* 
 
 J 
 
 
PEASANT LIFE IN THE HOLY LAND 
 
PEASANT LIFE IN THE 
 HOLY LAND 
 
 BY THE REV. C. T. WILSON 
 
 M.A. Oxon., F.R.G.S., F.S.A. 
 
 Vicar of Totland Bay, I.W. 
 Formerly of the Church Missionary Society, Uganda and Palestine 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 
 
 1906 
 

 
 Printed in Great Britain 
 
PREFACE 
 
 During the last forty or fifty years a Hood of light 
 has been thrown on the ancient history of Egypt, 
 Babylonia, Syria, and the other lands so intimately 
 associated with Palestine, as well as on that of the 
 Holy Land itself, thereby illustrating and con- 
 firming the Scripture narrative. Towns and cities 
 buried for thousands of years have been compelled 
 to yield up their secrets to the spade of the explorer ; 
 the story of forgotten tribes and nations has been 
 discovered : ancient languages have been re-learnt, 
 and their records and literature, personal corre- 
 spondence and private accounts, have been made 
 accessible to the ordinary reader. 
 
 In another field of research, that of the manners 
 and customs, language and folk-lore, of these 
 Eastern lands, much has also been accomplished, 
 but in both much yet remains to be done. The 
 
 V 
 
 255143 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 present work is a small contribution towards a 
 fuller knowledge of the latter field. 
 
 The circumstance of a long sojourn in the Holy 
 Land has given the author a somewhat intimate 
 acquaintance with its inhabitants. The knowledge 
 thus acquired he feels he ought not to keep to 
 himself, especially as, unlike most of the records 
 revealed by pick and spade, no inconsiderable 
 portion is in danger of being lost through the 
 changes which time is bringing on the land. 
 
 C. T. W. 
 
 Totland Bay, I.W., 
 
 January 23, 1906. 
 
CON T E N T S 
 
 pai ; ^. 
 
 INTRODUCTION ------ 1 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 RELIGION - - - - - - - 10 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 religion (continued) - - - ■ - 35 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 VILLAGE LIFE - - - - - - 57 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE - - - - - - 89 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 domestic LIFE (continued) - - - 107 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 domestic life (continued) - - - - 117 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 domestic life (continued) - - - - 132 
 
 vii 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE {continued) - - - - - 147 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. - - - - 161 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 AGRICULTURE - - - - - - 188 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 agriculture (continued) ----- 205 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 agriculture (continued) - 226 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 minor industries ------ 242 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 miscellaneous ------ 262 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 miscellaneous (continued)- - 283 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 PROVERBS --.-... 302 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 nazareth ..... Frontispiece 
 es salt ------ To face page 6 
 
 CARMEL (SCENE OF ELIJAH'S SACRIFICE) - „ 22 
 
 A FELLAH ----- „ 26 
 
 SACRED OAK NEAR TIBNEH (JOSHUA'S BURIAL- 
 PLACE) ..... }) 26 
 
 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS ROUND A WELY - „ 27 
 
 COURTYARD OF VILLAGE MOSQUE - - „ 27 
 
 A VILLAGE EAST OF THE JORDAN - „ 28 
 
 KANATlR- ----- „ 28 
 
 SACRED TREE - - - - „ 34 
 
 GREEK CONVENT OF MAR GIR1US IN WADY KELT „ 40 
 
 AN ALlYEH ----- „ 61 
 
 SHEPHERD AND SHEEP - - - - ,, 70 
 
 ROMAN BRIDGE OVER THE JORDAN - - „ 70 
 
 PARAPET OF "TILING" - - - - „ 72 
 
 A SHOP IN MOAB ... ,,72 
 
 CHRISTIAN VILLAGE SCHOOL - - - „ 98 
 
 WOMEN SIFTING CORN - - - - ,,118 
 
 WOMEN GRINDING - - - - ,,118 
 
 FLOCK RESTING AT NOON - - ,, 128 
 
 WOMEN GOING TO DRAW WATER - ,,128 
 
 TIBERIAS- --"--,, 152 
 
 SHEPHERD AND SHEEP - - - - ,,162 
 
 PEASANT WOMAN, SHOWING HEAD-DRESS - „ 162 
 
 OAK GROVE, JEBEL AJLON - - „ 174 
 
 PREPARING FIREWOOD FOR MARKET - ,,184 
 
 ix 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CAMELS CARRYING stone - - - To face page 184 
 
 HILLSIDE CLOSE TO JERUSALEM, SHOWING ROCKY 
 
 NATURE OF GROUND 
 A FELLAH - 
 
 A SOWER - 
 
 THRESHING CORN 
 PLOUGHING - 
 
 SCENE OF JONATHAN'S EXPLOIT NEAR MICHMASH 
 BETHANY ..... 
 
 SAKlYEH ------ 
 
 BEATING OLIVES ----- 
 
 AN OLIVE GROVE 
 
 FISHERMAN ..... 
 
 AN " UPPER ROOM," OLIVES DRYING ON ROOF 
 RUINED TEMPLE NEAR TOBAZ (THE ANCIENT 
 
 THEBEZ) ----- 
 
 WEAVING HAIRCLOTH FOR TENTS 
 
 WEAVING - 
 
 A WATER-MILL, JEBEL AJL<>N - 
 
 KISSING THE HAND ... - 
 
 GREAT MOSQUE IN DAMASCUS (INTERIOR) 
 
 KHAN IN THE LEBANON - 
 
 COFFEE-MAKING ----- 
 
 PEASANTS OF THE JEBEL AJLtJN 
 
 IN THE HILL COUNTRY - - - - 
 
 " RUJM 
 
 192 
 197 
 
 197 
 198 
 198 
 200 
 210 
 220 
 220 
 226 
 252 
 252 
 
 258 
 258 
 260 
 260 
 272 
 272 
 278 
 280 
 280 
 285 
 285 
 
PEASANT LIFE IN THE HOLY 
 LAND 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 An apology is needed for adding another to the 
 long list of books on the Holy Land. My excuse 
 is that the volume deals with the people rather 
 than with the land, and that, too, from ivithin. 
 Many years' residence and work in Palestine have 
 given me exceptional opportunities of seeing the 
 inner life of the present inhabitants of the Holy 
 Land, more especially that of the Fellahin, of 
 whom this work treats. I have been brought into 
 closest contact with many of them, both Christian 
 and Moslem, staying in their houses, joining them 
 at their meals, travelling long journeys with them, 
 seeking to enter into, and sympathize with, their 
 joys and sorrows in all the vicissitudes of human 
 life, and often, for days at a time, hearing and 
 speaking nothing but their language. I have in 
 many cases gained their confidence, I believe, and 
 at the same time, while not forgetful of their short- 
 comings, I have learnt to appreciate their good 
 qualities and to esteem some of them very highly. 
 It is a remarkable fact that nearly all the works 
 
Si INTRODUCTION 
 
 dealing with the Holy Land and the manners and 
 customs of its people have been written, not by 
 residents, but by travellers. There are undoubted 
 advantages in this fact, but there are also grave 
 disadvantages. 
 
 To the new-comer from the West, who obtains 
 his first glimpse of Eastern life as he sets foot on 
 the shores of Palestine, all he sees and hears comes 
 with startling novelty. Every turn of the road or 
 street, each group by the wayside, the long lines of 
 camels winding down the valleys, the picturesque 
 crowds of an Eastern market, the varied incidents 
 of peasant life, all present brilliant pictures to eye 
 and mind with a vividness and freshness which are 
 apt to be much dimmed by long residence among 
 these scenes and intimate familiarity with them. 
 
 But if we seek to get below the surface and to 
 go more thoroughly into the habits and customs of 
 the people, and to understand their thoughts and 
 characters, much more is needed than even the 
 most protracted journey through the country can 
 afford. 
 
 Everything connected with that land which was 
 the cradle of our holy religion or which throws 
 light on the manners and customs which obtained 
 there in olden days is of value. 
 
 To the Fellahin (or peasants) of Palestine it is 
 to whom we must chiefly go to-day to elucidate 
 those manners and customs, and not to the Jews. 
 The latter are, for the most part, strangers in their 
 own land, immigrants from Europe or other conti- 
 nents, who bring with them the tongue, garb, and 
 
ORIGIN 3 
 
 ideas of the countries where they have been so long 
 domiciled. 
 
 The Fellahin, on the contrary, are probably 
 to a large extent the descendants of the various 
 Gentile tribes, who were never exterminated by 
 the Israelites, but became a race of serfs, herding 
 the cattle and tilling the land of their Hebrew 
 conquerors. 
 
 Professor Sayce has shown that where a people 
 has been wholly or chiefly commercial, they have 
 been for the most part absorbed into, or dis- 
 possessed by, a conquering race, but that where 
 they have been agricultural or pastoral the wave 
 of conquest has passed over them, leaving them 
 comparatively unchanged. 
 
 This has been the case in Palestine. Hebrew 
 and Egyptian, Chaldean and Greek, Roman and 
 Arab, have conquered the land ; but the peasant 
 descendants of the pagan tribes which dwelt there 
 at the dawn of history have clung to the soil 
 through all these changes. Bending to the storm, 
 they were lost sight of for awhile, but reappeared 
 as the country settled down after each invasion. 
 Colonel Conder, writing (' Palestine,' p. 63) on 
 this subject, says : ' The Fellahin have been called 
 " modern Canaanites," and if by this is meant de- 
 scendants of the Semitic race which the Egyptians 
 found in Palestine before the time of the Hebrew 
 conquest, the term seems justified by what is 
 known.' 
 
 The language spoken by the Fellahin to-day is 
 a Semitic tongue, viz., Arabic, closely related, not 
 
 1—2 
 
4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 only to Hebrew, Syriac, and Chaldee, but also to 
 Assyrian, whicli latter the discoveries at Tel 
 Amarna show to have been the literary tongue of 
 the days of A braham and the early patriarchs. 
 
 Such being the case, it will be readily seen that 
 a knowledge of the manners, customs, and dialects 
 of the Fellahin of Palestine is likely to throw much 
 light on those of the inhabitants of that land in 
 Bible times, as well as on the scenes depicted and 
 the histories narrated in the Sacred Volume. 
 
 It is of great importance, too, that the manners 
 and customs now obtaining should be carefully 
 studied and noted, as there is much danger that 
 many of these will in a short time be lost. 
 
 We are accustomed to speak of the East as 
 ' unchanging '; and when compared with Europe 
 and America it is no doubt correct. Still, even so, 
 this epithet is only relatively, and not absolutely 
 true. In bygone times various things have been 
 introduced from Europe and other lands, and 
 become naturalized, and the same process is going 
 on now. New ideas are in some cases readily 
 adopted. Thus, when the railway between Jaffa 
 and Jerusalem was built, it was a surprise to many 
 that the people so quickly adopted it as a means 
 of travel. The same remark applies with equal 
 force to the postal system, telegraph, machinery, 
 as well as to smaller articles of Western origin and 
 manufacture. 
 
 Again, as a result of the modern civil code 
 introduced into Turkey, chiefly through the in- 
 fluence of the late Midhat Pasha, agricultural land 
 
INNOVATIONS 5 
 
 has largely passed from the communal ownership 
 of villages into that of individuals. 
 
 Material for clothing is being more and more 
 imported from Europe, with the result that the 
 native weavers cannot compete. As a consequence, 
 the native industry is dying out. Thus, in a village 
 I know, where a few years ago forty looms were in 
 full work, only six are now to be found. 
 
 The ever-growing poverty of the people, due 
 for the most part to the increasing burden of 
 direct taxation, is making it less and less possible 
 for them to live from the land. This tends to 
 drive many, especially of the poorer or less thrifty 
 of the peasants, to the towns to seek for work. It 
 has led also to a great increase of late years in the 
 amount of emigration, particularly from certain 
 localities. 
 
 A great deal of variety still exists in the local 
 dialects. This is due, doubtless, to the isolation 
 of the different districts in times past ; this, again, 
 being the result of the difficulties and dangers of 
 travelling. Fifty years ago a journey from Jeru- 
 salem to Es Salt (the ancient Ramoth Gilead), 
 east of the Jordan, would have been considered a 
 more serious undertaking than a voyage to America 
 would be nowadays. The inevitable result was 
 that there was hardly any intercourse between 
 different districts, with the natural consequence of 
 considerable variation in the words and phrases in 
 common use in the several places. 
 
 An incident related to me when I had but 
 recently come to Jerusalem (by way of encouraging 
 
6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 me in my study of the language !) will illustrate 
 this. A man from Es Salt and another from Gaza 
 had been spending the evening together at the 
 house of a mutual friend. The man from Es Salt 
 told a story which the other could not understand, 
 until the host, who was acquainted with both parts 
 of the country, explained it to him in his local 
 phraseology ! 
 
 This was probably an exaggeration. Still, the 
 fact remains that the words in ordinary use in 
 various parts of the country differ very consider- 
 ably, though the greater facilities for travel of late 
 years will tend to approximate the different dialects 
 to each other more and more. Education, too, 
 which, as will be seen further on, is making rapid 
 advances, is having the same effect. 
 
 Local distinctions, words, customs, etc., are 
 often strongly marked. It is not easy to say how 
 they have arisen, but one possible explanation is, 
 that the inhabitants of the various groups of villages 
 where such customs, etc., obtain are descendants 
 from different ancient tribes. 
 
 The variations in feature which can be noticed 
 in different districts, and which are often sufficiently 
 marked to enable a person conversant with the 
 country to tell fairly accurately from whence a 
 stranger hails, would seem to point in the same 
 direction. 
 
 The small area in which peculiar customs occur, 
 and the comparative isolation of these areas which 
 still prevails, make it often extremely difficult to 
 ascertain local customs and usages. Many of these 
 
LOCAL CHARACTERISTICS 7 
 
 can only be discovered accidentally or by long 
 residence in the particular locality. The people of 
 neighbouring villages may be quite unaware of the 
 existence of a certain custom, while only a few 
 miles away it may be very familiar. 
 
 I have known intelligent, educated natives to be 
 entirely ignorant of certain customs, and even to 
 deny their existence, because they were not in 
 vogue in their own particular district, whereas 
 further inquiry or fuller acquaintance with other 
 parts revealed the fact that they were perfectly 
 familiar to others. 
 
 That being so, the fact that such-and-such a 
 custom, or rule, or community, is unknown in the 
 country generally is no proof whatever that it 
 does not exist at all, as it may be confined to a 
 small out-of-the-way group of villages, or to only 
 one or two places. For instance, probably not one 
 European resident in Palestine out of a hundred has 
 ever even heard of the Baraghafeh (Chapter III.). 
 It was many years before I knew of their existence, 
 spite of the fact that they were in the district in 
 which I was living and working. 
 
 Another difficulty in ascertaining accurately such 
 manners and customs as are at all peculiar to the 
 Fellahm is that they are very sensitive about them, 
 and are sometimes very uncommunicative on the 
 subject. To a stranger, moreover, they are apt to 
 repudiate customs of which they are at all ashamed, 
 or which they consider to reflect on themselves in 
 any way. Nor must the inquirer ever ask a leading 
 question, or one which would at all show what 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 reply he expects. The Oriental always likes to 
 give a 'pleasant answer,' i.e., one which will 
 coincide with the preconceived ideas of his in- 
 terrogator. It is also useless to apply to the 
 townsman for information about the Fellahin, as 
 he really knows very little of their manners and 
 customs. There is no distinction of classes, as in 
 England, but there is a very real one between the 
 Medaniin, or townsmen, and the Fellahin. or 
 peasants. 
 
 Palestine is a land where the old order of things 
 and the new meet together. The modern steam- 
 ship frequents its harbours and roadsteads, the 
 whistle of the locomotive wakes the echoes of 
 some of its valleys, and the telegraph-wires stretch 
 from town to town and bring the latest news of 
 Europe and America to its cities hour by hour. 
 Yet in its distant hamlets, secluded gorges, and 
 barren wilderness, life is much what it was when 
 Jacob fed his flocks on these same hills, or Ruth 
 gleaned in the fields of Bethlehem. 
 
 A few years ago I went one morning to the 
 railway- station at Jerusalem to bid farewell to 
 some English friends. Three hours later I had 
 stepped back fifty centuries, and was sitting in a 
 Bedouy tent in the wilderness of Judea, welcomed 
 by a sheikh clad, probably, much as Abraham was 
 in those far-off days, surrounded by the sons of 
 Ishmael, differing little in their appearance from 
 their wild nomad ancestor, and conversing with 
 them in a tongue which, though not identical with, 
 is yet closely related to, that which the Father of 
 
OBJECT OF THE BOOK 9 
 
 the Faithful spoke, and in which he communed 
 with God on these same hills. 
 
 Whether or not the changes now taking place in 
 Palestine are destined to be permanent time alone 
 will show. 
 
 The following pages are an attempt to record 
 some of the customs and manners of the Fellahin 
 as they obtain in the Holy Land at the present 
 day, in the hope that they may thus be rescued 
 from oblivion, and thereby fuller light be thrown 
 on the Word of God, and also that Western 
 Christians may be led to take a deeper and more 
 sympathetic interest in the present inhabitants of 
 that land where was lived 
 
 ' that sinless Life, 
 That breathed beneath the Syrian blue. 1 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 RELIGION 
 
 The Syrian peasantry are a particularly religious 
 race. Religious topics form a frequent subject of 
 conversation, and they will discuss abstruse theo- 
 logical questions, such as predestination, by the 
 hour. But as one gets to know them better this 
 religiousness, which at first greatly surprises a 
 Western, proves in most cases to be very super- 
 ficial. Such as it is, however, it enters largely into 
 their everyday life and language. 
 
 Everything that happens to them, good or ill, 
 is directly from God's hand. After telling one of 
 some misfortune which has befallen them, they 
 will conclude with the words ' EL hamdu I Hah, 
 el hamdu Tllah' (Praise be to God, praise be to 
 God). In all their troubles or misfortunes there 
 is little or no looking at second causes. Even in 
 cases where the trouble or misfortune is manifestly 
 the result of their or someone else's carelessness, 
 or where an illness has been brought on by their 
 own sin or foolishness, it is invariably attributed to 
 the will of God. 
 
 The name of the Almighty is continually 
 
RELIGIOUSNESS 11 
 
 brought into their conversation. If on meeting a 
 man one inquires after his health, the answer will 
 almost always be, ' El hamdu Fllah,' or, ' Ashkur er 
 Rub ' (Praise God, or, I thank the Lord). Or if 
 one asks another, ' Do you think it will rain 
 to-day V ' In shallah ' (If God wills), he will reply, 
 or, • Allah yalam ' (God knows) ; or should the rain 
 be much needed, a frequent answer will be, ' Allan 
 karim ' (God is generous). The beggar as he holds 
 out his hand for alms whines, ' Allah yuatik' (May 
 God give you) — i.e., in return for what you are 
 about to give me — or, ' Hassaneh Tllali ' (An alms 
 for God) ; and on receiving anything expresses his 
 thanks by • Keththir kheirak' (May He— God- 
 increase or multiply your goods), or by ' Yutoivwil 
 unirak' (May He prolong your life), and similar 
 phrases. Two friends have met on the road. On 
 parting one will say, 'Allah ymahhil 'alek' (May 
 God make your road smooth for you), and the 
 other will respond with the words, * W Allah 
 yahfthak ' (And may God preserve you) ; and so 
 on through every matter of daily life. / 
 
 It will readily be seen that this frequent use of 
 the Divine name too often degenerates into a mere 
 form. Once when on a long journey a horse in my 
 caravan cast a shoe, and on arriving at the next 
 halting-place a farrier was sent for to replace it. 
 He was a Moslem, and at every nail he drove into 
 the hoof he uttered the formula, ' Attakil 'aP Allah ' 
 (I trust in God), and could not see, when remon- 
 strated with, that there was any irreverence in the 
 constant repetition of these words. Whatever the 
 
IS RELIGION 
 
 original idea underlying the use of such expres- 
 sions, the practical result is too often the greatest 
 profanity. Thus, one of the very commonest forms 
 of the simple expression ■ Yes ' is really an oath 
 by the name of God, and the way in which the 
 Mohammedans will use that holy name when 
 trying to make a person believe a palpable lie 
 makes one shudder. 
 
 The great majority of the Fellahin are by 
 religion Moslems, or, as they are more commonly 
 called in Europe, Mohammedans. The Moslem 
 (more accurately, Muslim) is one who is surrendered 
 to God, and his religion he calls * Islam,' or ' Sur- 
 render.'* The Koran (literally, ■ Reading ') is his 
 sacred book, and the chief, though not the only, 
 source of his religion. This book is largely derived 
 from the Old and New Testaments, which in 
 theory all Moslems acknowledge. They also admit 
 our Blessed Lord to be a Prophet, in some respects 
 putting Him above Mohammed ; and have the 
 greatest respect for Abraham, Moses, David, 
 Solomon, and many of the Old Testament saints ; 
 but they deny Christ's Divinity and reject His 
 Atonement. 
 
 * It is not possible to give within the limits of a work of 
 this kind anything like a succinct account of Mohammedanism, 
 nor, indeed, does it lie within its scope to do so. The student 
 who may wish to pursue the subject further will find full 
 information in such books as the following : ' Mahomet and 
 Islam,' Sir W. Muir (R.T.S.) ; 'Koran; Sir W. Muir 
 (S.P.C.K.); 'The Dictionary of Islam/ T. P. Hughes; 
 ' Religion of the Crescent, 1 St. Clare Tisdall ; ' Cradle of 
 Islam,' Zwiemer. 
 
LOW IDEA OF GOD 18 
 
 There are, as every student of Islam knows, 
 numerous sects in that religion,* many of these 
 being bitterly hostile to each other. In Palestine 
 the Moslems are chiefly Sunnis, or orthodox 
 Mohammedans, and belong for the most part, I 
 believe, to the Hanifites, followers of Abu Hani- 
 fah, one of their four recognised divisions. In the 
 northern districts, however, there are a good many 
 Met'awali,f and here and there communities of a 
 remarkable sect known as the Shazeliyeh or Shada- 
 liyeh. The Mohammedan peasantry have but a 
 superficial acquaintance, for the most part, with 
 their own religion. 
 
 Their idea of God is a terribly low one, so much 
 so that I doubt if it comes up to that of many 
 heathen. Many a time as I talked with them have 
 the words of the Prayer-Book version of Ps. 1. 21 
 come to my mind : ' Thou thoughtest wickedly 
 that I am even such a one as thyself.' Their idea 
 of Him is too often that of a weakly indulgent 
 Being who is to be cheated or coaxed into letting 
 
 * A recent Persian writer (a Mohammedan) states that 
 there are seventy principal Moslem sects, each of which has 
 several subdivisions. 
 
 f The Mefawali are followers of \A.li, the son-in-law of 
 Mohammed. While accepting the Koran as Divine, they do 
 not acknowledge Mohammed as the Prophet or Apostle of 
 God, but accord that honour to "AH, who was the fourth 
 Khalifa or Imam. They hold that God intended to give 
 His revelation to him, but that the angel Gabriel, who was 
 entrusted with the mission, by mistake gave the Koran to 
 Mohammed instead of to "AH. 
 
U RELIGION 
 
 them into heaven on the Day of Judgment. ' Oh, 
 I know about Saidna Isa ' (the Moslem name for 
 our Blessed Lord), said a peasant woman to a 
 lady who was speaking about Him to a group of 
 Mohammedan women ; ' He will tell lies for us on 
 the Day of Judgment.' 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that among Moslems 
 there is no clerical order and no priesthood of any 
 kind whatever. In most villages there is, however, 
 a man called a Khatib, or ' Exhorter,' as the word 
 might be rendered. His duties are to act as 
 Imam — i.e., to lead the prayers in the mosque on 
 Friday (the day on which public worship is cele- 
 brated) and on other special occasions ; to wash 
 and prepare for the grave the bodies of all men 
 and boys ; while, at weddings, before him takes 
 place the formal agreement between the bride- 
 groom and the father of the bride, which consti- 
 tutes the actual marriage ceremony. In the villages 
 of Palestine the Khatib is often the schoolmaster, 
 and also acts as spy for the Government. As a 
 class these men are ignorant and bigoted, but I 
 have known many good and honourable excep- 
 tions. 
 
 Till recently every Khatib received half a bushel 
 of wheat yearly at harvest-time from each family 
 in the village, but if unpopular he could not always 
 obtain his due. A story is told of how the peasants 
 of a certain village, who would not give their Khatib 
 his allowance of corn, were outwitted by him. He 
 went round the threshing-floors from one man to 
 another, but each put him off with some excuse, 
 
A CRAFTY KHATlB 15 
 
 and he returned empty-handed. The next Friday, 
 when the hour arrived at which lie should have 
 been at his place in the mosque as Imam, he was 
 not there. The people waited, but he did not come. 
 Some of the leading men went to his house to 
 inquire the cause of his absence. 
 
 ' I am not going to prayer,' was his reply. ' You 
 do not say your prayers properly. You talk, and 
 some rise up before I do.' 
 
 ' Oh no ! we will go through all the forms in due 
 order, if only you will come.' 
 
 ' I will consent to come and act as Imam if you 
 will put a solemn curse on everyone who does not 
 say his prayers properly or who rises from the 
 prostrations before I do.' 
 
 To this the elders agreed, and the Khatib accom- 
 panied them to the mosque, where an announce- 
 ment to this effect was made. The prescribed 
 forms were then duly gone through to the closing 
 prostrations. The Imam bowed himself to the 
 earth, and all the people followed his example. 
 But when the words had been repeated he remained 
 with his face to the ground. All waited in silence, 
 but the Khatib did not move. No one dared to 
 rise, from fear of the curse. At last the people 
 began to complain, and angry voices rose from the 
 prostrate crowd. Then the Khatib spoke : 
 
 ' You would not give me my corn when I asked 
 it yesterday, and I shall not rise till every man of 
 you has paid me his dues in full.' 
 
 On hearing this a babel of shouts arose from the 
 mosque, the men calling to their wives and children 
 
16 RELIGION 
 
 to bring the corn. The crafty Imam bade one of 
 his sons see that each man's quota of com was 
 forthcoming in full measure. Not till this was 
 done, and the floor of the mosque heaped high 
 with wheat, were the unfortunate men allowed to 
 rise. 
 
 Besides the Khatib, there will sometimes be an 
 'A Urn, or ' learned ' man, in the village. These 
 TJlcma are so called from the fact of their having 
 studied in the great Mohammedan University of 
 El Azhar, in Cairo, and are much looked up to by 
 the people. 
 
 In addition to the Khutabeh and Ulema just 
 mentioned, many Dervishes (or Derwishes) are 
 found. They may be compared with the begging 
 friars of the Middle Ages, except, of course, that 
 the Dervishes are not celibates. They are generally 
 distinguished by their long, loose robes and tall 
 hats of various shapes and colours, as black, green, 
 or drab, with or without turbans. They call them- 
 selves ' Dervishes ' or ' Poor Dervishes,' or simply 
 1 Poor ' (Fakir), synonymous terms, for Dervish is 
 a Persian word derived from the term JDcr, which 
 in that language means a gate or door, and implies 
 one who wanders from door to door begging. 
 This designation is used by the Dervishes them- 
 selves to show their dependence on the goodness 
 of God and that they seek His bounty only. It is 
 in this sense that the term ' Poor ' (Fakir) must 
 be understood, and not as indicating their actual 
 poverty. 
 
 They are divided into two main classes, known 
 
DERVISHES IT 
 
 as ' Regular ' and ' Irregular ' — in other words, 
 those who have rules, or 'paths,' as they are 
 termed, and those who have none. The ' Regular 
 Dervishes ' are also designated * Travellers ' — i.e., 
 those who are travelling along the road to heaven, 
 this being the idea in which originated the name 
 of paths, by which their rules, rites, and ceremonies 
 are known. The ' Irregular Dervishes ' are of two 
 classes, one known as Azadiyeh, a term derived 
 from the Persian word Azad (Free), while the 
 others style themselves Mqjathib, or ' Tradi- 
 tionaries,' because they profess to have received the 
 special regulations or tenets of their orders by 
 unbroken tradition, from the first Khalifah, or 
 * Successor ' of Mohammed, Abu Bekr, and the 
 Imam 'Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law. 
 
 When a man wishes to join any of these Orders, 
 certain ceremonies take place, which are, usually, 
 as follows. The postulant goes to the head of the 
 particular Order into which he wishes to gain 
 admittance, and says : ' Oh, So-and-so ! I wish to 
 repent to God by your hand, and to enter into 
 covenant with you.' The terms on which the new 
 member is to be admitted are then discussed. 
 When these are satisfactorily arranged, the novice 
 is solemnly bathed by the Superior. This ceremony 
 over, the Superior usually spits in the other's mouth, 
 it being supposed that he thus imparts his spirit 
 to him. He is next formally invested with the 
 Zi, or special headdress of the Order, and thence- 
 forth is reckoned a full member of the Dervish 
 
 body. 
 
 2 
 
18 RELIGION 
 
 It is impossible to state with any precision the 
 number, varieties, and regulations of the different 
 Dervish bodies, partly because they are very 
 numerous, and partly because some at least are 
 esoteric, and do not divulge their peculiar tenets, 
 rules, and rites, to any but those within the circle 
 of the Order. 
 
 There are thirty-two recognised bodies of Regular 
 and Irregular Dervishes, called for the most part 
 after the names of their founders, and originating 
 in various places and at different times, from 
 149 a.h. to 1164 a.h. — i.e., from about the end of 
 the eighth century a.d. to about the middle of the 
 eighteenth. 
 
 All these men are regarded by the Moslems 
 with the greatest veneration, and are considered 
 specially holy, even though, as is sometimes the 
 case, their characters are known to be of the vilest. 
 On the other hand they are popularly considered 
 to be extremely avaricious. One of the peasant 
 proverbs runs : * Quicker than the lightning's flash, 
 like a Dervish at sight of gain.' 
 
 They are credited with the possession of special 
 power in writing effective charms, and many of 
 them trade on this, and on their reputed sanctity, 
 sometimes becoming quite rich. Our Lord's in- 
 junction to the Twelve Apostles, ' Provide neither 
 gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses ' (St. Matt, 
 x. 9), was, in my opinion, directed against some 
 such abuse of the miraculous power He had 
 bestowed upon them, and not intended, as is 
 commonly held, to forbid them to take any money 
 
THE SHAZELIYEH 19 
 
 with them.* In short, He prohibited them from 
 trading on the possession of these gifts, and from 
 using them for their personal enrichment, instead 
 of as proofs of their Divine commission. 
 
 In connection with this subject, it may be in- 
 teresting to note that there is at the present time 
 a very remarkable illustration of the missions of 
 the Twelve, and the Seventy, in the case of the 
 Mohammedan sect of the Shazeliyeh mentioned 
 above. This sect has in recent years had a fresh 
 impetus given to it by a remarkable woman in 
 Southern Syria, who is considered a kind of 
 prophetess among her adherents. She sends her 
 disciples out for weeks at a time, to go about the 
 country and preach the peculiar tenets of the sect. 
 They are at home for the greater part of the 
 year following their occupations of agriculturists, 
 carpenters, weavers, etc., and for the remainder 
 they go about from village to village, receiving no 
 remuneration for the work, but subsisting on the 
 hospitality of the peasantry, and teaching as oppor- 
 tunity offers. 
 
 But even on the ordinary acceptation of our 
 Lord's command above mentioned, it would be a 
 very different thing to the Apostles to what it 
 would be to one in our present conditions of life 
 and society, or to a Western going to the Orient. 
 There is to-day very little cash in circulation in 
 Palestine, and the same probably held good of our 
 
 * A comparison of the few passages in the New Testament 
 where the word Krao/j.ac occurs shows that it always has the 
 meaning of ' acquire , or ' obtain. 1 
 
 2—2 
 
20 RELIGION 
 
 Lord's time. This is due to a variety of causes : 
 it is owing partly to the custom, which obtains 
 largely in the East, of hoarding coin ; and partly 
 to the fact that comparatively little money is 
 coined. The want of it is, moreover, not felt 
 nearly so keenly as it would be in Europe. A 
 man may have vineyards and oliveyards, goats and 
 sheep, several yoke of oxen, a good stock of wheat, 
 oil, and dried figs, all he needs, in fact, for his daily 
 wants, and withal have little or no ready money. 
 Thus, for one to say, as St. Peter did to the lame 
 man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, ' Silver 
 and gold have I none ' (Acts iii. 6), would not 
 necessarily imply abject poverty. It would also 
 be in fullest accord, at the present time, with the 
 condition of one such as the same Apostle, to have 
 no ready money, either with him or in his house, 
 with which to pay the Temple tax of the half- 
 shekel (St. Matt. xvii. 24-27). To-day numbers of 
 people in Palestine go long journeys with little or 
 no money, and find hardly any difficulty, and see 
 no hardship in so doing. 
 
 Not long ago I was travelling east of the Jordan, 
 and on arriving at the bridge over that river, below 
 Jericho, found it blocked by a large caravan from 
 Moab, on its way to Jerusalem ; the reason of the 
 delay being that the owners of the caravan could 
 not muster enough money among them to pay the 
 small tax for crossing the bridge, and finally had 
 to leave some articles in pledge with the custodian, 
 to be redeemed on their return after the sale oi 
 their merchandise in the Holy City. 
 
MOSQUES 21 
 
 The village mosques, or Mohammedan places of 
 worship, are for the most part miserable buildings, 
 dark and dirty, with nothing whatever in their 
 outward appearance to show that they are sacred 
 edifices. They are absolutely devoid of furniture, 
 unless this name can be applied to a few straw 
 mats rolled up and put away in a corner till 
 required. They may have a Mihrdb, or small 
 apse-like niche, indicating the Kibleh, or direction 
 of Mecca, towards which all Mohammedans turn 
 their faces at prayer ; but this is infrequent. 
 Occasionally in the larger villages a more preten- 
 tious building may be seen, and one kept in better 
 order, with now and then a Mcdaneh, the well- 
 known chimney - like tower from which the 
 Muezzin calls to prayer five times a day.* Some 
 of these mosques (and many of those in the towns) 
 have been Christian churches in bygone years. 
 Usually the mosque, whether large or small, has a 
 courtyard, shaded by one or more spreading trees, 
 and in this courtyard during the greater part of 
 the year the Moslems say their prayers, the village 
 school is held, and the elders of the hamlet receive 
 their guests ; for the same building is very often 
 both guest-house and mosque in one, and the guests 
 eat and sleep in it or in the courtyard outside, 
 according to the season of the year. 
 
 It has often been remarked that Islam is a creed 
 
 * The Arabic term ' Minaret, -1 which has practically become 
 an English word, and is always used to designate these towers 
 or steeples, is, as thus employed, quite incorrect, its real 
 meaning being a ' lighthouse.* 1 
 
22 RELIGION 
 
 without a sacrifice for sin. As far as Mohammedan 
 theology is concerned, this is, I believe, correct. 
 In Palestine, however, the yearly sacrifice of the 
 DthaMyeh, which is offered at the same time as the 
 Hajj (pilgrims to Mecca) are slaying the victims 
 at Mount 'Arafat, is regarded by the Moslem 
 peasants as a Kifdrah — that is, a satisfaction for 
 their sins. In some villages, moreover, they put 
 the blood of this sacrifice on the doorposts and 
 upper lintels of their houses. In one village near 
 Jerusalem I have seen many houses with the blood 
 thus sprinkled on the doorposts, while some had 
 in addition two of the victim's feet stuck in a hole 
 in the door, these being left the whole year till the 
 next feast comes round. 
 
 In two or three mixed hamlets (Moslems and 
 Christians) with which I am acquainted, the Chris- 
 tians, either just before Lent or at Easter, kill a 
 goat or sheep, and put the blood on the upper 
 lintel in the form of a cross, and on the side-posts 
 in spots. These villages are all situated in the 
 district known as that of the Beni Zeid, whose 
 Moslem inhabitants always observe this custom at 
 the feast of the Dthahiych, as described above. 
 The custom seems to be a very local one, but 
 whether it has been derived by the Moslems from 
 the Christians or vice versa I cannot say. 
 
 In addition to this feast, several religious seasons 
 or festivals are observed by the Moslems with more 
 or less strictness. The most noteworthy of these 
 is Ramadthan, or the month of fasting. In some 
 respects it is a misuse of words to call this period 
 
RAMADTHAN 23 
 
 one of fasting, as in the case of the well-to-do 
 Mohammedans they simply turn night into day, 
 and throughout the month have a nightly feast on 
 the daintiest dishes that Arab cookery can devise. 
 With the poorer classes, but especially with the 
 Fellahin, the case is very different. The Koran 
 directs that during Ramadthan neither meat nor 
 drink shall pass the Moslem's lips from the time 
 that it becomes light enough to distinguish between 
 a white thread and a black one, until sunset. 
 
 The Fellahin are, for the most part, very strict 
 in their observance of this fast (much more so, 
 indeed, than the townspeople), and when this 
 month falls in the hot season, when the days are 
 at the longest and the nights at the shortest, it is 
 a very heavy burden to them. More particularly 
 is this true of the prohibition to drink water, 
 especially in harvest-time or when there is other 
 hard labour to be undergone. In Jerusalem and 
 other towns a cannon is fired at sunset, announcing 
 to all the country round that the hour for food has 
 come. I was once riding home to Jerusalem at 
 the beginning of summer during Ramadthan. A 
 shower of rain had fallen earlier in the day, and 
 there were puddles in the road. Just at sunset I 
 met some young men — Moslems — returning to 
 their homes from their work in the city. As I 
 came up with them the boom of the sunset gun 
 was borne on the breeze from Jerusalem. Instantly 
 one of them threw himself on his face on the 
 ground and drank with feverish eagerness from a 
 puddle by the wayside. 
 
524 RELIGION 
 
 In the spring, about Easter, occurs the Moslem 
 feast of Neby Musa, or the prophet Moses, which is 
 largely attended by the Fellahin from the district 
 round Jerusalem and other parts of the country. It 
 is a purely local feast, and is said to have been 
 instituted as a kind of counter-demonstration to 
 the gathering of Christian pilgrims from foreign 
 countries at Jerusalem during Holy Week. 
 
 The feast lasts seven days, in the course of which 
 the pilgrims visit the reputed tomb of Moses, which 
 Moslem tradition places west of the Jordan, on the 
 foot-hills in the Ghor, about an hour and a half 
 outh-west of Jericho. There are large buildings 
 at the tomb for the accommodation of those who 
 visit the shrine during the feast, thousands going 
 there every year. The Fellahin come up to Jeru- 
 salem in numbers from all the villages for many 
 miles round, dressed in their best. Each company 
 has one or more banners of red or green silk, 
 embroidered with passages from the Koran, and is 
 accompanied by the sound of cymbals and drums. 
 They gather in Jerusalem some time before the 
 feast, many of them being lodged in the Haram 
 and its numerous buildings. On the opening day 
 of the festival a great service is held in the Mosque 
 of Omar, which building the Arabs call ' The Dome 
 of the Rock.' This ceremony is attended by the 
 Governor of Jerusalem and all the great officials, 
 civil and military, and at its conclusion a long pro- 
 cession starts for Neby Musa with banners flying, 
 drums beating, cymbals clashing, guns firing, and 
 all the noise so dear to an Eastern's heart. Both 
 
A WELY 25 
 
 children and adults look forward to it as the one 
 great holiday of the year. 
 
 Another local feast is that of Rubin, a famous 
 AVely in the maritime plain near the sea, and about 
 two and a half hours south of Jaffa. The people 
 encamp round the shrine in thousands, remaining 
 for several days. These and similar gatherings are 
 fruitful of disease. The herding together of great 
 crowds in a small area, amidst insanitary surround- 
 ings, with often a scanty or polluted water-supply, 
 is a frequent originator of epidemics, which are 
 carried by the returning pilgrims to their own 
 homes. 
 
 The traveller in Palestine will often see a little 
 clump of trees with the white dome of a low stone 
 building peeping out of the dark-green foliage, and 
 on inquiring what it is will be told that it is a Weiy, 
 or saint — that is, his reputed tomb. These build- 
 ings are usually, though not invariably, on the 
 tops of hills, and can be seen for many miles round, 
 some of them, indeed, forming landmarks for a 
 great distance. Who these Ouliah were is for the 
 most part lost in obscurity ; but the real explana- 
 tion is that they mark the site of some of the 
 old Canaanitish high places, which we know, from 
 many passages in the Old Testament, were not all 
 destroyed by the Israelites when they took posses- 
 sion of the land, becoming in subsequent ages a 
 frequent cause of sin to them. 
 
 There is generally, but not always, a grove ot 
 trees round the Wely. The oak is the kind most 
 commonly found in these groves at the present 
 
26 RELIGION 
 
 day, as would appear to have been also the case ill 
 Bible times, especially in the hill country. Besides 
 the oak — which is invariably the evergreen kind, 
 and not the deciduous species of our English 
 woods — the terebinth, tamarisk, sidr, or nubk (the 
 Zizjiphiis-sp'uia-CJiristi, sometimes called Dom by 
 Europeans), and other trees, are to be seen as well. 
 Occasionally the grove is represented by one large 
 solitary tree under whose shade the Wely nestles. 
 
 The shrine itself usually consists of a plain stone 
 building, for the most part windowless, but having 
 a Mikrdb, or prayer-niche. It is kept in fair repair 
 as a rule, and whitewashed from time to time 
 both inside and out. Occasionally a grave is to 
 be found inside, under the dome, an ugly erection 
 of stone plastered over, about 3 feet high, and 
 frequently of abnormal length ; that of the so-called 
 grave of Joshua, near Es Salt, east of the Jordan. 
 is over 30 feet in length. 
 
 Occasionally there is no building over the tomb, 
 and in such case, where it is one of great sanctity, 
 the most extraordinary collection imaginable of odds 
 and ends is to be found on and around the grave, 
 having been placed there by way of honouring the 
 dead saint, and of claiming his intercession at the 
 Day of Judgment on behalf of those who have 
 thus reverenced his memory on earth. The most 
 striking instance I have seen of this latter kind of 
 Wely was the so-called tomb of Noah at Kerak, 
 the ancient Kir of Moab, before the present con- 
 ventional building was erected over it. The 
 accompanying illustration gives some idea of its 
 
» 
 
 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS ROUND A WELY. 
 
 COURTYARD OF VILLAGE MOSQUE. 
 
 To face page 27. 
 
NOAH'S TOMB 27 
 
 former condition, and of the marvellous assortment 
 of old clay lamps, bits of broken glass, coloured 
 rags, sticks, bones, and miscellaneous articles of 
 every description, which had been deposited there 
 by the votaries of the prophet. With the same 
 idea many tie pieces of rag to the boughs of trees 
 growing around a Wely, or, where there is no tree, 
 to the bars of the windows (if there be one) of the 
 shrine. 
 
 The Moslems stand in great awe of these saints, 
 especially of the more famous of them, and often 
 really fear them more than they fear God. Thus, 
 they fully believe that should they swear by one 
 of these shrines to do, or not to do, any certain 
 thing, and should be false to their oath, some 
 fearful calamity would overtake them, whereas to 
 break a promise made in the name of the Almighty 
 they consider to be a far less serious matter. With 
 the same idea ploughs and other agricultural imple- 
 ments, bundles of firewood, and other articles, are 
 often left under the shadow of one of the trees of a 
 Wely, or within a considerable radius of the shrine. 
 The accompanying illustration shows a number 
 of ploughs round such a tomb in the Jebel Ajlun 
 far away from any village or human habitation. 
 Things so left are quite safe, as they are considered 
 to be under the protection of the saint ; and should 
 anyone dare to steal any of them, the Wely would 
 speedily avenge the insult done to his name and 
 shrine by some condign punishment. 
 
 In a few cases there is neither tomb nor grave, 
 but only a sacred tree which tradition, handed 
 
28 RELIGION 
 
 down from father to son, declares to be the site of 
 some Wely, and which is reverenced accordingly. 
 The Mohammedans consider it unlawful to use the 
 branches of these trees for fuel, believing that were 
 they to do so the curse of the saint would rest 
 upon them ; and it is very remarkable, in a country 
 where firewood is so scarce, to see huge boughs 
 fallen from these sacred trees lying rotting on the 
 ground. In one case only will the Moslems use 
 such wood as fuel, and that is when, as is 
 occasionally done, they make a feast at the Wely 
 in the saint's honour. 
 
 The Christian peasants are not so scrupulous, 
 and do sometimes employ the fallen wood sur- 
 reptitiously, for domestic purposes. 
 
 On Thursday evenings, the day on which the 
 Mohammedans visit the graves of their dead, little 
 oil-lamps are often lit in the Welys in honour of the 
 saints buried there. Some even of the Christian 
 women, in the more ignorant and out-of-the-way 
 villages, observe this custom. 
 
 Travelling about the country one often sees by 
 the wayside little piles of stones a foot or eighteen 
 inches high, formed of single stones, sometimes to 
 the number of five or six, dexterously poised one 
 on the top of another. These miniature pillars are 
 in honour of some famous Wely, and are usually 
 found at the point where it first becomes visible, or 
 from which a specially good view of it can be 
 obtained. As instances of these Kanatir, as they 
 are called, may be mentioned those a little above 
 Bethel, where, on approaching from the north, the 
 first distant view of Jerusalem is obtained ; and 
 
A VILLAGE EAST OF THE JORDAN'. 
 
 
 
 
 
 IT* '^fes? 
 
 
 . 3 
 
 $ V 
 
 To fact oage 28. 
 
KANATlR 29 
 
 those below Jericho, about two-thirds of the way 
 to the bridge over the Jordan at a spot whence the 
 Moslem shrine of Neby Musa can be seen. # The 
 idea of these pillars, as with the other modes of 
 honouring the dead saint or prophet, is to obtain 
 his intercession on the Day of Judgment. 
 
 In connection with this subject, it is noteworthy 
 that the idea of intercession, whether of dead saints 
 or of the living, is one deeply rooted in the minds 
 of the people of Palestine. Thus, if they wish to 
 ask a favour from a superior, they infinitely prefer 
 to get a third person to intercede for them, to 
 going themselves directly to the one who can grant 
 their request. They find it very difficult to believe 
 that, for instance, an English medical man in 
 charge of a hospital will do his best for a patient, 
 unless the latter bring with him a letter of recom- 
 mendation from some mutual friend begging the 
 doctor to use all his skill for that particular case. 
 Many do bring such letters with them, to the great 
 annoyance, sometimes, of the European doctor, 
 especially if he be new to the country and unaware 
 of this trait of the native character. 
 
 A very strong belief in El Kadr, or fate, exists 
 among the Fellahin. This is, of course, essentially 
 a Mohammedan doctrine, but the Christians — that 
 is to say, the more ignorant ones among them — 
 are largely influenced by it. The orthodox Moslem 
 holds that all the incidents of a man's life are pre- 
 
 * These are not by any means the best specimens of these 
 pillars to be found. They are mentioned here as being those 
 most likely to be noticed by travellers. The best I have seen 
 are on much more unfrequented roads. 
 
30 RELIGION 
 
 determined in the eternal decree of God, being 
 written, though invisibly to human eye, on the 
 forehead of each individual. Such a belief if 
 followed to its logical conclusion would, of course, 
 be destructive of all civil government by reducing 
 men to mere automata, doing only what they had 
 been before ordained to accomplish, whether good 
 or bad, and mechanically carrying out a prescribed 
 set of actions, thus depriving them of all true per- 
 sonalit} 7 and moral responsibility. But the Oriental 
 mind is not a logical one, and as a matter of fact, 
 while holding this belief, a man will admit, if 
 pressed, his own responsibility for his good and 
 bad deeds, much as the average Western. This 
 may be illustrated by one of their proverbs which 
 runs : ' Don't throw your child from the roof, and 
 say " Inevitable fate." ' 
 
 In practice this doctrine, coupled with a general 
 tendency to take things easily, causes both Moslems 
 and Christians to be very lax about precautions of 
 any kind. Thus, roads along the edge of precipices 
 are often left without any protecting wall on the 
 outer side, or with only one of the flimsiest descrip- 
 tion ; houses, whose roofs are used almost as much 
 as any part of them, are built without parapets ; in 
 times of epidemics the simplest and most ordinary 
 precautions are neglected altogether, or, if begun, 
 are quickly dropped. I have known more than one 
 case where an intelligent man has built a house 
 without a parapet round the roof, and, when one of 
 the children was killed by a fall from it, to have 
 merely remarked, • Such was the will of God.' 
 
FATE 31 
 
 The following story, which has given rise to one 
 of their proverbs (a story which probably has its 
 parallel in the literature of most countries), is told 
 by way of illustration of fate : 
 
 There was once a certain widow who had an 
 only son, to whom she was devotedly attached. 
 One summer the cholera broke out in the village 
 where they lived. The mother, fearful lest her son 
 should be stricken, resolved to keep him shut up in 
 her house so long as the epidemic lasted. Accord- 
 ingly, she fitted up a recess in one of her rooms 
 very comfortably, and carefully closed it in. Here 
 she put her son, and waited on him most 
 assiduously, hoping thus to keep him from infec- 
 tion. One day, when the grapes began to ripen, 
 she went to the vineyard and gathered several 
 bunches, which she brought to her son. Hidden 
 in one of them was a small venomous snake, which 
 bit the boy as he was eating the fruit, and in a few 
 minutes he died. After a while the mother, coming 
 to the recess, found her son dead, whereupon she 
 broke forth in the following lines : 
 
 1 What God had decreed has happened indeed. 
 In casket concealed; thy fate unrepealed, 
 In vain would I hide thee : death must betide thee/ 
 
 The doctrine of T/iozvivab, or merit, is widely held 
 by Moslems in Palestine. They believe that after 
 death a man's good and evil deeds are weighed 
 against each other, and that his future condition 
 for eternity will be according as the one or the 
 other preponderates. Anything, therefore, like 
 
32 RELIGION 
 
 almsgiving, repeating the ninety-nine names of 
 God, works of supererogation (such, for example, 
 as praying more than the five appointed times in 
 the day), making the pilgrimage to Mecca more 
 than once, etc., are all considered to add to a mans 
 chances of salvation or to affect his relative posi- 
 tion in the world to come. I have several times 
 heard Moslems thus account for the work of Chris- 
 tian medical missions and deeds of charity towards 
 non-Christians, things which otherwise are utterly 
 inexplicable to them, but which on the ground 
 of accumulating merit are, they think, easily 
 accounted for. 
 
 It is considered a meritorious action to put 
 drinking water by the wayside for thirsty passers- 
 by. In the plains, cisterns fed from deep wells by 
 means of water-wheels are much used for irriga- 
 tion ; if near the edge of the road, these cisterns 
 will usually have a tap for the use of travellers, 
 with a trough below, so that both men and beasts 
 can quench their thirst. One year, when the winter 
 rainfall had been very scanty and the wayside 
 springs near Bethel had dried up, the people of 
 that village built a little hut by the road, in which 
 they placed a large jar of water for the use of the 
 passers-by, the jar being continually replenished 
 throughout the long dry summer. 
 
 Usually classed with Mohammedans by Western 
 writers, but in reality quite distinct from them, are 
 the Druzes. They are found on Carmel and 
 scattered about Northern Palestine, but their 
 strongholds are the Lebanon and the Hauran (the 
 
DRUZES 33 
 
 ancient Bashan), especially that part of the latter 
 known as the Jebel ed Druze. Their religion is 
 essentially an esoteric one, it being of its very 
 essence to conceal its real doctrines from every 
 outsider, of whatever creed. In conversation with 
 a Moslem they profess to accept the Koran, and 
 claim that in all fundamental matters of doctrine 
 and practice they are one with the followers of 
 Mohammed ; but to a Christian, on the other 
 hand, they would say that there is no practical 
 difference between themselves and the Nusareh. 
 
 The great majority of them, however, are prob- 
 ably in complete ignorance as to the real tenets of 
 their own faith, these being only known to the 
 small inner circle of ' Initiated ' or ' Wise ' ( Ulema, 
 as they are called), the great bulk of them being 
 'Uninitiated' or 'Ignorant' {Juhaleh). Women 
 may be, and are, admitted into the inner circle of 
 * Wise,' but so fearful are they of their secrets being 
 revealed that such women are not allowed to bring 
 their infants with them to their religious gatherings 
 after the latter are about a year old. These gather- 
 ings are held in a building called KJialwah (a word 
 meaning isolated or retired), a plain, unadorned 
 structure in some lonely spot, far from any human 
 habitation. The only thing that to an outsider 
 distinguishes the ' Initiated ' from the ' Uninitiated ' 
 is that, while in common with Moslems both 
 abstain from the use of alcohol, the former also 
 never drink coffee nor smoke tobacco, whereas the 
 latter are allowed to do both. 
 
 Little or nothing is known with certainty about 
 
34 RELIGION 
 
 the doctrines or practices of the Druze religion. It 
 is generally said, and I believe correctly, that they 
 hold the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, 
 but that is about the most that can be at all con- 
 fidently affirmed.* 
 
 * One or two things I have quite accidentally ascertained 
 point to the possibility of the Druze worship being a survival 
 of the Israelitish calf cult. I mention this with great diffi- 
 dence, and only as a possible hint to students. 
 
V -J* 
 
 r*\ I 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 religion {continued) 
 
 The Christians, who, next to the Moslems, are the 
 most numerous of the religious bodies found in 
 Syria at the present day, are the successors of 
 those who lived in Palestine at the time of the 
 Mohammedan conquest at the close of the seventh 
 century a.d. When the Holy Land fell before the 
 sword of Khalid and the other Moslem generals, a 
 considerable section of the population sooner or 
 later embraced Islam ; but a by no means in- 
 significant number refused to give up the faith of 
 their fathers. Their descendants for generation 
 after generation, spite of almost every conceivable 
 inducement to renounce Christianity, notwith- 
 standing nearly every indignity, civil, social, and 
 religious, which a fanatical ingenuity could devise, 
 although treated as scarcely human, and their lives 
 held to be worth less than those of the cattle, yet 
 clung with an intense, if often blind and ignorant, 
 tenacity to what they believed to be the religion 
 of Jesus Christ. Erroneous as much of that belief 
 was and is, low, too, as they have sunk as far as all 
 spiritual life is concerned, we cannot but honour 
 
 35 3—2 
 
36 RELIGION 
 
 them for what they have borne for their faith in 
 the past, and seek to help them now to rise to a 
 purer conception and a fuller knowledge of what 
 that faith really is. 
 
 It is difficult, even for those familiar with the 
 East, to realize now the extent to which Christians 
 were formerly made to feel their inferiority to 
 Moslems. None but Moslems, for instance, were 
 allowed to wear any article of clothing of a green 
 colour, that being the sacred hue of Islam, or 
 even to use for that purpose material having 
 anything of that colour in it. I have known of a 
 case where four men savagely assaulted a Christian 
 in whose Kumbaz, or long loose robe, they detected 
 a minute thread of green. In the large towns 
 Christians were not allowed on the side-walks, but 
 had to keep to the centre of the street with the 
 donkeys and other beasts of burden. In any place 
 of public resort, such as a cafe, should a Christian 
 inadvertently sit down on the right hand of a 
 Moslem, he was instantly greeted w T ith shouts of 
 ' Ishmalya JVusrdni ' (Go to the left, you Nazarene !). 
 His evidence was absolutely inadmissible in a court 
 of law, however much he might be respected even 
 by his Moslem fellow-citizens. Within the memory 
 of some still living, the written permission, which 
 had (in towns at least) to be obtained from the 
 local Kadi, or magistrate, before the body of a 
 deceased Christian could be buried, was couched in 
 the following terms : 
 
 ' I, So-and-so, give permission for the burial of 
 the unbeliever So-and-so, son of So-and-so, the 
 
ORIENTAL CHURCHES .37 
 
 damned, lest the smell of his corpse should injure a 
 Moslem.' 
 
 It is not to be wondered if, in such circum- 
 stances, the bitterest feelings were cherished 
 towards the Moslems. Scorn was repaid with 
 scorn. Even now, though in the last fifty years 
 matters have wonderfully altered for the better, 
 much of the old feeling still remains, and in 
 particular any attempt to win the Moslems to the 
 faith of Christ is, by many of the native Christians, 
 looked upon as casting pearls before swine. 
 
 Throughout Palestine proper the great majority 
 of the Christians belong to the Orthodox Greek 
 Church, which is probably the lineal descendant, as 
 far as any community can be said to be such, of 
 the local body of Christians of the first century. 
 Some, however, I believe, consider the Syrian or 
 Jacobite to be the true National Church of the 
 Holy Land. The Orthodox Greeks are very 
 exclusive, refusing not only to recognise the Orders 
 of any other Christian community as valid, but 
 also declining to admit their baptism as even lay 
 baptism. I have been assured that should anyone 
 wish to join them from any, even of the other 
 Oriental communions, they would insist on rebap- 
 tism by a Greek priest. 
 
 In the Lebanon most of the Christian peasantry 
 belong to the Maronite community. This is a 
 distinct Church, with its own ritual, festivals, 
 calendar of saints, Orders, etc., but in communion 
 with the Church of Rome. 
 
 In a few places Armenians are to be found. In 
 
38 RELIGION 
 
 doctrine they are Monophysites, but in other 
 respects there is not much difference between them 
 and the Orthodox Greeks. Indeed, their Church 
 is in Palestine really a foreign one, consisting of 
 congregations of the National Church of Armenia, 
 the members being Armenians by race, and the 
 services conducted in that language. They are 
 distinguished from the other Churches in Palestine 
 in the time of their celebration of Christmas. They 
 keep this feast on the same day as that of the 
 Epiphany and our Lord's baptism. In common 
 with both Eastern and Western Christendom, they 
 assign January 6 as the date of these two festivals, 
 and, interpreting St. Luke iii. 22, 23, to mean that 
 the Saviour was baptized on His birthday, they con- 
 sequently keep that day as the Feast of the Nativity. 
 In addition to the Greek Orthodox Church there 
 is the so-called Greek Catholic Community, a body 
 which has split off from the former, and which is 
 regarded by them as unorthodox and schismatical. 
 They acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope as 
 Head of the Church on earth, while retaining the dis- 
 tinctive rites and ceremonies of the Greek Church.* 
 
 * Besides the Greek Catholics, there are Armenian 
 Catholics, Syrian Catholics, etc. These bodies are some- 
 times known as the ' Uniat Churches, 1 and are of compara- 
 tively recent origin. Wherever the term ' Greek ' is used in 
 this book, it is, unless the contrary be expressly mentioned, to 
 be understood of creed, and not of race. It is unfortunate 
 that there is no recognised term in English for members of 
 the Greek Church as distinguished from those of the Hellenic- 
 race. In Arabic there is no such ambiguity, the former 
 being known as Rum, and the latter as Yiindn. 
 
