merously peopled. The eastern chain, or Anti-Lebanon, is separated from it by the plain of El-Bekaa, fertile but treeless, along which flows the ancient Leontes; and as it approaches Damascus, this chain is itself divided into two ridges, within the forks of which lies the Wady et-Teim. The highest mountain of the western chain is Jebel Sunnin, about twenty miles east of Beyrout; and the highest of the eastern, Jebel esh-Sheikh, about the same distance west of Damascus. The two mountains are a little more than this distance from each other. Jebel esh-Sheikh, which is to the south, and somewhat higher than any part of the opposite range, is the Hermon of Scripture, and the monarch mountain of Syria, crowned through every month of the year with a diadem of snow. It is more than ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, and was seen by Doctor Wilson in the afternoon of the day on which he left Jerusalem. The poets tell us that there are all seasons at once on this grand old Alp, "Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, The eastern ridge runs towards the west, forming the southern boundary of El-Bekaa, broken at one place into a deep chasm, through which the Leontes dashes on its way to the sea near Tyre. Nearly the whole of Lebanon is composed of limestone. The lower hills are cultivated to the tops, and on their slopes the spreading vine tells of the grape and gladness; the stunted mulberry, of silk and luxury; and the gnarled olive, of fatness and the stern duties of home. The hedges are formed of the cactus, bristling with a thousand thorns. It seems to have been given to man for this very purpose; and woe to the animal, whether biped or quadruped, that dares to attempt a passage through the formidable barrier it presents! The gardens produce esculents of all kinds, from the pine-apple to the potato; among the wild products of the field are some of the most beautiful of the flowers we cultivate with so much care at home; the orchards yield every variety of the finest fruits of Europe; and in the higher regions there are forests of oak for provender and fuel, of fir for timber, and of juniper for the production of pitch. In these more elevated demesnes are found the wolf, the hyena, and the panther. On the slopes of the hills, where there is no great breadth of earth, terraces are formed of large stones, built up with great labor, and presenting much ingenuity in their construction. Look upward, and you are startled at the sight of what appear like the fragments of the steps of mighty pyramids, that have been shivered by the earthquake, and thrown into every manner of fantastic form. Mount to the summit of that crag, and look down if you dare: you are equally startled by the sight of the numerous villages that stud the ravines, with their white convents and frowning castles. The scene is at once changed from cold cragginess into a picture all bright, and full of animation. We can scarcely imagine that the formal firtree has power to make any one weep, but Doctor Wilson tells us that when he first saw it on these hills, after an absence of fifteen years, it called up a thousand associations, "even to the shedding of tears." There are many cedars of all ages, but the only trees that can have come down from the prophetic era are few, "that a child may write them." Yet we are scarcely prepared for the statement made by Doctor Thompson, that there are more cedars within fifty miles of London than in all Lebanon. The air is extremely pure, and to breathe it is health; but the night dews are heavy and chill. Fever and ague are almost the only diseases. traveler is lulled to rest at his noonday halt by the hum of bees, and at night by the murmur of the waterfall. In the warm summer he needs no couch but the ground, upon which he spreads his carpet, and then prepares in all simplicity for his night's repose. Not long has he to court the coming of sleep, though his pallet be hard and comfortless; for he is weary with long travel, and his way has been over the pathway of rock, along which he has had in turn to creep, and climb, and leap, like the goat he has scared from its retreat. The announcement of the Prophet, that "the rough places shall be made plain," has a significance here which scarcely belongs to it in any other land; as, in addition to the ruggedness of the natural rock, the stones gathered from the gardens and fields are all thrown into the path, so that the feet of the passing horse have to plunge amidst the gatherings of centuries. The places were rough when the Prophet first spoke the word, and The they were rough when the Baptist repeated it to his disciples in the wilderness; and they have been rough ever since; but the time is approaching when they shall be plain, both in the path of the mountain and in the spiritual fulfillment of the prediction. the mountain in its immensity to the tribes that live within its fastnesses and cultivate its wolds. At once we see that there is among them an entire want of homogeneousness. The blood of the Hivites, who "dwelt in Mount Hermon," may still mantle in the men who rush past us in pride and power, scaling the mountain pass as if well conscious of their hereditary greatness and of their present prowess. But there is scarcely any one, unless it be the Jew, who can tell whence he came, or who was the father of his race. The rami In Lebanon there is all that is sought for by the painter, the poet, or the grim anchoret -mountain peaks, precipitate rocks, deep ravines, caves drear as midnight; snow that yields not to the utmost strength of the summer's sunshine; the bright waters of the merry torrent, re-fications of his lineage may extend to evjoicing with loud voice at their escape ery nation whose name is recorded upon from the region of storm, and rushing classic or