Drupe

[Lat. drupa; Gr. druppa; drupētēs, ready to fall- drip, a tree, and pip to, to fall.] ( Bot. ) A pulpy pericarp or fruit without valves, containing a nut or stone with a kernel, as the plum, peach, . Dru'ry, in Illinois, a township of Rock Island co.; pop. abt. 1,200. Drury's Landing, in Illinois , a village of Rock Island co., on the Mi i ippi River. Dru's es, the popular name of a race, which inhabit a district in the N. of Syria, comprising the whole of the 8. range of Mount Lebanon, and the W. slope of Anti Lebanon. In this district they hold exclusive po e ion of about 400 towns and villages, and divide the po e ion of abt. 200 more with the Maronites, q . v ., while 80 villages in other parts of Anti-Lebanon are peopled by them. In religion, they pa among the Maronites for atheists. The great body of the people are certainly indifferent to any religious form; but a certain sect, styling themselves Akels , are very rigid in the prac tice of their faith, in which the doctrines of the Pent a teuch, the Christian Gospel, the Koran, and the Suli allegories, are wonderfully interwoven. The D. are about 80,000 in number; they are a brave, handsome, and industrious people, and are almost all taught to read and write. Polygamy is unknown among them. They have, with incredible toil, carried the soil of the valleys up and along the hillsides, which are laid out in terraces, planted with mulberry, olive, and vine. From the produce of these the hardy mountaineers draw the greater part of their sustenance. Their Fig . 877. chief trade is the manufac ture of silk. Corn is also A DRUSE GIRL. raised, though in very small quantity. Deir-el-kammer is the principal town. The D. are noted for their hospitality; but their resentment is easily roused, and this characteristic was artfully used by the Turkish authorities in fomenting the ma acre of the Christians in Lebanon, in 1860. From May to Oct. of that year, it is said that the D. slew about 12,000 men, women, and children, of whom 200 were priests; besides destroying 163 villages, 220 churches, and 7 convents. In August of the same year, an expedition was sent out from France to Syria, with the consent of the Great Powers, for the purpose of protecting the Christian residents and the so-called Maronite Christians. The Sultan dispatched Fuad Pasha as commi ioner to restore tranquillity. The consequence was, that 167 of the most guilty D. were publicly executed at Damascus, Aug. 20, and many others sent to Constantinople to undergo imprisonment and hard labor.