from which it had been driven for so many centuries, and the first consequence was an eager participation in it on the part of the native Christians, who rejoiced to share in the civilization and improvements of their more fortunate brethren of the west. The advance made by the Oriental Christians in wealth and intelligence, within the short period that they have been relieved in a measure from the cruel yoke of the Moslem, is to those who have had the opportunity of watching it, truly surprising. But while their enterprise and commercial tact have been working such a change in their status, unfortunately the Moslem, scorning to imitate the infidel Frank, and clinging to his exclusive creed, has been retrograding, instead of advancing, until he now sees that the despised and hated Nazarene will, unless very soon checked, become more powerful than he. Shall we let them live till they become our masters? is a question asked not by the Damascene Moslem alone, but by the seemingly Europeanized Turk of Constantinople itself, while he appears occupied with English projects of reform and civili

zation.

Wholly distinct both in characteristics and in race from the Maronites is the remarkable tribe of the Druzes. They are undoubtedly the purest Arab race in Syria, for the Mohammedans are largely mingled with Turks and Tartars, while the Maronites are not Arabs at all, as we have already stated. Baron Larrey records his opinion as the result of his researches during Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign, that the Arab is physically and intellectually one of the finest races of mankind, and we think that the Druzes of Mount Lebanon would not disprove his assertion. Though few in numbers, and not merely surrounded but intermixed with sects that would rejoice to exterminate them, yet only some twelve thousand Druze warriors have ruled the whole mountain country, thrashing every sect by turns, not excepting the haughty Moslems themselves. The Druze is easily recognized by the gravity and dignity of his carriage, by his abstemious and temperate habits, but especially by a most ceremonious yet seemingly frank politeness, proverbial even among Orientals, and no one could be more affable or kind to the stranger. But their most striking characteristics

are a perfect self-command under all circumstances, with a wariness and power of secresy to be remarked even in their children. A mild and pleasing exterior they will keep up to the very moment of striking the death blow, and nothing can equal the steadiness of their gray eyes, as they look one in the face with the most matchless lies on their tongues. The Druze invariably thinks just as his guest does, has no sympathies but his, and, above all, is his most zealous coreligionist, be he what he may. We have often heard some of their sheikhs, whose lives had been lives of treachery and blood, discourse in a Christian strain and quote passages in full from the New Testament, with the unction of a Payson. Their outward relations and their religion both conspire to develop these traits in them to such perfection. Wielding a power wholly disproportionate to their numbers, they are obliged to cultivate all the arts of diplomacy, secresy, combination and self-control, which their religion still further promotes by enjoining them, that while they should reveal it to no other mortal on any account, they are free to profess outwardly any form of faith that may be to their convenience.

On the establishment of the Egyptian government in Syria, by Mohammed Ali, it took all the energy and military talents of his son, Ibrahim Pasha, to bring the Druzes to acquiesce in the army conscription. Nothing is more hateful to these mountaineers than the monotonous slavery of a regular soldier's life, and the demand for conscripts was answered by a general rising. In the vast deserted, though fertile, district east of the Jordan, called the Hauran, there is a wonderful natural phenomenon termed the Lejah. Around a circular and rich plain extends an unbroken wall of huge volcanic rocks, which has been aptly compared to the waves of a raging sea, instantaneously petrified. Among these rocks that also bristle with dense thorny thickets, are unnumbered caverns, where hundreds might secrete themselves within hearing of a passing army of enemies. To this hideous place, Ibrahim Pasha had to follow some three thousand Druze rebels under the leadership of Shibly el 'Arayan, one of their hero sheikhs. Concentrating an immense army on the Lejah, the Pasha continued to

push into their fastnesses with a relentless disregard for the lives of his own soldiers, until the enormous number of thirty thousand of his troops fell in the attempt. They were smitten down as by the unseen hand of a destroying angel, until they became so cowed, that the slightest rustle of the leaves terrified them. On one occasion the Pasha asked a parley with the Druze sheikh. Shibly answered with alacrity, nothing so delighted him as to see his lord Ibrahim Pasha, "for my lord, during all this time that we have been among these rocks, you have caused us to lack nothing, we have lived upon your convoys, we have found your magazines a never failing supply of powder and ball, and what have we which has not come from Ibrahim Pasha? May Allah long preserve him to us!" A strict blockade, in which their supply of water was cut off, at last compelled the Druzes to surrender at discretion, when the Pasha, won by admiration of Shibly's gallantry, spared his life and made him an officer in his own army.

