sent, than it has been at other times. There are is to the happy times of Christianity when nascent, also many merchants in Syria from Roman Catho-that you would have us ascend in order to justify lic countries.

the traditions. It is to the first four centuries, that you appeal on the subject. Ask, then, all these people who surround you: they will answer, that, in all their practices, (which are the same with ours,) they only follow the apostolical traditions-traditions which they received from the famous Antioch, which they regard as their mother.' This objection embarrasses our Protestants. They dare not advance that confession, fasting, lent, abstinence, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Purgatory, the adoration of the cross the invocation of the saints, &c. are papistical in

The various Roman Catholic families in Syria, as well as in other parts of the Levant, have maintained their influence by intermarriages, in consequence of the contiguity of Roman Catholic countries to the Mediterranean, much more easily than could possibly be the case with the remoter Protestants of England, Holland, and Germany. The number of Latin or Frank Roman Catholic missionaries, whom devotion and the papal system induce to visit Syria and the Holy Land, and who take up their residence either in monasteries or in the principal cities, is never inconsider-ventions, manufactured by Satan: their eyes, their able. It is indeed, at present, far inferior to what it was formerly: but, for the whole of this tract, their number, even at this day, cannot be computed to be less than seventy. The influence of the European friars constantly serves to maintain in the Levant, in which they lead a migratory life, a kind of European or Frank attachment among many Levantine families of western origin or connections.

PROTESTANTS.

very eyes make them see the contrary. It is not here a question of Papists, or of Babylon, or of the Antichrist-great words these, which, pronounced with the hardy tone inspired by heresy, may have an imposing effect in Europe, but which signify nothing here: they must attack a thousand Christian nations: they must renounce antiquity: they must condemn Antioch, and abandon the apostles. This step it is difficult to take: and, therefore, these gentlemen avoid, as much as possible, entering with us upon a dispute where they would have the worst; and, more wise than in France, they observe, on all contested points and on all the rites of religion, a profound and respectful silence, well persuaded that they would not have on their side the suffrage of the Greek church.

THE Protestants in Syria are but few in number; consisting, principally, either of consular representatives of Protestant nations, or of merchants from those countries. In former times, there was an English Protestant chaplain fixed at Aleppo: the "This conformity of sentiments between the office has been adorned by the names of bishop Greek and Latin churches sometimes makes upon Frampton, of Maundrell, and of Pococke. Re-right hearts a salutary impression. I was particucently, Protestants missionaries have visited the Levant, and some of them have begun to take up their residence in this interesting region.

Before we quit this brief topic, it may be useful to observe the footing on which Protestants are represented to have stood about a hundred years ago, in their relation to the native Christians. For this purpose, we shall select from the work already so often quoted, the following passages, written in a lively style; and tending, pointedly, to illustrate the extremely disadvantageous ground which a Protestant must occupy in the view of oriental Christians, whenever he allows, or is represented by others as allowing, questions of Christian doctrine or worship to be brought before the tribunal of mere antiquity, usage, or tradition. One of the Jesuit missionaries, writing from Aleppo, says

"You will ask me, how the English and the Dutch conduct themselves. Here, as in Holland and England, they observe neither fast nor abstinence: but it occasions scandal. The people of the country say that they are not Christians; and the Turks themselves regard them as people without religion. They are sometimes affected with these reproaches; and, not being able to bear them, many of them during Lent eat meat only in secret. Those, who act like men of good faith, confess that they are extremely surprised to see, that the religion of all the Christians of the east resembles that which they profess in scarcely any thing.

"This marked difference gives us a great advantage over them. It is,' we say to them, 'it

larly acquainted, some years since, with a minister of the Dutch nation: he was a man of much talent: I often conversed with him, as he spoke Latin easily: he was about to set sail; but, before his departure, said to me in confidence, that he was going to Italy, there to weigh well an important affair, concerning which, what he had seen with his eyes had led him to make serious reflections which had changed him.

