-DAY

Yitmmwi

Yale univebs.

NAZARETH OF TO-DAY

PRINTED BY
WILLIAM GEEEN AND SONS
EDINBURGH

NAZARETH OF TODAY

BY
FREDERIC JOHN SCRIMGEOUR

OF NAZAKETH

WITH 75 PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE AUTHOR

EDINBURGH AND LONDON
WILLIAM GREEN & SONS
PUBLISHERS 1913.

C M&O
Scr33n

FORENOTE
This volume is not a book of travel ; it is rather a description
of one place where the author has lived for eight years.
Nazareth will always have an attraction for the Christian
traveller who may wish to visit the Virgin's Fountain, the
old Synagogue, the Carpenter's Shop, the Church of the
Annunciation or the summit of the hill behind the town ;
and many books written by travellers tell of theii visits
to these spots.
But the daily lives of the people, and their habits and
customs can be described only by one who has lived amongst
them. This the author has attempted to do.
F. J. S.

CONTENTS

CHAPTKR

I. The Position and Character op the Town

II. The Moslem Quarter

III. The Christian Quarters .

IV. The Trades and Occupations

V. The Seasons op the Year
VI. The Household .
VII. The Routine op the Day .
VIII. The Winter Store op Food
IX. Syrian Cookery .
X. The Bazaars
XI. A Poor Family .
XII. The Health op the Town .
XIII. The Protestant Missions .
XIV. Babyhood ....
XV. Funeral Customs
XVI. The Bride .
XVII. The Bridegroom
XVIII. School-days
XIX. Recreations and Feasts .
XX. The Municipality
PAGE 15
10 1518
25 2934 39 4349 5461 66 707482 86 9197
NAZARETH OF TODAY
CHAPTER I
THE POSITION AND CHARACTER OF THE TOWN
From the lower part of the town of Nazareth nothing can be
seen of the surrounding country. The town lies at the bottom
and upon the side of a basin of limestone hills. Towards the
north the basin's rim is highest; it is broken into at many
points where the main roads and the footpaths enter it.
From whatever point of the compass the traveller arrives
he sees only a few of the highest placed houses until he tips
the rim, then he will see most of the town below him, but
not all, for so are the houses hidden in the irregularities of
the rocky slope that every quarter of the town cannot be seen
from any one spot.
The neighbourhood of the bazaars, which includes the most
densely populated quarter of the town, lies half way up the
southerly facing slope, and from this centre the houses thin
out to isolated dwellings towards the east and west. What
may be considered to be the Moslem quarter occupies the
lower part of the opposite hill-side.
As it is to-day, Nazareth, seen from any vantage point,
looks attractive and prosperous. The houses, in general, are
double storied, and the walls are whitewashed. They are
roofed with red tiles. Many of the smaller dwellings on the
outskirts and all the houses in the Moslem quarter are brown
walled, single storied, and have flat roofs; they are typical
Palestine buildings. In the midst of the dwelling-houses 1

2 THE POSITION AND CHARACTER OF THE TOWN
several large massive buildings in European style stand out
prominently. They belong to the various religious bodies —
the Roman Catholic Church, to the Russians — primarily
intended to accommodate the large pilgrimages which visit the
Holy Land each year — and the Protestant missionary societies.
In the centre of all towers the minaret of the mosque, repre
senting the national religion of the Empire.
The general aspect of Nazareth in its surroundings of
gardens and small fields varies considerably with the season
of the year. In spring all is green ; the early crops of wheat
and barley cover the hill-sides, and the numerous almond,
apricot, and fig trees are in leaf. It looks its best then. The
colouring is fresh and clean, and few indeed are the patches
of uncultivated land.
But this stage soon passes. The warm weeks of late April
turn the crops to a golden tint, and the harvest of May
leaves the fields brown and bare. So they remain throughout
the summer months, and by November, if the rains have been
delayed, the olive groves, the isolated carob, and the cypress
trees, which cluster here and there, give the only touches of
green. The early rains, as soon as they arrive, bring out
abundance of grass and flowers everywhere.
No trace of a protecting wall, such as still exists round
many Palestine towns, has been found at Nazareth. Probably
the situation of the town amid its closely encircling hills has
always been considered an efficient protection. The absence
of any wall has encouraged the people to spread out their
dwellings, and one of the features of the town to-day is the
isolation of many of the smaller houses in the outskirts.
Such a small single-roomed house in its equally small patch of
cultivated ground, with an almond or apricot tree beside the
door, has all the beauty of a country cottage.
As in most Turkish towns, there are several quarters
designated by the religious persuasion of the inhabitants of
that section of the town. Almost all of the members of the

THE POSITION AND CHARACTER OF THE TOWN 3
Greek Orthodox Church live in the east end, the Roman
Catholics with their religious associates the Maronites and the
Greek Catholics occupy the west, while a portion of the
centre and the whole of the south is Moslem.
There are no Jews in Nazareth. Until recently any Jew
passing through was stoned and cursed by the children until
he left. Now there is greater tolerance; and Jews from the
colonies in the Plain of Esdraelon come to the markets, but
no Jews reside in the town.
The carriage road from the coast comes through a cleft in
the hill on the west side and passes along the valley between
the Christian and Moslem quarters ; it then winds up to the
Virgin's Fountain, and, taking a long sweeping curve to the
¦east, leaves the basin by an opening on the north-east ; it then
proceeds down, through Cana of Galilee, on to the lake. From
the Plain of Esdraelon the Jerusalem carriage road conies up
the hill and joins the Haifa road immediately before it enters
the town.
Bridle-paths leave at all points of the compass. East-
wardly they go to Mount Tabor and on to the Jordan. In
the south-east several paths lead to Nain and Endor and
thence to the district of Beisan. Those going south pass
the neighbourhood of Jezreel and proceed to Samaria and
Jerusalem. All the westerly roads take one to the Medi
terranean coast at some point; the most important path,
¦excluding the carriage road to Haifa, leads to Acre. Paths
going straight north are fewer, for they lead into mountainous
country. The streets of Nazareth are steep and narrow. Those in
the centre of the town are paved with cobble-stones. A
gutter, two and a half feet wide, runs down the middle, and
the pavement on either side is about the same width. Down
these gutters the water rushes in a torrent during the rains
of winter, carrying with it the accumulated rubbish of all
the summer. Then and then only are the streets really

