THE DESERT AND
THE SOWN
SYRIA
THE DESERT & THE SOWN
BY
GERTRUDE LOWTHIAN BELL
WITH FRONTISPIECE BY JOHN SARGENT, R. A.
ALSO MANY ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP
NEW YORK
E.P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
1907
He deems the Wild the sweetest of friends, and travels on
where travels above him the Mother of all the clustered stars
TA'ABATA SHARRAN
To A. C. L.
WHO KNOWS THE HEART
OF THE EAST
PREFACE
Those who venture to add a new volume to the vast literature of travel,unless they be men of learning or politicians, must be prepared with anexcuse. My excuse is ready, as specious and I hope as plausible as suchthings should be. I desired to write not so much a book of travel as anaccount of the people whom I met or who accompanied me on my way, and toshow what the world is like in which they live and how it appears tothem. And since it was better that they should, as far as possible, telltheir own tale, I have strung their words upon the thread of the road,relating as I heard them the stories with which shepherd and man-at-armsbeguiled the hours of the march, the talk that passed from lip to lipround the camp fire, in the black tent of the Arab and the guest-chamberof the Druze, as well as the more cautious utterances of Turkish andSyrian officials. Their statecraft consists of guesses, often shrewdenough, at the results that may spring from the clash of unknown forces,of which the strength and the aim are but dimly apprehended; theirwisdom is that of men whose channels of information and standards forcomparison are different from ours, and who bring a different set ofpreconceptions to bear upon the problems laid before them. The Orientalis like a very old child. He is unacquainted with many branches ofknowledge which we have come to regard as of elementary necessity;frequently, but not always, his mind is little preoccupied with the needof acquiring them, and he concerns himself scarcely at all with what wecall practical utility. He is not practical in our acceptation of theword, any more than a child is practical, and his utility is not ours.On the other hand, his action is guided by traditions of conduct andmorality that go back to the beginnings of civilisation, traditions[Pg ix]unmodified as yet by any important change in the manner of life to whichthey apply and out of which they arose. These things apart, he is as weare; human nature does not undergo a complete change east of Suez, noris it impossible to be on terms of friendship and sympathy with thedwellers in those regions. In some respects it is even easier than inEurope. You will find in the East habits of intercourse less fettered byartificial chains, and a wider tolerance born of greater diversity.Society is divided by caste and sect and tribe into an infinite numberof groups, each one of whic