Persons of the pretended reformed religion would not dare here to dogmatize: at least they would not do it with impunity. Some time since, an English minister, zealous for his sect, went to great expenses in printing a catechism according to his fashion. He aimed at infusing into the spirit and heart of all the Christians the poison with which he was filled. But they trampled it under foot: they tore it, and burnt it, without the missionaries being obliged to interfere in the least degree.*

The learned Orientalist Pococke, who, from the year 1630 to 1636, was chaplain to the English at Aleppo, subsequently published in England, (besides many other valuable pieces,) the work "de Veritate Fidei Christiana" of Grotius, with whom he was personally acquainted; and, likewise, a Selection from the Liturgy of the church of England-both in Arabic. The treatise of Grotius has been reprinted been circulated in the Levant. Of the Liturgy by the Church Missionary Society, and copies have there is a copy in the library of the society: it was printed A. D. 1674. It contains the forms of confession and absolution, with several other prayers, and the Litany. The author is ignorant what steps

"The Metawali make, either entirely or in part, profession of that Mohammedan sect which is dominant in Persia; and, consequently, they are Shiites. Like the Persians, therefore, they neither eat nor drink with people of another religion; nor would they even use a plate from which a stranger has eaten, till they have well cleansed it. They even hold themselves to be defiled, when a stranger simply touches their clothes. As they are under the domination of the Turks, they dare not treat the Sonnites with contempt. They are sometimes under the necessity of passing themselves off as Sonnites.

"The Druses are divided into Akals, that is to say ecclesiastics; and djahels, or seculars. The ecclesiastics are dependant upon three Akals, who "In general, neither the Sonnites nor the Chris- are Sheiks among them; of whom one dwells in tians like to dwell among them; and the Maro- the district Arkub, the second in the district nites, who serve as secretaries to the Sheiks of Tschuf el Heite, and the third in the district Has. the Metawali, seldom remain with them for many beia. The Akals are distinguished from the seyears. They have, nevertheless, for some centu- culars by their white dress. They have generally ries been in possession of several districts. A good houses on the hills; and, judging by those family named Harfoosh, the head of whom takes few which I saw on the road from Saide to Dathe title of Emir, lives at Balbec, and pays the mascus, it seems to me that they have not chosen rent of this district direct to Constantinople. At the worst situations. On Thursday evening, Sour (i. e. Tyre,) and in the adjacent country which among the Orientals is called the night of called Belad B'sherri, there are seven or eight Friday, they assemble in the house of one or other Sheiks of the family Nasif, which govern there, of their fraternity, to perform their worship and and pay their rent to the Pacha of Saide.* There is pray for the whole nation: the wives of ecclesialso Sheiks of the Metawali of the family Elastics may be present; but they do not admit Kuanza, which govern at Kirrinie and Hurmel, a town on the river Orontes. They pay their tribute to the Bey of Homs."-Niebuhr, Vol. II. p. 347.

DRUSES.

THIS people appears to be one of the most considerable in Syria, on account both of their numbers, and their political situation in Mount Lebanon. Although less numerous than the Christians, yet, together with them, they constitute nearly the whole of the population of the mountain. Neither the Christians nor the Druses, however, have the government in their hands, The Emir Bechir, who governs Mount Lebanon. is not a Druse. The government was formerly held by Mohammedans, whose policy it was to balance the Christian and Druse interests. The present Emir is said to be a Christian; but, in conformity with this line of policy, and to keep up appearances with his superior, the Pacha of Acre, he complies with many Mohammedan usages.

The extent of territory in which the Druses are to be found is thus described by one of the Jesuit

missionaries :-

"We have also in our mountains another nation, of which it is not easy to discover either the origin or the religion. They are called Druses. This nation inhabits a part of Mount Lebanon, the mountains above Saide and Balbec, and the country of Jabaile and Tripoli.

"These Druses extend even into Egypt.-Lettres Ed. et Curieuses, Vol. I. p. 366.