4 THE POSITION AND CHARACTER OF THE TOWN
cleaned; the half-dozen donkey boys who act as scavengers
can do little to remove the refuse of the town of eleven
thousand inhabitants. The gutters lead into each other, and
the stream of rain water, growing in volume as it passes
along the lower bazaars, sounds like a waterfall. Below the
town it forms a streamlet, which finds its way down a steep
ravine into the plain.
A good general impression of the town may be given by
saying that no street is level and no street is straight.
The houses can be divided into two classes, the old style
and the newer style, which is slowly but surely taking its
place. In the purely Moslem quarter houses of the old style
are exclusively found. They consist of one room, or at most
of two. Each room has two distinct parts on different levels ;
in the lower portion the horses, camels, donkeys, sheep, and
goats are accommodated during the night; upon the upper
part the family lives. This arrangement is usual in all villages,
and this quarter may be considered to be the village section
of the town ; for not only is the housing of the village type,
but the customs in the matters of births, deaths, and marriages.
approximate closely to the habits of the " fellaheen " population
of the land.

CHAPTER II
THE MOSLEM QUARTER
Half way up the hill-side which faces north-west is the home
of Mohammed Said. This single-storied house was built half
a century ago of soft stone. Its sides are equal and its roof
is flat, and it has all the appearance of a square box.
Mohammed is a cameleer and owns five animals. They cost
him different prices, for two of them were bought when quite
young from the Bedouins, but the average price was fifty
medjedies, which is equal to about £8, 10s. He has a donkey
to ride, and his livelihood is earned by taking camel loads of
grain to the coast and bringing back cases of goods for the
local merchants. In his journeys he rides in front on his
donkey and leads the train of five laden camels by a thin
rope. He always puts his biggest, best, and most expensive
camel in the front of the line, and adorns its neck with a
sonorous bell. Rates for porterage vary with the time of year,
but Mohammed usually gets about two shillings and three
pence for each load, and a journey thus produces between
eleven and twelve shillings.
During spring, when grass is plentiful, he takes his animals
to browse on the hills, and immediately after harvest they can
eat the straw which remains in the fields ; but at other times
he requires to provide kursaney, and the expense of this leaves
him small profit on his work. " Kursaney " is a small black
seed which grows on small plants very similar in appearance
to the lentil. His supply of fodder for the year costs him
about £20. Fortunately his house is surrounded by a high

6 THE MOSLEM QUARTER
cactus hedge, and the thick juicy leaves are munched up by
the camels in spite of their numerous spikes.
Mohammed Said's house consists of only one room, but that
room is large and high. A quarter of the floor space is on
a level with the outside ground, of which it is practically a
continuation. In this part the five camels and the donkey
stand at night. Their feeding troughs are made of a hardened
mixture of crude clay and chopped straw. No drainage has
been provided, and the earth floor is continually damp or
muddy. For purposes of the disposal of refuse and the
emptying of dirty water the stable part is reckoned as being
outside the house, and all sorts of objectionable material are
thrown into it.
The family occupies the remaining three-quarters of the
space on a sort of earthen platform raised two feet above the
stable level. A step cut into the platform near the door
connects the two parts. The floor is covered with a layer of
hardened clay. In place of a carpet there are a couple of
coarse straw mats.
A recess in the wall contains nearly a dozen thin mat
tresses folded twice lengthways, and piled one above the other.
Against the back wall stand three tall " khabies." A " khaby "
may be described as a hollow square pillar reaching from the
floor level to three-quarters up the wall. They are made of
the usual clay and straw mixture, and hold the stores of wheat
and barley and " kursaney " seed. Above they are widely
open ; below, a small hole closed by a wooden plug or a sliding
door allows the quantity required for the day or week to run
out. This house has a double window, which is closed at night
by a heavy wooden shutter. There is no window frame and no
glass. Fortunately neither door nor windows fit at all accurately.
By the cracks in the planks and the broken corners of the
woodwork a fair supply of fresh air enters the room, otherwise
the atmosphere in which the animals, as well as Mohammed

THE MOSLEM QUARTER 7
and his family sleep, would be most unhealthy by the early
morning. Even as it is, the closeness of such a house is well-
nigh unbearable to a European, and to the doctor attending a
case of urgency, which necessitates remaining with his patient
for some hours, it is trying beyond all description. And on
such an occasion the state of the air is usually made even worse
by the open wood fire which is lit in the middle of the floor, for
when a Nazarene is ill any admission of cold air is thought to
be dangerous. In the custom of making one room serve the double purpose
there is this advantage — and in a land where police protection
cannot be counted upon it is a very real advantage — that the
owner gathers his wives and children, his horses, donkeys,
camels and cattle, his geese and hens, his sheep and goats, all
inside the four walls of his one room, and then locks the door
with a wonderful sense of security against thieves.
Mohammed has two wives and seven children. Two of his
babies differ in age by only one month, and all of them are
under twelve years old.
His chief misfortune in life is that five of the children are
girls and only two are boys. Both sons being the offspring of
Aishey, his younger wife, she is undoubtedly the favourite.
But the two women get along well together. They divide the
work of the house, and go in turns to the fountain for water.
All the baking is done in their own " taboon " or sunken oven.
Indeed almost every house in the Moslem quarter has its own
little outside oven. The " taboon " is a low conical-shaped hut
made of tree branches and mud, in the centre of which a heap
of dried manure is constantly smouldering day and night. This
slow-burning fire covers a hollow clay vessel or oven having a
thin iron or a clay lid. The bottom of the clay oven is lined
with small stones, and these are kept extremely hot by the
constant fire around. Fuel is added to the smoking pile twice
a day. When the dough has risen the woman takes it to this

