204 THE HOLY LAND. 
V 
cii^P. they relate numberless contradictory fables; 
and some of these stories have found their way 
into books of travels : but their history, as it 
was said before, remains to be developed. It 
seems probable, that, long before El DurzV 
established among his followers those opinions 
which at present characterize the majority of 
the Druses, the people, as a distinct race, 
inhabited the country where they now live. 
The worship of Fenus (in whose magnificent 
temple at Bi/blus in Phcenicia the rites of 
Adonis were celebrated) still existing in their 
country ^ ; and the extraordinary fact of the pre- 
servation of an antient Egyptian superstition, in 
the honours paid to a calf, in M.om\i Lib anus^ , 
by those Druses who assume the name of 
Okkais'^; are circumstances which refer to a 
(1) See Egynont and Hcymans Travels, vol. I. j). 293. Lond. 1759. 
Also a former note, p. 90. 
(2) See Note (l), p. 136, of this volume. 
(3) " And fashioned it wth a graving tool, after he had made it a molten 
Calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel." Exod. xxxii. 4.* 
(4) " From this we may conclude, with reason, that the Druses have 
no religion : yet one class of them must be excepted, whose religious 
customs are very peculiar. Those who compose it, are, to the rest of the 
nation, what the initiated were to the profane ; they assume the name 
of Okkah, which means spiritualists, and bestow on the XTilgar the epithet 
of Djahel, or ignorant: they have various degrees of initiation, the 
highest orders of which require celibacy." Volney's Trav. vol. II. p. 59' 
* A curious representation of one of these Figures, rudely formed, and covered with 
inscriptions, was communicated to Dr. Henley, by the late Cardinal BORGIA, from the 
oiiginal in his Museum. 
