| Transcript |
22 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
ferment and to obstruct the administration of justice. The Turks were determin peak u
up
this European compromise and place an Osmanli pasha over the whole of Lebanon Tl
result was a bloody war, the frightful horrors of Deir el Kamr, Hasbeiya, Rashe: t ,es
371 and 376, vol. i.) and Damascus (see page 415, vol. i.), which forced the intervention of
Europe, and resulted in the new Nizam or Reglement of Lebanon, which guaranty
Christian pasha for the whole mountain under the joint protectorate of the six Europ
Powers. Under the pasha are several kaimakams, generally chosen from the most nume:
sect in the locality. Rustem Pasha is noted for his uncompromising hatred of bribe
n-hancled justice, his efforts for civilising the people, and for road and bridge building in
Southern and Central Lebanon. He promises like improvements in this well-nigh road:
district of Northern Lebanon.
Before ascending eastward to the Cedar amphitheatre, let us cross over the dazzling white
chalk cliffs of Ras esh Shuk'ah to the valley of Nahr el Jozeh and visit th«
IT Museilihah (see sketch map, page 12). The Tripoli coast-road to Beirut cr< this
lofty promontory, called by the Creeks Theou Prosopon (Cape of the Divine Countenan
and down its southern precipitous face on a slippery road, which follows the deep ravin*
by the rains, and which change their course with every winter's storm. At the fool of this
dangerous descent and on the right bank of the Walnut river, " Nahr el Jozeh/' stands on an
isolated mass of cretaceous limestone the ancient " Kulat el Museilihah' e 11). The
name signifies tk The Place of Weapons/' and there is probably no pass in Syria, unless it
Wady el Kurn, on the Damascus road, where more robberies have been commit; The
ile is one of the most picturesque in the Last, rising abruptly on its isolated rock, seemingl)
a part of the rock itself, surrounded by wide-spreading trees and murmuring waters, and
overhung by lofty and precipitous chalk cliffs.
We now cross the Kura Plain eastward to the fine village of Kesba. plunge into the
ravine of the Kadisha, and begin the ascent to Ehden. This village is perched on a lofty spur
of the Jird, nearly five thousand feet above the sea, and commanding one of the subln
landscape views in Lebanon. The magnificent fountain at Mar Sarkis sends a deep, bread, and
crystal stream of almost ice-cold water through and around the village, producing a luxuriant
growth of walnut, fir, mulberry, pine, and oak, with summer vegetables in abundance; wl
maize, and the potato being largely cultivated.
Ehden, or Eden, as it has been called, is the paradise of the Maronite priests, where as in
Bsherreh, Hasrfin, and Kesrawan, they hold undisputed sway; but under the impartial rule
the present pasha, their former theoeratic and despotic civil rule over the people has be
reduced t<> .1 mere religious authority.
I Mir present limits will not allow more than a passing allusion to the history ol the
Maronite sect, now the dominant one in Lebanon. Their name is derived from Mar Mart
hermit who lived in the liukaa, near Xel/a el 'Asy, in the fifth century. His follow
condemned by the Council of Constantinople, a.d. 68l, as holding the monothehte hen
being driven from the cities and towns of Syria, they took refuge in the fastiv |
