Part 42

fermented dough added to other dough for this purpose (see BREAD). The word is used figuratively of any element, influence or agency which effects a subtle or secret change. These figurative usages are mainly due to the comparison of the kingdom of Heaven to leaven in Matt. xiii. 33, and to the warning against the leaven of the Pharisees in Matt. xvi. 6. In the first example the word is used of a good influence, but the more usual significance is that of an evil agency. There was among the Hebrews an association of the idea of fermentation and corruption, which may have been one source of the prohibition of the use of leavened bread in sacrificial offerings. For the usage of unleavened bread at the feasts of the Passover and of Massôth, and the connexion of the two, see PASSOVER.

LEAVENWORTH, a city and the county-seat of Leavenworth county, Kansas, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Missouri river. Pop. (1900) 20,738, of whom 3402 were foreign-born and 2925 were negroes; (1910 census) 19,363. It is one of the most important railway centres west of the Missouri river, being served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Chicago Great Western, the Missouri Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Leavenworth & Topeka railways. The city is laid out regularly in the bottom-lands of the river, and its streets are named after Indian tribes. Rolling hills surround it on three sides. The city has many handsome public buildings, and contains the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Leavenworth being the see of a Roman Catholic bishop. The public institutions include the Kansas State Protective Home (1889) for negroes, an Old Ladies' Rest (1892), St Vincent's Orphans' Asylum (1886, open to all sects) and a Guardian Angels' Home (1889), for negroes--all private charities aided by the state; also St John's Hospital (1879), Cushing Hospital (1893) and Leavenworth Hospital (1900), which are training schools for nurses. There is also a branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. In the suburbs there are state and United States penitentiaries. Leavenworth is a trading centre and has various manufactures, the most important being foundry and machine shop and flouring and grist-mill products, and furniture. The city's factory products increased in value from $3,251,460 in 1900 to $4,151,767 in 1905, or 27.7%. There are valuable coal mines in Leavenworth and the immediate vicinity. About 3 m. N. of the city, on a reservation of about 6000 acres, is Fort Leavenworth, an important United States military post, associated with which are a National Cemetery and Service Schools of the U.S. Army (founded in 1881 as the U.S. Infantry and Cavalry School and in 1901 developed into a General Service and Staff College). In 1907 there were three general divisions of these schools: the Army School of the Line, for officers (not below the grade of captain) of the regular army and for militia officers recommended by the governors of their respective states or territories, offering courses in military art, engineering, law and languages; the Army Signal School, also open to regular and militia officers, and having departments of field signalling, signal engineering, topography and languages; and the Army Staff College, in which the students are the highest graduates from the Army School of the Line, and the courses of instruction are included in the departments of military art, engineering, law, languages and care of troops. The course is one year in each school. At Fort Leavenworth there is a colossal bronze statue of General U. S. Grant erected in 1889. A military prison was established at Fort Leavenworth in 1875; it was used as a civil prison from 1895 to 1906, when it was re-established as a military prison. Its inmates were formerly taught various trades, but owing to the opposition of labour organizations this system was discontinued, and the prisoners are now employed in work on the military reservation.

The fort, from which the city took its name, was built in 1827, in the Indian country, by Colonel Henry Leavenworth (1783-1834) of the 3rd Infantry, for the protection of traders plying between the Missouri river and Santa Fé. The town site was claimed by Missourians from Weston in June 1854, Leavenworth thus being the oldest permanent settlement in Kansas; and during the contest in Kansas between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers, it was known as a pro-slavery town. It was first incorporated by the Territorial legislature in 1855; a new charter was obtained in 1881; and in 1908 the city adopted the commission plan of government. On the 3rd of April 1858 a free-state convention adopted the Leavenworth Constitution here; this constitution, which was as radically anti-slavery as the Lecompton Constitution was pro-slavery, was nominally approved by popular vote in May 1858, and was later submitted to Congress, but never came into effect. During the Civil War Leavenworth enjoyed great prosperity, at the expense of more inland towns, partly owing to the proximity of the fort, which gave it immunity from border raids from Missouri and was an important depôt of supplies and a place for mustering troops into and out of the service. Leavenworth was, in Territorial days and until after 1880, the largest and most thriving commercial city of the state, and rivalled Kansas City, Missouri, which, however, finally got the better of it in the struggle for railway facilities.