8 THE MOSLEM QUARTER
" taboon," goes inside the little hut and proceeds to rake away
the hot ashes from the lid, which she then carefully lifts off
the oven. Dexterously she shapes a flat loaf from a handful
of the dough and places it upon the hot stones. This she
repeats until the bottom is covered with loaves, when she
replaces the lid for several minutes. The flat loaves are picked
out steaming hot, and marked by the stones on which they
have been baked.
Periodically one of Mohammed's wives goes over the hill
top to find firewood. In the vicinity of Nazareth firewood
is scarce, and one of the nearest spots where such fuel may
still be gathered is close to Mount Tabor. She joins several
neighbours by pre-arrangement, and spends half the day in
the journey there and back. The firewood is bound in long
bundles, and the bundle is carried on the woman's head all the
way. In preparation for the cold weather, bundle upon bundle
is stacked outside the door.
Several of Mohammed's neighbours own oxen instead of
camels, and they find work in early spring in ploughing on the
broad Plain of Esdraelon. Their wives and families go down
with them and live in a village at the base of the hills. But
Mohammed's capital being in camels, his opportunity comes in
early summer when the harvest is being reaped. It pays him
much better then to bring loads of sheaves from the field to
the threshing floor than to transport merchandise from the
coast. He is not paid in cash, but receives a twenty-fourth
part of the grain which is gathered from the threshing floor.
His first wife went with him this year, and helped to collect
the sheaves into full-sized camel loads. For this service she
had the privilege of gleaning over the ground, and picking up
all ears overlooked by the reapers. Her gleanings averaged a
" saa " of wheat each day, which is equal to rather less than a
quarter bushel.
When the work of harvesting is ended the camels have a
few weeks' rest, and they are allowed to roam over the bare

THE MOSLEM QUARTER
fields and feed on the short green weeds which are disclosed
when the tall stalks of wheat and barley are cut down. As
soon as the threshing is finished, and the Government officials
have visited the village to estimate the quantity of grain and
fix the tax, the camels are again in urgent demand to carry
sacks of grain to Haifa or Acca. Each animal carries two
sacks, and covers the distance of eighteen miles in six or seven
hours. The road is dry and dusty, and the midsummer's
scorching heat is very unpleasant and fatiguing, so the cameleer
prefers night travel. For safety he joins a number of com
panions, and they travel well armed. It is not unusual for a
train of thirty camels to leave Nazareth for the coast.
The flat roof of the house needs attention each winter when
the heavy rains commence. The two wives help each other,
and examine carefully any part which may be weakened by
last year's weather, or cracked by the summer's heat. Such
faulty spots must be renewed by the application of a fresh
layer of mud and chopped straw. In tins the mixture is
hoisted up, and Aishey spreads it out in a layer an inch thick.
This quickly dries and keeps the room watertight for at least
one year more.

CHAPTER III
THE CHRISTIAN QUARTERS
The primitive type of village house found in the Moslem
quarter has given place to a building more substantial and in
every way more convenient in the Christian part of the town.
Every stage of transition may be seen in houses standing
close together. Allowing for certain variations, one may say
that the usual modern dwelling consists of a central hall — the
"lewan" — out of which several rooms open. Two main doors
open from the outside, one into this lewan, the other directly
into a side front room which is used as a reception-room. By
this second door male visitors enter and pay their ceremonious
calls on feast days without intruding upon the living part of
the house. This arrangement is common with Christians, as
with Moslems, and originated in the Mohammedan privacy of
the harem.
The houses show no attempt at any architectural beauty.
Bow windows, protruding angles, turrets, and other variations
from the plain square wall are unknown.
The rooms may vary in size but in no other way. When
a second storey has been added a short narrow balcony may
project over the front doorway, but this inartistic feature only
accentuates the plainness of the rest of the building. Formerly
those houses were flat roofed, but in place of the mud, which
requires annual renewing, a thick layer of lime, gravel, and
cinders well mixed with water was spread by the builder, and
well beaten by flat wooden mallets. This " barbarica," as it is
called, will last several years without repairing, but sooner or

THE CHRISTIAN QUARTERS 11
later it cracks — generally in frosty weather — and then frequent
applications of cement are required to keep the roof water
proof. The recurring expense of such repair is avoided by
roofing the house with red Marseilles tiles, and many houses
flat roofed a year or two ago have now been covered in this
fashion. The Nazarenes call it " putting on the fez ! "
The alteration in style of roofing has become very general,
and as it increases in popularity the whole appearance of the
town is changing. Another radical alteration in house con
struction is the adoption of iron beams as supports for the roof
in place of solid arches of masonry. The older rooms have
dome-shaped ceilings, which may be more picturesque, but
intrude considerably upon the free air space.
The making of these heavy arches is work in which the
master masons are skilful, and for lower storeys or cellarage
below the house proper the thickness of the walls and the solid
nature of the structure are reasons in its favour.
Until twenty years ago only the soft limestone of the hill
sides was used by builders ; now all who can afford the extra
cost procure the hard variety, which is found on the slopes to
the south. Walls of soft stone quickly become weather-worn,
even in this mild climate, unless protected by a layer of
plaster. Limewash for the final coat may be white, but it is
frequently tinted light blue, and blue is the favourite colour
for doors and window shutters. In the vicinity of the bazaars
the larger houses are crowded together and separated only by
the narrow streets, but the majority of the dwelling-houses
situated on the outlying parts have gardens, small or large,
where vegetables and fruit trees grow. Cultivated flower plots
are rarely seen, but it is becoming common to have a flowering
shrub or two in pots or tins. In such houses the windows
have glass panes in French sashes, and heavy outside shutters
which fold back upon the wall in two parts. All windows
of lower rooms are protected by iron bars. Doors are invari
ably hung in two halves. On ordinary occasions only one