The origin of the Druzes dates previous to the great Mohainmedan movement, when there occurred several smaller migrations of Arab tribes, to which, we think, considerable import- . ance should be attached as having prepared the way for the rapid conquests of the Saracens, when they appeared. Indeed, in the fifth century, an epidemic desire to change quarters seemed to prevail in the world generally. From Scandanavia's snows issued shaggy hordes whose progress ended only under an African sun, while the Huns commenced their march from the borders of China and kept on till their horses waded into the waves of the Atlantic. The time for the Saracen tribes to arise, also, and help themselves to the possessions of enfeebled nations had not yet arrived, but a few heavy swells indicated the coming deluge.

A large tribe which roamed over the vast plains of Arabia Felix, called the Beni Hammiar, became under the rule of a queen named Ma-Summa, so celebrated in war, commerce and literature, that they aspired to the dignity of a nation, and their chief, Naaman, assumed the title of Melek or King of the Arabs. The great beauty and the many virtues of this queen are the constant theme of the old Arabic poets, and in

deed previous to the great change which the institutions of Mohammed caused in their status, women appear to have held a very influential position among the free and warlike Arabs. The Queen of Sheba and Zenobia of Palmyra are by no means solitary examples of Arabian female rulers, and what is more, history rarely records anything about them but what redounds to their credit. Among the Beni Hammiar were many very ancient families, whose chief business appears, from the numerous poems they have left, to have been fighting, giving presents, and comparing genealogies of themselves and their horses; nor in the whole circle of Arabian literature is there anything that surpasses in true lyric fire and spirit these preIslamic poetic effusions. Notwithstanding this prosperity, Malek Naaman appears to have been tributary to Chosroes, king of Persia, and was soon made to experience the usual fate of eastern tributaries from Ahab and Hezekiah down. Chosroes asked the payment of an impossible sum and the Arabs rebelled. In the war which ensued, the son of the Persian monarch was killed, and, on the whole, Naaman was so successful that Chosroes resolved to try treachery instead of force, and invited Naaman to make peace and visit him at his court. The Arab prince relying on his word, accepted the invitation, but no sooner did he come into the presence of Chosroes than he upbraided him with the death of his son, and ordered him to be trampled to death by elephants. The memory of this cowardly murder rankled in the minds of the Arabs, until long after, under the terrible general of Islam, Khaled ibn el Waleed, they expiated their hate on the house of Chosroes, by completely exterminating it. Meantime, rather than submit, his tribe emigrated under the leadership of Naaman's son, Melek Minder, to Mesopotamia, near Mosul. After a lengthy residence in that region, a large section of them emigrated to the fertile district of the Maarra, near Aleppo, led by two great families of Emirs, the Tenookhs and the Maans, who after wards ruled Mount Lebanon for nine centuries. Their long relations with Persia will explain much in their subsequent religious history which otherwise would appear inexplicable. While inhabiting this district the Islam appeared on the scene,

and had little difficulty in inducing the Hammiar tribes to join in the profession of the new Arabic gospel, though they were ere long to show that their faith was of the weakest kind; but as they lay right in the road of the conquering hosts of the prophet, and lived on unprotected plains, they had to fall into the current and send many of their best horsemen to help Islamize the Greek, Persian, and Indian. This made their situation both inconvenient and dangerous, and while in this state an occurrence took place which determined their movements. The governor of Aleppo sent out an officer to collect the revenue, who proceeded in the most severe exactions, until on one occasion, having grossly insulted a woman of the tribe, a highspirited young Emir cut off his head at one blow. Fearing the consequences of this act, he and his family fled to Mount Lebanon, where they were hospitably received by the Maronites there, who appear to have rather desired it than not, that the Maarra tribes, who were by no means fanatical Moslems, should settle the southern portion of the range, which was then, from the ceaseless wars of the times, a complete desert. Accordingly, in the year 821 of our era, the Emir Fowaris Tenookh led the first emigration into Mount Lebanon, and founded at the village of Abeih that illustrious family which for nine hundred years held a mild and just sway over Lebanon. The old Emir had a large and generous establishment at Abeih, with his thirteen sons, and under his tolerant rule many of the oppressed Christians came to live in a peace which they could find nowhere else in the troubled East. This family were for many generations celebrated for their courage, their skill in archery and their unrivaled breed of horses, but especially in poetry and literature. Some of the greatest of their Emirs did not consider it beneath their dignity to be schoolmasters, and Seyed 'Abdallah et Tenookhy, one of the brightest non-Christian characters we have ever read of, passed much of his time in riding from village to village to look after the instruction of the poor peasants, at a time when a man who could read was a rarity in the British Parliament. The Druzes often look back with regret to this peaceful and golden era of their history, and proudly speak of their princely Tenookhs, who