Light, Henry: Travels in Egypt, Nubia, Holy Land, Mount Libanon, and Cyprus in the year 1814 (London, 1818)

HOLY LAND, AND CYPRUS. 219

campaign. Their commander amused himself by exercising

hawks, who seemed in perfect training. The encampment

was in a space of ground in the rear of the town, intermixed

with plantations of stone-pine, which, combined with the

gay apparel of the horsemen, and the ornamented and varied

coloured tents, formed a groupe admirably calculated for a

picture. The road then lay through a lane of aloes, into

another plantation of lofty stone-pines; thence, by enclosures

of mulberry trees, at the foot of Mount Libanon, which the

peasantry took great pains to irrigate with the stream flowing

from the mountain. I soon began to observe a difference in

the race of beings who inhabited the mountains, from the

oppressed slaves of the Turkish chiefs, whose authority

ceased with the plain.

On ascending the mountain, houses, convents, and ham-
lets every where presented themselves; we passed vineyards,
plantations of mulberry, olive, and fig trees, cultivated on
terraces formed by walls, which supported the earth from
being washed away by the rains from the sides of the ac-
clivities. The road, though steep, was not bad; neat cara-
vanseras, where coffee and fruit were sold, invited the pas-
senger to repose under the shade of some full branched tree.
The peasants had an air of kindness mixed with indepen-
dence, that bespoke the absence of oppression *. The Ma-

* " Whilst amid these mountains," says Volney, " I forgot I was in Turkey;

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