The division of this body into religious and secular orders is described in the following terms by Niebuhr; a traveller of the greatest merit, and who has collected upon the state of various

* So styled in the Firmans of the Grand Signior; but more commonly called, from his modern place of residence, Pacha of Acre.

seculars, not even a Sheik or an Emir. They despise all employments of honor in the world: but perhaps, in this they make a virtue of necessity; for, on the return of Hakem, they hope to be kings, viziers, and pachas. They do not marry the daughters of seculars; and they even carry their aversion to the property of the great so far, as not to eat with the Sheiks and Emirs of their own nation. Akals eat only with Akals; and with the peasants and other poor people, who, they are certain, earn their bread by labor." Voyages en Arabie, &c. Vol. II. p. 349.

The following passages, extracted from a more recent traveller, the enterprising Burckhardt, will develope the political state, and describe some of the more curious customs of the Druses. The account is rendered the more interesting by his having discovered that these people are not confined to Mount Lebanon, but have spread thensclves to a district on the east of Damascus, the

Haouran.

"It is now about one hundred and twenty years, since the government of the mountain has been always entrusted, by the Pachas of Acre and Tripoli, to an individual of the family of Shehab, to which the Emir Bechir belongs. This family derives its origin from Mecca; where its name is known, in the history of Mohammed and the first Caliphs: they are Mussulmans, and some of them pretend even to be Sherifs. About the time of the Crusades, for I have been unable to ascertain the exact period, the Shehabs left the Hedjas, and settled in a village of the Haouran, to which they gave their family name: it is still known by the appellation of Shohba; and is remarkable for its antiquities, of which I have given some account, in my journal of a tour in the Haouran. The family being noble, or of Emir origin, were considered proper persons to be governors of the mountain; for it was and still is thought necessary, that the government should not be in the hands of a Druse. The Druses being alwavs di

are not more than forty or fifty persons about him, who are not Christians. How far the Shehab may be sincere in their professions, I am unable to decide: it is probable, that, if their interests should require it, they would again embrace the religion of their ancestors."-Travels in Syria, pp. 197, 198.

The following is the novel and interesting account given by Burckhardt of the Druses residing in the Haouran :

vided into parties, a governor chosen from among them would have involved the country in the quarrels of his own party, and he would have been always endeavoring to exterminate his adversaries; whereas a Turk, by carefully managing both parties, maintains a balance between them, though he is never able to overpower them completely; he can oppose the Christian inhabitants to the Druses, who are in much smaller numbers than the former; and thus he is enabled to keep the country in a state of tranquillity, and in subjection to the Pachas. This policy has long "In manners, these Druses very much resembeen successful, notwithstanding the turbulent ble those of the mountains of Kesrouan. The spirit of the mountaineers, the continual party families form clans almost independent of each feuds, and the ambitious projects of many chiefs, other; and among whom there are frequent quaras well of the Druses as of the reigning house. rels. Insults are studiously avenged by the reThe Pachas were careful, also, not to permit any spective families; and the law of blood revenge one to become too powerful: the princes of the is in full force among them, without being mitireigning family were continually changed; and gated by the admission of any pecuniary commuparty-spirit was revived in the mountain, when-tation. They all go armed; as do the Turks and ever the interests of the Porte required it."- Christians of the Haouran in general. Few Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, pp. 194, 195. Druses have more than one wife; but she may be divorced on very slight pretexts.

This writer having observed, that, at present, the most rich, shrewd, and powerful individual in the mountain, el Sheik Bechir, is a Druse, and is a dangerons rival to the ruling prince, the Emir Bechir, who can do nothing important without his consent, takes occasion from this circumstance thus to develope still more clearly the political state of Mount Lebanon :

fathers were not of the order; because, as they told me, they could not abstain from smoking and swearing. The Sheiks are, for the greater part, Akouls. The Druses pray in their chapels, but not at stated periods: these chapels are called "an insulated place;" and none but Druses are allowed to enter them. They affect to follow the doctrine of Mohammed; but few of them pray according to the Turkish forms: they fast during Ramadan, in the presence of strangers; but eat at their own homes, and even of the flesh of the wild boar, which is frequently met with in these districts.

