240 
■ 
C LARKE S TRAVELS. 
they areMahometans; indeed, they sometimes consider them¬ 
selves equally followers of Mahomet and of Christ. The Dru¬ 
ses, ^oncenmig whom, notwithstanding the detailed account 
published by .Niebuhr* and by VolneyJ we have never receiv¬ 
ed due historical information, worship Jonas, the Prophets, and 
Mahomet. They have also Pagan rites; and some among 
them certainly offer their highest adoration to a calf.J This 
account of their religion we received from a sensible anti well- 
informed member of their own community. The worship of 
the calf is accounted for, in their Egyptian origin ;§ the remains ! 
of superstition, equally ancient, being still retained in that 
country. Although the vicinity of Mount Libanus may be : 
considered as the residence of the main horde of this people,, 
stragglers, and detached parties of them, maybe found in every 
part of the Holy Land. The inhabitants of Sephoury are gene¬ 
rally MaronitesJI yet even here we found some Druses. Those 
of Nazareth are Greeks, Maronites, and Catholics. Cana of 
Galilee is tenanted by Greeks only ; so is the town of Tiberias. 
In Jerusalem there are sects of every denomination, and, per¬ 
haps, of almost every religion upon earth. As to those who 
call themselves Christians, in opposition to the Moslems, we 
found them divided into sects, with whose distinctions we were 
often unacquainted. It is said there are no Lutherans; and if 
we add, that, under the name of Christianity, every degrading 
superstition and profane rite, equally remote from the enlight¬ 
ened tenets of the gospel, and the dignity of human nature, 
are professed and tolerated, we shall afford a true picture of the 
state of society in tins country. The cause may be easily assigned. 
The pure gospel of Christ, every where the herald of civilization 
and of science, is almost asliule known in the Holy Land as ia 
^ Voyage en Arabie, tom. ii. p. 348. Amsterd. 1780. 
f Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. ii. p. 33. Lond. 1787. 
, X The worship of the calf has been doubted, and by some denied; but the existence 
4sf this curious relrque of the ancient mythology of Egypt, as well as of the ■worship 
of Venus, among the inhabitants of Mount Libanus, is now placed beyond dispute. 
Colonel Capper, journeying, over land, from India to Cyprus, in order to join our 
fleet in the Mediterranean, informed the author that he had witnessed the existence 
r£jf the last-mentioned superstition. 
§ See a note in the last chapter, p. 224. 
}i A very curious account of the Maronite Christians, collected from their own his¬ 
torians, is given by De la Roque, (Voyage en Sy'rie et du Mont Liban, Par. 1722.) 
wherein it is stated, that this sect were named from their founder, St M&ren, a Syrian 
hermit, who lived about the beginning of the fifth century, and whose life is written 
Vy Theodoret. His austere mode of living spread his reputation all over the east, 
m. Chrysostom wrote a letter to him from the place of his exile, ( tk Ad Maronem 
'Monachum et Presbyterum Epist. S. Joan. Chrysost.. 36 ”) which letter fixes very 
nearly the time when St. Maron lived, which was about the year of Christ 400. Po- 
cocke says. (Descript, of the East, vol. ii. p. 94 ) that the Maronites are esteemed 
so»re honest than any other sect of Christians in the east. j 