HELLENIC MONKS 39 
 
 Besides the Oriental Churches, there is the Roman 
 (or Latin, as it is called in the Levant) Church, 
 which has in recent times established monastic 
 houses, built churches, and gathered congregations 
 drawn from these Eastern communions. All their 
 distinctive characteristics are of Western origin, 
 and therefore do not call for detailed notice in a 
 work dealing specially with Oriental Churches and 
 races. 
 
 There exist also a number of Protestant con- 
 gregations, chiefly in connection with the Church 
 Missionary Society of the Church of England. 
 These congregations, though not large, relatively 
 to those of some other Churches, yet exert a very 
 considerable influence for good in the country, an 
 influence much beyond that which their numbers 
 would account for, and which is none the less real 
 because it is often indirect. 
 
 In connection with the Greek Church in 
 Palestine there is a large body of foreign ecclesi- 
 astics, who monopolize all the more important 
 posts to the exclusion of native clergy. These 
 foreigners are Greek by nationality, often knowing 
 little or nothing of Arabic, the vernacular of the 
 country. The monks at the present time are 
 entirely Hellenic, and will not admit a native of 
 the country among their number. The reason of 
 this exclusiveness is that the higher Orders of the 
 clergy are drawn from the ranks of the monastic 
 Orders only. These foreign ecclesiastics con- 
 sequently exclude the natives for the purpose of 
 retaining the power and control of the Church in 
 
40 RELIGION 
 
 their own hands. As is inevitable in such a case, 
 there is but little sympathy between the two bodies 
 of clergy, a fact which lias worked disastrously, 
 and is so working, for the welfare of the Greek 
 Church in Palestine. 
 
 The village priests are for the most part natives 
 of the country, and very frequently of the place 
 where they minister. In the larger villages, how- 
 ever, where there are several priests, there is usually 
 an Hellenic ecclesiastic over them, who is called 
 Rels, or Superior. He is a monk, and may be, and, 
 indeed, not infrequently is, not in full Orders, and 
 consequently ecclesiastically inferior to the men 
 over whom he rules. 
 
 The Greek clergy, unlike those of the Roman 
 Church and of the so-called Catholic branches of 
 the Oriental Churches, are allowed to marry, but 
 should a priest's wife predecease him he is not 
 permitted to marry again. The monks must all 
 be celibates, and also the higher clergy. 
 
 The incomes of the village priests are small, and 
 they receive them but irregularly. Their salaries, 
 such as they are, are paid by the Patriarch in 
 whose province they live, out of the revenue of 
 the patriarchate, these revenues in the case of 
 the Jerusalem patriarchate, which includes all 
 Palestine, being very large. One priest, with 
 whom I am personally acquainted, has a salary of 
 eighteen shillings a month, which would be an 
 average stipend in a small village ; in the larger 
 villages they receive proportionally more. This 
 particular priest, as is often the case, lives in his 
 
GREEK CONVENT OF MAR GIRIUS IN WADY KELT. 
 
 pi"jf -10. 
 
VILLAGE PRIESTS 41 
 
 native place, and has house, land, olives, etc., of 
 his own ; consequently whatever he receives as 
 priest is in addition to what he has as an ordinary 
 peasant. This renders him comfortably off, as 
 comfort is reckoned in the East. In addition to 
 the salary attached to the post, a Greek cleric 
 receives fees from his flock at baptisms, weddings, 
 and on other occasions ; and should a sick person 
 send for him, he expects to be paid for the visit, a 
 bishlik (5^d.) being the usual sum ! 
 
 As a body the clergy are for the most part very 
 ignorant. There is no middle class from which to 
 draw them ; consequently they are of the same 
 social position as the humblest of their flock, and 
 at times inferior to many of them in education. 
 One highly respectable old priest, whom I have 
 known for many years, has more than once told me 
 that all the education he ever had was six months 
 at school, that he was then set to herd the cattle, 
 and from this occupation was taken to be ordained. 
 Such men, of course, never preach ; indeed, preaching 
 is almost unknown in the village places of worship, 
 all that is expected of the clergy being limited, 
 practically, to reading through the services. Not- 
 withstanding these facts, the priests are treated 
 with the greatest reverence by their people, not 
 on account of their personal character, which, sad 
 to say, in too many cases will not bear close 
 inspection, but because of their office. 
 
 The dress of the Greek priests consists of a long 
 black garment like a cassock, with a leathern belt 
 round the waist, a black outer robe with full sleeves, 
 
42 RELIGION 
 
 resembling a preacher's gown, and a tall black 
 cylindrical hat, with a rim round the top. This 
 rim distinguishes those who are in full Orders from 
 the monks and others who have not yet attained to 
 the priesthood. All Greek ecclesiastics, of what- 
 ever Order they may be, wear their hair long, this 
 custom being taken from the law of the Nazarites 
 (Num. vi. 5). It seems very curious at first to a 
 Western to see these men with great masses of 
 hair like a woman's. Formerly, instead of the 
 cylindrical hat, a fez with a dark blue turban, 
 similar to that still worn by the Coptic priests in 
 Egypt, was the clerical headdress. This latter 
 was, however, a badge of servitude imposed upon 
 the Christians by their Mohammedan conquerors, 
 and, with the waning power of the Turk, it has 
 gone the way of other tokens of social inferiority. 
 The higher clergy, when making a state call or 
 when desirous of showing special respect to the 
 person to whom a visit is made, put over the hat a 
 long black veil, which flows down the back of the 
 wearer nearly to the waist. 
 
 Infant baptism is the invariable rule in the Greek 
 Church, and is always by trine immersion. It is 
 followed by the chrism, both being administered at 
 the same service. This latter rite is held by the 
 Oriental Churches to be the equivalent of the 
 confirmation of Western Christendom. It is 
 customary, as with us, to have sponsors, and 
 commonly the same persons will stand as god- 
 parents for all the children of a family. This is 
 held to constitute a relationship, and to be within 
 
GREEK CHURCHES 43 
 
 the prohibited degrees of the Greek Church, so 
 that the children of godparents may not intermarry 
 with the latter 's godchildren. 
 
 Some of the Greek churches are very ancient 
 or on ancient foundations. Externally they are 
 as a rule dreary, uncared-for-looking buildings, and 
 inside they appear to be utterly neglected, and are 
 too often far from clean. There are no pews, the 
 congregation standing during the services, and, as 
 these are very long, stout sticks with long cross- 
 pieces at the top, like huge crutches, are provided 
 for the people to lean on when they become weary. 
 
 A curious ceremony takes place at the consecra- 
 tion of a Greek church. Both the Patriarch of the 
 province and the Bishop of the diocese in which 
 the church is situated take part in the service. 
 They bring with them a piece of a bone of a saint. 
 This they proceed to boil in olive-oil in the church. 
 The Bishop, wearing a white silk surplice, having 
 completed the cooking of the relic with spices, 
 takes a long reed with a sponge on the top, and, 
 dipping it in the holy oil, makes the sign of the 
 cross therewith on the roof, walls, etc., all round 
 the building. Special prayers follow. These ended, 
 he takes off his silk surplice and puts on another. 
 After more prayers, appropriate to the occasion, 
 he proceeds to say Mass. This ended, he takes the 
 rest of the oil and the vessel (which must be a new 
 one), and deposits it in some spot where it will be 
 out of ordinary reach, as it is sacred. Finally the 
 Bishop tears his silk surplice into small pieces, 
 which he distributes among the congregation as a 
 
44. RELIGION 
 
 blessing, the reason of this being that, as some of 
 the holy oil has fallen on it, he may not wear it 
 again. 
 
 For twelve hundred years after the Moham- 
 medan conquest of Palestine the Christian churches 
 were not allowed to have bells, the Moslems 
 believing that they collect the evil spirits. As a 
 substitute, bars of bronze, or some similar material, 
 were used. These bars were suspended from a 
 wooden frame, and when struck with a heavy 
 mallet emitted a deep musical note, which could 
 be heard to a considerable distance. In some few 
 places, as, for example, the Armenian monastery 
 in Jerusalem and the well-known Greek convent 
 of Mar Saba in the Wady en Nar, these old bronze 
 gongs may still be seen. Within the last century 
 Christians have been allowed the use of bells, a 
 concession which is looked upon by some of the 
 stricter Moslems as a sad proof of the decadence of 
 their faith. 
 
 Scattered up and down the country are large 
 monasteries of the Greek Church. Usually they 
 are to be found in lonely places, such as that of 
 Mar Saba just mentioned, Mar Girius (St. George) 
 in the Wady Kelt, the famous Convent of the 
 Cross, west of Jerusalem, that on Mount Tabor, 
 and many others. They are strongly built, and 
 in outward appearance more like fortresses than 
 religious houses, having been used in former times 
 by the Christians as places of refuge when danger 
 threatened. Though the need for them as such 
 has now happily passed away, at any rate for the 
 
THE HOLY FIRE 45 
 
 present, they are eloquent witnesses to the risks 
 which Christians had to run in days not long 
 gone by. 
 
 Of the Christian festivals, perhaps the most note- 
 worthy — at any rate from a Western point of view 
 — is the ceremony of the Holy Fire (or Holy 
 Light, to give it its true name), which takes place 
 in Jerusalem, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 
 on the Greek Easter Eve. The people are taught 
 that this ' Fire ' or 'Light' is miraculously produced 
 each year, on that day, in the Lord's tomb, and 
 great crowds come up to the Holy City to witness 
 the ceremony. Candles or tapers lit from the 
 sacred flame convey the light to the Christian 
 villages within a good many miles of Jerusalem. 
 These candles are, as soon as lit, rapidly passed to 
 groups of men who are eagerly awaiting them 
 outside the Church of the Sepulchre, and who 
 immediately hurry off with the precious charge to 
 their respective villages. It is esteemed a great 
 honour to be allowed to carry this light, and in 
 some cases certain families have the monopoly of 
 the privilege, a monopoly which sometimes leads 
 to rights between the bearers of the Holy Fire 
 and people of other families who are desirous of 
 obtaining the honour for themselves. In the 
 villages, as the time gets near for the cavalcade to 
 appear, people go out to some eminence near to 
 watch the road from Jerusalem for the first in- 
 dications of its approach, and any horseman riding 
 by is eagerly questioned, ' Is the Light coining ?' 
 1 Have you seen the Light ?' Ere long, in the 
 
46 RELIGION 
 
 distance, is descried the little group of men carrying 
 the precious flame, carefully screened from the 
 wind. The shouts of the watchers send the news 
 to the village, a solemn procession is formed, the 
 Greek priests, in gorgeous vestments, go forth to 
 meet the Light, and conduct it, accompanied by 
 clouds of incense, amid all the noise and uproar 
 inseparable from an Oriental procession, and with 
 attendant crowds, to the church, where a service is 
 held in honour of its arrival. 
 
 At Eastertide the Christians dye eggs in com- 
 memoration of the feast. Red is the colour 
 ordinarily employed. The origin and meaning of 
 the custom seems to be quite unknown to them, 
 and the only reply I have ever been able to elicit 
 in response to my inquiries — a reply perfectly satis- 
 factory to an Eastern — is, ' Such is the custom.' 
 The dyeing is effected by wrapping the egg in silk 
 of the desired colour, and then boiling it, when the 
 shell takes up the colour from the material. At 
 Bethlehem the mother-o '-pearl workers dye eggs 
 of a brown tint, and then very deftly etch some 
 sacred design on them, removing with a sharp- 
 pointed tool the thin coloured film, without, how- 
 ever, cutting through the eggshell. The children 
 play a game with these Easter eggs. Two of them 
 take an egg apiece, and each tries to crush in the 
 end of the other's egg without cracking his own, 
 ■and he who succeeds in accomplishing this feat 
 keeps both eggs. 
 
 The Mohammedans have adopted this custom 
 from the Christians, and at the feast of Neby Miisa 
 
FEASTS AND FASTS 47 
 
 (which, as mentioned in the previous chapter, takes 
 place about the time of the Greek Easter) dye 
 eggs of a bright yellow. At the New Year, at 
 all great Church festivals, and at the beginning of 
 every month, the Greek priests go round to the 
 houses of all their flock and bless them. A vessel 
 of holy water is carried by an attendant, and the 
 priest sprinkles some of it on the house, at the 
 same time saying, ' Save, Lord, Thy people, and 
 bless Thine inheritance : grant our kings victory 
 over the barbarians, and preserve by the power of 
 Thy cross all who trust in Thee.' In return for this 
 ceremony the householder gives the priest some 
 trifling present — a handful of wheat, some dried 
 figs, a few eggs, or anything else that comes to 
 hand. 
 
 The Greeks, as a rule, observe the fast of Lent 
 very strictly. They make a great point of eating 
 olive-oil then ; indeed, with the more ignorant ones 
 this is the essential thing : without its use Lent 
 would not be Lent for them. Olive-oil is used by 
 all in their cooking, butter and other animal fats 
 being strictly forbidden to them during that period. 
 
 There are many other fasts, and as a rule they 
 are rigorously observed, especially those which 
 occur before the great Church festivals. The days 
 on which the fasts begin and terminate, together 
 with the various saints' days, are announced each 
 week by the priests in the churches on the previous 
 Sunday. 
 
 Superstitions of all kinds abound among the 
 Christians as well as among the Mohammedans. 
 
48 RELIGION 
 
 Thus, if a child be ill, or long in walking through 
 weakness, the parents will go round to the neigh- 
 bours and beg some trifling thing from each house, 
 as a fig, a piece of bread, an onion, or even an egg- 
 shell or other worthless article. These they proceed 
 to bury in a dung-heap, afterwards firing a gun 
 over it, when they believe that the disease, or the 
 spirit causing it, will leave the child. If a man be 
 suffering from sciatica, an old woman, who must 
 be past a certain age, has to go alone out of the 
 little village and search for a kind of shrub known 
 as Shabrikeh, a low, tough, thorny plant, a favourite 
 food of camels. Having found one, she must, 
 without uprooting it, so pull and twist it that the 
 stem and roots become quite flexible ; she must 
 then place a stone on the plant and return to the 
 village by a different way to that by which she 
 quitted it, and the patient will be cured ! 
 
 In a certain village in the Jebel-el-Kuds, if an 
 ox, cow, sheep, or goat be lost, someone takes a 
 Bible and reads aloud the twenty-third Psalm. As 
 he utters the last word, another person shuts up a 
 knife, razor, or dagger, which he has held open for 
 the purpose : the knife, etc., must remain closed till 
 the lost animal be found ; otherwise it will be eaten 
 by wild beasts ! 
 
 The natives of Palestine are much afraid of the 
 evil-eye. Blue or gray eyes are popularly supposed 
 to be specially virulent and powerful, and are often 
 thought to be capable of seeing into the ground, 
 and detecting the hidden treasures which are 
 popularly believed to be buried in all ruins. It is 
 
THE EVIL-EYE 49 
 
 considered most unlucky, especially by Moslems, 
 to express praise or admiration of a child or animal, 
 some untoward event being, in their opinion, sure 
 to follow. The usual expression in lieu of praise 
 or admiration is ' Mashallah ' — literally, ' What 
 God wills '; and a fond father or mother will be 
 as gratified at this as English parents at the 
 warmest eulogium on their children. 
 
 The people seek to counteract or ward off the 
 effects of the evil-eye by means of various things 
 hung round the necks of children and animals, or 
 in the former case fastened to the Tarbush, as the 
 fez, or red cap, is called. These charms usually 
 take the form of blue beads, discs of blue glass 
 with white centres, in the middle of which is a 
 black dot (the whole forming a rude representation 
 of a human eye), or little bits of the same coloured 
 material roughly fashioned to resemble a hand. 
 This latter charm is supposed to represent ' the 
 Hand of Might,' or the protecting power of God 
 on the person. The colour is blue, from the idea, 
 as mentioned above, that eyes of that hue have 
 special power to injure both men and animals. In 
 the case of new houses, the skull of some animal, 
 with a few blue beads, is often hung over the door- 
 way with the same object. 
 
 If anyone is believed to have been injured by 
 the evil-eye, in order to ascertain who the in- 
 dividual may be who has done the harm, they take 
 lumps of alum and heat them over the fire, care- 
 fully watching them the while. As the lumps 
 break up under the influence of the heat, they 
 
 4 
 
50 RELIGION 
 
 believe that in one or other of them they will see, 
 and be able to recognise, the eye of the person who 
 has cast the evil spell on them, and that the spell 
 will at the same time be broken. 
 
 Charms of all kinds are extensively used, and 
 implicitly believed in by the people. Most little 
 children, but especially boys, will be seen with 
 strings of them round their necks — the blue beads 
 and eyes already mentioned, rude representations 
 of a human hand in brass, or blue glass, bits of 
 alum, queer-shaped pieces of bone, and other 
 fantastic objects. Another class of charms consists 
 of passages from the Koran, some of the ninety- 
 nine names of God, or even meaningless hiero- 
 glyphics, written on pieces of paper and sewn up 
 in square or triangular scraps of leather, which 
 are worn about the person. Both Moslems and 
 Christians have the greatest faith in these amulets, 
 and those persons who are credited with special 
 skill or power in writing them can make con- 
 siderable sums of money by this means. 
 
 The written charms are usually the work of 
 Dervishes, Ulema, and the like, but occasionally 
 even women do it. I know of one woman in the 
 Beni Zeid who has a great reputation in this 
 respect, people coming to her from all the country 
 round to purchase her charms. Regular treatises 
 on the subject also exist (in manuscript), giving 
 full directions how to prepare and write them. I 
 possess a copy of one of these treatises, which 
 once belonged to a Christian Fellah, who used, 
 practically, to get his living by writing amulets for 
 
AUGURY AND OMENS 51 
 
 the peasants, but who was shown the sin of it and 
 induced to abandon the practice. 
 
 Augury is still employed to some extent, in- 
 ferences being drawn as to coming events from the 
 appearance of birds, animals, etc. For example, if 
 an owl alights on a house at night, and hoots, it is 
 believed to be a prophecy of the speedy death of 
 the owner of the house. On setting out on a 
 journey, it is extremely unlucky to see a raven or 
 gazelle, but worse than all is to meet a woman 
 carrying an empty water-jar. The idea in the 
 latter case is that, as the jar has no water in it, so 
 the day, journey, or enterprise, will be devoid of 
 blessing, this omen being specially unpropitious in 
 the early morning. A native friend of mine once 
 told me that on a certain occasion he started very 
 early one morning from a village where he had 
 been staying. As he rode out of the place he met 
 a woman with such a jar on her head. As he 
 passed her she said aloud, ' In stiallah mclanch ' 
 (God grant that it be full), the idea, of course, 
 being to avert the omen. On another occasion 
 two men, whom I know, were riding into a village, 
 when they met a Moslem woman going out to the 
 spring, and on her head her empty pitcher. As 
 they came up to her, she thrust her arm as far as it 
 would go into the pitcher so that it might not be 
 empty ! 
 
 But ill-omened as it is for an individual to meet 
 a woman with an empty water-jar, it is more 
 especially unpropitious for a wedding procession to 
 do so, as this would be an infallible indication that 
 
 4—2 
 
52 RELIGION 
 
 there would be no blessing on the married life of 
 the bride and bridegroom. Should a woman thus 
 meet a wedding, she will turn her jar mouth down- 
 wards on the ground that it may not be seen to be 
 empty, or even, in some cases, she will break the 
 pitcher to pieces. 
 
 In some of the more remote districts the people 
 have a strong objection to being photographed. 
 They have an idea that the picture of a man takes 
 from him some part of his essence, and that he 
 consequently becomes weak and enfeebled. 
 
 When the new moon is seen for the first time, 
 many perform what is really an act of worship, or 
 adoration, to it. They stretch out the right hand 
 for an instant towards the luminary, and then 
 bring it back to the mouth, kiss it, and then 
 touch the forehead, at the same time saying, 
 * May God be honoured, and may you be 
 honoured.' This is, I have little doubt, a survival 
 of the idolatrous sun and moon worship once so 
 common throughout the East, and a form ot 
 adoration as old as the time of Job (Job xxxi. 
 2G, 27). This gesture is also employed as a token 
 of respect towards a superior. Thus, a man who 
 wishes to ask a favour will with his right hand 
 touch the beard of the one whose help he intreats, 
 and then kiss his own hand, this being equivalent 
 to kissing the other's beard, and seems to have 
 been a mode of honouring the images of heathen 
 gods in Tsraelitish times (1 Kings xix. 18). 
 
 When a tooth comes out of itself, they throw it 
 in the eye of the sun, saying, ' Take this donkey's 
 
BELIEF IN EVIL SPIRITS 53 
 
 tooth, and give me a gazelle's instead.' Donkeys 
 are in the East, as with ns, considered very stupid 
 animals, though they share this unenviable dis- 
 tinction with goats. Indeed, if they wish to say 
 that a man is very obtuse or obstinate, they 
 generally call him a goat. 
 
 There is a widespread belief in evil spirits of 
 various kinds, jinns, ghouls, afrites, et hoc genus 
 omne, so familiar to readers of the ' Thousand and 
 One Nights.' They are popularly supposed to 
 specially haunt corners of houses, and an Arabic 
 proverb says, ' j\ T o corner but has its demon.' Caves 
 also are often believed to be inhabited by them. 
 In the country east of the Dead Sea, where the 
 cultivated land is frequently a great distance from 
 the villages, the Fellahin, at seed-time and harvest, 
 not uncommonly live for weeks at a time in these 
 caves so as to be near their work. Before entering 
 them they always sacrifice a fowl or some animal 
 to the spirit of the place, in order to be on good 
 terms with it. 
 
 In certain localities in the land of Moab, and 
 other places east of the Jordan, hot springs occur. 
 The Fellahin are exceedingly fond of bathing in 
 these natural Turkish baths, and many of them 
 before entering the water make an offering of a 
 fowl, the idea being, apparently, that the jinn 
 who presides over the spring and controls the 
 subterranean fires, which impart their warmth to 
 the water, will not heat it sufficiently unless he be 
 propitiated by an offering. 
 
 Insane people are supposed to be possessed by 
 
54 RELIGION 
 
 these jinns, the ordinary term for such unfortunate 
 individuals being Majnun — that is one who has a 
 jinn. 
 
 This belief in spirits is very firmly fixed in the 
 minds of the people. When Kerak was first 
 occupied by the Turkish troops, some twelve years 
 ago, I remember an intelligent, well-educated 
 native telling me, in all seriousness, that two 
 ghouls had been caught in the old castle there, 
 and been put in iron cages to be brought over to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 The religion of both Moslems and Christians is 
 to a very large extent purely external. The former 
 divide actions into Heidi (lawful) and Haram 
 (unlawful), and so long as a man abstains from the 
 latter he is profoundly satisfied with himself. 
 More than this, what may be called ' ritual actions ' 
 are often counted of greater importance than the 
 keeping of the moral law. Thus, it is considered 
 an 'unlawful' (i.e., sinful) act to tread on crumbs 
 of bread, and I have seen a Moslem dealer, whose 
 every other sentence would be an oath, and who 
 would never miss a chance of cheating a customer, 
 most scrupulously pick up from the floor of a 
 railway-carriage a few minute fragments of bread 
 which a European traveller had dropped, lest he 
 should inadvertently step on them. 
 
 Asceticism, also, in the matter of food, outweighs 
 many a sin. I know a case of a man who is 
 notorious among his fellow- Moslems for breaking 
 nearly all the moral precepts of the Koran, \ v ho 
 yet is held in high honour as a saint. His claim 
 
CHRISTIAN AND MOSLEM IGNORANCE 55 
 
 to a reputation for sanctity rests on the fact that 
 for years he is said never to have drunk any liquid 
 whatever, obtaining the moisture necessary to 
 maintain his body in health by eating water- 
 melons. 
 
 In many cases both Christians and Moslems are 
 intensely ignorant of their own faith. A Greek 
 Christian, who came from a large village where 
 there was but a handful of Christians among a con- 
 siderable Moslem population, and where there was 
 no resident priest, once said to me : ' We are very 
 ignorant ; the only difference between our women 
 and those of the Moslems is that the latter swear 
 by the Prophet, and ours by the Virgin.' 
 
 One result of European missions in Palestine 
 has been to stir up to some extent the native 
 Churches to care for the education and instruction 
 of their own people, yet the present condition of 
 their flocks in this matter still leaves much to be 
 desired. 
 
 Prayer, as taught in the Bible, is but little 
 known by Mohammedans and the more ignorant 
 Christians. In the case of the former it would be 
 within the mark to say that in the great majority 
 of instances the externals of prayer are the all- 
 important thing. The doctrine of fate, mentioned 
 above, must if followed to its logical conclusion 
 render all real prayer nugatory. 
 
 The majority of Moslems are very strict about 
 their devotions, carefully observing the hours of 
 prayer. Wherever they may be at such times, in 
 shop or vineyard, building-yard or cornfield, on 
 
56 RELIGION 
 
 board ship or riding across the country, they stop 
 their work, take off their shoes, spread their outer 
 cloaks as prayer-mats on the ground, and then 
 repeat the prescribed formulas and go through 
 the ordained prostrations. Before prayer, the face, 
 feet, hands and arms (as far as the elbows), must be 
 washed with water, or, failing that, cleansed with 
 sand. Without this preliminary purification they 
 hold that God would not hear. 
 
 The sight of a large number of Moslems at 
 prayer, led by their Imam, standing in long silent 
 rows, prostrating themselv r es on the ground simul- 
 taneously, or bowing in unison with the precision 
 of a regiment of soldiers at drill, is a very im- 
 pressive scene ; but prayer, in the Christian sense 
 of the word, it emphatically is not. The repetition 
 of the KaUmah, or Moslem formula of faith, ' There 
 is no God but God, and Mohammed is the Apostle 
 of God,' the recitation of the first chapter of the 
 Koran, and certain other formulae, constitute the 
 sum total, in a Moslem's mind, of the worship 
 required of him. 
 
 It must be confessed that the more ignorant 
 members of the Oriental Churches are almost 
 equally in the dark as to what true prayer is. A 
 few on rising in the morning say, ' O Gate of 
 God, O Opener (of the day), O Wise One, 
 O Provider, O Generous One !' but beyond this I 
 fear it must be said that individual, personal, 
 private prayer is unknown to many. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 The villages of Palestine are for the most part — 
 at least, in the hill country — on or near the ancient 
 sites ; and some not only occupy the same spots, 
 but also bear practically the same names, they did 
 thousands of years ago, at the dawn of history. 
 The sites of these ancient towns and villages were 
 largely determined by physical conditions, such as 
 a position easily defended or the proximity of an 
 abundant water-supply. In the hill country the 
 former reason seems to have been the one which 
 was chiefly taken into account, and consequently 
 most of the present villages and hamlets are on 
 the summits of rocky knolls or outlying spurs, 
 sometimes in most commanding situations, with 
 magnificent views over wide stretches of country. 
 Those in valleys are almost invariably close to a 
 copious spring of water. 
 
 The villages in the hills are much more sub- 
 stantially built than those in the plains ; stone of 
 good quality, and easily worked, abounds, and 
 where a hamlet occupies an ancient site, old 
 materials are often worked up again, and in such 
 
 57 
 
58 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 places one frequently sees finely-dressed blocks, 
 fragments of pillars, capitals of columns, etc., built 
 into the walls of newly- erected houses. Some of 
 these stones may have come down from the earliest 
 times, and have been used by Canaanitish, Jewish, 
 Greek, Roman, and Syrian masons in succession. 
 
 Not infrequently the summit of the knoll is 
 occupied by the remains of an old town or castle, 
 the village being built round it, the gray houses 
 sometimes clinging, as it were, to the rock, and at 
 a distance so like it that often it is difficult to tell 
 which is rock and which is ruin or dwelling. The 
 houses are, as a rule, built closely together, narrow 
 courtyards or winding alleys alone separating them 
 from each other. This is often due to the con- 
 tracted site or steep slope of the ground, but 
 sometimes to the need of protection, the smaller 
 the circuit of the village the easier beino; its 
 defence, and some of these villages before the 
 invention of artillery must have been almost 
 impregnable. 
 
 The villages in the plains are not uncommonly 
 situated on a slight elevation, but, as building stone 
 is not to be had within reasonable distance, the red 
 earth of the plains is made sometimes to do duty 
 in its stead. Some of these villages are very 
 picturesque, especially in the spring-time, with 
 the low red-walled houses, their flat earthen roofs 
 covered with a rich crop of grass, hedges of prickly- 
 pear surrounding the place, a few tall date-palms 
 growing amongst the houses, and a pool of water, 
 left by the winter rains, filling what otherwise 
 
CONSTRUCTION OF A HOUSE 59 
 
 would be an unsightly pit, produced by digging 
 clay for making the houses or covering the roofs. 
 
 In building a house, local conditions will very 
 much influence the style and nature of the con- 
 struction, and materials used. In the mountains 
 timber is very scarce and stone abundant. This 
 has led to the adoption of domed stone roofs, and 
 the heavy nature of these roofs has obliged the 
 building of very substantial walls in order to with- 
 stand their thrust, a thickness of 3 feet being quite 
 common, and in many cases more is needed. The 
 houses for the most part consist of but a single 
 room. The interior is usually in two parts — a 
 raised portion, called a Mustabeh, occupying some 
 three-quarters of the space, and a lower part near 
 the door. On the Mustabeh the family live, and 
 underneath it a horse, one or more donkeys, a cow, 
 or goats, will be stabled at night. Farm imple- 
 ments, firewood, charcoal, etc., with fowls, will also 
 find accommodation there. On the raised part, 
 too, will be the bins where the corn, dried figs, 
 lentils, and such-like stores, are kept. In an 
 arched recess in the thickness of the wall the 
 bedding will be piled away during the day. Holes 
 made by leaving out a stone here and there occur 
 in the inner courses of the walls, and these contain 
 various articles of household use, while between 
 the stones pegs are driven, on which are hung 
 baskets, straw trays, gourds, etc. 
 
 In some cases a small window or opening is 
 made high up in the wall, but very often there is 
 no aperture other than the door, the reason of this 
 
m 
 
 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 having been the insecure state of the country in 
 years gone by, windows being considered to give 
 too great an opportunity to an enemy. And even 
 now, though matters are in this way much improved, 
 and life is more secure in most places, yet still this 
 idea is to some extent justified. Not so very long 
 ago a man, one night, climbed up to the window 
 of a house in Bethlehem and shot his enemy, the 
 owner, dead as he lay asleep in bed. 
 
 H 
 
 T_ 
 
 K 
 
 M 
 
 The above plan is that of a typical native house 
 in the hill country, west of the Jordan. A, B, C, 
 is the Mustabeh, or raised part, where the family 
 lives ; D, E, F, G, H, a row of cornbins ; I, a sort 
 of hearth, with sometimes, but by no means always, 
 a rude chimney in the thickness of the wall ; K, the 
 
INSIDE THE HOUSE 61 
 
 recess for the bedding ; L, the steps, if any ; M, the 
 doorway. 
 
 Such is the ordinary type of house in which the 
 average class of peasants dwell. The well-to-do 
 will have more than one room, though all the 
 rooms on the ground-floor will be of similar type, 
 while the poorest class will live in mere hovels, 
 built very roughly, sometimes without mortar, the 
 whole floor being on a level with the ground. In 
 more recently built houses, especially where the 
 owner is well off, the style will be more like that 
 of the towns, with no Mustabeh, and with fair-sized 
 windows with glass in them, and perhaps outside 
 wooden shutters. 
 
 An Ally eli, or upper room, as the word means, 
 is not unfrequently built on the top, especially for 
 sleeping in during the summer, being cooler than 
 the house below. Sometimes the guest-room of 
 a village will be an Aliyeh. The little chamber 
 (2 Kings iv. 10) made by the Shunamite for Elisha 
 was an Aliyeh ; and as such rooms are generally 
 reached, not through the house, but by an outside 
 staircase from the street, he would be able to come 
 and go without in any way intruding on, or inter- 
 fering with, the family. Occasionally these 'summer 
 rooms ' (Judg. iii. 20) will have only four walls, 
 the roof being formed of a vine trained over it for 
 the purpose, or a shelter of boughs of trees — such 
 places, of course, being only used in summer. 
 
 The building of these houses, especially where 
 they are to be more than usually substantial, or 
 where the owner is poor, is often spread over 
 
62 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 several years. When a man has decided to build, 
 he begins by collecting stone for the purpose. The 
 rock of Palestine is mostly limestone, of which 
 there are several kinds suitable for building. The 
 best is a very hard kind, which is sometimes of a 
 reddish colour, but more commonly a cream tint, 
 and is capable of taking a fine polish ; it is generally 
 known as Mizzeh. There are two sorts of it — 
 Mizzek yahudch, the hardest stone of the country, 
 and Mizzeh helu, a softer variety. Next comes 
 Kakuleh, a fine white freestone which cuts readily, 
 and yet is hard and strong, and is much used for 
 angles, cornices, mullions, etc., wherever, in fact, the 
 stone has to be accurately dressed or carved ; then 
 MaHkeh, a softer freestone not so durable ; and 
 lastly N&rek, a very light, soft, chalky material, 
 used only for the domed roofs. 
 
 Having collected stone, the foundations are 
 dug, and in the hill districts are almost invariably 
 carried down to the rock, which is rarely at any 
 great depth below the surface. In the plains, on 
 the other hand, it is sometimes impossible to get 
 down to rock. The mortar consists of earth and 
 lime, the Palestine builders not considering it neces- 
 sary to use sand ; the earth dug out of the founda- 
 tions, supplemented by soil from the adjoining 
 fields, being deemed sufficient. As the shape of 
 the stones is irregular, much more mortar, in 
 proportion, is required than in Europe, and, owing 
 to the scarcity of water in mostj places, this forms 
 one of the most serious items in the cost of build- 
 ing a house. 
 
THE WALLS AND ROOF 63 
 
 In making the walls, a row of stones of uniform 
 thickness on the outer face is carefully laid on the 
 foundation by a master-mason, forming the outer 
 surface of the wall, a similar row being laid to 
 form the inner one. But as, except on the face, 
 the stones are very uneven, an irregular space is 
 left down the middle for the whole length of the 
 wall, and this, as soon as the two outer rows are 
 laid, is filled up by another workman with mortar, 
 and small rough stones, known as Dcbsh, gathered 
 from the land : thus the course, or Midmak, is 
 made level for the next one. 
 
 The roofs in many parts are, as already men- 
 tioned, of stone, and dome-shaped. These domes 
 are cleverly made, some builders, particularly those 
 of Bethlehem, being noted for their skill in this 
 department of their trade. To form these roofs, 
 the walls of the room are not finished off at the 
 same level all along, but, on the contrary, each 
 wall ends in a more or less pointed arch. Then, 
 if the room be a small one, the interior is filled up 
 with a domed-shaped mass of earth on which the 
 roof is shaped, the earth being afterwards removed. 
 Where the space is too large for this method to 
 be adopted, a number of stout poles are procured 
 and fixed upright in the room, and an elaborate 
 framework of sticks of the shape of the intended 
 roof is made on these poles or pillars, the frame- 
 work being covered with grass, and this again with 
 mud, thus forming what may be called a mould 
 of the inner surface of the dome. As soon as this 
 is dry the building of the roof takes place. Pieces 
 
64 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 of the Nareh, or similar light stone, roughly wedge- 
 shaped, are used, and when the whole dome is 
 completed it is left for a few days to settle, the 
 supports being afterwards removed, when it is 
 found to be perfectly firm and solid. 
 
 It is a common custom, when anyone is thus 
 roofing a house, for all the neighbours to come 
 and lend a helping hand, carrying up the stone, 
 mortar, etc., to the masons engaged on the work, 
 so that even a large dome will be completed in 
 the course of a few hours, it being a great 
 advantage to have the whole done in as short a 
 time as possible. Those who thus help do not 
 receive payment, but the owner of the house makes 
 a feast for them in the evening. These occasions 
 are greatly enjoyed by the women and children, 
 who shout and sing and clap their hands, so that 
 all the village knows when a house is being roofed. 
 After this is finished, the roof is completed by 
 carrying up the walls for two or three courses 
 above the spring of the dome, filling up the 
 corners with masonry, and covering the roof with 
 earth ; or instead of earth a kind of rubble is 
 sometimes used, consisting of a sort of fine gravel 
 mixed with lime, and where well done it forms 
 a very hard and water-tight roof. Where only 
 earth is used, it is laid on to a considerable depth, 
 and trodden or rolled hard, and if properly done 
 is wonderfully water-tight. It must, however, be 
 well rolled each year in the autumn, before the 
 rains, as a rank crop of grass often grows there 
 in the spring, on which goats may sometimes be 
 
ROOFS 65 
 
 seen grazing, and the roots of which loosen the 
 earth, thus rendering it pervious to the rain 
 unless it be well rolled. 
 
 In some districts a kind of white clay, called 
 Hoivwar, is found, which makes an excellent 
 covering. It is mixed with water and crushed 
 straw, being laid on pretty thickly, and as it dries 
 it is well rolled. It is, when carefully done, very 
 effective and very durable. Roofs are also covered 
 with large flat paving - stones laid in cement. 
 When well laid, this forms the best protection 
 from rain and snow, but it requires constant 
 watching, as, in the hills, frost and snow in the 
 winter destroy the cement between the joints, 
 and as a result there is much leakage. 
 
 East of the Jordan, owing to the greater amount 
 of suitable timber, the houses are not so sub- 
 stantially built, as the roofs are flat, and con- 
 sequently the pressure is vertical. In the case of 
 a small house, one or more stout beams called 
 Homarah (lit., a ' she-donkey ') run from end to 
 end, the longer way of the room. Across these 
 a number of much lighter rafters are laid ; on 
 these, again, are reeds, secured side by side as 
 closely as they will go, and on the reeds a 
 quantity of the Netsh bush already mentioned ; 
 while over all, earth, to the depth of a foot or 
 eighteen inches, is piled and rolled hard. These 
 roofs do not as a rule last long, unless fires are 
 lit fairly often in the room ; for a kind of small 
 weevil takes up its abode in the reeds and rafters, 
 boring innumerable small holes in them, and soon 
 
66 
 
 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 destroying the roof. One soon sees if they are 
 at work, as, when this is the case, a light powder, 
 like very fine sawdust, falls on everything ; while 
 at night, when all is quiet, the sound of the jaws 
 of the tiny insects busy at work can be distinctly 
 heard. If, however, fires are lit in the room, the 
 smoke keeps the weevils away, and where this is 
 done the roof lasts a long time. 
 
 The plan of the larger houses in Moab and 
 other parts of Eastern Palestine differs consequently 
 somewhat from that already given. In the above 
 plan of a house I have more than once stayed in, 
 east of the Jordan, A, B, is an open space in the 
 middle of the house ; C, a hearth ; D, D, etc., are 
 arches of stone on which the roof rests, the space 
 being too great to allow of single beams being 
 used ; E is the main door, with a courtyard ; F, 
 
WOODEN LOCKS 67 
 
 a smaller door ; G, G, etc., are the spaces between 
 the arches. The floors of these spaces are usually 
 raised two or three feet above the rest of the 
 room, and on them the family live, or else they 
 are occupied with sacks of corn, sometimes piled 
 up to the roof, or on them are stored agricultural 
 implements, household utensils, and the general 
 possessions of the owners. 
 
 The doors are as a rule strong, and roughly 
 made ; the hinges are generally formed by projec- 
 tions at top and bottom, from the plank which 
 forms the inner edge of the door, these projections 
 working in two holes, one in the upper and the 
 
 <\ : ^^3 
 
 U 
 
 ^ 
 
 other in the lower lintel. Rough iron locks are 
 a good deal used, but the old form of wooden 
 lock, which has been in vogue for thousands of 
 years, is still by no means uncommon. The 
 principle of these locks is decidedly ingenious. 
 The end of the wooden bolt (B) furthest from 
 the wall has a deep groove (G) in it for about 
 a third of its length ; above this groove are several 
 holes in a regular pattern (H). In the block 
 through which this bolt runs are a number of 
 iron pins, corresponding in numbei^and pattern 
 with the holes in the bolt, and so arranged that 
 when the bolt is pushed home the pins drop into 
 the holes and prevent its return. 
 
 5—2 
 
68 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 The key with which it is opened consists of a 
 piece of wood which will go easily into the groove, 
 and having on its upper surface a number of small 
 pegs exactly corresponding in number and pattern 
 with the holes in the bolt, the length of the pegs 
 being precisely the same as the thickness of that 
 part of the bolt in which are the holes. Thus, 
 when the key is fitted into the bolt and pushed 
 up, the pegs lift the pins clear of the bolt, which 
 can then be drawn back and the door opened. It 
 will be seen that no key is needed to shoot the 
 bolt, and this will explain how Ehud, after killing 
 Eglon, was able to lock the door where the dead 
 King lay (Judg. iii. 23), and thus gain time to 
 escape, for, of course, no one can draw back the 
 bolt without the proper key. The lock is ordinarily 
 placed on the outside of the door, but sometimes 
 on the inside, and where this is done a hole is cut 
 in the door to admit the hand and key, a custom 
 referred to in Cant. v. 4. 
 
 House-tops play a very important part in village 
 life in Palestine. In the hilly districts the one- 
 storied rooms are often built back to the side of 
 the knoll, or hill, on which the village stands ; or 
 where it is in a valley, a perpendicular rock surface 
 will occasionally be utilized as one of the walls, 
 and the roof will thus be on a level with the street 
 above. Where such a village is dependent on the 
 rain for its water-supply, the roof will be made 
 flush with the roadway, in order to get a greater 
 area from which to collect the water for the cistern 
 below. When this is done, it is often impossible 
 
HOUSE-ROOFS 69 
 
 to tell from above where the street ends and the 
 roof begins. Once when starting from Madeba, 
 in the Belka, in the small hours of a dark winter's 
 night, I twice found myself and my horse on the 
 roof of a house instead of in the street. In other 
 cases the roadway has gradually risen to the level 
 of the roofs. This is caused by the habit the 
 Fellahin have of throwing the ashes from their 
 ovens and the sweepings from their floors into 
 the little narrow lanes of the village. In the lapse 
 of centuries this rubbish has slowly accumulated 
 to such an extent that the surface of the court- 
 yards, once level with the street, is now several 
 feet below it, and the latter has so risen that 
 it is almost, if not quite, on a level with the 
 house-tops. 
 
 The roofs, although really domed, as already 
 described, are not unfrequently afterwards levelled 
 up so as to make them quite flat, or sloping 
 slightly to one corner to throw off the rain more 
 easily. They are put to an infinite variety of 
 uses ; thus, in a village built on the side of a 
 particularly steep valley, where it was almost 
 impossible to find a flat space, I have seen a 
 house-top used as a threshing-floor. Where the 
 house is not built against the hillside, faggots of 
 brushwood, used by the women for firewood, are 
 often piled up on the roof for safety. During 
 the sesame harvest the green stalks, with their 
 long, narrow seed-pods, are stacked there to dry. 
 Olives are spread out to mature before being- 
 crushed, and the housewife will keep her spare 
 
70 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 jars there. During the dry season I have seen 
 goats and sheep folded there at night, and in 
 the hot, sultry nights of summer the whole family 
 will frequently sleep on the house-top. 
 
 The good-wife builds her eornbins, moulds her 
 huge water-jars, dries her BurgJud, and does various 
 other household tasks, there. After sunset in the 
 summer evenings, the men will often bring their 
 long pipes and smoke here, discussing the day's 
 news or work, and enjoying the cool breeze. 
 Should a quarrel be going on, or a fight, or an 
 attack on the village be imminent, all the villagers 
 will be upon the roofs (see Isa. xxii. 1), which 
 command a much better prospect of what is going 
 on than can be obtained in the narrow, crooked 
 lanes ; and I have known of more than one 
 treacherous murder, and attempted murder, where 
 the murderer has, from the house-top, thrown a 
 heavy stone on the skull of his unsuspecting victim 
 passing below. When an announcement which 
 concerns the village generally has to be made, one 
 of the elders mounts to an elevated roof, and, in 
 tones which can be heard all over the place, tells 
 his news or issues his orders (St. Matt. x. 27).* 
 
 In the case which has been already mentioned, 
 
 * The following is the formula with which the announce- 
 ment is made : ' thou that hearest the voice pray in the 
 name of Mohammed , — (or ' of Christ, 1 if it be a Christian 
 village). If there are both Christians and Moslems, the crier 
 says : ' Let the Moslem pray in the name of his Prophet, and 
 the Nazarene in the name of his Friend, the matter is such 
 and such.'' 
 
SHEPHERD AND SHEEP. 
 
 ROMAN BRIDGE OVE1! THE JORDAN. 
 
 ,.,,,/. ,11 
 
HOUSE-TOPS 71 
 
 of a number of rooms built on to each other for 
 a family of sons, the roofs will join, though some- 
 times at different levels. In some cases these 
 roofs are reached from the streets by an outside 
 staircase — a circumstance which explains several 
 points in the New Testament. Thus, for example, 
 when (St. Matt. xxiv. 17) the man on the house- 
 top is warned not to go down into his house to 
 fetch anything, the thought clearly is, that he is 
 to escape instantly, so close at hand is the danger, 
 descending into the street at once, and not going 
 round into his house : otherwise this trifling delay 
 would cost him his life. 
 
 Again, in the healing of the palsied man, the 
 Saviour was, I hold it, in the courtyard of a house, 
 standing, very likely, in the doorway of one of the 
 rooms opening into it, this courtyard being so full 
 that the four men found it impossible to get their 
 sick friend near Him. Mounting by the staircase 
 from the street to such a roof as has been described 
 above, they easily reached the spot above that 
 where Jesus was standing. Here a further diffi- 
 culty met them : the house, in accordance with 
 the Mosaic law (Deut. xxii. 8), had a parapet 
 round the roof, unlike many of the houses of the 
 Fellahin to-day, and it was impossible to lift him 
 safely over it, and let him down into the courtyard 
 below. This parapet was, however, not of a very 
 substantial nature ; like many such in Palestine 
 to-day, it was composed of tiles (St. Luke v. 19). 
 These tiles are, in shape and size, somewhat like 
 those used in England for draining fields, except 
 
72 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 that they are much thinner. They are laid, with 
 mortar, lengthwise, one above another (the thick- 
 ness of the parapet being the length of the tile), 
 a light, strong wall being thus produced, which 
 allows the breeze to pass freely, and permits those 
 on the roof to see something of what is going on 
 around, without being themselves visible. This 
 parapet being gone, it was easy enough for the 
 four men to lower the mattress on which the 
 palsied man lay, down to the spot where the 
 Lord stood. 
 
 Cisterns are much used for storing rain-water 
 collected from the roofs, courtyards, and streets 
 of the village. They are made in the ground and, 
 in districts where the supply of water is obtained 
 entirely from them, it is common for anyone who 
 wishes to build a house to make a cistern the 
 previous year, both in order that he may have 
 water for building, and also because the water 
 gathered the first year in it is not considered 
 wholesome. 
 
 Many villages have no other water-supply than 
 these underground cisterns, and old sites are often 
 honeycombed with them. Sometimes a hole has 
 to be dug on purpose, but not unfrequently one 
 caused by getting stone is utilized for the purpose. 
 Round the interior of the hole a strong wall is 
 built, and, resting on it, a domed or barrel-shaped 
 roof, similar to those of the houses, a square open- 
 ing being left through which to draw water, and 
 sufficiently large to allow a man to pass through 
 when the well needs to be cleaned. The floor 
 
PARAPET OF " TILING. 
 
 A SHOP IN UOAB. 
 
 page 7_. 
 
CISTERNS 73 
 
 slopes slightly towards a spot immediately below 
 the mouth of the cistern. The whole of the inside 
 is then thickly plastered with lime and earth, and, 
 when nearly dry, a coating composed of lime, 
 ground pottery, and sand, is given to the plaster. 
 In process of time this becomes intensely hard and 
 perfectly water-tight. These cisterns should, even 
 in the most favourable circumstances, be cleaned 
 out every few years, as a considerable amount of 
 dust is carried down into them from even the best- 
 kept roofs. 
 
 The natives almost always use buckets in the 
 villages with which to draw the water, and these 
 are infinitely preferable to pumps, as each time the 
 bucket descends it carries with it a certain quantity 
 of air, which helps to keep the water sweet and 
 prevents its becoming stagnant, whereas a pump 
 has no such good effects. 
 
 In years of abnormally short rainfall in these 
 villages, which depend entirely on rain-fed cisterns 
 for their water-supply, when these are nearly 
 exhausted, there is a good deal of stealing of 
 water in the dark ; and in order to prevent this, 
 I have known people to spread their mattresses at 
 night on the mouth of the well, as it is called, and 
 to sleep there. 
 
 The village shop, as in more civilized lands, 
 plays an important part in village life. In all 
 but the smallest hamlets, one or two of these 
 shops are to be found, while in the larger places, 
 especially those that are centres of trade, there 
 will be many of them. Here may be bought 
 
74 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 articles of clothing of native manufacture, calicoes 
 from Europe, red shoes, striped kerchiefs for 
 turbans, coloured cottons and silks for embroider- 
 ing their gala dresses, heavy cloaks, and sheepskin 
 coats. The housewife will find rice, coffee, sugar, 
 tobacco, soap, petroleum, matches, etc. In the 
 larger villages, besides these things, one can buy 
 native hardware, felt for saddle-cloths, nosebags 
 and hobbles for horses, certain drugs, powder and 
 shot, flint and steel, and a variety of miscellaneous 
 goods. In the better shops the articles in which 
 the owners deal will be kept in rough shelves, 
 made of the wooden cases in which the tins of 
 petroleum are imported from Russia. These boxes, 
 about 18 inches long, 15 deep, and 9 wide, are 
 laid on their sides in rows one on the top of 
 another, and form convenient receptacles for the 
 various commodities, which are generally laid, just 
 as they are, in these shelves ; any perishable articles 
 they keep in wooden boxes from Damascus. 
 
 The shops themselves are small rooms, a few 
 feet square, without a window, and opening on to 
 the street. In the less-important places, any odd 
 corner, the space under an archway leading on to 
 the roof, or any hole that can be made sufficiently 
 secure against thieves, will serve the purpose. The 
 shopkeeper often lives in his shop, and I have on 
 more than one occasion been glad to avail myself 
 of such a shelter. Much of the buying and selling 
 is done by barter, money being a very scarce 
 commodity. As one sits chatting with the shop- 
 keeper, a young man comes in for some tobacco, 
 
A VILLAGE SHOP 75 
 
 and tenders a couple of eggs in payment ; these 
 are accepted, and he receives a little square paper 
 packet from a rough straw basket containing a 
 pile of such packets. Presently a youth appears 
 with a dirty tin can to be filled with petroleum ; 
 he has no money with him, but says his father 
 has sent him and will pay when he next has any, 
 and, as he is the son of the sheikh of the village, 
 the owner of the shop trusts him. In a few 
 minutes a young woman appears with a small 
 basket of barley which she wishes to exchange 
 for some native sweets ; the shopkeeper takes the 
 barley, which he empties into a box half full of 
 that grain, and gives her in return a handful of 
 indigestible-looking red and white sugar-plums, 
 about the size of peas. A boy comes next with 
 a single egg, which he tenders in payment for 
 some sugar : the proper price of the amount he 
 wants is two eggs, but he has only one just now, 
 and will bring the other as soon as he can get it ; 
 the man agrees, and gives him an irregular lump 
 of sugar from a sackful in one corner, and the lad 
 departs well pleased. 
 
 The next customer is a middle-aged man, who 
 wants a skein of red cotton for his wife. A bundle 
 of skeins wrapped up in paper is produced from 
 a hole in the wall, and the man, who is very 
 suspicious, and evidently thinks the shopkeeper is 
 trying to cheat him, at length selects one, and, 
 after haggling over the price, produces a small 
 coin in payment. The shopkeeper objects to it as 
 being too much worn ; ' By the life of the Prophet, 
 
76 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 I have nothing else,' returns the customer, and the 
 other, rather than lose his custom, accepts it. It 
 is, however, a trifle more than the price of the 
 skein, and, after hunting all over his shop, the 
 salesman cannot quite scrape together the full 
 amount of change, so after a lot of talking and 
 arguing the man goes off with his purchase, and the 
 sum of half a farthing to his credit on the other's 
 1 books ' — i.e., his head ! Just as he gets outside 
 the door, the boy who bought the sugar returns 
 to discharge his debt, one of his mother's hens 
 having in the meanwhile very obligingly laid an 
 egg. And so it goes on all day long. 
 
 Even in the large market villages much of the 
 payments to the shopkeepers is in kind. In 
 exchange for their wares they take fowls, eggs, 
 wheat, and other farm produce, which they in 
 turn sell in the towns for cash. Another form 
 of this trading by barter is met with in the 
 summer. A man has his land planted with vines, 
 and so can grow but little wheat, but during the 
 grape season he will now and then take a load 
 of fruit to a village where there are no vines, and 
 exchange it for corn, giving three pounds of grapes 
 for a pound of wheat. Prickly-pears, tomatoes, 
 water-melons, etc., are often brought for sale in 
 this way. 
 
 East of the Jordan, about Kerak, where there is 
 even less coin in circulation than in other districts, 
 the people, when selling their produce, state its 
 value in corn, even though the payment may be 
 actually made in coin. The shops in Kerak and 
 
PEDLARS 77 
 
 some other places are much more roomy than 
 those in Western Palestine, as the accompanying 
 illustration will show. 
 
 Cattle markets are held at certain towns and 
 villages, as Jerusalem, Lydd, etc., once a week, 
 or at longer intervals. To these the peasants 
 bring their horses, camels, cattle, mules, and 
 donkeys for sale. That at Jerusalem is held on 
 Friday. 
 
 There are a few itinerant pedlars who go about 
 the country selling needles and thread, combs, 
 cheap round looking-glasses, and other small 
 articles, chiefly such as are required by women. 
 They also do most of their trade by barter, 
 receiving eggs, grain, etc., in return for their 
 wares, and disposing of these in the towns for a 
 fresh stock of goods. A few Jews wander about 
 selling silk for embroidering the women's dresses ; 
 while itinerant cobblers, tinsmiths, and jewellers 
 are also to be met with. 
 
 When the Mohammedan conquest of Palestine 
 took place, Arab adventurers and warriors from 
 various tribes of the Hejaz, and other parts of 
 Arabia, settled in the country and became powerful. 
 Among these were men from two clans, or tribes, 
 known as Kes and Yemen. They gradually 
 acquired position and authority, and had many 
 villages in the Jebel el Kuds under their control. 
 These two tribes had been at enmity in their own 
 land, and carried the memory of this enmity into 
 Palestine. After a while the old feud broke out 
 again, and there were frequent quarrels, often 
 
78 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 ending in bloodshed, between the various villages 
 attached to the two factions. Sometimes the one 
 got the upper hand, and sometimes the other. 
 The Christians were obliged to side with one or 
 the other. In one village where there were 
 several large families, one half was Kes, and the 
 other Yemen. Not that they were keen partisans, 
 but merely to preserve their village from destruc- 
 tion, as, whichever side was for the moment 
 supreme, the place would be unmolested for the 
 sake of the moiety of the population which was 
 in league with that particular side. The in- 
 habitants of the villages which belong to the two 
 factions were, and are still to a great extent, 
 distinguished by the colour of their turbans, those 
 of the Kes adherents being red, and the Yemen 
 white. The chiefs of the respective factions would 
 always acknowledge the claims of their Christian 
 partisans, and would come to their help when in 
 danger from the opposite party. The Turkish 
 Government has during the last twenty-five years 
 made its authority more felt, and in consequence 
 the fights between these two factions have become, 
 to a large extent, a thing of the past, though not 
 altogether so. I can recall one at least within the 
 last few years, although no lives were lost in the 
 skirmishes. 
 
 In some of the villages of the Beni Zeid, as 
 Abud, Abu Meshal, Slukh, Deir ul Ghassaneh, 
 Beit Rima, Koba, and Kefr Ain, are families of 
 a widely-spread clan known as the Baraghafeh. 
 They take their name from Abu Bekr, the first 
 
BARAGHAFEH 79 
 
 Khalifa, or successor of Mohammed, from whom 
 they claim to be descended. They consider them- 
 selves much above the ordinary Fellah in, and their 
 women are secluded, more as those of the towns- 
 people. After marriage they are, in many cases, 
 not allowed to go out of the house into the street 
 until middle-aged, and under any circumstances 
 not for several years. When at length they do 
 begin to go outside the house, they cover their 
 heads and faces with a sort of cloak. In old age 
 they go about unveiled, and dressed much as other 
 peasant women. 
 
 The Beni Zeid mentioned above were, with the 
 Beni Harith and others whose names will be seen 
 marked on some maps of Palestine, Arab settlers 
 who acquired authority in bygone centuries over 
 certain districts, their names being given to those 
 districts to the present time. 
 
 There is a very strong feeling about the duties 
 of clanship among the Fellahin. This has, no 
 doubt, been fostered and developed by the lawless- 
 ness and unsettled state of the land in days now 
 past ; still, if a man can prove even the most distant 
 relationship to another, the claim is recognised, and 
 help and assistance will, as far as possible, be given 
 him in any difficulty. 
 
 The same feeling runs through most things, and 
 binds together people of the same creed, family, 
 and village, for mutual help and protection. On 
 the other hand, if a quarrel takes place between 
 two persons, it is often considered to extend to all 
 the members of his house or clan, and sometimes 
 
80 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 even more widely still. This is illustrated by their 
 proverbs, such, e.g., as, ' He who is not of your 
 family your enemy does not envy him,' and, again, 
 ' Your neighbour's enemy does not love you.' 
 This clannishness has, however, been fatal to any 
 national life ; its practical effect has been to split 
 up the people into little parties, distrustful of all 
 outside their own particular set, and so has 
 prevented any combination of the people against 
 oppression or to secure better government. Though 
 no part of the policy of the foreign Power which 
 now rules Palestine, it is, nevertheless, another 
 instance of the truth of the old Roman maxim, 
 ' Divide et impera.' In all probability its source, 
 apart from an innate tendency in this direction, 
 is to be found in the influx of Arab settlers in 
 the period succeeding the Mohammedan conquest 
 of Syria, who, as mentioned when speaking of the 
 Kes and Yemen factions, brought their ancient 
 feuds with them, and perpetuated them in their 
 new home, thus being a further fulfilment concern- 
 ing Ishmael and his descendants, that his hand 
 should be against every man, and every man's 
 hand against him (Gen. xvi. 12). This lack of 
 unity is acknowledged by the best of the people, 
 but so far they have found no remedy for it. 
 
