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-His Wife-A Most In
teresting People.

tercStlng 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 a hogs back
about a quarter of mile long, and called
the Horns of Hattin. says a letter from Haifa
to the New York Sun. The summit of the
higher peak, 900 feet above the sea, and
about 300 feet above the plain across which
they are riding, forms a conspicuous object
IN a 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 pic
turesque elevation that Christ delivered that
sermon which has exercised so vast an in
1uence 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 1t
was the scene about 1, 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 Saadin, 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 preciptous gorge, down
which some of the hardly pressed crusaders
vainly 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 dismounting from my own
active steed, l allowed him to pick his own
way down this dangerous defle, l looked
with interest ut 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
douin chief and Kurdish tribe, in which
the latter were signally defeated on the old
crusading battle-ground, and seeking safety,
like the Christian warriors, in the direction
of this treacherous gorge, left sixty dead men
and horses ut the bottom.
These traditions and associations served to
enhance the novelty and picturesqueness of
the view before me as | entered the gorge,
for 1t was now the scene of a 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 l was fortunate enough to be
allowed to assist, 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
over the tomb of certain holy man called
Schaib, 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 when | asked the DruseS
whether Moses had married Schaib's daugh-
Ter, they denied 1t. Then jew of the couu-
try, familiar with the Druses, suggested that
schaib was Balaam, but they refused altogether
10 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 ny 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,
and there were none greater or more sacred
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 iusoluble mystery He is one Of those
Druse characters whom their tradition has
interviewer with biblical history but the tomb
which they thus honor is undoubtedly con
aidcred by Moslems 10 be the tomb of Jethro,
who is known among them as Sehaib; and
the Rabi Bar Simson, writing in 1910 A. D.,
mentions the tomb ofJethro as being at Hat
tin. 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 ofgreat sauctity,
but is infinitely more yenerated by the
Druses than by the Moslems. Indeed, met
a Moslem who laughed at the Druses' super
stitions in regard 10 IL and who was as much
surprised and puzzled as l was when he
heard them deny that Moses was the son-in-
law 81 the buried saint
The building which the Druses have erect
ed over the old dilapidatcd shrine, which
suu stands here, has already cost more than
5000. MI subscribed by the Druses them
selves. and it IS not yet completed. 1t con-
sists Of a courtyard, one side of which is
formed hy the solid rock, while the other
contains chambers. The roof forms 4 ter
race, and above it, also partly faced by rock,
Is large upper chamber surmouuted by
dome. The scene as We approached was
very striking. The Drrtse sheiks, DESTROYS
OF doing honor TO their guest, formed in two
lines 70 receive me, while guns were fired of
and songs Of welcome were sung. The
white building with It's terraces crowded nv
men aud women in hright-eolored garments,
ha-monized well With the romontie character
of the scenery, and formed picture caieu-
lated 10 impress the Imagination.
was ushered By my host into an ante