sacred page. Each separate swiftly onward now, that they may linger tribe has a story of its own, full of inciat the greater leisure when they arrive dent; and if our readers reposed under among the nodding lilies and the olive the shade of the palm tree, fulled by the groves of the plain; the venerable cedar, music of its waving, we might hope that nearly forty feet in growth of girth, but they would listen to its recital at length, passed by as too young when the Sidonian like true Orientals; but our home is amid overseer marked the trees that were to the activities and happy exigencies of the form part of the temple of Solomon; vine- West, where the oft-repeated ejaculations yards, villages, and the remains of gigan- of the East are exchanged for one of antic temples; in the east, the limitless plain, other order, short but significant: "We where the Arab wanders, and the sand- have no time." Yet there are two of storm gathers, and the mirage presents its these races we may not dismiss in so sumdeceptive glimmer; and in the west, the mary a manner. The voice of a mother Mediterranean, on the bosom of which the is heard in mournful appeal; and as she Apostle of the Gentiles sailed on his errands stands before us haggard and weeping, of mercy, and warriors many have kept she tells us that since the vine before the watch as they came to elevate the Crescent lattice of her then full storeroom put forth or to the rescue of the Cross. its present leaves, she has lost her husband, her father, her brothers, and her sons; all, all have been slain. But her further words are lost in the harrowing howl always sent forth by the females of Lebanon in times of deep distress. This woman is a Maronite. There are thousands in this helpless position as we write; and they tell us that the men by whom the warfare has been principally carried on, in which all their male relatives have been slain, and all their property harried or burnt, were Druses. The Maronites and Druses: who are they? To those who have had the opportunity of studying their phases of character, all mountains preserve an identity as distinctly marked as the species of the naturalist. We know Lebanon by the splendor of its colors and the harmony of its hues; and by the effect of the sunbeam which, after it has brought out every tree and rock in the clearest outline, throws upon the entire mass that rises in stately grandeur before our vision every variety of tint, and causes it to become the richer and more attractive the longer we gaze. In the same glance we can see the clear blue of the ocean creek and its green islets; the dark shadows of the mountain moor, the rich verdure of the vineyard, the radiant red of the towering crag, and the pure white of the untrodden snow; and there are times when the two great ranges, glowing in the golden sunset, are like the portals of a vast and magnificent temple, in which many myriads may worship God. This vision of the head of Lebanon" may pass away; and we now turn from 66 The Maronites are a sect of Christians resident upon Lebanon; and they are to the other churches of the mountain what the Bedouins are socially to the races that inhabit the borders of the desert. They boast that they have ever formed part of the Catholic Church of Rome, and pride themselves upon their superior orthodoxy; thus uplifting against themselves in stern hostility the hand of every man who be longs to another community. They say it would be less offensive to God to wor ship in the mosque than in the church of | ignorance of the true privileges presented a schismatic. But the obscurity in which by the Gospel. With an ingenuity that their ecclesiastical origin is shrouded makes is almost without a parallel in priestly astheir pretensions appear absurd. They sumption, they sell sites in the golden area profess to derive their name from Maro; of heaven to their deluded parishioners. but we have Maro the Monk, who lived in The convents are numerous, especially in the earlier part of the fifth century, and the Kesrouan, the whole of which is reMaro the Patriarch, who flourished about garded as sacred ground. They occupy three hundred years later. From which- the most romantic positions, and great ever of these two their name has come, it pains are taken in the cultivation of the is evidently that of a person, and not of a grounds belonging to the monastic docountry; which would indicate that their main. The monks may eat fish, but not origin must have been either in a reforma- flesh; and they may take snuff, but must tion or a schism. They can not, therefore, not smoke tobacco. The landed property always have belonged to Rome. This of the convents is said to include "nearly fact may be easily proved from the earlier a fourth of the entire surface of the mounwriters on Church history, and they have tain." It is at the convent "the best silk, several usages peculiar to themselves that the best oil, the best wine, and the best lead to the same conclusion. They were confectionery are to be found;" and if infected by the Monothelite heresy, and the following computus of the provisions in the year 1180 were brought under the in their storehouse is to be relied upon, authority of the Pope; they are now re- there is no lack of good cheer the year garded as more devoted to the Papacy round: "Huge jars of oil, butter, wine, than any other of the churches of the olives, pickles, dibs, and honey; baskets East. full of rice and lentils, huge sacks full of The Patriarch is chosen in secret con- wheat, mountains of onions, pyramids of clave, but must receive the approbation of figs, dried fruit, and nuts, and festoons of the Pope, and a pelisse of honor is sent dried herbs and red chillies." In the cenhim by the Governor of Lebanon. From ter of the court are piled up heaps of dry his decisions