12 THE CHRISTIAN QUARTERS
half is opened, and the opening measures less than two feet
across. The larger houses possess an underground cistern for the
storage of rain-water, which may be formed of masonry, when
it is simply an underground room in the foundations, strongly
built and lined with Portland cement ; or it may be a cavity
hollowed out of the solid rock and made watertight by means
of special plaster. A circular hole two feet in diameter is cut
in the surface of the rock and continued downwards in this size
for three feet, from which point the workman extends the
excavation laterally, and then downwards to a depth of fifteen
or sixteen feet. The debris of rock is hoisted up through the
opening in buckets. Finally, the inside surface is lined with
plaster in which small pieces of broken water jars are mixed.
Such wells are measured by the number of full spans which
a man takes with arms outstretched to complete the circum
ference. An average cistern may be described as of ten " baas " or
spans in size, and will hold about eight thousand jars full of
water. Because the only other source of water is the one
fountain, rain-water stored in these cisterns throughout the
summer has a high value in the dry autumn. Quite a common
price is four bishlicks, equal to one shilling and tenpence per
hundred jars, the purchaser providing all the labour of drawing.
Each jar holds three and a half gallons, so that the price of
the hundred gallons of water is about sixpence.
The smallest crack in the lining of a cistern quickly allows
the escape of all water above the flaw, and such a misfortune
means much loss to a family. An earthquake may produce
such a crack, but far the most common cause is the fine
terminal rootlet of a fig tree, which will shoot out a long
distance in search of moisture. Having once entered the
cistern the root grows with astonishing rapidity. The rain
water which is stored is gathered from the roof, from which
it is conveyed by zinc pipes. The first day's rain is allowed

THE CHRISTIAN QUARTERS 13
to run off, and in this way the red tiles of the roof are washed
clean from the dust and dirt of the summer months. The
subsequent water is wonderfully pure, for the absence of any
smoke in the atmosphere prevents contamination. For washing
purposes no water could be softer than this cistern water.
Although the typical dwellings of the better classes are
built on the general plan which I have described, many of the
oldest houses in the centre of Nazareth are irregular in arrange
ment, owing to the frequent additions made to the original
building. It is the custom that the married sons shall continue
to live in their father's house. The bride and bridegroom are
accommodated in one of the living rooms, and conduct their
housekeeping more or less separately. When the younger sons
marry more rooms are needed, and these are often added on to
the old house in any position and at any angle, without regard
to appearance or symmetry.
On the other hand, throughout the town there are many
single-roomed houses in which the poorer people live, and
nothing could be simpler than some of these. The walls are
a single stone in thickness ; there is one door and two windows
without glass frames, and the roof is flat. Such a small building
will cost £18 to £25 to build. Many of them are owned by
the family in possession, and especially is this true of those
on the outskirts.
Nasir Salim is a plasterer by trade and a good workman,
who has few idle days. He goes to the villages to work when
things are slack in town. By economy and simple living he
had managed to save about fifty napoleons, part of which had
been lent on mortgage terms on the security of a small bit of
rocky land near the top of the west hill-side. His friend died
suddenly and there was no money left to repay the debt, so
Nasir got possession of the land. The title-deeds were old
and rather irregular in the wording, and the Government found
or invented reasons, many and involved, why a large accumula
tion of taxation must be paid before any transfer could be

14 THE CHRISTIAN QUARTERS
registered. But a few francs to the chief clerk and a present
in kind to his subordinate seemed to alter their views as to the
legality of the matter, and in due time — it required considerable
patience — Nasir Salim held all the documents necessary.
Shortly afterwards he began to consider the possibility of
building a little house on his land. A square flat-roofed room
needs no architect and no plans. Sufficient material, a mason,
a stone-cutter, and two women to Taring up water are ample
preparations. The price of soft stones, roughly cut from the
surface of the rock, was found to be sixty piastres the hundred,
equal to seven shillings and threepence. Each stone required
rough shaping by a, cutter, whose charge was two shillings and
fourpence per hundred. The unslaked lime, delivered by the
lime burner from his kiln across the valley, was bargained for
at threepence each basketful, and Nasir calculated that two
hundred and fifty baskets would be needed. All these matters
being arranged, he found a master mason willing to work for
him at a wage of one medjedie each day (equal to three
shillings and fourpence), and an understanding that he would
receive a present at the end of an " aaba " or camel's hair cloak
costing one napoleon. From the digging of foundations to the
finishing of the roof twenty days were occupied in the work,
and in rather less than two months from the date when Nasir
first thought of building his own house the family were able
to give the usual complimentary dinner to the friends who
assembled to congratulate him on entering the new home.
Certainly the removal did not occupy undue time, for his few
possessions required only the services of two porters for half a
day, and they received one shilling each for their labours,

CHAPTER IV
THE TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS
With very few exceptions the Nazareth shops are of the usual
Eastern pattern. They consist of one room only, and I know
of only two which have more than that, and in both of these
the second is a storage room. One of these belongs to our
most enterprising general dealer, who aspires to produce from
his shelves and cupboards anything asked for. The other is a
hardware shop, and the additional room is used for storing
quantities of bulky building materials. But in almost all the
other shops in the bazaars the owner can sit with all his goods
at arm's length from him, and it is surprising how large a
quantity and variety of goods can be stocked in the small
space at his disposal.
The trades are grouped in separate streets. All the shoe
makers are next-door neighbours ; all the ironworkers occupy
the same side of the same street ; the cloth dealers have their
own bazaar. One of the most interesting and busy work
centres is where the ploughs and harvesting implements are
manufactured. There one can see the crude branches of a
tree cut and twisted and nailed into the yoke for the necks
of the oxen, while close by a man is fastening the sharp iron
" prick " into the ploughman's goad. There is a special market
for the fruits and vegetables, which presents a picturesque
appearance in the early morning. In one corner fresh arrivals
of oranges from Jaffa, lemons, grapes, and apricots are put up
for auction. During winter and spring there is a fish market,
where supplies from the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean
may be purchased.

