St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-11
A GREAT DRUSE FESTIVAL.
A Memorable Battlefield-The Druses
Honor Their Greatest Saint.
The Chief sheik-IIis Wife-A Most In
teresting People.

teresting People.
Travellers who have gone from Nazareth to
Tiberias must be familiar with the singular
outline of mountain which they perceive to
the left OF the road, with its two rocky crests
separated from each other by hogs back
about quarter of a mile long, and called
the Horns Of Hattin. says a letter from Haifa
to the New York Sun. The summit Of the
higher peak, 1000 feet above the sea, and
about 300 feet above the plain across which
they are riding, forms a conspicuous object
in landscape which at this point is one OF
singular interest and beauty. Rising like
gigantic natural pulpit, tradition has since
declared it to be the Mount of the Beati-
tudes, and asserts that it was from this pie
turcsque elevation that Christ delivered that
sermon which has exercised so vast an in
Huence on mankind everywhere.
Whether this be so or not, it is certain that
the plain on which the audience was sup
posed TO have gathered which listened to it
vas the scene about l, 157 years afterward OF
the most memorable conflict in which the
crusaders ever engaged, for it was the one
which lost them Palestine and which result
ed in the triumph of Saladin, the Saracen,
and the slaughter or capture of the most
powerful and celebrated of the crusading
chiefs. At the extremity of the plain, and
Immediately beneath one of the horns OF the
mountain, there is precipitous gorge, down
which some of the hardly pressed crusaders
yainly attempted flight, the horses
and their riders, heavily panoplied with al
NOR, only escaping the spear of the Arab to
meet al even more terrible fate, as they
hurled themselves headlong down the rocky
precipice. AS dismountlng from my own
active steed, l allowed him to pick his own
way down this dangerous deile, | looked
with interest at the scene of the disaster, and
listened TO the story of my guide, who mar
rated how only twenty years ago, fight had
taken place here between a celebrated Be-
doun chief and q Kurdish tribe, in which
The latter were signally defeated on the old
erusading battle-ground, and seeking safety,
like the Christian warriors, in the direction
of this treacherous gorge, lett sixty dead men
and horses at the bottom.
These traditions and associations served to
enhance the novelty and picturesqueness of
the view before me as l entered the gorge,
for 1t was now the scene of great gathering
Of the sheiks and chiefs of the Druse nation,
who come here annually on a pilgrimage to
the shrine Of one of their most celebrated
saints, at which was fortunate enough TO be
allowed TO assist, u privilege which, so far as
am aware, had not before been granted to
foreigner The building which forms this
sacred resort has been erected by the Druses
Dver the tomb of certain holy man called
Schab, but exactly who Schaib was my ut
most endeavors failed TO discover The
Moslems say that he is Jethro, the father-in-
law Of Moses; but whcn.I asked the Druses
whether Moses had married Schaib's daugh-
ter, they deniedt Then jew of the coun-
Try, familiar with the Druses, suggested that
Schaib was Balaam, but they refused altogether
to admit that an ass had ever spoken to their
holy man. He had crossed the Red sea with
Moses, they said, and after Moses death had
been ordered by God TO bury him, and had
done so, and had fought against mighty
king and prevailed against him, and had
himself been buried here, and he was the
father of all prophets and the elect of God,
than he l thought possibly he might be
Joshua, but him they knew by his own name,
so have given up the personality Of Schaib
ms an insoluble mystery. He is one of those
Druse characters whom their tradition has
interwoven with biblical history, but the tomb
which they thus honor is undoubtedly con
adhered by Moslems to be the tomb of Jethro,
who is known among them as Sehaib; and
the Rahi Bar Simson, writing in 1910 \. D..
mentions the tomb ofJethro as being at Hat
lin. Considering that Jethro lived in Mid
ian, on the shores OF the Red sea, it seems
rather unlikely that he should be buried
here. However. that is detail. The fact
remains that the spot is one Of great sanetity,
hut is infinitely more yencrated by the
Duises than by the Moslems. Indeed, met
Moslem who laughed at the Druses' super
s,itions in regard to it, and who WIS as much
surprised and puzzled as | was when he
heard them deny that Moses was the son-in-
law of the buried saint.
The building which the Druses have erect
cd over the old dilapidated shrine, which
stili stands here, has already cost more than
$4,000, all subscribed by the Druses them
selves, and it is not vet completed. Il con-
sists of courtyard, one side of Which is
formed BY the solid rock, while the other
contains chambers. The roof forms ter
race. and above it, also partly faced by rock,
4 alarge upper chamber surmounted by a
dome. The scene rs we approached was
very striking. The Druse sheiks, DESTROYS
of doing honor to their guest, formed in two
lines to receive me, while guns were fired of
ana songs Of welcome were sung. The
white building, with It's terraces crowded by
men and women in bright-cotored garments,
hrrnonixed well with tue romontic character
of the scenery, and formed a picture caleu-
lated 70 impress the imagination.
Twas ushered by my host into an ante