44 MEMOIR OP BDRCKHARDT. 



tion. Many of the Damascenes clioose their wives 

 from Baalbec, the women of which are reckoned 

 the handsomest of the neiglibouring country. The 

 surrounding district is well-watered and extremely 

 fertile. The inhabitants fabricate white cotton cloth 

 like that of Zahle, which is used for shirts, and 

 when dyed blue, for kombazes, or gowns worn by 

 the men. They have a few dyeing-houses, and had 

 formerly some tanneries. The property of the peo- 

 ple consists chiefly of cows, of which every house 

 has ten or fifteen, besides goats and sheep. The 

 goats are of a species not common in other parts of 

 Syria, having long ears, large horns, and long hair, 

 but not silky like that of the goats of Anatolia. 

 The breed of Baalbec mules is much esteemed, 

 some of them being reckoned worth £30 or £35 

 sterling. 



The wandering Arabs, who visit the territory in 

 quest of summer pasture, pay tribute to the Emir, 

 at the rate of twelve or fifteen pounds of butter for 

 each tent. In some parts the villagers cultivate 

 tobacco, and rear the silk-worm. At Kanobin, the 

 seat of the patriarch of the Maronites, the convent 

 derives a considerable income from a custom which 

 the peasants practise in winter, of suspending their 

 silk-worms in bags before the portrait of some 

 favourite saint, whose influence they implore for a 

 plenteous harvest of silk, — not forgetting a suitable 

 remuneration to make their prayers more accept- 

 able. 



The territory of Baalbec comprehends on tho 



