Inhobitanta.—The population of Syria consists of agricultural and nomadic tribes. Nearly all the Fella., as the agricultural population of Syria is called, belong to one race, resembling in the structure of their body the Beduin Arabs, and speaking also the Arabic language. The Fellehs are divided, according to their religion, into Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans. The Jews are numerous in Southern Syria, west of the southern valley, but they are rarely found east of that valley, or In the other parts of the province. They are most numerous In the vicinity of the five holy cities—Jerusalem, Tabarieh, Sated, Nableus, and Khalil (Hebron). The Christians are found everywhere. Even in the Ilaouran the Christians constitute one fourth of the agricultural population. They aro either of the Greek Church or Roman Catholics. Among the Roman Catholics are Included all religious denominations who acknowledge the authority of the Holy See :—the Latins, who use the Roman liturgy, and have a patriarch at Jerusalem, and numerous convents there and in different parte of the Holy Land; the Melchiten, or United Greeks, who have a patriarch at Damascus, and eight suffragan bishops ; the Maronitee, who are Catholics, live exclusively on the western declivity of Mount Libanus, in the Kerrawan, and are a very industrious people; the United Armenians, who have a patriarch at Bezninma in the Lihanus, and a bishop in Aleppo ; and the Syrians, or United Chaldeans, who hare a patriarch at Aleppo. The Maronites, who number about 140,000, have a patriarch at Kanebin, in the Kesrawan, and seven suffragan bishops.
There are also three religious sects in Syria which are neither Christians nor Mohammodans—the Draw, Anzeyrien or Ansairians, and the Isinanlies. The most powerful of them are the Druses, who number about 30,000; they pay tribute to the Turkish pashas, but otherwise aro independent, and their chief may be considered as the master of a great part of Mount Libanus, with the adjacent districts of the Bekaa. The Anzeyries, or Ansalrinus, inhabit the mountain region which has received its name from them, aud which lies between the lower course of the Azy and the Mediterranean. They are like wise an industrious people. The Iernanlies are few in number, and inhabit some villages In the mouutains of the Anzeyry. They are considered to be a remnant of the Assassins and Ismaelitos.
The nomadic, tribes oousist of Arabs, who are dispersed over the country as far north as 36° N. lat., and Turkmans and Kurds. The Arabs, with the exception of the Anneze tribe, do not live exclusively on the produce of their herds and flocks. They also cultivate small spots of ground, but they change their abode according to the season and the growth of pasture, taking to the mountains in summer and to the plains in winter and spring. There are some Metualis Moham medans of the sect of All in the southern parts of the Libanus and about Baalbec. They are a settled people, and number about 30,000. They oblige the settled agricultural portion of the population to pay them a tribute for not laying waste their fields and carryiug off their cattle. But even on the table-land of Judrea the peasants are generally tribu tary to the Arab emirs. There is probably no part of Syria in which this state of things does not exist, except in the country of the Druses and Maronites, and in the immediate neighbourhood of some great towns.
The Anneze is the only tribe of Beduins in Syria who never cultivate the ground, but who live exclusively on the produce of their herds of camels, sheep, and goats. They wander about in the Syrian and Arabian deserts, and pass the winter there, which lasts from the beginning of October to the end of April, when the rains cause grass and herbs to spring up in many parts of the deserts, on which their flocks feed ; but they enter the limits of Syria at the beginning of May, and remain there till after September. At this time they approach the caravan road leading from Aleppo to Damascus, and the Hadji road leading from Damascus to Mecca. They come to these places for a two-fold purpose, water and pasture for the summer, and to exchange their cattle for corn as winter provision. If they are at peace with the pasha of Damascus they encamp quietly among the villages near the springs or wells.
The most powerful of the other Arab tribes are the El Howeytat and the Beni Neym, who live in the mountain region of EI-Shorn and in the adjacent plain ; the Beni Szakher, who are in posseassion of the rich pasture-grounds in the Belka, aud likewise visit the plain of Haouran ; the Adouan, who are found in the Jebel Ajelun; and the Fchily and Serdie, who move about in the plain of Haouran and the mountaios in their vicinity. All these tribes are only nominally dependent on the Turkish governor, and though they pay a small tribute, they levy much larger sums on the agricultural inhabitants of these countries.
The Turkmans and the Kurds are in almost exclusive possession of the elevated range of the Alma Dagh and the tracts at its base. The eastern districts of these mountains are occupied by the Kurds, aud the western by the Turkmaus. They descend from the mountains in winter, and spread over the plains to a considerable distance south of Aleppo. Some small tribes of •both nations have settled on the northern districts of Mount Libanus.
The Turkmans are of the same stock from which the Turks are sprung. In the level parts of their country they cultivate wheat, barley, and several kinds of pulse. The cultivation is not carried on by the Turkmana themselves, but by Fellahs. The Turkmans remain with their herds in the Umk from the end of September to the middle of April, when they go to the mountains. They have horses, camels, sheep, and goats, and a few cattle. Their women, who have com plexions as fair as any European women, are very industrious. They make tent-coverings of goats'-hair, and woollen carpets. They have also made great progress in the art of dyeing: they use indigo aud cochineal, which they purchase at Aleppo. Time brilliant green which they give to the wool is produced from herbs gathered in the moun tains in summer. The Kurds who inhabit Syria are originally from Kurdistan. They possess the western portion of the Alma-Dagh, from which they descend in summer to the plains east of Aleppo. Most of these Kurds live in villages, and are occupied iu agriculture and the rearing of cattle; but there is still a considerable number• of families that change their abode according to the seasons, in order to procure pasture for their cattle.