LEBANON (from Semitic _laban_, "to be white," or "whitish," probably referring not to snow, but to the bare white walls of chalk or limestone which form the characteristic feature of the whole range), in its widest sense is the central mountain mass of Syria, extending for about 100 m. from N.N.E. to S.S.W. It is bounded W. by the sea, N. by the plain Jun Akkar, beyond which rise the mountains of the Ansarieh, and E. by the inland plateau of Syria, mainly steppe-land. To the south Lebanon ends about the point where the river Litany bends westward, and at Banias. A valley narrowing towards its southern end, and now called the Buka'a, divides the mountainous mass into two great parts. That lying to the west is still called Jebel Libnan; the greater part of the eastern mass now bears the name of the Eastern Mountain (Jebel el-Sharki). In Greek the western range was called Libanos, the eastern Antilibanos. The southern extension of the latter, Mount Hermon (q.v.), may in many respects be treated as a separate mountain.

Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon have many features in common; in both the southern portion is less arid and barren than the northern, the western valleys better wooded and more fertile than the eastern. In general the main elevations of the two ranges form pairs lying opposite one another; the forms of both ranges are monotonous, but the colouring is splendid, especially when viewed from a distance; when seen close at hand only a few valleys with perennial streams offer pictures of landscape beauty, their rich green contrasting pleasantly with the bare brown and yellow mountain sides. The finest scenery is found in N. Lebanon, in the Maronite districts of Kesrawan and Bsherreh, where the gorges are veritable canyons, and the villages are often very picturesquely situated. The south of the chain is more open and undulating. Anti-Lebanon is the barest and most inhospitable part of the system.

The district west of Lebanon, averaging about 20 m. in breadth, slopes in an intricate series of plateaus and terraces to the Mediterranean. The coast is for the most part abrupt and rocky, often leaving room for only a narrow path along the shore, and when viewed from the sea it does not suggest the extent of country lying between its cliffs and the lofty summits behind. Most of the mountain spurs run from east to west, but in northern Lebanon the prevailing direction of the valleys is north-westerly, and in the south some ridges run parallel with the principal chain. The valleys have for the most part been deeply excavated by mountain streams; the apparently inaccessible heights are crowned by numerous villages, castles or cloisters embosomed among trees. The chief perennial streams, beginning from the north, are the Nahr Akkar, N. Arka, N. el-Barid, N. Kadisha, "the holy river" (the valley of which begins in the immediate neighbourhood of the highest summits, and rapidly descends in a series of great bends till the river reaches the sea at Tripoli), Wadi el-Joz (falling into the sea at Batrun), Wadi Fidar, Nahr Ibrahim (the ancient Adonis, having its source in a recess of the great mountain amphitheatre where the famous sanctuary Apheca, the modern Afka, lay), Nahr el-Kelb (the ancient Lycus), Nahr Beirut (the ancient Magoras, entering the sea at Beirut), Nahr Damur (ancient Tamyras), Nahr el-'Auwali (the ancient Bostrenus, which in the upper part of its course is joined by the Nahr el-Baruk). The 'Auwali and the Nahr el-Zaherani, the only other considerable streams before we reach the Litany, flow north-east to south-west, in consequence of the interposition of a ridge subordinate and parallel to the central chain. On the north, where the mountain bears the special name of Jebel Akkar, the main ridge of Lebanon rises gradually from the plain. A number of valleys run to the north and north-east, among them that of the Nahr el-Kebir, the Eleutherus of the ancients, which rises in the Jebel el-Abiad on the eastern slope of Lebanon, and afterwards, skirting the district, flows westward to the sea. South of Jebel el-Abiad, beneath the main ridge, which as a rule falls away suddenly towards the east, occur several small elevated terraces having a southward slope; among these are the Wadi en-Nusur ("vale of eagles"), and the basin of the lake Yammuna, with its intermittent spring Neb'a el-Arba'in. Of the streams which descend into the Buka'a, the Berdani rises in Jebel Sunnin, and enters the plain by a deep and picturesque mountain cleft at Zahleh.

