52 MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 



has been increased since the invasion of the French 

 in 1800; and the most unpardonable insult which 

 one Druse can offer to another is to say to him, — 

 Allah yeUhesak haneila^ " May God put a hat on 

 you !" They are licentious and vindictive, but hos- 

 pitable to strangers and faithful to their promise. 

 They seldom have more than one wife, but the 

 obligation of the matrimonial tie is very slight, 

 judging from the ease with which divorces are 

 accomplished. It is a custom among them, that if 

 the woman asks her husband's permission to go 

 out, and he says " Go," without adding " and come 

 back," she is thereby divorced ; nor can her hus- 

 band recover her, even though it should be their 

 mutual wish, until she is married again according 

 to the Turkish forms, and divorced from her second 

 husband. 



Being now anxious to reach Damascus before the 

 rain and snow rendered the journey over the moun- 

 tains impracticable, Burckhardt took leave of the 

 Emir, and arrived at the city on the 22d of March. 

 His stay here was prolonged for nearly a month, in 

 consequence of an unexpected change in the govern- 

 ment by the dismissal of Soliman Pasha. Having 

 determined, before finally leaving Syria, to visit the 

 Haouran once more, in order to examine those parts 

 which he had not been able to see during his first 

 tour to that country, and particularly to explore 

 the ruins of Djerash (Gerasa) and of Ammon 

 (Philadelphia)^ in the ancient Decapolis, he set out 

 on his journey as soon as the state of the Pashalik 