"With respect to their religion, the Druses of the Haouran, like those in Mount Libanus, have the class of men called Akoul (sing. Aakel,) who are distinguished from the rest by a white turban, and the peculiarity of the folds in which they wear it. The Akoul are not permitted to smoke tobacco: they never swear; and are very reserved in their "It will be asked, perhaps, why the Sheik does manners and conversation. I was informed that not set aside the Emir Bechir, and take the os- these were their only obligations; and it appears tensible power into his own hands. Many per-probable, for I observed Akoul boys of eight or sons believe that he entertains some such design; ten years of age, from whom nothing more diffiwhile others, better informed perhaps, assert thatcult could well be expected, and to whom it is the Sheik will never make the attempt, because not likely that any important secret would be imhe knows that the mountaineers would never sub-parted. I have seen Akouls of that age, whose mit to a Druse chief. The Druses are certainly in a better condition at present, than they would be under the absolute sway of the Sheik, who would soon begin to oppress instead of protecting them, as he now does; and the Christians, who are a warlike people, detest the name of Druse too much ever to yield quietly to a chief of that community. It is, probably, in the view of attaching the Christians more closely to him, and to oppose them in some measure to the Druses, that the Emir Bechir, with his whole family, has secretly embraced the Christian religion. The Shehab, as I have already mentioned, were formerly members of the true Mussulman faith; and "It is a singular belief, both among the western they never have had among them any followers Druses and those of the Haouran, that there are of the doctrines of the Druses. They still affect a great number of Druses in England; an opipublicly to observe the Mohammedan rites: they nion founded, perhaps, upon the fanatical opinions profess to fast during the Ramadan; and the Pa- of the Christians of Syria, who deny the English chas still treat them as Turks; but it is no longer to be followers of Christ, because they neither matter of doubt, that the greater part of the She- confess nor fast. When I first arrived at the hab, with the Emir Bechir at their head, have Druse village of Aaere, there was a large comreally embraced Christianity that branch only of pany in the Medhafe, and the Sheik had no opthe family which governs at Rasheya and Has-portunity of speaking to me in private: he therebeya continue in the religion of their ancestors. fore called for his inkstand, and wrote upon a "Although the Christians of the mountain have piece of paper the following questions: which I thus become more attached to their prince, their answered as well as I could, and returned him the condition, on the whole, is not bettered; as the paper: Where do the five Wadys flow to, in Emir scarcely dares do justice to a Christian your country?-Do you know the grain of the against a Druse: still, however, the Christians plant Leiledj; and where is it sown?-What is rejoice in having a prince of their own faith; the name of the Sultan of China?—Are the towns and whose counsellors and household are, with of Hadjar and Nedjran in the Yemen known to very few exceptions, of the same religion. There you?—Is Hadjar in ruins? and who will rebuild

it? Is the Moehdy (the Saviour) yet come, or is he now upon the earth?"

"I have not been able to obtain any information concerning the period at which the Druses first settled in these parts. Min Kadim a long time ago, was the general answer of all those whom I questioned on the subject. During my stay at Aaere, news arrived there, that a body of one hundred and twenty Druses had left the western mountains, and were coming to settle in Haouran."-Travels in Syria, pp. 303–305.

The following delineation of the customs and character of the Druses is taken from that part of Burckhardt's account, which relates to those of them who inhabit Mount Lebanon :

whenever they have to receive considerable sums of money, they take care that it shall be first exchanged for other coin. The Sheik el Nedjem, who generally accompanies the Sheik Bechir in his visits to the Emir, never tastes food in the place of the latter, nor even smokes a pipe there; always asserting, that whatever the Emir possesses has been unlawfully obtained. There are different degrees of Akal, and women are also admitted into the order; a privilege which many avail themselves of, from parsimony, as they are thus exempted from wearing the expensive head-dress and rich silks fashionable among them.

