CHASSEAUD'S DRUSES OF THE LEBANON..
PROBABLY from the fable or story of "the Old Man of the Moun- tain," the Druses have received an attention to which neither their past influence nor their present importance entitles them histori- cally. Various authors of various countries have written books on their origin, history, religion, institutions, and character, inde- pendently of passing notices by travellers. The most elaborate work on the subject, at least in English, is Colonel Churchill's Mount Lebanon, published in 1853.f Full of facts drawn from a personal observation of ten years, and an extensive research among other authors, the Colonel's three ample volumes left little room for additional information, though his matter might have been presented in a briefer and better way.
• The Dnnes of the Lebanon ; their Manners, Customs, and History, with a Translation of their Religious Code. By George Washington Chasseaud, late of Beyrout, Syria. Published by Bentley.
t Spectator for 1553, page 611.
Mr. Chasseaud's volume makes no pretension to the elaboration and fulness of particulars which distinguished Colonel Churchill. The Druses of the Lebanon is little more than a series of sketches at Sidon and Beyrout, and subsequently of the people in their mountain-homes ; these sketches being relieved by a narrative of the author's excursions, with a few historical notices. In one point of view Mr. Chasseand was advantageously situated. He was born at Beyront, the son of the British Consul there ; he was familiar with the peoples and their languages, and had personal acquaint- ances among the Drnses. Not only, iherefore, could he freely com- municate with them, but he saw them under more favourable cir- cumstances than a stranger traveller. A want of penetrative ob- servation, and a disposition to fine writing, as well as diffuseness, have somewhat neutralized the advantages of position. Mr. Chasseaud's pictures are too superficial and too minute ; too much like the sketches we continually meet with descriptive of French and English manners, though there is greater novelty of subject in the Druses.
Spite of these faults, the book is natural and fresh, the result of the author's familiarity with his subject, and of a truthful though literal and feeble rendering. The writer clearly depicts the daily life of Beyrout and Sidon, from the earliest call to prayers and the inhabitants beginning to stretch themselves to wake, through their daily occupations and amusements till they sink to sleep again; and the pictures leave a real impression on the mind. The landscapes of Lebanon are somewhat vague in feature, but they possess a dis- tinct character of wild beauty. The manners of the Druses- simple, natural, and to their friends affectionate though rustic— have a primitive and patriarchal charm, which attracts the reader's sympathy. Pity that Mr. Chasseand had not greater literary skill, or was not satisfied with aiming at less effect. Although Bible illustration was not a direct object of our au- thor, the coincidence of many customs with the customs recorded in Scripture show how long ridiculer practices will remain in a mountainous country notwithstanding change of masters and even of creeds. The Mosaic injunction alluded to in the following extract is probably doomed to neglect ere long, if Turkish re- forms enable commerce to extend its sway. Such waste will not be permitted where the popular philosophy is to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market.
"The cool sea-breeze is rustling mightily amongst the branches of the olives, scattering the dry leaves and twigs and spreading the surface of the earth with the golden-tinged mantle of autumn ; but all this is nothing to the rustling and havoc that will ensue amongst those branches when the harvest season for olives shall have arrived : then men and boys will be perched upon every available branch, shaking the very existence out of the trees in their endea- vours to gather in as abundant a harvest as possible, whilst the women and girls, with outspread mats, expanded aprons, and plentiful baskets, catch and collect the showering olives as they fall, and finally.gathering these into the baskets, assort them for the various purposes they are intended to serve; some are preserved in salt and water, the rest are converted into oil. "But it is a remarkable fact, and one which proves the very ancient stand- ing of the habits and customs of these people, that when a man has once descended from a tree, having shaken off as much fruit as his strength per- mitted, he will upon no consideration shake that tree again, however much fruit may have tenaciousry adhered to the boughs. What is left is considered as the portion of the poor and the gleaner : in this instance, the Druses, in common with all classes inhabiting Syria, act in strict accordance with the law contained in Deuteronomy, 24th chapter and 20th verse : When thou beatest thine olive-tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.' However much in form, and even in theory, the religion of the different sects may have deviated and degenerated from the purer law of those people to whom these very mountains were only a portion of the promised land, they in- variably retain some unmistakeable proofs of the spring or fountain- head from which they derived their notions ; crudely and barbarously as that and all other sections or fragments of that law may have been treated. The same forbearance in favour of the destitute and oppressed which is observed in gathering in the olive harvest is also rigidly adhered to in almost every other source of labour which is connected with reaping the produce of the earth. In wheat and grain, the peasant will barely turn back to pick up a fallen sheaf if a poor gleaner be gleaning in his track, and a very fair portion is usually left upon the field to be divided between the poor and the still more industrious birds of the air : this is also the case with the grape harvest, the fig harvest, and, in short, the season of reaping all fruits and grains. The landowner would sleep with but a heavy conscience, and become an object for the finger of scorn to point at, did he not leave a willing disme for the benefit of the destitute and house- less. Moreover, with very rare exceptions, oxen or mules are seldom if ever muzzled when treading out the corni nor will they, when they have any possible means of avoiding it, yoke tether beasts of unequal strength to bear the same burden : you seldom meet in Syria with an ox and a mule yoked to the same plough."
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