€LAKKS"S TRAVELS 
glers of bur party into a large plantation of lime and lemon 
trees, we were regaled by the Arabs with all their country 
afforded. Having spread mats for us beneath the shade vrhich 
the trees afforded, they came and seated themselves among us, 
gazing, with very natural surprise, at their strange guests. 
Some of these Arabs were Druses. In the countries which 
border the seat of their government, they are much esteemed 
for their great probity, and a mildness of disposition, which, 
in Syria, is proverbially attributed to the members of their 
community. It is said, they will neither eat nor drink, except 
^f the food which they have obtained by their own labour, or, 
as the Arabs literally expressed it, “ by the sweat of their 
brow.” From the conversation we had with them, they seemed 
to be entirely ignorant of their origin. When strangers ques¬ 
tion them upon this subject, they relate numberless contradic¬ 
tory fables; and some of these 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 ElBursi* 
established among his followers those opinions which at pre¬ 
sent characterize the majority of the Druses, the people, as a 
distinct race, inhabited the country where they now live. The 
worship of Yenus(in whose magnificent temple at Byblus in 
Phoenicia the rites of Adonis were celebrated) still existing in 
that country;! and the extraordinary fact of the preservation 
of an ancient Egyption superstition, in the honours paid to a 
calf, in Mount Libanus,j; by those Druses who assume the 
name of okkals ;§ are documents which refer to a more an¬ 
cient period in history than the schism of the Arabs after the 
death of Mahomet. || To that mildness of character, which is 
so characteristic of the Druses, may be attributed both the 
mixture caused among them by individuals of different nations, 
who have sought refuge in their territory, and the readiness 
& See Bgmont and Heyman’s Travels, vol. L p. 293. Load. .1759. 
f See note, p. 246. of this volume. 
4 “ And fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and 
Cbeysaid, These be thy gods, O Israel.” Exod. xxxii. 4.(1) 
§ “ From this we may conclude, with reason, that the Druzes have no religion : 
yet one class df them must be.excepted, whose religious customs are very peculiar. 
T.hpse who ccysnpose it, are, to the rest of the nation, what the initiated were to the' 
profane; they assume the name of okkals , which means spiritualists, and bestow on 
the vulgar the epithet of djahel , or ignorant; they have various degrees of initiations 
the highest orders of which require celibacy.” Yolney’s Trav, vol. ii. p. 59. 
II See the account given by Volney, vol. ii. sect. 3. p. 33. 
(!) A curious representation of one of these figures, rudely formed, and covered 
with inscriptions, was communicated to Dr. Hessley, by the iatre Cardinal Bowtt, 
CrqmAfcfc «rigiaal in his museum. 
