadhi, higher in
the mountain, are the villages Medjelmoush [Arabic] and Reshmeyia
[Arabic]. At one hour is the village Kefrnebra [Arabic], belonging to
the Yezdeky, under the command of Abou Salma, one of their principal
Sheikhs. The road lies along the mountain, gradually ascending. At one
hour and a quarter are the two villages Upper and Lower Beteloun
[Arabic] One hour and three quarters, the village Barouk [Arabic], and
near it the village Ferideis [Arabic]; these are the chief residence of
the Yezdeky, and the principal villages in the district of Barouk. They
are situated on the wild banks of the torrent Barouk, whose source is
about one hour and a half distant. The Sheikh Beshir has conducted a
branch of it to his new palace at Mokhtar; the torrent falls into the
sea near Saida. From Barouk the road ascends the steep side of the
higher region of the mountain called Djebel Barouk; we were an hour and
a half in ascending; the summit was covered with snow, and a thick fog
rested upon it: and had it not been for the footsteps of a man who had
passed a few hours before us we should not have been able to find our
way. We several times sunk up to our waists in the snow, and on reaching
the top we lost the footsteps, when discovering a small rivulet running
beneath the snow, I took it as our guide, and although the Druse was in
despair, and insisted on returning, I pushed on, and after many falls
reached the plain of the Bekaa, at the end of two hours from the summit;
I suppose the straight road to be not more than an hour and quarter.
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