Page images
PDF
EPUB

surround it, clothing the whole slopes of the mountains, and the wild glens that furrow their sides; and now, in riding through them, we were astonished at their great fruitfulness. The plain below is rich and abundantly watered. The people are not deserving of such a splendid country, for they are justly celebrated for their pride and their insolence. They are as ignorant a set of priestridden bigots as ever polluted a country, and no stranger can pass through their streets without meeting insult, and often abuse. The whole place is now swarming with monks and friars of every colour, and it is literally crowded with churches, convents, and ecclesiastical establishments. The Jesuits are building immense structures, and the whole people are ruled by the priesthood. Of the nature and effects of their government I could relate many a strange and thrilling tale, which would prove to the world that, where the Christians possess power in this land, they are as tyrannical, as unjust, and almost as bloodthirsty, as the haughty Muslems.

We mounted again at 1-40, and proceeded up the steep mountain-side, along the right bank of the wild ravine. The view from this place is truly sublime. From a commanding peak, 40 minutes above the village, I took some important bearings to connect this side of the plain with several points in Antilibanus. Here a spur, like a side ridge, projects considerably into the Bukâa from Sunnîn, and is partly separated from the main chain by a rugged wady running parallel to the mountains. We soon afterwards crossed this wady, and stopped for ten minutes at a khan on its western bank. Starting again, and toiling up the steep and rough zigzag path, we reached the summit at 3.40, which is the watershed between the Bukâa and

the Mediterranean. The scene which now burst suddenly upon our view was one of unusual grandeur. On our left rose up the lofty summit of Jebel Kuneiyîseh, and on our right the snow-capped Sunnîn rose higher still. Before us was a glen, wide, deep, and wild, running away westward, between beetling cliffs and rugged peaks, like a gash in the mountain-side, until it opened up a view of the far-distant sea. Near us were huge rounded masses of dark-red sandstone, while the sharp peaks of the white limestone here and there towered over them-the two strata seemed struggling for the mastery. From the porous sandstone fountains gush forth at intervals, encompassed by thick shrubberies of the rhododendron, intermixed with the bracken.

The head of this glen, called Wady Tarshîsh, was upon our right, extending up toward Sunnîn, and we consequently turned more to the northward and wound round it by a steep, and in some places even dangerous path. We then turned down along its right bank, following the indented line of the steep ridge. At 3.40 we reached a ravine like a great fissure in the rock, and having heard of a celebrated cave here situated, called Hûwet Tarshîsh, we dismounted to examine it. After clambering down the precipice, we came to the entrance of a cavern, not of great depth, but apparently running far into the mountain-side. From this we crept through a natural tunnel in the rock, and found another cave of great depth and extent. It was impossible to enter, as the sides are smooth and perpendicular, but we threw down large stones, and heard them bounding from ledge to ledge, until at last, in the far distance, they plunged into water

with a sullen noise like the roar of thunder. Passing round the side of this fearful pit, we reached another fissure in the lofty precipice, and saw before us a little glen of singular wildness and beauty. It is encompassed by lofty walls of naked rock, the strata of which are horizontal, and resemble the layers of stones in some Cyclopean structure. The different strata being of different degrees of hardness, regular mouldings and string-courses, like those of Gothic architecture, run round the sides. The whole floor was covered with the rich green foliage of the tobacco-plant.

We resumed our journey at five o'clock, and after an hour and a quarter's ride along the brow of the wild Wady Tarshish we reached a little house called Dukkân Merj el-Hauwar, tenanted by a solitary old man, who gains a scanty livelihood by selling a few simple necessaries to travellers and muleteers. Here we encamped for the night. It was a wild and solitary spot, far removed from human habitation. In the gloom of night the mountains around seemed loftier and the glens more profound, while the rocks and precipices rose up on each side in dark and threatening masses.

July 30th.-At half-past five we were again in the saddle, and all trace of our encampment had gone, save the trampled turf where the horses had been picketed, and the smoking ashes on the rude hearth. We rode over a rocky eminence, and descended by a winding path among huge limestone crags to the little hamlet of Merûj. The name is descriptive of the locality, for the limestone here gives way to the sandstone, and green meadows surround the village, shaded by noble oaks and tall pine-trees with

their umbrella-like tops. It stands on the summit of a ridge whose sides slope down on the right and left, almost precipitously, into romantic glens. That on the north is Wady Biskinta, containing a tributary of the Nahr elKelb, and the other is Wady Tarshîsh, still running on in its course to the river of Beyrout. Continuing along the summit of the ridge, we came at seven o'clock to the head of a ravine descending on the right to the glen below. On its left side, clinging to the steep bank, was the village of Shuweir, far below our path, while over it, on the very brow of a projecting cliff, stands the fine convent of St. Elias. For half an hour more we followed the same path through forests of pines, and then reached a spot where the road branches-one path turning southward along the summit of the ridge, which here also branches, and leading to Brummana, Beit Miry, and Deir elKulah-all of which were in view: the other branch turns to the right and descends the slope diagonally to Bukfeiya. From this point we commanded a glorious view of the Wady Salîma, the continuation of Wady Tarshîsh, and part of the Metn beyond it. Almost the whole of this region is thickly wooded, the lofty sandstone ridges with the pine, and the limestone peaks with the oak and wild pear, while the terraced slopes and profound glens below are clothed with the mulberry and the vine. On the opposite side of the wady the village Salîma stands on the rugged slope, and in its centre rise up the grey walls of the large ruinous palace, once the residence of the mountain princes.

We turned to the right, and after descending for 35 minutes along a road like a winding staircase in ruins we

[ocr errors]

reached Bukfeiya. This is one of the most picturesque villages in Libanus. The houses are not huddled together like those of Antilibanus or the plains, but are scattered about with pleasing irregularity amid gardens of mulberrytrees and blooming orchards. Lofty frowning cliffs, to whose rugged sides the dwarf oak clings, shoot up behind it, and, below, the mountain-side descends, now in terraced slopes covered with the richest foliage, and now in sheer precipices of naked rock, to the profound glen of the Nahr el-Kelb. As we rode through the village the palace of the Emîr Hyder, the present ruler of Lebanon, was on our right, surrounded by well-kept gardens, while the light verandahs of the house of his secretary rose over the plantations on our left. The view to the north and west is almost inconceivably grand. There is the wild ravine of the ancient Lycus, shut in by frowning cliffs, and the varied hills and peaks above are crowned with castle-like convents, and their sides dotted with picturesque villages. Away below, the ravine opens between naked white precipices on the Mediterranean, and the coast-line, with its bold promontories and graceful-curving bays, extends northward far as the eye can see; while on the south it is shut in, at the distance of a few miles, by the long, low neck of land on which stand the white buildings of Beyrout, contrasting well with the deep-blue sea in front, and the rich foliage of the orchards behind.

We sat long, gazing on this gorgeous scene, beneath the spreading boughs of a giant oak-tree. Vines laden with their tempting fruit hung in festoons overhead, and fig-trees covered the terraces around. Breakfast was spread on the rock beside us, and what with the morning

« PreviousContinue »