Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1860-08-15
WHO ARE THE DRUSES,

uayS ago: hardIy called up any distinct idea O
race or locality, have suddenly been invested
with tragic interest, and one feels curiosity
ABOUT their history. Obscure as they have beer
hitherto, the Druses of Mount Lebanon have
earned an indelible record, though it will be
written in blood, in the history Of the nine
teenth century. Burnt and depopulated towns
desolated fields, orchards and gardens and
heaps OF butchered men, women and children
MAJ their destructive path around the foot oi
Mount Hermon, and down the lovely slopes
aud quiet wales of Lebanon.
The Druscs have not borne hitherto partic-
uiarly bad character among anclviliZed races.
Glbbon calls them "a free and warlike people,
the Druses of Mount Lebanon - and dispatches,
In few words, ssthe little that is known or de-
serves to be Known about them. The travel
! ler Clarke, speaks of their .sopeaneSS, sinceri-
ty, and engaging Manners Another account
1 represents them as 'seminently tolerant living
on good terms with both Christians and Mo-
hammedans.'' Rude and barbarous they un-
doubtediy have been but the incredible ferocity
| recently diaplayed has not been thought
heretofore to be a feature OF their character.
10 steal, and if necessary, to murder, are of
course universal maxims among savages, es-
| pecially those who inhabit wild and mountain
Gus regions. But the Druses, in this respect,
have compared fayorrbly with the fierce and
predatory KoordS, who live in the ranges of
mountains faIthest East, on the confines of
/ anu erSla- tnOuSn Sui within the
| limits OF the Turkish empire. One of the
Koordish chiefs frankly admitted to DR.. Grant,
| that rObbing their trade, that they followed
! 1t with murder to prevent detection. where
! their victim was OF sufficient consequence to
| be feared and even when be was too poor and
weak to be an object OF dread, they did not let
hlm of lcftt0at Sc0urgtng. SO true it is, that
cruelty becomes an appetite, demoniac de-
| light in the suiferings OF others. But the
| Druses have not been thought 10 carry their
! plunderng profession with unnecessary cruel
| ty. a fact which lends strong confirmation
! to the general belief expressed by the Euro
| pean journals, that the Turks were at the
bottom of this bloody business in Syria. The
unparalleled ferocity which distinguishes it is,
in fact, rather Turkish than Druses charac-
| teristic.
The origin of the Druses is yelled in mys-
terry. Some writer's give them descent
which partakes Of the romantic. A French
gentleman, it is said, of the noble family of
Drnex, led regiment under the command of
Godfrey of Bouilon, in the crusade of the
eleventh century. Pressed hard by the Sarac-
one occesion, and parated from the
general army, he withdrew into the deep passes
of Mount Engaddi, near Bethlehem where he
fortified himself against the enemy. The SUBJ
sequent reverses of the Christian army left
him enclosed as it were by the Saracen power,
and made his separation from the European
force perpetual. He made good his defence
however, against the Saracens, and finally,
withdrawing more deeply into those inacces-
sible mountain ranges, he settled colony
there which. by corruption of the name
DrueX, were in later times called Druses.
Others say that these Druses are the same as
the Davazes or Dasazes, described by the his
torian Elmalin. One horrible circumstance
of identity at least exists between the two ra-
ccs. 1t is the incredible incests which their
code allows. Parents and children, brothers
and sisters, in ermarry among the Druses with
out the slightest conjunction. Their precari-
Gus and brief connections hardly deserve,
however to be called. The Druses divorce
their wives as often as caprice may dictate.
Others suppose them to be of Arabic origin,
and heretical offShot from the Mohammedan
system in the tenth century. Gibbon describ-
es them a set Of Mohamuedan separatiSts,
who followed a crazy and blasphemous fanatic
by the name Of Hakem, almost equally an ene-
my of Christians and Moslems, in the eleventh
century. Certain it is. says Volney, that they
have contempt for all that Mahommedans
hold sacred. They do not practice circum-
cssion, prayers, fasts or te stivals, as enjoined
by the Koran. They drink wine, eat pork,
and practice all kinds OF denominations in the
eyes OF strict Musselmen. The confused med
ley presented by their language, rites and tra-
ditions, has baffied and bewildered the most
sagacious and learned historians, who have
made them the object of antiquarian research.
These savage mountaineers scarcely number
$4,000, while there are in Syria 250, 900 Ma
ronites and Christians of the Romish Church,
and 800, 900 of the Greek Church. Among
these 600 900 Christians, the Druses are raw
ening and destroying like wolves in flock of
sheep. To such an extent, have the Christian
populations of Turkey been dispirited an de-
moraized by long and cruel oppression
Verify the yoke of Turkey is san iron which
entereth the soul" 1t is time that the yoke
was broken-high time at least that the indig-
nant humanity of Christendom should demand
that it be no longer bound on the necks Of our
Christian brethren by Christian hands.
The Druses themselves, will of course, be
impenetrabe to Christian and civilized infu-
ences, long as the Turkish pow er remains
unbroken. That empire is now like vast
ruin of some old dismanted castle, whose
crumbling walls and subterranean passages are
fit only TO be the haunt of robbers. That Eu-
ropean power which shall boldly demolish it
and open the space at least for the erection of
vanced humanity and civilization of the nine
teenth century, will have the appreciation and
the thanks of Christendom.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DAY.-An act passed
Congress in l845, ssto establish uniform time
for holding elections for electors of President
and Vice President in all the States of the u
nion.'' This act fixes the election on ssTues-
day next after the first Monday in the month
of November which this year is the 9th day
of the month. All the electors must be cho-
sen, or appointed on that day, except in the
Electoral College, or where State has failed
to effect an election on the day designated.
The Augusta, Ca, Chronicle says that Mr..
Senator Toombs in recent specc b he made
at Warrenton, frankly admitted that Col. Bell
was 3as sound as himself upon the Slavery