Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . Sheikh and his Wife. THE MARONITES. 91 the country and its customs, can at once determine to what district or factionbelongs the husband of any woman he meets. This grotesque accoutrement, which is not laid aside even at night, has ayery disfiguring effect. The best that can be said for it is, that it supportsthe veil and prevents it from encumbering the face; but it gives a veryungainly stiffness to the motions .of the head and neck. It is certainlythe most singular, i
Syria and the Holy Land : their scenery and their people : incidents of travel, &cfrom the best and most recent authorities . Sheikh and his Wife. THE MARONITES. 91 the country and its customs, can at once determine to what district or factionbelongs the husband of any woman he meets. This grotesque accoutrement, which is not laid aside even at night, has ayery disfiguring effect. The best that can be said for it is, that it supportsthe veil and prevents it from encumbering the face; but it gives a veryungainly stiffness to the motions .of the head and neck. It is certainlythe most singular, inconvenient, and inexplicable costume ever worn byhuman being, — ex-cept, perhaps, the longwig of our weight, and thatof the heavy tasselsor metal balls at-tached to the silkcords in order tocounterpoise it, makethe wearers peculiar-ly subject to severeheadaches. The head-dress of the unmar-ried girls, who havenot attained the pri-vilege of thus burthening and disfiguring themselves, is very becoming,and the whole coquetry of the veil, like that of the Spanish mantilla^admirably adapted for Maronite Maidens. CHAPTER VIII. The Maronites—The Kesrouan. The ferdehs levied by the Emir Beshir in his latter years afford us themeans of making a very close approximation to the numbers of the severaltribes in Lebanon. The ferdeh, or capitation tax, was paid by all malesbetween the ages of fifteen and sixty. The returns for 1839 and 1840 wereas follow : Ferdehs 77,589 paid by the Maronites. confined to Total 110,313 individuals paying poll tax in Lebanon. If, then, we take into account the sheikhs and the clergy exempted fromthe ferdeh, amounting to the number of 7000 or 8000, we find that the 18,321 » Druses. 8,029 5} Catholic and Schismatic Greeks. 2,917 it Mussulmans settled in a few towns, 2,311 )) Metualis. (The Metualis are notLebanon.) 575 99 Jews. 211 ?5 ZeutSj schismatic Druses. 360 a Nauer Arabs or wandering Gipsies. 92 SYRIA AND THE HOLY LAND.
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