16 THE TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS
The cutlery made in Nazareth is famous all over the land.
Several workshops make knives and nothing else. They are of
various sorts and prices, from a folding pocket-knife costing less
than one penny each to heavy butchers' knives worth several
shillings. They have wonderful wearing properties. It is in
teresting that carpentry is a flourishing trade. The carpenters
have their special quarter, and their shops stand side by side.
Considering how inefficient is the training they receive, the
work they do is remarkably good. A young boy intending to
be a carpenter enters the workshop when ten or twelve years
old. He is set to look after the glue pot and carry his master's
tools, and may be allowed to saw the planks into rough lengths.
At first he is not entitled to any wage, being in the position of
an apprentice, but as he becomes really useful he may be given
a bishlick, equal to fivepence halfpenny a week. The usual
workshop contains nothing more than a bench and a tool rack
on the wall. A few carpenters now possess a. turning-lathe
worked by pedal. There is no attempt at elaborate furniture
manufacture; all work is plain and simple. Doors, windows,
and shutters are well made. Plain wardrobes, consisting of a
tall box having shelves, cost about £3 ; chests of drawers equally
plain are sold for the same sum. Wood stains from Europe
are now used, and one or two of the younger men make an
attempt at french polishing. Recently dealers at the coast
have imported sheets of veneer, and one enterprising carpenter
introduced it to Nazareth, but it met with no demand.
All the wood used comes from Asia Minor and is of two
qualities, but its great fault is its extreme newness. The
merchants cannot afford to keep quantities in stock for proper
seasoning, and the carpenters buy only sufficient for each job
they have in hand. The result is that newly-made furniture
warps during the first year, and often splits with a sound like
the report of a rifle when a few days of east wind dries the air.
The villagers create a constant demand for low wooden
chests about three feet long, fitted with a cheap lock. It is

THE TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS 17
almost the only piece of furniture they require, and it is used
to store their best clothes, and money tied up in a handkerchief.
Almost as frequent is the purchase of cradles, which are of a
simple pattern, and have a cross cut out of the head end if the
purchaser be a Christian.
Of the other trades to which a boy may be apprenticed one
of the most prosperous is that of the blacksmith, for it means
continuation of steady work throughout the year. The iron-
smith's workshop is small and his tools are few. In most, a
light anvil, several hammers and pincers, and a charcoal fire
with manual bellows are the necessities required. The iron is
of Belgium origin and comes in the form of bars and sheets. In
these shops the iron plough-points, the two ends of the goads,
the sickle blades, and fetters for horses are fashioned. But the
quality of the blacksmith's work does not compare favourably
in point of finish and quality with that of the carpenters. I
have asked many of them why they are content with so crude
a finish to articles which leave their hands, and they explain
that the village folk, who are almost exclusively their cus
tomers, will not — probably cannot — pay the price of better
workmanship. Shoemaking has the advantage that it is independent of
any imported material which may fluctuate considerably in
price. Chiefly untanned hide is used, and the piece used for
the sole has not even had the hair removed. An average shoe
maker's workroom measures six feet long and three feet broad,
but the only fittings he needs are a low wooden pillar for a
table and a stool. His clients squat in the road outside. In
quite another part of the town there are now a few shoemakers
of a different sort, who work with fully-prepared European
leathers, and produce boots and shoes of western style. Their
goods are fair imitations but have no lasting properties.

CHAPTER V
THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR
The four seasons of the year in Galilee very nearly coincide
with the seasons in Britain, but for practical purposes we think
chiefly of the important division into dry and wet months.
A few light showers may fall in late September or more prob
ably in October, but the heavy rains of winter are not
expected until November. Then indeed it rains. For several
hours at a time it may pour. Generally a sharp thunderstorm
precedes the first drops, and soon the roads and cobbled streets
are rushing streams of water. The event of these " early
rains" is received with much rejoicing. From leaves and
branches, from roofs and roads, the accumulated dust of months
disappears in a few minutes. It is a transformation. From
the dry parched earth a peculiar, indescribable, unforgettable
odour rises, which may be called enjoyable even if unpleasant,
because of what it indicates. Even after several hours the
heaviest downpour seems to make no impression upon the
baked ground ; it needs a long-continued soaking to soften the
hard surface and make it possible to begin the ploughing for
which many of the people are so eagerly waiting. With brief
intermissions these " early " rains continue for a month or more
and then we look for a few weeks of clear weather. Part of
December and the whole of January may pass with sunny
skies and even warmth in the air. During this time ploughing
and sowing are in full swing. The bazaars where ploughs
are made, the iron ploughshares shaped on the anvil, and
the yokes for the oxen fitted together, are thronged with

THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR 19
"fellaheen" purchasers. In the cattle market below the
bazaars bargains are being made, and the fortunate owners of
arable land in the immediate vicinity have strips of ground
ploughed for them free of charge when the oxen are being
" proved." The price of a plough complete with its iron point
or "sikie" is about sixteen shillings. A pair of good oxen
will cost £15 or £16.
The ploughman leaves his home as soon as there is a trace
of light in the eastern sky. He loads the plough and the yoke
on his donkey's back, takes his " minsas " or goad in his hand,
and, driving his slow-moving oxen before him, sets. out for the
field where he will labour for the day. With strong beasts
and soil well softened he can sow and plough into the ground
five or six " saas " of seed, and by this method the day's work
is measured. A "saa" is a measure of capacity and equals
a quarter of a bushel. About eight o'clock a rest of half an
hour is taken for breakfast, and at noon there is an hour for
dinner. Some loaves of bread and a piece of cheese or a hand
ful of olives which he brought with him furnish the two meals.
Between three and four o'clock the ploughman lifts the yoke
off the necks of his oxen and begins his journey homeward.
Much of the Plain of Esdraelon is ploughed by Moslems who
belong to Nazareth but live in one or other of the near villages
•during the busy months.
By the end of January all the wheat, barley, lentils, and
kursaney seed are in the ground, and quickly a fresh greenness
spreads throughout the country. Flowers also begin to display
themselves in profusion, until the carpet of colour for which
Galilee is famous spreads itself over hill and valley. Cyclamen,
white and yellow daisies, and anemones of all colours grow in
profusion, and in many unploughed patches of fertile soil one
cannot take a single step without crushing beautiful wild
flowers under foot.
There is a resumption of ploughing in March, when ground
is prepared for the planting of a summer crop of tomatoes,

20 THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR
cucumbers, vegetable marrows, and melons. Still later in the
season " sesame " is sown in drills. A woman with a long tin
tube, widened out in funnel shape at the top end, follows
closely behind the plough and drops the seed into the very
bottom of the drill. The seed is small and light, but the thin
tube almost touches the surface of the earth, and by its means
the seed can be dropped accurately into place, however strong
the wind may be blowing. Any rainfall immediately after
this sowing is detrimental to the seed, and if by chance
the sown land becomes sodden the farmer re-ploughs and
re-sows it.
From February until the middle of April the weather is
liable to be showery. These are the latter rains, and they
never continue long without a break. Few days pass without
having several hours of sunshine. From Nazareth we can
watch the rain showers travelling along the Plain of Esdraelon,
preceded and followed by patches of bright sunlight. Often
do we see a shower advance over the Carmel range on the
west, proceed along the stretch of plain, pass Megiddo, touch
Jezreel, and cross Little. Hermon, then continue east by Nain
and Endor, and disappear in the Jordan valley. Rarely are
heavy clouds wafted in the opposite direction, for the east
wind from the Arabian desert is dry.
This " shirkeyeh " or east wind is always dreaded. In
winter it blows bitterly cold, in summer it is hot ; but what
ever the season, it is invariably dry. The atmosphere changes
in a moment from the invigorating westerly breeze to a con
dition like the air from an oven door, which parches the eyes
and nose. In half a day the flowers droop, and the surface of
the earth hardens to a crust. Three or four days is the usual
limit of the " shirkeyeh," but in the autumn it may continue
blowing for two or three weeks.
During the early months of the year strong winds from
the north and north-east are common, and they are the coldest
of all, for they pass over the snow-covered Lebanon range.

THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR 21
Mount Hermon, at the south end of the Anti-Lebanon hills,
stands out clearly as a white peak sixty miles distant.
The lower parts of Nazareth are well sheltered from all the
winds, and a gale blowing round the houses up near the top of
the hill is barely felt below. During the heat of summer, when
the bazaars and the narrow streets are seemingly airless, we
can generally count on finding a refreshing breeze by climbing
to any part of the hill-top. The highest point of all is a small
flat field, uncultivated and profusely covered with wild flowers
during spring. The very summit is marked by a ruined Moslem
tomb, and from this spot a wonderful view is spread out in all
directions. It is one of the most famous panoramic views in
this or in any land. From the one standpoint may be seen
Mount Hermon and the Safed hills, Mount Tabor, and the
mountainous region of Ajloon, east of the Jordan. The river
lies too low to be visible, but the Jordan valley is clear. Endor,
Nain, and Jezreel are close at hand. The Plain of Esdraelon
fills the eye, and in clear weather the hills of Samaria can be
seen as far south as Mount Ebal. The long range of Carmel
stretches north-west until it dips suddenly into the Mediter
ranean Sea at Haifa, and the coast line is continued as the
Bay of Acre.
This view from the top of the Nazareth hill is a constant
joy ; the of tener we visit it the more entrancing does it become.
Without doubt it is one of the spots upon which Christ must
have stood, not once but very many times, during His boyhood.
By early April the ears of wheat and barley are formed,
the flower of the lentil plant has fallen, and there is a period of
expectancy as the harvest draws near. There is much anxiety
in the minds of the villagers, for a prolonged spell of east wind
will blight the growing corn. The portions of land reserved
for summer vegetables are now ploughed a second time and
tomato seedlings are planted out.
This time of year is the most enjoyable season. Cold spells
of weather are completely over, yet the mornings, late after-

22 THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR
noons, and evenings are delightfully cool. Occasional showers
keep the verdure fresh, but they are only brief intervals
between long hours of sunshine.
The sky of Galilee is rarely entirely cloudless; even in
midsummer, when skies of unvarying blue stretch overhead
elsewhere in the land, fleecy clouds hang over Mount Tabor
and the Carmel range. There is an average rainfall of twenty-
six inches, and any serious failure to reach that quantity
means reduced supply of water everywhere and much suffering.
When the dry season has actually set in, the one outstand
ing thought in the minds of the people is the approaching
harvest. The harvest is the date by which all events are
remembered. An illness of many years ago is still remembered
by the patient as having been "just before the harvest"; and
many mothers tell the exact ages of their children by the
recollection of the time of birth in relation to their work as
gleaners in the fields. With May the cutlers devote all their
time to making sickle blades. The iron is beaten out into a
thin and pointed curve on small anvils, the edge is filed
into teeth, and a short wooden handle is fitted. An average
price is one shilling. Camel-loads of sickles leave the town
for the great grain district across the Jordan and the fertile
valley of the Ghror.
So far the work in the field has devolved upon the men ;
they have ploughed and sown. The women's share has been
the picking out of the tares from among the growing wheat in
early spring. But now the girls and women are called upon
to reap. First of all lentils and "kursaney" are gathered;
they are pulled up by the roots.
The barley harvest begins about the middle of May, and as
soon as it is finished the wheat is reaped. During those busy
weeks few men, women, or even children are idle. Schools lose
half their scholars ; the Medical Mission Dispensary is much
less crowded, for now there is no time to be ill. Many of the
poorer women of Nazareth leave their homes and go wherever

THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR 23
they can find work. Terms of employment vary, but most
commonly the women are content with the privilege of gleaning
over the fields from which they have carried in the small
sheaves. Ears of corn left standing by the reapers and what
may drop from the sheaves are collected and brought home.
There on the floor of the room they beat out the grain and
sell the result, or else keep it for a winter store. Generally a
" saa " is secured each day.
When working at a distance from the town the women
sleep in the field, and the young children may share this
open-air life with their mothers. A cradle in the midst of
the sheaves is the commonest of sights.
The threshing-floor for Nazareth is below the town, and
camels, horses, and donkeys bring in the sheaves from the fields
all round. The wheat or barley is arranged in a large circle.
No complicated machinery is used — indeed no affair of wheels,
levers, and cranks lasts long in the untaught hands of the
country-bred Syrian. A " moraj " is nothing more than a
strong wooden board having a hundred or more small pieces
of hard stone hammered into holes in its under surface. The
whole thing costs only twelve shillings to fifteen shillings.
A horse, donkey, or yoke of oxen pulls it round in a circle until
the grain is rubbed out of the ear, and the stem or stalk is
crushed and broken into fine fragments. This crushed straw
is called " tibbin," and takes the place of hay in feeding animals.
A whole day may be occupied in driving the " moraj " round
and round before the sheaves are ground fine enough for win
nowing. The driver may stand in the centre of the ring or
he may ride on the board, and the extra weight of the man or
of a few boys, who thoroughly enjoy the ride, helps the process
of rubbing and bruising.
The loose mixture of " tibbin " and grain is then winnowed,
and again no complicated apparatus is used. With a " midraa "
or wooden fork it is tossed into the air and the wind separates
the grain from the chaff. Threshing and winnowing do not

24 THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR
require particular hurry, and the work goes on into September
or even later. By then the cycle of the year is completed, and
the feeling of expectancy increases week by week until the
heavy rains begin to fall and soften the parched land once
more for the point of the plough. It is during the month or
more between the clearing of the threshing-floors and the
beginning of ploughing that ready money is most plentiful
with the people.

CHAPTER VI
THE HOUSEHOLD
The family life of the Nazarene varies somewhat with the
social position of the household, the occupation of the head of
the house, and, to a less extent, with the religion of the family ;
but the variation is less than one would expect. For this the
comparative isolation of the position of the town may account.
Until recently only bridle-paths connected Nazareth with the
coast. As a typical family of moderate means we may select the
household of which Yusif Abdulla is head. Yusif's father was
Abdulla Bashara. When Yusif was born Abdulla received the
complimentary title of Abu Yusif — "the father of Yusif."
Yusif has now children of his own, the eldest boy being named
Ibrahim, therefore we accost Yusif politely as Abu Ibrahim,
and the boy himself is called Ibrahim Yusif. Such a system of
nomenclature is simple enough, and in villages it has few
disadvantages, for each inhabitant is intimately known to
every other. But it is a custom which has much against it
when the village has grown into a small town. So in Nazareth
the tendency is to adhere to a family name— a surname — and
many of the more prominent families, as the Fahooms, the
Kowars, and the Adineys, use the surname in the European
fashion. Nevertheless the title " Abu " (father) linked to the
name of the eldest son is employed as a mark of respect and
courtesy. Europeans often have the dignity of the custom
bestowed upon them by their Syrian friends; for example I
am sometimes addressed by my patients as " Abu Ronald."

26 THE HOUSEHOLD
The family which I have set out to describe consists of the
father, Yusif Abdulla, the mother, Jameely Jerius — she keeps
her maiden name — two sons, Ibrahim and Salim, whose ages
are eighteen and twelve, and one daughter, Miriam, nearly
sixteen years old. Their house is in the Greek quarter, and it
has a small garden round it containing a fig tree, an apricot
tree, and a few vines. The front door opens into the " lewan,"
about twenty feet by twelve feet in size. On either side is a
room rather smaller than the " lewan," and behind is a kitchen
eight feet square. It is called a " kitchen " but more properly
it is the storeroom, and more often than not all the cooking is
done on small movable clay fireplaces in the lewan.
One of the front rooms has a second door which opens into
the garden, and allows male visitors to enter on feast days
without intruding upon the living portion of the house. The
roof is formed by a solid arch of masonry and is flat above.
The walls of the house are quite three feet thick, as is required
to support such heavy roofing. Unlike the Moslem dwellings
across the valley this house has glass window panes of the
French pattern. A brilliant blue has been favoured exclusively
in painting the outside shutters and the doors, and a trace of
the same colour has been added to the limewash which covers
the outside stone. Solid stone slabs, smoothed by a mason's
chisel, form the floors. Quite recently, however — in fact when
Yusif's father died two years ago, and he inherited the house
and a little money — a cartload of cement tiles was brought up
from Haifa, and the reception-room floor was relaid, to the pride
of the family circle and the jealousy of the neighbours. No
mat or rug is allowed to cover even the centre of this new
acquisition. This reception-room is the only one which can
rightly be described as furnished.
On two sides are divans — wooden benches raised a foot and
a half and covered with long hard cushions encased in white
cotton material. A third side has several bent-wood chairs of
Austrian manufacture, and the remaining wall is partially

