125
RIEHA.
a saint ; in an hour and a quarter the insulated hill Tel Stommak
), with the village Stommak on its west side. The direction
from Edlip S. by W. : this hill seems to be an artificial mound of
earth. The wood of olive trees here terminates. In two hours and
forty minutes we arrived at Rieha (), which we did not enter,
through fear of the rebel Seyd Aga, who occupies it. It contains
about four or five hundred houses, is a much frequented market,
and has two large soap manufactories. Rieha is situated on the
northern declivity of the Djebel Erbayn(), or the Mountain
of the Forty ; and belongs to the government of Aleppo; but since
the expulsion of Mohammed Pasha, Seyd Aga has been in the
possession of it, and governs also the whole mountain of Rieha,
of which Djebel Erbayn forms a part. This man is a chief of that
kind of cavalry which the Turks call Dehlys. He has about three
hundred of them in his service, together with about one hundred
Arnaouts ; common interests have closely connected him with
Topal Aly, the chief of the Dehlys at Djissr Shogher, who has
about six hundred under his command, and with Milly Ismayl,
another chief, who commands at Kalaat el Medyk. Unless the
Porte finds means to disunite these three rebels, there is little probability ¬
of its reducing them. They at present tyrannize over
the whole country from Edlip to Hamah.
About two hours to the S. E. of Rieha lies the village of Marszaf -
(te,), and S. of the latter about one hour, the ruined town
Benin. We ascended the mountain from Rieha, turned round its
eastern corner, and in one hour from Rieha, reached the village of
Kefr Lala (61,6). We were hospitably received at the house of
the Sheikh of Kefr Lata, although his women only were at home.
A wandering story-teller amused us in the evening with chanting
the Bedouin history of the Beni Helal. Kefr Lata belongs to
Ibn Szeyaf, one of the first families of Aleppo.
February 18th.—Kefr Lata is situated upon the mountain of
