SYRIA, OR EGYPTIAN ASIA. 



919 



numbered the kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea, of Jerusalem, and Samaria, the warlike 

 states of the Philistines, and the commercial republics of Phoenicia. This Syria, said I, now 

 almost unpeopled, could then count a hundred powerful cities, its fields were covered with 

 towns, villages, and hamlets. Everywhere appeared cultivated fields, thronged roads, crowded 

 habitations. What, alas ! is become of these days of abundance and of life What of so 

 many brilliant creations of the hand of man ? Where are the ramparts of Nineveh, the walls 

 of Babylon, the palaces of Persepolis, the temples of Baalbec and Jerusalem ? Where are 

 he fleets of Tyre, the docks of Arad, the looms of Sidon, and the multitude of sailors, pilots, 

 merchants, and soldiers Where are those laborers, those harvests, those flocks, and that crowd 

 of living beings which then covered the face of the earth ? Alas ! I have surveyed this ravaged 

 land, I have visited the places which were the theatre of so much splendor, and have seen only 

 solitude and desertion. 1 have sought the ancient nations and their works, but I have seen only a 

 trace, like that which the foot of the passenger leaves on the dust. The temples are crumbled 

 down, the palaces are overthrown ; the ports are filled up ; the cities are destroyed, and the 

 earth, stripped of its inhabitants, is only a desolate place of tombs." 



7. Inhabitants. The population is composed of as various elements as that of Asiatic Tur- 

 key. Ottoman Turks and Greeks 

 are the principal inhabitants of the 

 cities ; Arabs and T\ircomans are 

 numerous ; in the mountainous re- 

 gions there are several peculiar 

 tribes, the Druses, the Ismaeli- 

 ans, and the Nosairians, of rude 

 manners, and warlike and predato- 

 ry habits. The Ismaelians have 

 become celebrated under the name 

 of Assassins, and their prince was 

 known in the Middle Ages under 

 the name of the Old Man of the 

 Mountains ; from his mountain 

 fastness he sent his fierce hashis- 

 him or warriors forth upon expe- 

 ditions of robbery and murder, 

 whence the origin of the word as- 

 sassin. The Druses occupy the 

 more northern heights of Lebanon; 

 they are a fierce race, and they 



show the same boundless hospitality and the same deadly feuds as the Arabs. They have 

 maintained their independence, and with it a spirit of energy and a vigor of character rarely 

 found among the Syrian tiibes. The aflairs of the nation are settled in an assembly of the 

 sheiks or hereditary chiefs, but the body of the people also take part in these meetings. 

 Their religious creed is a sort of ftlahometanism, and owes its origin to Hakim, one of the 

 Fatinute caliphs, who preached a reform in the 10th century, and laid aside many of the pe- 

 culiarities of that faith. They pray indiscriminately in a mosque or a church, and seem to re- 

 gard Christianity with less aversion than Mahometanism. 



8. Religion. The tribes last mentioned have adopted peculiar forms of Mahometanism, 

 and in some instances, mixed it with other rites, and are looked upon as heretics by their 

 brethren- The Motoualis are another heretical sect of Mahometans. The Maronites, a peo- 

 ple of mountaineers near Tripoli, are Roman Catholic Christians. The other inhabitants are 

 of the same religious sects as. those of Asiatic Turkey. Reman and Greek Catholic, Coptic, 

 Armenian, and other monks are found in Jerusalem, each occupying a chapel in the spots most 

 remarkable for their sanctity. 



9. Antiquities. Some of the remains of past ages have been already alluded to, but they 

 are too numerous to be enumerated here. Among the most remarkable spots. Palmyra, or 

 Tadmor in the desert, presents an imposing spectacle in rising from the sands of the desert. 

 It looks like a forest of columns. The great avenue of pillars leading to the temple of the 

 sun, and terminated by a grand arch, is 1,200 yards in length. The temple itself is a 

 nK!:;nincp;it ohject. Tlie cily is a vast cnllccticn of ruins, all of white marble, antl it is hard to 



Woman of Jilcppo. Turk. .Arabian Woman. 