 The head of the village is called a Sheikh (literally, 
 * an old man '). As a rule there is only one Sheikh, 
 but occasionally there is more than one. Till 
 recent times there was a great deal of real authority 
 attaching to the office, extending even, in rare 
 cases, to the power of life and death. The policy 
 
SHEIKHS 81 
 
 of the Ottoman Government of late years has been 
 to abolish such offices, as far as any effective 
 authority is concerned, so that except in very out- 
 of-the-way places, where the central power is still 
 comparatively ineffective, the position of a Sheikh 
 is very largely a sinecure, and carries with it but 
 little of the old prestige ; nevertheless, an able 
 man, especially if he be rich and of an influential 
 family, has still a good deal of indirect power. 
 Many cases of petty crimes are never taken to 
 the Government, but settled locally ; and I have 
 even known the same course pursued in a murder 
 case. In serious matters several of the more 
 prominent Sheikhs of the neighbourhood will be 
 called in to advise or adjudicate, and their decision 
 will be binding. When a Sheikh dies, the Sheikhs 
 of the adjacent villages meet together to choose his 
 successor, the office not being hereditary. As a 
 matter of fact, however, unless there were anything 
 specially to disqualify him, the eldest son of the 
 late Sheikh would succeed his father. 
 
 Besides the Sheikh, every village has a kind of 
 council of men chosen by the villagers. They are 
 the official representatives of the village in all 
 matters which have to go before the Government. 
 Thus, when the tithes have been assessed, a 
 document is issued from the proper department 
 in the head town of the district where the village 
 is situated, stating the amount demanded from 
 the people for that year ; but before it can be 
 collected, the Ikhthjartyah, as these representatives 
 are called, must put their seals to this document, 
 
 6 
 
82 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 showing that they consider it a just assessment, 
 and pledging themselves to the payment of it. 
 Should they consider it unjust, they are bound to 
 refuse to seal it, and sometimes, where this is the 
 case, they do refuse ; but too often they either lack 
 the courage to do so or accept a bribe from those 
 to whose interest it is to put the taxes at a high 
 figure. 
 
 There is also an official known as a Mukhtar, 
 who has to inform the Government of all births, 
 deaths, and marriages, in his community ; to collect 
 taxes from the people ; get passports for any who 
 may wish to travel ; and, where anyone is arrested, 
 to try to get him off or find bail for him. Most 
 of the various religious communities have each a 
 Mukhtar of their own, or, if they be numerous, 
 two or more, as every twenty-four families can, 
 if they so desire, claim to have a Mukhtar to 
 themselves. 
 
 Compulsory military service obtains throughout 
 the Turkish Empire. Every year a conscription 
 takes place, when all the able-bodied Mohammedan 
 males have to draw lots for this purpose. Christians 
 are not allowed to bear arms, this being one of the 
 marks of inferiority imposed on them at the time 
 of the Arab conquest of Palestine. Instead of 
 military service they have to pay a special tax, 
 which is levied on all males. The conscription is 
 hated by the people, who do all they can to evade 
 it. I have even known of a man cutting off one 
 of his fingers in order to disqualify himself for 
 bearing arms, while a young Moslem I know well, 
 
CONSCRIPTION 83 
 
 who had his leg amputated, congratulated himself 
 that now he could not be taken as a soldier. This 
 compulsory service is a heavy burden to the people. 
 In the palmy days of Ottoman rule, when the land 
 was richer and the people more prosperous, it 
 pressed but lightly on them ; but now it is 
 very different. The numbers of able-bodied men 
 taken out of the country, though not, perhaps, 
 absolutely large, are relatively so. Indeed, in some 
 cases, as a man once said to me, ' only old men 
 and boys are left to till the ground.' This is, of 
 course, not always the case, but only when some 
 war-scare has led to the calling out of the reserves. 
 Still, this compulsory military service is a constant 
 drain on the Moslem population, as many of those 
 thus taken from their homes never return, and it 
 is a potent factor in the steady diminution of the 
 Mohammedans in Palestine and Syria. 
 
 One characteristic feature of the village life is 
 the Sahrah, or 'watching.' If a guest from the 
 city, or a European stranger, or anyone of con- 
 sequence, is spending the night in the village, the 
 people of the place, after the evening meal, will 
 drop in by ones and twos to the room where he 
 is staying, whether it be with the sheikh in the 
 public guest-house or with any one of the villagers. 
 The outer door of the house is always open, and 
 the people stroll in as they please, unrebuked. A 
 dark form fills the doorway, the man pauses for a 
 moment after he has crossed the threshold to slip 
 off his shoes, and then advancing into the room, 
 with a general salute of ' May your evening be 
 
 6—2 
 
84 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 prosperous ' or ' God be with you ' if they are 
 Christians, and ' Peace be upon you ' if Moslems, 
 he comes up to the principal guest and salutes him, 
 taking his hand between his two palms and utter- 
 ing an appropriate greeting. He then salutes the 
 other guests, if any ; which done, he takes his seat 
 among those already present, squatting down in 
 the place due to his social position in the little 
 community. Others come in in quick succession, 
 and the room soon fills. The visitor is asked for 
 the latest items of news from the city. A report 
 has been spread that the Redif (the reserves) are 
 to be called out, and, if Moslems, the probabilities 
 or the reverse of the news being true are 
 eagerly discussed, the military service being most 
 unpopular. 
 
 The news of the village is retailed, the weather, 
 the prospects of the harvest, vintage, or olive crop, 
 discussed, or news of the outside world, as far as it 
 has reached them, is told or commented on. And 
 most extraordinary news one hears sometimes ! 
 When King Edward succeeded to the throne, the 
 wildest stories were current among the Fellahin as 
 to the part the Sultan had played in securing his 
 succession ; for they have the most exaggerated 
 ideas of the power of the Sublime Porte in the 
 councils of Europe. One version T heard was, that 
 the English did not wish the Prince of Wales to 
 succeed Queen Victoria, but that the Sultan put 
 his foot down and insisted on his being accepted 
 as King, and that the British nation of course gave 
 in at once. Another version was, that on Queen 
 
THE SAHRAH 85 
 
 Victoria's death the crowned heads of Europe met 
 to discuss who should succeed her (just as in the case 
 of the death of one of their village sheikhs), and, on 
 a difference of opinion arising among them, it was 
 decided to refer the matter to the Sultan and to 
 abide by his decision, and that he decided for 
 King Edward, who was therefore chosen by the 
 other Sovereigns as the King of Great Britain ! 
 These gatherings are full of interest to a stranger, 
 as he learns much then of the habits and customs 
 of the people, while to the missionary they are 
 invaluable opportunities for delivering his message. 
 
 The Fellahin have a great love for their native 
 place, and think it is a real hardship to have to 
 settle elsewhere. 
 
 As in other parts of the world, there is a 
 considerable difference in the dialects spoken in 
 various parts of the country, this difference con- 
 sisting partly in pronunciation, and partly in the 
 use of different words, this latter being increased 
 by the extreme copiousness of the Arabic language, 
 and by the small amount of communication, till 
 lately, between the different districts. The towns- 
 people often laugh at the Fellahin for their pro- 
 nunciation, and though there are vulgarisms in 
 this, yet they, too, can turn the tables on the 
 former, and in the matter of grammar they are, 
 at times, the more correct of the two. Thus, the 
 Fellahin very frequently pronounce the Ay//' (or soft 
 A), as a oh- — ckul-cd-dechacJihi, (all the shops), instead 
 of kul-cd-dekakrii ; while, on the other hand, the 
 towns-people will have the very disagreeable habit 
 
«6 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 of dropping the h\f (or hard k) — thus, 'anineh (a 
 bottle), instead of kanineh; Ya-ub (Jacob), instead 
 of Yakub. Occasionally a classical word, the mean- 
 ing of which has been forgotten, is used as a proper 
 name. Thus, both Tabor and the Mount of Olives 
 are known locally as Jebel et Tiir (the Hill, or 
 Mountain, of Tfir), Tur being an archaic word 
 for hill (the same as ' Taurus,' and our word ' tor,' 
 used in Cumberland, Westmorland, Derbyshire, 
 and Devonshire, for a hill*). Those Fellahin 
 who come much in contact with the Bedouin 
 usually speak a much purer and more classical 
 dialect than the others, and also share with them 
 certain peculiarities of pronunciation. Thus, they 
 almost invariably pronounce the kdf(k)as a hard 
 g — gam?-, instead of kamr (the moon) — and the 
 kaf as cA, thus losing both the k sounds of the 
 Arabic alphabet. This is especially true of the 
 Fellahin east of the Jordan. 
 
 There are many gipsies in Palestine, who wander 
 about from village to village, spending their whole 
 lives in miserable tents. They are divided into 
 different tribes or clans, each of which keeps to 
 its own tract of country. They are nominally 
 Moslem, but what their real religion is no one 
 seems to know. Of late years the Turkish Govern- 
 ment has exacted military service from them, as 
 
 * There is a curious instance of precisely the same use of a 
 word of forgotten meaning as a proper name in the North of 
 England, a hill in the lake district being known as Tor-pen- 
 how Hill, each of these four words having precisely the same 
 meaning, but in as many different languages or dialects. 
 
GIPSIES 87 
 
 from the Fellahin. The women are inveterate 
 beggars, and a proverb runs, ' Put a gipsy woman 
 in a hundred palaces, and she will still beg.' They 
 have a language of their own, which the Fellahin 
 contemptuously call Asfureh, or 'sparrows' talk.' 
 They are on good terms with the peasants, and 
 are the blacksmiths of the countryside, doing all 
 the little odd jobs which a village smith would do 
 in England, but with the most primitive of tools. 
 I am inclined to think that this was the case in 
 Jewish times also, and may partly account for the 
 fact that iron and smiths are so rarely mentioned 
 in the Old Testament in connection with the 
 Israelites. It also, I think, throws light on a 
 rather curious passage. In 1 Sam. xiii. 19 we 
 read : ■ Now there was no smith found throughout 
 all the land of Israel ; for the Philistines said, Lest 
 the Hebrews make them swords or spears.' It is 
 not said that the Philistines killed all the smiths in 
 Israel, and, indeed, this would have been impossible, 
 unless the nation had been brought much lower 
 than we know to have been the case ; yet the 
 Israelites seem to have been ignorant of the art of 
 making these weapons, and to have been deprived 
 by the action of the Philistines, of those to whom 
 they would otherwise have gone for swords or 
 spears. 
 
 Had these roving smiths been found then, as 
 now, the matter would have been simple enough, 
 as they would have been easily discovered, and by 
 merely removing them, with their ■ houses of hair ' 
 and other impedimenta, into the Philistines' country, 
 
88 VILLAGE LIFE 
 
 the Israelites would have been effectually deprived 
 of the means of obtaining arms. 
 
 At times one meets peasants going about with a 
 dancing bear, which they make perform for hire. 
 The bear is the Syrian species from the Lebanon, 
 smaller in size and lighter in colour than the 
 European one. Sometimes besides a bear they 
 have a goat which does climbing tricks. 
 
 There are certain men who may be called 
 1 improvisers,' who go about the country and sing 
 to the accompaniment of a native violin or some 
 other instrument. Sometimes two of them will 
 have a contest of skill, improvising against each 
 other. There is a famous instance of two such, 
 one a Maronite and the other a Greek, which I 
 append. 
 
 Says the Maronite : 
 
 1 1 am not like other men, nor of an odious creed, nor like 
 the Greek priest, for whom there is no place in heaven. 1 
 
 The Greek replies : 
 
 ' I am not like other men, nor of a fettered creed, nor like 
 Mar Martin, binding a clout on his eye C 
 the allusion being to the Maronite being bound to 
 Home, and to Martin their patron saint, who is 
 said to have lost an eye by a blow from the awl of 
 a cobbler whom he had attacked in controversy. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 The infant of a peasant family, when it arrives on 
 the scene, is, if a boy, heartily welcomed. Even if 
 a girl the fact is not regretted to the extent it would 
 be in the case of towns-people, as, if spared to 
 grow up, a good sum will be received for her at her 
 marriage. As soon as born, the child is rubbed 
 all over with salt and oil, and wrapped in old 
 garments ; on the third day it is again rubbed 
 with salt and oil, or very frequently with a mixture 
 of oil and red earth instead. On the seventh day 
 it has a bath, and from that day till the fortieth it 
 is washed about once a week. After the fortieth 
 day, infants are not washed again till they can talk, 
 the only exception being that the face is sometimes 
 cleaned with a little milk, but never with water. 
 Such is the general practice, but it varies a good 
 deal in different parts of the country. 
 
 The swaddling-clothes (St. Luke ii. 7) consist of 
 several pieces : a tiny shirt, a cap, a little cotton 
 coat, a long strip of calico which is bound round 
 and round the child to insure his body, arms, and 
 legs being perfectly straight and rigid, and over all 
 
 89 
 
90 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 a large square of print or other material in which 
 the body is ' wrapped ' tightly, and which is secured 
 by a tape. These clothes are worn till the child is 
 two or three months old, the length of time being 
 determined by his size and strength, a small delicate 
 child being bound up far longer than a large healthy 
 one. 
 
 The peasant women are very strong physically, 
 and usually work hard up to the time of their con- 
 finement, and are about again very soon after it, 
 without in any way suffering from doing so. I re- 
 member a case of a Moslem woman who supplied us 
 with milk, walking each day into the city with her 
 basket of milk -jars on her head, whose child was 
 born as she was returning one day from her round : 
 she wrapped the little one in her veil, and walked 
 home with it as if nothing had happened. In 
 another similar case, a Christian woman, who had 
 gone to cut firewood several miles from the village, 
 returned with a heavy faggot of sticks on her head 
 and her new-born infant wrapped up in her sleeve. 
 Village midwives receive but a trifling remuneration, 
 usually in the form of wheat or some other house- 
 hold necessary, and only in a few of the more 
 prosperous villages are they ever paid in money. 
 
 Should the father be absent from home at the 
 time of the child's birth, someone will go to the 
 town, or wherever he may be working (especially 
 should it be a first-born and a son), to take the 
 news. On meeting the father, he greets him with 
 the words ' El besharah an dak ' (There is good news 
 at home). The latter, who at once guesses what 
 
THE NAMING OF A CHILD 91 
 
 the good news is, replies, ' May God announce 
 good news to you : I give you so-and-so,' naming 
 as valuable a present as his circumstances will 
 permit. 
 
 Among the Christian peasantry the next im- 
 portant matter is the naming of a child. In the 
 case of the first-born of an eldest son, custom 
 prescribes the name by which he must be called — ■ 
 viz., that of his paternal grandfather. Thus, if a 
 man of the name of Musa (Moses) has a son of the 
 name of Ibrahim (Abraham), the latter will call his 
 eldest son Musa, after his father. So much is this 
 the case that sometimes a mere boy is called the 
 'father of So-and-so,' the name being that of the 
 son which it is hoped he will one day have, and 
 which he will, in accordance with this custom, call 
 by his father's name ;* for when a child is born to 
 a young couple, they are known thenceforth, not 
 by their own names, but as the ' father of So-and- 
 so ' and the ' mother of So-and-so.' Thus, if B-ashid 
 has a son Towfik, he will no longer be known as 
 Rashid, nor will his wife, Jamileh, be known by 
 that name ; but he will be called Abu Towfik 
 (Father of Towfik), and she will be called Jmm 
 Towfik (Mother of Towfik). This custom, how- 
 ever, rather adds to the difficulty of distinguishing- 
 people in ordinary conversation, as there are, strictly 
 
 * This expression has sometimes been differently explained 
 as an idiom peculiar to the Fellah in, viz., Abu for Abuhu — 
 i.e., ' father ' instead of ' his father.* 1 Careful inquiry has, 
 however, convinced me that this is incorrect, the explanation 
 in the text being the true one. 
 
92 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 speaking, no surnames in use in Palestine. For 
 instance, in the two examples given above, Ibrahim 
 will be in more precise language, as, e.g., in the 
 address of a letter, Ibrahim Musa — i.e., son of 
 Miisa ; and Towfik will be Towfik Rashid — i.e., 
 son of Rashid ; whereas their eldest sons will be 
 Miisa Ibrahim, and Rashid Towfik respectively. 
 
 On the other hand, besides these appellations, 
 there is the name of the man's ' house ' or ' clan ' 
 which can be used as a means of further identifying 
 or distinguishing him. In almost every village 
 there are two or more of these ' clans ' or ' houses,' 
 bearing sometimes (as the Scotch clans) a common 
 name. This name may be derived from that of a 
 distinguished ancestor, or a place from which they 
 came originally, or perhaps from some notable 
 circumstance connected with their history. Thus, 
 a man can be further described as ' So-and-so, son 
 of So-and-so of such a house.' This is a common 
 Oriental expression, and one we find occurring in 
 the Old Testament, as, for example, Num. xvii. 8, 
 1 Sam. xxv. 3, 2 Chron. xxii. 9 ; and on the Assyrian 
 monuments Beit Khumri, House of Omri, is the 
 usual term for the Kings of Israel. 
 
 Of the names in ordinary use a few are peculiar 
 to Moslems and Christians respectively. Of the 
 former may be mentioned such as Mohammed and 
 Mustapha among men's names, and Khadijeh, 
 Zenab and 'Aysheh among women's ; while of the 
 latter Bulus and Butrus will serve as instances of 
 men's, and Maria and Lydia of women's names. 
 Many of the Mohammedan names are compounds 
 
NAMES 93 
 
 of one or other of the ninety-nine names of God, as 
 Abul-ul-Kadir (Slave of the Almighty), Abd-ur- 
 Rahmiin (Slave of the Compassionate), and so on. 
 The great majority of names are common to 
 Mohammedans and Christians. Many are given 
 because of their meaning, such as Towfik, fortunate ; 
 Jamil, handsome ; Anis, sociable ; Zarifeh, beauti- 
 ful ; Nabihah, intelligent ; and so on. The significa- 
 tion of some of the compound names is very 
 beautiful : thus, Lutfallah and Farajallah, both of 
 which are men's names, mean ' the gentleness of 
 God ' and ' the rest of God ' respectively ; and 
 Rahmetallah, a girl's name, ' the mercy of God.' 
 
 Among the Moslems there is no special ceremony 
 connected with the naming of a child. If the 
 father has no predilection for any particular name, 
 he goes to the Khatib to consult him about it. 
 These men have books which give lists of special 
 names for each day of the week, and the father 
 selects one of those given for the day on which the 
 child was born. 
 
 The Christians, of course, have their children 
 baptized, and the rite is usually administered 
 within forty days after birth. In the Greek 
 Church the children always have sponsors, and the 
 difficulty of finding persons willing to take that 
 office for a child sometimes delays baptism. It is 
 usual for people to offer to be sponsors, as, owing 
 to the fact that it is customary for them to make 
 presents to their godchildren, parents are very 
 reluctant to ask people to stand. Where persons 
 have been godparents to a first-born child, it 
 
94 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 is usual for them to act the same part by all the 
 subsequent members of the family. Sponsorship is 
 much thought of (though not from a religious point 
 of view), and is held to constitute a kind of relation- 
 ship — so much so that a man's own children may 
 not intermarry with his godchildren. Baptism in 
 the Eastern Churches is always by immersion, and 
 is immediately followed by the Chrism, or anointing 
 with holy oil, which the Greek Church holds to be 
 equivalent to the rite of Confirmation in the 
 Churches of Western Christendom.* 
 
 The desire for children, and especially sons, is 
 intensely strong in the East. For a wife to be 
 childless is, among the Moslems, ample reason for 
 divorcing her. This longing is closely connected 
 with the great aim of all Easterns — viz., ' the 
 building up of a house' (cf. 2 Sam. vii. 27 and 
 1 Kings xi. 38). The Arabic words for ' son ' and 
 4 daughter ' are (as in Hebrew) from the same root 
 as the ordinary word for ' to build,' children being 
 looked upon as stones, as it were, in a building. 
 This feeling has doubtless its origin in the yearning 
 for immortality which is found in every human 
 being, and of which what is ordinarily called 
 ambition is one of the best-known manifestations. 
 This idea finds expression in many salutations and 
 phrases used in everyday life. ' May God leave 
 you your children ' prays the beggar, who hopes 
 that you will reward his prayer by a gift ; ' May 
 
 * Circumcision is universally practised among Moham- 
 medans. There is no rite connected with it, and no limit of 
 time within which it must take place. 
 
DESIRE FOR CHILDREN 95 
 
 God build your house ' is one of the best blessings 
 which a grateful recipient of alms can wish the 
 donor ; ' The safety of your children ' is the ordinary 
 response to the appropriate salutation at a funeral 
 or on hearing of a death. The prophet's sentence 
 upon Agag (1 Sam. xv. 33), 'As thy sword hath 
 made women childless, so shall thy mother be child- 
 less among women,' would to an Oriental be the 
 most righteous, and at the same time the most 
 terrible retribution, which could follow his crimes. 
 
 The people have but little idea of their children's 
 ages, or of their own, for that matter. Ask an old 
 man in one of the villages what his age is : ' Well, 
 I was married the year Ibrahim Pasha took 
 Palestine,' or, ' My second son was born the year 
 the cholera came,' will be his answer. Often, when 
 inquiring how old a child in one of our schools 
 might be, I have been met with the answer, ' How 
 can I tell ? You must know, for you baptized him.' 
 It is true that the Greek Church keeps a kind of 
 record of baptisms, and that of late years the 
 Turkish Government has required all births to be 
 registered ; yet a good deal of laxity prevails about 
 these matters, more especially in the remoter parts 
 of the country. If parents know, even approxi- 
 mately, their children's ages, it arises from the fact 
 of their having been born in a year when some 
 event of special interest took place, such as an 
 outbreak of cholera, an invasion of locusts, or the 
 like. On one occasion I was staying the night with 
 a well-to-do peasant in the land of Moab, and in 
 the course of the evening a neighbour came in to 
 
96 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 see me. At a break in the conversation, my host 
 remarked that his eldest son, a well-grown lad who 
 was present, had been ploughing all day. ' Plough- 
 ing !' exclaimed the neighbour : ' you shouldn't let 
 him do such hard work, he's too young for it.' 
 1 He's not too young : he's sixteen.' ' Sixteen ! 
 Nonsense ! Why, what year was he born V ' I don't 
 know what year it was, but it was the time the red 
 donkey died, and that, I'm sure, was sixteen years 
 ago !' 
 
 Women often nurse their children for a very long 
 time, especially in the case of a first boy or where 
 the mother has been long married before having a 
 child. Occasionally under such circumstances a 
 boy will be nursed for three or four years. This 
 custom explains how it was that the child Samuel 
 could be left at Shiloh shortly after his mother 
 had weaned him (1 Sam. i. 24). When a child is 
 weaned, they sometimes cook wheat, lentils, beans, 
 and such-like, put sweetmeats on it, and send dishes 
 of it to friends to commemorate the event. In like 
 manner the Christians at the baptism of a boy 
 commonly make a feast, inviting the friends and 
 neighbours and officiating priest. # 
 
 Like children all the world over, those of Pales- 
 tine, as soon as they can run about, imitate the 
 doings of their elders : make mud houses, toy ovens, 
 and copy their mothers at work in the house. The 
 boys have certain games which they play with zest, 
 though not with the energy and precision of English 
 
 * The Moslems occasionally do the same at the circum- 
 cision of a child. 
 
GAMES 97 
 
 boys. One of these games somewhat resembles our 
 hockey, being played with a ball made of rags, 
 about the size of a tennis-ball, and curved sticks. 
 It is called Kdr, and is played chiefly in the winter. 
 A level piece of ground is selected, and a hole called 
 'the mother' is made in the centre. One boy 
 guards this hole, the others endeavouring to knock 
 the ball into it, and he trying to prevent this. It is 
 a most exciting game judged by the shouts of the 
 players. Another and milder amusement is played 
 by three or four boys at a time. Each boy has 
 several little darts or arrows which are thick, heavy, 
 sharp- pointed, and feathered with pieces of paper. 
 A player throws one of these darts so as to make it 
 stick upright in the ground ; the next one tries to 
 throw his arrow across the first in such a way 
 as to knock it over, and at the same time take an 
 upright position like that of the first one. If he 
 is successful in this, he takes the other player's 
 arrow. This game is confined to the winter and 
 spring, as it can only be played while the ground 
 is soft. 
 
 A third game called Mankalch is played by men 
 as well as boys, and has a tremendous fascination 
 for the people. It is played on a board with four 
 rows of holes, each row having eight holes. Small 
 stones are used, each player having a certain 
 number, which are distributed according to rule in 
 the holes, and the game consists in getting all the 
 opponents' pieces. It appears to be a very compli- 
 cated game, and I have never had time to master 
 
 7 
 
98 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 the rules. It is played with great zest, and some 
 men waste much time over it. # 
 
 In addition to their games, the boys make slings 
 with which they hurl stones to a considerable dis- 
 tance. Some are very clever at this pastime, and a 
 strong lad can send one with tremendous force, and 
 a whiz almost like that of a rifle bullet ; so that, after 
 seeing them engaged in this amusement, one can 
 well understand how formidable a weapon a sling 
 would be in the hands of a powerful man of skilful 
 aim, especially before the invention of firearms, 
 when fighting was at close quarters, if not actually 
 hand-to-hand. The slings are made of coarse 
 woollen string, with a sort of bag in the centre to 
 hold the stone. 
 
 The boys also make little bird-traps of one or 
 two twigs and a piece of string. They are baited 
 with a berry, or some other food, and just laid on the 
 ground in the haunts of the birds. With the same 
 object they make limed twigs from mulberry and 
 other trees by heating the young shoots over a fire. 
 
 Gambling is strictly forbidden to Moslems, and is 
 looked upon by all classes and creeds as very wrong, 
 and any game which is in any way associated with 
 that vice is entirely avoided by respectable people. 
 
 Education is making great strides among the 
 
 * This game is spread widely throughout the East. At 
 Zanzibar, and along the eastern coast of Africa, where it is 
 known by the name of Bao, it is much played ; while in 
 Uganda, where it has probably been introduced by the Arab 
 traders, and is called Mzveso, I have seen the natives spend 
 hours over it at one sitting. 
 
EDUCATION 99 
 
 peasantry. The late Bishop Gobat, on his appoint- 
 ment to the English bishopric in Jerusalem in 1849, 
 found that there were practically no schools at all 
 for the Arabic-speaking population, and the means 
 which he then took to supply the deficiency have 
 been the origin of all the educational work now 
 being carried on, as they aroused, first the Oriental 
 Churches, and then the Turkish Government, to 
 provide schools for the different sections of the 
 community. Now, throughout the villages and 
 hamlets, schools have been opened in all but the 
 very small places, and teachers appointed, in the 
 case of the Christians by the various Churches to 
 which they belong, and in the case of the Moslems 
 by the Ottoman Government. In the latter a 
 fairly strict watch is now kept on the attendance of 
 the boys, the parents being fined if the children are 
 not regular. For the girls, however, there is little 
 or no provision apart from the mission schools. 
 Among the Mohammedans the teacher is frequently 
 also the Khatib, a religious instructor, who is either 
 in receipt of a fixed salary from the Government, 
 or, by the orders of the latter, receives a certain 
 amount (generally in grain) from each family. This 
 last arrangement, however, as far as I know, only 
 obtains in the smaller hamlets. He also some- 
 times combines other occupations with that of 
 pedagogue ; thus, in one village I know he is also 
 village carpenter, making and mending ploughs, 
 and other agricultural implements, in the courtyard 
 of the little village mosque, while teaching his 
 youthful scholars their letters or the Koran. 
 
100 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 The early age at which the children begin to 
 work sadly interferes with their acquiring more 
 than an elementary knowledge of the three R's. 
 The boys generally begin when very small by 
 helping in specially busy times, such as harvest, 
 when they drive the grain-laden animals from the 
 field to the threshing-floor; or in the olive-gathering, 
 when they pick up the fallen berries under the 
 trees. When somewhat older they will be trusted 
 to take the kids and lambs out to graze near the 
 village, or they may go with their fathers to the 
 city, driving donkeys laden with corn, wood, etc., 
 to sell there. Gradually harder work is given 
 them till that of a full-grown man is reached. 
 
 The girls begin, if anything, earlier than the 
 boys, often helping at harvest and olive -gathering 
 as they do, besides which they very soon assist 
 their mothers in the house-work, fetching water 
 and wood, baking, cooking, cleaning the corn, and 
 doing other things that fall to the lot of the women. 
 It is found by experience that unless the girls begin 
 early to accustom themselves to carry the heavy 
 weights, such as wood, water, etc., which are always 
 borne on the head, and the carrying of which forms 
 part of a woman's ordinary work, they never can 
 acquire the necessary strength and skill to do so. 
 This is one of the many practical problems to be 
 solved by those who wish to raise the peasant 
 women of Palestine, and to give them such an 
 education as will fit them to be the helpmeets of 
 the rising generation of more educated men. 
 
 The Fellahin have wonderful power of memory, 
 
POWERS OF MEMORY 101 
 
 due largely, no doubt, to the fact that for centuries 
 they have had solely to rely on their memories, as, 
 being unable to read or write, they have had no 
 extraneous aids. The children have a remarkable 
 faculty for learning things by heart, even without 
 understanding them. They are very quick in 
 acquiring a knowledge of foreign languages, 
 especially where these are spoken at all in the 
 place where they live.* This, I think, throws 
 light on the much-debated question of what 
 language our Blessed Lord spoke. In a place 
 like Nazareth, so near to, if not actually on, one 
 of the great highroads of Western Asia, He would 
 have frequent opportunities of hearing at least one 
 foreign language (Greek) spoken. In the home of 
 the humble carpenter, Aramaic, or whatever the 
 Semitic language then spoken in Palestine be 
 called, would be that ordinarily used, but in the 
 workshop and the market-place Greek would be as 
 often heard as the other. My own view is that 
 He was as much at home in the one as in the 
 other (the same being true, probably, of all the 
 Galilean Apostles), but that, in hours of intensest 
 feeling, the words which — we may say it with all 
 reverence — would naturally come to His lips were 
 
 * The case of a Syrian servant we once had illustrates, 
 though from another nation, this facility of acquiring lan- 
 guages. She was a peasant from a village in Mesopotamia, 
 a woman of no intellectual power whatever, and of very little 
 education ; yet she could speak five Oriental languages, 
 appearing equally at home in every one, and could read two 
 of them. 
 
102 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 those of the tongue which in childhood were learnt 
 from the lips of the Virgin Mother. 
 
 From some points of view the family life (not 
 home life as we understand it, of which there is 
 very little) is much more developed than with us. 
 Thus, if a man has several grown-up sons, all will 
 often live together. They all till the land together, 
 and take their share of looking after the goats and 
 sheep. Their interests are all one, and during the 
 father's lifetime no son would have anything of his 
 own, nor would he claim any share of the property 
 or money. Even when one or more of the sons 
 marry, they do not go away ; the father builds a 
 room for the newly-married couple by the side of 
 or on the roof of his own, another being added for 
 each son as he marries — the family thus living and 
 working as one. Sometimes a father, who is getting 
 old and finds himself unable to do his part in tilling 
 the ground, will occasionally himself divide his land 
 among his sons, who for the remainder of his life 
 share in supporting him in an honourable inde- 
 pendence. Of course, after a time some have to 
 hive off if the family grows numerous, and, owing 
 to the increasing poverty of the people, they drift 
 to the towns to find work, while many have 
 emigrated, more particularly to Egypt and North 
 and South America. The people of Bethlehem, 
 who are particularly enterprising, are remarkable 
 for this spirit of emigration, and there are little 
 colonies of them to be found, not only in America, 
 but also in Hayti, Australia, East Africa, and other 
 lands. 
 
DEGRADATION OF WOMEN 103 
 
 The degraded position of woman in Moslem 
 lands is too well known to need any detailed 
 statement, and in Palestine it is neither better nor 
 worse than in most places where Islam holds sway. 
 The condition of the Moslem Felahah, or peasant 
 woman, is, however, as a rule decidedly less irksome 
 than that of her town sister. With the exception 
 of those living in the extreme South, on the borders 
 of the Egyptian frontier, and of the Baraghafeh 
 (previously mentioned), the peasant women are 
 always unveiled. They are much more the equals 
 of their husbands than is the case with the towns- 
 people. The latter often know nothing whatever 
 about their husband's concerns, being shut up in 
 the Harim, or women's quarters, all day, or only 
 going out to see other women similarly circum- 
 stanced. They are the toys, drudges, slaves, 
 chattels, of their husbands, never his companions 
 or equals. It is otherwise with the country-woman ; 
 the very conditions of her life compel her to be 
 more to her husband than the towns-woman. She 
 knows all about his work, suffers in his losses, 
 rejoices in his gains ; she helps to till the soil, 
 gather in the harvest, and sell the produce of the 
 land in the towns ; occasionally, even, she rules 
 the whole family. Still, when all is said and done, 
 the position of woman among Mohammedans is a 
 fearfully low one ; she is looked upon as hardly a 
 human being, soundly thrashed whenever she dis- 
 pleases her lord and master, and is liable to be 
 divorced any moment, or superseded by a younger 
 and better-looking wife, at his mere caprice. 
 
104 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 There is a curious expression — ' Far be it from 
 you ' — used by the Arabs when speaking of any- 
 thing not very nice. Thus, a man was once 
 describing to me one of the old Roman bridges 
 over the Jordan, and enlarging on the traffic which 
 crossed it, ' thousands of camels, tens of thousands 
 of sheep, and, far be it from you, quantities of pigs.' 
 Sometimes in a Moslem village a man has come to 
 me saying, ' Will you give me some medicine for a 
 sick person V ' Do you want it for yourself V * No ; 
 for someone else.' ' For a child V ' No ; far be it 
 from you, for my wife !' 
 
 The real cause of the degradation of woman is 
 the permission given by the Mohammedan law to 
 polygamy, and as long as the practice has the 
 sanction of religion, so long must woman be kept 
 down. On the other hand, one great reason of the 
 comparatively favourable condition of the peasant 
 women is that polygamy is much less common in 
 the villages than in the towns. This is chiefly due 
 to the poverty of the people, as but few can afford 
 to pay the dowry of more than one wife ; indeed, 
 an increasing number of young men are from this 
 cause unable to marry at all. Even the Moslems 
 are alive to the fact that polygamy is a fruitful 
 source of trouble and sorrow in families. Says 
 one of their proverbs, ' Two logs on the hearth and 
 two wives in a house ' — that is, keep up the fire 
 which would go out were there only one ; while a 
 second runs, ' One wife in a house builds it up, a 
 second pulls it down, and a third is all that is vile.' 
 
 Though what has been said above refers to the 
 
DIVORCE 105 
 
 Moslem women, and though, of course, the con- 
 dition of Christians is in many ways much better, 
 yet the whole attitude of the men towards women 
 is that of a superior to a greatly inferior race, and 
 it is impossible but that the degradation of the vast 
 majority of the women of a country, especially 
 where they are of the dominant religion, must 
 affect injuriously the position of woman generally 
 throughout the country. 
 
 It is only right to add that, while Mohammedan 
 law gives the utmost facility to divorce, there are 
 various circumstances which tend to check it, 
 such as the fear of offending the wife's relations, 
 especially if she belong to an influential family.* 
 Occasionally, too, there is real affection between 
 husband and wife. I knew of a case where a 
 Moslem peasant became a leper, and his wife's 
 friends repeatedly urged her to leave him ; but she 
 persistently refused, saying that he had always 
 been a good husband to her, and that she would 
 not desert him in his trouble. She remained with 
 him, and carefully tended him, till his death. This 
 was all the more remarkable as not only the 
 Mohammedans, but also the Greeks, consider that 
 when a married person becomes a leper the 
 marriage bond is ipso facto dissolved, and the latter 
 
 * Among the very few really aristocratic Moslem families 
 of Jerusalem there exists a kind of code of honour which 
 forbids them to have more than one wife or to divorce her, 
 and I have reason to believe that this is strictly observed 
 even where the woman is childless. Of course this does not 
 affect the question of female slaves. 
 
106 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 allows the other partner to marry again, even while 
 the leprous wife or husband is still living. 
 
 Divorce is allowed by the Greek Church, but, as 
 far as I know, by none of the other Oriental com- 
 munions found in Palestine. There are various 
 restrictions in the Greek canon law on the subject, 
 which are intended to safeguard it, but as a 
 matter of fact there is no great difficulty in any- 
 one obtaining a divorce, and T have known several 
 cases of people being remarried even without that 
 formality. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 domestic life {continued). 
 
 When the son or daughter of a family approaches 
 a marriageable age, the parents begin to set about 
 the all -important business of finding a suitable 
 bride or bridegroom. The matter is almost in- 
 variably arranged by the parents, the young people 
 having no voice in the matter ; indeed, it would 
 not be considered proper for a young woman to 
 have any say in the matter, or to express a 
 preference for one suitor over another. The only 
 exception to this rule would be in the case of a 
 man who, from poverty, had been unable to marry 
 till he reached middle life, or who had no male 
 relations to arrange the matter for him. 
 
 Where the father is dead, the eldest brother, 
 or, failing a brother, the nearest male relation, 
 has the disposal of a girl's hand. In the Greek 
 Church the prohibited degrees (within which 
 relations may not marry) are much wider than 
 in the Churches of Western Christendom, ex- 
 tending to cousins several times removed, and 
 even to one or two cases where there is no blood 
 relationship at all. But outside these prohibited 
 
 107 
 
108 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 degrees relations or persons of the same house or 
 clan are held to have a first claim on a girl's hand, 
 and it would sometimes lead to serious quarrels, 
 and even to possible bloodshed, were this claim 
 ignored. The origin of this custom is probably 
 the idea underlying certain enactments of the 
 Mosaic law — viz., the retention of property in the 
 clan or tribe (cf. Num. xxxvi. 1-12). 
 
 The preliminary negotiations are sometimes very 
 lengthy. If a man wishes to get a bride for his 
 son from another family or village, he will not un- 
 frequently employ one or more intermediaries to 
 arrange the matter. These intermediaries will go 
 to the house of the girl in question at a time when 
 some of the men of the family are sure to be at 
 home. They will stand about the door till the 
 latter notice them, and invite them in, according 
 to Eastern custom, with the word TaffadhlCi 
 (literally, ' do me the honour '). They will then 
 reply, ' We will not enter unless our request is 
 granted.' " It is granted,' reply those within ; 
 whereon the men enter. When they are seated, 
 the question is not immediately mentioned, but 
 when the customary coffee appears they say, 
 ' We will not drink till we have told our errand.' 
 ' Speak,' reply the hosts. ' We ask your daughter 
 So-and-so as wife to So-and-so,' say the guests. 
 Sometimes, if the match be manifestly an advan- 
 tageous one for the girl, the relations say, ' We 
 agree ; take her.' More often, while agreeing, they 
 require time to arrange preliminaries ; and even if 
 the proposal be unacceptable, it is, I believe, rarely 
 
BETROTHAL 10<) 
 
 if ever met by a direct refusal ; but in the subse- 
 quent negotiations some condition impossible of 
 fulfilment, such as an exorbitant dowry, is required, 
 which puts an end to the matter. 
 
 The preliminaries having been satisfactorily 
 settled, the betrothal takes place. Among the 
 Christians this is a formal public announcement 
 of the intended marriage. Friends and relations 
 attend, and the priest comes and blesses the 
 betrothed couple, the betrothal, in fact, being a 
 religious ceremony. It is consequently very rare 
 for a match to be broken off when once this 
 ceremony has taken place. It may be considered 
 as the Eastern substitute for the publication of 
 banns, these being unknown in the Oriental 
 Churches, and the wedding may take place any day 
 after the betrothal. The betrothal may, on the 
 other hand, be an informal one in infancy, and I 
 have known children to be plighted to each other 
 in their cradles by their parents, and the promise 
 thus made to be carried out when they grew up. 
 
 In most cases the girls are virtually sold by their 
 parents, the dowry going to the father, and it is 
 this which makes the birth of a girl so much 
 more welcome among the Fellahm than among 
 the towns-people, where the dowry does not go to 
 the parents. Considerable sums are paid for girls 
 who are good-looking, well connected, or clever at 
 any of the Fellahm industries. Thus, the people 
 of the village of El Jib (the ancient Gibeon), near 
 Jerusalem, have a monopoly of the manufacture of 
 a kind of earthenware cooking-pot. The work is 
 
110 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 largely done by the women, and a girl who is clever 
 at this will fetch a dowry of seventy or eighty 
 Napoleons (£50 to £60), while another, who has 
 only ordinary abilities, can be had for half that 
 sum. As a rule, the bridegroom has to borrow 
 money for the dowry and wedding expenses, and 
 many men thus saddle themselves with debts which 
 are a burden to them for the rest of their lives. In 
 cases where a man has little or no money, or his 
 credit is not good enough to enable him to borrow 
 sufficient to pay the dowry of an unmarried girl, he 
 will marry a widow, as a much smaller sum is 
 required in such cases, especially if she have 
 children. 
 
 Another device is not unfrequently resorted to 
 by poor people. Yakub, for instance, wants to 
 marry, but has no prospect whatever of raising 
 even a moderate sum of money. He has, however, 
 an unmarried sister, Latifeh, so he looks about for 
 a family similarly circumstanced to his own, and 
 finds another man, Salameh, who is also desirous of 
 entering the married state, but who, like Yakub, is 
 too poor to do so. He, too, has an unmarried sister, 
 Zarifeh, and so an exchange is arranged between 
 the two families, Yakub marrying Zarifeh, and 
 Salameh Latifeh, no dowry being paid on either 
 side. 
 
 On the day of the wedding, if the bride lives at a 
 different village to the bridegroom, the villagers go 
 in great pomp, especially if the two parties belong- 
 to influential families, to escort her to the bride- 
 groom's house. Every man who owns or can 
 
WEDDING PROCESSIONS 111 
 
 boiTOW a horse rides it and gallops wildly about. 
 There is a great expenditure of gunpowder on such 
 occasions, and curious old-fashioned weapons of 
 every country of Europe, and of almost every 
 period since the invention of gunpowder, are 
 hunted out and fired off at frequent intervals, so 
 that at a distance a Westerner, hearing a wedding- 
 procession for the first time, might think that a 
 miniature battle was in progress. The people when 
 using modern weapons are not always careful to 
 make sure that they have only blank cartridges. 
 On one occasion I was riding along the road from 
 Bethany to Jerusalem as a wedding-procession was 
 making its way down the Valley of Jehoshaphat to 
 the village of Siloam. The usual firing was going 
 on, and a bullet from a rifle whistled just over my 
 head ; and not very long ago, in a Christian village 
 near Jerusalem, a young man standing at his house 
 door to watch such a procession was accidentally 
 shot dead by one of the party. 
 
 Weddings very commonly take place at night 
 (see St. Matt. xxv. 1-13), both in the case of 
 Christians and Moslems. The wedding-ceremony 
 is, of course, where they are Christians, according 
 to the rites of the Church to which they belong. 
 Before this takes place the bridegroom is frequently 
 placed on a horse and escorted round the village by 
 his friends. At the ceremony the bride is closely 
 veiled, no one being allowed to see her face. 
 
 In the case of Moslem weddings, all preliminaries 
 having been finished, three witnesses go to the 
 house of the bride's father : the latter then asks the 
 
112 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 girl before the witnesses, ■ Whom do you make 
 your representative in the matter of your marriage ?' 
 To which she replies, ' You, father.' This question 
 is thus asked and answered three times. The father 
 and witnesses then proceed to the house of the 
 Khatib, when the latter asks the father, ' Whom do 
 you make your agent (or representative) in the 
 matter of your daughter's marriage V You,' 
 answers the man. This is also asked three times. 
 They all then go to the bridegroom's house, and 
 the latter stands, hand in hand with the father, 
 before the Khatib. The Khatib first addresses 
 the father and asks him thrice, ' Have you, 
 Mohammed, given Fatimeh, the daughter of 
 Mohammed, to Mustapha to be her lawful husband 
 according to the belief of Abu Hanifeh ?' The 
 father, each time the question is asked, replies, 
 1 1 have given her.' Then, turning to the bride- 
 groom, the Khatib says, ' Have you, Mustapha, 
 taken Fatimeh, the daughter of Mohammed, to be 
 her lawful husband according to the belief of Abu 
 Hanifeh ?' This is also asked thrice, the bridegroom 
 each time replying, * I have taken her.' The Khatib 
 then reads the Fatihah, or opening chapter of the 
 Koran, and the ceremony is over. 
 
 A feast generally takes place on the evening of 
 the wedding, and the invited guests have to bring 
 presents ; a list of these and of their value is 
 made, and when there is a wedding in the family 
 of any of the donors, the bridegroom of this occasion 
 has to give a present of similar value. 
 
 The women of the village gather at the house 
 
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 113 
 
 where the wedding takes place, and dance. This is 
 scarcely what we understand by the term, but it 
 has a great fascination for the Fellahat, and many 
 of them will neglect everything for it when there 
 happens to be a wedding going on. 1 need hardly 
 say that the promiscuous dancing of Europe is 
 quite unknown in Palestine, and would be con- 
 sidered, to say the least, highly improper. The 
 men and women form different groups, and the 
 dances consist of rhythmical movements of the 
 body by each dancer, singly or holding each 
 others' hands ; this accompanied by clapping of 
 hands and singing, which latter consists of the 
 constant repetition on one or two notes of a few 
 words, often foolish, and sometimes worse. At 
 a wedding I once witnessed in a village, the 
 dancers, for half an hour or more, repeated without 
 intermission the words, ■ Oh, coffee-maker, put up 
 your cups and coffee.' I have also seen a kind of 
 sword-dance performed at a wedding. In this case 
 a large fire was lighted at night in the centre of an 
 open space in the village. All the people were 
 gathered in a wide ring round the fire, and in the 
 space between, a sister of the bride, gorgeously 
 dressed, performed a dance, holding a drawn 
 sword in one hand, and posturing and side- 
 ling about in stiff, ungraceful attitudes, the men 
 accompanying her movements with hand-clapping 
 and shouting. Occasionally, I believe, the bride 
 herself will come out and dance, but I have never 
 myself seen this done. I have, however, seen a 
 sort of effigy of the bride called Zarufe/i, consisting 
 
 8 
 
114 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 of some of her clothes stuffed with straw in the 
 form of a person, fastened to a pole, and carried by 
 a man who makes it appear to dance in the midst 
 of the wedding-guests. 
 
 AVhen the bride comes to her husband's house, 
 she has, before entering, to place a piece of leavened 
 dough on the doorpost. This act is a wish that 
 as the leaven placed in a mass of dough increases 
 till the whole of the mass is leavened, so she may 
 have a numerous family, and by her the clan may 
 grow and be increased. With the same idea she 
 must go early the following morning and draw water, 
 wearing under the outer garment a white garment 
 with the edge frayed out, the many threads typify- 
 ing a numerous posterity. Another custom is that 
 of placing on the bride's head a jar of water, which 
 she is to carry thus into the house, the idea being, 
 probably, that of doing her part of the household 
 work. If she be too tall to pass under the doorway 
 with the jar on her head, an egg is substituted for it. 
 
 A bride is often carried over the threshold that 
 her feet may not touch it, to do so being considered 
 unlucky. 
 
 It is said that as a Druze bride enters her hus- 
 band's door he gives her a smart blow with a stick, 
 to show that she is under his rule and authority. 
 
 In some parts of the country neither bride nor 
 bridegroom may cross a stream for a period of 
 seven days after the wedding, as this would be 
 most unlucky, and would mean the cutting off of 
 the succession, the Arabic idiom for crossing a 
 stream being that of cutting it. 
 
TATTOOING 115 
 
 There are various superstitions connected with 
 weddings. Thus, among Moslems the marriage 
 ceremony is conducted very quietly, and in the 
 presence of as few people as possible, as, if anyone 
 should be there who is unfavourable to the match, 
 it is thought that he has the power to hinder the 
 happiness of the married couple by various acts. 
 Thus, smoking during the ceremony is considered 
 to destroy all happiness, and strewing flour or 
 earth on the floor at the time buries it completely. 
 
 Sometimes at the last moment the parents or re- 
 lations will change their minds, and give the girl to 
 some other man than the one she had been betrothed 
 to. Thus one of their proverbs runs, ' The bride is 
 in her chamber, but no one knows whose she will 
 be ' ; and another is, ' One was betrothed to her, but 
 the other married her.' I knew of a case where a 
 young couple were betrothed to each other and 
 everything was settled : the marriage-day came, 
 and all was in readiness, and just before the time 
 for the ceremony to take place the bridegroom, 
 according to a common custom, went to have a 
 bath. When he came to the house, he found that 
 during the short time he had been absent the 
 father had changed his mind, and had already 
 married the bride to another man. Such actions, 
 however, are considered rather a disgrace, and in 
 some cases will lead to serious quarrels, and even 
 to bloodshed. 
 
 Many of the women are extensively tattooed in 
 various patterns on the back of the hand, wrist, 
 forearm, upper part of the chest, and face ; 
 
 8—2 
 
116 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 especially is this the case among the women east 
 of the Jordan. Some of them even tattoo their 
 lips, but this disfiguring custom is, as far as I 
 know, confined entirely to the Moslem women. 
 It is only those with fairer skins than the others 
 who do this, the idea being that it shows up the 
 clearness and whiteness of the complexion, thus 
 enhancing their beauty. Some of the patterns are 
 very elaborate, and must take a long time to do. 
 The tattooing is usually done by gipsy women, who 
 use ordinary ink to rub into the pattern, which is 
 of permanent dark blue. Although chiefly seen in 
 the case of women, it is not by any means confined 
 to them. 
 
 The life of a newly-married girl, where families 
 live together, is often a very hard one. She is 
 usually in such cases little else than the slave of 
 her mother-in-law, and this is a frequent cause of 
 quarrels and unhappiness, especially, perhaps, among 
 the Christians. There is usually but little love 
 between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and 
 the former often behave most tyrannically towards 
 their sons' wives, remembering, no doubt, what 
 they suffered in their early married life, just as the 
 former slave makes the most cruel slave-driver. 
 This is reflected in their proverbs ; one of these, in 
 which the mother-in-law is supposed to address her 
 daughter-in-law, runs, ' Don't eat what is broken 
 nor break what is whole, and eat till you are 
 satisfied '; while another declares that ' were the 
 mother-in-law to love her daughter-in-law, dogs 
 would enter Paradise.' 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 domestic life (continued) 
 
 The life of the women is not an easy one, and 
 their work begins when they are quite young. In 
 the early morning a woman rises to grind the corn 
 for the day's supply of bread, and the grinding 
 goes on at intervals throughout the day. This 
 work is very severe, especially where there are 
 many mouths to feed, and in the villages one hears 
 the hum of the millstones early in the morning, 
 long before daybreak, and far on into the night 
 also. A strong woman once told me that it took 
 her five hours every day to grind the corn for her 
 family, which was not a particularly large one. 
 This hum of the millstones is exceedingly character- 
 istic of the villages, so much so that the Fellahin 
 have a special word for it. There are allusions 
 to it both in the Old and New Testaments ; thus, 
 the sound of the grinding being low would be an 
 indication of weakness and old age (Eccles. xii. 4) ; 
 while to an Oriental no more striking figure of 
 absolute desolation could be imagined than that 
 1 the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more 
 at all in thee' (Rev. xviii. 22). 
 
 117 
 
118 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 The hand-mills which are used for this purpose 
 have two flat circular stones, the upper and the 
 nether millstones. These stones are made of a 
 hard black basalt which is brought from the 
 volcanic district of the Lejah (Trachonitis), near 
 the borders of the Hauran, the ancient Bashan. 
 They are from 15 to 18 inches in diameter and 
 very heavy. The lower stone has a small hole in 
 the centre into which a wooden plug is firmly 
 driven, and in this plug an iron pin is fixed, to 
 serve as a pivot, on which the upper stone turns. 
 This latter has an aperture of two or three inches 
 in the middle, and across this a piece of hard wood 
 is fixed by means of a slot in the upper surface 
 of the stone, a hole in it admitting the above- 
 mentioned pivot. A small space is thus left on 
 either side of this piece of wood, through which 
 the corn is fed. Near the edge of the upper stone 
 is fixed the wooden handle by which the mill is 
 turned. Sometimes the lower stone is bedded in 
 an oblong clay vessel, one half of which is lower 
 than the other, the millstones occupying the upper 
 part, the lower being a receptacle for the flour. 
 Where this is not used, a cloth is spread on the 
 ground, and on th ; s the mill is placed, the flour 
 gradually collecting in a ring round it. 
 
 In grinding, the woman sits on the floor with 
 outstretched feet, and the mill between her knees ; 
 she has a basket of corn beside her, and, as she 
 turns the handle, puts at intervals a handful of 
 grain into the hole of the upper stone, generally 
 crooning a mournful song as she works. A second 
 
WOMEN SIFTING CORN. 
 
 WOMEN GRINDING 
 
 Tofacepagi lis. 
 
BREAD-MAKING 119 
 
 woman often helps, squatting on the ground 
 opposite her companion, and turning the handle at 
 the same time. This helps one to realize the 
 startling suddenness of the call (St. Matt. xxiv. 41) 
 when, of two thus sitting face to face over the 
 same household task, hand touching hand, one will 
 be gone and the other left alone. 
 
 We see the humanity of the prohibition (Deut. 
 xxiv. 6) of taking a millstone to pledge, when we 
 realize that the poorest family must have a mill, 
 with whatever else of household furniture they 
 may dispense, and that the loss of it would be 
 practically starvation. 
 
 When sufficient flour has been ground, the opera- 
 tion of bread-making follows. The meal is often, 
 but not invariably, passed through a sieve ; it is then 
 mixed with salt and water, and kneaded into a some- 
 what stiff dough, in which state it is taken to the 
 oven in a wooden bowl. Leaven (yeast is unknown) 
 is occasionally used, and in that case the dough 
 has to be made some hours beforehand, to allow it 
 to rise. The leaven, which is in the form of a 
 piece of sour or fermented dough from a previous 
 baking, is kneaded into the fresh material, which 
 is placed in a warm corner, and the whole is ere 
 long leavened. 
 
 The oven in the villages consists of a dome-shaped 
 clay vessel, three or four feet in diameter, open at 
 its broad end, and having a hole in the centre of 
 the dome large enough to easily admit a woman's 
 hand and arm. It might be compared to a very 
 large, shallow, inverted basin, with the bottom 
 
120 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 knocked out. This is placed on a pavement of 
 small stones, and has a lid to cover the aperture 
 while the bread is baking. This oven is made in a 
 small hut built for the purpose, seven or eight feet 
 in diameter, and about five or six feet high in the 
 middle. These ovens are a favourite meeting-place 
 for the women of the village in cold or wet weather, 
 and at such times they will often spend hours there. 
 
 When the fire has been lit, and the oven is 
 warm enough, the dough is made into flat cakes 
 about the size of a dinner-plate, and about half an 
 inch thick ; it is then laid on the paved floor of the 
 oven or made to adhere to the clay vessel, being 
 turned when sufficiently done on one side. 
 
 The fire is made outside the oven, and when the 
 dough has been placed inside the lid is put on, and 
 the ashes heaped up over it to keep in the warmth, 
 and to allow the fuel to smoulder, a gentle sustained 
 heat being the best for the purpose. 
 
 The fuel consists chiefly of dried cows' and goats' 
 dung, which is carefully collected and stored for 
 the purpose. The use of this fuel is of very ancient 
 origin, as we see from Ezek. iv. 12, and the custom 
 in Palestine to-day shows how the prophet would 
 understand the command. Sometimes this fuel is 
 used in its natural condition, but it is generally 
 prepared by being moistened with water, mixed 
 with straw, and made into cakes, which are dried 
 and stored for winter use. For this purpose they 
 employ the coarser parts of the straw from the 
 threshing-floors, viz., the joints and lower parts of 
 the stalks. 
 
BREAD-BAKING 121 
 
 It is usual at the present day for several families 
 to share an oven, each one providing the fuel for a 
 day in turn. The reason of this is the poverty of 
 the people, and their consequent inability to get 
 fuel. Four or five families usually join together 
 now, and for ten women to bake their bread in one 
 oven (Lev. xxvi. 26) would be an indication of 
 abject poverty. There is a regular rotation in the 
 use of the oven, the woman whose turn it is to 
 provide the fuel being the last to bake her bread 
 on that particular day. The idea in this is that 
 if she used the oven earlier, she would, her own 
 baking finished, in order to save her fuel, let 
 the fire get too low to do the rest of the bread 
 properly, whereas, baking last of all, it is to her 
 interest to keep up a good fire to the end. In cases 
 where a man is sufficiently well off to own a number 
 of cattle, and has, consequently, plenty of fuel, he 
 will have an oven to himself. 
 
 In some parts of the country another kind of 
 bread is made, closely resembling the thin oatcake 
 of Scotland and the North of England. This is 
 prepared somewhat differently from the other ; the 
 dough is less tenacious, and it is baked, not in an 
 oven, but on a convex circular plate of iron, heated 
 by a fire of sticks below. The large thin sheets of 
 dough are laid for a few moments on this pan, and 
 very quickly cooked. 
 
 Bread is usually made of wheat flour, but failing 
 this the poor often use that made from the white 
 millet, and even from barley, or they mix herbs and 
 other things with it in times of scarcity. 
 
122 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 Bread constitutes the chief food of the people, 
 being eaten either alone, as in the case of the very- 
 poor, or with a few figs, olives, or some other relish, 
 in other cases. 
 
 A great many wild plants are eaten, which the 
 poor dig up in the fields in the spring ; the mallow 
 is the principal of these, as it was in the time of 
 Job, 3,500 years ago (Job xxx. 4). I have, indeed, 
 known of a whole family, in a time of great scarcity 
 and poverty, subsisting for many weeks on mallows 
 alone. They are cut off at the roots and boiled. 
 They are also mixed with flour to eke out the 
 latter, and baked into bread. 
 
 Among the more sedentary occupations of the 
 women is that of cleaning the corn. The various 
 processes described under threshing and winnowing 
 leave a good deal of rubbish mixed up with the grain, 
 such as tiny stones and hard nodules of earth from 
 the threshing-floor, seeds of weeds and other plants, 
 and light and undeveloped grain, all of which have 
 to be carefully separated from the corn before it 
 can be ground. This is partly done by a sieve, 
 which allows the smaller impurities to pass through, 
 but the larger foreign bodies have to be picked out 
 by hand or removed by sifting. This is effected 
 by shaking the sieve with a peculiar circular motion, 
 which gradually collects the light grains, bits of 
 straw, seeds, etc., to one spot at the side furthest 
 from the woman holding it, when by a dexterous 
 jerk they are all thrown out, and the corn left 
 clean. The reference in Amos ix. 9 is to this 
 cleansing process, whereas in St. Luke xxii. 31 the 
 
THE HOUSEWIFE'S DUTIES 123 
 
 sifting was to be that of temptation, which Satan 
 hoped would prove the Apostles to be but light 
 grain, and therefore rejected. 
 