The most elevated summits occur in the north, but even these are of very gentle gradient. The "Cedar block" consists of a double line of four and three summits respectively, ranged from north to south, with a deviation of about 35°. Those to the east are 'Uyun Urghush, Makmal, Muskiyya (or Naba' esh-Shemaila) and Ras Zahr el-Kazib; fronting the sea are Kam Sauda or Timarun, Fumm el-Mizab and Zahr el-Kandil. The height of Zahr el-Kazib, by barometric measurement, is 10,018 ft.; that of the others does not reach 10,000 ft. South from them is the pass (8351 ft.) which leads from Baalbek to Tripoli; the great mountain amphitheatre on the west side of its summit is remarkable. Farther south is a second group of lofty summits--the snow-capped Sunnin, visible from Beirut; its height is 8482 ft. Between this group and the more southerly Jebel Keniseh (about 6700 ft.) lies the pass (4700 ft.) traversed by the French post road between Beirut and Damascus. Among the bare summits still farther south are the long ridge of Jebel el-Baruk (about 7000 ft.), the Jebel Niha, with the Tau'amat Niha (about 6100 ft.), near which is a pass to Sidon, and the Jebel Rihan (about 5400 ft.).

The Buka'a, the broad valley which separates Lebanon from Anti-Lebanon, is watered by two rivers having their watershed near Baalbek, at an elevation of about 3600 ft., and separated only by a short mile at their sources. That flowing northwards, El-'Asi, is the ancient Orontes (q.v.); the other is the Litany. In the lower part of its course the latter has scooped out a deep and narrow rocky bed; at Burghuz it is spanned by a great natural bridge. Not far from the point where it suddenly trends to the west lie, immediately above the romantic valley, at an elevation of 1500 ft., the imposing ruins of the old castle Kal'at esh-Shakif, near one of the passes to Sidon. In its lower part the Litany bears the name of Nahr el-Kasimiya. Neither the Orontes nor the Litany has any important affluent.

The Buka'a used to be known as Coelesyria (Strabo. xvi. 2, 21); but that word as employed by the ancients had a much more extensive application. At present its full name is Buka'a el-'Aziz (the dear Buka'a), and its northern portion is known as Sahlet Ba'albek (the plain of Baalbek). The valley is from 4 to 6 m. broad, with an undulating surface.

The Anti-Lebanon chain has been less fully explored than that of Lebanon. Apart from its southern offshoots it is 67 m. long, while its width varies from 16 to 13½ m. It rises from the plain of Hasya-Homs, and in its northern portion is very arid. The range has not so many offshoots as occur on the west side of Lebanon; under its precipitous slopes stretch table-lands and broad plateaus, which, especially on the east side looking towards the steppe, steadily increase in width. Along the western side of northern Anti-Lebanon stretches the Khasha'a, a rough red region lined with juniper trees, a succession of the hardest limestone crests and ridges, bristling with bare rock and crag that shelter tufts of vegetation, and are divided by a succession of grassy ravines. On the eastern side the parallel valley of 'Asal el-Ward deserves special mention; the descent towards the plain eastwards, as seen for example at Ma'lula, is singular--first a spacious amphitheatre and then two deep very narrow gorges. Few perennial streams take their rise in Anti-Lebanon; one of the finest and best watered valleys is that of Helbun, the ancient Chalybon, the Helbon of Ezek. xxvii. 18. The highest points of the range, reckoning from the north, are Halimat el-Kabu (8257 ft.), which has a splendid view; the Fatli block, including Tal'at Musa (8721 ft.) and the adjoining Jebel Nebi Baruh (7900 ft.); and a third group near Bludan, in which the most prominent names are Shakif, Akhyar and Abu'l-Hin (8330 ft.); Of the valleys descending westward the first to claim mention is the Wadi Yafufa; a little farther south, lying north and south, is the rich upland valley of Zebedani, where the Barada has its highest sources. Pursuing an easterly course, this stream receives the waters of the romantic 'Ain Fije (which doubles its volume), and bursts out by a rocky gateway upon the plain of Damascus, in the irrigation of which it is the chief agent. It is the Abana of 2 Kings v. 12; the portion of Anti-Lebanon traversed by it was also called by the same name (Canticles iv. 8). From the point where the southerly continuation of Anti-Lebanon begins to take a more westerly direction, a low ridge shoots out towards the south-west, trending farther and farther away from the eastern chain and narrowing the Buka'a; upon the eastern side of this ridge lies the elevated valley or hilly stretch known as Wadi et-Teim. In the north, beside 'Ain Faluj, it is connected by a low watershed with the Buka'a; from the gorge of the Litany it is separated by the ridge of Jebel ed-Dahr. At its southern end it contracts and merges into the plain of Banias, thus enclosing Mount Hermon on its north-west and west sides; eastward from the Hasbany branch of the Jordan lies the meadow-land Merj 'Iyun, the ancient Ijon (1 Kings xv. 20).