"The best feature in the Druse character, is that peculiar law of hospitality, which forbids them "With respect to the true religion of the ever to betray a guest. I made particular inquiDruses, none but a learned Druse can satisfy the ries on this subject; and I am satisfied that no inquirer's curiosity. What I have already said consideration of interest or dread of power will of the Auzeyres is equally applicable to the Druses induce a Druse to give up a person who has once -their religious opinions will remain for ever a placed himself under his protection. Persons from secret, unless revealed by a Druse. Their cus-all parts of Syria are in the constant practice of toms, however, may be described; and as far as taking refuge in the mountain, where they are in they can tend to elucidate the mystery, the veil perfect security, from the moment they enter upon may be drawn aside by the researches of the tra- the Emir's territory: should the prince ever be veller. It seems to be a maxim with them to tempted by large offers to consent to give up a readopt the religious practices of the country in fugee, the whole country would rise, to prevent which they reside, and to profess the creed of the such a stain upon their national reputation. The strongest: hence, they all profess Islamism in mighty Djezzar, who had invested his own creaSyria; and even those who have been baptized, tures with the government of the mountain, never on account of their alliance with the Shehab fa- could force them to give up a single individual of mily, still practise the exterior forms of the Mo- all those who fled thither from his tyranny. Whenhammedan faith. There is no truth in the asser- ever he became very urgent in his demands, the tion, that the Druses go one day to the mosque Emir informed the fugitive of his danger, and adand the next to the church: they all profess Islam-vised him to conceal himself for a time in some ism; and, whenever they mix with Mohammedans, they perform the rites prescribed by their religion. In private, however, they break the fast of Ramadan, curse Mohammed, indulge in wine, and eat food forbidden by the Koran. They bear an inveterate hatred to all religions except their own; but more particularly to that of the Franks, chiefly in consequence of a tradition cur--204. rent among them, that the Europeans will one day overthrow their commonwealth.

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Nothing is more sacred with a Druse than his public reputation. He will overlook an insult, if known only to him who has offered it; and will put up with blows where his interest is concerned, provided nobody is a witness: but the slightest abuse given in public, he revenges with the greatest fury. This is the most remarkable feature of the national character; in public, a Druse may appear honorable, but he is easily tempted to a contrary behavior, when he has reason to think that his conduct will remain undiscovered. The ties of blood and friendship have no power among them the son no sooner attains the years of maturity, than he begins to plot against his father.

"The Akal are those who are supposed to know the doctrines of the Druse religion; they superintended divine worship in the chapels or, as they are called, Khaloue; and they instruct the children in a kind of catechism. They are obliged to abstain from swearing and all abusive language, and dare not wear any article of gold or silk in their dress. Many of them make it a rule never to eat of any food, nor to receive any money, which they suspect to have been improperly acquired: for this reason,

more distant part of his territory: an answer was then returned to the Djezzar, that the object of his resentment had fled. The asylum which is thus afforded by the mountain, is one of the greatest advantages that the inhabitants of Syria enjoy over those in the other parts of the Turkish dominions."-Burckhardt's Travels in Syria: pp. 200

It will have appeared from the preceding extracts, that the religious opinions of the Druses have been the object of curious investigation to travellers and others. The author has carefully consulted what has been said concerning this people by the Jesuit missionaries (Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vols. I. and II.) and by Niebuhr, Volney, and Burckhardt; writers, who, at successive periods during the last century, have made actual research in Syria, relative to this singular people. Burckhardt seems to give up the subject in despair. We must, not, however, overlook what appears to be the most authentic information as yet received concerning their faith, and which is to be found in the Chrestomathie Arabe of the Baron De Sacy (vol. II. pp. 334-403.) published at Paris in the year 1806; where the reader will find a French translation of several Arabic manuscripts reputed to be the sacred books of the Druses. The learned translator intimates in his notes, that he has, for many years, been collecting ample materials for a work on this subject. The following extracts from what he has already made public may prove not unacceptable to the English reader and they will abundantly suffice to give the missionary student a general idea of the character of the Druse creed; a creed professedly