CHAPTER VI.

SUEZ CANAL— THE DRUSES, THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
^N the opening of the third chapter the attention of my readers was ni called to the absurdity of giving to certain men the credit of being the promoters and inventors of the early sciences, and demonstrated my reasons for so doing. The same may be said of the cutting of the canal across the Isthmus of Suez ; it is the height of absurdity to give Napoleon credit for having been the first to conceive the idea of the project, or the French people, or any other modern source, for the simple reason that it had been under contemplation fully thirty-four centuries ago. In fact, we have proof positive that the two seas were connected b}' a canal or waterway long centuries before Christ; consequently the work commenced and completed by