_Vegetation._--The western slope of Lebanon has the common characteristics of the flora of the Mediterranean coast, but the Anti-Lebanon belongs to the poorer region of the steppes, and the Mediterranean species are met with only sporadically along the water-courses. Forest and pasture land do not properly exist: the place of the first is for the most part taken by a low brushwood; grass is not plentiful, and the higher ridges maintain alpine plants only so long as patches of snow continue to lie. The rock walls harbour some rock plants, but many absolutely barren wildernesses of stone occur. (1) On the western slope, to a height of 1600 ft., is the coast region, similar to that of Syria in general and of the south of Asia Minor. Characteristic trees are the locust tree and the stone pine; in _Melia Azedarach_ and _Ficus Sycomorus_ (Beirut) is an admixture of foreign and partially subtropical elements. The great mass of the vegetation, however is of the low-growing type (_maquis_ or _garrigue_ of the western Mediterranean), with small and stiff leaves, and frequently thorny and aromatic, as for example the ilex (_Quercus coccifera_), _Smilax_, _Cistus_, _Lentiscus_, _Calycotome_, &c. (2) Next comes, from 1600 to 6500 ft., the mountain region, which may also be called the forest region, still exhibiting sparse woods and isolated trees wherever shelter, moisture and the inhabitants have permitted their growth. From 1600 to 3200 ft. is a zone of dwarf hard-leaved oaks, amongst which occur the Oriental forms _Fontanesia phillyraeoides_, _Acer syriacum_ and the beautiful red-stemmed _Arbutus Andrachne_. Higher up, between 3700 and 4200 ft., a tall pine, _Pinus Brutia_, is characteristic. Between 4200 and 6200 ft. is the region of the two most interesting forest trees of Lebanon, the cypress and the cedar. The former still grows thickly, especially in the valley of the Kadisha; the horizontal is the prevailing variety. In the upper Kadisha valley there is a cedar grove of about three hundred trees, amongst which five are of gigantic size. (See also CEDAR.) The cypress and cedar zone exhibits a variety of other leaf-bearing and coniferous trees; of the first may be mentioned several oaks--_Quercus subalpina_ (Kotschy), _Q. Cerris_ and the hop-hornbeam (_Ostrya_); of the second class the rare Cilician silver fir (_Abies cilicica_) may be noticed. Next come the junipers, sometimes attaining the size of trees (_Juniperus excelsa_, _J. rufescens_ and, with fruit as large as plums, _J. drupacea_). But the chief ornament of Lebanon is the _Rhododendron ponticum_, with its brilliant purple flower clusters; a peculiar evergreen, _Vinca libanotica_, also adds beauty to this zone. (3) Into the alpine region (6200 to 10,400 ft.) penetrate a few very stunted oaks (_Quercus subalpina_), the junipers already mentioned and a barberry (_Berberis cretica_), which sometimes spreads into close thickets. Then follow the low, dense, prone, pillow-like dwarf bushes, thorny and grey, common to the Oriental highlands--_Astragalus_ and the peculiar _Acantholimon_. They are found to within 300 ft. of the highest summits.

