DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0045
24
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Yonder village of Hasrun (see page i) is noted for the beauty of its women and girls,
many of whom, for a wonder, are light-haired and blue-eyed.
After two and a half hours' ride over the undulating moraines which extend east of Ehden,
and form the curved shelf around the base of the encircling amphitheatre of giant mountains, we
descry on our right, far down in the east end of the Kadisha gorge, the large crowded village of
Bsherreh, with its churches and convents, its water and trees, and east of it the roaring
cataract which leaps down the rocks from the fountain of the sacred river. Still higher up,
standing solitary and alone, is the dark compact cluster of trees known as the Cedars of
Lebanon (see page 475, vol. i.).
We hasten our pace, if it be in April, over the scattered snow-drifts and muddy fields, or,
ROMAN BRTDGE NEAR JUNEH.
It spans a little stream called Ma'amiltein, which in the winter flows from the hills to the beautiful bay of Juneh. Adjoining the bridge there
is a Syrian khan.
if in August, over the dusty, parched, and cracked earth, to the sacred grove called " Arz er
Rub," that is, " The Cedars of the Lord." There are three hundred and ninety-three trees,
some ten or twelve of which are of giant girth, though the loftiest is not more than eighty feet
in height. The twelve largest trees are called by the fellahin " The Twelve Apostles," and
they have a curious tradition that our Lord and His apostles came to this spot and left their
walking staves standing in the soil, which sprouted into cedar-trees. A Maronite chapel stands
in the grove, and the patriarch claims the sole right to the sacred trees. The clergy have
cultivated the superstition that those cutting the trees for fuel will be smitten with disease or
calamity by the guardian divinity of the grove. It is pleasant to find that one at least of the
thousand superstitions of Syria has been of some utility to the people in the conservation of
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Yonder village of Hasrun (see page i) is noted for the beauty of its women and girls,
many of whom, for a wonder, are light-haired and blue-eyed.
After two and a half hours' ride over the undulating moraines which extend east of Ehden,
and form the curved shelf around the base of the encircling amphitheatre of giant mountains, we
descry on our right, far down in the east end of the Kadisha gorge, the large crowded village of
Bsherreh, with its churches and convents, its water and trees, and east of it the roaring
cataract which leaps down the rocks from the fountain of the sacred river. Still higher up,
standing solitary and alone, is the dark compact cluster of trees known as the Cedars of
Lebanon (see page 475, vol. i.).
We hasten our pace, if it be in April, over the scattered snow-drifts and muddy fields, or,
ROMAN BRTDGE NEAR JUNEH.
It spans a little stream called Ma'amiltein, which in the winter flows from the hills to the beautiful bay of Juneh. Adjoining the bridge there
is a Syrian khan.
if in August, over the dusty, parched, and cracked earth, to the sacred grove called " Arz er
Rub," that is, " The Cedars of the Lord." There are three hundred and ninety-three trees,
some ten or twelve of which are of giant girth, though the loftiest is not more than eighty feet
in height. The twelve largest trees are called by the fellahin " The Twelve Apostles," and
they have a curious tradition that our Lord and His apostles came to this spot and left their
walking staves standing in the soil, which sprouted into cedar-trees. A Maronite chapel stands
in the grove, and the patriarch claims the sole right to the sacred trees. The clergy have
cultivated the superstition that those cutting the trees for fuel will be smitten with disease or
calamity by the guardian divinity of the grove. It is pleasant to find that one at least of the
thousand superstitions of Syria has been of some utility to the people in the conservation of