Beaufort, Emily Anne: Egyptian sepulchres and Syrian shrines: including some stay in the Lebanon, at Palmyra and in Western Turkey ; in 2 vol. (Band 1) (London, 1862)

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CHAP. XIII.

Solomon's friends and Solomon's work.

AT last, after bidding adieu to the Emir, we left our
pretty encampment and the merry village with its
handsome, gaily dressed people; it was midday when we
started, and we had a ride of two and a half hours to
reach the Cedars, along a bare, barren road, crossing the
low pass between the valley of Mar Antoun and that
of Khanobin ; hill after hill of rock without the faint-
est trace of verdure, till we arrived at the brink of an
immense chasm, and, looking over the edge, we beheld
the village of Bscherreh hanging on the rocky side of
the ravine, embedded in wood and garden; just above
the village the magnificent gorge closes round sharply,
holding in its curve most weird-looking and fantastic
rocks, and the beautiful Falls of the Kadisha, which
tumble down in masses of white foam to the gardens
at the bottom,— on the other side of the ravine the
village of Hasroun lies on a shelf of verdure and luxu-
riance. We turned away from this beautiful view, back
to the hard, yellow, barren mountains on which the sun-
shine was pouring in fierce and pitiless rays,—when, in
five minutes more, a general shout came from the
muleteers, and the sais beside me called out " Shoof!
shoof! ya sitt! el Arz el Arz ! " * and I saw in the

* " Look, look, oh lady ! the Cedars, the Cedars!"
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