352 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



immense blocks of stone collected, and in some 

 instances raised, at Baalbec and in this city of the 

 dead ! The legend said that it was destroyed by 

 fire from heaven, and by an earthquake combined ; 

 that its inhabitants had perished ; that it had never 

 been inhabited since. The Ansaries themselves did 

 not care to visit it, but thinking we should like to see 

 it, had guided us to it. I have no doubt excavations 

 would well repay the explorer, that is, if the Ansaries 

 allowed it, which I doubt. We strolled about 

 amidst the ruins several hours, yet did not go half 

 over them, and reluctantly left. We did not find 

 .any relics. After spending five days with our hosts, 

 we returned to Giblie, shooting some florikan on the 

 way. The Ansaries are nominally Mussulmans, but in 

 reality they have a secret religion of their own. 

 What it is exactly is not known to the generality of 

 the people themselves; only their " Moolahs" know 

 its secrets, and it is handed down from father to son, 

 who are the high priests in perpetuity. A French- 

 man declared that he had discovered a portion of the 

 secret, having purloined a sheet of the written laws, 

 and that one object of veneration was the creative 

 powers of man, but more especially those of woman. 

 Giblie itself must have been a place of importance 

 under the Romans, as there is a portion of an 

 immense amphitheatre still remaining. The ancient 

 baths now form the Turkish baths, so common in all 

 towns in Syria and Egypt, and which are such a boon 

 to the traveller. To utilise them there is nothing to 

 pay. If you employ a man to shampoo you, you 

 may or may not as you think fit, make him a present. 

 Our men neither asked for or solicited a douceur, and 



