BSY_FB_17-32

32

Tarba and vicinity. May 15 - 21, 1900

We passed by Shaḳḳā and other points
of interest and pressed on to Tarba from
whence we were to make our excursion into
the Ruḥbe. On the 16th I made an
excursion to Mālirîyeh, the northeastern out-
post of the Haouren and found it an
extensive ruin consisting of small houses
and defence towers all built in the
crudest manner of rough broken stone
only the jambs and lintels of some of the
doors were dressed - a few of the houses
showed primitive exterior stairs made of
long pieces inserted in the wall and the
crude method of flooring and roofing is
illustrated. The walls are corbelled out
all round by two or three successive courses
projecting above one another and then long
slender blocks or lacs are laid across.
These were covered with boughs and such
as in the method employed at
the present day by the Druses.