 After the grinding of the corn is over, other 
 domestic duties will claim the housewife's attention ; 
 one of these is washing the family clothes. This, in 
 order to save the trouble of fetching water, is gener- 
 ally done at the spring or near the well. Cold water 
 is almost invariably employed by the peasants, and in 
 the winter and spring they often take advantage of 
 pools left by the rain in various spots, to get rid of 
 arrears of washing. On such occasions they generally 
 go in considerable numbers, and a great deal of gossip 
 and scandal goes on, if we judge by the proverb : ' It 
 is better to sit between two funerals than between 
 two washerwomen.' 
 
 Soap is but sparingly used, wood ashes, a kind ot 
 sandy clay, and sometimes the maiden-hair fern, 
 which is very abundant in damp places, taking its 
 place very largely. The wet garments are also 
 beaten well with a heavy piece of wood, a process 
 which drives the water forcibly through the pores 
 of the material, and no doubt aids considerably in 
 the cleansing process. 
 
 Matches are pretty generally used now by the 
 people for obtaining a light, but flint and steel are 
 still by no means uncommon, and are frequently 
 used by men for producing fire for their pipes. 
 The first matches were brought to the village of 
 Bir Zeit, already mentioned, many years ago by a 
 young man. He had had occasion to go to Lydd 
 in the maritime plain, and in the market there 
 
124 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 saw matches for the first time. They were then 
 sold singly, or two for a small coin in value rather 
 less than a farthing ; so the young man invested in 
 eight of them, and the next day, on his return 
 home, he gathered all the men of the village in the 
 evening in the guest-house, and having told them 
 about the matches, he produced the eight, and 
 solemnly struck them one after another in their 
 presence, to their great surprise and wonder. 
 
 As a rule the women cook pretty well, consider- 
 ing the roughness and fewness of their utensils. 
 The Fellahin have ordinarily only one regular meal 
 in the day — viz., that in the evening. If food is 
 taken at other times, it is a piece of bread only, a 
 few figs, a bunch of grapes, or a cup of coffee. 
 They have no meal corresponding to our break- 
 fast, and often go to their day's work without eating 
 anything ; this fact will explain our Blessed Lord's 
 hunger when, after, perhaps, a night spent in prayer, 
 He sought fruit on the barren fig-tree, although 
 He had just come from the house of the hospitable 
 Martha (St. Matt. xxi. 17-19). 1 was riding out 
 one afternoon to a village, several hours' journey from 
 Jerusalem, and about halfway overtook a peasant. 
 After a little conversation, he asked me if I had 
 any bread with me, as he had walked into the city 
 that morning from a place some twenty-five miles 
 distant, had transacted his business there, and had 
 now got about halfway back, no food having passed 
 his lips since his supper the previous evening. 
 
 As the afternoon begins to wane, the Fellahah 
 will begin her preparations for the evening meal. 
 
DIET 125 
 
 If the family be well enough off to have rice, or 
 if guests be expected, she will take two or three 
 handfuls of that grain from the jar in which it is 
 stored, and, after carefully washing it, will place it 
 in a tinned copper vessel without handles, and set 
 it to cook over a fire of sticks between two stones 
 in a corner of the courtyard of the house, or, if 
 the weather be wet, over a small fire of char- 
 coal in a little clay brazier inside the house. 
 Perhaps some meat, with tomatoes, onions, or other 
 vegetables, will be set on to cook in another pot, 
 or the vegetables alone ; for every family, however 
 poor, tries to have a little ' cooking ' for the evening 
 meal — that is, a hot dish, even if only boiled vege- 
 tables or herbs, into which to dip the dry bread. 
 Lentils are a very favourite article of diet, and 
 where people are too poor to get meat for a festival, 
 or other occasion of rejoicing, they at least try to 
 have a dish of this vegetable. The meat is usually 
 boiled, but sometimes at a feast they roast it ; 
 fowls, too, are occasionally split open and roasted 
 in the oven where the bread is baked. 
 
 The supper is eaten soon after sunset, all those 
 present partaking together, if not too many to do 
 so at one time, but if too numerous they do so in 
 relays. When the food is ready, if there are many 
 people, a large bowl or dish is filled with Bti/rghal 
 (cracked wheat) or boiled rice, should the family 
 be comfortably off ; the meat, if any, is placed on 
 the rice, and the gravy, in which there is always 
 salt, is poured over it, or placed in small bowls for 
 the people to help themselves as they please. If 
 
126 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 there be no meat, Lcbcn (sour milk) or boiled vege- 
 tables are served in separate vessels with it, to 
 moisten and give a flavour to the rice. At a feast 
 both meat and vegetables will be used. 
 
 The tray or dish is placed in the middle of the 
 floor, and loaves of bread are put round it. Having 
 previously washed their hands, the guests, or 
 members of the family, squat round the bowl, and 
 as they plunge their hands into the mass, if Moslems, 
 they say ' BismiUah* (In the name of God); if 
 Christians, they use some other formula showing 
 their creed. They take up lumps of food with 
 the right hand (it not being proper to use the left, 
 more especially among the Moslems), adroitly rolling 
 up the rice or wheat with the fingers so as not to 
 drop any grains on the way to the mouth. Spoons 
 are coming more and more into use, especially 
 among those who have come much into contact 
 with Europeans. Large draughts of water are 
 drunk, but only towards the end of the meal. If 
 there are guests, especially if any of them be of 
 honourable estate, the master of the house waits on 
 them while they eat, and however good the food 
 may be, or however abundant, he usually apologizes 
 for the poor supper he has offered them, and urges 
 them to eat more. When they have finished, he 
 and the family, or the less-distinguished guests, 
 take their places round the bowl. Should no 
 strangers be present the whole household eats to- 
 gether, but if there are male guests the women do 
 not eat with them, but have their meal afterwards 
 in another room. After eating the hands are washed 
 
THE FRAGRANT WEED 127 
 
 again with soap and water, the water being poured 
 over the hands by a servant or one of the family 
 (see 2 Kings hi. 11). In the case of guests the 
 host will often perform this office for them, handing 
 them a towel or cloth with which to wipe the 
 hands after washing. Supper over, pipes are lit 
 and unsweetened coffee handed round. 
 
 When the Fellahin are on a journey or out at 
 work in the fields, they content themselves with 
 dry bread eaten with a few figs, raisins, or such 
 like, to give flavour to this otherwise tasteless fare. 
 The two little fishes which the lad, probably a 
 shepherd-boy, had with his five barley loaves that 
 spring day by the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus fed 
 the five thousand, were, as the Greek (Suo oxpapia, 
 St. John vi. 9) shows, food of this latter kind — two 
 of the tiny dried fish, plentiful then as to-day, 
 and cheap enough for one even as poor as he to 
 afford. 
 
 The men smoke a great deal of tobacco in small 
 pipes of reddish-brown clay, with wooden stems, 
 varying in length from a few inches to three or 
 four feet. These pipes are, however, being largely 
 supplanted by cigarettes, the papers for making 
 them being imported in little books or packets, 
 and sold everywhere. The nargileh, or hubble- 
 bubble, is also much smoked, by women as well 
 as men, a special kind of tobacco, imported from 
 Persia, being used. It is customary to offer these 
 to the principal guests on the occasion of formal 
 visits, as at funerals, weddings, etc. 
 
 But the woman's work does not end with the 
 
128 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 more strictly domestic labours we have already 
 described. Drawing water has ever been in the 
 East essentially a woman's work, and in the early 
 morning and evening, especially, the women and 
 girls go down to the fountains or wells to fetch 
 the supply for the house. This is brought in 
 earthenware jars containing 1 to 2 gallons, or 
 in water-skins, the former being carried on the 
 head, and the latter slung on the back by a cord 
 passing over the forehead. The water when brought 
 is emptied into a large earthen jar standing in 
 one corner of the room. In cases, which are very 
 numerous, where the village is on a high hill a long 
 distance from the water-supply, this work is very 
 arduous, and must tend to shorten the lives of the 
 women. 
 
 Bringing the supply of firewood is another duty 
 which falls to the lot of the women, and entails 
 severe labour. In some districts the firewood is 
 obtained from scrub some miles distant, and parties 
 of women and girls may be met, bearing on their 
 heads long, heavy faggots of boughs of oak, tere- 
 binth, arbutus, etc. In other parts, where no scrub 
 or wood is found, they collect bundles of the Netesh 
 thorn, or the white-flowered broom, called Retem, 
 the 'juniper' of 1 Kings xix. 5 (the Arabic and 
 Hebrew names for the plant being the same), a 
 shrub very characteristic of the comparatively upper 
 slopes of the hills leading down to the Jordan Valley. 
 In the maritime plain and other parts, where the 
 dhurra, or white millet {Sorghum vulgare), is much 
 grown, the dry stalks left in the fields after the ripe 
 
FLOCK RESTING AT NOON. 
 
 WOMEN GOING Til DRAW WATER. 
 
 To face page 128. 
 
NEEDLEWORK 129 
 
 ears have been cut off are collected and stacked 
 about their houses for use as fuel in the winter- 
 time. 
 
 The women all know something of needlework, 
 and some of them are very skilful at it. The 
 ordinary work, such as is required in making their 
 everyday clothes, does not call for remark ; but 
 some of the gala dresses are very handsome, with 
 much fine needlework on them. The veil worn 
 over the head by the women of some villages has 
 this kind of work in it. These veils are made of 
 a very coarse kind of native cotton cloth, and are 
 worked with various patterns and devices in coloured 
 cottons and silks. This work much resembles 
 that of the old-fashioned « samplers,' which I can 
 remember seeing, in my boyish days, old women 
 making in some rural districts of England, and 
 which may still be occasionally seen framed and 
 hung up in country cottages. Some of the devices 
 on these veils are very elaborate. 
 
 In some of the gala dresses worn by the peasant 
 women there is in front a piece of elaborate needle- 
 work in various colours, of which the accompanying 
 photograph will give some idea. This takes a long 
 time to make, and girls who are betrothed busy 
 themselves for months before the wedding in work- 
 ing at these dresses, which are often worth a 
 considerable sum of money. 
 
 The women generally are very fond of fancy 
 needlework, and the teaching of it in mission-schools 
 is one of the best ways of attracting otherwise 
 unwilling scholars. In the Lebanon the women 
 
 9 
 
130 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 used to be very skilful in a fine kind of embroidery, 
 or needlework, on a thin, light material. These 
 embroidered veils or scarves were reversible — that 
 is to say, there was no wrong side, the pattern 
 being so cleverly worked that it was the same on 
 both sides of the material. Beautiful specimens of 
 this work can be occasionally met with still, and they 
 command high prices. The spoils of needlework of 
 divers colours on both sides, which Sisera's mother 
 pictured her triumphant son as bringing back 
 with him after the battle with Barak and Israel 
 (Judg. v. 30), may very likely have been work of 
 this description. 
 
 The Fellahat are very fond of ornament, and, 
 where they can afford it, wear a great deal of 
 jewellery. On their wrists and arms they have 
 heavy bracelets, and on their fingers thick clumsy 
 rings. These ornaments are made of silver, but 
 most of it has a high percentage of alloy. In addi- 
 tion to these bracelets and other ornaments they 
 wear rows of coins on their head-dresses. The 
 original object of this latter custom, and also, no 
 doubt, partly of that of wearing jewellery, was the 
 safe custody of their money. It is only of recent 
 years that there have been any banks in Palestine, 
 and these, of course, have been confined to the few 
 towns ; and even where they have existed, their 
 management has by no means been always such as 
 to inspire the natives of the country with confidence. 
 Consequently women have for ages invested their 
 money in jewellery, or put it on their head-dress, 
 which neither a creditor nor the Government could 
 
WEALTH IN HEAD-DRESSES IB] 
 
 touch, though the woman herself could use it. 
 One of the commonest methods of raising money 
 is for a woman to pledge her ornaments, and 
 no disgrace whatever attaches to such a trans- 
 action. 
 
 9-2 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 domestic life {continued) 
 
 Lebex, or sour or curdled milk, has been mentioned 
 more than once. This is made chiefly in the spring, 
 when, owing to the abundance of pasture, milk is 
 plentiful. It closely resembles our curds and whey, 
 and is made by the women by putting into the 
 fresh milk either some old dried Leben, kept for the 
 purpose, or else rennet made from the stomach of a 
 kid, and not from the calf, as with us. The Arabic 
 name Leben is given it on account of its whiteness, 
 and is from the same root as the word ' Lebanon.' 
 that, again, being applied to the two mountain 
 ranges bearing that name because of their spotless 
 brilliancy when covered with the snows of winter. 
 It is, when clean and properly made, very nice, the 
 slightly acid taste being peculiarly grateful to a hot 
 and tired person in that warm climate, and is said 
 to have in such circumstances a soporific effect. 
 
 Cheese is also made in a similar manner by 
 means of rennet, and pressed into small hard cakes, 
 something like our cream cheeses, but firmer and 
 not so rich. 
 
 Churning butter is another occupation of the 
 
 132 
 
CHURNING 133 
 
 women, chiefly in the spring and early .summer. 
 The milk is put into a large skin, similar to those 
 used for carrying water ; this is then suspended be- 
 tween the legs of a tripod of sticks. Two women 
 usually do the work of churning by pushing the 
 skin backwards and forwards between them ; the 
 splashing about of the milk in the skin, which must 
 not be filled too full, gradually separates the butter. 
 Much of this butter is not used as such, but is 
 clarified by heating over the fire, a kind of saffron 
 being added which gives it a yellow tint, and a 
 peculiar flavour very distasteful to most Europeans, 
 but to which one gets accustomed after a time. 
 This clarified butter, or Semaneh, is stored in jars 
 or skins for future use, being largely employed in 
 cookery for frying meat, eggs, vegetables, etc., 
 and for mixing with the boiled rice. Failing this 
 Semaneh, the fat of the tail of the Oriental sheep is 
 much used. These fat tails, common to several 
 varieties of sheep in Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and 
 East Africa, are considered very valuable for 
 cooking. 
 
 But besides these more or less directly domestic 
 duties, the peasant women work hard in other 
 ways. Many of the Fellahin make their living by 
 growing fruit and vegetables for the towns, and 
 most mornings of the week crowds of Fellahat may 
 be seen coming into the towns carrying on their 
 heads baskets of radishes, cauliflowers, tomatoes, 
 and other vegetables, according to the time of 
 year ; or grapes, figs, peaches, apricots, and other 
 fruit ; also fowls, corn, eggs, jars of water, skins of 
 
13-i DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 vinegar, and bundles of grass or green barley. 
 Not only do they come thus from the nearer 
 villages, but often even from places two, three, 
 and four hours' distant. They squat about in the 
 narrow street of the town, or in the open market- 
 place, to sell their wares, the baskets on the ground 
 before them, and their babies in their laps, or hung 
 up in their bags, asleep, on the wall behind. It is 
 an interesting sight to see these women come into 
 one of the towns on a bright spring morning after, 
 perhaps, two or three days of rain. Here is a group 
 of women, laughing and chattering, each with a 
 heavy basket on her head ; several have loads of 
 huge pink radishes, larger than our carrots, with 
 their fresh green leaves ; another has two or three 
 large cauliflowers, which would make a Covent 
 Garden salesman open his eyes in wonder — for, in 
 spite of the curse which seems to rest on the land, 
 it can still produce marvels in the way of fruits 
 and vegetables ; yet another has a basketful of 
 fowls (tied by their legs), which now and then 
 flutter and squall in their vain attempts to escape. 
 A little behind is a second group following two 
 or three men, their lords and masters, who stalk 
 majestically on in front, carrying only guns or 
 clubs, while their wives meekly follow with their 
 heavy baskets, some containing billets of olive- 
 wood for burning, others wheat, with a few eggs 
 on the top ; while another, in addition to a load of 
 edible snails, has her baby slung at her back in a 
 bag. Having disposed of their wares in the town, 
 and made various small purchases, they set off 
 
THE WOMEN'S LIFE-WORK 135 
 
 home again ; and riding back to the city in the 
 afternoon one meets the same groups one saw 
 in the morning, now returning to their villages, 
 their baskets on their heads with the various articles 
 they have bought — a few yards of calico, a pair of 
 coarse native shoes, a little tin lamp and an old 
 wine-bottle containing petroleum, a box or two of 
 matches, and a packet of tobacco for the husband ; 
 or, it may be, a sheep's head or piece of tripe, or 
 some such dainty to eat with the dry bread at the 
 evening meal. 
 
 Meanwhile their tongues are busy, money being 
 almost the invariable subject of their conversation 
 — -the few piastres they got for their produce in the 
 morning, the price of the various things they have 
 bought, or fines or taxes they have had to pay to 
 the Government. And so they disappear in the 
 gathering dusk, with hardly a thought beyond to- 
 morrow, and how to live from day to day under 
 the ever-growing burden of poverty and taxation, 
 and with no hope worth the name in the life 
 beyond the grave. 
 
 Nor is this all. During the spring, while the 
 corn is growing, the women go out almost every day 
 to gather the weeds which are found in quantities 
 among the corn, for fodder for the cattle and horses ; 
 they may be often seen carrying large bundles 
 of these weeds on their heads for long distances, 
 this, for what reason I know not, being considered 
 specially women's work. They often assist also in 
 the reaping of the harvest, gathering the olives, 
 grapes, and figs. While the ploughing is going on, 
 
130 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 the women and bigger girls assist by hoeing up the 
 corners and odd bits of ground where the plough 
 cannot reach ; and I have even seen a woman 
 ploughing, but this is very rare. 
 
 The clay corn-bins which are a conspicuous 
 object in the house of every Fellah, and which 
 form one of the most important articles of furni- 
 ture, are also made by the women. Clay mixed with 
 Tibn (crushed straw) is the material employed in 
 their manufacture. After being dug out of the 
 hillside, it is broken up, moistened with water, and 
 kneaded up into a tenacious mass with the straw, 
 and the bin is carefully built up piece by piece, a 
 little being done each day, so that a large bin 
 (Khabiyeh) takes many days to complete. When 
 finished, they are well dried in the sun before being 
 brought into the house. When one enters a Fellah's 
 house, and the eye has become accustomed to the 
 dim twilight which nearly always reigns there, one 
 of the first things one notices is the row of these 
 bins at the back of the room, or else serving, in 
 one of the larger houses, as a partition between 
 two rooms. In them the year's supply of wheat, 
 lentils, barley, dried figs, etc., is stored. There is 
 a small hole, Bozaneh, at the bottom, through 
 which the contents are withdrawn as required. 
 East of the Jordan a very large kind of bin called 
 Ikwdrah is found. A framework of poles and 
 reeds is first made in the house between the arches 
 which support the roof, this framework being after- 
 wards plastered with clay. This latter kind of 
 bin probably formed the ' barns ' mentioned in the 
 
STORES OF CORN 137 
 
 parable of the Foolish Rich Man (St. Luke xii. 18), 
 as barns in the sense in which we understand the 
 term are unknown in Palestine. At Kerak, Madeba, 
 and other places east of the Jordan, corn is also 
 stored in sacks in the spaces or recesses between 
 the arches of the houses. In Old Testament times 
 there used to be a practice of storing corn, etc., in 
 the ground, old cisterns being, no doubt, chiefly 
 used for the purpose. This would be done more 
 especially at disturbed times. I have seen this 
 plan resorted to occasionally in some districts, 
 more particularly in Moab and other parts of 
 Eastern Palestine. 
 
 Of furniture, as we understand the term, an 
 ordinary peasant's house will be entirely devoid, 
 but there will be a variety of cooking utensils and 
 articles of household use. The corn-bins have 
 already been described ; next in bulk to them will 
 be a huge water-jar : this usually stands near the 
 door, in a corner anyone can reach, for the Fellahin 
 are a thirsty race and drink large quantities of 
 water. In its capacious mouth reposes an earthen- 
 ware jug, or tin mug, with which to get the 
 water. 
 
 Other jars of various sizes and shapes will be 
 found, differing somewhat in the several districts of 
 Palestine, from the JerraJi, holding a gallon or more, 
 in which the women bring the water from the well, 
 to the ShcrbeJi, a little jar with a spout, and holding 
 one or two pints, from which they drink. In some of 
 these jars will be stored olive-oil (which is much used 
 in food), pickled olives, honey, and Dibbs (grape 
 
138 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 molasses). A few round trays of brightly-coloured 
 straw worked in patterns will be seen hanging on 
 the walls, with a sieve and a few rough wicker 
 baskets for carrying vegetables to market, or bring- 
 ing olives or figs from the fields. Two or three 
 large wooden bowls will be in another corner ; in 
 them the dough is kneaded and taken to the oven, 
 clothes are taken to the spring to wash, and some- 
 times also the evening meal is served in one of 
 these. They are often made by the wandering 
 gipsies, who sell them to the peasants, and I 
 remember a Christian peasant (a Greek) once 
 bringing a new one he had just bought from these 
 wanderers, and asking me to pray over it that it 
 might be clean for use for food. 
 
 Smaller bowls of wood or earthenware, used as 
 dishes, a mortar of stone or wood for pounding 
 coffee, a brass pot for boiling it, a few tiny cups 
 without handles in which it is served, an iron ladle 
 in which the coffee beans are roasted, and a few 
 spoons with a knife or two, will complete the 
 inventory of the goods of an average peasant's 
 house. 
 
 While on the one hand the richer peasants will 
 have other things, especially articles of European 
 manufacture, on the other the very poor will have 
 much less. On the floor will also be one or two 
 mats, made of a species of papyrus, or else of a 
 stout grass, and on these the people will sit, chairs 
 being quite unknown. In a recess in the wall the 
 bedding will be piled. This is extremely simple, 
 
DRESS 139 
 
 consisting of a mattress, three or four inches thick, 
 stuffed with wool, cotton, or rags ; a pillow, usually 
 filled with straw ; and one or more thick wadded 
 quilts (2 Kings viii. 15), which form the only 
 covering. Ts T o bedsteads are used, the mattress 
 being spread on the floor at night, and rolled up 
 and put away during the day. 
 
 The dress of the children is simplicity itself. 
 When past the period of swaddling-clothes, a single 
 loose garment with short sleeves, and opening a 
 couple of inches in front, is all they have. On the 
 head is a small cap, often ornamented with beads 
 and charms of various kinds, while other charms, 
 sewn up in square or triangular pieces of leather, 
 will be hung round the child's neck, especially if it 
 be a boy. As the children get older their dress 
 will be a reproduction on a small scale of that of 
 their parents, except that they are usually barefoot, 
 and that, in those parts of the country where turbans 
 are worn, the boys do not have them till they 
 approach manhood. 
 
 The dress of the men differs somewhat in various 
 parts of the country, and the same articles of cloth- 
 ing will be called by different names in different 
 places. The garment worn next the skin is prac- 
 tically always a kind of long shirt of white calico ; the 
 sleeves of this vary somewhat. East of the Jordan 
 they are worn very long and pointed, the dependent 
 point being used to carry money, tobacco, and 
 various little odds and ends, which are knotted up 
 in it, instead of being put in a pocket as with us. 
 
HO DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 This is often confined at the waist by a leather 
 strap, into which the loose skirt of the garment is 
 tucked when the man is at hard work. Over this 
 shirt a long garment like a dressing-gown, of some 
 coloured material, is worn ; it reaches nearly to the 
 heels. For ordinary wear a coloured cotton, lined 
 with unbleached calico, is used, but for gala dress 
 silk, woven in Damascus or the Lebanon, is the 
 material employed ; it is confined round the waist 
 by a coloured belt of elastic cotton webbing, with 
 a space for keeping money, large sums being often 
 carried in these ' purses ' (St. Matt x. 9) on a 
 journey. 
 
 Occasionally very wide, baggy trousers of white 
 calico, fastening at the ankles, are worn by the 
 peasantry, but only by those who are better off. 
 Over this coloured garment a short jacket of 
 coloured cloth, with patterns in black braid, is worn 
 on Sundays and feast-days. An outer cloak is also 
 much used ; this is of various kinds, shapes, and 
 colours. About Jerusalem the kind most worn is 
 a square cloak of wool and cotton, woven in stripes 
 of black and white. It is heavy and warm, and 
 will turn any ordinary shower, though it will get 
 soaked through with a long exposure to heavy rain. 
 About Xablus a shorter and coarser garment, red 
 and white, is used, while east of the Jordan, again, 
 a very long light black cloak reaching to the heels 
 is ordinarily employed. In very cold weather the 
 men wear a Furicah — that is, a coat or jacket made 
 of lambskins, dressed with the wool on them. They 
 are very warm, and are largely used by muleteers, 
 
TURBANS 141 
 
 camel-drivers, and others whose work obliges them 
 to sleep out much at night. 
 
 In many parts the head-dress is a somewhat com- 
 plicated one : first of all comes a close-fitting white 
 skull-cap of cotton ; then a heavy thick cap over 
 that, of felt or some woollen material ; and over 
 that, again, a red fez, with a black or dark blue 
 tassel, while over all, like the brim of a hat, 
 comes the turban. This turban is of various 
 colours, which have for the most part a religious or 
 other significance. Thus, a white turban almost 
 always denotes a Mohammedan, more especially 
 one who holds some post under the Ottoman 
 Government ; but this is not invariable, as members 
 of the Yemen faction, elsewhere described, are dis- 
 tinguished by a white turban, and at Bethlehem it 
 is the custom for Christians, who have in the 
 course of their business had to travel much among 
 Moslems, to wear it. A red turban indicates those 
 who belong to the faction of Kais ; while a green 
 turban shows a Sherif, or noble — that is, a lineal 
 descendant of the Prophet Mohammed ; it may be 
 seen on the heads of beggars, or men engaged in 
 the most menial occupations, as well as of those 
 of more prosperous circumstances. I have, how- 
 ever, been told by Moslems that it is now some- 
 times adopted by people who have no real right to 
 the title of Sherif. In other districts, especially 
 those where there are many Bedouin, or where the 
 people come much in contact with them, the head- 
 dress is of quite a different character, consisting of 
 a large handkerchief, usually black or of some dark 
 
142 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 colour, but not unfrequently white, with a heavy- 
 double coll of cord made of wool or goat's hair to 
 keep it in place.* 
 
 On their feet the Fellahin wear thick, clumsy 
 shoes or boots of various descriptions. There are 
 the long boots coming halfway up the calf of the 
 leg, made of bright red leather, with a tassel in 
 front and iron-guarded heels. These are chiefly 
 worn in Eastern Palestine. Then there are the 
 ordinary boots, with thick, heavy soles, of camel or 
 buffalo hide, and red uppers, coming to a point 
 above the heel and the instep ; shoes of a lighter 
 make are also worn. 
 
 On entering a house, church, or mosque, the 
 boots or shoes are removed. To enter wearing 
 them would be considered most irreverent in the 
 case of a sacred edifice, and disrespectful in the 
 case of a private house. When a number of people 
 are gathered at a house — e.g., to greet a stranger 
 of importance — extraordinary collections of boots 
 and shoes in all stages of wear may be seen, and 
 one wonders sometimes how the respective owners 
 ever find their special property again. 
 
 In order to fasten up the sleeves out of the way 
 when working, a cord, called Sliemar, is worn over 
 the shoulders, passing round the upper part of the 
 
 * This latter head-dress is of comparatively recent date, 
 the red cap and turban being universally worn in olden days, 
 and probably in use in our Blessed Lord's time. There is a 
 traditional saying of Mohammed to the effect that when 
 Moslems should give up wearing the turban their honour (or 
 nobility) would be gone. 
 
DRESS OF THE WOMEN 143 
 
 arms. Into it the ends of the sleeves are tucked, 
 thus drawing them back, and leaving the lower arm 
 bare and free. 
 
 East of the Jordan a leather belt, with straps 
 attached in front and behind, coming over the 
 shoulders and crossing on the chest, is worn over 
 the inner shirt, and called Jennad. 
 
 The dress of the women is in some things similar 
 to that of the men. When about their work they 
 usually wear only one long garment, with a girdle 
 of some cotton or woollen material round the waist. 
 It is made of cotton dyed with indigo, or plain 
 white, or broad stripes of red, green and white. In 
 some cases, in cold weather, they wear a wadded 
 jacket, and occasionally even a lambskin coat like 
 the men ; but more often the poor creatures go 
 about, even in the coldest weather, with no extra 
 clothing. At weddings and on high-days and holi- 
 days, instead of the simple garment just described, 
 a much more elaborate one is worn of dark blue 
 material, with coloured stripes and lines, and some- 
 times a few gold threads running through it. Into 
 the front of this dress a square of the needlework 
 already described is inserted, while, where it is 
 worn, a gorgeous coat of coloured cloth, with bright 
 braiding round the edges, completes the costume, 
 the dress of the Bethlehem women being par- 
 ticularly brilliant. 
 
 The women of Nazareth and the districts round 
 wear a long white inner garment of cotton, and 
 over it another similar one, but of coloured material, 
 reaching to the feet, and open in front as far as the 
 
144 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 waist, where a girdle keeps it in place. At Es Salt, 
 Madeba, Kerak, etc., the women's dress is most 
 unbecoming. It consists of a single garment of 
 dark blue calico, about twice as long as the wearer 
 is tall, the extra length being pulled up inside the 
 girdle, and allowed to fall over it all round, reaching 
 nearly to the feet, thus forming a sort of sack. 
 
 The head-dress of the women varies greatly in 
 the different parts of the country. The married 
 women of Bethlehem have a peculiar one, which is 
 worn only by them and the women of the neigh- 
 bouring village of Beit Jala. It is made of a fez, 
 with some material to stiffen it, and covered with 
 red cotton, and has two ears at the bottom on 
 either side. To these is fastened a chain of silver, 
 or some baser metal, with large silver coins attached 
 — ten in number in the case of the richer women, 
 and seven in that of the poorer (a bride has twenty). 
 The lowest central coin is, whenever possible, of 
 gold, being really a kind of medal made expressly 
 for the purpose, and worth some £3 or £4. Along 
 the front of the head-dress, over the forehead, is 
 one row of coins (or more if the woman be rich), 
 or, if she be too poor to have real money, some 
 imitation coins are used instead. Over the whole 
 a veil, consisting of some 3 yards of fine white 
 cotton material, is thrown. It was a veil, no doubt, 
 of this kind which Ruth wore when she gleaned 
 in the fields of Boaz outside Bethlehem, and 
 into which he poured the six measures of corn 
 (Ruth iii. 15). The head-dress entirely conceals 
 the hair, it being considered improper for the 
 
WOMEN'S HEAD-DRESS 145 
 
 peasant women to show any of it, and is often 
 worn night and day. 
 
 The women of the villages about Jerusalem wear 
 a rather different head-dress, the high hat being 
 replaced by a close-fitting cap, to the front of 
 which one or two rows of coins are securely 
 fastened. A metal chain hangs from it, passing 
 loosely under the chin ; and from its lowest part 
 a large silver coin is suspended. Many of the coins 
 on this singular head-dress are large, and the total 
 weight amounts, where there is a double row of 
 them, to several pounds ; yet so accustomed to it 
 do the women become, that, should they have to 
 lay it aside for any reason, they suffer from severe 
 headache. So well known is this, that a short time 
 ago a Moslem woman in a village near Jerusalem, 
 who had to give her head-dress as a pledge for the 
 repayment of a sum of money her husband had 
 borrowed, bound a heavy piece of metal on her 
 head instead, and so prevented the headache. In 
 public the women always wear a veil, not over their 
 faces, however, but over their heads, the face being 
 uncovered. It is considered improper for them to 
 be seen by a man without their veil. It is, never- 
 theless, often laid aside when they are engaged in 
 hard work, or, indeed, in other occupations ; and 
 many a time in the villages, turning suddenly a 
 corner of one of the narrow winding lanes, I have 
 come on a little group of Fellahat busy at work 
 without their veils, but the moment I was perceived 
 the veils would be replaced on their heads, or, if 
 
 they were not sufficiently close at hand, one of the 
 
 10 
 
146 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 long, voluminous sleeves of their dress would be 
 thrown over till I had passed. The women of 
 Moab and Gilead and those in Galilee do not wear 
 either of the head-dresses I have just described, but 
 instead of them have a dark-coloured piece of cotton 
 material, folded several times, bound round the 
 head, covering the forehead, but leaving the crown 
 of the head bare. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE (C0?lti?lUed) 
 
 The Fellahin are as a rule a healthy race. The 
 open-air life they lead, the fact that they rarely use 
 stimulants, and their simple habits, all tend to keep 
 them free from many complaints common to other 
 climates and conditions of life. They are, never- 
 theless, no more immune from sickness than any 
 others of the human race, and in times of illness they 
 are as a rule very helpless. All, both Moslems and 
 Christians, have unbounded faith in charms, and 
 use them extensively both to ward off sickness 
 and to cure it when it comes. There are, however, 
 certain remedies known to them which are not 
 without their value. Cauterizing with a hot iron 
 is resorted to for lumbago, rheumatism, diphtheria, 
 and other ailments, and some persons have a high 
 reputation for their skill in administering this drastic 
 remedy, which they employ with a boldness pro- 
 duced by their absolute ignorance of human 
 anatomy. The results, however, are sometimes very 
 good, especially in cases of acute inflammation. 
 Some of them are very clever in setting broken 
 bones. They value highly European medical and 
 
 147 10—2 
 
148 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 surgical skill and European drugs, and medical 
 missions have done wonders in winning the hearts 
 of the people and in disposing them to listen to 
 the message of the Gospel. 
 
 Malarial fever of different types is the commonest 
 of all maladies ; and there are certain localities 
 which have an unenviable notoriety in this respect, 
 such as some parts of the plains of Sharon and 
 Jezreel, and certain villages in other places. One 
 such village on the western slopes of the Jebel 
 el Kuds became particularly malarious during the 
 present generation. This is said to be due to the 
 cutting down of some pine-woods which formerly 
 surrounded it — such, at least, is the opinion of its 
 present inhabitants, and there seems to be no reason 
 to question its correctness. Quinine is well known 
 to them as an antidote for this disease, and they 
 value it highly. A very virulent type of this fever, 
 with symptoms resembling those of yellow fever, 
 occurs occasionally in the plains, and is probably 
 due to contaminated water. 
 
 Dengue fever, or a fever closely resembling 
 what is now known in England as influenza, is 
 by no means uncommon, and sometimes occurs in 
 epidemics. It is characteristically called in Arabic 
 Abu rikab, or ' the father of the joints,' from the 
 severe pains in the joints and bones which usually 
 accompanies it. Small-pox is also very general. 
 Inoculation for this disease is still largely practised, 
 especially by the more ignorant Moslems, and 
 helps to spread the contagion and to raise the 
 death-rate. During a severe outbreak of it in 
 
VACCINATION 149 
 
 1901, a Khatib in a village in the Jebel el Kuds 
 inoculated twenty-six boys from the body of one 
 man who had died of small-pox, with the result 
 that every one of them succumbed. 
 
 The people have, however, a high esteem for 
 vaccination as a preventative of small-pox, and 
 there are now native vaccinators who go about the 
 country practising their art. They charge a hishlik 
 (about sixpence) for each person operated on — a 
 relatively high fee for the country — and make a 
 very good living by it. During the outbreak just 
 referred to, a lady missionary vaccinated hundreds 
 of children and adults in some of the villages near 
 Jerusalem, and thus probably saved the lives of 
 scores of people. 
 
 Measles is another disease which is at times very 
 fatal among the children, and this almost entirely 
 from the utter carelessness of the parents, the 
 deaths being chiefly, not from the disease itself, but 
 its sequelae. They have as a rule little or no idea 
 of nursing the sick ; they mean well often enough, 
 but do not know what is wanted. Then, too, their 
 fatalistic ideas come in, especially in the case of the 
 Moslems : if it be God's will that the sick recover, 
 he will recover, but if not he will die, so why 
 should they trouble ? A European doctor, who 
 had had wide experience in the country, once told 
 me that he had on several occasions discovered 
 that, when he had given up hope of a patient's 
 recovery, and had told the relations this, they took 
 no further trouble about the sick person, giving 
 neither food nor medicine ; consequently, after 
 
150 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 finding this out, he never told the friends what his 
 view of the case was, and his hopes (or the reverse) 
 of recovery. 
 
 Perhaps in no country in the world is blindness 
 and defective sight so common as in Palestine. 
 Scarcity of water has, no doubt, much to do with 
 this and many other complaints. When it is 
 difficult for the people to get water enough for 
 drinking and cooking, one cannot wonder that they 
 do not wash often. Eye diseases are very common, 
 but are undoubtedly aggravated by want of cleanli- 
 ness and by flies. It is a common thing to see 
 children suffering from these complaints with a 
 number of flies settled on the discharging eyelids, 
 the little things not seeming to mind their presence ; 
 and by them, of course, the disease is communicated 
 to others. Much blindness is caused by the apathy 
 of the people, who will put off going to a medical 
 man till too late. In many and many a case a 
 perfect cure could have been effected, but the 
 patient has delayed until the sight is hopelessly 
 gone. 
 
 The mortality among children, infants espe- 
 cially, is very great. Much of this is caused by the 
 absolute ignorance of the young mothers as to how 
 to treat their children. Improper food produces 
 much disease among them. As soon as they are 
 able to eat anything at all solid, they are given the 
 same food as the rest of the family ; and it is no 
 uncommon thing to see a little child, unable to 
 stand, eating raw cucumber or sour, unripe grapes. 
 The cauterization also, already mentioned, and 
 
CHOLERA 151 
 
 which is used as freely on children as on adults, is 
 no doubt responsible for a good many deaths among 
 them, the poor little things, especially if weakly, 
 being unable to stand the shock and pain. 
 
 The Fellahm, although a strong race in many 
 respects, yet feel the cold of winter intensely, more 
 particularly in the mountains, and every year there 
 are cases of people dying of cold and exposure, 
 especially in times of snow. In one case, which 
 occurred recently, a man was going home one 
 winter's afternoon from Jerusalem on a donkey 
 which he had hired from his own village. Some 
 time after dark the donkey arrived alone at his 
 owner's house, with things belonging to the man 
 who had hired it in the saddle-bags. This led to a 
 search being made, and the man's body, partially 
 eaten by hyenas, was found by the roadside. Nothing 
 was missing, so it was, clearly, not a case of robbery 
 and murder ; but no doubt he had fallen from the 
 donkey and died of exposure. 
 
 Like all hot countries, Palestine is liable to 
 epidemics of cholera from time to time. During 
 the last epidemic but one, the village of Bir Zeit in 
 the Jebel el Kuds was one of those attacked by it. 
 A young man from the village died of the disease 
 in the town of Nablus. His mother fetched his 
 clothes home and washed them in the spring from 
 which most of the villagers got their drinking- 
 water ! As a natural consequence, the cholera very 
 soon broke out with great violence. It was the 
 grape season, and some of the people were living 
 out in their vineyards. One of the leading men 
 
152 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 of the village, a man of great force of character, 
 persuaded the rest of the people to go out, only 
 three men, who had volunteered to do so, remain- 
 ing to bury the dead. Arrangements were made 
 for supplying the different families with food, 
 water, etc., without running any risk of carrying 
 infection. It was on a Tuesday that the disease 
 first showed itself, and by the following Tuesday 
 thirty deaths had occurred out of a population 01 
 from two to three hundred. Not a single other 
 case occurred after that day, and it never reappeared 
 in that village during that outbreak. Of the three 
 men who so nobly volunteered to bury the dead, 
 all escaped, the first of them dying thirty years 
 afterwards, the other two being still alive. The 
 incident is a notable one, as there was no European 
 hand in it from first to last, and it shows what the 
 Fellahin are capable of under wise and energetic 
 native guidance. 
 
 Leprosy* is still found in Palestine, and lepers 
 
 * The following notes on leprosy in Palestine at the 
 present day have been kindly furnished me by Dr. AVheeler, 
 the senior medical missionary of the London Jews 1 Society in 
 Jerusalem : 
 
 1. Fish in this country plays no part in causing leprosy. 
 The Jews who consume the greatest part of the salted as 
 well as fresh fish, and in some cases even of decaying fish, 
 hardly ever suffer from leprosy. A few years ago there was 
 a case of a woman, but she came from Salonica. In the 
 villages of Ramallah, Beit Haninah, Ain Arik, etc., and among 
 the Bedouin, practically no fish is eaten, and yet it is just 
 from them that the greater number of lepers come. 
 
 2. Leprosy is undoubtedly contagious ; a special bacillus 
 
LEPROSY 153 
 
 may be seen outside Jerusalem, Xablus, and 
 Ramleh, sitting by the wayside begging. They 
 are provided for to a certain extent by the local 
 authorities, who in these three places have set 
 apart houses for them, and give them a certain 
 amount of bread every day. They also receive a 
 great deal of food and money from the people 
 generally, as alms. 
 
 The Fellahm seem to be specially subject to 
 leprosy — that is, more so than the towns-people. A 
 leper is regarded as a dead person, and, as already 
 mentioned, the Christians consider that, if a married 
 
 has been found. However, cases of contagion are very 
 rare. 
 
 3. It has not yet been quite decided whether leprosy is 
 strictly hereditary ; but heredity plays the most important 
 part in the transmission of this disease. 
 
 4. It is possible for leprous persons to have healthy 
 children. There are now in the asylum here live children 
 between the ages of five and twelve who have been born of 
 leprous parents. Up to this time they have shown no sign 
 of leprosy ; they are still under observation. There is a man 
 now living whose mother was a leper; he married about 
 twelve years ago. He and his wife and children are all at 
 present quite healthy. 
 
 5. It has not been established by experience here that a 
 child born of parents who become lepers afterwards need 
 necessarily develop leprosy itself. 
 
 6. The tubercular form is the commonest in this country. 
 It is impossible to state at the present moment what is the 
 chief factor in the causation of leprosy. The inhabitants of 
 this country live upon almost the same kind of food everywhere, 
 and although most of the lepers come from the villages, there 
 are some villages in which no case of leprosy has been reported. 
 
154 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 person becomes a leper, the husband or wife, as the 
 case may be, is free to marry again. 
 
 There is at Jerusalem a fine hospital, under the 
 care of the Moravian Brethren, specially for lepers, 
 where they are most carefully tended. 
 
 There are various hot springs both east and west 
 of the Jordan, such as those at Tiberias, to which 
 people resort for various diseases. In the Zerka 
 Main (Callirhoe) are some which are very famous 
 among the people of Moab and the Belka for their 
 healing properties. Persons who have no children 
 will bathe in them in hopes that they may obtain 
 them, as the people believe strongly that the waters 
 have this effect. 
 
 Among remedies known to the native doctors 
 may be mentioned one for rabies ; it is an infusion 
 of the leaves and flowers of a low, strong-smelling 
 shrub with bright yellow flowers, which are 
 succeeded by long pods ; it has two different native 
 
 Amongst the Bedouin, who are supposed to lead a healthy 
 life, there have been several cases of leprosy. Although 
 leprosy is contagious, it would seem that before it is trans- 
 mitted the person receiving it must have a ' hereditary dis- 
 position. 1 It is a curious fact that in this country for 
 centuries, in spite of no sanitary precautions being taken, 
 leprosy has neither decreased nor increased. It is found in 
 certain families which seem to have a ' hereditary predis- 
 position. 1 In the leper hospital here there is a special 
 department for the bringing up, by hand, of children of 
 leprous parents. They are removed from their parents im- 
 mediately after birth, and kept exclusively in a separate 
 apartment ; they are thus kept from all leprous contamina- 
 tion. These experiments will be watched with deep interest. 
 
INSANITY 155 
 
 names — Litin and Salmoneh. It is evidently a 
 powerful drug, and a medical man told me that 
 he knew of a case in which a man who had been 
 bitten by a mad dog, and was treated with it, 
 died of Bright's disease brought on by the use 
 of it. 
 
 In most of the large villages there are one or 
 two idiots, who seem to be harmless as a rule. A 
 proverb evidently derived from the Bedouin says : 
 * No tribe but has its idiot. ' There are a few 
 lunatics also, perhaps more than might be expected 
 a priori in a country like Palestine, where the rush 
 and hurry of Western life is practically unknown. 
 Near Bethlehem there is a Greek monastery where 
 insane cases are taken, the violent ones being 
 chained to the wall. They profess that some cases 
 are cured here, but, as with many other things in 
 the East, statistics are entirely wanting. The 
 lunatics, like the idiots, are nearly always harmless. 
 1 have never myself come across one who was 
 dangerous. They simply wander about, one of 
 their characteristics being their dislike to wearing 
 any sort of clothing. They, in common with 
 persons afflicted with the shaking palsy, are held to 
 be under God's special protection, and are therefore 
 rarely unkindly treated. 
 
 When a person has died, they have a great objec- 
 tion to announcing the fact directly to anyone. 
 Thus, for instance, if a man goes to break to 
 another the news of his father's death, he begins in 
 a roundabout way ; says he is ill, and gradually 
 tells him more and more, till at last the other 
 
1$6 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 guesses what has happened, and breaks out into 
 bitter lamentations. 
 
 Many have an idea that the death of a domestic 
 animal, more especially if it be at all a valuable 
 one, such as a horse of good breed, is instead of the 
 death of the owner or of a member of his family. 
 
 On the day of a death, the relations, friends, and 
 neighbours bring food, bread, etc., to the house of 
 the family to eat. It is supposed that those in 
 the house of death cannot cook or attend to such 
 things, and at first they are not supposed to eat at 
 all, from grief, and many do not eat for some time. 
 In some places it is the custom to thus supply food 
 for fifteen days. On the last day the relatives of 
 the dead kill one or more sheep, make a feast, and 
 invite a number of people. This is considered a 
 satisfaction for the sins of the dead person. 
 
 Palestine being essentially a hot country, burial 
 has to take place very soon after death. No coffin 
 is used, the body being carried on a bier to the 
 grave merely wrapped in a shroud or in the 
 ordinary clothes. At a Greek funeral the relations 
 of the dead buy candles from the priests, and, light- 
 ing them, give one to each person present to show 
 that the life of the deceased was good and pure as 
 the light. With the same idea at the grave, while 
 the service is being read, cotton dipped in olive-oil 
 is placed on the corpse. 
 
 Among the Moslems the body is ceremonially 
 washed before burial, this being part of the duty of 
 the Khatib in case of men, while the village mid- 
 wife usually performs this office for women. 
 
FUNERALS 157 
 
 In the case of influential people a large crowd 
 usually accompanies the bier, and, as it is con- 
 sidered a meritorious act to assist in carrying this, 
 there are always plenty of persons to take the dead 
 to the burying-ground. If the deceased be a 
 Moslem of position, the bier is preceded by persons 
 carrying palm branches (in token that the deceased 
 has been victorious, or, in other words, has attained 
 Paradise), and men reciting passages from the 
 Koran ; and where he has been famous as a dervish 
 or sheikh, red and green banners with passages from 
 the Koran embroidered on them will be borne in 
 the procession, accompanied by the beating of 
 cymbals. 
 
 When a grave has been dug deep enough, stones 
 are placed along both sides at the bottom, leaving 
 between a space wide enough for the corpse ; and 
 when this has been laid in its last resting-place, 
 slabs of stone are put over it, resting on the two 
 rows of stones. The interstices are then carefully 
 plastered over so that no earth can touch the body. 
 In rocky ground, however, the grave is sometimes 
 so shallow that the wild animals can get to the 
 corpse. Strolling one day outside the walls of 
 Kerak, in the land of Moab, I met a poor woman 
 in terrible distress ; she had come to look at the 
 grave of her child, which had been buried the pre- 
 vious day, only to find that the hyenas had dug up 
 and carried off the body. 
 
 The graveyards are little cared for, being in 
 marked contrast to the Welys, or tombs of saints. 
 They are rarely, if ever, enclosed in any way ; and, 
 
158 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 as among the Fellahin tombstones are rare, it is 
 sometimes most difficult to detect a burying-ground, 
 and one may easily walk over an old grave without 
 being the least conscious of the fact (St. Luke xi. 44). 
 In a few Moslem villages I have noticed a large 
 blue sweet-scented iris planted on the graves ; this 
 plant is called Subeyhah, the diminutive of the word 
 1 Praise,' its sweet scent being thought to be accept- 
 able to God, as the praises of the dead. 
 
 In some cases the burial-grounds belong, not to 
 the village or church, but to the particular family 
 or clan, only members of that family being allowed 
 to be buried there. 
 
 The dead are sometimes buried in a sort of vault 
 called Fustakiyeh or Khashkhdsheh. This is some- 
 times a natural cave, but more often a hole in the 
 ground with four rough walls and a barrel-shaped 
 roof, a doorway being left at one end. In the case 
 of burial in these vaults, the body is merely laid on 
 the floor wrapped in a shroud or in the ordinary 
 clothes, the doorway being then built up with large 
 stones laid in mortar. A considerable number of 
 bodies can be placed in one of these vaults, but 
 they are usually employed only for the very poorest 
 or strangers. Occasionally others will be tem- 
 porarily buried there — for example, in winter, when 
 the weather is too stormy to allow of an ordinary 
 grave being dug, the body being afterwards trans- 
 ferred to a proper grave, as the people dislike being 
 buried there. It was probably in order to build 
 such a vault that the priests (St. Matt, xxvii. 7) 
 purchased the potter's field, as the removal of the 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS 159 
 
 clay would make a large hole suitable for the pur- 
 pose, and thus lessen the expense. In the same 
 way now a hole caused by the removal of stone for 
 building is sometimes utilized by the Fellahin for 
 making one of these burial-vaults. 
 
 After the funeral, in the case of Moslems, food 
 is often cooked and placed on the grave for the 
 poor to eat, this being, it is supposed, reckoned in 
 the other world as though done by the dead person, 
 and so as adding to his merit, and consequently 
 increasing his hopes of eternal life. 
 
 This is also done in many cases on Thursdays for 
 some time after the death, and for the same reason. 
 Again, after Ramadhan (the Moslem month of fast- 
 ing) is over, the people go to the burial-ground, 
 when (if there has been a death in any family during 
 the past year, and if the relations can afford it) food 
 is placed there for the poor. 
 
 If a sheikh or influential person dies, word is sent 
 to the people of his own and neighbouring villages, 
 and they come bringing money or clothes, which 
 they put on the grave in honour of the dead. These 
 are taken by the relations, who in return make 
 a feast for those who attend the funeral. But in 
 some places, instead of clothes and money, rice only 
 is put on the grave. 
 
 Sometimes after the death of a sheikh, or other 
 important person, a favourite camel will be bound 
 on the grave, and left there to die ; such a victim 
 is called JJahiyeh. The idea is probably that of its 
 spirit accompanying its former owner in the spirit- 
 world. 
 
160 DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 The Fellahtn greatly dread any disturbance of 
 their bones after death, and to do this is looked 
 upon as a great sin. One of the worst curses that 
 can be pronounced on a man is, ' May your bones 
 be disturbed !' 
 
 Thursday is the day on which, according to 
 Moslem belief, the spirits of the dead are supposed 
 to visit the graves. For this reason the people go 
 out to the burial-ground on that day, and sit among 
 the graves. Blind men also are sometimes hired to 
 come at these times and recite passages of the 
 Koran there. They believe that the spirits know 
 that the graves are thus honoured, and that, though 
 we cannot see them, they can see us ' as we see oil 
 in a bottle.' 
 
 After a death, especially that of a person of con- 
 sideration, friends from the villages round go to 
 ' comfort ' the relations. They take a goat or sheep 
 with them, kill it, and make a feast to console them. 
 This may be done at any time from five days to a 
 year. They stay a day or two with the dead man's 
 relatives, and then gradually disperse to their own 
 homes. A similar return visit has to be paid by 
 the relatives subsequently. These occasions are 
 often very burdensome to the poorer people, as 
 they borrow money to meet the expenses, the debts 
 thus incurred hampering them for years afterwards ; 
 but as they would be considered stingy, an epithet 
 an Arab dreads almost more than any other, if they 
 omitted to observe the custom, they are afraid to 
 drop it. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 The occupation of a shepherd is contemporaneous 
 in its origin with the birth of the human race, and 
 shepherds have throughout the Bible narrative 
 played an important part in the history of the 
 world. Abel was a keeper of sheep ; Abraham, 
 Jacob, Moses, David, and other of Israel's heroes 
 and teachers, have been shepherds, and have fed 
 their flocks on the hills and plains of the Holy 
 Land or the neighbouring countries ; while the 
 Scriptures teem with incidents connected with, and 
 illustrations drawn from, the life of the shepherd 
 and the sheep. 
 
 The dependence of the sheep on the shepherd, 
 and the intimacy between the two, is infinitely 
 closer than anyone acquainted with our Western 
 flocks would at all suppose, as we shall see. The 
 shepherd it is who goes out with the flock morning 
 by morning, who chooses each day their pasture, 
 leads them when thirsty to sjH'ing or brook, and 
 finds a cool and shady place where they may rest 
 during the heat of the day. He it is who guides 
 them safely home at eventide to village or sheep- 
 
 161 11 
 
162 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 fold, guards them from robbers, and protects them 
 from wild beasts. In the bosom of his inner robe 
 he carries the young lambs when weary ; as the 
 flock grazes, scattered over the plain or along the 
 hillside, he watches over it with ceaseless vigilance, 
 warns the stragglers, goes after the lost ones, and 
 at night, when in the wilderness, lies down to rest 
 in the midst of them. He knows each of his sheep 
 individually, often gives them names, to which, 
 when called, they respond, and his voice is familiar 
 to them, and they will recognise and follow it out 
 of many others. 
 
 Goats and sheep, flocks and herds, have ever con- 
 stituted one of the principal sources of wealth in 
 the East, and have been always one of the chief 
 objects of the raids of the Bedouin and other 
 marauders. This latter is well shown by the fact 
 that the ordinary word in Arabic for spoil, or booty 
 taken in war, is Gliandmeh, from Ghanam (sheep). 
 To-day both goats and sheep are of the utmost 
 value to the Fellahin. The milk drunk in the 
 country is almost exclusively that of goats and 
 ewes (cows are scarcely ever milked, except in the 
 towns), and it is from this that the butter, cheese, 
 and Leben are made. Their wool and hair are spun 
 into coarse thread ; of the former, strong rough 
 cloth for garments, carpets, and bags, is woven, and 
 of the latter is manufactured twine and rope of 
 various thicknesses, a stout material for saddle-bags, 
 nosebags for horses and mules, corn-sacks, and the 
 black haircloth for the shepherds' tents. Their flesh 
 is eaten, the horns are made into knife-handles, the 
 
■f- ■-. 
 
 Q 
 
 v - - "V 
 
FIELDS 163 
 
 skins are tanned, while the hides of the larger goats 
 are stripped off entire, and when dressed become 
 the water-skins so familiar to all dwellers in the 
 towns and cities of the Orient. 
 
 The life of the shepherd in the East is a much 
 more arduous one than that of their English 
 brethren. With the exception of the vineyards 
 and little plots of garden ground where cucumbers, 
 melons, tomatoes, etc., are grown, the country is 
 unenclosed, and therefore the shepherd cannot leave 
 his flock in a field # during the day, and return at 
 night knowing that he will find his sheep there ; he 
 must accompany them throughout the day in all 
 their wanderings over the plains or along the 
 mountain-side, and never lose sight of them for 
 a moment. Morning by morning he takes them 
 out, stays with them all day long, and at evening 
 
 * The Hebrew term for ' field, 1 in by far the greater 
 number of passages where that word occurs in our Bible, has 
 no such connotation as that of the English word — viz., * an 
 enclosed portion of pasture or arable land ' — but means 
 merely the land outside the city or village — in other words, 
 the open country. The modern Arabic term for such land 
 denotes uninhabited or, more exactly, uncultivated land, 
 and is often the exact equivalent of our word ' wilderness ' 
 (not 'desert 1 ). Such terms as 'down, 1 'common, 1 ' moor, 1 would 
 more nearly connote the idea conveyed by the Hebrew and 
 Arabic words than does ' field 1 ; though even this at one 
 time probably meant the open country, and under the form 
 4 fell 1 (compare the Dutch ' veld ') does so still. Such lands 
 in Old Testament times were inherited, bought, and sold, 
 ■equally with vineyards and other enclosed portions (see 
 Jer. xxxii. 43, 44, where the Hebrew is in the singular). 
 
 11—2 
 
164 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 brings them buck to village or fold. When thus 
 putting forth his sheep in the morning, bringing 
 them home at night, or leading them through the 
 day to fresh pasture, he always goes before his flock 
 (St. John x. 4) ; but when the sheep or goats are 
 grazing he lets them scatter about, following them 
 wherever they go, keeping a watchful eye over 
 them, and warning them whenever they are going 
 into any danger, or attempt to stray into forbidden 
 places. Often on the hillside the shepherd may be 
 seen thus watching his charge, leaning on his staff 
 or club, his form as he stands on a projecting rock, 
 or little knoll, silhouetted against the deep blue 
 sky. Should a sheep stray too far from the flock, he 
 warns it by a shout, and should this be unheeded he 
 will throw a stone near it, so as to turn it in the 
 direction he desires. I have never seen any of 
 them purposely throw a stone at a sheep or goat, 
 though I have known a careless aim result in 
 a broken leg. Each shepherd has his own peculiar 
 cry, with which all his sheep are familiar, and which 
 lie always uses when he wishes to call them to him 
 or to get them to follow him. 
 
 Some years ago I was staying the night in some 
 shepherds' tents in the Jebel Ajlun (Gilead). The 
 tents, to the number of ten or twelve, were pitched 
 in a wide circle enclosing a considerable area. In 
 the evening some six or seven flocks were brought 
 within the camp for protection. In the morning, 
 when the time came for the shepherds to take their 
 charges out to pasture, instead of attempting to 
 separate their respective flocks from the crowd of 
 
THE SHEPHERD'S CALL 165 
 
 goats and sheep scattered promiscuously over the 
 enclosed space, each man went a little way beyond 
 the ring of tents, and standing there uttered his 
 special call. Instantly the whole mass of sheep 
 and goats was in motion, and as the shepherds 
 continued to call the several flocks separated them- 
 selves, each streaming out of the camp in the 
 direction of their respective guides, and in five 
 minutes not a goat or sheep remained inside. 
 Looking again shortly afterwards, the various 
 flocks could be seen diverging to all points of the 
 compass, each following its own shepherd (St. 
 John x. 4, 5). 
 
