October 15th.--My guide returned to Zahle. It was my intention to take a view of the lake and its eastern borders; but a tumour, which threatened to prevent both riding and walking, obliged me to proceed immediately to Damascus. I had reason to congratulate myself on the determination, for if I had staid a day longer, I should have been compelled to await my recovery at some village on the road. Add to this, I had only the value of four shillings left, after paying my guide: this alone, however, should not have prevented me from proceeding, as I knew that two days were sufficient to enable me to gratify my curiosity, and a guide would have thought himself well paid at two shillings a day; as to the other expenses, travelling in the manner of the country people rendered money quite unnecessary.
There are two roads from Banias to Damascus: the one lies through the villages of Koneitza and Sasa; the other is more northly; I took the latter, though the former is most frequented, being the route followed by all the pilgrims from Damascus and Aleppo to Jerusalem; but it is less secure for a small caravan, owing to the incursions of the Arabs. The country which I had visited to the westward is perfectly secure to the stranger: I might have safely travelled it alone unarmed, and without a guide. The route through the district of the Houle and Banias, and from thence to Damascus, on the contrary, is very dangerous: the Arabs as well as the Felahs, are often known to attack unprotected strangers, and
[p.44]a small body of men was stripped at Koneitza during my stay at Banias.
As soon as I declared my wish to return to Damascus, I was advised by several people present to take a guard of armed men with me, but knowing that this was merely a pretext to extort money without at all ensuring my safety, I declined the proposal, and said I should wait for a Kaffle. It fortunately happened that the Sheikh of the village had business at Damascus, and we were glad of each other's company. We set out in the afternoon, accompanied by the Sheikh's servant. The direction of the route is E.b.S. up the mountain of the Heish, behind the castle of Banias. We passed several huts of Felahs, who live here the whole summer, and retire in winter to their villages. They make cheese for the Damascus market. At the end of an hour and a half we came to Ain el Hazouri, a spring, with the tomb of Sheikh Othman el Hazouri just over it; to the north of it one hour are the ruins of a city called Hazouri. The mountain here is overgrown with oaks, but contains good pasturage; I was told that in the Wady Kastebe, near the castle, there are oak trees more than sixty feet high. One hour more brought us to the village of Djoubeta, where we remained during the night at the house of some friends of the Sheikh of Banias. This village belongs to Hasbeya; it is inhabited by about fifty Turkish and ten Greek families; they subsist chiefly by the cultivation of olives, and by the rearing of cattle. I was well treated at the house where we alighted, and also at that of the Sheikh of the village, where I went to drink a cup of coffee. It being Ramadan, we passed the greater part of the night in conversation and smoking; the company grew merry, and knowing that I was curious about ruined places, began to enumerate all the villages and ruins in