Lyda Farrington Krausé - "We Ten"

John A. Joyce - "Shakspere, Personal Recollections"

Lafcadio Hearn - "Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan"

Anonymous - "The Frog Prince and Other Stories"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Tancred

B >> Benjamin Disraeli >> Tancred




'I cannot permit this,' said Tancred, reddening, and keeping his seat.

'If you do not, there is not a man here who will not take it as a
personal insult,' said the Emir, speaking rapidly between his teeth,
yet affecting to smile. 'It has been the custom of the mountain for more
than seven hundred years.'

'Very strange,' thought Tancred, as he complied and dismounted.

All Syria, from Gaza to the Euphrates, is feudal. The system, generally
prevalent, flourishes in the mountain region even with intenseness. An
attempt to destroy feudalism occasioned the revolt against the Egyptians
in 1840, and drove Mehemet Ali from the country which had cost him so
much blood and treasure. Every disorder that has subsequently occurred
in Syria since the Turkish restoration may be traced to some officious
interposition or hostile encroachment in this respect. The lands of
Lebanon are divided into fifteen Mookatas, or feudal provinces, and the
rights of the mookatadgis, or landlords, in these provinces, are power
of punishment not extending to death, service in war, and labour in
peace, and the collection of the imperial revenue from the population,
who are in fact their vassals, on which they receive a percentage from
the Porte. The administration of police, of the revenue, and indeed
the whole internal government of Lebanon, are in the hands of the
mookatadgis, or rather of the most powerful individuals of this class,
who bear the titles of Emirs and Sheikhs, some of whom are proprietors
to a very great extent, and many of whom, in point of race and antiquity
of established family, are superior to the aristocracy of Europe.

There is no doubt that the founders of this privileged and territorial
class, whatever may be the present creeds of its members, Moslemin,
Maronite, or Druse, were the old Arabian conquerors of Syria. The Turks,
conquerors in their turn, have succeeded in some degree in the plain to
the estates and immunities of the followers of the first caliphs; but
the Ottomans never substantially prevailed in the Highlands, and their
authority has been recognised mainly by management, and as a convenient
compromise amid the rivalries of so many local ambitions.

Always conspicuous among the great families of the Lebanon, during
the last century and a half preeminent, has been the House of Shehaab,
possessing entirely one of the provinces, and widely disseminated and
powerfully endowed in several of the others. Since the commencement of
the eighteenth century, the virtual sovereignty of the country has been
exercised by a prince of this family, under the title of Chief Emir. The
chiefs of all the different races have kissed the hand of a Shehaab; he
had the power of life and death, could proclaim war and confer honours.
Of all this family, none were so supreme as the Emir Bescheer, who
governed Lebanon during the Egyptian invasion, and to whose subdolous
career and its consequences we have already referred. When the Turks
triumphed in 1840, the Emir Bescheer was deposed, and with his sons sent
prisoner to Constantinople. The Porte, warned at that time by the too
easy invasion of Syria and the imminent peril which it had escaped,
wished itself to assume the government of Lebanon, and to garrison the
passes with its troops; but the Christian Powers would not consent to
this proposition, and therefore Kassim Shehaab was called to the Chief
Emirate. Acted upon by the patriarch of the Maronites, Kassim, who was a
Christian Shehaab, countenanced the attempts of his holiness to destroy
the feudal privileges of the Druse mookatadgis, while those of the
Maronites were to be retained. This produced the civil war of 1841
in Lebanon, which so perplexed and scandalised England, and which
was triumphantly appealed to by France as indubitable evidence of the
weakness and unpopularity of the Turks, and the fruitlessness of our
previous interference. The Turks had as little to do with it as M.
Guizot or Lord Palmerston; but so limited is our knowledge upon these
subjects that the cry was successful, and many who had warmly supported
the English minister during the previous year, and probably in equal
ignorance of the real merits of the question, began now to shake their
heads and fear that we had perhaps been too precipitate.

The Porte adroitly took advantage of the general anarchy to enforce
the expediency of its original proposition, to which the Great Powers,
however, would not assent. Kassim was deposed, after a reign of a few
months, amid burning villages and their slaughtered inhabitants; and, as
the Porte was resolved not to try another Shehaab, and the Great Powers
were resolved not to trust the Porte, diplomacy was obliged again to
interfere, and undertake to provide Lebanon with a government.