 The shepherds often give names to their sheep. 
 These names are descriptive of some trait or 
 characteristic of the animal, as Long-ears, White* 
 nose, Speckled, and so forth. Not unfrequently 
 the sheep get to know their names, and will answer 
 to them when called (St. John x. 3). 
 
 Every shepherd worthy of the name knows and 
 recognises his charges by their appearance, and 
 it is said that even in a lame flock will thus dis- 
 tinguish each one. When he goes over them to 
 ascertain if all are there, either at coming home at 
 night or on going out in the morning, he can tell, 
 without counting, whether one be missing or not. 
 Should one or two be wanting, he knows exactly 
 which they are, and can describe them accurately. 
 If at any time a shepherd thus finds that one of his 
 sheep is missing, he will, as a rule, go at once in 
 search of it. Not very long ago a shepherd, belong- 
 ing to a village no great distance from Jerusalem, 
 
160 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 discovered, as his sheep passed before him into 
 their fold at night, that one of them was not there. 
 Accordingly, he set out to search for it. For three 
 days he wandered about seeking it, till at length 
 he came upon it in the wilderness, held fast by one 
 of its fore-feet, which had become wedged in a crack 
 of a rock where it had climbed to find herbage. 
 
 But it is not only to keep them from straying 
 that the shepherd must accompany his sheep. Wild 
 beasts are by no means unknown in Palestine 
 to-day, in spite of the increase of modern firearms. 
 Especially is this the case in the remoter and more 
 rugged districts where the population is very sparse, 
 and the villages few and far between ; while, when 
 impelled by scarcity of food they will haunt the 
 villages and suburbs of the towns. A Bethlehem 
 woman, who was our cook for some time, has told 
 me that once, when she was a girl, going out of her 
 father's house very early one morning, she came on 
 a bear just outside. 
 
 Hyenas are common, and wolves by no means 
 rare, and the latter will sometimes attack the sheep 
 in broad daylight. In the summer of 1901 I was 
 itinerating among the villages around Jerusalem. 
 One day I sent my tent on in advance to a certain 
 village, bidding my servant to have it pitched by 
 the time I arrived. On reaching the place, I found 
 the tent erected on the edge of the village, in a fig- 
 garden, and a number of the villagers awaiting me. 
 We exchanged greetings, and I had hardly entered 
 my tent when, a sudden commotion arising, I ran 
 out to see what had happened. Two flocks of 
 
WOLVES 167 
 
 sheep, led by their respective shepherds, were 
 descending the opposite side of the valley and 
 converging towards the village. Just at this 
 moment the men around my tent caught sight of 
 a huge gray wolf (' as large as a donkey,' remarked 
 one of them, with characteristic Oriental exaggera- 
 tion) stealthily making its way towards the sheep, 
 no doubt with the hope of picking up a straggler. 
 The shouts and cries of the villagers warned those 
 in charge, and alarmed the wolf, who, finding he 
 was discovered, slunk off in another direction. A 
 few days before this occurred, at another hamlet in 
 the same district, a wolf got by night into a court- 
 yard where a number of sheep were folded, and killed 
 two of them before it was detected. This was an 
 unusually audacious thing for a wolf to do, as they 
 generally shun the precincts of human habitations. 
 Probably he was impelled by hunger, as that year, 
 from some unknown cause, there was a remarkable 
 scarcity of the smaller animals on which they prey. 
 The year previous to this was one of abnormally 
 scanty rainfall in Western Palestine, with conse- 
 quent scarcity of pasture for the flocks. On this 
 account one of the peasants belonging to a village 
 I know well took his flock of forty sheep to the 
 Belka, the great tableland east of the Jordan, which 
 once formed the territory of Sihon, King of the 
 Amorites. After an absence of many weeks, 
 having heard that rain had fallen, and that there 
 was grass in the field (Zech. x. 1), he decided to 
 return to his village, and accordingly started on his 
 way home. Sheep are proverbially slow travellers 
 
168 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 (Gen. xxxiii. 13, 14), and after several days' journey 
 the shepherd found himself one evening in the 
 wilderness of Judea, to the west of Jericho. He 
 had watched alone for several nights, travelling 
 during the day, and was utterly tired out. Gather- 
 ing his flock around him, he lay down to rest, and 
 was soon fast asleep. While he slept six wolves 
 came down on the sheep, and when he awoke next 
 morning forty mangled carcasses lay about him. 
 When the poor man, heart-broken at his loss, got 
 back to his own village and told his tragic tale, the 
 villagers, with that kindliness which is one of the 
 fine features of their character, joined together to 
 help. One gave a single sheep, another two, 
 another three, and so on, thus making up his entire 
 loss. 
 
 Another man told me how once he was out with 
 his sheep in a deep, partially wooded valley. As he 
 stood watching the flock, the movement of some 
 animal making its way through the scrub down the 
 further side of the valley caught his eye. At first 
 the creature was too far off for him to make out 
 what it was. Presently it reached a stream which 
 flowed along the bottom, and as it stopped to drink 
 he saw that it was a large wolf. Crossing the 
 brook, it made swiftly for the sheep. The man 
 hurried down to meet it, but the beast was quicker 
 than he, and before he could intercept it, had 
 caught a sheep which had strayed too far from the 
 rest of the flock. The wolf had seized the unfor- 
 tunate creature by the throat, and was attempting 
 to drag it away when the man came up with it. 
 
ROBBERS 169 
 
 Leaving its victim, it turned boldly on the man, 
 and, seizing his knee in its powerful jaws, buried its 
 fangs in the flesh. A fierce struggle for life ensued, 
 as the peasant was unarmed. At last, however, he 
 managed to get hold of a large stone, and gave the 
 wolf a blow between the eyes, which partially 
 stunned it and made it let go its hold. Following 
 up his advantage, he completely disabled it with 
 further blows, and finally crushed its skull. 
 
 But wild beasts are not the only enemies shep- 
 herds have to guard against. Thieves and robbers 
 are not uncommon, especially where the villagers 
 are camping out with their sheep in the open 
 country. Some years ago I was riding home to 
 Jerusalem with a friend, rather late at night. The 
 sun had set two or three hours previously, and there 
 was no moon. About an hour from Jerusalem we 
 passed a large flock of sheep, with their shepherd 
 in the midst of them, sleeping out a little off the 
 road. As we drew near we noticed a man stealthily 
 creeping up towards the sheep, under cover of a 
 pile of stones, with the evident intention of stealing 
 some of them. We forthwith alarmed the shepherd, 
 and the would-be robber, finding that he was 
 detected, decamped. 
 
 Such attempts are usually made under cover ot 
 darkness. Sometimes several men together w T ill 
 organize a raid. They creep quietly up from different 
 sides till they are in close proximity to the Hock on 
 which they have designs. They then fire several 
 guns simultaneously, and the startled sheep spring 
 up and scatter in all directions. The robbers seize 
 
170 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 as many as they can conveniently take, and are 
 gone before the owners can do anything. In the 
 case of such an attempted raid which occurred 
 within my own knowledge not long ago, a man 
 succeeded in saving several flocks. Three or four 
 shepherds were spending the night together in the 
 open country ; robbers came down on them in the 
 way I have described, and the sheep began to run 
 in all directions. Some of the shepherds, in a panic, 
 ran off to a village near by for help, but one of 
 them, with great presence of mind, stood up in the 
 midst of the sheep and loudly uttered his special call, 
 at the same time whirling his Abba, or cloak, round 
 his head. At the sound of his voice the sheep 
 stopped in their flight. The waving of the cloak 
 caught their eye, and, following its motion, they 
 came circling round and round, getting gradually 
 nearer and nearer to the shepherd, till at length, 
 with the exception of one unfortunate animal, all 
 had been brought back. But for the prompt action 
 of this man nearly all the sheep would have been 
 lost. 
 
 In most flocks there is a leader, either a goat or 
 sheep. It carries a bell, and is frequently orna- 
 mented by the shepherd. If it is straying too far, 
 and the shepherd warns it by throwing a stone so 
 as to fall near it, it will usually come back at once 
 to him ; but should it not do so, the man threatens 
 it with his stick, when it will instantly run close up 
 to him. 
 
 Sheep or goats stolen near a town are usually 
 disposed of at once by the thieves to the butchers. 
 
STRAYING SHEEP 171 
 
 This is so generally recognised by the Fellahin that, 
 should a shepherd miss any of his charges, and have 
 any reason to suspect that they have been stolen, 
 he commonly sets off immediately for the city. 
 Arrived there, he goes to the slaughter-house to 
 see if he can find his missing charges ; should he 
 succeed in doing so, the animals will be returned to 
 him. If, however, he be unsuccessful, he inquires 
 what butchers have killed that day, and, going 
 round to their shops, asks to see the heads and 
 hides of the animals. In the event of his identify- 
 ing any of his property, he takes the head of the 
 slaughtered animal to the authorities, and claims, 
 and frequently obtains, compensation for it. 
 
 In cases where a sheep or a goat has strayed 
 from its own flock, and, as sometimes occurs, has 
 joined another, should its former owner discover it, 
 he can claim it. If he can prove the time and 
 place of its disappearance, and these tally with the 
 circumstances under which it joined its present com- 
 panions, his claim will be allowed, and the animal 
 be restored to him. Not only so, but if the straying 
 animal be a ewe or she-goat, and have in the 
 meanwhile borne lambs or kids, both it and its 
 offspring will be restored to the original owner 
 when once the claim is fairly established. I knew 
 of a certain case in the Jebel el Kuds where some 
 years elapsed before a straying ewe was traced, but 
 when this was at last done, not only the sheep 
 itself, but also all its progeny, amounting to twenty- 
 one head in all, were returned to the former pro- 
 prietor. There is among the Fellahin a kind of 
 
172 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 code of honour in this matter, and once let such 
 a claim be fairly established, but few of them 
 would venture to repudiate it. Some sheep are 
 peculiarly prone to straying, and the peasants have 
 a special term for such — Xadireh, or isolated. 
 
 The rule mentioned by Jacob (Gen. xxxi. 39) 
 still holds good in Palestine. Whatever be stolen 
 from a shepherd, by day or by night, he has to 
 make good, the supposition being that the loss was 
 due to negligence or lack of watchfulness on his 
 part. This, however, does not apply in the case 
 of a raid, nor if the sheep have been carried off by 
 wolves. 
 
 As the summer comes on and the weather gets 
 hotter, the herbage becomes dry. The sheep and 
 goats begin to need water, which is not the case 
 while the pasture is green and succulent. The 
 flocks are then usually watered once a day, about 
 noon, from a stream or spring, or, if these highly- 
 prized blessings do not exist, from wells or 
 cisterns. Many of these cisterns are out in the 
 open country, on the site of some ancient village 
 which has disappeared ages ago, or found dug in 
 a long-forgotten garden or vineyard. In such 
 cases a large stone or pile of stones is placed over 
 the well's mouth, partly to prevent the water being 
 stolen, and partly to keep animals from falling in. 
 This practice dates from remotest antiquity, as we 
 learn from Gen. xxix. 1-10 and other passages. 
 Sometimes a huge circular block of stone, in shape 
 resembling a giant millstone, is placed over the 
 well. This stone has an opening in the centre 
 
RESTING AT NOON 173 
 
 large enough to admit the easy passage of a bucket 
 filled with water. In this opening a closely-fitting 
 pear-shaped stone, like a stopper, is inserted, so 
 smooth and heavy that it is almost impossible to re- 
 move it with the hands alone. It is a beautiful sight 
 to watch, as mid-day draws on, the various flocks, 
 led by their respective shepherds, converging to- 
 wards some large spring, and then patiently awaiting 
 their turn to come at their master's bidding and 
 quench their thirst in the cool rivulet. 
 
 Throughout the hotter months the sheep are 
 taken to some shady spot to rest during the middle 
 of the day. A grove of trees, the shadow of an 
 overhanging rock, a cave, a ruin — all are utilized 
 for this purpose. From time immemorial the shep- 
 herds in Palestine have done this, and the practice 
 is referred to in the words of the Bride (Cant. i. 7) : 
 ' Tell me where thou makest thy flock to rest at 
 noon.' In the deep valleys which descend from 
 the tableland of Moab, and those in the hills about 
 Es Salt (Ramoth Gilead), the perennial streams are 
 bordered with a thick growth of tamarisk, oleander, 
 and tall reeds. Here I have often seen the shep- 
 herds bring their flocks at noon to drink, and then 
 rest in the deep, cool shade of the bushes by the 
 water's side. David had, no doubt, often done the 
 same when feeding his father's sheep, and had some 
 such scene before his mind's eye when he penned 
 the words (Ps. xxiii. 2) : ' He maketh me to lie 
 down in green pastures : He leadeth me beside the 
 still waters.' 
 
 In Carmel, the Jebel Ajlun, and other wooded 
 
174 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 districts, the shepherds, when in late summer and 
 autumn the pasture begins to get scanty, often cut 
 down the large boughs of trees, especially those of 
 the evergreen oak, that the sheep and goats may 
 browse on the foliage. xVt such times there may 
 be often seen in these districts an expectant flock 
 round one of these trees, waiting patiently while 
 the shepherd climbs up and with his axe chops off 
 the more leafy branches. These, as they fall, are 
 eagerly seized by his hungry charges, who quickly 
 devour the foliage and tender shoots. This custom 
 is referred to in Ezek. xxxiv. 29, R.V., and 
 Mic. vii. 14. 
 
 The practice is very destructive of the trees, not 
 from the removal of the branches, but from fire. 
 The boughs are left where they fall, and as the 
 process is repeated year after year a pile of sticks 
 gradually gathers round the tree. These are as 
 dry as tinder, and a light carelessly thrown by a 
 passing traveller or a grass fire sets the whole in 
 a blaze. I have seen oaks which probably took 
 hundreds of years to grow, and which could ill be 
 spared in such a treeless land, thus destroyed in a 
 few hours. 
 
 In some parts of the Lebanon, during the autumn, 
 when the silkworm season is over, sheep are regu- 
 larly fattened with mulberry-leaves, which are care- 
 fully gathered by hand for the purpose. The leaves 
 are put into their mouths, and they are forced to 
 eat even when unwilling to do so. The women 
 may be actually seen working the poor animals' 
 jaws with their hands to induce them to go on 
 
FAT-TAILED SHEEP 175 
 
 masticating their food. This hand-feeding is, how- 
 ever, only done in the case of the sheep, of which 
 every family that can possibly afford it buys one 
 at least to feed up for the winter's supply of 
 cooking fat. The Syrian breed of sheep has a very 
 large broad tail consisting almost exclusively of fat, 
 and when thus fed up this tail becomes of an enor- 
 mous size, yielding, when the animal is slaughtered, 
 many pounds of a very delicate fat, which is highly 
 prized for cooking purposes. In the Mosaic ritual 
 it was specially ordered to be offered to God 
 (Lev. iii. 9, R.V.). 
 
 In the winter and early spring many of the 
 shepherds from the villages overlooking the Ghor 
 take their flocks down there to graze. If a fairly 
 abundant rain has fallen in the autumn in the 
 Jordan Valley, owing to its warm, almost tropical 
 climate, a rich growth of vegetation springs up 
 there long before the uplands have begun to get 
 green. At such times thousands of goats and 
 sheep from the villages in the hill country may be 
 seen there knee-deep in the luxuriant pasture. The 
 shepherds who accompany these flocks sleep out 
 with them in the open, scorched by the fierce sun 
 by day, and shivering in the relatively cold air at 
 night — just as Jacob complained to Laban, ' in the 
 day the drought consumed me, and the frost by 
 night ' (Gen. xxxi. 40). 
 
 In sparsely inhabited districts, the shepherds who 
 wander about with their flocks, as did Jacob's sons 
 (Gen. xxxvii. 12-17), to find pasturage for them, 
 sometimes make camps, pitching their tents for a 
 
176 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 few days in one place, and moving on to another 
 when the grass in the vicinity has been eaten up. 
 This is the thought in Hezekiah's lament (Isa. 
 xxxviii. 12) — here in the morning, by noon gone, 
 and not a vestige of them remaining. 
 
 In hilly districts caves are often used by the 
 wandering shepherds as shelter for their flocks by 
 night. Especially is this the case in the wilderness 
 of Judea, that bare, treeless tract of limestone hills 
 which stretches from the central ridge of Palestine 
 to the Dead Sea and lower part of the Jordan 
 Valley. Here it is common to find caves whose 
 roofs are blackened by smoke, with little heaps of 
 ashes on the floor, and other signs of human 
 occupation, while a low semicircular wall of 
 rough loose stones guards the entrance. These 
 are the sheepcotes (1 Sam. xxiv. 3). A notable 
 instance of them is the huge cavern of the Mughar- 
 at ul Jai in the Wady Suweinit, near Michmash, 
 and which is probably the rock Rimmon where 
 the 600 fugitives from the almost exterminated 
 tribe of Benjamin took refuge (Judg. xx. 47). 
 
 The late Dr. Edersheim, in an interesting 
 passage on the appearance of the angels to the 
 shepherds announcing the Saviour's birth ('Life 
 and Times of Jesus the Messiah,' vol. i., pp. 186, 
 187), infers from a paragraph in the Mishna that 
 the Temple flocks in the vicinity of Bethlehem lay 
 out all the year round. Owing to the geographical 
 position of that place, there would be no difficulty 
 about this, even in the coldest weather. The little 
 town is situated on an outlying spur on the eastern 
 
THE FIRST CHRISTMAS DAY 177 
 
 side of the great ridge or backbone which, with one 
 single break only, runs down the entire length of 
 Palestine. In front — that is, in the direction of the 
 Dead Sea — the ground falls so rapidly that it would 
 be possible in quite a short time, and at no very 
 great distance from it, to descend as much as 
 1,000 feet, and at this point snow would never lie. 
 
 I well remember riding out one bright Sunday 
 morning in winter, some years ago, to conduct an 
 Arabic service at Bethlehem. A heavy fall of 
 snow had taken place during the night, and the 
 country all round Jerusalem was covered with a 
 white mantle. But when I had crossed the low olive- 
 clad ridge to the south of the Plain of Rephaim, 
 and could look down into the valleys around 
 Bethlehem, I saw that they were entirely free from 
 snow. At some 700 or 800 feet below the town it 
 ceased abruptly, and there was a sharp line of 
 demarcation, running as straight and true as if 
 drawn by a rule, along the slopes of the eastern 
 hills. 
 
 Now, the phraseology of the passage (St. Luke ii. 8) 
 would seem to require that the shepherds should 
 have been some little distance below the town. 
 They were ' abiding in the field ' — that is, the open 
 country (see note, p. 163). But in all probability 
 the slopes immediately around Bethlehem were 
 then, as now, terraced and planted with olives, 
 vines, fig-trees, etc., so that the spot where the 
 shepherds were watching on that memorable night 
 must have been some place below the zone of 
 cultivation. Tradition is too often an untrust- 
 
 12 
 
178 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 worthy guide as to the location of sites, but in this 
 case it is certainly noteworthy that the spot which 
 it points out as the scene of the appearance of the 
 angelic visitant lies far below the town. Other 
 facts point in the same direction, one of them being 
 that in the valleys it is considerably warmer, and the 
 grass springs earlier there than on the surrounding 
 hills ; consequently, in winter, flocks are often taken 
 down there, as well as to the Ghor, to graze. I 
 once passed a cold night in January in the Wady 
 Mojib (the Arnon), east of the Dead Sea. The 
 hills above us were white with snow, but none was 
 to be found in the deep valley ; while a large flock 
 of goats and sheep, under the care of two shepherds, 
 was folded for the night in a large shallow cave 
 within two or three hundred yards of the spot 
 where my tent was pitched. 
 
 Flocks are also sometimes taken down into these 
 valleys from the higher villages on the approach of 
 bad weather, in order to escape the cold and wet, 
 and to find pasture, which in the event of a snow- 
 storm would, in the uplands, be buried. This 
 precaution is specially needful in the case of goats, 
 which are much more sensitive to cold and wet 
 than sheep, as the fleeces of the latter form a much 
 more efficient protection than the comparatively 
 scanty hair of the former. One of the last occa- 
 sions on which I stayed at Es Salt (the ancient 
 Ramoth Gilead) was in mid- winter. One morning 
 I discovered that no milk was to be had in the 
 town, and inquiries elicited the fact that the 
 weather threatened a heavy fall of snow (which 
 
DESTRUCTIVE GOATS 179 
 
 came in a day or two), and all the goats and sheep 
 had been taken to the low-lying valleys in order to 
 escape it. 
 
 Though goats and sheep are, from one point of 
 view, among the most valuable of the peasants' 
 assets, yet in one particular direction they do great 
 harm to the country. I refer to the way in which 
 they destroy the young trees and shrubs. This 
 indictment applies more especially to the goats. 
 There is hardly anything green which these animals 
 will not devour, while sheep are much more 
 fastidious. On this account goats will thrive 
 where sheep would starve. In the open country, 
 where there is scrub or brushwood of oak or tere- 
 binth which would, if left a few years, develop into 
 the forest trees which are such a lack in Palestine, 
 the flocks may often be seen browsing on the leaves 
 and tender shoots. In this way they effectually 
 prevent the growth and development of the woods, 
 which are at the present time probably the most 
 urgent need, from an agricultural point of view. 
 
 In the late autumn, when pasture is becoming 
 very scarce, the owners of vineyards will, after the 
 grapes have been gathered, allow the flocks to be 
 turned into them. It would, I think, be hard to 
 parallel the picture of dreary desolation which a 
 vineyard presents after it has been thus eaten down 
 by goats ; and no more fitting or more graphic 
 illustration of the utter ruin of the country could 
 be given than Jeremiah's application of the figure 
 to the condition of Judah and Jerusalem after the 
 Chaldean invasion (Jer. xii. 10, 11). 
 
 12 9 
 
180 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 The shepherds often have dogs with them, not, 
 as in England, to drive the sheep, but to help in 
 guarding them, and to give notice of the approach 
 of robbers, human or otherwise. Though they are 
 poor mongrel curs compared with our collies, yet 
 they are very efficient, and are often really brave. 
 Three or four years ago a pair of leopards was 
 haunting a wooded district in Central Palestine, 
 and one of these shepherd dogs, in the discharge of 
 his duty, boldly attacked one of them, and was 
 killed while thus endeavouring to guard the flock. 
 
 The shepherds are rarely, if ever, the owners of 
 the entire flock, though not unfrequently a portion 
 of the sheep and goats may belong to them. For 
 the most part, especially in Western Palestine, they 
 are merely hired to do the work. The rate of 
 wages varies a good deal in the different parts of 
 the country, but more especially with the number 
 of sheep or goats of which the flock consists. In 
 some districts the shepherd receives a certain 
 amount of corn per head per annum. More 
 commonly, particularly if the flock be small, he 
 receives a trifling money payment, about tenpence 
 per head per annum, his food, and one or two suits 
 of clothes* yearly, according to the agreement with 
 him. In yet other places his remuneration is the 
 milk of the flock every other day. This latter only 
 holds good, as far as I am aware, in the neighbour- 
 hood of towns where there would be a ready sale 
 
 * Compare the account of the wages given by Micah to 
 the Levite from Beth-lehem-judah whom he hired to be his 
 priest (Judg. xvii. 10). 
 
SHEEP-FOLDS 181 
 
 for milk, Leben, butter, and cheese. In any case, 
 the shepherd is allowed free use of the milk of the 
 flock for himself (1 Cor. ix. 7). In the country 
 east of the Jordan the shepherd receives every 
 tenth lamb or kid each year, and thus in time 
 becomes the owner of a good deal of the flock. 
 This method of payment is often preferred to any 
 other, as the shepherds who are thus paid are 
 considered to become more skilful, and to take 
 better care of the sheep and goats, than those who 
 are simply hirelings. 
 
 In the maritime plain, as soon as the harvest has 
 been reaped, many shepherds from the villages in 
 the hill country bring their flocks down there to 
 pasture. The owners of gardens in the district 
 build large enclosures for these flocks, with a room 
 for the shepherd, and allow the free use of them for 
 the sake of the resultant manure, which is highly 
 valued for the vegetable gardens and as fuel for 
 the ovens. In these folds the goats and sheep are 
 often separated at night, although during the day 
 they graze promiscuously. Where this is done the 
 sheep sleep in the open courtyard, while the goats 
 are in the inner room. The reason which the 
 Fellahin give for this separation is the fact, already 
 mentioned, that the goats, having a much scantier 
 natural protection than the sheep, are far more 
 sensitive to cold and wet (especially to snow), and 
 consequently require more shelter than they do. 
 The sheep, too, cannot endure a close atmosphere, 
 and must be in the open air if they are to continue 
 healthy. 
 
182 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 In the spring the young kids and lambs are 
 usually not allowed to go out with their mothers, 
 as they would not stand the incessant walking, but 
 are kept at home. When a little older they are 
 sent out for a short distance, in small flocks, each 
 flock being generally in charge of a boy, who thus 
 begins his training for the work of a shepherd. 
 
 The shepherds are almost invariably armed. Many 
 carry some sort of firearm, frequently of a very 
 antiquated pattern, from the old flint-lock musket 
 down to a muzzle-loading fowling-piece. Others 
 have only a club or bludgeon, perhaps supplemented 
 by a dagger or sling, or both. This club is about 
 2 J feet long, of oak or other heavy wood, with a head 
 or knob as large as a good-sized orange, and from 
 which it is colloquially termed Dubbus, or 'pin.' It 
 is in the hands of a strong man a most formidable 
 weapon, and with such a club it is easy to under- 
 stand how David could have killed either lion or 
 bear, or any other wild beast that he might have 
 had to encounter (1 Sam. xvii. 34, 35). About 
 Es Salt a club of a different kind is used. Instead 
 of having a knob at the further end, it is, for the 
 last third of its length, somewhat curved, with sharp 
 angles, a section of this portion being as follows <j> 
 Like the JDubbus, it is made of oak, and it is said 
 that a powerful man has been known, with a back- 
 handed stroke from such a club, to cut a man's 
 head off — a statement which is by no means in- 
 credible. The club is often carried by being thrust 
 into the girdle, where it is available at a moment's 
 notice, and yet leaves both hands free. 
 
FIVE BARLEY LOAVES 183 
 
 A 'scrip' (1 Sam. xvii. 40) usually completes 
 a shepherd's equipment. This is a leather bag, the 
 skin of a kid, or other small animal, stripped off 
 whole. In it the shepherd puts his pipe, flint and 
 steel, tobacco, and flute, and any other little things 
 he may need. Food, also, will not unfrequently 
 be carried in it, especially if he be likely to sleep 
 out with his flock — a few loaves of bread, a hand- 
 ful of dried figs, or some olives, to give a little 
 flavour to the dry fare. It was, I think, most 
 probably the contents of some shepherd-lad's scrip 
 that furnished the five barley loaves and two little 
 dried fish with which the Lord fed the five 
 thousand. 
 
 Cattle are tended much in the same way as the 
 sheep during those seasons of the year when they 
 are not used for work. They are sent out in herds 
 to graze, with one or more herdsmen to look after 
 them. They are much smaller than our cattle, and 
 generally in but poor condition. Most of the 
 ploughing and threshing is done by their means, as 
 will be described when we come to speak of those 
 occupations. In the villages the cows are rarely 
 if ever milked, and the flesh is never eaten. In the 
 towns it is only of late years that cow's milk was 
 procurable, or beef to be seen in the butchers' 
 shops. 
 
 Like the sheep, the cattle are taken into the Jordan 
 Valley to graze in years when there is much grass 
 there. During the time they are in the Ghor, the 
 herdsmen who tend them (and also the shepherds 
 who bring their flocks down there) receive special 
 
184 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 remuneration, according to the number of days they 
 are absent from home. These men keep a record 
 of the time spent there by cutting a notch on a 
 stick for each day they are in the Ghor, much in 
 the style of the old English ' tallies ' in the days of 
 our forefathers. Boys are commonly employed to 
 herd the cattle when grazing in the open country 
 round the villages, but when sent to a distance 
 they are committed to more responsible hands. 
 Among the Druzes, the old men who are past 
 ordinary manual labour are set to tend the herds, 
 a custom which is the object of much ridicule on 
 the part of their Christian neighbours. Though 
 extensively employed for ploughing and threshing, 
 I have never seen cattle used by the Fellahin to 
 draw any wheeled vehicle. 
 
 Around the Sea of Galilee, in the district about 
 Carmel, and the neighbourhood of Gaza, buffaloes 
 are found to a small extent. They are very power- 
 fid, and are used for ploughing and similar work ; 
 but though closely resembling, if not identical with, 
 the Central African species, the Palestine buffaloes 
 seem very harmless and inoffensive. 
 
 The camel is to-day, and probably always has 
 been, the chief beast of burden, in the strict mean- 
 ing of the term. It is only within the last twenty- 
 five years that there have been any roads in Pales- 
 tine suitable for carts or carriages ; and what roads 
 there are now are very few, and chiefly about 
 Jerusalem. Hence, practically all the heavy traffic 
 of the country is carried on by means of camels. 
 Some of the peasants get their living by camel- 
 
PREPARING FIREWOOD FOR MARKET. 
 
 CAMELS CARRYING STONE. 
 
 Tofacepagi 164 
 
CAMELS 185 
 
 driving. They own one or more of these animals, 
 and hire them out to carry goods from the sea- 
 ports to the interior, from town to town, or 
 from the villages to the cities and towns. Thus, 
 nearly all the building stone used in Jerusalem is 
 brought into the city from the quarries on the backs 
 of camels, and, notwithstanding the existence of the 
 railroad between Jaffa and Jerusalem, much of the 
 heavy traffic between the two places is still carried 
 by means of these animals. From the districts 
 east of the Jordan, especially the rich corn-lands of 
 the Belka and Hauran, nearly all the grain is sent 
 to the western towns, and for shipment, by these 
 means. 
 
 The camel is by no means a pleasant animal with 
 which to deal, for while in some ways exceedingly 
 stupid, he has, on the other hand, a very good 
 memory, and never forgets or forgives an injury. 
 A young camel-driver whom I know was on one 
 occasion taking a load of charcoal to his village. 
 His camel was going along very sluggishly, and he 
 gave it three or four cuts with a switch ; this the 
 beast greatly resented. On arriving at his destina- 
 tion, he asked one of his brothers to unload the 
 camel, and fasten it up in its shed, as he felt sure, 
 from the habits of these animals, that it would take 
 the earliest opportunity of paying off its score. The 
 brother did so, feeding the beast and securing it 
 for the night. Later in the evening the young- 
 man had occasion to fetch something from the 
 shed where the camel was stabled. He rather 
 incautiously got within reach of the animal, which 
 
186 SHEPHERDS, HERDSMEN, ETC. 
 
 was watching its opportunity. Quick as lightning 
 the creature seized the man by the arm with its 
 huge jaws, making the teeth meet in the flesh, and 
 shook him as a terrier shakes a rat, finally flinging 
 him, bruised and bleeding, with great violence 
 against the wall. 
 
 A Fellah from a village in Southern Palestine, 
 who owned a number of camels, once told me how, 
 on a certain occasion, he beat one of them for lazi- 
 ness. Next morning he started early, with some other 
 animals, for Jerusalem, and was absent for about a 
 fortnight. By the time that he had got back to 
 his village he had forgotten all about the incident, 
 but not so the camel. The instant the beast caught 
 sight of him it rushed at him, hunted him all over 
 the place, and would undoubtedly have killed him, 
 had not some men come to his rescue and beaten 
 it off. 
 
 Camels are subject to a good many diseases. 
 On one of my numerous missionary journeys I was 
 sitting on a threshing-floor talking to a little group 
 of men, when I suddenly heard a voice behind me 
 say : ' Would you look at this camel, sir V Turning 
 round, I saw a huge snarling beast standing over 
 me. ' What's the matter with it ?' I asked, * Well, 
 it's got the toothache,' was the reply, ' and I thought 
 perhaps you could pull its tooth out for it.' Cer- 
 tainly the poor creature seemed in much pain, for 
 it had a huge swollen cheek, caused by a large 
 abscess at the root of the tooth. But a camel, even 
 when in good health, is, to put it mildly, not a 
 sweet-tempered animal ; and one with the tooth- 
 
BEAUTIFUL CAMELS 187 
 
 ache Well, I hope I was truly sympathetic, 
 
 but I must confess that I was much relieved to be 
 able to say that I had no instruments with me. 
 
 The camels are, I believe, always obtained from 
 the Bedouin, who rear very large numbers of them, 
 which they sell to the Fellahin, frequently stealing 
 them from one another for the purpose. 
 
 The Arabic word for camel is from the same 
 root as one of the commonest words for ' beautiful,' 
 a term which in its masculine and feminine forms 
 is frequently used as a name for boys and girls. 
 For long I used to wonder how the Arabs could 
 possibly associate the idea of beauty with the ill- 
 tempered, mangy, evil-smelling beast with which 
 one is so familiar in Palestine. But I found that 
 one reason of their ugliness is the custom the 
 Fellahin have of keeping their camels close-clipped, 
 and when I had seen the breed owned by the 
 Turcomans, with their clean, slender limbs, shaped 
 like those of a greyhound, and their long necks, 
 covered with great dark tawny manes — almost 
 like those of lions — I ceased to wonder at the 
 derivation of the word. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 AGRICULTURE 
 
 In no country of the world, probably, is agriculture 
 of such supreme importance to the inhabitants as 
 it is in Palestine. Palestine has, as far as is now 
 known, no mineral wealth, neither are there any 
 manufactures other than the few local industries, 
 w r hich are barely sufficient to supply the local 
 needs. Consequently the country has nothing in 
 the way of exports with which to pay for its 
 imports, except the products of the soil, as wheat 
 and barley, oil and wine, etc. 
 
 The word ' Fellahin ' (more correctly ' Fellahun ') 
 is the plural of the word ' Fellah,' a word in the form 
 of the ' noun of intensity,' as Arab grammarians 
 call it, the form usually employed for words in- 
 dicating trade or occupation, and derived from the 
 verb falah, to cleave or divide — i.e., the earth ; 
 another ' measure ' of this same verb, aflah, means 
 to prosper, as the peasantry were formerly the 
 wealthy people, the cultivation of the soil being, 
 with cattle-rearing and sheep-keeping, the chief 
 source of wealth. The Fellahin, thus, are the 
 ploughmen, or farmers, and in any account of them 
 
 188 
 
TILLAGE 189 
 
 the subject of the cultivation of the soil must take 
 a foremost place. 
 
 The soil of Palestine is for the most part a dark 
 reddish-brown, naturally suggesting the connection 
 between Adam and the ground from which he was 
 taken ; especially is this colour noticeable when the 
 soil is newly turned, either by the plough or in 
 digging. 
 
 It will, perhaps, be simplest to speak first of the 
 tenure of the land. Till within recent years — that 
 is, within the memory of many still living — the land 
 was held by the village as a whole, and not by the 
 individual peasants. Since, however, the Ottoman 
 Government commenced to levy taxes on the land 
 and crops it has become chiefly the property of 
 individuals, who must have title-deeds for the same, 
 duly registered in the Government offices. 
 
 In some cases, however, land is still held in 
 common, and before the ploughing begins it has to 
 be divided among those villagers who wish to culti- 
 vate any of it. Not all will wish to do so ; but in 
 one village I know, where land was held in common, 
 the following method was adopted for dividing it : 
 As soon as the number of would-be cultivators was 
 known, the land was marked out in an equal number 
 of portions, so as to give each an equivalent number 
 of portions of good, bad, and indifferent soil. Each 
 candidate brought with him a leaf of some tree or 
 plant, and these leaves were stuck into a lump of 
 clay. A man, not a candidate, but who knew the 
 land well, was called in and given this lump of clay ; 
 he did not know who had brought the different 
 
 v 
 
190 AGRICULTURE 
 
 leaves, and therefore was perforce impartial. Taking 
 each leaf, he said, ' Such-and-such portion to the 
 owner of this,' and so on till all was allotted. 
 
 There are three descriptions of property, viz. : 
 Amiri (vulgarly Mm), or Government land ; Mulk> 
 or freehold ; and Wakf, ecclesiastical lands, or lands 
 in mortmain. The land of cities and villages, with 
 their suburbs, is freehold ; but the open fields are 
 Government land, their tenure answering, perhaps, 
 more nearly to our copyhold than to anything else, 
 the Government being, however, the person who 
 claims the ground rents. No one may build on 
 this Government land without permission from the 
 authorities, as it thereby becomes freehold, and so 
 is lost, as it were, to the Government. But anyone 
 buying a vineyard, or any other piece of such pro- 
 perty, has a right, should he so desire, to build 
 himself a dwelling-house on it, but even in this case 
 formal permission has by law to be obtained. Such 
 lands, if not cultivated for a series of years, lapse to 
 the Government. The ecclesiastical lands ( Wakf) 
 are the property of mosques, churches, schools, or 
 other institutions, religious or charitable. Included 
 under this head are lands in mortmain. Persons 
 sometimes leave property to their families, but, in 
 order to prevent its being sold away, grant it by 
 formal deed to a church, mosque, etc., on the 
 extinction of their family, so that as long as there 
 is any descendant of the testator existing the pro- 
 perty cannot be claimed by the church or other 
 institution, nor will the law allow it to be sold out 
 of that family. No lands coming under either 
 
OWNERSHIP OF FRUIT-TREES 191 
 
 description of Wakf can be sold, except by permis- 
 sion of the Sheikh ul Islam in Constantinople. 
 This difficulty is sometimes got over, however, by 
 a legal fiction known as Istibddl, or 'exchange,' 
 where the property which it is wished to sell is 
 supposed to be exchanged for a better one. Besides 
 the above descriptions of property, there is a great 
 deal of land, and much of it some of the best 
 in the country, which is the Sultan's personal 
 property, and which is farmed for him by an 
 agent. 
 
 When land is sold, if there be trees upon it, 
 these are not sold with it unless this is specially 
 agreed upon, and entered accordingly in the deed 
 of sale. The purchase by Abraham of the cave 
 of Machpelah and the adjacent land, with the 
 trees (Gen. xxiii. 17), shows how very ancient is 
 this custom. It is no uncommon thing for the 
 land to belong to one man, and the trees to another. 
 I know of a case, and doubtless there are other 
 similar cases, where the ground belongs to one 
 village, and the trees on it to another. 
 
 In another case land was purchased for philan- 
 thropic purposes by a committee, of which I was a 
 member, but we were only able to buy a third of 
 the trees — that is to say, we did not buy out and out 
 one-third of the total number of trees on the estate, 
 but a right to a third of their produce. 
 
 Should the owner of the trees allow them, by his 
 neglect, to disappear, he loses all right over the land, 
 and cannot replant them. On the other hand, the 
 owner of the trees can oblige the owner of the land 
 
192 AGRICULTURE 
 
 to till it, as otherwise the trees deteriorate, and 
 their value is consequently diminished. 
 
 Before describing the actual operations of agri- 
 culture, a few words are necessary about the climate 
 of Palestine and the rains. For the most part the 
 climate is an intensely dry one. For six months, 
 viz., from the end of April to the beginning of 
 November, there is, as a rule, no rain whatever. 
 Very occasionally a shower will occur in summer, 
 but this is quite abnormal. By the end of the 
 summer the herbage is dried up, except in the rare 
 cases where there are permanent streams or irriga- 
 tion, and the leaves of the deciduous trees are fall- 
 ing, the only green in many places being that of the 
 olive. The passing traveller who sees the shepherd 
 leading his flock over the bare brown hillside or 
 desert-like plain wonders how the sheep and goats 
 can possibly exist. 
 
 The winter torrents have long since ceased to 
 run, the shallower springs have become dry, and 
 the permanent ones have shrunk to their lowest 
 ebb. The rain-fed cisterns, the sole water-supply 
 of many a village, have in numerous cases been 
 drained to the last drop, and in the majority of 
 those which are not exhausted the depth of water 
 is measured by inches only. The SMrocco, or east 
 winds from the Syrian desert, have swept with their 
 scorching breath over the land. The heavy red 
 loam, which constitutes so large a part of the 
 arable soil of Palestine, is baked into strong clods 
 which the feeble plough cannot break. Wild birds 
 and animals have become bold in their thirst, and 
 
FORMER AND LATTER RAIN 193 
 
 there is an intensity of longing for the rain, unknown 
 in more-favoured lands. About the end of October 
 or beginning of November, in favourable years, 
 clouds begin to gather on the western horizon, 
 especially at sunset. Distant lightning plays across 
 the sky, and an occasional shower, chiefly at night, 
 gives promise of what is to follow. After a few 
 days the clouds gather more thickly, the roll of 
 thunder is heard,, and finally the windows of heaven 
 seem to open, and torrents of rain descend. The 
 Fellahin have seen the storm coming, and all pre- 
 parations have been made. The earthen roofs of 
 the houses have been repaired, fresh soil having 
 been scattered over them and rolled hard ; the 
 underground cisterns have been cleared out, and 
 the channels leading to them put in order ; oxen 
 have been bought or trained ; ploughs have been 
 mended and goads put in order, or new ones pro- 
 cured ; the earth round the fruit-trees has been 
 hoed up ; and in the plains faggots have been 
 placed against the walls of the houses on the 
 weather side, in exposed situations, and especially 
 at the corners, that the rain may not wash away 
 the mud of which they are composed. 
 
 As in olden days, there are still the former and 
 the latter rains, and it is of the utmost importance 
 for the crops that these should fall in their due 
 season (Deut. xi. 14). There seems to be a good 
 deal of confusion in some Western minds about 
 these rains, due, probably, to the fact, often for- 
 gotten, that the Jewish year began at a different 
 time to ours. The ecclesiastical new year com- 
 
 13 
 
194 AGRICULTURE 
 
 menced on the first of Nisan, which coincides, 
 approximately, with our April, and the civil year 
 in September. Consequently the former rains will 
 be those which fall in our autumn — October, 
 November, and December. This is what in normal 
 years is the case. Then usually, from about the 
 beginning of December, is a period of dry weather 
 or but slight rainfall, while from the middle or end 
 of January the latter rains may be said to com- 
 mence, continuing at intervals to April, or occa- 
 sionally even to May. These latter rains in ordinary 
 years are much the more abundant of the two, 
 this fact being probably the point of the passage 
 Zech. x. 1. 
 
 In the Lebanon and on the maritime plain of 
 Palestine the rains begin earlier than they do in 
 the central hill region. The average rainfall of 
 Palestine proper, as far as accurate observations 
 have been made, is about 26 inches per annum, but 
 in the Lebanon, and probably also in Northern 
 Palestine, it is a good deal higher. 
 
 The most suitable time for the rains to commence 
 is from the end of October to the end of November. 
 Should they begin earlier, there is too long an in- 
 terval between the former and the latter rains, and 
 the corn sown then withers before these later ones 
 are due. Should the season be very late, there is 
 not time for the corn to fully develop before the 
 rains finally cease and the hot weather sets in. 
 
 January is the coldest month, but there is popu- 
 larly supposed to be always a spell of sharp weather 
 about the end of February and the beginning of 
 
THE < BORROWED DAYS ' 195 
 
 March. The last four days of the former month and 
 the three first of the latter are called the ' borrowed 
 days,' from the following story : February, so it 
 runs, having only twenty-eight days, goes to March, 
 and says, ' Oh, my brother ! lend me three days, 
 and I will put four to them, and we will make it 
 so cold that the old woman will break up her 
 spinning-wheel to burn to keep herself warm.' 
 
 As the ploughing-time gets near, the Fellahin 
 may often be seen trying a newly-purchased yoke 
 of oxen (St. Luke xiv. 19) on one of the small 
 enclosed patches of ground near the village, or 
 breaking in a young animal that has never before 
 been under the yoke. In the latter case, an older 
 one, accustomed to the work, is always yoked with 
 the younger one, thus helping to teach it. 
 
 When the rains are near, or when only a small 
 amount insufficient to saturate the soil has fallen, 
 they sometimes plough over the ground simply to 
 break it up. No seed, of course, is then sown, and 
 the furrows are wider apart than when the regular 
 ploughing takes place. Where ground is so treated 
 the heavy autumnal showers soak in more thoroughly 
 than when the smooth, sun-baked surface, trodden 
 hard by the flocks and herds, is left in its natural 
 state. 
 
 In some few cases ploughing and sowing can be 
 done before the rains come. In places where the 
 soil is light enough to allow of this, as, e.g., in 
 some parts of the Belka, east of the Jordan, I have 
 seen considerable tracts sown before a drop of rain 
 falls ; such crops are called ' Aj'ir. This practice 
 
 18—2 
 
196 AGRICULTURE 
 
 has one advantage over that usually followed — viz., 
 that crops so sown get the benefit of the whole of 
 the rainfall, no small matter in a hot country where 
 the cessation of the rain two or three weeks earlier 
 or later may make all the difference between a good 
 and a bad harvest. On the other hand, weeds are 
 much more abundant than with the ordinary method, 
 thus exhausting the soil and weakening the crop. 
 
 In the late spring severe thunderstorms occur 
 now and then, accompanied with deluges of rain, 
 which sometimes do immense harm. Some years 
 ago one of these storms took place during the feast 
 of Neby Miisa. A party of Moslem pilgrims from 
 a village about three hours north of Jerusalem was 
 on its way to the shrine, their road being along the 
 bottom of one of the numerous valleys which run 
 down from the central ridge towards the Gh6r. 
 Seeing the storm approaching, they all took refuge 
 in a cave, and when it broke torrents of rain poured 
 down the steep sides of the mountain in thousands 
 of tiny streams, increasing in volume every moment ; 
 and as each gully and glen added its quota, the 
 valley, which had been as dry as the desert, became 
 filled with a raging flood, which swept everything 
 before it with pitiless power. The water rose 
 rapidly to the mouth of the cave, and the people 
 in it, seeing their danger, sought to escape. A 
 man took his two little boys, one under each arm, 
 and tried to struggle through the torrent to the 
 other side, but first one and then the other was 
 swept from his grasp and drowned before his eyes ; 
 and of all the people, thirty or forty in number. 
 
5 
 rap 
 
 
 *r^v$l 
 
 
 1 m 
 
PLOUGHING 197 
 
 who had taken refuge in the cave, scarcely any- 
 remained to tell the tale. It is to such a torrent 
 coming down the valley, like a wall of water, and 
 sweeping all before it, that Solomon likens the 
 oppression of the poor (Pro v. xxviii. 3). 
 
 Should the rain be much delayed, and the crops 
 be in danger of drying up, the children go about 
 the villages beating drums, old tins, or anything 
 else that will make a noise, shouting and singing in 
 chorus the following words : ' Oh, Lord ! rain — oh, 
 Lord ! a torrent ; water Thy thirsty crops.' The 
 idea in children doing this is that they are not so 
 sinful as the older people, and that therefore God 
 is more likely to hear their prayers. In the Jebel 
 Ajlun, on the other hand, in seasons of drought, 
 they take an old woman, preferably the sheikh's 
 wife, and putting her on a donkey, with her face 
 to its tail, the women lead her round the village, 
 singing and praying for rain. 
 
 When the rain has fallen in sufficient quantity? 
 ploughing and sowing begin at once. The seed is 
 sown, usually, on the unploughed land, the plough 
 following immediately and turning it in with the 
 soil. The share does not, however, turn over the 
 soil as in the case of an English plough, but merely 
 breaks it up from below, the seed falling in between 
 the clods. Besides the cases where land is partially 
 ploughed before sowing, as already mentioned, 
 peasants who have plenty of oxen will occasionally 
 break up land three times before sowing the seed, 
 this latter operation taking place on the third 
 ploughing, and where this is done the crop is said 
 
198 AGRICULTURE 
 
 to be always superior to that sown on land ploughed 
 but once. 
 
 The ploughing is chiefly done by oxen, and the 
 ordinary term for a yoke of oxen, Fcddan, is used 
 for the area which they will plough in a day. 
 Although there are no hedges or walls to divide 
 the different properties, the land is usually ploughed 
 in small plots, a furrow, 77////, of 30 or 40 yards 
 being run on the ground, and others ploughed 
 parallel to this, till a piece of that length and about 
 half the breadth is finished ; and then a second 
 similar piece is ploughed next, and so on till the 
 whole is completed. These plots are called McCandh. 
 and are usually one-third or one-fourth of a Feddcui, 
 and in some parts of the maritime plain this is used 
 as a measure of land instead of the latter term. 
 In the hill districts, on the terraced sides of the 
 valleys and mountains, the shape and size of the 
 piece ploughed at one time is determined by the 
 dimensions of the terraces. Where two men's land 
 adjoins each other, a double furrow is driven be- 
 tween the two plots, and piles of stones are set up 
 at short intervals in this furrow. There is a refer- 
 ence to this practice in Hos. xii. 11, the idea there 
 being that the altars of the idolatrous Israelites 
 were as numerous as the boundary heaps in a wide 
 stretch of arable land. 
 
 Although oxen are chiefly used to draw the 
 plough, yet one not unfrequently sees oxen and 
 asses yoked together, a practice forbidden to the 
 Israelites (Deut. xxii. 10). The Fellahin recognise 
 the disparity of such a pair, and often contrive to 
 
THRESHING CORN. 
 
 l'LOl/GIIINfi. 
 
 page 198. 
 
TERRACING 199 
 
 give the ox, as being the stronger animal of the 
 two, the outside at corners, etc. In some places 
 they use camels largely for this work, and occasion- 
 ally a diminutive donkey may be seen attached to 
 the same plough with a tall camel, forming as 
 grotesquely ill-matched a pair as it is possible to 
 imagine. Mules, horses, and in a few districts 
 buffaloes, are also harnessed — the two former, 
 singly, to a plough. It is said not to be unknown, 
 either, for a poor man, who only owns a single ass, 
 to harness his wife to make up the pair ! Where the 
 land is fairly level it is common for the people to 
 plough in company (1 Kings xix. 19), and on the 
 maritime plain, between Jaffa and Gaza, I have 
 seen upwards of sixty ploughs at work at one time, 
 in a comparatively small area. 
 
 One noticeable feature of the agriculture of Pales- 
 tine is the Terraces— Hibdl (lit., ropes or cords)— to 
 be found everywhere throughout the hill country, 
 and attaining great perfection in the Lebanon. 
 The sides of the hills and valleys are often very 
 steep, and in order to prevent the earth being 
 washed away by the heavy rains, as well as to 
 facilitate cultivation, are carefully terraced. These 
 terraces are formed by building low retaining walls 
 of rough, undressed stone, without mortar, in lines 
 parallel to the line of the valley, the earth being 
 levelled up behind to the top of the wall. These 
 terraces vary greatly in depth and width, the walls 
 being often only a foot or eighteen inches in height, 
 but sometimes, where there is a line of natural 
 rock below on which the wall rests, 7 or 8 feet, 
 
200 AGRICULTURE 
 
 while occasionally they are much higher even than 
 this. 
 
 The natural shelves of rock, which are very 
 characteristic of the geological formation of much 
 of Palestine, no doubt originally suggested these 
 artificial terraces, which date from very ancient 
 times, as is seen by the traces of them in remote 
 parts of the country where there has been no 
 cultivation for ages. In the districts where vine 
 and fruit-trees are grown, the terraces add much to 
 the beauty of the hillsides. A row of fig-trees, 
 mulberries, etc., will often be seen planted near the 
 outer edge, where the soil is deepest, and in the 
 spaces between them and the wall of the terrace 
 above vegetables will be grown, or the land 
 will be ploughed, and corn, lentils, or other crops, 
 sown there. Vines are commonly planted close to 
 the outer wall, the branches being trained so that 
 they hang down over it. In the early summer, 
 when the vines are in their fresh green foliage, the 
 picture, as one looks at such a terraced hillside from 
 below, with cascade after cascade of brilliant verdure 
 relieved by the darker hue of the olive and fig, the 
 warm red-brown colour of the soil, and the gray of 
 the stone walls peeping out here and there, is very 
 beautiful. 
 
 Where there are no trees, as is commonly the case, 
 the terraces look like a great staircase of irregular, 
 uneven steps, ascending the hills. In places these 
 terraces are very numerous, especially on the sides 
 of the deeper valleys, and in the Lebanon I have 
 counted between seventy and eighty of them one 
 
PLOUGHS 201 
 
 above the other ; and very likely in some parts there 
 are more than even this number to be found on a 
 single hillside. 
 
 When men are ploughing or engaged in any 
 other field labour, they usually take off their outer 
 cloak, or sheepskin coat, and throw it on the ground 
 beside them. To this custom our Lord alludes in 
 St. Matt. xxiv. 18. The assault of the enemy 
 would be so sudden and unexpected, that he who 
 would save his life must not even delay long 
 enough to go back the few yards necessary to get 
 his clothes. This would be true even to-day in 
 Palestine when raids are made by robbers or 
 Bedouin. 
 
 The wooden ploughs which are universally used, 
 rude and primitive as they seem to a Western eye, 
 are eminently suited to the work they have to 
 perform, and are more complex than would appear 
 at a hasty glance, having been probably evolved, 
 by the teaching of experience, from a simpler form. 
 The plough itself, apart from the yoke, consists of 
 six main parts which, with slight variations of 
 detail, are found everywhere throughout the 
 country. The most important part is the elbow - 
 shaped piece of wood (Dthikr) — No. 1 in the accom- 
 panying sketch. On this comes the main strain, 
 and therefore it is, I believe, invariably a naturally 
 curved piece of timber, as no conceivable joint 
 would stand for long the severe work thrown on it. 
 On the lower end of this fits the iron share {Sikkeh), 
 Xo. 2, a term often applied to the whole plough, as 
 in the saying, ' April's rain is worth the plough and 
 
202 AGRICULTURE 
 
 yoke of oxen.' A smaller, slightly curved piece of 
 wood (Rakub), No. 3, joins No. 1 with 4 (Id or Ydd), 
 which is dovetailed into the former, and terminates 
 in a cross-piece of wood (Kabitseh), No. 6, the two 
 forming the handle by which the plough is lifted 
 and guided. Into the upper end of No. 1 is secured 
 a long pole (Barak or 'Oud), No. 5, and to this a 
 second tapering stick is fastened, usually by a 
 couple of iron rings ( JFasl), No. 8, which completes 
 the implement, this latter pole being attached at 
 its further end to the yoke, by means of an iron pin 
 (J aru?'). The yoke (Nir) consists of a long, stout 
 piece of wood in which are four pegs (Semnaneh), 
 No. 1, which go on either side of the necks of the 
 oxen, and are secured by thongs or cords (Shebak), 
 No. 2, under their throats, one of each pair of 
 cords having a loop at the end, and the other 
 a wooden toggle (Asfureli). These cords are often 
 made of hair from the tails of cattle — hence the 
 proverb, ' The ox's cord [which binds him to the 
 yoke] is from its own tail.' It will be noticed how 
 little iron is used in the construction of these 
 ploughs, nails, even, being for the most part 
 replaced by wooden pegs, and consequently there is 
 probably more yielding of the whole when, as is so 
 often the case in the hilly parts, it comes into 
 sudden contact with a hidden rock or huge stone. 
 
 Spades are unknown in Palestine ; a broad heart- 
 shaped hoe is used instead in most parts of the 
 country, and in the sandy districts of the maritime 
 plain a similar instrument, but with a different 
 blade, somewhat the shape of, and almost as large 
 
IRRIGATION 203 
 
 as, an English spade, is ordinarily found. In the 
 mountains, or anywhere where the soil is hard or 
 stony, a rude kind of pick is employed — e.g., as in 
 breaking up the corners of a field where the plough 
 cannot reach. 
 
 When the corn begins to grow, the weeds appear 
 with it, and when the latter attain any size they 
 are pulled up carefully, and carried away in bundles 
 by the women, being used as fodder for the horses, 
 cattle, and camels, a custom apparently referred to 
 in Prov. xxvii. 25, R.V. In the Lebanon the 
 coarser weeds, thistles, brambles, and such-like, are 
 cut and dried, and then used for fuel for the bakers 1 
 ovens. 
 
 There is a considerable amount of irrigation in 
 those parts of the country fortunate enough to 
 possess permanent streams. More particularly is 
 this the case in the Ghor and the valleys running 
 down into it, as the Zerka or Jabbok, Nimrin, and 
 Yarmuk, on the east, Jalud, Farah, and Aujeh, on 
 the west, all of which have perennial brooks of 
 considerable volume. In these wadies, and the 
 level lands along their courses in the Jordan Valley, 
 immense areas are ploughed and sown every year, 
 and, being watered by these streams, are independent 
 of the rains, producing luxuriant crops of grain 
 even when the harvest is a failure everywhere else. 
 
 To come suddenly on one of these watered 
 tracts after riding for hours, or perhaps days, over 
 the scorched, verdureless plains, where not a blade 
 of grass nor green leaf is to be seen, and note the 
 abundance of life in all its tropical luxuriance 
 
204 
 
 AGRICULTURE 
 
 wherever the river comes, is as refreshing as it is 
 striking. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Beisan, where there are 
 miles and miles of such irrigated lands, tall plat- 
 forms are erected on poles among the growing 
 wheat and barley, and on them are perched watch- 
 men, as the grain develops, to scare away the wild 
 birds and animals, keep the cattle from straying 
 into the crops, and give warning of the attempts of 
 robbers. 
 
 1> 
 
 Coad 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 AGRICULTURE (cOTltimicd) 
 
 As might be supposed in a country where there is 
 such a great variety of climate, the time of harvest 
 differs much in the various parts. Thus, I have 
 known the new barley (the earliest crop) on sale, 
 from the neighbourhood of Gaza, in the middle of 
 March ; while, on the other hand, I have seen 
 barley still growing on the higher parts of the 
 Lebanon in August. In the neighbourhood of 
 Jerusalem harvest operations are ordinarily in full 
 swing by the end of April or the beginning of May. 
 
 When the corn is ripe, the whole family often 
 goes out into the harvest-field. Men and women 
 take part in the reaping ; the elder children, boys 
 and girls, drive the animals which carry the grain 
 to the threshing-floors, and the younger children 
 play about ; while the babies are hung in a kind of 
 bag to a tripod of sticks, or sheltered under a cloak 
 thrown over the tripod. 
 
