Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/95

ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS There are hardly any trees on it, only two or three tiny hamlets and no isolated buildings. The Syrian farmers prefer to dwell on the hillsides; for there the water of the springs is cooler, it is easier to guard the villages against marauding bands, and all of the arable land below is left free for cultivation. So the great flat fields of plowed earth or ripening grain which fill the valley seem the pattern of a long Oriental carpet in rich reds and browns and greens and yellows, unrolled between the mountains.

As we pass from the shadow of a last obstructing embankment, there bursts upon our vision the glorious patriarch of Syrian peaks. Twenty-five miles to the south the splendid crest of Hermon towers into the cloudless sky a full mile above the surrounding heights.

The familiar Hebrew name of this famous mountain means the "Sacred One," and the expression "the Baal of Hermon," seems to indicate that in very ancient times it bore a popular shrine. The Jews also knew it by its Amorite title Senir, the "Banner." Modern Syrians sometimes refer to it as the "Snow Mountain," for its summit is capped with white long after the summer sun has melted the drifts from the lower peaks. Most commonly, however, it is called esh-Sheikh, which means "the Old Man," or rather "the Chieftain," for age and authority are  [ 65 ]