It was the interest of two parties, whose cooperation was highly
essential to the settlement of this question, to prevent the desired
adjustment, and these were the Turkish government and the family of
Shehaab and their numerous adherents. Anarchy was an argument in the
mouth of each, that the Lebanon must be governed by the Porte, or that
there never could be tranquillity without a Shehaab prince. The Porte in
general contented itself with being passive and watching the fray, while
the agents of the Great Powers planned and promulgated their scheme of
polity. The Shehaabs were more active, and their efforts were greatly
assisted by the European project which was announced.

The principal feature of this administrative design was the institution
of two governors of Lebanon, called Caimacams, one of whom was to be a
Maronite and govern the Maronites, and the other a Druse and govern his
fellow-countrymen. Superficially, this seemed fair enough, but
reduced into practice the machinery would not work. For instance, the
populations in many places were blended. Was a Druse Caimacam to govern
the Christians in his district? Was the government of the two Caimacams
to be sectarian or geographical? Should the Christian Caimacam govern
all the Christians, and the Druse Caimacam govern all the Druses of
the Lebanon? Or should the Christian Caimacam govern the Christian
Mook-atas, as well as such Druses as lived mixed with the Christians
in the Christian Mookatas, and the Druse Caimacam in the Druse country
exercise the same rights?

Hence arose the terms of mixed Druses and mixed Christians; mixed Druses
meaning Druses living in the Christian country, and mixed Christians
those living in the Druse country. Such was the origin of the mixed
population question, which entirely upset the project of Downing Street;
happy spot, where they draw up constitutions for Syria and treaties for
China with the same self-complacency and the same success!

Downing Street (1842) decided upon the sectarian government of the
Lebanon. It was simple, and probably satisfactory, to Exeter Hall;
but Downing Street was quite unaware, or had quite forgotten, that the
feudal system prevailed throughout Lebanon. The Christians in the Druse
districts were vassals of Druse lords. The direct rule of a Christian
Caimacam was an infringement on all the feudal rights of the Djinblats
and Yezbecks, of the Talhooks and the Abdel-Maleks. It would be equally
fatal to the feudal rights of the Christian chiefs, the Kazins and
the El-dadahs, the Elheires and the El Dahers, as regarded their Druse
tenantry, unless the impossible plan of the patriarch of the Maronites,
which had already produced a civil war, had been adopted. Diplomacy,
therefore, seemed on the point of at length succeeding in uniting the
whole population of Lebanon in one harmonious action, but unfortunately
against its own project.

The Shehaab party availed themselves of these circumstances with
great dexterity and vigour. The party was powerful. The whole of the
Maronites, a population of more than 150,000, were enrolled in their
ranks. The Emir Bescheer was of their faith; so was the unfortunate
Kassim. True, there were several Shehaab princes who were Moslemin, but
they might become Christians, and they were not Druses, at least only
two or three of them. The Maronite clergy exercised an unquestioned
influence over their flocks. It was powerfully organised: a patriarch,
numerous monasteries, nine prelates, and an active country priesthood.

Previously to the civil war of 1841, the feeling of the Druses had been
universally in favour of the Shehaabs. The peril in which feudalism
was placed revived their ancient sentiments. A Shehaab committee
was appointed, with perpetual sittings at Deir el Kamar, the most
considerable place in the Lebanon; and, although it was chiefly composed
of Christians, there were several Druses at least in correspondence with
it. But the most remarkable institution which occurred about this time
(1844) was that of 'Young Syria.' It flourishes: in every town and
village of Lebanon there is a band of youth who acknowledge the title,
and who profess nationality as their object, though, behind that plea,
the restoration of the House of Shehaab generally peeps out.

Downing Street, frightened, gave up sectarian diplomacy, and announced
the adoption of the geographical principle of government. The Druses,
now that their feudal privileges were secured, cooled in their ardour
for nationality. The Shehaabs, on the other hand, finding that the
Druses were not to be depended on, changed their note. 'Is it to be
tolerated for a moment, that a Christian should be governed by a Druse?
Were it a Moslem, one might bear it; these things will happen; but a
Druse, who adores a golden calf, worshippers of Eblis! One might as well
be governed by a Jew.'

The Maronite patriarch sent 200,000 piastres to his children to buy
arms; the superior of the convent of Maashmooshi forwarded little
less, saying it was much better to spend their treasure in helping the
Christians than, in keeping it to be plundered by the Druses. Bishop
Tubia gave his bond for a round sum, but afterwards recalled it; Bishop
Joseph Djezini came into Sidon with his pockets full, and told the
people that a prince of the House of Shehaab would soon be at their
head, but explained on a subsequent occasion that he went thither merely
to distribute charity.