 The corn is cut by the reaper grasping a handful, 
 some distance below the ears, with his left hand, and 
 severing the stalks with a stroke of the sickle an 
 inch or two above the ground. In many cases, 
 
 205 
 
206 AGRICULTURE 
 
 especially where the soil is shallow or stony, the 
 grain is pulled bodily up by the roots. The corn is 
 placed in small piles on the ground, and usually 
 carried away at once to the threshing-floors. In 
 the maritime plain I have seen low stacks of corn 
 on the field. These are, however, only temporary, 
 the reason of the corn being left thus being, pro- 
 bably, the abundance of the crop, and the lack 
 of space on which to store it on the threshing- 
 floors. It is usually carried on the backs of animals 
 from the field to the threshing-floors, being cleverly 
 tied in bundles in great quantities on the animal's 
 back, or packed in nets, and thus can be conveyed 
 great distances over rough ground without loss. 
 At harvest-time a moving mass of corn may often 
 be met coming along the narrow paths on the 
 mountain-side. As these animated ricks approach, 
 one can make out underneath each mass, and 
 almost entirely concealed by it, a diminutive 
 donkey, little of it being visible but its head and 
 ears. The work is extremely severe, and in very 
 hilly districts many donkeys are worked to death 
 during harvest. The people themselves also toil 
 very hard during the brief reaping-time. I have 
 seen them busy in the fields at three o'clock in the 
 morning, long before daybreak. 
 
 The harvest in the southern part of Palestine, 
 especially in the plains about Gaza, is much earlier 
 than in Central Palestine, and is also more abundant, 
 being often more than the people of the village can 
 reap in reasonable time. Consequently they are 
 glad to get outside help, and many of the Fellahin 
 
GLEANERS 207 
 
 from the hills go to the plains to help in getting in 
 the wheat and barley. They generally receive as 
 wages a certain quantity of cut corn, each day's 
 amount being known as Kirwek. They beat out 
 the grain, bringing it home at the end of the 
 harvest, when it forms a welcome addition to the 
 year's provision. 
 
 People will also not unfrequently help friends 
 and neighbours to get in their harvest. Especially 
 is this the case if one have finished before another, 
 or if anything delays the threshing. Sometimes a 
 dozen or more men and women may thus be seen 
 in line reaping, and it is astonishing to note the 
 rate at which they will clear the ground. 
 
 The very poor, who have no crops of their own, 
 glean by the wayside and in the fields, and even 
 sometimes, by permission of the owner, as Ruth 
 did, among the sheaves (Ruth ii. 7, 15-17). When 
 they have gleaned a quantity, they take it to some 
 flat spot conveniently near and beat out the grain 
 (Ruth ii. 17). The straw being of no use to them, 
 they leave it there, and in going about the country 
 at this season one often comes upon little heaps of 
 straw by the wayside thus left there by the gleaners. 
 
 As the corn is brought in from the field it is 
 piled up on the threshing-floors. These are open 
 level spaces, in or around the villages as a rule, the 
 floor being preferably rock, or, failing that, hard 
 flat ground, and freely exposed to the wind. Here 
 the corn is stacked up in great piles preparatory 
 to threshing, and here the proprietor spreads his 
 mattress at night, sleeping on the heap of straw or 
 
208 AGRICULTURE 
 
 beside the winnowed grain, to guard it against loss 
 by thieves or fire. When all the crop has been 
 thus brought in it is measured, to estimate the 
 amount each farmer has to pay towards the total 
 sum at which the village tithes are assessed, and no 
 one is allowed to begin threshing till this is settled. 
 
 Some hill villages have land both in the hills and 
 in the plains, the latter being often at a great 
 distance from their homes. Where this is the case 
 during the harvest in the plains (which, as already 
 mentioned, is much earlier than that in the hills, 
 the difference being from a month to six weeks, 
 according to the greater or less difference in alti- 
 tude), the greater part of the population of the 
 village goes down to the low ground for the harvest 
 and threshing, locking up their houses, and leaving 
 only a few people to look after the place. When 
 the harvest in the plain is secured, or that in the 
 high ground is ripe, they return to their homes. 
 
 When all is ready for the threshing, and the 
 requisite permission has been given, a mass of corn 
 is piled up in a circular heap in the centre of the 
 floor. This heap, called in some places 'Aram, is 
 from 20 to 30 feet in diameter, and about 3 feet 
 deep. Several head of cattle, with perhaps one or 
 two donkeys, fastened together by their headstalls, 
 are driven round and round on this pile till the 
 grain is fully separated from the straw and the 
 latter is broken up. When the string of animals 
 has been going round and round in one direction 
 for about ten minutes, it is stopped and made to 
 face about, the animal on the outside now taking the 
 
THRESHING 209 
 
 inside, and proceeding in the reverse direction for 
 another ten minutes, when a change is made back to 
 the original order and direction. This is continually 
 repeated as long as the animals remain at work. 
 As this treading process goes on, the separated 
 grain, being the heavier part, falls to the bottom, 
 the straw which remains at the top becoming 
 gradually broken up and bruised, till it somewhat 
 resembles the chaff used for feeding horses and 
 other animals in England. The whole heap is 
 turned over now and then, and in from a day and a 
 half to two days the process is complete. 
 
 For this work the oxen are generally shod with 
 iron, and, just before the threshing begins, men 
 whose special business this is come round to the 
 different villages and shoe the oxen at so much 
 a head. As soon as the Fellah judges that 
 the straw is sufficiently crushed, he proceeds to 
 separate it from the grain. The greater part of 
 this straw, lying at the top of this heap, is easily 
 removed by hand ; but much still remains mixed 
 with the grain, and in order to separate this, as 
 soon as the breeze, which at this time of year 
 usually blows from noon onwards, gets up, he 
 takes a wooden fork (Mithrd) having five flat 
 prongs, and with it throws up the mixture of grain 
 and straw several feet into the air. The corn falls 
 back nearly on the same spot, but the straw is 
 carried a longer or shorter distance according to 
 the strength of the breeze (Ps. i. 4 ; Isa. xvii. 13). 
 
 This straw is divided into two parts ; the finer 
 and softer parts ( 7V/;;/) are used as fodder for horses 
 
 14 
 
210 AGRICULTURE 
 
 and cattle. This Tibn is a very important product 
 of the crop, as it takes the place of hay, which is 
 unknown in Palestine, for feeding horses, etc. The 
 length of the stalk of the corn depends largely on 
 the amount of rain which has fallen during the 
 growth of the plant. Cceteris paribus, the stalk is 
 always shorter than in England ; and in years of 
 little rainfall the yield of Tibn is consequently very 
 deficient, and the cattle suffer considerably as a 
 result. Tibn from barley is the best for fodder, 
 that from whe°+ being harsher and less nourishing. 
 The coarsest part, consisting of the joints, lower 
 parts of the stems and roots, called Kashu, is used 
 by the Fellahin for heating their ovens, and about 
 Gaza the potters buy it to burn in the kilns. 
 
 The method of treading out the corn just 
 described is that most commonly adopted, but in 
 many places, instead of doing this by the feet of 
 cattle, an instrument called N&terqj is employed for 
 the purpose. This consists of a large thick plank 
 of wood, turned up in front, and hewn out of a 
 solid piece of timber. A number of holes are 
 drilled in the under side, and into these are fixed 
 pointed pieces of basalt or flint, projecting half or 
 three-quarters of an inch (Isa. xli. 15). The corn 
 is put in a heap, as described above, and this board, 
 drawn by a pair of oxen or a single horse or mule, 
 is driven round and round on it, the driver standing 
 on it to give it additional weight, and so make it 
 more effective. The corn is separated and the 
 straw cut up rather more quickly by this method 
 than by the other, but I do not think that the 
 
MUZZLED OXEN 211 
 
 resultant straw for fodder, the Tibn, is of so good a 
 quality. 
 
 The grain, after being separated from the straw 
 and chaff, is cleaned from earth, etc., by sifting in 
 a sieve, and then piled up in a heap on the floor. 
 This heap is known as Salibeh, from the word for a 
 cross, as the Christians, and many Moslems also. 
 make the mark of a cross on it with the handle of 
 the winnowing fork, for good luck, sticking the 
 fork afterwards in the middle of the heap, prongs 
 upwards. The grain is then stored away in the 
 corn-bins in the houses or in sacks ; the Tibn also 
 is stored for future use. 
 
 In the hill districts, in a few villages the cattle 
 treading out the corn are muzzled, though in most 
 places this is not the case, and they are allowed, 
 as they tramp their weary round, to eat as much as 
 they please (Deut. xxv. 4 ; 1 Cor. ix. 9). The 
 muzzle where used is of two kinds, the simpler 
 being a ring made of a twig of mulberry or willow 
 placed round the mouth of the animal, and kept in 
 its place by two strings, one on each side, fastened 
 to its horns ; the other kind consists of a sort of 
 wicker basket covering the mouth and nose, and 
 secured in the same way as the other to the horns. 
 
 During the time that the corn is being trodden 
 out by the cattle they require much water, as they 
 are working hard for many hours in the hot sun ; 
 and in some places two or three men are specially 
 hired for the purpose of drawing water for the 
 oxen and asses to drink, receiving as wages a certain 
 quantity of corn per head. 
 
 14—2 
 
212 AGRICULTURE 
 
 Before storing the corn it is measured, which is 
 done in the following manner : The man who does 
 it squats down on the ground beside the heap of corn, 
 with the measure between his legs ; then, filling the 
 measure about three-quarters full, he gives it a 
 vigorous shake with a rotatory motion, making the 
 grain settle closely down ; next, filling it to the top. 
 he gives it another shake, and then proceeds to 
 press the corn down with both hands, using all his 
 strength in doing so. This done, he piles up a 
 conical mound of wheat or barley, gently patting 
 it the while to press it together, and from time to 
 time making a small hollow at the top, into which 
 he pours the corn till it can literally not hold a 
 grain more. This is the way corn is always 
 measured, and to give less than this would not 
 be good or full measure ; it is to this universal 
 custom that our Lord's words (St. Luke vi. 38) 
 refer. To measure thus is called 'Arram, one of 
 their common proverbs being suggested by it — 
 ' 'Arrim li wa uarrim lak ' (Give me full measure, 
 and I will give you full measure). 
 
 In counting the measures, the man who is doing 
 it continues calling out the number of the previous 
 one while filling the next. Many Mohammedans, 
 when measuring, say for the first one, ' God is One/ 
 and for the next, ' He has no second,' then simply 
 ' Three,' ' Four,' and so on. There are several unlucky 
 numbers, the first being five, and therefore, instead 
 of saying the number, they often say ' Your hand,' 
 five being the number of the fingers ; seven is 
 another unlucky number, strange to say, and is 
 
MEASURING CORN 213 
 
 passed over in silence, or the word ' A blessing ' is 
 used instead ; at nine Moslems often say, ' Pray in 
 the name of Mohammed '; eleven also is not un- 
 frequently omitted, the measurer saying, ' There are 
 ten,' and then passing on to twelve. 
 
 The Kal, or standard measure of corn, varies 
 greatly in different parts of the country. In some 
 places the Sda is the unit, in others the Midd. 
 Again, even where the same name is given to the 
 measure in different places, the capacity is not the 
 same : thus, the Jerusalem Sda is not the same as 
 the Nablus one ; while in some places there are 
 two measures of the same name, being distinguished 
 as ' the measure ' and ' the large measure.' 
 
 When the Fellahin take their grain to town to 
 sell it, a professional measurer is sometimes called 
 in, who receives (in Jerusalem) half a piastre — about 
 one penny — for each Sda. There is a Government 
 standard measure, but in the villages, especially in 
 the more remote districts, the people do not trouble 
 themselves about such things. On one occasion, 
 when travelling east of the Jordan, I saw a man 
 riding along with a corn-measure hung from his 
 saddle-bow, and on being asked why he carried it 
 with him, his reply was that some months before 
 he had purchased corn from two men in a village 
 near, the terms being that at harvest he was to 
 repay a certain number of measures of grain, the 
 men stipulating that the same measuring vessel 
 should be used as on the former occasion, and he 
 was now on his way to pay his debt. 
 
 The principal crops are those already mentioned 
 
214 AGRICULTURE 
 
 — viz., wheat and barley — but there are many 
 others beside them. Lentils and a species of vetch, 
 the seeds of which are used for feeding cattle, are 
 widely grown, and are the earliest of all crops. 
 Two other important crops are millet — the white 
 variety, which is very largely grown in the maritime 
 plain. Jordan Valley, and other parts where the soil 
 is deep enough and sufficiently rich — and sesame 
 (Sesamum orientale). This latter, which is familiar 
 enough by name to readers of the ' Arabian Nights,' 
 is not, as frequently supposed, a grain, but the seed 
 of a slender, branched herbaceous plant, 18 inches to 
 2 feet in height, with pale pink bell-shaped flowers, 
 a little like those of our common foxglove, which 
 are succeeded by long, narrow pods containing a 
 number of brown seeds. When fully ripe these 
 pods open at a mere touch, so that the Fellahin 
 cut the sesame before it is quite ripe, stacking it 
 usually on the roofs of the houses till fit for thresh- 
 ing, when the seeds are beaten out with a stick. 
 These seeds contain a large quantity of oil, which 
 is used in cooking as a substitute for olive-oil and 
 animal fats ; the residue after the oil is expressed is 
 used for feeding goats and sheep, which devour it 
 greedily. The entire seeds are used in some sweet- 
 meats, and are scattered on cakes. Both millet 
 and sesame are sown in the late spring, and are 
 called ' summer crops.' 
 
 In the plains large quantities of water-melons are 
 grown, especially in the sandy soil about Ramleh 
 and Lydd, and are sent all over the country. As 
 the melons begin to ripen, little booths, consisting 
 
TOBACCO 215 
 
 of four upright poles, with a light roof as a shelter 
 from the sun, are 'erected in each patch, and here 
 a keeper or watchman lives for weeks guarding the 
 crop. 
 
 Tobacco is also cultivated to a considerable ex- 
 tent, but, as it is a Government monopoly, managed 
 by a syndicate, it can only be grown by permission 
 of the authorities, who, on the application of the 
 villagers of any place, allow a certain area to be 
 planted, buying the crop when ripe. It is very 
 remunerative, and so various attempts, and often 
 successful ones, are made to outwit the authorities, 
 and to grow much larger quantities than those 
 allowed. 
 
 Not long ago information was sent to the local 
 representatives of this syndicate in a certain district, 
 about the time that the plants were ripe, that a 
 village which had obtained a concession for growing 
 tobacco had a much larger area sown with it than 
 was allowed by the permit. Shortly after this an 
 official of the syndicate, accompanied by several 
 mounted gens cFarmes, arrived one evening at the 
 village. The elders of the place, who knew very 
 well why they had come, received them most 
 cordially ; they were conducted to the guest-house, 
 and after a while an excellent meal was put before 
 them. Supper over, their hosts entertained them 
 with interesting conversation, and after a time they 
 retired to rest well pleased with their reception. 
 When the visitors were safely asleep, the entire 
 population of the village turned out, and long ere 
 dawn the whole of the extra crop of tobacco had 
 
216 AGRICULTURE 
 
 been harvested in excellent condition, and not a 
 trace left on the plots where it had been sown, to 
 show that there had been tobacco there within 
 the memory of man. Next morning the official 
 politely intimated to the sheikh the object of his 
 visit, and was assured with equal courtesy that 
 every facility would be given him to inspect the 
 crop. This he proceeded to do, when it was 
 found that the precise area mentioned in the 
 official permission was planted, neither more nor 
 less. The man returned home, and no doubt 
 reported to his chief that the people of this 
 village were a most gentlemanly set of men, and 
 that the report about the extra tobacco crop was 
 a malicious invention. 
 
 They do not, however, always get the best of 
 such attempts. I was once staying for a couple 
 of days at a Moslem village whose inhabitants 
 had been refused permission to grow tobacco 
 that year. A rumour, however, had reached the 
 authorities that, notwithstanding this refusal, the 
 people were growing it as usual, and a man was 
 sent to investigate. A hint that he was coming- 
 had been conveyed to the villagers, and when he 
 appeared on the scene not a trace of a tobacco- 
 plant was visible in the little patches of land in 
 and around the village where it is usually grown. 
 The official, his wits quickened by experience, 
 suspected certain plots whose surface was some- 
 what uneven, though no one not trained to the 
 work would have thought this unevenness more 
 than natural. Sending for a hoe, he quickly laid 
 
HIRED LABOUR 217 
 
 bare row after row of thriving tobacco-plants, so 
 artfully and carefully covered over with earth as 
 completely to conceal, and yet leave uninjured, the 
 precious crop. A few minutes' vigorous work with 
 his hoe, however, put an end for that year to the 
 villagers' hopes of a tobacco harvest. 
 
 The people of some of the villages near the 
 Ghor are often partners with the Bedouin there. 
 The latter have much irrigated land, more than 
 they need to supply their wants, and being more 
 indolent than the Fellahin, they get them to 
 assist in the cultivation of their land, the Fellahin 
 taking their own cattle and ploughs, and receiving 
 one-fourth of the produce as payment. From one 
 village north of Jerusalem a number of people go 
 every year to the Belka, to assist the people of 
 Madeba in ploughing, as the lands of that village 
 are so extensive that they have not men or cattle 
 enough of their own to get the work done in the 
 comparatively short season. In return for this 
 help they receive one-fifth of the produce, the 
 owners of the land bearing all the expenses and 
 finding the seed. 
 
 In the case of friendly help from neighbours, the 
 Fellah, on the conclusion of the threshing, makes 
 a feast to which he invites all who have given him 
 any assistance in getting in his crops ; this feast is 
 called Juralt. 
 
 In addition to the crops already mentioned, peas 
 and beans of various kinds, onions, garlic, tomatoes, 
 carrots, turnips, beetroot, maize, cucumbers, sweet- 
 melons, gourds, egg-plant, cauliflowers, cabbages, 
 
218 AGRICULTURE 
 
 etc., are grown. In fields of cucumber and other 
 vegetables, the booths already mentioned under 
 the account of the melon-fields are often to be 
 found. These booths or sheds are frequently 
 referred to in the Old Testament (Job xxvii. 18, 
 xxiv. 20; Lam. ii. 6; Jonah iv. 5), and are very 
 common now. They vary greatly in size and 
 durability. Some are of the flimsiest description, 
 and can be put up and taken down in a few 
 minutes, which is doubtless the point of the 
 allusion in Job xxvii. 18. They consist of a few 
 leafy boughs, supported on four sticks, as a slight 
 shelter from the sun. Some are much more sub- 
 stantial and roomy. Indeed it is not uncommon 
 for a whole family to live in one of these booths, 
 in their vineyards, throughout the summer, es- 
 pecially where the vineyard is at a great distance 
 from the village, and where the grapes are to be 
 chiefly made into raisins. Occasionally a broad- 
 leaved gourd is trained over the booth to give 
 additional shade (Jonah iv. 6). 
 
 In such a dry climate as Palestine, every spring, 
 however small, is utilized to the utmost for irri- 
 gating gardens of fruit-trees and vegetables, and 
 water rights are therefore very valuable. As the 
 springs for the most part come out on the sides 
 of the valleys, it is easy to water a series of 
 terraces, at different levels, from the same source, 
 the little rivulet sometimes reaching a long 
 distance down the valley before it is finally ab- 
 sorbed. At times the traveller will come suddenly 
 on a deep glen whose brilliant green gardens and 
 
WATERED GARDENS 219 
 
 fruit-laden trees form a striking contrast to the bare 
 hillsides around. Descending into the valley, he 
 will find issuing from a mass of fallen rocks, gray 
 with the storms of centuries, a little thread of 
 water, clear and cool, which runs into a large 
 open cistern hewn in the solid rock, or built 
 on the side of a natural terrace, and carefully 
 cemented all round the inside. Here, from the 
 neighbouring village, come at morning and even- 
 ing troops of laughing girls or careworn women, 
 with their pitchers on their heads, to draw water. 
 Here, too, in the heat of the day, come the 
 shepherds with their thirsty flocks, the goats and 
 sheep patiently standing waiting their turn to 
 come, at the shepherd's bidding, and slake their 
 thirst, or lying quietly chewing the cud in the 
 shade of the overhanging rocks or under the 
 shadow of a leafy tree. In the larger cisterns 
 the boys of the hamlet at evening dive and swim, 
 shouting and splashing and enjoying the fun like 
 any English lads. The cistern has a hole in the 
 outer wall, close to the bottom, for the purpose 
 of drawing off the water when required. From 
 here the little stream flows by a series of channels 
 into the level terraces of garden ground, these 
 terraces being subdivided by little furrows into 
 rectangular plots at a slightly lower level than 
 that of the bed of the furrow, so that, when a 
 breach is made in the little low bank of the 
 latter, the water flows into the depressed area till 
 it is full, when the gardener with his foot or hoe 
 scrapes the earth into the breach, and the tiny 
 rivulet flows on to another plot. 
 
l 2 l 20 AGRICULTURE 
 
 It was these regular plots of garden ground, 
 with their intersecting water-channels, which the 
 ordered fifties and hundreds, seated on the green 
 grass at the miraculous feeding of the five 
 thousand, suggested to the mind of St. Mark, 
 and which the 7rpo<Tiat irpaauu (chap. vi. 39) so 
 graphically describes. The gay appearance of the 
 multitudes recalling (as some writers have thought) 
 the bright flower-beds of a garden is an idea which 
 would never occur to an Oriental, as in the East 
 flowers are not thus grown. This method of irri- 
 gating is the watering with the foot (Deut. xi. 10), 
 so characteristic of the husbandry of Egypt, though 
 not by any means confined to that land. 
 
 In the maritime plain, especially in the orange- 
 gardens in the neighbourhood of Jaffa, irrigation 
 is carried on from large wells, 60 to 100 feet in 
 depth, from which water is pumped by means of 
 an endless chain of earthenware jars or wooden 
 buckets, passing over a wooden wheel, and dipping 
 into the water at the bottom. This wheel is on 
 a horizontal shaft which carries a second and larger 
 wheel, and rests on masonry pillars 10 and 12 feet 
 high. This second wheel really consists of two, 
 side by side, about a foot apart, and connected at 
 their rims by a large number of bars of wood 
 driven through both at short intervals, thus form- 
 ing rude cogs. Into these work a number of pegs 
 fixed in the rim of another smaller wheel which 
 is fastened to a vertical shaft, and revolves hori- 
 zontally just below the larger one, being turned by 
 a horse, mule, or camel. The buckets or jars, as 
 
IRRIGATION 221 
 
 they turn over, discharge their contents into a 
 large cistern, the bottom of which is at a somewhat 
 higher level than the surface of the ground, and 
 from which a number of cemented conduits or 
 channels conduct the water to every part of the 
 garden. The whole apparatus is clumsy in the 
 extreme, and there is, needless to say, great waste 
 of power, but the creaking, groaning Sakiyeh is a 
 great feature of the level plains of Palestine. 
 
 Yet another means of irrigation from shallow 
 wells, pools, and rivers, is the Shaduf, a long rod 
 swinging between two uprights by means of an 
 iron bar, which passes through a hole in it about 
 a third of its length from the bottom, to which 
 a heavy stone is attached in order to balance the 
 weight of the water in the bucket, which is fastened 
 by a rope to the upper end. This Shaduf, which 
 is so characteristic of Egypt, is but rarely seen in 
 Palestine. 
 
 The lack of water is, perhaps, the greatest physical 
 defect of the Holy Land at the present time, and 
 this has been greatly aggravated by the cutting 
 down of the forest trees. Indeed, it may be said 
 that one of the greatest needs of the land at the 
 present time, from the point of view of the agri- 
 culturist, is trees, as its reafforestation would largely 
 increase the volume of the springs, enabling much 
 more ground to be irrigated, and so rendering the 
 people less dependent on the immediate amount of 
 rain for their crops. 
 
 At the time of the conquest of Canaan under 
 Joshua, large tracts of country were covered with 
 
AGRICULTURE 
 
 dense forest (Josh. xvii. 15, 18), and though, no 
 doubt, much of this was cleared by the Israelites, 
 yet a considerable area at subsequent periods seems 
 to have reverted to forest. Even now, here and 
 there, in remote valleys and glens, one comes upon 
 patches of woodland which look like relics of former 
 forests, and in certain districts such as Carmel, the 
 Jebel Ajlun (Gilead), Tabor, and some of the valleys 
 to the north-west, west, and south-west of Hebron, 
 considerable areas are yet covered with scrub of oak, 
 terebinth, oleaster, arbutus, locust-tree, etc. This 
 scrub, if protected, would soon develop into fine 
 timber trees, but charcoal-burners, lime-burners, and 
 others, are allowed to cut it in the most reckless 
 fashion, without let or hindrance. 
 
 The goats and sheep which are taken to these 
 tracts to graze are also responsible for much damage, 
 more especially the goats, as they are fond of 
 browsing on the young shoots of the shrubs. Bush 
 fires do a great deal of harm. The charcoal-burners, 
 when cutting the thicker branches, trim off the 
 smaller twigs on the spot, to save trouble ; these 
 drop among the shrubs and soon wither, and 
 become very dry ; a chance light sets the whole in 
 a blaze, and acres at a time are thus destroyed. 
 
 On Carmel and in the oak-woods in the hill 
 country east of the Jordan, the same wanton destruc- 
 tion of trees is caused by the custom, mentioned 
 elsewhere, of the shepherds cutting down branches 
 from the trees for their flocks. The branches lie 
 where they fall, consequently in a few years a tree 
 will be surrounded by a pile of brushwood as dry 
 
NEED OF TREES 223 
 
 as tinder, and when a light is applied it burns like 
 gunpowder ; I have seen many trees, which took 
 centuries to reach their present size, killed in an hour 
 in this reckless fashion. 
 
 But what leads to even more regular and syste- 
 matic destruction of the small amount of remaining 
 forest trees than these causes is the increasing 
 demand for firewood. As the European popula- 
 tion grows, and as the natives adopt more widely 
 Western habits and luxuries, there is a largerdemand 
 every year for fuel ; and as the supply grows less, 
 not only are the trees cut down, but the very roots 
 are grubbed up, so that, if the present system is 
 allowed to continue, the little wood that is left will 
 soon have entirely disappeared. The steam flour- 
 mills are the greatest offenders in the matter, as 
 one such mill will, in the course of a year, consume 
 more than hundreds of houses. Many olive-trees, 
 too, are felled every year for the same purpose. 
 The poorer peasants have often nothing else sale- 
 able ; money they must have to meet the Govern- 
 ment demands, and, suicidal though the policy be, 
 as they themselves will often admit, yet, as they 
 truly say : • What can we do ? We must have 
 money to pay the Government, and we have nothing 
 else to sell ?' 
 
 Next to drought, the Fellahin have most to fear 
 from locusts. These pests appear from time to 
 time, and occasionally work terrible havoc, utterly 
 destroying the crops, devouring the leaves of the 
 trees, and even eating the bark of the twigs and 
 smaller branches. The most fertile districts when 
 
224 AGRICULTURE 
 
 invaded by a swarm are left as bare as the desert. 
 It is many years since a really bad visitation of 
 locusts occurred in Palestine, and then they came 
 two years in succession, ravaging the country from 
 end to end. The Fellahin were then much better 
 off than they are now, and the supplies of corn, 
 dried figs, etc., were sufficient to carry them through 
 this period without much suffering ; but were such 
 a calamity to befall the country now, it M'ould 
 mean almost certain starvation to the larger number 
 of them. The year after the locusts the land 
 brought forth in extraordinary abundance, and men 
 say that they never saw such magnificent crops as 
 those of that year. 
 
 But though it is long since the whole country has 
 suffered from them, local visitations are by no means 
 uncommon, and do not always injure the crops. 
 I remember one such swarm in the Belka in the 
 month of July. The harvest had long been reaped, 
 and as there were no vineyards or oliveyards in 
 that part of the country, and the dry straw on the 
 threshing-floors was too hard for them to eat, they 
 could do no harm. This species was a small one 
 and covered the ground in all directions, rising up 
 in clouds under one's horse's feet, while the effect 
 of the sun on their light gauzy wings, as they were 
 borne along by the breeze, was that of a fall of 
 living snow. 
 
 But it is in the larval and not in the adult stage 
 that most damage is done by this scourge, and what 
 the Fellahin specially dread is the arrival of a swarm 
 in the spring-time, while the ground is soft, so that 
 in it their eggs are laid, to emerge a year later in 
 
LOCUSTS 225 
 
 a countless host of wingless larva?, each one of 
 which devours thrice its own weight of food in 
 twenty-four hours. The extraordinary fecundity 
 of this insect is described in a curious Arabic 
 proverb which runs, ' The locust laid a hundred 
 eggs, and remarked, " What a very small family !" ' 
 When, however, the soil is hard, the eggs remain 
 on the surface and are devoured by birds, or are 
 swept away by the heavy autumnal rains. They 
 are then also easily collected by hand, and during 
 a recent invasion of locusts, east of the Jordan, the 
 local authorities ordered each person in the district 
 to bring in a certain weight of the eggs, which 
 were then destroyed. The locust has natural 
 enemies also, which destroy vast quantities. A 
 few years ago, crossing the Plain of Jezreel, I saw 
 millions of locusts among the millet (which was 
 just in ear), and scattered over the plain was an 
 army of storks, eagerly devouring them. Coming 
 back a few days later, over the same line of country, 
 not a locust or a stork was to be seen. 
 
 The local Government usually bestirs itself if 
 there be any real threatening of this plague. A 
 few years ago a large swarm appeared near Jericho, 
 and all the available soldiers, with large quantities 
 of petroleum, were sent from Jerusalem to destroy 
 them, and numbers of men and boys were requisi- 
 tioned from every village in the district to aid in 
 the work of destruction, with the result that, assisted 
 by a flock of storks which followed the swarm, the 
 locusts were practically annihilated and the danger 
 averted. 
 
 15 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 agriculture (continued) 
 
 Palestine is a country specially suited to the 
 cultivation of fruit. Of fruit-bearing trees the olive 
 is facile prinveps in value and importance. Indeed, 
 the olive crop is, at least at the present day, of 
 more real importance than either of the grain 
 crops, wheat and barley. It is a highly remunera- 
 tive one, and on it the Fellahin largely depend to 
 get the money for the payment of their taxes, and 
 other expenses for which actual cash is required, 
 and so a failure of the olive crop is a more serious 
 matter than a failure of the harvest. 
 
 The olive abounds in Palestine to-day, as it has 
 done, in all probability, from the very earliest days, 
 and forms one of the characteristic features of its 
 scenery ; and though to a Western eye there is a 
 stiffness and monotony about a grove of olive-trees, 
 yet their gnarled trunks and silvery-gray foliage, 
 contrasted with the rich brownish-red of the soil, 
 have a peculiar charm of their own. It has been 
 cultivated in remote ages ; the Israelites were 
 familiar with olive-oil before they had settled in the 
 land of Canaan (cf. Exod. xxvii. 20, xxx. 24, etc.), 
 
 226 
 
'OLIVE BRANCHES' 227 
 
 and both the tree and oil are frequently mentioned 
 in the Old Testament. 
 
 It is propagated both by seed and cuttings, but 
 most commonly by the latter method. The olive 
 has the property of sending up shoots from its 
 roots at a short distance from the trunk, these 
 shoots developing in time into young trees. One 
 or more of them may be seen growing near most 
 old olives, and when the Fellahin wish for young 
 trees they dig up these shoots, detaching a certain 
 amount of root with them, and plant them out 
 wherever the new tree is desired. This should be 
 done in the autumn after the first rains have fallen ; 
 and where a due amount of the root has been 
 detached with it, and a sufficient amount of rain or 
 water is obtained for the first six months, the young 
 tree almost invariably lives and takes root, and in a 
 few years becomes a vigorous fruit-bearing tree. 
 
 In some cases two or more of these shoots may 
 be found growing round one tree ; indeed, I have 
 seen as many as five or six of the scions springing 
 from the roots of one old olive, and this is un- 
 doubtedly the figure in Ps. cxxviii. 3, the sons and 
 daughters growing up around the father being 
 likened to these young olive-trees springing up 
 round the parent stem, to be in their turn trans- 
 planted, and to become the centres of other groups 
 of trees. I have heard a statement made by a 
 resident in the East, that the spreading base of the 
 olive-tree, where it joins the ground, is called the 
 • table ' of the olive, and that this suggested the 
 figure to the Psalmist. I have never myself been 
 
 1*5—2 
 
228 AGRICULTURE 
 
 able to find such a use of the word, or to meet 
 with any native who had heard of it ; still, it is 
 quite possible that such an expression is current in 
 certain localities, as many words and phrases are 
 confined to very limited areas, and it is never safe 
 to conclude, from one's knowledge of even a wide 
 extent of country, that words and expressions not 
 known there are universally unknown. 
 
 All olive-trees, whether grown from seeds or 
 shoots, even if taken from good trees, must be 
 grafted, or the produce is of no value. To graft a 
 young tree, a vigorous branch is selected, and near 
 the base, where it joins the main trunk, a longi- 
 tudinal incision is made through the bark, which is 
 carefully raised on either side of the cut, without, 
 however, detaching the bark from the tree. A 
 graft is prepared by taking a healthy twig growing 
 out of a similar branch on a good tree, and cutting 
 out this twig with a rectangular piece of the bark 
 attached to it, about 2 inches square, the twig 
 being in the centre. This is then inserted in the 
 incision made in the wild tree, and under the raised 
 bark, which is then bound tightly down on the 
 graft. The whole is then left for a year or so, 
 when, if the graft has taken proper hold, the rest 
 of the bough immediately beyond it is sawn ofT, in 
 order that all the nourishment may go into the 
 twig which has been grafted on. 
 
 The olive blossoms in the late spring, and the 
 fruit takes about six months to mature. The 
 flower is very small and cream-coloured, and grows 
 thickly for two or three inches along all the outer 
 
* SHIROCCO ' 229 
 
 twigs, so that a tree in full blossom is a beautiful 
 mass of creamy colour. But a small proportion of 
 the flowers ' set ' or ' knot,' to translate literally the 
 Arabic term ; but even so the olive is very prolific, 
 and the weight of fruit which a well-grown tree 
 will produce, under favourable circumstances, is 
 enormous. The crop, however, runs a good many 
 risks ; heavy rain at the time of blossoming will 
 often knock off the blossom, or a spell of very hot 
 weather will dry it up and make it fall without 
 setting. Should neither of these misfortunes befall 
 it, an insufficient rainfall in the previous winter will 
 cause the fruit to be small and poor ; or should 
 there be much or strong SJiirocco in the autumn, 
 when the olives are approaching maturity, it will 
 shrivel them up and cause them to drop off. This 
 'shirocco' is a scorching east wind, the word 
 1 shirocco ' being a corruption of the Arabic word 
 shirkiyeh, the feminine form of the word for east 
 (the noun ' wind ' being feminine in that language). 
 It is also called occasionally Si mum, or ' poisonous.' 
 Coming across the Great Syrian Desert, it is 
 intensely dry, and, except in winter, hot. It 
 scorches vegetation, especially in exposed situa- 
 tions, often turning the leaves brown, as though 
 frost-bitten. Men and animals suffer considerably 
 from fatigue and exhaustion while it continues, 
 its injurious effects on the animal system being 
 attributed to the absence of ozone. 
 
 When the shirocco is very strong, the air is filled 
 with fine dust, and the whole atmosphere becomes 
 murky and most oppressive. In Egypt it is known 
 
280 AGRICULTURE 
 
 as Khamsin, or ' fifty,' from its occurring at intervals 
 during a period of about fifty days in the spring. 
 In Palestine this shirocco blows chiefly in the 
 spring and autumn, April and May, and September 
 and October, being the months when it is most 
 frequent ; and it lasts generally for three, six, or 
 nine days at a time, but may continue longer. It 
 also blows occasionally in the winter, and is then 
 intensely cold. This wind is probably referred to 
 several times in the Old Testament, as, e.g., in the 
 LXX. version of Isa. xlix. 10 ; Ezek. xvii. 10 ; 
 Hos. xiii. 15 ; Jonah iv. 8. 
 
 The olive is a slow-growing tree, and continues 
 to bear for centuries. The fruit is gathered in the 
 autumn, and it is a busy time when a village has 
 many trees or the crop is a large one. In the case 
 of one large grove near Sidon, said to be the largest 
 in Syria, the people are not allowed to go and 
 gather the crop till a time appointed by the local 
 authorities, in order to prevent persons stealing sur- 
 reptitiously from their neighbour's trees. On the 
 day fixed, all the inhabitants of the villages which 
 have trees there go down and work continuously 
 till the olives are all gathered. The fruit is 
 gathered before ripening, as many prefer it for 
 eating while still green. For making oil, however, 
 the fruit must be left to ripen. 
 
 To prepare the green olives for eating, they are 
 usually broken slightly first, and then soaked for a 
 while in water to remove some of the bitterness, 
 after which they are pickled in salt and water, with 
 a little oil, and sometimes a slice or two of lemon. 
 
OIL MILLS 231 
 
 The ripe olives are pickled whole without the pre- 
 liminary soaking. The best oil of all is obtained 
 from fruit which falls of itself from the tree, but 
 owing partly to poverty, partly to fear of theft, 
 and partly to improvidence, the olives are rarely 
 thus left. The gathering is done by beating the 
 trees with long rods (Deut. xxiv. 20 ; Isa. xxvii. 12, 
 R.V.). In the Gaza district they use a long stick 
 with a short one tied to it, like an old-fashioned 
 English flail, but elsewhere I have only seen the 
 single stick employed. 
 
 The olives having been gathered, those that are 
 intended to be used for oil are taken to the press, 
 usually without any preparation ; but in the Jebel 
 Ajlun (Gilead) they are stewed over the fire in a 
 jar, either without water or with only a very small 
 amount ; they are then spread on the house-top to 
 dry, after which they are ready to be crushed. 
 This operation is carried out by means of a huge 
 stone, in shape like a large grindstone, the principle 
 being that of the familiar mortar-mill used by 
 builders, except that in place of the revolving-pan 
 there is a solid circular block of stone on which 
 the grinding, or rather crushing, stone runs. The 
 details of the Badd, as it is called, differ somewhat 
 in different parts of the country, but the principle 
 is the same. The revolving stone is moved by a 
 horse or mule generally, but sometimes by a camel, 
 and even by men, by means of a beam of wood 
 passing through a hole in the centre of the stone, 
 and kept in place by being fastened to a vertical 
 beam which turns on a pivot in the lower stone. 
 
232 AGRICULTURE 
 
 After being crushed, the olives are sometimes 
 put in jars, and left for two or three days before 
 being pressed, but more commonly this is done at 
 once. The black pasty mass is put in baskets 
 made of a tough grass which grows by streams, or 
 wrapped in hair-cloth similar to that used for the 
 tents of the shepherds, and a number of these 
 baskets or bags are placed one above another in the 
 press, and pressure applied. The native wooden 
 machine consists of a huge beam secured at one 
 end to a wall by a rude hinge, while a great wooden 
 screw passes through the other end for the purpose 
 of raising and lowering it. The baskets are piled 
 up under the lever on a stone slab, with gutters 
 leading into a stone trough ; pressure is applied to 
 the further end of the beam, and the oil flows in 
 streams into the receptacle made to receive it. 
 The method is a very primitive one, and much oil 
 is lost by the process. In some cases screw, and 
 even hydraulic, presses have been introduced from 
 Europe, yielding a much larger percentage of oil. 
 When expressed it is put in goatskins or jars, in 
 which it is taken into the towns for sale. It is 
 largely employed in soap-making as well as in 
 cooking. Its price varies greatly from year to 
 year, according to the quantity in the market ; 
 but taking it altogether, it is by far the most 
 valuable product of the country. 
 v j/ Vines are cultivated throughout the land, both 
 soil and climate being peculiarly suitable for them. 
 There are many varieties, which are made use of 
 in different ways, some being used only for eating, 
 
VINES 233 
 
 others for wine-making ; some are employed in 
 making a kind of molasses, and others, again, are 
 made into raisins. 
 
 The vines need a great deal of attention if they 
 are to be really productive. The whole vineyard 
 must be ploughed at least once a year, or the vines 
 rapidly degenerate, and carefully pruned, or else 
 there will be little or no fruit; while during the 
 grape season they must be constantly watched to 
 prevent the grapes being stolen. 
 
 In some districts there are very large areas under 
 vines, as, e.g., about Hebron, Es Salt, and some 
 parts of the Lebanon. In the hill country they 
 blossom about the end of May or beginning of 
 June ; and riding through these districts at that 
 time of the year, in the early morning, especially if 
 there be a northerly breeze (Cant. iv. 16), the air is 
 filled with the delicate and refreshing perfume from 
 the long clusters of minute yellow-green flowers. 
 
 In a few places the vines are supported on stakes, 
 somewhat as one sees them grown on the con- 
 tinent of Europe ; but usually they are allowed to 
 trail on the ground, the Fellahin holding that they 
 are thus less injured by the hail-storms, which occur 
 about the end of the rainy season, and which some- 
 times destroy much of the blossom. 
 
 Vineyards are almost invariably enclosed by a 
 wall (Jedar) built of rough stone without mortar, 
 the materials being found on the spot, as the stone 
 used is generally that got out of the soil in pre- 
 paring it for the vines. These walls are often in 
 a much dilapidated condition. Frequently very 
 
234 AGRICULTURE 
 
 loosely built, a dog or fox in its efforts to scale 
 them will sometimes bring a piece down with a 
 run (see Tobiah's taunt, Neb. iv. 3) ; and as they 
 are merely built on the surface of the ground, with- 
 out foundations, the heavy rains in winter often 
 wash the soil from under them, or so soften it that 
 it yields to their weight, and much of the wall 
 falls. 
 
 When the grapes begin to enlarge as the vintage 
 draws on, the walls are repaired, and very often a 
 row of small bushes of the Netsh — a low thorny 
 bush, a species of burnet — is laid along the top of 
 the walls, projecting a few inches beyond it, and 
 kept in place by stones, this being done in order to 
 prevent the dogs, foxes, and jackals, all of whom 
 are very fond of grapes, from getting over the walls 
 into the vineyards, and stealing the fruit. Some- 
 times a path runs between the vineyards, having on 
 either side one of these rough stone walls. These 
 paths are usually very narrow and winding, so that 
 it is difficult for two animals to pass each other, 
 especially if either of them is laden. It was in 
 such a path (which the Arabic version of the Old 
 Testament graphically renders ' ditch ') that Balaam 
 met the angel of the Lord (Num. xxii. 24). 
 
 Besides these walls, most vineyards have a tower 
 (St. Matt. xxi. 33), built, like the walls, of rough 
 stone without mortar. In many instances the 
 vineyards extend to great distances from the 
 villages, occasionally as much as four or five miles, 
 so that during the grape harvest the owner takes 
 his whole family out there, and lives for several 
 
TOWER IN VINEYARDS 235 
 
 months in this tower, guarding the place and drying 
 the fruit. 
 
 Some of the towers, especially in the more distant 
 and lonely vineyards, are of considerable strength, 
 so as to be veritable places of safety. IS T or is this 
 uncalled for : thieves are common, and fatal affrays 
 with them are by no means unknown. In the 
 autumn of 1897 a notorious thief was shot dead in 
 a lonely vineyard belonging to the village of Ain 
 Arik, by a man whom he attacked in order to rob 
 him of his scanty crop. 
 
 Besides human thieves, the foxes, jackals, bears, 
 and half-wild village dogs, as already mentioned, 
 are fond of grapes, and make raids on the vineyards 
 when the fruit is ripe, while other and more formid- 
 able wild beasts, such as wolves, have to be guarded 
 against. These stronger towers are built in two 
 stories of a single room each. The access to the 
 upper one is through the lower, this latter being 
 entered by a low doorway from the vineyard. 
 Some rough steps lead up to the higher chamber, 
 and a slab of stone is placed over them at night, 
 one of the family spreading his bed on it, so that it 
 is impossible for anyone to enter unobserved. The 
 walls of this upper room are only about 4 feet high, 
 and in lieu of a roof a kind of arbour is formed, 
 supported on sticks, to give protection from the 
 sun and heavy autumnal dews, a vine being some- 
 times trained over to give additional shade. 
 
 Large quantities of grapes are made into raisins 
 in certain districts, those of Hebron and Es Salt 
 being considered the best. There are several 
 
236 AGRICULTURE 
 
 qualities, the best being called Sandt esh Sham, or 
 ' Daughters of Damascus.' That city being famous 
 for its gardens, its name has come to be applied in 
 Palestine and Syria to the superior sorts of fruit. 
 
 To make the raisins, the grapes, after being 
 gathered, are dipped into a lye made from the 
 ashes of the evergreen oak or terebinth, both hard 
 woods, the lye from the ashes of soft wood not 
 being considered so good. The lye is contained in 
 a wide shallow vessel, and the grapes, in a wicker 
 basket, are plunged into it for a short time ; the 
 basket is then withdrawn, and placed over a similar 
 but smaller vessel to drain. The grapes, still in 
 the bunch, are then spread out on a smooth, open 
 piece of ground in the vineyard to dry by the heat 
 of the sun. This takes from a fortnight to three 
 weeks, according to the weather, much dew or 
 mist prolonging the process, and darkening the 
 colour of the dried fruit, while an east wind 
 (shirocco) expedites it, and the colour is conse- 
 quently better. While drying, the grapes emit a 
 peculiar and most disagreeable odour. 
 ^./- Another product of the grapes is Dibs, a kind of 
 molasses made from the juice. The following is 
 the way in which it is, as a rule, prepared : The 
 grapes, which should be very ripe, are sprinkled 
 with a little powdered whitish clay called Hoivtcar, 
 and piled up either in a sack or loose on the floor 
 of a wine-press. The ancient wine-presses, of which 
 many are still to be found, are, as far as I know, 
 always used for the purpose. These wine-presses 
 consist of a shallow rectangular depression, about 
 
WINE-PRESSES 237 
 
 4 feet square, sloping to one corner, and carefully 
 cut in a suitable piece of hard rock. From here 
 one or more channels run into a smaller and much 
 deeper receptacle, close to the larger one, and, 
 like it, hollowed out in the living rock. One 
 often comes across these old wine-presses on hill- 
 sides where now there is no cultivation — relics of 
 former fertile vineyards which flourished in the 
 days of Palestine's glory, but which have long since 
 passed away. Where the grapes are put loose on 
 the press, flat stones are placed over them, on which 
 a number of men stand till all the juice is squeezed 
 out ; but where a sack is used the treaders stand 
 directly on the bags. 
 
 The expressed juice is then ladled into large 
 caldrons, a fire is lighted beneath, and the juice 
 carefully boiled down. The process is not so simple 
 as might be thought. The fire needs constant 
 attention and regulation, as should the heat be too 
 great the Dibs will have a burnt flavour. The syrup 
 has also to be skimmed at frequent intervals, as 
 the lighter impurities rise to the top. After about 
 thirty-six hours' boiling it is reduced to one-third 
 of its original bulk, and is sufficiently cooked. It 
 must now be left to cool and settle, when the 
 powdered clay, already mentioned, carries down all 
 the coarser impurities in the form of a dense pre- 
 cipitate, from which, when cold, the supernatant 
 liquid must be carefully poured off; otherwise it 
 will not keep good, but after a while ferments and 
 becomes sour. When properly prepared it is thin 
 syrup, of a light brown colour and of a sweet, 
 
238 AGRICULTURE 
 
 pleasant taste, When kept for some time the 
 water evaporates still more, and crystallization sets 
 in. It is eaten by the natives as it is, or, mixed 
 with flour and almonds, is made into various 
 sweetmeats. 
 
 Palestine being a Mohammedan country, the 
 natives make little or no wine, though considerable 
 quantities are manufactured by Europeans, and 
 also by the Jews, the latter also distilling a very 
 strong spirit from it. 
 ^C E*&§ are vei T widely grown, and, both fresh and 
 dried, form an important article of food. There 
 are many varieties, one village alone being said to 
 have no less than thirty in its fig-groves. Fig-trees 
 and vines are often grown together, as they take 
 different substances from the soil, whereas vines 
 and olive-trees do not thrive in the same plot, and 
 are rarely planted together. This fact illustrates 
 one of those minute little touches in the Gospels 
 which show the intimate knowledge of the land, 
 and the precise accuracy, of the sacred writings. 
 1 refer to the words (St. Luke xiii. 6), 'A certain 
 man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard.' 
 
 In the late spring or early summer a peculiar 
 kind of fig is found on many trees. It is not a 
 different species or variety, as it occurs on all sorts, 
 but it is found from two to three months earlier 
 than the ordinary crop, and grows underneath the 
 leaf, and not in the axil as with the regular figs. 
 The Fellahin have a theory that it is a sign of 
 weakness in the tree which produces it. It is very 
 large and of a very fine flavour, and is much prized 
 
THE BARREN FIG-TREE 239 
 
 by the natives, as was the case in Old Testament 
 times, as we see from Jer. xxiv. 2 and Hos. ix. 10, 
 where it is called the ' first ripe ' fig. There is in 
 Arabic a special name for it, ttuff'ur, whereas Tin 
 is the word used for the ordinary fruit. 
 
 On account of its being so highly prized, and as 
 it is almost the earliest of any fruit, it is allowable 
 for anyone to gather it from the trees as they pass. 
 It was these Uiiffur, I believe, that our Blessed 
 Lord sought for on the barren fig-tree, and not 
 the ordinary fruit. This will make the passage 
 St. Mark xi. 13 quite clear, especially if, as is not 
 unlikely, there were two words for the two kinds 
 of fruit in the colloquial Semitic dialect in use in 
 Palestine at that time, as in the colloquial Arabic 
 of to-day. This passage would thus mean that the 
 Saviour came hoping to find Dujf'ur, but when He 
 came to the tree found only leaves, for the time of 
 Tin was not yet. It is somewhat remarkable, too, 
 that while these first ripe figs are in season they are 
 a favourite article of food in the early morning 
 with the Fellahin, who have no meal corresponding 
 to our breakfast. When itinerating among the 
 villages at that time of year, I have sometimes had 
 occasion to ask persons who have come to me early 
 in the day for medicine, ' Have you eaten anything 
 this morning V ' Yes, I have eaten two or three 
 Dujfui\ has been a far from uncommon answer. 
 
 There are also in some places fig-trees of which 
 the fruit is public property. There seems to be 
 nothing to mark such trees, but they are well 
 known to the people of the neighbouring villages. 
 
240 AGRICULTURE 
 
 and are called Tin csmbtl — 'fig-trees of the road.' 
 The barren fig-tree on Olivet was probably one of 
 such trees. Persons will sometimes set apart one 
 of their trees for such an object. Olive-trees in 
 like manner are occasionally dedicated to churches, 
 that the oil from them may be used to keep the 
 lamps burning before the icons. 
 
 The figs are dried in large quantities in the fig- 
 gardens. An open sunny spot is selected, the 
 ground is smoothed, stones and clods of earth 
 being removed, and here the figs as they ripen are 
 laid, being carefully turned from day to day till 
 they are quite dry. While this is going on they 
 are collected each evening, and put under shelter 
 at night, as the dews which often occur then would 
 spoil them if left out of doors. When dry enough 
 the fruit is stored in bulk in bins, or strung on thin 
 twine in strings of about a hundred. These strings 
 are called Kaladeh (pi. Kaltiid). The dried figs are 
 known by a special name, Kottain, and form a very 
 important article of food, especially of the very poor. 
 
 In the maritime plain, especially in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Jaffa, numbers of gardens of oranges 
 and lemons are found, and these fruits are being 
 exported to Europe, chiefly to England, in ever- 
 increasing quantities. The special Jaffa orange is 
 a large egg-shaped fruit of pale colour and very 
 thick rind. These peculiarities are caused by the 
 fact that the Fellahin graft the orange on to lemon 
 stocks, as they find by experience that this produces 
 a better quality of fruit than that from orange-trees 
 grown in the ordinary way. Both fruits require a 
 
NIGHT MIST 241 
 
 good deal of moisture, and the trees are irrigated 
 from the wells already mentioned, each tree being 
 watered every second day. 
 
 Date-palms are not uncommon all down the 
 coast, and, in fact, grow more or less throughout 
 the country, but they only bear fruit of any value in 
 the extreme south, in the neighbourhood of Gaza. 
 
 Besides the fruits already mentioned, pome- 
 granates of several sorts, quinces, apricots, peaches, 
 plums, almonds, walnuts, apples, pears, and other 
 kinds of fruit, are found in more or less abundance. 
 The greater part is brought into the towns for sale, 
 but it is often spoilt by careless handling, and by 
 its being frequently gathered too soon, this last 
 defect being caused by fear of its being stolen if 
 left longer on the trees. 
 
 In the autumn the dews or night-mists are very 
 copious, and do much to refresh the burnt-up land. 
 Early in the morning the valleys, if in the hill 
 country, will often be found to be full of this mist, 
 the hill-tops standing like islands out of a sea of 
 fleecy white cloud. As the sun gets higher the 
 mists (the ' morning cloud ' of Hos. xiii. 3) melt 
 away, leaving a cloudless sky. Every leaf and 
 twig and blade of grass is gemmed with dewdrops, 
 while if camping out one's tent roof is as saturated 
 as though there had been a heavy shower of rain. 
 This mist or dew is often referred to in the Old 
 Testament (Ps. cxxxiii. 3; Hos. xiv. 5, etc.), and 
 is of great benefit to the fruit. It fills out the 
 olives and matures the grapes, although rain 
 would quite spoil the latter. 
 
 16 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 In addition to the occupations more immediately- 
 connected with peasant life, there are several minor 
 industries which, in whole or in part, occupy the 
 time and energies of the Fellahin. Foremost 
 among them I would put that of the carpenter. 
 Most villages have their own carpenter, who makes 
 and mends the ploughs and other agricultural 
 implements, does whatever wood-work, such as 
 doors and windows (wherever there are the latter), 
 is required in the houses, and manufactures the 
 rough boxes in which the women keep their 
 clothes. His tools are of the most primitive de- 
 scription : a few tiny saws, with the teeth set the 
 reverse way to those of our saws, a small plane, 
 two or three chisels of various sizes, a drill worked 
 by a bow, and a narrow, much-curved adze, in the 
 use of which he is as skilful as a shipwright. He 
 does not use a carpenter's bench, but squats on the 
 ground to work, and, where he has to use both 
 hands, holds the thing he is working at with his 
 feet. 
 
 Payment is frequently made in kind, the peasant 
 
 242 
 
LIME-BURNING 243 
 
 giving the carpenter so many measures of wheat 
 per annum, in return for which the other under- 
 takes to keep his ploughs, etc., in repair. It is 
 rarely a remunerative employment, and to make 
 a living the carpenter must either have land of his 
 own or must combine some other occupation with 
 it. I knew one who was also village schoolmaster, 
 and used to make and mend his ploughs, etc., in 
 the courtyard of the little village mosque, with 
 his scholars around him learning their tasks. 
 Those I have known have all been poor, some of 
 them very poor, and in the little town of Nazareth 
 there would probably have been but scanty work 
 for the carpenter, and the Saviour, in all prob- 
 ability, must have known at times the pinch of 
 real want. 
 
 Lime-burning is another minor industry which 
 occupies many of the Fellahin, especially during 
 slack periods. The lime which is used in building 
 is all produced in the country. As already men- 
 tioned, the rock formation of Palestine is almost 
 exclusively limestone, which is burnt into lime in 
 kilns called Latun or Klbdrah. A circular hole, 
 10 to 15 feet in diameter, is dug in some con- 
 venient spot, and lined with dry masonry. A 
 quantity of stone, preferably of the harder sorts, 
 and of suitable sizes, is collected, and is then built 
 up over the top of the circular pit in the form of 
 a dome, in the following manner : 
 
 Round the edge of the pit is placed a row of large 
 stones, partly projecting inwards. On them other 
 layers of stones are placed, each successive layer pro- 
 
 16—2 
 
244 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 jecting rather more than that beneath it, the process 
 being continued till the central opening is small 
 enough to be closed by two or three long pieces of 
 stone. Smaller stones are placed on this pile to a 
 considerable height, earth being heaped up all round 
 to keep in the hot air. A hollow some 10 feet 
 deep is thus left underneath the mass, and into this 
 hollow the fuel is fed through a sloping opening. 
 Another hole is often made on the side facing the 
 prevailing wind, in order to supply the kilns with 
 sufficient air. The fuel most commonly used is 
 the Netsh, already mentioned, a low thorny shrub 
 which groM r s abundantly throughout Palestine. 
 This is cut and piled in small heaps to dry some 
 time before the lime is burnt, a large stone being 
 placed on each little heap to keep it from being 
 blown away by the wind. These heaps of thorns 
 cut for the lime -kilns form at times quite a 
 feature in the landscape, and are no doubt referred 
 to in Isa. xxxiii. 12. 
 
 The fire, once lit, is kept going day and night, 
 and as these lime-kilns are often out in the open 
 country, at a considerable distance from the 
 villages, the men who work them sleep out by 
 them, the women bringing them food and water 
 two or three times a day. Each addition of fuel 
 causes a great volume of dense black smoke to 
 rise from the kiln, and on a calm day these 
 columns of smoke can be seen from very long 
 distances. To such kilns, and to these columns 
 of vapour, does the sacred historian liken the smoke 
 of the burning cities of the plain (Gen. xix. 28). 
 
QUARRYING 245 
 
 To burn the stone thoroughly requires from two 
 to seven days, according to the size of the kiln, 
 the nature of the fuel, and the regularity with 
 which the fire is kept up. The method is a 
 very wasteful one, as the fuel used in each kiln 
 would be sufficient to burn a much larger amount 
 of lime on a continuous system. When the mass 
 is sufficiently burnt, the whole is left for two or 
 three days to cool, and the lime is then removed 
 in sacks. 
 
 Quarrying is largely carried on in the hill 
 country, in the neighbourhood of towns. The 
 rock found in Palestine is for the most part lime- 
 stone of varying hardness. In the mountains it 
 is extremely abundant, and it usually occurs on 
 or near the surface. The building stone is almost 
 entirely got by blasting. A hole is drilled in the 
 rock by means of a long iron rod about half an 
 inch in diameter, with a chisel-shaped end. The 
 quarryman sits down on the rock he wishes to 
 bore, and, holding the rod with both hands, brings 
 it rapidly down with great force over and over 
 again on the same spot, giving it a half-turn at 
 each stroke. A hole more or less vertical is thus 
 formed, a little larger in diameter than the rod. 
 When it is an inch or two in depth, a little water 
 is poured in, more being added from time to time. 
 This serves both to keep the boring tool cool 
 and to form a thick mud of the coarse powder 
 chipped off. This mud is removed from time to 
 time by means of a long thin rod, having at its 
 lower end a small spoon-like projection at right 
 
246 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 angles to its length, this mud being afterwards 
 used in the tamping. When the bore has reached 
 the required depth it is cleared out, and a few 
 strokes of the iron bar having dried it, coarse 
 gunpowder is poured in to a depth of several 
 inches, and rammed tight. A thin pointed rod 
 of iron, with a strong cross-handle, is pushed in 
 to the centre of the charge, and the tamping, 
 which is made of small pieces of stone mixed 
 with the mud already mentioned, is rammed 
 tightly in round the rod, which is turned occa- 
 sionally as the hole fills up, to prevent its becoming 
 jammed. When the tamping reaches the top of 
 the hole, this rod is cautiously withdrawn, and 
 fine-grained powder is poured down it till it is 
 full. When all is ready, the quarrymen retire to 
 a distance, leaving only the one who has to fire 
 the charge. This he usually does by fastening a 
 burning match to the end of a long stick, with 
 which he ignites the loose powder about the top 
 of the bore. As soon as he sees that this has 
 caught, he makes off as fast as his legs will carry 
 him to a place of safety. The narrow thread of 
 powder burns but slowly, and if properly done 
 there is ample time for the firer to take shelter 
 before the charge explodes. If near a highroad 
 or a place where people are about, before the shot 
 is fired they call out loudly : * Gunpowder ! gun- 
 powder ! Beware ! beware !' 
 
