The Maronite population is said to be above 200,000 individuals, and to contain between 30,000 and 40,000 men fit for military service. Every Maronite is armed, and they are all soldiers in case of need. Their language is Arabic, and by their appearance and habits they belong to the Arabian race. They are a fine-looking people, high spirited, civil and hospitable, especially towards European travellers, and perfectly honest. Robbery and other acts of violence are hardly known among them. (Jewett, Light, Lamartine, and other travellers in Syria.) But Kinnear, who visited them in 1839, says, "happily for them, their religion exempts, or rather excludes, them from mili tary service, and they escape the heaviest of all the evils under which their country has suffered—the consoription " (` Cairo, Petra, and Damascas, in 1839 '), though he concurs in the favourable character given of the people. It would thus appear that a period of repose had relaxed their warlike qualities ; and this is confirmed to some extent by the events of June, 1860. In that month, the Druses attacked the
Maronites, who, though superior in number, made but a feeble resistance. Deis el Kama, their capital, was besieged, many villages destroyed and their inhabitants massacred, while the Turkish troops stood by and refused to interfere to repress the'outrages.
There is at Rome, on the Quirinal Mount, a convent of Maronito monks, who perform the service of the mass in the Syriac language, according to the liturgy of their country. This church was founded by Pope Gregory XIII., and is dedicated to St. John. The monastery serves as a college for young Maronites who go to Rome to study and take orders, after which they return to their own country. It is one of those exotio colonies which give a peculiar interest to the city of Rome. .
The ceremonies of these Maronites of Rome on great festivals, their chanting in Syriac, and their curious musical instruments, are described by the Abb6 Richard, in his ' Voyage en Italie.'