there is no appeal. "The faggots for the winter's fires. But we Patriarch is our Sultan," say the Maro- forbear to make merry at the expense of nites. His winter residence at Kanobin the monks, when we remember how many was the scene of the martyrdom of one of of these monasteries are at the present the earliest Protestant converts, Asaad moment empty-the provisions pillaged, Shidiak. There are eight regular and and the gatherers killed. We would that four titular bishops. The priests are about henceforth they might remain unoccupied a thousand in number. They may marry for ever, if, instead of the monk, there before ordination, but not after; and most should be the minister of truth; and inof the parish priests are married, some of stead of the solitude of the convent, the them having large families. The women graces and gladness of the household livare wisely forbidden to confess to celi- ing in accordance with the precepts of bates. The communion is given in both Christ. To prevent the monks from formkinds, the bread being dipped in wine being local attachments, they were required fore it is presented to the laity. The people are taught that the priest is more honorable than an angel, "because the angel is a minister and servant of God, whereas the priest can command God to descend from heaven, as in the mass!" They have colleges and schools of some repute, but the ability to read is not general among their people. The college at Rome, for the education of a select number of their youths, was founded by Gregory XIII.; and its alumni do good service for the Pope on their return to Lebanon. The priests do not preach, except under extraordinary circumstances; and both the priests and their people are in to itinerate in rotation, from convent to convent. There are no mendicants among them, but there are several villages from which it is the custom, even for those who are rich or well to do, to wander about at certain seasons of the year, and ask alms, in order to gain merit. The Maronite population of Lebanon is reckoned at one hundred and sixty thousand souls; and there may be about forty thousand of the same name in other places. About twenty thousand are trained for war. They are the most numerous of the mountain races; and when we are told that the language of the service books of their Church is Syriac, we have a key present ed by which we can learn their origin as a nation. We are thus led to regard them with some reverence, as the descendants of men who once lived in the more sacred localities of the south. From the plains of Judea and Samaria, and the hills of the nearer Galilee, they must have been driven by the hand of the persecutor; and they thus became exiles from their homes in Israel for Christ's sake. It is a wonder that they still exist. They have had to defend themselves against the Bedouin from the desert, the crusader from his dis tant fatherland, the rapacious Turk, issuing in wild array from the portals of the pasha's tower, and against the Druse from every defile of the mountains inhabited by his race. But though often conquered, they have again broken away from the power of the oppressor; and, like the skaking of the dews of Hermon from their rough capotes, they have driven the tyrant from their valleys, and once more become a prosperous people. are encountered by the Sonnites, there is contention, and sometimes deadly conflict. These are the two principal divisions of Islam, but each of them is again subdi. vided into innumerable sections or communities, all of which are known by some distinctive doctrine or other characteristic. From the Shiites proceeded, with intermediate schools, the Batinites, or Esoterics, who assert that every exterior thing has an inner one corresponding with it, and that every passage of the Koran has an internal allegorical meaning. This canon of interpretation, as in Christianity, opens wide the door for the wildest speculations, the more dangerous as they profess to be founded upon the text of truth. About four hundred years after the Hegira, at a time when these doctrines were in the ascendant, there reigned in Egypt the Caliph Hakim Biamrillahi, the sixth of the Fatimite dynasty. His acts were those of a savage and a madman. He forbade the women of Egypt to apThe Druses inhabit the western and pear in the street on any pretext; and southern slopes of Lebanon, with nearly would allow no one to make a shoe for a the whole of Anti-Lebanon. They are said female's foot, thus obliging them to reto number about one hundred thousand. main at home. It is said that no fewer Their territory extends southward as far than thirty thousand churches and monasas Tyre; and a line drawn from Sidon to teries were destroyed by his command. Damascus would approach nearly the It was made a criminal offense to buy or whole of the places that have become sell with the Christians, who were recelebrated in the present war. They are quired, when in public, to wear blue garprincipally descended from the Arabs of ments and a dark turban, and to carry imthe plain, who about a thousand years ago mense crosses suspended from their necks. fled to the mountains for refuge from the On hearing of the deception practiced anoppressions of an unprincipled ruler. The nually in the pretended descent of the holy name of this remarkable people originated fire, he commanded the Church of the as the designation of a sect; but as they Resurrection at Jerusalem, in which it have generally been united, with a few in- takes place, to be destroyed. Three or significant exceptions, under one political four years before his death, Mohammed authority, they may be regarded as form-ben Israel Darasi, a teacher belonging to ing a separate people. Under either aspect, their history presents much that is romantic and wilă. It has sometimes been