Upon the exposed mountain slopes a species of rhubarb (_Rheum Ribes_) is noticeable, and also a vetch (_Vicia canescens_) excellent for sheep. The spring vegetation, which lasts until July, appears to be rich, especially as regards showy plants, such as _Corydalis_, _Gagea_, _Colchicum_, _Puschkinia_, _Geranium_, _Ornithogalum_, &c. The flora of the highest ridges, along the edges of the snow patches, exhibits no forms related to the northern alpine flora, but suggestions of it are found in a _Draba_, an _Androsace_, an _Alsine_ and a violet, occurring, however, only in local species. Upon the highest summits are found _Saponaria Pumilio_ (resembling our _Silene acaulis_) and varieties of _Galium_, _Euphorbia_, _Astragalus_, _Veronica_, _Jurinea_, _Festuca_, _Scrophularia_, _Geranium_, _Asphodeline_, _Allium_, _Asperula_; and, on the margins of the snow fields, a _Taraxacum_ and _Ranunculus demissus_. The alpine flora of Lebanon thus connects itself directly with the Oriental flora of lower altitudes, and is unrelated to the glacial flora of Europe and northern Asia.

_Zoology._--There is nothing of special interest about the fauna of Lebanon. Bears are no longer numerous; the panther and the ounce are met with; the wild hog, hyaena, wolf and fox are by no means rare; jackals and gazelles are very common. The polecat and hedgehog also occur. As a rule there are not many birds, but the eagle and the vulture may occasionally be seen; of eatable kinds partridges and wild pigeons are the most abundant.

_Population._--In the following sections the Lebanon proper will alone be considered, without reference to Anti-Lebanon, because the peculiar political status of the former range since 1864 has effectually differentiated it; whereas the Anti-Lebanon still forms an integral part of the Ottoman province of Syria (q.v.), and neither its population nor its history is readily distinguishable from those of the surrounding districts.

The total population in the Lebanon proper is about 400,000, and is increasing faster than the development of the province will admit. There is consequently much emigration, the Christian surplus going mainly to Egypt, and to America, the Druses to the latter country and to the Hauran. The emigrants to America, however, usually return after making money, build new houses and settle down. The singularly complex population is composed of Christians, Maronites, and Orthodox Eastern and Uniate; of Moslems, both Sunni and Shiah (Metawali); and of Druses.

(a) _Maronites_ (q.v.) form about three-fifths of the whole and have the north of the Mountain almost to themselves, while even in the south, the old Druse stronghold, they are now numerous. Feudalism is practically extinct among them and with the decline of the Druses, and the great stake they have acquired in agriculture, they have laid aside much of their warlike habit together with their arms. Even their instinct of nationality is being sensibly impaired by their gradual assimilation to the Papal Church, whose agents exercise from Beirut an increasing influence on their ecclesiastical elections and church government. They are strong also in the Buka'a, and have colonies in most of the Syrian cities.

(b) _Orthodox_ Eastern form a little more than one-eighth of the whole, and are strongest in S. Lebanon (Metn and Kurah districts). Syrians by race and Arab-speaking, they are descendants of those "Melkites" who took the side of the Byzantine church in the time of Justinian II. against the Moslems and eventually the Maronites. They are among the most progressive of the Lebanon elements.

(c) _Greek Uniate_ are less numerous, forming little more than one-twelfth, but are equally progressive. Their headquarters is Zahleh; but they are found also in strength in Metn and Jezzin, where they help to counterbalance Druses. They sympathize with the Maronites against the Orthodox Eastern, and, like both, are of Syrian race, and Arab speech.

(d) _Sunnite Moslems_ are a weak element, strongest in Shuf and Kurah, and composed largely of Druse renegades and "Druse" families, which, like the Shehab, were of Arab extraction and never conformed to the creed of Hamza.

(e) _Shiite Moslems_ outnumber the Sunni, and make about one twenty-fifth of the whole. They are called _Metawali_ and are strongest in North Lebanon (Kesrawan and Batrun), but found also in the south, in Buka'a and in the coast-towns from Beirut to Acre. They are said to be descendants of Persian tribes; but the fact is very doubtful, and they may be at least as aboriginal as the Maronites, and a remnant of an old Incarnationist population which did not accept Christianity, and kept its heretical Islam free from those influences which modified Druse creed. They own a chief sheikh, resident at Jeba'a, and have the reputation, like most heretical communities in the Sunni part of the Moslem world, of being exceedingly fanatical and inhospitable. It is undoubtedly the case that they are suspicious of strangers and defiant of interference. Another small body of Shiites, the _Ismailites_ (Assassins (q.v.) of the crusading chronicles), also said to be of Persian origin, live about Kadmus at the extreme N. of Lebanon, but outside the limits of the privileged province. They are about 9000 strong.