EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 407 
with a young man, a Drufe, who informed me, that near 
Balbec, two or three years ago, in digging, the body of a man 
was found, interred in a kind of vault, having a piece of un- 
ftamped gold in his mouth ; near him was a number of leaden 
plates, marked with chara£ters to them unknown ; they were 
fold and melted. In another place was difcovered a fmall ftatue, 
very perfedt, but I could not learn where it had been depofited. 
Zahhle is a large town, chiefly, if not folely inhabited by 
Chriftians ; it fends forth feven hundred men fit for war. The 
town is divided into five diftrids, each having its feparate 
Shech, who pays tribute to the Emir of the Drufes ; they com- 
plain of oppreflion ; and the ftate of the place, and the adjacent 
country, fhews that their complaints are not void of founda- 
tion. The town is fheltered by mountains, but the locufts are 
very deftrudive. Tobacco is one of the chief articles of cul- 
tivation. A rivulet rolling from the rocks turns the mills and 
waters the grounds j air falubrious and never tainted with ex- 
ceflive heat. 
Near Zahhle faw what is called the tomh of Noah^ a long 
ftrudure, feemingly part of an aquedufl:. It extends about 
fixty feet, the ftature of Noah according to Oriental tradition. 
The pilgrims who came formerly to worfhip in the mofque near 
it were very numerous ; and the religious revenue is faid to 
amount to three hundred purfes annually. 
Among the mountains the people have an air of health not 
obfervable in the cities. Magic is ftill credited, and feveral are 
accufed before the bifhop for incantations, producing love or 
enmity. 