 The masses of stone thus detached are broken 
 up into pieces suitable for the builder by means 
 of large hammers, aided where necessary by iron 
 
ANCIENT QUARRIES 247 
 
 wedges. The stone has to be further dressed 
 before it can be used by the mason, but this is 
 usually done in the building-yard. Sometimes 
 the rock is only cracked by the shot, and then 
 huge crowbars, of enormous weight, are used to 
 detach the loosened masses. 
 
 A good deal of paving stone exists in some 
 parts, occurring in layers only a few inches thick ; 
 but this is not quarried by blasting, and the softer 
 kinds, such as the Nareh used for the domed roofs, 
 do not require the use of explosives. 
 
 The method above described is a very wasteful 
 one. Probably not more than half the material 
 so obtained can be used. This is in great contrast 
 to the methods apparently employed in the ancient 
 quarries, of which numerous traces remain. There 
 the stones seem to have been cut out one by one, 
 each being ready squared for the builder as it was 
 detached from the bed-rock. This seems to be 
 referred to in Isa. li. 1. Indeed, the marks in the 
 old quarries are still so sharp that it seems as 
 though it would be possible, if one had the stones 
 there, to find the exact spot from which each had 
 been cut. 
 
 The gunpowder used in quarrying is made in 
 the country. Certain families are considered to 
 be particularly skilful in its manufacture, and have, 
 no doubt, secret processes of their own. All the 
 ingredients are found in the land. Sulphur exists 
 in considerable quantities in the marl formation of 
 the Jordan Valley, and is sold in the market under 
 the name of ' camel sulphur ' (to distinguish it from 
 
248 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 the 'pillar sulphur,' as it is called, which is im- 
 ported from Europe), the name being derived 
 from the fact that it is used for a remedy for the 
 skin diseases to which those animals seem to be 
 peculiarly liable. Saltpetre is frequently found as 
 an efflorescence on the walls of houses, and the 
 keenest native sportsman I have ever known, and 
 who always makes his own gunpowder, told me 
 that it was from this source that he obtained his 
 supply of nitre. It is, however, also made arti- 
 ficially by getting earth from caves and other 
 places where goats are housed, and placing it in 
 a porous vessel out of doors, but in a spot sheltered 
 from the rain. Water is poured on this earth from 
 time to time in small quantities. This percolates 
 through into a vessel placed below, and as it 
 evaporates leaves behind a mass of crude saltpetre, 
 which is purified by recrystallization. Some of 
 the women who make this nitre are specially 
 clever in its production, and it is remarkable that 
 the Fellahin, with absolutely no knowledge of 
 chemistry, should have discovered this process, 
 which is practically the same as one which was 
 (and probably is still) largely used in France for 
 the production of this salt. The materials used 
 for the manufacture of this native gunpowder are 
 probably not very pure, which accounts most likely 
 for the odour of the burnt powder, which is villainous 
 in the extreme. 
 
 Charcoal is largely used in cooking, and also 
 for warmth in winter, throughout the country, 
 and in times of bad harvests or scarcity of olive 
 
CHARCOAL-BURNING 249 
 
 crops many Fellahin will take to its production to 
 eke out a living. It is made from the evergreen 
 oak, the branches being the parts which are mostly 
 employed for the purpose. Other trees are some- 
 times used, as the terebinth, deciduous oak, and 
 even soft woods such as the arbutus, in places 
 where the hard woods are becoming exhausted. 
 
 A bough or an entire sapling is trimmed of its 
 twigs on the spot, cut into convenient lengths, 
 and carried to the charcoal oven, which is merely 
 a pit in the ground or a cave ; I have even known 
 an ancient rock-cut tomb utilized for the purpose. 
 In the case of a cave, the mouth is walled up with 
 stones and earth, leaving only a small aperture. 
 The pit or cave is filled with the dry wood, and 
 fire is applied. Clouds of bluish-white smoke issue 
 from the narrow opening at the mouth, and as the 
 charge shrinks in volume more wood is fed in. 
 When the man in charge considers the whole is 
 sufficiently burned, the opening is closed with 
 stones and earth, so as to exclude all air, and 
 not re-opened till quite cool. The charcoal is then 
 carefully removed, and packed in goat's-hair bags 
 for conveyance to the towns and villages for sale. 
 
 In valleys where there are powerful perennial 
 springs or permanent streams there will usually 
 be found several water-mills for grinding corn. 
 A winding channel, carried along the side of the 
 valley, conducts a stream of water to a point at 
 which it is high enough above the floor to give 
 the needful pressure. Here the mill is built. It 
 consists of a single room, in the floor of which 
 
250 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 the lower millstone is firmly embedded. Under 
 the room is a vaulted space in which works the 
 wheel or turbine which drives the mill. One of 
 the walls of this room is carried up to about twice 
 the height of the latter, and is either connected 
 with the hillside by one or more arches, or is itself 
 built out to the end of the watercourse. A 
 channel along the top of this carries the water to 
 a vertical shaft or chimney -like opening in the 
 thickness of the wall at its outer end. This pipe 
 or shaft leads down into the turbine chamber, and 
 is called the ' cistern ' (Btr), probably because it is 
 cemented, as cisterns are in order to retain the 
 water ; it is closed at the bottom, but has a lateral 
 opening on a level with the arms of the turbine. 
 The column of water is sometimes 20 to 25 
 feet in height, so that it issues with tremendous 
 force in a horizontal jet, striking the radii of the 
 turbine, and thus rotating them. 
 
 The turbine consists of a shaft (Ud) with a 
 number of radial arms at the lower end, like the 
 spokes of a wheel without a rim, and very wide, 
 relatively, to their thickness. The shaft passes 
 up through the floor of the mill, and also through 
 the lower millstone, and into the upper one, which 
 is firmly keyed on to it by means of a cross-piece 
 of iron sunk into the stone. About a foot and a 
 half above the stones, and fifteen inches apart, are 
 two bars of wood securely fastened to the walls of 
 the mill. They are called the ' ladder,' and on them 
 rests the hopper (Ualu), in shape an inverted trun- 
 cated pyramid. Below the mouth of the hopper 
 
MILLS 251 
 
 is suspended a flat shovel-shaped piece of wood 
 called the ' bowl.' It has a raised edge all round 
 it except at its apex, and is so hung from the 
 ladder that it slopes somewhat towards the narrow 
 end, in order to facilitate the flow of the grain to 
 the stones. A string passes through it near its 
 point, and is for the purpose of regulating the 
 amount of grain which passes to the millstones ; 
 when it is slackened more runs from the hopper, 
 and when it is tightened up the mouth of the 
 hopper is closed and the flow of corn ceases. 
 A short stick is tied across the 'bowl,' and on 
 this rests another, with its lower end on the 
 revolving stone, its use being to give a slight 
 shaking motion to the ' bowl,' without which the 
 grain would not flow from the hopper. Close by 
 the stones is the handle by which the miller opens 
 or closes the water-passage, thus starting or stop- 
 ping the mill. The stones for these mills, like 
 those for the hand-mills, are made of the black 
 basalt of the Leja. 
 
 A considerable amount of pottery is made in 
 various parts of the country. In some villages 
 the women make the huge jars which contain 
 the supply of water for the household. These 
 jars are not formed on the wheel, but are built 
 up slowly, piece by piece, by hand, and when 
 finished are dried very thoroughly, and then burnt 
 by heaping up dried cow-dung around them and 
 setting fire to it. The fuel is allowed to burn 
 itself out, when the jar will be found to be suffi- 
 ciently baked. A great deal of earthenware is 
 
252 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 also made, which is thrown on the wheel with 
 great skill. This industry is chiefly carried on 
 in Southern Palestine, about Gaza, where there 
 are abundant deposits of clay. The raw material 
 is dug out by the Fellahin, and accidents from 
 the falling in of the earth on them, in the pits, 
 are not uncommon. 
 
 When the clay is brought in, it is broken up into 
 small pieces, mixed with water, and worked into 
 a proper consistency by treading (Isa. xli. 25) 
 It is next ' thrown ' on the wheel, as is done 
 in England, only that the wheel is turned by the 
 potter himself; he does this by means of a disc 
 of wood fastened to the lower end of the shaft 
 on which the upper wheel is secured, and of 
 similar dimensions to it (hence the Hebrew term 
 ' the two wheels,' Jer. xviii. 3). The various 
 articles when finished are left to dry, and then 
 burnt in kilns, the fuel used being the coarse 
 part of the straw left after the Tibn is separated, 
 and which consists of the knots and lowest parts 
 of the stalks next the ground. When burnt, the 
 jars and other articles are put in network sacks 
 made of a coarse tough grass, and sent on camels 
 and donkeys to all parts of Palestine. 
 
 On the coast of the Mediterranean, and also on 
 the Sea of Galilee, there are a good many men 
 who gain their living by fishing. In the former 
 a casting-net, the antyifi\r\GTpov of the New Testa- 
 ment, is chiefly used. This is a circular net of 
 very fine twine, and small in the mesh ; it is 
 attached in the centre to a long cord, and round 
 

 
 1 . 
 
 
 * -\ 
 
 
FISHING 2.3tt 
 
 the circumference is weighted with lumps of lead. 
 While riding along the coast one may often see 
 a fisherman with clothes tucked tightly up round 
 his waist, and one of these nets over his left arm, 
 wading thigh-deep in the broken water near the 
 beach, and intently watching the shoals of fish as 
 they swim about. Stooping and crouching down 
 to render himself as inconspicuous as possible, he 
 now advances, now retreats, till a shoal is in a 
 favourable position, when, with a dexterous twist 
 and sudden fling, he sends the net spreading out 
 to its widest extent over its prey. Often the cast 
 is in vain, or but a single fish is brought to shore, 
 but at other times a considerable haul rewards his 
 patience. 
 
 Both on the Mediterranean and on the Sea of 
 Galilee seine nets (trayr?^) are used with boats, as 
 was done in our Lord's time ; and on the latter sea 
 now, as then, the fishing is chiefly by night. When 
 being rowed on one occasion across the Sea of 
 Galilee, the boatmen apologized for rowing slowly : 
 ' they had been fishing all night, and were tired,' 
 they said. Many of the small fish caught in the 
 Sea of Galilee are dried and sent about the country, 
 being eaten as a relish (tydpiov, St. John vi. 9) with 
 bread. 
 
 There are a few jewellers among the Fellahin 
 who either live in a village or wander about from 
 place to place, making the rings, bracelets, chains, 
 and other ornaments, of which the peasant women 
 are so fond. Silver is the metal chiefly used, and 
 that largely mixed witli alloy ; gold is rarely seen. 
 
254 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 The jeweller's apparatus is very primitive. It con- 
 sists of a rough pair of scales for weighing the 
 metal ; a plain portable hearth of clay, shaped like 
 a large centre-dish for fruit, and about 15 inches 
 high ; a rude oil-lamp, with a large wick for blow- 
 pipe work, a curved metal blowpipe, and one or 
 two forceps. With these simple tools they some- 
 times turn out very neat work. They seem to 
 work entirely by rule of thumb, following tradi- 
 tional patterns and devices. 
 
 Among minor industries may be mentioned the 
 making of mats. Chairs are unknown, except 
 where European ideas and customs have begun to 
 take root ; but even the poorest like to have some- 
 thing to put on the floor on which to sit, and for 
 this purpose straw, or rather rush, mats are common 
 everywhere. There are two kinds of these mats : 
 the larger and cheaper kind are made in the 
 maritime plain, of the dried stems of a species of 
 papyrus. This plant grows in considerable quanti- 
 ties in the swamps from which the short rivers 
 flowing into the Mediterranean take their rise. I 
 do not know whether or not it is identical with the 
 African papyrus, but it is very like it, except that 
 it is smaller. The rushes are tied side by side till 
 the mat has reached the desired length, the manu- 
 facture being simple in the extreme. They are 
 usually about 7 feet wide, by 8 or 9 feet in length. 
 A smaller but superior kind of mat is made in 
 some of the hill villages about Jerusalem from the 
 stems of a species of grass. 
 
 The Fellahin are very skilful in basket-making. 
 
BASKETS 255 
 
 They use twigs of various shrubs, such as willow, 
 mulberry, etc., and the stems of a species of smilax 
 and other creepers. Of these, baskets of various 
 shapes and sizes are made. One sort, with a handle, 
 is called Kcrtidleh, and is much used for carrying 
 small quantities of figs, grapes, olives, etc. A 
 strong, shallow, handleless basket, about 18 inches 
 in diameter, and 4 or 5 inches in depth, is employed 
 by the women in carrying grain, vegetables, fowls, 
 etc., to market. The latter kind is often covered 
 with skin to render it stronger stilL Another sort, 
 known as Kuffeh, is made from the flexible stems 
 of a short grass, and is largely employed in carrying 
 stones for mending the roads, earth for making 
 mortar, in gardening operations, and for a variety of 
 purposes where an Englishman would use a wheel- 
 barrow, the loads in such cases being carried on 
 the head by the women, and on the hip by the men. 
 A strong double basket, or pannier, for donkeys is 
 made from the same material. 
 
 Yet another kind is made from wheat straw. A 
 coil of this material, about the thickness of one's 
 little finger, is produced by taking a number of 
 straws of different lengths, and binding them 
 tightly by a straw, flattened and rendered flexible by 
 squeezing it with the finger and thumb-nail, spirally 
 round the coil. This is wound round and round 
 on itself, each coil being sewn to the adjacent ones, 
 till a flat, circular sort of tray of the desired 
 dimensions is produced. The coils are then con- 
 tinued at right angles to the bottom till the sides 
 are sufficiently high. These baskets are sometimes. 
 
256 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 ornamented by dyeing the outer wrapping straws, 
 and working them in to form patterns. 
 
 Large round trays are made in the same way by 
 the women. Some are worked in elaborate patterns, 
 while others will have a little round looking-glass 
 embedded in the centre. The colours are often 
 tastefully blended. They are used for various 
 domestic purposes, often serving as dishes to hold 
 bread, grapes, figs, etc. 
 
 There is a widespread belief that there are 
 treasures buried in the earth all over the country, 
 and some peasants make it their regular occupation 
 to dig for old graves in the hope of finding these 
 treasures. In this way large quantities of antique 
 glass, ancient lamps, and other articles, are found, 
 and command a ready sale at the hands of the 
 dealers in such things in the towns. Immense 
 numbers of graves have thus been rifled, especially 
 within the last few years. 
 
 Shoemaking is another industry of the larger 
 villages. The shoes made by these village cobblers 
 are only the rougher, heavier kinds, the soles being 
 of camel or buffalo hide, and the uppers of sheep- 
 skin, dyed red. Sometimes these shoemakers go 
 about from village to village, chiefly repairing the 
 shoes of the people. They remain for a few days 
 in the place, as long as there is anything for them 
 to do, and then move on. 
 
 Some of the men are clever at hunting game. 
 Partridges, gazelle, wild-boar, and ibex, are the crea- 
 tures they shoot. The former (partridges) abound 
 throughout the land, there being several species, in- 
 
HUNTERS 257 
 
 eluding the large, handsome Greek partridge, the 
 Dead Sea species, which is peculiar to Palestine, 
 and the francolin. For these birds they often use a 
 lure, which consists of a piece of calico with various 
 devices painted on it, and fastened to two sticks in 
 the form of a St. Andrew's cross. There are usually 
 two holes in the upper part for the hunter to look 
 through, and one in the centre for his gun. They 
 use this in rather an unsportsmanlike manner, 
 creeping up towards a covey holding this screen 
 before them, and when they get near they stop, 
 and the partridges, which are bold and inquisitive,* 
 when they see this strange-looking object, instead 
 of taking flight, gradually come nearer and nearer 
 till within range, when the man fires. The wild 
 boar is still fairly common in the Jordan Valley and 
 the better- wooded districts, and the Fellahin some- 
 times organize regular hunts for the purpose of 
 killing them, as not only the Christians, but also 
 some of the Moslems, eat the flesh. 
 
 The men spin a good deal of coarse thread from 
 the wool of their sheep and the hair of the goats. 
 A mass of the raw material is wrapped loosely 
 round the left hand, and the spindle with which it 
 
 * The Fellahin say that the fox is fully aware of this trait 
 in the character of the partridge, and takes advantage of it 
 in the following manner: He lies down on a rock in the 
 open with limbs stretched out, mouth half open, and saliva 
 running from it as though he were dead. When the curious 
 birds catch sight of their enemy in this condition, they come 
 slowly up to see if he be really dead, and, when near enough, 
 with a sudden spring he seizes his victim. 
 
 17 
 
258 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 is spun is attached to it by a piece of the thread. 
 The spindle is simply a stick about 9 inches long, 
 with two cross-pieces about 1| inches from the 
 lower end. It is weighted with a stone or piece of 
 potsherd, and is used in the following manner : A 
 long thread is drawn out with the fingers of both 
 hands, and roughly and loosely twisted. When 
 about 3 feet long it is held tightly between the 
 thumb and forefinger of the left hand, at the further 
 end from the spindle, and a vigorous spin is given to 
 the latter by a dexterous turn of the right hand, the 
 thread being thus twisted as tightly as desired by its 
 rapid revolution. The two or three feet of finished 
 thread are then wrapped round the lower end of 
 the spindle, looped over the upper end of the shank 
 to keep it in place, and the process repeated. It 
 is astonishing to see what an amount of coarse 
 thread a man can thus spin in a day, and of what 
 even thickness he manages to keep it. This thread 
 is used for various purposes, such as making ropes, 
 haircloth for tents, nose-bags for horses, and for 
 weaving the cloaks so much worn in winter. The 
 men work very industriously at this during the 
 wet days of winter and spring when no field labour 
 is possible. The women do a small amount of it, 
 but, naturally, have not the same time as the men. 
 Haircloth for the tents — or ' houses of hair,' as 
 they are called in Arabic — is woven in a good many 
 places from the coarse thread just described. This 
 haircloth is made of the black goat's hair, no other 
 colour, apparently, being permissible, the only 
 exception being that sometimes there is a longi- 
 
RUINED TEMPLE NEAR TOBAZ (THE ANCIENT THEBEZ) 
 
 WEAVING HAIRCLOTH FOR TENTS. 
 
 '/ ■ '■ ee per, . B. 
 
TENT-MAKING 259 
 
 tudinal stripe of dark gray. This work is now, I 
 believe, invariably done by women ; but the fact 
 of this having been St. Paul's trade (Acts xviii. 1-3) 
 shows that this was not the case in Apostolic times. 
 The process is simple and primitive to the last 
 degree. The long threads to form the warp are 
 stretched out in some convenient and fairly level 
 spot in the village. That which is to form the 
 woof, instead of being placed in a shuttle, is wound 
 lengthways on a flat piece of wood about 30 inches 
 long and 3 inches wide, somewhat resembling a 
 gigantic netting-needle. With this in her hand, 
 the weaver laboriously threads the woof through 
 the warp, and then with an iron hook (Sfa) deftly 
 tightens up the thread against the part already 
 woven. The threads of the warp are passed through 
 a series of loops attached to a piece of wood, and 
 suspended so that every other thread is alternately 
 raised and lowered, much as in a European loom, 
 though the mechanism is of the rudest possible 
 description, having to be turned by hand each time 
 the shuttle is passed through the warp. It goes 
 without saying that the process is very tedious, but, 
 owing to the dexterity which the women acquire 
 not so much so as might be supposed. A strong, 
 rough kind of carpet is woven in the same manner 
 in some districts, as well as sacks, bags, and such- 
 like articles. 
 
 At one time a great deal of weaving was done 
 by the Fellahin, and though goods of European 
 manufacture have to some extent crippled this 
 industry, yet there are still many looms to be 
 
 17—2 
 
260 MINOR INDUSTRIES 
 
 found in various parts. Simple though they are, 
 the work they turn out is neat and durable. The 
 working parts of the loom are on a level with 
 the floor, and a hole is dug to accommodate the 
 treadles which raise and lower the alternate threads 
 of the warp, the weaver sitting on the edge of this 
 hole and working the treadles with his feet. The 
 thread of the woof is wound on little bobbins, 
 made of pieces of hollow reed, inserted in the 
 shuttle, which is skilfully and quickly shot through 
 by hand. The thread is wound on the bobbins by 
 a little piece of apparatus consisting of a rude 
 wheel with a cord passing over it to a reel on a 
 spindle, on which the little pieces of reed are fixed. 
 
 One of the principal articles produced by these 
 native looms is the heavy cloak worn by the 
 peasants in winter. The warp of these cloaks is 
 white cotton, which is imported from Egypt in the 
 form of yarn, but the woof is of wool. In weaving, 
 the workman, after shooting the shuttle through 
 the threads, catches the woof-thread with his thumb 
 about the middle, and draws it up in a semicircle 
 before pressing it home. This seems to give greater 
 density and closeness to the material. These 
 Abas, or cloaks, are woven in broad stripes of 
 black and white, are very strong and durable, and 
 fairly waterproof. 
 
 Mention may be made, too, of the mother-of- 
 pearl work for which Bethlehem is famous, though 
 this cannot be called an indigenous industry, having 
 been introduced from Egypt two or three centuries 
 ago. The shells are brought from the Red Sea. 
 
A WATER-MILL, JE13EL A.TLUN. 
 
 To/act page 260. 
 
WOOD-CARVING 2fil 
 
 The work is all done by hand, and some of the 
 specimens are very beautiful. There is a growing 
 demand for olive-wood articles, and in a few cases 
 some of the Fellahin have begun making various 
 objects in the villages, the raw material being 
 cheaper there than in towns. They sell them in 
 the shops in Jerusalem and elsewhere. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 The roads in Palestine are for the most part rough 
 
 tracks, or else mere paths across the country. In 
 
 the hills they are very stony, and in the plains 
 
 frequently impassable in the winter owing to the 
 
 deep mud. During the Roman occupation of the 
 
 country fine paved roads were made in all directions, 
 
 of which extensive remains still exist both east and 
 
 west of the Jordan, with milestones, the inscriptions 
 
 on them being often still decipherable, recording 
 
 how, under such a Caesar or in such-and-such a 
 
 consulship, the road was made or repaired. These 
 
 Roman highways, however, from having been 
 
 neglected for centuries, are now useless for wheeled 
 
 traffic. The large blocks of stone which once 
 
 formed a smooth, level surface for scores of miles 
 
 are now tilted at every possible angle, the earth 
 
 between has been washed away, and in places 
 
 rough masses of rock protrude from below, or 
 
 the surface is strewn with large loose pebbles, 
 
 so that the line of the track resembles the bed of 
 
 a mountain torrent more nearly than anything 
 
 else. 
 
 262 
 
REPAIRING ROADS 263 
 
 When, however, a Christian Patriarch or Govern- 
 ment official of high rank is about to visit a district, 
 or even merely to pass through it, it is customary 
 to send word in advance to the various villages 
 on the route, that the road may be put in order. 
 The stones are cleared out ; the vineyard walls, 
 which are built of rough blocks without mortar, 
 and are consequently frequently broken down by 
 men or animals getting over them, are repaired ; 
 ruts are filled up, and the highway made as smooth 
 as circumstances will permit. I have on several 
 occasions been agreeably surprised, when travelling 
 about the country, on coming to some particularly 
 bad piece of road, to find the stones gone, the walls 
 repaired, and the path in good order. 
 
 As one travels about the country one hears a 
 great variety of salutations. Indeed, these saluta- 
 tions are so numerous and varied that they form 
 quite a study, there being different ones in different 
 parts of the country, and special ones on special 
 occasions or for the various events of life. When 
 two Moslems meet each other, they usually greet 
 each other with the words ' Salam alckum ' (Peace 
 be upon you) ; to which the proper reply is, ' Wa 
 alekum es salam ' (And on you be peace), the 
 pronoun being usually in the plural instead of the 
 singular, even where only one person is addressed, 
 this being considered more polite than the use of 
 the singular, the same custom obtaining in writing 
 letters. This salutation is not used by Christians 
 to one another, nor is it usual for Christians to use 
 it to Moslems, nor Moslems to Christians — indeed. 
 
264 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 the more fanatical Moslems would highly resent its 
 use by or to Christians. In some districts, how- 
 ever, where there is little bigotry on the part of the 
 Mohammedans, or where they and the Christian 
 villagers are on specially friendly terms, I have 
 frequently heard it exchanged between Moslems 
 and Nazarenes, as they call us. This used to be 
 the custom about Kerak, in Moab ; but when a 
 few years ago the Turks took possession of the 
 place, which till then had been only nominally 
 under their rule, the officials tried to stop it, and a 
 public order was issued forbidding the practice, 
 on the ground that 'there was no peace between 
 Moslems and Christians.' 
 
 When Christians meet, a common salutation is, 
 'Allah m'akum' (God be with you), to which those 
 thus addressed reply, ' If r Allah yahfathak' (And 
 may God preserve thee). In the morning, whether 
 in the house or on the road, the usual greeting is, 
 ' Subahkum bilkher ' (May your morning be good, or 
 prosperous), the response to which is the same. 
 In many cases they reply to a salutation by one 
 similar, but better, rather ; thus, a very common 
 one during the day is, ■ Naharak sa'id ' (May thy day 
 be fortunate), the answer to which is, ' Naharak 
 mbdrak 3 (May thy day be blessed), the latter being 
 stronger than the former. These two salutations 
 can be used at any time during the day, but in 
 the afternoon, especially after about three o'clock, 
 it is more usual to say, ' Masikum bilkher ' (May your 
 evening be prosperous) ; but in the Lebanon there 
 is a curious custom of saying, ■ Lelatak saHd ' 
 
SALUTATIONS 265 
 
 (May thy night be fortunate) any time from noon 
 onwards. 
 
 When meeting a stranger on the way, or when 
 one arrives at a village or house, a common saluta- 
 tion is,' Marhabali (A welcome), to which the person 
 so addressed replies, ' Marhabaten ' (Two welcomes). 
 Should the one who gives the first welcome be 
 a person much respected, or well known to the 
 other, the reply will often be, ' Mit marhabah ' (A 
 hundred welcomes). A very characteristic greet- 
 ing to a guest is, 'Ahlan wa sahlan ; rendered quite 
 literally, this means, 'People and a plain' — i.e., 'You 
 are among your own people, and all will be made 
 easy for you,' being a wish that you may feel 
 quite at home. This last word occurs in another 
 greeting : two friends meet on a journey, and on 
 parting one will say to the other, especially if the 
 latter have a long day's march or a difficult road 
 before him, 'Allah yusahhil oleic' (May God make 
 it smooth, or level, for you), a peculiarly appro- 
 priate farewell in a land like Palestine, where so 
 much of it is rough and hilly. The phrase is also 
 used metaphorically of any difficult undertaking. 
 
 While on the subject of travelling, a curious 
 phrase must be mentioned which people meeting 
 on the way use when they wish to ascertain where 
 one is going, viz., ' Wen ala bob Allah V or more 
 simply, 'Ala bab Allah V (Where — to the gate of 
 God ?). The idea of the phrase is said to be that 
 the person addressed is thereby implied to be 
 bound on some good errand, and therefore not 
 ashamed to say whither he is bound, and very 
 
9.66 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 rarely will a man refuse to give an answer to the 
 question thus asked. I think that there is also 
 a wish implied, as in so many of their salutations, 
 that a blessing may rest on the enterprise, what- 
 ever it may be. Similar phrases are also used 
 sometimes with the same meaning. I was once 
 riding alone in a very out-of-the-way part of the 
 country, when I met an old peasant woman. She 
 was evidently greatly surprised to see a foreigner 
 alone in that out-of-the-way place, and, after gazing 
 intently at me for a moment or two, greeted me 
 with the words ' Wither with God ?' 
 
 A traveller passing Fellahin ploughing, or en- 
 gaged in any other hard labour, greets them with 
 the wish, ' Sah badanu ' (May He [God] strengthen 
 his body) — that is, that he may be able to do his 
 work properly. The one so addressed replies, 
 ' Badanu ' (His body), simply reciprocating his wish, 
 or, on the principle mentioned above, of adding 
 to the wish, Badnnu sellnnu (His body, and may 
 [God] give him peace, or health). In the Belka 
 and other parts east of the Jordan, a common 
 greeting by the way is the phrase ' Kowwak ' (pro- 
 nounced ' gowwak,' the kaf, as is usual among the 
 Bedouin and the Fellahin of Eastern Palestine, 
 being sounded as a hard g), viz., ' May God 
 strengthen you,' the reply to which is, ' Kowivct ' — 
 that is, ' I am strengthened.' A similar salutation 
 not uncommonly heard is, ■ El axv'afah ' (Health). 
 Among the Fellahin a host who is looking after 
 his guests, and going in and out among the people, 
 will, every time he comes into the room, repeat 
 
GREETING WITH A KISS 267 
 
 the ordinary salutation ' Good-day ' or ' Good-even- 
 ing,' according to the time. When guests arrive 
 at a person's house or the guest-room of a village, 
 the people of the place crowd in, usually, to see 
 and salute them. When a man enters, he slips 
 off his shoes at the door, and walking across the 
 room to the principal guest (if there be more than 
 one), and taking the latter's right hand between his 
 two hands, says, ' Selimat ' (Health, or Peace), and 
 then does the same to the other guests in order 
 of their rank. Should the guest be a man of 
 high position, as a Bishop, Patriarch, or a Sharif 
 among the Moslems (i.e., a lineal descendant of 
 Mohammed), the other will raise the guest's hand to 
 his lips and kiss or attempt to kiss it, the other often 
 drawing it back, as though unwilling to receive 
 the homage. When the man has thus saluted 
 the guests, he seats himself among the people 
 present, and when he is fairly settled in his place 
 the guests turn towards him and wish him ' Good- 
 evening,' or whatever be the suitable salutation, 
 the rest of the company following suit, all this 
 being repeated with each new arrival. 
 
 An ordinary question is, ' How are you ?' — 
 literally, ' How is your state V Among Moslems 
 it is not proper to inquire after a man's wife. 
 Should he be a person whom one knows well, 
 one may say, ■ How is your family ?' or, ' How 
 are the people of your house ?' A frequent 
 reply to all inquiries like these — or, if a person 
 has been ill, to a question as to how his health 
 is — is, 'Praise God,' or, '1 thank the Lord.' 
 
268 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 Indeed, it is often very difficult in such circum- 
 stances to ascertain the real state of a person's 
 health, it being considered unlucky for anyone to say 
 that he is worse, even if such be the case. Another 
 reply to the formal inquiry, ' How are you ?' is, 
 1 Talit nathurakj an answer which contains one 
 of those delicate bits of flattery at which Orientals 
 are adepts, meaning as it does, ' I am under your 
 oversight' (or • care '), implying, ' How can I be 
 otherwise than well when you are looking after 
 me ?' When one thanks a person for any favour 
 or kindness done, he often says, * Istaghfur Allah' 
 (I beg pardon of God), as though by being 
 thanked he had sinned by receiving or accepting 
 what was due to God. 
 
 At the New Year or on occasions of great 
 festivals a special greeting is used, viz., ' Kul es 
 senneh wet entum salhnin ' (May you be well, or 
 in peace, all the year), the reply to which is, ' Wa 
 entum salimin (May you, too, be in peace). Another 
 greeting at festivals is, ' El 'id mubarak fik ' (May 
 the feast be blessed to you), the answer being 
 simply, ' Fik ' (And to you). At Easter, moreover, 
 the well-known salutations, ' El Masih kam' (Christ 
 is risen), ' Hakkan kam ' (He is risen indeed), are 
 still used by the members of the Orthodox Greek 
 Church. 
 
 When a person is leaving after a call or visit, he 
 says to the host, ' Khatarak' — literally, 'What is thy 
 wish ?' — to which the other answers, ( M'a salameh* 
 — literally, ' With peace,' meaning, ' My wish is that 
 you may return home in peace or safety.' This 
 
'GO IN PEACE' 269 
 
 expression, ' Go in peace,' is also a polite way of 
 getting rid of a beggar or other objectionable 
 person, and perhaps the passage 2 Kings v. 19 
 ought to be so interpreted, and not, as is generally 
 done, be held to mean that the prophet assented 
 to Naaman's wish. As a guest rides away from 
 the door of a house where he has been calling or 
 staying, the host will usually ask him to salute 
 So-and-so in the place he is going to, or, if he 
 does not know anyone there, he will say ' Sellim * 
 (Salute). 
 
 In a hot, dry country like Palestine, large 
 quantities of water are drunk, and when people 
 are gathered together in an evening the water- 
 bottle is going round frequently. After drinking, 
 a man must say in a low voice, ' Praise be to God,' 
 on which those near him say, ' Your health,' to which 
 he replies, ' May God give thee health.' It is con- 
 sidered a very bad omen if no one says this when 
 anyone has drunk. A story is told of a wealthy 
 Moslem who, when he went on a pilgrimage to 
 Mecca, hired a man on purpose to stand near him 
 at meals, etc., and say ' Your health ' after he had 
 drunk. For several days the man never said a 
 word, and at last his employer asked him why he 
 had never said ' Your health,' and the other replied, 
 1 Because you never said, " Praise be to God.'" 
 
 When coffee is served to guests or others, the 
 person who presents the cup does so with his 
 right hand, putting his left on his chest, and say- 
 ing, ' Tafaddul? — that is, ' Do me the honour ' of 
 taking the coffee — and as he takes it the other 
 
270 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 generally says, ' Isht ' (May you live long), while as 
 he returns the cup after having drunk, he says, 
 i Daimeh,' which is, literally, 'Always,' being a devout 
 wish that the host may always have coffee to give 
 to his guests, on which the host, or else the person, 
 often a member of the family, who is serving the 
 coffee, says, ' Sahatcn ' (Two healths). If, however, 
 a death has recently occurred in the house, it is 
 not proper to use the expression ' Always ' after 
 the coffee, as it might be taken as an evil wish 
 that there might always be a death in the family. 
 
 After a death in a house, when entering it, or 
 on meeting a person who has recently lost a near 
 relation or friend, instead of the ordinary saluta- 
 tion, one says, ' Salamat rasak 1 (The health, or peace, 
 of thy head), the other responding with • Salamat 
 ouladak' (The health of thy children). When a 
 person who has been away for a considerable time 
 from a village is inquiring about the people there, 
 and happens to ask after anyone who is dead, 
 instead of saying directly ' So-and-so is dead,' they 
 say, l Atdk umrahu'' (He has given you his life [or 
 age]), this being equivalent to a wish that God 
 may add to the life of the other the years which 
 the dead man would have lived had he fulfilled 
 the complete term of his existence. I have even 
 heard it used hypothetically of a sick person who 
 was known to be dying. Thus, once riding home 
 to Jerusalem, I overtook a young fellow I knew, 
 and stopped to inquire after an old man in his 
 village who was dangerously ill. ' Probably he 
 has given you his life ' was the reply, meaning, 
 
ETIQUETTE 271 
 
 of course, that by then he had probably passed 
 away. 
 
 With the word ' Blessed,' we greet a friend who 
 has moved into a new house, or to whom a child 
 has been born, or other piece of good fortune 
 come ; he replies, ' May you be blessed.' 
 
 If a person is wearing a new garment, or has 
 any new thing with him, and another congratulates 
 him about it, he will sometimes reply with the 
 words, ' Alalhabl idak' (Your hand is on the rope), 
 as much as to say, ' It is at your disposal,' and 
 should the other reply, ' Hdtt ' (Give), he would be 
 obliged to give it him. The precise meaning of 
 this curious phrase is very variously explained, 
 some explanations of it being very far-fetched. 
 The idea is, I believe, really a simple one, and 
 taken from that of an animal tethered by a rope, 
 one end of which is in the owner's hand, who thus 
 can make it go wherever he wishes. 
 
 There is a great deal of etiquette about salu- 
 tations, though often it is not observed. Thus, 
 a man riding should always first salute a man 
 walking ; a man riding a horse must first salute 
 one riding a donkey. Moreover, should a man 
 riding by on a horse salute another sitting by 
 the roadside, the latter must not rise, as he 
 otherwise would, to return the salute, lest his 
 doing so suddenly should frighten the horse, 
 making it rear and throw its rider. Again, 
 should a man enter a room where guests are at 
 a meal, he must not salute them at once, but 
 wait till they have done eating, as Arab rules 
 
272 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 of politeness require a greeting to be instantly- 
 returned, and one of them might have his mouth 
 full at the moment, and be choked in the attempt 
 to reply to the other's greeting. 
 
 Kissing the hand by way of salutation has 
 already been mentioned. In many cases this is 
 actually done, not only by an inferior to a 
 superior, but children to their parents, even when 
 the former are grown up. A man who has been 
 absent from home for some time will, on entering 
 the house, greet his father thus, and it is a beautiful 
 sight to see a strong middle-aged man gracefully 
 stoop and raise his old white-haired father's hand 
 to his lips. A wife will also greet her husband 
 in this way if he has been away several days. 
 Indeed, in Palestine it would be considered highly 
 improper for a man to kiss his wife before others, 
 or a brother a sister, as is done in Europe. Among 
 the Christians a priest will kiss his Bishop's hand, 
 and the laity will kiss the right hand of a priest. 
 Often when inquiring after a child the father or 
 mother will say, ' He kisses your hand.' 
 
 I have no doubt in my own mind but that it 
 was thus that the traitor Judas greeted the Saviour 
 in the Garden of Gethsemane (St. Matt. xxvi. 
 48, 49). It would be a perfectly natural salutation 
 to his Master on the part of a disciple who had 
 been some hours absent, and would therefore not 
 excite the suspicion of the other apostles, while 
 at the same time it would clearly indicate to the 
 soldiers the Prophet of Nazareth. On the other 
 hand, a kiss on the cheek, as Western pictures of 
 
KISSING 273 
 
 our Blessed Lord's betrayal always represent it, 
 though used in Palestine, would only be given 
 by very dear friends or near relatives after a 
 prolonged absence. 
 
 To kiss the feet is a rare, though not unknown, 
 greeting, and indicates the lowest depths of humilia- 
 tion, the most earnest entreaty, or the deepest 
 gratitude. Occasionally persons will actually 
 throw themselves on the ground at the feet of 
 him whom they thus entreat, but more often they 
 will kiss their own fingers and then try to touch 
 the feet of the other. This latter mode of saluta- 
 tion is a common one, and is alluded to as an act 
 of worship in Job xxxi. 27. 
 
 To kiss the beard (either actually, or by touch- 
 ing it with the right hand, as mentioned just above) 
 is also a token of great respect or of humble 
 supplication. Several times have persons who 
 wanted some special favour from me tried to thus 
 show their respect. This, too, seems to me the 
 explanation of the action of Joab mentioned in 
 2 Sam. xx. 9 — viz., that he touched or took hold 
 of Amasa's beard to kiss it, hypocritically pretend- 
 ing to pay great honour to him whom David had 
 just appointed captain of the host, and while stoop- 
 ing to salute him thus both disarmed his rival's 
 suspicions and saw where to strike the fatal blow. 
 
 Beards are universally worn by the men, and 
 
 one who cannot grow a beard is looked upon as 
 
 something uncanny, and the Moslems especially 
 
 think it most unlucky to meet such a man on 
 
 setting out on a journey. There is a proverb 
 
 18 
 
274 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 about this which runs : ' Meet goblins in the 
 morning rather than a beardless man.' The beard 
 is much respected by them. ' How is your beard V 
 is a salutation I once heard. ' May God reward 
 your beard !' was a blessing once invoked on me 
 by a would-be recipient of alms. A man with 
 a sharp-pointed beard — indicative, I believe, of a 
 pure Arabic descent — is supposed by the Fellahin 
 to have special intellectual power. Such a man 
 is called a Kusah. In illustration of this they 
 tell the following story: 'The great enemy of 
 mankind, wishing to find a pretext to injure the 
 people of a certain village, sent his son to ask 
 them to weave a carpet of flint. He told the 
 messenger that on no account was he to ask the 
 question if a KHsah were present. When he 
 arrived at the village, he found all the elders 
 assembled in the guest-house, and, looking round, 
 could see no one at all answering to the descrip- 
 tion of the man he was to avoid. Accordingly 
 he proffered his request. It so happened, however, 
 that there was such a man there, lying down 
 behind a row of people, and covered with a cloak. 
 When the evil spirit had done speaking this man 
 rose up and said : " Tell him who sent you that if 
 he will spin the flint into thread we will weave it 
 into a carpet for him." Whereupon the fiend 
 retired discomfited.' This story is widely known, 
 and, though foolish enough to Western ears, is 
 often alluded to, and men of this description are 
 liable to much fun being made of them, but they 
 are generally equal to the occasion. 
 
A KUSAH 275 
 
 Recently one of them went to a large village 
 in the Nablus district, and as usual was taken to 
 the guest-house. One of the elders of the place, 
 who had a very fine beard, welcomed him, and 
 then said laughingly : ' Sir Kusah, can you spin 
 flint?' The latter made no reply, but after a 
 while, when a number of people were assembled, 
 and there was a lull in the conversation, he said : 
 ' I want to buy hair ; is there any to be had in 
 your village V * Oh yes, plenty,' said his hosts. 
 t How much per rottle (6| pounds) ?' 'So much,' 
 was the reply. Then, pointing to the fine beard of 
 the joker, he asked : ' How many beards like this 
 will it take to make a rottle ?' There was a roar 
 of laughter at the other's expense, and he was so 
 teased about it that he was glad to purchase silence 
 by a good present to the Kusah. 
 
 Neighbours play a very important part in the 
 daily life of the Fellahin, both for good and evil. 
 This is more or less inevitable in all countries, 
 but particularly so in Eastern lands, where the 
 houses are crowded together much more closely 
 than is the case in our English villages. There 
 are in Palestine no outlying farmhouses, and no 
 labourers' cottages scattered here and there. Till 
 quite recent years no one would have dared to 
 build a house by itself away in the open country, 
 and even to-day, although there is much greater 
 security than formerly, it would not always be 
 safe to do so. The houses are all found in the 
 villages, and usually are crowded together as 
 closely as possible, chiefly, no doubt, for mutual 
 
 18—2 
 
276 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 protection. The smaller the circumference of the 
 village ceteris paribus, the easier it was to defend 
 it in case of attack. Consequently the houses join 
 each other, or several will be built round a common 
 courtyard, all opening into it. This naturally 
 throws the inhabitants of adjacent houses or rooms 
 very much together ; consequently the mere fact of 
 a man being a neighbour is held to constitute a 
 claim on his good offices. Hence the proverb, g A 
 neighbour who is near by rather than a brother who 
 is far off.' Even where the neighbour is not all he 
 ought to be, it is recognised that one has a duty to 
 him, as says the proverb, • Neighbour, you must 
 bear with your neighbour, even if he throw stones 
 at you.' On the other hand, the evils of bad neigh- 
 bours are fully recognised. Thus one of their 
 proverbs says : ■ A house without a neighbour is 
 worth a hundred dinars '; and again : ' Inquire 
 about the neighbour before you ask about the 
 house.' A sound piece of advice is contained in 
 the following : ' If your neighbour hate you, change 
 the door of your house ' ; while ' A bad neighbour 
 is infectious ' is profoundly true. Another, ' Search 
 your house several times before you suspect your 
 neighbour,' if carried out everywhere, would prevent 
 much trouble and quarrelling in other countries 
 besides Palestine. 
 
 The Fellahin are exceedingly hospitable, and are 
 always ready to give food to any guest or stranger 
 who asks it. This hospitality is looked on as a 
 religious duty, and is most ungrudgingly dispensed. 
 
 Along the great caravan routes and other main 
 
THE GUEST-HOUSE 277 
 
 lines of travel khans or inns will be found. In 
 olden times Kings and great men sometimes built 
 such places where needed ; the beautiful ruined 
 Khan et Tujjar on the road between Tiberias 
 and Tabor will be an instance familiar to most 
 travellers in Palestine. Such places seem to have 
 existed in Old Testament times also, as the Khan 
 of Chinham mentioned in Jer. xli. 17. Off the 
 lines of travel no such places are to be found in 
 the country districts where the passing stranger can 
 get food and shelter. 
 
 Each village, however, has its guest-house, and if 
 large, or its principal men wealthy, there may be 
 several. These guest-rooms play an important 
 part in the village life. Here any strangers who 
 may wish for a night's lodging are received, if they 
 have no friends or relations in the place. Here, 
 too, come the Government officials when collecting 
 taxes, or on any other business. In the guest-house 
 the villagers gather when a stranger arrives in order 
 to hear the news, for newspapers are but rarely seen 
 in the country places, and but few comparatively 
 can read, so they still depend largely on passing 
 strangers or a chance visitor from a town for their 
 knowledge of what is happening in the outside 
 world. The guest-house is sometimes a room in 
 the sheikh's house, but more commonly it is a 
 building by itself in a central position, and occa- 
 sionally, chiefly in the smaller hamlets, the same 
 room is guest-house and mosque. It is a large 
 room absolutely devoid of furniture ; there is often 
 a sort of hearth in the centre where a fire is lit 
 
278 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 when needed for making coffee for guests, or in 
 cold weather for warmth. The roof is generally 
 black with the smoke of years, as there is rarely 
 any sort of chimney, and the smoke fills the apart- 
 ment, escaping only through the door and window. 
 
 It is a picturesque sight which these guest-rooms 
 present at night, with a crowd of swarthy men 
 seated on the ground in various easy attitudes 
 around the central hearth, on which burns a fire of 
 twigs, the bright blaze lighting up their weather- 
 beaten faces and bringing into sharp relief the 
 white beards of the older men. The long pipes are 
 filled and lit, and their smoke mingles with that of 
 the fire. There is the hum of conversation all 
 round, or else breathless silence while someone tells 
 a thrilling tale of adventure, robbery, or war ; or an 
 animated discussion takes place over some matter 
 of keen local interest. Many an evening have I 
 spent in the village guest-houses, and many an 
 attentive audience have I had as I told the story 
 of redemption in Jesus Christ to the Moslem 
 villagers. 
 
 If a guest arrives during the day for an hour or 
 two's rest, a mat will be spread for him, and 
 mattresses and cushions fetched from the sheikh's 
 house, and he will be urged to take his rest ; food 
 will generally be quickly brought — two or three 
 loaves of bread and some olives, or grapes or figs, 
 according to the time of year, or, if a person of 
 importance, a fowl will be killed and quickly 
 cooked for him. If, however, he stay the night, a 
 more substantial meal will be provided. After the 
 
SUPPER 279 
 
 evening prayers in the mosque, a large copper tray 
 or wooden bowl, heaped high with boiled rice or 
 cracked wheat, or sometimes with wheat below, for 
 the ordinary guests, and rice above for the more 
 distinguished ones, is brought in. On the rice are 
 joints of meat, mutton, or goat's flesh (the ordinary 
 peasants never eat beef), and the master of the 
 ceremonies carries an armful of round flat loaves of 
 bread which he distributes at intervals round the 
 dish. The guests then take their places, having 
 first washed their hands. With a ' In the name of 
 God,' each plunges his right hand into the pile of 
 rice, and dexterously rolling up a ball of it, conveys 
 it to his mouth. The meat, which is always boiled, 
 is very thoroughly cooked, so that it is easy to 
 detach pieces with the right hand, it being con- 
 sidered very bad manners, especially by the 
 Moslems, to use the left hand. The sheikh 
 waits personally on the guests, often holding the 
 light that they may better see, urging them to eat, 
 or tearing off some dainty piece and putting it 
 before some guest whom he wishes specially to 
 honour. 
 
 The Fellahin do not usually drink till towards 
 the close of a meal, and then they do so as a rule 
 from the Slierbeh, or water cooler, which is a small 
 pitcher with a spout at one side, from which they 
 pour the water into their mouths without touching 
 the vessel with their lips, as they all have the 
 knack of swallowing the water with their mouths 
 wide open. 
 
 After supper coffee is invariably served. This 
 
280 MISCEIJLANEOUS 
 
 beverage is so widely used that it may almost be 
 said to be a necessary of the Arab's life. On the 
 arrival of guests it is always offered to them, being 
 made then and there. If no fire be actually 
 burning at the time, a few sticks are taken and 
 kindled, and the requisite number of coffee-beans 
 are placed in a large shallow iron spoon and care- 
 fully roasted over the flame, being stirred with an 
 iron rod all the time to prevent them burning. 
 When sufficiently roasted they are poured into a 
 mortar made of stone or wood, and pounded with 
 a wooden pestal, the coffee-maker beating a sort of 
 tattoo on the sides and bottom of the mortar with 
 the pestle as he does so. This sound produced by 
 anyone who is clever at it is much admired by the 
 Arabs, and is not unpleasing to a European ear. 
 When pounded, the fragrant powder is put in a 
 deep brass or iron pot, with the due amount of 
 water, and placed on the embers to boil. To get 
 the full flavour out of it, it ought to be brought to 
 the boil four or five times, being allowed to subside 
 as often by removing the vessel for a few seconds 
 from the fire. When ready, the coffee-maker takes 
 one or more china cups, which he usually washes 
 out first, and, pouring a little coffee into one cup, 
 next empties it into the other cups in succession, 
 and then drinks it himself. This is to show that 
 there is no poison in any of the cups, a common 
 method of getting rid of an enemy being by means 
 of a cup of poisoned coffee. The preliminaries 
 being concluded, the coffee is served out. 
 
 The cups, which are of various shapes, contain 
 

 COFFEE-MAKIXG. 
 
 PEASANTS OF THE .IE1SEL AJLUN. 
 
 7 i ice pc ;» ..■■:!. 
 
COFFEE-MAKING 281 
 
 usually but little more than a good-sized egg-cup, 
 and are filled about two-thirds full. It is proper to 
 sip it slowly, and somewhat noisily, to show one's 
 appreciation of it ! Guests or strangers, in order 
 of rank or precedence, are always served first, 
 unless there be someone of much higher position 
 than anyone else present. It is drunk both 
 sweetened and unsweetened, the latter being 
 always served after a meal, and milk is never 
 added ; at other times a guest will often be asked 
 whether he prefers it ' sweet ' or ' bitter.' When 
 the cup is returned to the server, the latter receives 
 it in his left hand, and immediately covers it with 
 his right, lest the guest's feelings should be offended 
 by the sight of the grounds ! The Fellahin are 
 great connoisseurs of coffee, though not quite so 
 much so, perhaps, as the Bedouin, and it is used on 
 all manner of occasions. Hardly ever is a bargain 
 set about without this preliminary ; every guest as 
 he arrives must be welcomed with it, and it is 
 wonderful how it smooths over obstacles and 
 prepares the way for an amicable settlement of 
 difficult and contentious matters. In my itinerant 
 missionary work I have, times without number, 
 proved it invaluable in collecting an attentive 
 audience to listen to my message. 
 
 Children are not usually given coffee in the 
 guest-houses, or on public occasions, and when a 
 youth begins to have it habitually he is considered 
 to have come to man's estate. A few of the more 
 ascetic Moslems do not drink coffee, classing it 
 with alcoholic beverages forbidden by their prophet. 
 
282 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 Technically speaking, no doubt they are right, the 
 Arabic word for coffee being an archaic term for 
 wine. But there can be little doubt but that it 
 was transferred to coffee, and that the latter is not 
 included in the prohibition referred to in the Koran. 
 
 The food and coffee for guests, and fodder for 
 their horses, is usually supplied at the cost of the 
 villagers in general, but different plans are adopted 
 in different places for assessing the people. In one 
 village I know, the families in rotation supply any 
 guests there may be with supper. In this case 
 each family gives some different article to the 
 sheikh of the place, and he arranges these in order ; 
 and when the family whose object is next in the 
 row has provided supper in its turn, its token is 
 removed and placed last, and so on till the whole is 
 finished, and the turns begin again. 
 
 In another place I know well the food for the 
 soldiers who come to collect the taxes, and the corn 
 for their horses, is assessed on the people according 
 to the amount of land each owns. The name of 
 each proprietor of land is written on one or more 
 pieces of paper, according to the smaller or larger 
 number of Feddadin, or acres, he has, these pieces 
 of paper being strung on a thread which is then 
 fastened to a stick in shape of a bow, all the papers 
 being pushed to one end. Each time a man (the 
 next in order) provides food or fodder for the 
 soldiers the piece of paper bearing his name is 
 pushed to the other end of the string. At yet 
 other places the villagers pay a fixed amount per 
 annum towards the cost of entertaining guests. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 miscellaneous (continued) 
 
 Justice was formerly almost exclusively adminis- 
 tered by the village sheikhs, and though, since the 
 introduction by the late Midhat Pasha of European 
 modes of civil government, the Ottoman Power has 
 taken these matters more into its own immediate 
 control, yet many cases are settled locally without 
 ever coming into the Turkish courts. This holds 
 good not only in minor matters, but even in such 
 serious ones as murder. Custom and unwritten 
 law have much to do with these things, and though 
 now the Turkish authorities intervene in many 
 cases, yet there are very many of which they never 
 hear, or of which they take no cognizance. In the 
 cases where they do intervene I have never once 
 known the death penalty to be inflicted, even where 
 there was no manner of doubt as to the man's guilt. 
 The utmost that has been done in such cases is to 
 sentence the criminal to fifteen years' imprison- 
 ment, which is usually carried out in the ' Blood 
 Prison ' of Jerusalem or in that of Acca — a punish- 
 ment which, as the natives themselves say, is 
 wholly inadequate as a deterrent. Where, how- 
 
 283 
 
284 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 ever, the people take the matter into their own 
 hands, blood can, as a rule, only be atoned for by 
 blood. Thus, if a man were murdered, his relations 
 might kill any member of the family of the man 
 who had committed the crime, however distantly 
 connected he might be, and nothing would be said ; 
 or, instead of putting the murderer to death, they 
 might plunder him of everything. Failing any 
 relation of the criminal, any friend, or even anyone 
 from the same clan or village, may be put to death. 
 This custom is still in force. Some years ago I 
 was travelling east of the Jordan in a district with 
 which I was unfamilar, and accordingly took a 
 guide with me, who was to go as far as a certain 
 town in Western Palestine, the latter part of the 
 journey being quite new to him. The last day, 
 after we had crossed the Jordan, I happened to 
 mention incidentally that we should pass a certain 
 village, at which he expressed great alarm, telling 
 me that a man from there had lately been murdered 
 at his village, and the murder having been not yet 
 arranged about, he felt sure he would be killed 
 were he recognised by the people of the place we 
 were approaching as being from the district where 
 the murder occurred. Happily he was not detected, 
 but he was in great trepidation till we had got 
 safely past. 
 
 Sometimes a murder is settled by a money pay- 
 ment arranged between the relations of the murderer 
 and murdered person. Recently a man from a 
 village near Jerusalem murdered another from a 
 place in the maritime plain. The affair was finally 
 
IN THE HILL COUNTRY. 
 
 * 
 
 
 S ^'V : y' 
 
 * -Jk 
 
 
 " RUJ.M. 
 
 Tofaeepage 285. 
 
MURDERS 285 
 
 settled by the people of the former place paying a 
 sum of £200 to the people of the latter, and giving 
 a girl also, worth at least £50, as a bride to a man 
 there, the people from the village in the plain being 
 allowed to come and choose any girl there. 
 
 In cases where a man is murdered, and the 
 murderer is also killed on the spot, no information 
 is given to the Government, and no more notice is 
 taken of it, as the affair is considered to be closed 
 by the death of the latter. 
 
 If a man is found murdered by the wayside, a 
 small cairn of stones is piled upon the spot, and 
 each person from the dead man's village, as he 
 passes, throws a stone upon it until the murder is 
 arranged, or until, from lapse of time, the affair 
 ceases to be remembered. Such cairns are often 
 seen near the road, and are known as Rujm Ful&n 
 (So-and-so's heap), or simply as Meshad — i.e., a 
 witness. 
 
 There are villages in different parts of the country 
 whose inhabitants are notorious as thieves ; indeed, 
 there are people whose business is to go about the 
 country stealing animals. I once came across a 
 couple of these fellows who were professional 
 donkey-stealers. They would cut out a straggling 
 ass from a caravan, or an animal which had been 
 sent out to graze with others, and which had 
 wandered too far from a not overwatchful herds- 
 man. These men would not stop at murder should 
 the owner arrive on the scene and attempt to 
 recover his property, provided the risks were not 
 too great. There is a not inconsiderable amount 
 
286 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 of cattle-stealing in the same way, the animals 
 being driven to a convenient town and sold to the 
 butchers ; and if common report is to be credited, 
 a good deal of the beef sold in Jerusalem is obtained 
 in this manner. 
 
 A certain amount of smuggling is carried on in 
 salt. Salt is a monopoly of the Turkish Govern- 
 ment, which manufactures immense quantities from 
 sea-water. This is sold throughout the country, 
 each family in the villages having to buy from the 
 authorities a certain amount per annum. As is 
 well known, enormous deposits of salt exist in the 
 neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, and this is 
 smuggled to a small extent by the Bedouin, who 
 bring it by night to the villages and sell it at a 
 much lower rate than the Government article. 
 
 There is a bad custom, happily but rarely found, 
 of injuring people, or of revenging an injury, real 
 or imaginary, which consists in cutting down a 
 person's olive or other fruit-bearing trees, or injuring 
 them so that they gradually die. It is, however, 
 looked upon by the people themselves as particularly 
 barbarous, and is but seldom resorted to ; but I 
 have known a few cases of it, one of them being of 
 a particularly atrocious character. A man died, 
 leaving to his only son, a child, certain property, 
 part of which consisted of fruit-trees — olives, figs, 
 etc. — the land on which they grew, in accordance 
 with the peculiar tenure already explained, not 
 being his. One morning it was found that during 
 the night all the trees had been cut down, doubtless 
 by, or at the instigation of, the owner of the ground, 
 
BEGGARS 287 
 
 the child thus losing, by Turkish law, all claim to 
 the ground, and its value to the other owner being of 
 course greatly enhanced thereby. No attempt was 
 ever made, as far as 1 know, to bring the offenders 
 to justice. 
 
