268
EL HOSSN.
road descends over barren hills towards El Hossn, distant five
hours and a quarter from Adjeloun.
El Hossn is the principal village of the district called Beni
Obeid ; it stands on the declivity of the mountain, and is inhabited
by upwards of one hundred families, of which about twenty-five
are Greek Christians, under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Jerusalem. ¬
I saw nothing remarkable here but a number of wells
cut out of the rock. I happened to alight at the same house where
M. Séetzen had been detained for eleven days, by bad weather;
his hospitable old landlord, Abdullah el Ghanem, made many enquiries ¬
after him.
May 4th.—I found very bad company at El Hossn. It is usual
for the Pasha of Damascus to send annually one of the principal
officers of his government to visit the southern provinces of the
Pashalik, to exact the arrears of the Miri, and to levy new extortions. ¬
The Aga of Tabaria, who was invested this year with the
office, had just arrived in the village with a suite of one hundred
and fifty horsemen, whom he had quartered upon the peasants;
my landlord had seven men and fifteen horses for his share, and
although he killed a sheep, and boiled about twenty pounds of rice,
for supper, yet the two officers of the party in his house were continually ¬
asking for more, spoiled all his furniture, and, in fact, acted
worse than an enemy would have done. It is to avoid vexations of
this kind that the peasants abandon the villages most exposed to
such visits.
We left Hossn late in the morning and proceeded to Erbad (»)),
one hour and a quarter N. N. E. from the former. Our road lay
over the plain. Erbad is the chief place in the district of that
name, likewise called the district of Beni Djohma (), or of
Bottein (), from the Sheikh’s being of the family of Bottein.
The names of Beni Obeid, and Beni Djohma, are probably de¬