In this state of affairs, in May, 1845, the civil war broke out. The
Christians attacked the Druses in several districts on the same day. The
attack was unprovoked, and eventually unsuccessful. Twenty villages
were seen burning at the same time from Beiroot. The Druses repulsed
the Christians and punished them sharply; the Turkish troops, at the
instigation of the European authorities, marched into the mountain and
vigorously interfered. The Maronites did not show as much courage in the
field as in the standing committee at Deir el Kamar, but several of the
Shehaab princes who headed them, especially the Emir Kais, maintained
the reputation of their house and displayed a brilliant courage. The
Emir Fakre-deen was at Canobia at the time of the outbreak, which, as it
often happens, though not unpremeditated, was unexpected. He marched to
the scene of action at the head of his troops, and, when he found
that Kais had been outflanked and repulsed, that the Maronites were
disheartened in proportion to their previous vanity and insolence, and
that the Turkish forces had interfered, he assumed the character of
mediator. Taking advantage of the circumstances and the alarm of all
parties at the conjuncture and its yet unascertained consequences, he
obtained for the Maronites a long-promised indemnity from the Porte for
the ravages of the Druses in the civil war of 1841, which the Druses
had been unable to pay, on condition that they should accept the
geographical scheme of government; and, having signed, with other Emirs
and Sheikhs, the ten articles of peace, he departed, as we have seen, on
that visit to Jerusalem which exercised such control over the career
of Lord Monta-cute, and led to such strange results and such singular
adventures.




CHAPTER XLIII.

_Festivities in Canobia_

GALLOPED up the winding steep of Canobia the Sheikh Said Djinblat,
one of the most popular chieftains of the Druses; amiable and brave,
trustworthy and soft-mannered. Four of his cousins rode after him: he
came from his castle of Mooktara, which was not distant. He was in the
prime of manhood, tall and lithe; enveloped in a burnous which shrouded
his dark eye, his white turban, and his gold-embroidered vests; his long
lance was couched in its rest, as he galloped up the winding steep of
Canobia.

Came slowly, on steeds dark as night, up the winding steep of Canobia,
with a company of twenty men on foot armed with muskets and handjars,
the two ferocious brothers Abuneked, Nasif and Hamood. Pale is the cheek
of the daughters of Maron at the fell name of Abuneked. The Abunekeds
were the Druse lords of the town of Deir el Kamar, where the majority of
the inhabitants were Christian. When the patriarch tried to deprive the
Druses of their feudal rights, the Abunekeds attacked and sacked their
own town of Deir el Kamar. The civil war being terminated, and it being
agreed, in the settlement of the indemnities from the Druses to the
Maronites, that all plunder still in possession of the plunderers should
be restored, Nasif Abuneked said, 'I have five hundred silver horns, and
each of them I took from the head of a Christian woman. Come and fetch
them.'

But all this is forgotten now; and least of all should it be remembered
by the meek-looking individual who is at this moment about to ascend
the winding steep of Canobia. Riding on a mule, clad in a coarse brown
woollen dress, in Italy or Spain we should esteem him a simple Capuchin,
but in truth he is a prelate, and a prelate of great power; Bishop
Nicodemus, to wit, prime councillor of the patriarch, and chief prompter
of those measures that occasioned the civil war of 1841. A single
sacristan walks behind him, his only retinue, and befitting his limited
resources; but the Maronite prelate is recompensed by universal respect;
his vanity is perpetually gratified, and, when he appears, Sheikh and
peasant are alike proud to kiss the hand which his reverence is ever
prompt to extend.

Placed on a more eminent stage, and called upon to control larger
circumstances, Bishop Nicodemus might have rivalled the Bishop of Autun;
so fertile was he in resource, and so intuitive was his knowledge of
men. As it was, he wasted his genius in mountain squabbles, and in
regulating the discipline of his little church; suspending priests,
interdicting monks, and inflicting public penance on the laity. He
rather resembled De Retz than Talleyrand, for he was naturally turbulent
and intriguing. He could under no circumstances let well alone. He was
a thorough Syrian, at once subtle and imaginative. Attached to the House
of Shehaab by policy, he was devoted to Fakredeen as much by sympathy
as interest, and had contrived the secret mission of Archbishop Murad
to Europe, which had so much perplexed M. Guizot, Lord Cowley, and Lord
Aberdeen; and which finally, by the intervention of the same Bishop
Nicodemus, Fakredeen had disowned.

