198 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
tance have the appearance of mud boxes put out on the hills 
to dry. The village of Zuk, which we passed at a distance, 
is prettily situated, but is like all other Syrian villages, a 
wretched abode of men, women, and vermin. We met on the 
road several of those strange beings the Druses, a religious 
sect wearing a costume peculiar to themselves. The head¬ 
dress of the women points upward like an immense horn, 
about two feet long; the men wore an indescribable dress of 
ragged robes, picturesque at first sight, but not to be too 
closely scrutinized. The Druses inhabit the country chiefly 
around Mount Lebanon and the neighborhood, and sprung orig¬ 
inally from the Kamiathians, one of the Mohammedan sects. 
We met also during the afternoon several Pashas and their 
retinues of servants, coming from Damascus and Tripoli, and 
occasionally traveling merchants with their caravans of mer¬ 
chandise, bound to Beirut from Aleppo and other interior 
towns. About four miles beyond the valley of El Keib, we 
came to another beautiful little valley, sheltered by high 
mountains, running down to the sea-shore, where there is a 
small harbor, which our guide informed us was occupied by 
the British forces after the storming of Beirut in 1841. 
Here is situated the village of Juna ; and the mountain sides 
are dotted with small houses and terraced with stone walls to 
a considerable height, the most unpromising patches of tillable 
ground being thus made available. Yusef soon had our tent 
up in the midst of a young orchard of mulberry trees ; and it 
was not long before we had on our table a good supper of 
chicken, rice, preserves, and coffee ; for, in justice to our drag¬ 
oman, I must not omit to mention that he fed us in excellent 
style, and gave us so many luxuries in the way of tables, 
bedsteads, chairs, napkins, and different courses of plate, that 
the poor mules were quite laden down, and we were obliged 
to protest against this effeminate style of living, especially as 
we soon found it to be at the expense of time, an important 
object with us at this season. Contrasted with the sort of 
traveling to which I had been accustomed in California, it 
was ridiculously civilized, and made me feel much less inde¬ 
pendent than when I coursed through the plains of the Ojitas 