 If a person who is much disliked for any reason 
 leaves a village, at the time of his departure some- 
 one takes an old jar, or other earthenware vessel of 
 no value, and as the obnoxious individual goes out 
 of the place dashes it to the ground behind him, 
 shattering it in pieces. Two ideas underlie this, 
 one being that the person against whom it is 
 directed is as worthless as the old jar, and the other 
 the hope that their return will be as impossible as 
 the restoration of the shattered vessel. 
 
 Beggars are numerous in Palestine, and will 
 become more so, since the poverty of the country 
 as a whole is steadily increasing. I do not mean 
 by beggars the people who tease travellers on the 
 beaten tourist track for Backshish, an annoyance 
 for which the travellers themselves are chiefly 
 responsible, but those who are systematic beggars. 
 There are what may be called professional beggars, 
 who year by year put in an appearance in the chief 
 towns as the tourist season comes on, and of whom 
 a few are well off. There are many others, chiefly 
 from the villages, who are really very poor, or who 
 are from some bodily infirmity unable to work, and 
 have no one to support them. They may be seen, 
 any day almost, sitting by the wayside with out- 
 stretched hand (an attitude which probably suggested 
 to St. Paul the graphic simile in Rom. viii. 19) near 
 
288 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 some well-frequented shrine, or outside the gate of 
 a city, asking for alms. ' Alms !' they cry — ■ alms, 
 sir !' ' Alms, O lady !' ' May God preserve your 
 children !' ■ An offering ' (that is, to God) ; or, 
 more simply still, ' God exists,' 'God is gracious.' 
 Or they come round to the houses with their im- 
 portunate cry. They receive a great deal from the 
 people, chiefly in the shape of food, alms-giving 
 being repeatedly enjoined on Moslems in the 
 Koran, and being considered to win merit in the 
 world to come. In rich families, if a member is 
 sick, loaves of bread will be put round the patient's 
 bed, and then given to the beggars in hope that it 
 will be accepted as an offering to God on his behalf, 
 and that he will recover. 
 
 Borrowing is one of the curses of Palestine ; 
 almost everyone borrows, and the rate of interest is 
 abnormally high — this not so much because of 
 insufficient security as because the borrower is at 
 the mercy of the lender. Most men, do what they 
 will, have at times to borrow, chiefly because of the 
 changed and changing conditions of life and govern- 
 ment to which a people, one of the most conserva- 
 tive on the face of the earth, naturally is very 
 slow in adapting itself. As has been already men- 
 tioned, the Fellah may be comfortably off, well 
 clad, have abundance of wheat, a good store of 
 dried figs, lentils, barley, etc., in his bins, a flock of 
 goats and sheep, several yoke of oxen, a good mare 
 or two, and yet possess hardly any money. One 
 day the Government officials appear, usually with- 
 out warning, at his village, and he has to pay a 
 
USURY 289 
 
 large sum down in hard cash. After scraping 
 together every para that he can find, and calling 
 in all the small local debts due to him, he is still 
 a large amount short. What can he do ? A 
 merchant from the city is there, or a Moslem 
 grandee, with his pockets full of dollars, and he 
 is willing to accommodate our Fellah ; but he 
 must have not only substantial security, but a good 
 rate of interest also — 20, 25, even 30 per cent. 
 (I have known 40 per cent, demanded and given 
 for a large loan). • What can I do ?' says the poor 
 man. He knows quite well that, were he to say, 
 4 1 can't get the money just now,' he would be 
 probably marched off to prison, if unable to bribe 
 the collector to wait ; besides which it would cost 
 him a great deal more to get out of prison, in 
 addition to his loss of time, than the interest he 
 must pay to the money-lender. Then, if the 
 harvest be a failure, or the olive crop short, and he 
 cannot repay the principal, the enormous interest 
 runs on and has to be paid year by year. 
 
 Few of the peasants are provident enough, when 
 they have money, to put any by for taxes or other 
 emergency, so when there is any sudden demand for 
 ready-money, the man who has it to lend can make 
 almost any terms he likes. Savings-banks are un- 
 known ; the few banks there are in the country are 
 all in the towns, at a considerable distance often, 
 and none of them will now, I believe, lend on the 
 security of land, and if they did, their history has 
 sometimes not been such as to inspire the peasantry 
 with confidence in them. The borrower generally 
 
 19 
 
290 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 gives a mortgage on his house and land, and the 
 lands of whole villages have sometimes been thus 
 acquired by one man, and at far less than their real 
 value. 
 
 All this applies to comparatively large trans- 
 actions ; where the amounts are smaller, or the 
 security is less, higher rates than these are charged, 
 especially where the loan is for a short time only. 
 Thus, sometimes there is a great demand for the 
 Turkish dollar, in which certain Government dues 
 have to be paid, and for the loan for a few weeks of 
 these coins interest at the rate of upwards of 100 per 
 cent, per annum is by no means unknown. 
 
 People often borrow to enable them to marry — 
 that is, to pay the dowry demanded by the bride's 
 father ; or a man will borrow to enable him to 
 ' buy ' an eligible bride for his son. This is well 
 illustrated by one of their proverbs, ' He who 
 marries on borrowed money, his children pay the 
 interest,' such debts often remaining like a mill- 
 stone round the neck of the man and his family to 
 the end of his life. 
 
 The taxation of the country is a very serious 
 question from whichever side it is viewed. Direct 
 taxation is quite a modern innovation, and is a result 
 of the attempt, due largely to the initiation of the 
 late Midhat Pasha, to Europeanize the codes and 
 methods of the Ottoman Empire. The present 
 system has been gradually introduced within the 
 memory of some still living in Palestine, and as 
 now administered shows how unsuited European, 
 or quasi-European, methods may be to Orientals. 
 
TAXATION 291 
 
 The taxes are numerous, and press very heavily 
 on the people. There is the land-tax on all but 
 freehold and Church property ; the sheep-tax, so 
 much per annum on every sheep and goat ; a road- 
 tax, for making roads in the province where it is 
 levied, although the roads are often delayed for 
 many years ; tithes, which are, legally, a tenth of 
 the crops and an eighth of the tenth, but which in 
 practice may be anything. In addition to these, 
 help is frequently asked for the Sultan, and this 
 impost, though in theory optional, as a matter of 
 fact is compulsory. All the above-mentioned taxes 
 are levied on Moslems and Christians alike, but in 
 addition to them Christians have to pay a military 
 tax. As a badge of servitude they have never been 
 allowed to bear arms, and in lieu of military service 
 all males have to pay a yearly poll-tax. But the 
 chief burden of taxation consists rather in the 
 manner of its collection. This is done by mounted 
 gendarmerie, who come to a village without warning 
 and stay there till they have got the amount they 
 want, living meanwhile at the expense of the 
 Fellahin. By law, whatever is supplied them or 
 their horses ought to be deducted from the taxes, 
 but, as a matter of fact, I have never heard of its 
 being done ; and these soldiers expect to be supplied 
 with the best of everything in the village. 
 
 The taxes are not assessed in most cases on the 
 individual villagers, but on the village as a whole. 
 The lands, moreover, which from time immemorial 
 have belonged to certain villages, are still reckoned 
 as belonging to them, even though much of them 
 
 19—2 
 
292 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 may pass, and in many instances actually has passed, 
 into the hands of persons belonging to other places. 
 A man may thus own land belonging originally to 
 half a dozen villages, and which in the Government 
 books is still entered as part of the property of those 
 places ; consequently, instead of paying a lump 
 sum to the Government for these various properties, 
 he has to do it through the local representatives in 
 each place. These representatives (Ikhtiyariyeh) 
 are chosen by the different houses or families, and 
 it is to them, with the village sheikh, that the 
 Government sends orders as to the amount of taxes 
 demanded from each village, and they have to make 
 the best terms they can for their people. They 
 have to sign or seal the formal document stating 
 the sums required in any year from their village, 
 and without their signature or seal the amount 
 cannot be legally demanded. Sometimes they 
 stand out against what they consider to be an 
 exorbitant demand, but there are various ways of 
 bringing pressure to bear upon them, and the docu- 
 ment is usually signed without alteration. When 
 this is done the amount required has to be appor- 
 tioned amongst the villagers. These representa- 
 tives wish to feather their own nests, and so they 
 add something for themselves to the already heavy 
 burden of taxation. In the apportioning also of the 
 various sums to be paid by different people there is 
 room for an immense amount of favouritism and 
 unfair dealing. 
 
 Sometimes the taxes, after being paid to the 
 Ikhtiyariyeh, are paid directly to the Government, 
 
FARMING TAXES 293 
 
 but more often there is a middleman, who is called 
 a Multezzim., or farmer of taxes, who has bought 
 from the Government the taxes of a village for a 
 year for a certain fixed sum. The Multezzim 
 expects, of course, not only to recoup himself what 
 he has paid to the exchequer, but also to make a 
 handsome profit, and to enable him to do so, all the 
 power of the authorities is at his disposal should he 
 wish to invoke it. This, again, opens the door to 
 every kind of exaction, especially where, as is some- 
 times done, the village representatives, instead of 
 resisting an unjust demand on the part of a Multez- 
 zim, will accept a bribe from him to say nothing, 
 while the unhappy villagers are mulcted in a far 
 heavier tax than they ought legally to pay, and 
 have absolutely no redress. It need hardly be said 
 that these Multezzimin are detested by the people, 
 who are usually willing to pay the Government a 
 larger sum than they offer for the taxes, in order to 
 avoid their exactions. 
 
 The characteristics of the people of different 
 villages vary greatly. Thus, the inhabitants of 
 one village are notorious thieves, while the adjoining 
 village is well known as an industrious and honest 
 one. At one the inhabitants are skilled in some 
 trade or business, while at the next they are lazy 
 and ignorant. Some villages are notoriously stupid. 
 A story is told of one, not many miles from Jeru- 
 salem, that on a certain occasion not a single person 
 in it had any idea what day of the week it was, and 
 they had to send one of their number to a Christian 
 village some miles away to ascertain ! At another 
 
294 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 village, in a year of very short rainfall, only one 
 large cistern full of water remained to supply the 
 wants of the inhabitants. This they decided to 
 divide amongst them, and proceeded to do so by 
 laying sticks across the top, a place being assigned 
 to each family from which to draw, and the space 
 allotted to the sheikh of the village being twice as 
 wide as those for other people, on the ground that 
 he had to supply guests as well as the wants of his 
 own family ! 
 
 A curious custom of partnership in mares is 
 widely spread. If a mare is of really good breed, 
 or even if only a good walker and with good 
 qualities, it is usually too expensive for one man to 
 buy the whole of it, and he will own half, a third, 
 two-thirds, etc., as the case may be. The man who 
 feeds the animal has the use of it, but the foals are 
 given to the respective owners in proportion to their 
 shares in it. Thus, if two men own a mare between 
 them, they will have the foals alternately ; but if one 
 has two-thirds and the other only a third, the former 
 has, of course, two out of every three foals, and the 
 latter only one, and so on. 
 
 I once bought half a mare from a man who pro- 
 fessed to own the whole, but I found after a while 
 that there was another partner who had a fourth 
 share in her. Joint ownership in a steed is con- 
 sidered to constitute a special link between the two 
 parties. ' It is,' so the man above mentioned ex- 
 plained to me, ' as if I had married your daughter 
 or you had married mine !' This quasi-relationship 
 (at least, where a European is concerned) is rather 
 
HORSES' TAILS 295 
 
 a nuisance, and in my case I terminated it as soon 
 as I could by purchasing the rest of the shares. 
 
 The Fellahin like to let their horses' tails grow 
 very long, and in the case of white or gray {blue, as 
 the latter are called in Arabic) horses they often dye 
 them a bright orange colour with the leaves of the 
 henna tree (Lazvsonia inermis). In winter they tie 
 them up in a knot to keep them out of the mud. 
 They take it as an insult if anything be done to 
 the tail. I knew of a case where a man had a 
 beautiful long- tailed mare, which on one occasion, 
 while its owner was at a village on business, was 
 put in a stable where was another mare with a foal. 
 This foal during the night bit off a great part of 
 the visitor's tail, a not uncommon trick of foals in 
 Palestine, and the owner of the foal had to give the 
 other man a valuable present to make up for the 
 injury or slight thus done to him. 
 
 The native saddles are much broader than ours, 
 being very thickly padded, and are very uncomfort- 
 able for Europeans to ride. The bits are exceed- 
 ingly powerful, and even cruel things, but quite 
 unnecessarily so. The horses' mouths are no harder 
 than those of Europe, and in the case of horses I 
 have had for any time I invariably used an ordinary 
 English bit with curb, but always rode them on 
 the snaffle, and found it sufficient, except when 
 they tried to bolt. The stirrups are great shovel- 
 shaped plates of iron or brass, the corners of whicli 
 are used instead of spurs. The Arabs ride with 
 very short stirrups, retaining their seats by their 
 splendid balance rather than by the grip of the 
 
5296 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 knees. They guide their horses, too, by the pressure 
 of the rein on the neck of the steed, and not by the 
 bit. In the hot weather, especially on long journeys, 
 a cloth is usually tied under the horse's body over 
 the girths in order to keep off the flies, which are 
 a terrible torment at times to both horse and rider. 
 For the same purpose ornamental trappings of wool 
 are hung over the horse's neck, falling over its chest, 
 the numerous tassels flapping about as the animal 
 goes along helping to hinder the flies from alighting 
 on its body. 
 
 The Fellahin are very shrewd in giving nick- 
 names to people, seizing on some peculiarity, 
 characteristic, or feature. Thus I remember a 
 traveller who had long flowing whiskers who, in 
 accordance with a well-known Arabic idiom, was 
 promptly dubbed 'the Father of Two Beards.' 
 
 The reckoning of time is always very puzzling to 
 a new-comer to Palestine, there being practically 
 four different methods. The Jews have their 
 ancient reckoning, the ecclesiastical year beginning 
 at the Passover, in the spring, and the civil year in 
 the autumn. The Mohammedan year is a lunar, 
 and not, as ours, a solar year. It is, therefore, 
 twelve or thirteen days shorter than ours, and their 
 Moslem New Year's Day travels backward, so to 
 speak, that number of days every year. The 
 Christians, on the other hand, follow the solar 
 reckoning, but here again there are two different 
 ways of calculating the time. The Oriental Churches 
 follow the Eastern reckoning, better known in 
 England as the Old Style, and that which still 
 
RECKONING OF TIME 297 
 
 obtains in Russia. The Roman Catholics and 
 Protestant bodies use the Western reckoning in 
 common with the greater part of the civilized 
 world. In all legal documents it has to be clearly 
 specified which reckoning is intended. The error 
 in calculation which has produced the difference 
 in the Eastern and Western times increases this 
 difference by a day each century. Thus, in 1900 
 the difference between the two amounted to twelve 
 days, and in 1901 to thirteen. This fact, together 
 with the different manner of calculating Easter, 
 makes a considerable difference each year in the 
 interval between the days on which the Eastern 
 and Western Churches observe the festival. Thus, 
 very occasionally the two coincide, but usually 
 there is an interval of one or more weeks between 
 them, and even sometimes it amounts to as much 
 as five weeks. 
 
 The day in the East is still considered to begin 
 at sunset, and in Arabic the term ' to-night ' means 
 what we should call 'last night.' Thus, two 
 friends meeting on a journey will sometimes ask 
 each other, ' Where did you stay to-night ?' an 
 expression which sounds strange to us, but is by 
 their reckoning the correct one. 
 
 A common way of reckoning for the repayment 
 of loans among the Fellahin is from harvest to 
 harvest, or, as they phrase it, ' from threshing-floor 
 to threshing-floor.' I once heard of a peasant who 
 borrowed a sum of money from another, which 
 was to be repaid in a year. They ■ wrote a paper,' 
 as the saying is, about it. Soon after a townsman, 
 
298 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 a friend of the creditor, heard of it, and, meeting 
 the man one day, inquired if he had taken the 
 precaution of stating the date at which the loan 
 was to be repaid, and was assured it was so. On 
 asking to see the document, he found that 
 Mohammed Abdullah promised to pay Hassan 
 Ahmed such-and-such a sum when next the Jak us 
 (a kind of cucumber) were ripe ! 
 
 Another thing which is peculiarly tiying and 
 puzzling to a foreigner at first, and which, even 
 after many years' residence and a wide experience, 
 adds enormously to the difficulties of book-keeping, 
 is the complexity of the coinage. As already 
 mentioned, there is but little actual cash in the 
 country. In the towns this is to some extent 
 obviated by the large amount of foreign money 
 in circulation, especially the twenty-franc pieces 
 of France, Italy, Austria, Greece, etc., as well as 
 some of the silver currency of those countries ; but 
 in the villages the only foreign money which will 
 be accepted is the gold coinage, the small change 
 being Turkish only. It is well known that the 
 piastre is the unit by which the values of all coins 
 are calculated throughout the Ottoman Empire ; 
 but, strange as it may seem, there is now no such 
 coin as a piastre in existence in Syria, although the 
 coins are all either multiples or fractions of the 
 piastre. The consequence of this is that this 
 imaginary coin has different values in different parts 
 of the country ; thus, in Jerusalem the Turkish 
 dollar, the Mejidie — so called from having been first 
 coined by a former Sultan called Abd-ul-Majid 
 
SEALS 299 
 
 (Slave of the Glorious One ) — is worth twenty- 
 three piastres, at Jaffa it is worth twenty-five, 
 but at Gaza it is equal to forty-six. Nor is this 
 all : the merchant has one piastre, the Government 
 another. In the shop, the bazaar, and in all the 
 commercial transactions of daily life, prices are 
 stated in the former, which is known as Shuruk ; 
 while taxes, stamps, telegrams, Government fees, 
 etc., are calculated in the latter, known as Sagh. 
 The hindrance which all this complicated system 
 is to commerce is better imagined than described. 
 
 In witnessing legal documents, wills, contracts, 
 deeds of sale, and in signing letters, a man's 
 signature has no value in the East : he must affix 
 his seal to them. This no doubt arose from the fact 
 that very few people could write, and that, as 
 to-day, most letters were written by a scribe or 
 professional letter -writer, consequently the fact 
 of a man's name being appended to a document 
 was no proof that he was bound by its contents ; 
 so seals were invented, each person having his 
 own seal, made of brass or silver, with his name 
 engraved on it, and this he carried about with him. 
 To give one's seal to another man to use on one's 
 behalf would imply unbounded confidence in him, 
 and would be like giving a signed blank cheque 
 to another in England. I have, however, occa- 
 sionally known this done when some important 
 document had to be witnessed and one of the 
 signatories could not be present ; the absentee 
 sent his seal by someone else to be affixed to the 
 deed. The seal is not used, as in England, with 
 
300 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 wax, but ink. A little of the thick native ink 
 is spread over the seal with the tip of the little 
 finger, and then allowed to become nearly dry ; 
 the paper at the spot where it has to be affixed 
 is next damped, and the seal is pressed on it, and 
 leaves a black disc with the inscription in white in 
 the centre. 
 
 The musical instruments of the Fellahin are few 
 and simple. The commonest is the pipe. This 
 consists usually of two reeds, about the thickness 
 of a finger, fastened side by side, with six holes in 
 each. In the top of these reeds two smaller ones 
 are inserted loosely, forming the mouth-pieces. 
 These are formed as follows : A thin reed is taken, 
 and a piece about 3j> inches long is cut off at a 
 joint, the upper end being closed by the joint ; the 
 lower and open end is trimmed to fit closely in the 
 upper end of one of the large ones ; then a notch is 
 cut about two-thirds of the length of the mouth- 
 piece from the top, just through the wall of the 
 reed, and a cut made up to the joint, thus forming 
 a tongue or vibrator, which remains attached at its 
 upper end. The second mouth-piece is exactly like 
 the first, and both are attached to the rest of the 
 pipe by strings that they may not be lost, as they 
 fit but loosely into the latter. To play the instru- 
 ment the two mouth-pieces are put in the reeds, 
 and then inserted in the mouth, up to the top of 
 the large reeds. Both are of the same pitch and 
 produce the same notes, the object of the second 
 pipe being merely to increase the volume of sound. 
 The different notes are produced by playing the 
 
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 301 
 
 three fingers of each hand across the two rows of 
 holes. Sometimes the pipe has the second reed 
 much larger than the first, and without holes, the 
 effect being like that of the drone of the Highland 
 bagpipes. Occasionally other substances than 
 reeds are used. I once had a pipe which was made 
 of the leg-bones of a vulture. Another kind of 
 pipe is made of a single large reed, in appearance 
 rather like a flute, but blown from the upper end 
 instead of from the side. 
 
 Another musical instrument is a kind of violin. 
 This consists of a rectangular box made of a wooden 
 framework over which a skin is tightly sewn. From 
 the centre of one of the short sides an iron pin pro- 
 jects, and from the opposite one a horn or piece 
 of rounded wood about 20 inches long. A single 
 string of several strands of horsehair is fastened to 
 this iron pin, and, passing over a little wooden 
 bridge near to the lower end of the box, is secured 
 to a peg in the horn, the peg being used to tighten 
 up the string, as in our violins. The bow is formed 
 of a stout rough twig, with a few horsehairs 
 stretched tightly across. The player sits to play, 
 holding the instrument before him, resting it on the 
 ground by the pin at the lower end. 
 
 Small hand-drums made of pottery, in shape like 
 the neck and upper part of a large jar, are much 
 used on festival occasions ; animal membrane is tied 
 tightly over the larger end, the smaller one being 
 left open. It is held under the arm, being beaten 
 with the palm of the hand. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 PROVERBS 
 
 No work on the Fellahin could be at all complete 
 which did not give some account of their proverbs. 
 Throughout the East the proverb or parable (in 
 colloquial Arabic the two are synonymous) plays a 
 very large part in conversation, teaching, and con- 
 troversy. One reason of this is that the Oriental 
 mind, as compared with the Western, is not a 
 logical one. Close-reasoned argument appeals but 
 little, even to educated men. With all classes, but 
 especially with the uneducated, an apt illustration 
 or an appropriate proverb will be infinitely more 
 convincing than the best reasoned and most logical 
 proof. 
 
 Our blessed Lord's frequent use of parables and 
 metaphor is in the fullest accord with the mental 
 processes and characteristics of the Gentile in- 
 habitants of Palestine to-day, as it was with those 
 of their Jewish predecessors of His own time. 
 Very instructive, too, is the difference in this 
 respect between the writings of him who, an 
 Oriental by birth, was by education largely a 
 
 Western, the Apostle St. Paul. In his Epistle 
 
 302 
 
THE PROVERB 303 
 
 to the Romans, a Western race, we have closely- 
 reasoned argument of the very highest order ; but 
 in that to the Galatians, a race Oriental in its 
 characteristics (whatever its origin may have been), 
 we find little or no argument, but much illustration. 
 
 If this holds good of the East generally, it does 
 so very especially of the Arabic-speaking races, and 
 the Fellahin of Palestine are no exception. Their 
 language is one which lends itself peculiarly well 
 to terse epigrammatic expression. The wide area 
 over which it is spoken, and the great length of 
 time during which it has been in use, have also 
 tended to enrich it in this way. From a literary 
 point of view the Arabs distinguish between the 
 proverb (Metkal) and the aphorism (Kddthah), but 
 in practice all are included in the former term. 
 
 The number of Arabic proverbs is enormous, and 
 large volumes of them have been published. The 
 Fellahin have many in current use, and no incon- 
 siderable portion of these are peculiar to them, not 
 being found in any known collection. Of those 
 current among the peasantry I have collected some 
 nine hundred. No doubt a good many of these are 
 included in one or other of the various collections, 
 but a considerable portion are not found in print. 
 It is of the greatest value to the missionary, and, 
 indeed, to all who wish to be able to enter fully 
 into the conversation of the people, to have a good 
 knowledge of the more generally used proverbs and 
 sayings, not only as illustrating the mode of thought 
 of the people, but also as giving the European an 
 effective means of conveying teaching in a form 
 
304 PROVERBS 
 
 readily assimilated by the Oriental. ' We have a 
 proverb ' or ' like the proverb ' is a frequent clincher 
 to a statement or proof. 
 
 It goes without saying that, as in other languages, 
 many a proverb is untranslatable, its whole point 
 turning on a play on words, an alliteration, or an 
 onomatopoetic term, and the like. 
 
 Archbishop Trench, in his lectures on Proverbs, 
 speaking of the collection of modern Arabic saws 
 gathered in Egypt by the traveller Burckhardt, 
 says that they reveal ' generally the whole character 
 of life, alike the outward and inward, as poor, mean, 
 sordid, and ignoble, with only a few faintest glimpses 
 of that romance which one usually attaches to the 
 East.' Such words, however true they may be of 
 the particular collection to which they are applied, 
 are certainly in no way applicable to those under 
 review now. The really bad proverbs are, as far as 
 my experience goes, very few ; here and there one 
 comes across a coarse one ; some there are which 
 one must class as cynical ; while yet others with 
 shrewd, but not unkindly, hand reveal the real 
 motives of a fallen nature, shared alike by Easterns 
 and Westerns ; many show a kindly wit, and some 
 are really beautiful. 
 
 Of course, not a few of these proverbs express, 
 with local colouring, ideas which are found in all 
 ages and wisdom common to all nations. Among 
 these the following will readily suggest parallels in 
 our own and other languages : ' If speech be silver, 
 silence is gold.' ' Rippling water will not drown 
 anyone.' ' One bitten (by a snake) fears a rope.' 
 
RELIGIOUS PROVERBS 305 
 
 1 Stretch your legs according to your bed,' which 
 expresses the same idea as our proverb, ' Cut your 
 coat according to your cloth.' ' Dine and rest, sup 
 and walk,' of which there is a longer version, ' Dine 
 and rest, though but for two minutes ; sup and 
 walk, though but two steps.' ' Don't say " beans " 
 till they are in your bag ' is the equivalent of 
 'Don't count your chickens before they are 
 hatched,' the circumstance that the words in Arabic 
 for ' bag ' and ' beans ' rhyme with each other being 
 the reason for the form of this proverb. ' The eye sees 
 not, the heart grieves not.' ' Absent from the eye, 
 absent from the mind.' ' Borrowed clothes don't 
 last.' ' When cooks increase the food is burnt.' 'Live 
 in a place and eat of its onions ' (a very favourite 
 vegetable with the Fellahin). These, taken almost 
 at random, will illustrate the similarity of thought 
 and expression which produced the proverbs in our 
 own language and Arabic. 
 
 1 The head has much headache ' is a good instance 
 of a saying which depends for its point on a two- 
 fold meaning of a word, ' head ' signifying also 
 ■ chief ' or ' sovereign,' the proverb being thus 
 the equivalent of our ' Uneasy lies the head that 
 wears a crown.' 
 
 Among a race so religiously-minded as the 
 Syrians, this feature is sure to be shown in their 
 proverbial sayings. The following specimens will 
 illustrate this : ' Men depend on men and all on 
 God.' ' There are no two together but God makes 
 a third.' ' An hour's blessing is worth a year's 
 labour.' A belief in God's care for the humblest 
 
 20 
 
306 PROVERBS 
 
 even of His creatures declares itself in ' God breaks 
 the camel to give the jackal a supper.' That the 
 fact of man's inherent sinfulness has been grasped 
 we see in the following : * Two only sin not, the 
 dead and the unborn.' 
 
 Those who have travelled in the East, and have 
 suddenly come on the hideous spectacle of the 
 bloated carcass of a horse or camel lying by the 
 wayside, with vultures, ravens, and the. half-wild 
 dogs tearing at it, will appreciate the insight of 
 ' The world is a carcass, and they that seek it are 
 dogs.' In contrast to this is a very beautiful one 
 on humility : ' Low-lying land drinks its own water 
 and that of other places.' One on patience runs: 
 ' Patience opens the door of rest.' A very fine one 
 is, ' Every soul is monarch in its own body.' 
 Covetousness is rebuked by ' Nothing will fill (i.e., 
 satisfy) the eye of man but a handful of earth (i.e., 
 the grave) '; while the uncertainty of all human 
 things is depicted by ' The world is a wheel, one 
 hour for you, the next against you.' The result of 
 sin is forcibly shown by, ' The devil's flour turns 
 out all bran.' 
 
 Full of wisdom are the two following : ' The 
 rose left a thorn behind it, and the thorn a rose.' 
 * A fool threw a stone into a well ; a hundred wise 
 men could not get it out.' Some of the proverbs 
 are keenly sarcastic ; one such which is particularly 
 applicable in the East, where a sort of clan life is in 
 vogue, is, * Your relations are your scorpions,' the 
 point of the comparison lying in the similarity of 
 the words for scorpions and relatives, which differ 
 
HOSPITALITY 307 
 
 only in the initial letters. The impossible is ex- 
 pressed by, ' One hand can't hold two water-melons,' 
 a fact self-evident to anyone who has seen those of 
 Palestine. An unreasonable man who seeks the 
 unattainable is described as 'wanting a wooden 
 cat which will mew and not eat.' A stupid woman 
 who does not see that her duty is at home is 
 depicted by the following : ' She left her husband 
 sorrowing, and went to comfort people at another 
 village.' 
 
 1 Between Bana and Hana our beard disappeared ' 
 is suggested by the well-known story of the man 
 who had two wives, one old, the other young ; the 
 former pulled all the black hairs out of his beard, 
 the other all the gray ones, and thus between them 
 he was left beardless, a great misfortune to an 
 Oriental. Another proverb on the beard is, ' Hair 
 on hair makes a beard,' being the equivalent of the 
 Scotch one, ' Mony a little makes a mickle.' 
 
 The hospitality of the Fellahin comes out in 
 their proverbs ; a good instance is, ' A small house 
 will hold a hundred friends ' — i.e., if they be really 
 friends ; or, ' Trade by the dram, generosity by 
 the hundredweight.' ' Who sows kindness reaps 
 gratitude ' is unfortunately not always true, and is 
 counterbalanced by another, used of an ungrateful 
 person, which runs : ' Like the mule, you give it its 
 fodder, it gives you a kick.' The fact that a small 
 kindness often results in a greater is graphically 
 shown by, ' A gift goes on a donkey and returns on 
 a camel.' But it is only right to add that this 
 proverb has another side to it, and that it is a 
 
 20—2 
 
308 PROVERBS 
 
 common practice to give a small present with the 
 view of bringing back a more valuable one. Another 
 referring to hospitality is, ' Feed the mouth, and 
 the eye will be ashamed ' — that is, the person will 
 be ashamed to do you harm. 
 
 Eastern justice (or what passes as such) is the 
 subject of several proverbs. Its inconsequence is 
 satirized in the following : ' If the tailor commits a 
 crime, we hang the saddler.' Someone must be 
 punished to save appearances, and the one who 
 comes handiest suffers, whether he be guilty or not. 
 ' He who goes to the Kadi alone will come back 
 satisfied ' is too obvious to require explanation, and 
 the same applies to ' Delay weakens justice.' 'The 
 sheikh's child is a sheikh,' ' The prince's dog is a 
 prince,' ' The respect for the slave is from the 
 respect for his master,' are all self-evident. 
 
 In the East saddle-bags are frequently carried on 
 horseback, being fastened to the back of the saddle 
 behind the rider. In them are placed the impedi- 
 menta for the journey, or the things purchased in 
 the town. This has given rise to a proverb on 
 ingratitude, which is as follows : ' We let him ride 
 behind us, and he put his hand into the saddle- 
 bags ' : the one who has been given a lift repays 
 the kindness by using the opportunity to steal from 
 his benefactor. Another, suggested by the long 
 journeys over the rough tracks called in the Orient, 
 by courtesy, roads, is, 'A long road brings out 
 faults.' 
 
 Trade, as might be supposed, gives rise to a good 
 many. ' Partnership is parting ' (an instance of the 
 
AGRICULTURAL PROVERBS 309 
 
 very few cases where an alliteration, or play on 
 words, can be translated) shows the bad side of 
 business matters. The meaning is that they who 
 formerly were friends, when they go into business 
 together, soon cease to be such, a sad comment 
 on the sharp practices common in those countries, 
 though by no means confined to them. Such 
 practices are illustrated by ' Selling is loss, buying 
 is trickery,' and rebuked by ' Greed is injury, not 
 gain.' ' One can't be both merchant and astro- 
 nomer ' is a truism. Another declares that * You 
 may overcome all enmity but that of your rival in 
 trade.' ' Don't praise the market till its close ' is 
 sound advice, as is ' Don't start a khan with one 
 donkey.' 
 
 Agriculture is another fruitful theme. The 
 following will show what a variety there is on 
 this subject. * The crooked furrow is from the 
 old ox.' * The diseased sheep infects the whole 
 flock.' * What is fallow is fallow, what is ploughed 
 is ploughed ' — that is, the matter is closed and the 
 opportunity gone. ' The reckoning of the thresh- 
 ing-floor does not tally with that of the field ' — used 
 of disappointed hopes. ' The master's eye is a 
 second spring.' The spring is the time when the 
 grass grows abundantly and animals are turned 
 out to graze and get into condition, so the word 
 has come to be used colloquially as meaning 
 abundant pasture ; this will make clear the idea 
 of the proverb. ' March milk is forbidden to 
 unbelievers.' This saying betrays its Mohammedan 
 origin ; the milk is at its best in March, and, 
 
310 PROVERBS 
 
 therefore, with the usual Moslem intolerance, is 
 to be denied to those of other creeds, who are all 
 contemptuously classed together as unbelievers. 
 ' When the cow falls there are many to flay her,' 
 • Like a camel ploughing, he treads down as fast 
 as he breaks up,' 'As you sow, thus you shall 
 reap.' ' There is dew and simoon when the olive 
 blossoms set,' need no explanation. 
 
 Of what may be called moral proverbs there are 
 many ; the following is a fine one : ' The patient 
 man conquered, the impatient became an un- 
 believer.' The adulation of the rich is ridiculed 
 in, ' If a rich man eat a snake, " How wise !" say 
 they ; if a poor man, " Oh, he is poor !" The two 
 following enforce the truth that circumstances will 
 not change a man's nature : ' The dog is a dog 
 though it wear a gold chain, and the Hon a lion 
 though brought up among dogs,' and ' The child 
 is a child though kadi of the town.' Idleness 
 meets a sharp rebuke in 'A hundred lazy men 
 won't build a mosque ' and ' The idle man's head 
 is the Devil's home,' or 'storehouse,' as another 
 version has it. 
 
 The proverb, « Much pulling (of the rope) cuts 
 the well's mouth,' is said to have originated in the 
 following story : A boy, once upon a time, found 
 the study of Arabic grammar so difficult that he 
 despaired of ever learning it, and finally ran away 
 from school. After wandering about a long time, 
 tired and thirsty, he sat down by a well where 
 Arab women were drawing water, and noticed 
 how, in the course of years, the soft ropes had worn 
 
THE GRAMMARIAN Sll 
 
 deep grooves in the hard stone coping of the well. 
 ' My comprehension,' thought he, ' is not so dense 
 as that stone, and grammar can surely, in time, 
 make more impression on it than these ropes have 
 made on the coping, so I will try again.' Accord- 
 ingly he went back to school, and (so the story runs) 
 ultimately became a famous Arab grammarian. 
 
 Speaking of grammarians, there is a very curious 
 proverb which runs as follows : ' I seek the protec- 
 tion of God from a Moslem who prays, a Christian 
 who turns grammarian, and a Jew who has grown 
 rich ; ' the reason of the saying is apparently that 
 in each case the man has become intolerably proud 
 and conceited. The first part of the proverb throws 
 a lurid light on Moslem religiousness, and well 
 illustrates a fact, with which anyone who has 
 lived much in the East is only too familiar, viz., 
 that a Mohammedan who has the highest reputa- 
 tion for sanctity may be one of the vilest of 
 mankind, and that frequently the more outwardly 
 devout he is, the less will his every-day life bear 
 inspection. 
 
 The average Oriental feels responsibility but little, 
 especially in regard to other people's property, a 
 characteristic well brought out in the following: 
 1 Like him who lost his aunt's donkey, if he 
 find it he sings, and if he doesn't find it he sings.' 
 Poverty and riches supply many sayings, such as 
 the following : ■ The penniless is the king's debtor.' 
 * The pauper is the king's enemy.' ' Wealth which 
 comes in at the door unjustly goes out at the 
 windows.' ' The marriage of paupers only increases 
 
312 PROVERBS 
 
 beggars.' Speaking of beggars suggests rather an 
 amusing proverb, used of a pupil who has eclipsed 
 his teacher : ' We taught him to beg, and he has 
 anticipated us at the doors.' 
 
 In the East, as everywhere else in the world, the 
 tongue is a common cause of discord and disagree- 
 ment, while the outdoor life, and close proximity 
 of the houses in the towns and villages, furnishes 
 unlimited facilities for gossip, with consequent 
 quarrels and mischief. ' Sit between two funerals 
 rather than between two washerwomen,' says one. 
 The point of this is that in the spring and autumn 
 a number of peasant women, after heavy rain, will 
 go out together into the fields or valleys, where 
 pools of water from the storm are to be found, 
 and work off their arrears of laundry work. On 
 such occasions, as may be well imagined, all the 
 scandal of the neighbourhood will be discussed. 
 Another proverb runs, ' The gossip of two women 
 will destroy two houses,' and another, 'An evil 
 tongue, like a shoemaker's knife, cuts only filth.' 
 The special force of this last saying lies in the 
 double meaning of the word ' cuts,' which signifies 
 both 'to cut' and 'to utter words.' The trade of 
 a shoemaker has always been rather looked down 
 upon in the East, and regarded as an unclean one. 
 For this reason, it is said, the evidence of a shoe- 
 maker was at one time not accepted in a court 
 of law.* 
 
 * A different explanation of this was once given me by an 
 educated Syrian, viz., that it was because shoemakers formerly 
 were chiefly Christians. But it is, I think, more probable 
 that this fact arose from the trade being considered unclean, 
 
MISCELLANEOUS PROVERBS 313 
 
 There is much practical wisdom in the following : 
 'A slight concession to your enemy, and he will 
 grant you all you want ' ; but the next proverb 
 arose from a much sadder experience of life : ' An 
 enemy will not go but at the cost of a friend.' 
 Self-sacrifice is described as ' Like a candle which 
 lights others but consumes itself,' to which may 
 be added, ' He who hurts not himself does not 
 benefit his friend.' The desirability of having an 
 opinion of your own is enforced in ' Consult him 
 who is older than yourself and him who is younger, 
 and come back to your own opinion.' 
 
 Very characteristic is this proverb : ' I speak to 
 you, O daughter-in-law, that you may hear, O 
 neighbour.' A precocious child is described in 
 ■ The clever chicken crows in the egg.' One of the 
 most frequently quoted proverbs is, ' Haste is from 
 the devil ' (and one very widely acted on !). The 
 ape is the Oriental ideal of ugliness, as the gazelle 
 is the embodiment of beauty ; hence the saying, 
 * The ape is, in his mother's eye, a gazelle.' 
 
 A few more miscellaneous proverbs are : ' The 
 dog will bark at the king.' ' The dead is the 
 best of his family.' ' The cat's away ; look sharp, 
 mouse !' ■ Search your house ten times before you 
 suspect your neighbour.' This last, if acted on, 
 would often save much trouble. 
 
 and that Christians, who were kept constantly reminded of 
 the inferiority of their position, were compelled to confine 
 themselves to what were held to be degrading occupations. 
 Especially would this be likely to be the case where the trade 
 in question carried any civil disability with it. 
 
314 PROVERBS 
 
 Loquaciousness is not considered a virtue with 
 Easterns, hence the following : ' Much talk lowers 
 even the estimable.' Wine-shops are considered 
 by the abstemious Orientals as decidedly disreput- 
 able ; this fact gives rise to the next saying, used 
 to show how calumny makes a crime out of 
 nothing : ' He built a wine-shop out of a raisin.' 
 
 The three following proverbs, which show much 
 insight and knowledge, may fittingly close this 
 sketch of the wit and wisdom of the Fellahin: 
 'An hour's pain rather than pain every hour.' 
 1 Outside marble, inside ashes.' ' Who has made 
 you weep has instructed you, who has made you 
 laugh has ridiculed you.' 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 'Alim, plural 'Uletna: literally, a 'learned person/ specially one who 
 
 has studied at the Mohammedan University of El Azhar, in Cairo. 
 
 N.B. — Among the Druzes the 'Ulema are the Initiated — i.e., those 
 
 who know the inner secrets of their religion. 
 Belku : ' uninhabited ' or ' uncultivated.' A tract of very sparsely in- 
 habited country south of Es Salt, east of the Jordan. 
 Fellah, plural Fellahia : feminine, Felldhah, plural Fellahut : literally, 
 
 a ploughman ; the peasantry of Palestine. 
 Ghor : a ' hollow ' or 'depression.' The name given by the Arabs to 
 
 the valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea. 
 Hantfites: one of the four recognised divisions of the Sunnis or orthodox 
 
 Moslems. 
 Jebel: a hill or mountain. Jebel el Kuds, the hill-country round 
 
 Jerusalem. Jebel Ajlun, the modern name for the Land of Gilead, 
 
 a very hilly district. 
 Khattb, plural Khutabuh : a Mohammedan teacher or priest. 
 Koran: literally, 'reading'; the Moslem sacred book. 
 Neby : a prophet (specially Jewish) or his supposed tomb. 
 Nusrdnch, plural Xumrah ; the Moslem term for Christians ; 
 
 Nazarene. 
 Sheikh : literally, an ' old man/ the chief of a village or tribe. 
 Wely, plural Ouliah: a Moslem saint or his reputed tomb. 
 
 315 
 
INDEX OF SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 
 
 Genesis. 
 
 CHAP. VER. 
 
 xix. 28 - 
 
 xxiii. 17 - 
 
 xxix. 1-10 
 
 xxxi. 39 - 
 
 xxxi. 40 - 
 xxxiii. 13, 14 
 xxxvii. 12-17 
 
 Exodus. 
 
 xxvii. 20 - 
 xxx. 24 - 
 
 Leviticus. 
 
 iii. 9 - 
 xxvi. 26 - 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 vi. 5 - 
 
 xvii. 8 - 
 
 xxii. 24 - 
 
 xxxvi. 1-12 
 
 Deuteronomy. 
 
 xi. 14 - 
 
 xxii. 8 - 
 
 xxii. 10 - 
 xxiv. 6 - 
 xxiv. 20 - 
 
 xxv. 4 - 
 
 Joshua. 
 
 xvii. 15, 18 
 
 Judges. 
 
 iii. 20 - 
 
 iii. 23 - 
 
 v. 30 - 
 
 xvii. 10 - 
 
 xx. 47 - 
 
 PAGE 
 
 244 
 191 
 172 
 172 
 175 
 168 
 175 
 
 226 
 226 
 
 175 
 121 
 
 42 
 
 92 
 
 234 
 
 108 
 
 193 
 71 
 198 
 119 
 231 
 211 
 
 222 
 
 CHAP. VER. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ii. 7, 15-17 
 
 - 207 
 
 iii. 15 - 
 
 - 144 
 
 1 Samuel. 
 
 
 i. 24 - 
 
 - 96 
 
 xiii. 19 - 
 
 - 87 
 
 xv. 33 - 
 
 - 95 
 
 xvii. 34, 35 - 
 
 - 182 
 
 xvii. 40 - 
 
 - 183 
 
 xxiv. 3 - 
 
 - 176 
 
 xxv. 3 - - 
 
 • 92 
 
 2 Samuel. 
 
 
 vii. 27 - 
 
 - 94 
 
 xx. 9 - 
 
 - 273 
 
 1 Kings. 
 
 
 xi. 38 - 
 
 - 94 
 
 xix. 5 - 
 
 - 128 
 
 xix. 18 - 
 
 - 52 
 
 xix. 19 - 
 
 - 199 
 
 2 Kings. 
 
 
 iii. 11 - 
 
 - 127 
 
 iv. 10 - 
 
 - 61 
 
 v. 19 - 
 
 - 269 
 
 viii. 15 - 
 
 - 139 
 
 2 Chronicles. 
 
 
 xxii. 9 - 
 
 - 92 
 
 Nehemiah. 
 
 
 iv. 3 
 
 Job. 
 
 61 
 
 xxiv. 
 
 20 - 
 
 68 
 
 xxvii. 
 
 18 - 
 
 130 
 
 xxx. 
 
 4 - 
 
 180 
 
 xxxi 
 
 26, 27 
 
 176 
 
 xxxi. 
 
 27 - 
 
 234 
 
 218 
 218 
 122 
 52 
 273 
 
 316 
 
INDEX OF SCRIFrURE PASSAGES 
 
 317 
 
 1'sAI.MS. 
 
 CHAP. VfR. 
 
 
 
 PAOE 
 
 i. 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 209 
 
 xxiii. 2 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 - 173 
 
 1. 21 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 13 
 
 cxxviii. 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 227 
 
 cxxxiii. 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 241 
 
 
 Pro 1 
 
 'EBBS. 
 
 
 xxvii. 25 
 
 
 . 
 
 - 203 
 
 xxviii. 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 197 
 
 Eoclk 
 
 SIASTBS. 
 
 
 ii. 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 • 117 
 
 
 Canticles. 
 
 
 i. 7 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 - 173 
 
 iv. 16 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 233 
 
 v. 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 68 
 
 
 Isaiah. 
 
 
 xvii. 18 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 - 209 
 
 xxii. 13 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 70 
 
 xxvii. 12 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 231 
 
 xxxiii. 12 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 244 
 
 xxxviii. 12 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 176 
 
 xli. 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 210 
 
 xli. 25 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 252 
 
 xlix. 10 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 - 230 
 
 li. 1 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 247 
 
 
 Jeremiah. 
 
 
 xii. 10, 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 179 
 
 xviii. 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 252 
 
 xxiv. 2 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 239 
 
 xxxii. 43, 
 
 44 
 
 - 
 
 - 163 
 
 xli. 17 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 277 
 
 Lamen 
 
 TATIONS. 
 
 
 ii. 6 
 
 iv. 
 
 12 - 
 
 xvii. 
 
 10 - 
 
 xxxiv. 
 
 29 - 
 
 ix 
 
 . 10 - 
 
 xii 
 
 . 11 - 
 
 xiii 
 
 .3 - 
 
 xiii 
 
 . 15 - 
 
 xiv 
 
 . 5 - 
 
 EzEKIEL. 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 Jonah. 
 
 CHAP. VER. 
 
 iv. 5, 6 
 iv. 8 - 
 
 Amos. 
 
 ix. 9 
 
 218 
 
 120 
 230 
 174 
 
 239 
 198 
 241 
 230 
 241 
 
 122 
 
 MlCAH. 
 
 vii. 14 - 
 
 Zechariah. 
 
 X. 1 - 
 
 St. Matthew. 
 x. 9 - 
 x. 27 - 
 xvii. 24-27 
 xxi. 17-19 - 
 xxi. 33 - 
 xxiv. 17 - 
 xxiv. 18 - 
 xxiv. 41 - 
 xxv. 1-13 
 xxvi. 48, 49 - 
 xxvii. 7 - 
 
 St. Mark. 
 vi. 39 - 
 xi. 13 - 
 
 St. Luke. 
 
 ii. 7 - 
 
 ii. 8 - 
 
 iii. 22, 23 - 
 
 v. 19 - 
 
 vi. 38 - 
 
 xi. 44 - 
 
 xii. 18 - 
 
 xiii. 6 - 
 
 xiv. 19 - 
 
 xxii. 31 - 
 
 St. John. 
 vi. 9 - 
 x. 3 - 
 x. 4, 5 
 
 Acts. 
 
 iii. 6 - - 
 xviii. 1-3 
 
 Romans. 
 
 viii. 19 - 
 
 1 Corinthians. 
 
 ix. 7 - 
 
 ix. 9 - - - 
 Revelation. 
 xviii. 22 - 
 
 218 
 
 230 
 
 - 174 
 1<)7, 194 
 
 18, 140 
 
 - 7<> 
 
 - 20 
 
 - 124 
 
 - 234 
 
 - 71 
 
 - 201 
 
 - 119 
 
 - Ill 
 
 - 272 
 
 - 158 
 
 - 220 
 
 - 239 
 
 - 89 
 
 - 177 
 
 - 38 
 
 - 71 
 
 - 212 
 
 - 158 
 
 - 137 
 
 - 238 
 
 - 195 
 122 
 
 127, 253 
 
 - 165 
 104, 166 
 
 - 20 
 
 - 259 
 
 - 287 
 
 - 181 
 
 - 211 
 
 117 
 
INDEX 
 
 A. 
 
 'Afir, 195 
 Agriculture, 188 
 'Alim, 16 
 'Aliyeh, 61 
 Armenian Church, 37 
 
 time of celebration of 
 Christmas, 38 
 
 B. 
 
 Baptism in Greek Church, 42 
 
 Baraghafeh, 78 
 
 Barter, 76 
 
 Baskets, 254 
 
 Bedding, 139 
 
 Beggars, 287 
 
 Bethlehem, 177 
 
 Betrothal, 109 
 
 Blacksmiths, 87 
 
 Blindness, 150 
 
 Blue eyes, supposed power of, 49 
 
 Booths, 218 
 
 Borrowing, 288 
 
 Breadmaking, 119 
 
 Buffaloes, 184 
 
 Building-stone, varieties of, 62 
 
 Burghal, 125 
 
 Burial, 157 
 
 Butter, 132 
 
 C. 
 
 Camels, 184 
 
 vindictiveness of, 185 
 Carpenters, 244 
 Catholic brandies of Eastern 
 
 Churches, 38 
 Cattle, 183 
 
 -stealers, 285 
 
 -markets, 77 
 Charcoal, 248 
 Charms, 50 
 
 Cheese, 132 
 
 Cholera, 151 
 
 Chrism, the, 42 
 
 Christmas, date of Armenian, 38 
 
 Churclies, Greek, 43 
 
 consecration of, 43 
 Cisterns, 72 
 Climate, 192 
 Coffee, 279 
 Conscription, 83 
 Contrast between old and new 
 
 order of things, 8 
 Convent of the Cross, 44 
 Cooking, 125 
 Corn-bins, 136 
 Corn, cleaning, 122 
 measuring, 212 
 Crops, 213 
 Currency, 298 
 Customs, funeral, 156 
 Cutting down fruit-trees, 28(5 
 
 D. 
 
 Dances, 113 
 Days, ' borrowed,' 195 
 Dervishes, 16 
 Dew, 241 
 Dialects, 5, 85 
 Dibs, 236 
 Diseases, 147 
 Divorce, 105 
 Dogs, 180 
 Domed roofs, 63 
 Dowry, 109 
 Dress, 139 
 
 of Greek priests, 41 
 
 of women, 143 
 Druzes, 32 
 
 belief, 34 
 
 initiated and unitiated, 33 
 Duffur, 239 
 
 318 
 
INDEX 
 
 319 
 
 E. 
 
 Easter, 45 
 
 eggs, 46 
 Education, 99 
 Eggs, coloured, at Moslem feast, 
 
 47 
 Evil eye, the, 48 
 
 charms against, 49 
 
 P. 
 
 ' Far be it from you,' 104 
 Fasts, Greek, 47 
 Fate, 29 
 Fellahin, 188 
 
 low idea of God, 13 
 
 meaning of name, 188 
 
 origin, 3 
 
 religious, 12 
 
 reticence about customs, 7 
 Fields, 163 
 
 Fig-trees of the road, 239 
 Figs, 238 
 
 dried, 240 
 Firewood, bringing, 128 
 Fish, dried, 253 
 Fishing, 252 
 Floods, 196 
 Forests, 222 
 Fox, cunning of, 257 
 Funeral customs, 156 
 
 G. 
 
 Gambling, 98 
 
 Games, 97 
 
 Gardens, watered, 220 
 
 Gleaning, 207 
 
 Goats and sheep, separating, 181 
 
 ' Go in peace,' 269 
 
 Grafting, 228 
 
 Greek Church, 37 
 
 Grinding corn, 117 
 
 Guest-bouses, 277 
 
 Gunpowder, 247 
 
 Gipsies, 86 
 
 H. 
 
 Handmills, 118 
 Hand of Might, the, 49 
 Harvest, 205 
 
 Head-dress, women's, 144 
 Hellenic ecclesiastics, 39 
 Holy Fire, ceremony of, 45 
 Houses, description of, 59 
 
 Housetops, 71, 68 
 Hunting, 256 
 
 I. 
 
 Idiots, 155 
 
 Ikhtiyariyah, 81 
 
 Imam, Ali, the fourth, 13, note 
 
 Imams, village, 14 
 
 Improvisors, 88 
 
 Innovations, 8 
 
 Interest, high rate of, 289 
 
 Irrigation, 203 
 
 Islam, 12, note 
 
 sects of, 13, note 
 
 J. 
 
 Jars, 137 
 Jebel Ajlun, 164 
 el Kuds, 149 
 Jewellery, 130, 253 
 Justice, 283 
 
 K. 
 
 Kes and Yemen, 77 
 
 Khalweh, Druze place of worship, 
 
 33 
 Khans, 277 
 Kids and lambs, 182 
 Kissing, 273 
 Koran, the, 12 
 Kusah, 274 
 
 L. 
 
 Land, tenure of, 189 
 
 Language spoken by our Lord, 
 
 101 
 Lawful and unlawful actions, 54 
 Leaven, 119 
 Leben, 132 
 Leprosy, 152 
 Life, family, 102 
 Lime, burning, 243 
 Locks, wooden, 67 
 Locusts, 223 
 Looms, 260 
 
 M. 
 
 Marketing, 134 
 
 Maronites, 37 
 
 Mares, partnership in, 294 
 
 Marriage, 107 
 
 Mar Saba, monastery of, 44 
 
 Mats, 138, 254 
 
 Meals, 124 
 
 evening, 126, 279 
 
320 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Merit, doctrine of, 31, 32 
 Met'awali, 13, note 
 Midhat Pasha, 4 
 Milestones, Roman, 262 
 Mills, 231 
 
 water, 249 
 ' Minaret/ meaning of word, 21, 
 
 note 
 ' Modern Canaanites,' 3 
 Monasteries, Greek, 44 
 Money, various kinds of, 208 
 Moslem, meaning of the term, 12 
 Moslems, attitude towards Chris- 
 tians, 36 
 
 low idea of God, 13 
 
 reverence for the Old Testa- 
 ment, 12 
 
 saints, 12 
 Mosques, 21 
 Mothers-in-law, 116 
 Mukhtars, 82 
 Murders, 284 
 Musical instruments, 300 
 Muzzling, 211 
 
 N. 
 
 Names, 93 
 
 Naming a child, 91 
 
 Native industries dying out, 5 
 
 Neby Miisa, feast of, 24 
 
 shrine of, 29 
 Neighbours, 275 
 Needlework, 129 
 Noah, tomb of, 26 
 
 O. 
 
 Oil, olive, 231 
 Oil-mills, 231 
 Oil-presses, 232 
 Olives, 226 
 Oranges, 240 
 Ovens, 1 20 
 
 P. 
 
 Parapets, 71 
 Pedlars, 77 
 Ploughing, 195, 198 
 ox and ass, 198 
 Ploughs, 201 
 Polygamy, 104 
 Pottery, 251 
 Prayer, 55 
 
 Priests, village, 40 
 
 dress of, 41 
 
 long hair of, 42 
 
 salaries of, 40 
 Protestants, 39 
 Proverbs, 302 
 
 R. 
 
 Rainfall, 194 
 
 Rains, former and latter, 193 
 Raisins, 236 
 
 Ramadthan, month of fasting, 22 
 Ready-money, scarcity of, 19 
 Reaping, 205 
 Religions, 12 
 
 Religiousness of Fellahin, 10 
 Roads, 262 
 Robbers, 169 
 Roofs, 65 
 flat, 69 
 
 S. 
 
 Sahrah, or watching, 83 
 Sakiveh, 221 
 Salutations, 11, 263 
 Scrip, 183 
 Seals, 299 
 Sects, Moslem, 13 
 Seventy, the, mission of, illus- 
 trated, 19 
 Shaduf, 221 
 
 Shazeliyeh, a Moslem sect, 13 
 Sheep-dogs, 180 
 Sheep, fat-tailed, 133, 175 
 
 feeding of, 174 
 
 -folds, 176 
 
 resting, 173 
 
 straying, 171 
 
 watering of, 172 
 Sheikh, 80 
 Shepherds, 161 
 
 tents, 164 
 
 wages, 180 
 
 weapons, 182 
 Sherif, 141 
 Shoemakers, 256 
 Shoes, 142 
 Shops, 73 
 Sirocco, 192, 229 
 Slings, 98 
 Smoking, 127 
 Spinning, 257 
 Snow, 177 
 Spirits, belief in, 53 
 
INDEX 
 
 3S21 
 
 Spoil, 162 
 
 Sponsors, 93 
 
 Springs, 218 
 
 Staircases, outside, 71 
 
 Sunnis, or orthodox Moslems, 13 
 
 Superstitions, 47 
 
 Swaddling-clothes, 89 
 
 T. 
 
 Tattooing, 115 
 
 Taxation, 6, 290 
 
 Taxes, farming of, 293 
 
 Temple flocks, 176 
 
 Tent-making, 259 
 
 Tents, shepherds', 164, 258 
 
 Terraces, 199 
 
 Threshing-floors, 207 
 
 Tibn, 209 
 
 Tiling, 72 
 
 Time, reckoning of, 296 
 
 Tobacco, 215 
 
 Tombs, 157 
 
 Treasure, buried, 256 
 
 U. 
 
 Uniat Churches, 38, note 
 Unlucky events, 51 
 Upper rooms, 61 
 Usury, 209 
 
 V. 
 
 Vaccination, 14!) 
 Villages, sights of, 57 
 Vines, 232 
 Vineyards, 233 
 
 path through, 234 
 
 towers in, 234 
 
 W. 
 
 Wages, shepherds', 180 
 
 Washing, 123 
 
 Water, drawing of, 128 
 
 Water-mills, 249 
 
 Watch-towers in vineyards, 234 
 
 Weapons, shepherds', 182 
 
 Weavers, 5 
 
 Weaving, 260 
 
 Wedding ceremony, Moslem, 112 
 customs, 113 
 processions, 111 
 
 Weddings, 110 
 
 superstitions about, 115 
 
 Wely, Moslem saint, 25 
 Fellahin dread of, 27 
 intercession of, 26, 29 
 pillars in honour of, 28 
 
 Winnowing, 209 
 
 Wolves, 166 
 
 Women, degradation of, 103 
 
 THE END 
 
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