Came caracoling up the winding steep of Canobia a troop of horsemen,
showily attired, and riding steeds that danced in the sunny air. These
were the princes Kais and Abdullah Shehaab, and Francis El Kazin, whom
the Levantines called Caseno, and the principal members of the Young
Syria party; some of them beardless Sheikhs, but all choicely mounted,
and each holding on his wrist a falcon; for this was the first day of
the year that they might fly. But those who cared not to seek a quarry
in the partridge or the gazelle, might find the wild boar or track the
panther in the spacious woods of Canobia.

And the Druse chief of the House of Djezbek, who for five hundred years
had never yielded precedence to the House of Djinblat, and Sheikh Fahour
Kange, who since the civil war had never smoked a pipe with a Maronite,
but who now gave the salaam of peace to the crowds of Habeishs and
Dahdahes who passed by; and Butros Keramy, the nephew of the patriarch,
himself a great Sheikh, who inhaled his nargileh as he rode, and who
looked to the skies and puffed forth his smoke whenever he met a son
of Eblis; and the House of Talhook, and the House of Abdel-Malek and
a swarm of Elvasuds, and Elheires, and El Dahers, Emirs and Sheikhs on
their bounding steeds, and musketeers on foot, with their light jackets
and bare legs and wooden sandals, and black slaves, carrying vases and
tubes; everywhere a brilliant and animated multitude, and all mounting
the winding steep of Canobia.

The great court of the castle was crowded with men and horses, and fifty
mouths at once were drinking at the central basin; the arcades were full
of Sheikhs, smoking and squatted on their carpets, which in general they
had spread in this locality in preference to the more formal saloons,
whose splendid divans rather embarrassed them; though even these
chambers were well attended, the guests principally seated on the marble
floors covered with their small bright carpets. The domain immediately
around the castle was also crowded with human beings. The moment anyone
arrived, his steed was stabled or picketed; his attendants spread his
carpet, sought food for him, which was promptly furnished, with coffee
and sherbets, and occasionally wine; and when he had sufficiently
refreshed himself, he lighted his nargileh.

Everywhere there was a murmur, but no uproar; a stir, but no tumult. And
what was most remarkable amid these spears and sabres, these muskets,
handjars, and poniards, was the sweet and perpetually recurring Syrian
salutation of 'Peace.'

Fakredeen, moving about in an immense turban, of the most national and
unreformed style, and covered with costly shawls and arms flaming with
jewels, recognised and welcomed everyone. He accosted Druse and Maronite
with equal cordiality, talked much with Said Djinblat, whom he specially
wished to gain, and lent one of his choicest steeds to the Djezbek, that
he might not be offended. The Talhook and the Abdel-Malek could not be
jealous of the Habeish and the Eldadah. He kissed the hand of Bishop
Nicodemus, but then he sent his own nargileh to the Emir Ahmet Raslan,
who was Caimacam of the Druses.

In this strange and splendid scene, Tancred, dressed in a velvet
shooting-jacket built in St. James' Street and a wide-awake which had
been purchased at Bellamont market, and leaning on a rifle which was the
masterpiece of Purday, was not perhaps the least interesting personage.
The Emirs and Sheikhs, notwithstanding the powers of dissimulation for
which the Orientals are renowned, their habits of self-restraint, and
their rooted principle never to seem surprised about anything, have a
weakness in respect to arms. After eyeing Tancred for a considerable
time with imperturbable countenances, Francis El Kazin sent to Fakredeen
to know whether the English prince would favour them by shooting an
eagle. This broke the ice, and Fakredeen came, and soon the rifle was in
the hands of Francis El Kazin. Sheikh Said Djinblat, who would have died
rather than have noticed the rifle in the hands of Tancred, could not
resist examining it when in the possession of a brother Sheikh. Kais
Shehaab, several Habeishes and Elda-dahs gathered round; exclamations
of wonder and admiration arose; sundry asseverations that God was great
followed.

Freeman and Trueman, who were at hand, were summoned to show their
lord's double-barrelled gun, and his pistols with hair-triggers.
This they did, with that stupid composure and dogged conceit which
distinguish English servants in situations which must elicit from all
other persons some ebullition of feeling.

Exchanging between themselves glances of contempt at the lords of
Lebanon, who were ignorant of what everybody knows, they exhibited
the arms without the slightest interest or anxiety to make the Sheikhs
comprehend them; till Tancred, mortified at their brutality, himself
interfered, and, having already no inconsiderable knowledge of the
language of the country, though, from his reserve, Fakredeen little
suspected the extent of his acquirements, explained felicitously to
his companions the process of the arms; and then taking his rifle, and
stepping out upon the terrace, he levelled his piece at a heron which
was soaring at a distance of upwards of one hundred yards, and brought
the bird down amid the applause both of Maronite and Druse.

