i*0 MEMOIR OF BURCKITARDT. 



of Ibrahim Halebi, on the religious law? of the 

 Turks/ 



Incessant rains and the turbulent state of the 

 country prevented Burckhardt from undertaking an 

 excursion, which he had long projected, into the 

 desert towards the Euphrates. On the 14th of 

 February, 1812, he left Aleppo, to make another 

 journey to Damascus, through the valley of the 

 Orontes and Mount Lebanon, taking the route of 

 Hamah, and thence crossing to Tripoli, which he 

 reached on the 3d of March. The Arabs along the 

 Orontes rear large herds of buffaloes, which are of 

 small size but very spirited. This animal, it ap- 

 pears, is no favourite with the Turks, amongst 

 whom there is a common saying and a belief that 

 the whole brute creation was converted by their 

 Prophet to the true faith, except the wild boar and 

 buffalo ; and on this account both animals are often 

 called Christians! As the flesh of the buffalo is 

 much esteemed by the Turks, it seems difficult to 

 account for this antipathy; Burckhardt suggests, 

 as the only reason he could learn, that, like the hog, 

 it has a habit of rolling in the mud, and of plunging 

 into the marshy ponds, in the summer time, up to 

 the very nose, which alone remains visible above 

 the surface. 



The city of Tripoli, called Torebolis by the Arabs, 

 is built on the declivity of the lowest hills of the 

 Libanus. Many parts of the town bear marks of 

 the ages of the crusades, amongst which are several 

 high arcades of Gothic architecture, under which 