received as a reproach peculiar to Christianity, that its professors are divided into so many sects, who oppose each other with bitterness of spirit and constancy of strife. But in order to see the principle of religious hostility carried out to its utmost extent, we must study the records of Mohammedanism, in which the sects that present them selves are numberless, and their mutual antagonism of a character the fiercest and most implacable. When the religious processions of the Shiites, as they celebrate yearly the death of the sons of Ali, the Batinites who had come from Persia, entered his service and became an especial favorite at the palace. In return for the favors received from the Caliph he publicly ascribed to his master divine honor and majesty; but when he attempted to teach this doctrine in the mosque, from a book he had written, he was violently assaulted, and escaped with difficulty from the hands of the enraged worshipers. By the advice of Hakim he fled to Syria, and began to propagate his doctrines among the races dwelling on Lebanon, near the sources of the Jordan. In less than ten years nearly all the Arab tribes that had become located here professed the religion of the Druse. Living at a distance from the place of Mohammed's | strength to his cause. It was given out power, and their fathers never having that he had been taken away because of joined in the forays of the prophet, or the wickedness of men, and that all prereaped the pillage of his battles, they were sent search for him would be attended with less attached to his faith than its other disappointment; but that when the times adherents. It is supposed that Darasi should be more propitious, he would again perished in a battle with the orthodox appear, in a manner worthy of his supremMoslem from the plain, as they resolutely acy. Our wars with China have excited opposed him, and he had to defend him- the attention of the Druses, as they supself constantly from their attacks. pose it is in this far land he is next to have his advent. 66 The great apostle of the sect, Hamsa, still lived. He is called "the channel of the divine ordinances," "the revealer of the will of the Most High," and "the sun of suns." From a place of concealment he wrote several works which are regard. ed as the oracles of the Druses. The writings they possess are numerous. There are constant references in them to facts recorded by the Evangelists, but with some distortion of the truth. We may cite an instance from the writings of Bihaeddin, the fifth of the impersonations afterwards to be named. In that hour of affliction," he says, "in that moment, sacred only to a chosen few, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave to his disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it unto them, saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, for which much blood shall be spilt, for the remis sion of sins." Thus, the blood to be shed is not that of the one Redeemer, but the blood of many, in the carnage of the warrior's combat. But although the name of the Druses is derived from this Persian, they do not acknowledge him as the founder of their religion. The most eminent of their writers regard him as an impostor, and call him by many opprobrious names, such as Satan, and the Calf. There was a turban maker, called Hamsa, and surnamed Hadi, the Leader, from whom Darasi received the instructions that induced him to deify the caliph. It is not improbable, however, that Hakim himself was the real author of this impious assumption, and that the others became his agents of proselytism, by the promise of a royal reward. The sect grew in influence, until the cadi, when in the mosque, was summoned to embrace the new faith; but the attempt was fatal to the neophyte who made it, as he and his attendants were slain. The presumption of the caliph was equal to the credulity of his disciples. When the divine name was ascribed to him he willingly received it, and openly proclaimed himself to be the creator and ruler of the beneficent Nile, from which the land received all its luxuriance, and the people all their prosperity. The salutation he received with the greatest pleasure was: Hail We are told that there is one God, unthou one, and only one, who givest life known and unknowable; the Creator, and death, who bestowest riches and Preserver, and Judge of the universe. doomest men to poverty!" Though pro- We can not speak of him by comparison, fessedly an incarnation of God, his super- or by negation. "He is," is all we can stitious fears betrayed that he was man; say of him; and if we go further than for, whilst receiving divine honors, he this, we bring in the human element, and trembled at the forebodings of his horo- therefore fail to set forth the truth. There scope, which told him that on a certain can be no representation of God beside night he would be exposed to imminent the form of man, who reflects the image danger. The signs of the sky warned him of God, as the mirror reflects the object that the hour was come; but he set off, before which it is placed; and man is attended only by a single slave, to the chosen to be the vail of God as being the Mount of the Mokattam, on which the noblest work of his creatures. There citadel of Cairo now stands, and was slain have been nine avatars of the one God, on the way. The assassins were sent by who has appeared in the form of men, but his sister, who put to death all who were without man's impurity or corruption. privy to the transaction, and buried his They were not properly incarnations. corpse in the palace. The suddenness of God did not become flesh, but assumed his disappearance, and the mystery with the vail of flesh; as the man who puts on which it was invested, gave additional | a robe is still distinct from the robe. The 66 |