'He is sent here, I understand,' said Butros Keramy, 'to ascertain
for the Queen of the English whether the country is in favour of the
Shehaabs. Could you believe it, but I was told yesterday at Deir el
Kamar, that the English consul has persuaded the Queen that even the
patriarch was against the Shehaabs?'

'Is it possible?' said Rafael Farah, a Maronite of the House
of Eldadah. 'It must be the Druses who circulate these enormous
falsehoods.'

'Hush!' said Young Syria, in the shape of Francis El Kazin, 'there is no
longer Maronite or Druse: we are all Syrians, we are brothers.'

'Then a good many of my brothers are sons of Eblis,' said Butros Keramy.
'I hope he is not my father.'

'Truly, I should like to see the mountain without the Maronite nation,'
said Rafael Farah. 'That would be a year without rain.'

'And mighty things your Maronite nation has done!' rejoined Francis El
Kazin. 'If there had been the Syrian nation instead of the Maronite
nation, and the Druse nation, and half a dozen other nations besides,
instead of being conquered by Egypt in 1832, we should have conquered
Egypt ourselves long ago, and have held it for our farm. We have done
mighty things truly with our Maronite nation!'

'To hear an El Kazin speak against the Maronite nation!' exclaimed
Rafael Farah, with a look of horror; 'a natipn that has two hundred
convents!'

'And a patriarch,' said Butros Keramy, 'very much respected even by the
Pope of Rome.'

'And who were disarmed like sheep,' said Francis.

'Not because we were beaten,' said Butros, who was brave enough.

'We were persuaded to that,' said Rafael.

'By our monks,' said Francis; 'the convents you are so proud of.'

'They were deceived by sons of Eblis,' said Butros. 'I never gave up
my arms. I have some pieces now, that, although they are not as fine
as those of the English prince, could pick a son of Eblis off behind a
rock, whether he be Egyptian or Druse.'

'Hush!' said Francis El Kazin. 'You love our host, Butros; these are not
words that will please him----'

'Or me, my children,' said Bishop Nicodemus. 'This is a great day for
Syria! to find the chiefs of both nations assembled at the castle of a
Shehaab. Why am I here but to preach peace and love? And Butros Keramy,
my friend, my dearly beloved brother Butros, if you wish to please the
patriarch, your uncle, who loves you so well, you will no longer call
Druses sons of Eblis.'

'What are we to call them?' asked Rafael Farah, pettishly.

'Brothers,' replied Bishop Nicodemus; 'misguided, but still brothers.
This is not a moment for brawls, when the great Queen of the English has
sent hither her own brother to witness the concord of the mountain.'

Now arose the sound of tabors, beaten without any attempt at a tune, but
with unremitting monotony, then the baying of many hounds more distant.
There was a bustle. Many Sheikhs slowly rose; their followers rushed
about; some looked at their musket locks, some poised their pikes and
spears, some unsheathed their handjars, examined their edge, and then
returned them to their sheath. Those who were in the interior of the
castle came crowding into the great court, which, in turn, poured forth
its current of population into the table-land about the castle. Here,
held by grooms, or picketed, were many steeds. The mares of the Emir
Fakredeen were led about by his black slaves. Many of the Sheikhs,
mounted, prepared for the pastime that awaited them.

There was to be a grand chase in the oak forest, through part of which
Tancred had already travelled, and which spread over a portion of the
plain and the low hilly country that encompassed it. Three parties,
respectively led by the Emir Fakredeen, and the Caimacams of the two
nations, were to penetrate into this forest at different and distant
points, so that the sport was spread over a surface of many miles.
The heads of the great houses of both nations accompanied the Emir of
Canobia; their relatives and followers, by the exertions of Francis El
Kazin and Young Syria, were in general so disturbed that the Maronites
were under the command of the Emir Raslan, the Druse Caimacam, while the
Druses followed the Emir Hai-dar. This great hunting party consisted of
more than eight hundred persons, about half of whom were mounted, but
all were armed; even those who held the dogs in leash were entitled
to join in the sport with the same freedom as the proudest Sheikh. The
three leaders having mounted and bowed gracefully to each other, the
cavalcades separated and descended into the plain. The moment they
reached the level country, the horsemen shouted and dispersed, galloping
in all directions, and many of them throwing their spears; but, in a
short time, they had collected again under their respective leaders, and
the three distinct bodies, each a moving and many-coloured mass, might
be observed from the castled heights, each instant diminishing in size
and lustre, until they vanished at different points in the distance, and
were lost amid the shades of the forest.

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