Note 13 — Chapter V · ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS

C. R. Conder, the eminent Palestinian archæologist, points out that Arabic grammar necessitates our translating Jebel esh-Sheikh “Mountain of the Sheikh,” and derives the appellation from the fact that in the tenth century the founder of the Druse religion took up his residence in Hermon (Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, s. v. “Hermon”). But no one who has seen the white head of the tall, strong mountain can help thinking of Hermon as itself the proud, reverend sheikh of the glorious tribe of Syrian peaks.