THE HOUSEHOLD 27
hidden by a large mirror in a gilt frame which rests upon a
fanciful marble-covered sideboard. In the middle of the room
stands a small round table covered with some white crochet
work, and bearing two plates of sweets and nuts and a box of
Turkish cigarettes.
The walls are whitewashed and bare, unless for several
brilliantly coloured oleographs of imaginary European female
heads. A cabinet photograph of a young man, painfully stiff
in obviously uncomfortable European clothes, wearing a high
collar and cuffs which descend to the knuckles, represents
Yusif's younger brother, who emigrated to Cuba seven years
ago, and is now partner in a small drapery store there. He has
saved sufficient money to think of marrying, and has commis
sioned his family circle in Nazareth to choose a suitable bride
for him and send her out with the next party leaving for the
West. All he asks is that she shall be healthy and not too
slender !
The other room of the house is almost unfurnished in the
western idea. A large wardrobe, a chest of drawers, and a long
wooden box with a lock are the only substantial pieces of
furniture. There are several low stools with rush seats. A
loose white sheet hanging across one wall partially hides a
recess where a dozen thin mattresses are stored in a pile. These
are the beds, and each night they are spread in the room and
in the lewan. There is no undressing, and Yusif does not
even remove his tarboosh when he lies down. Small hard
cushions take the place of pillows, and the coverlets are thin
quilts of washed wool or cotton.
The lewan is the actual living room. The cooking is clone in
the back end or just outside the kitchen door. Meals are taken
here, and on a few mattresses on the floor the family sit and
work and talk. Against one wall stands a large glass cupboard
with shelves which hold an amazing mixture of cups, saucers
and plates, match-boxes, reels of cotton, thread, packets of
tobacco, and a few medicine bottles. The " nargiley," a Turkish

28 THE HOUSEHOLD
pipe which belonged to Yusif's father and is now smoked each
evening by Yusif, sits on top of the cupboard. A small door
leads from the lewan into the so-called kitchen — storeroom
would be the appropriate name, for its shelves are filled with
tins and jars and bottles containing the year's provisions.
In the corners stand two high wooden boxes, or " khabies,"
which are the modern substitutes for the hollow clay pillars
found in the older Moslem houses. One contains wheat and
the other "burghul," which is wheat prepared in a special
manner. Last summer Yusif bought twenty-four keils of wheat
and the price was eleven shillings and sixpence the keil. A keil
contains about two and a half bushels.
The large earthenware jars on the shelves are glazed inside.
One contains green olives which have been bruised and are
now preserved in salt water, another has black olives, a
third "lebany'' in oil. The square paraffin tins on the floor
are full of olive oil, or of " semin," which is boiled butter.
Every family which can afford it lays in yearly stores of
these necessities when they are most abundant and cheapest.
Olive oil keeps well, and the crop is plentiful only in alternate
years. When there are guests for a meal, and that frequently
happens through Yusif's business connections, the cooking is
done in this kitchen, but on all other occasions the charcoal
stoves are brought into the lewan and the cooking done there.
The kitchen door opens into a vegetable garden, where green
onions and garlic were planted this year. A big wooden box
against the wall is a hen-house, and the chickens wander freely
through the house during the day, and have to be chased out
of the reception-room when a visitor unexpectedly arrives.

CHAPTER VII
THE ROUTINE OF THE DAY
Before it is full daylight the household is astir. The wife
rises first, and the grandmother, Yusif's mother, quite seventy
years old, is rarely much behind her. Miriam is fond of lying
in bed, and sometimes feigns being asleep even when actually
awake ; but sooner or later her mother shakes her up and sends
her to the goat stables, several minutes' walk higher up the hill,
for the morning milk.
Being spring, when milk is still plentiful and cheap, they
get two pints, which costs them threepence halfpenny. The
father and the sons being " men " are of course the last to rise,
and they expect breakfast to be waiting for them.
There is no dressing to be done, they only need to shake
themselves, but they wash hands and face in a fashion. Out
side the back door hangs an old paraffin tin having a tap and
filled with rain water. The soap they use comes from Nablous
of Samaria, and is made from olive oil. It may not be formed
into well-shaped cakes, and certainly it possesses no added
perfume, but it is a good and pure soap, and is the soap in
common used by the people of Galilee. Brilliantly-coloured
soaps of German and Jewish manufacture, made in Haifa and
packed in gaudily-prepared cardboard boxes, are on sale in the
market, and are used on special occasions, as when the doctor
has finished his professional visit and wishes to wash his hands ;
but for all common purposes the pure olive oil soap of Samaria
is employed. Yusif's father, Abdulla, had a bottle-shaped cistern sunk in

30 THE ROUTINE OF THE DAY
the rock beside the house, and the rain-water from the roof fills
it during winter. The family used to drink from this source,
but semi-scientific articles in Arabic newspapers have taught
them some of the dangers of drinking contaminated water,
and a vague idea of the possibility of certain small fishes called
" microbes " swimming about in their cistern have caused them
now to bring all their own drinking water from the spring. Twice
a day Miriam goes to the Virgin's Fountain for water. She
takes one of the black earthenware jars from its wooden stand,
balances it upon her head with the open end pointing forward,
and calls over the wall to her friend Shofika, who has the same
duty to perform. The two young girls go down the hill
together, past the Greek church of St. Bashara, until they
reach the arched and low-walled enclosure where four brass
taps give an abundant supply of fresh water. Until last year
three wide stone spouts allowed the water to rush out un
controlled night and day. This waste seriously diminished
the flow towards the end of summer, and by means of funds
locally raised the present pipes were introduced. The fountain
is the chief place of gossip among the women and girls.
Moslems, Catholics, Greeks, and Protestants all mingle in
one throng. They chatter and laugh together, and sometimes
they quarrel. Here it is that any special news spreads like
wildfire, and from here a rumour is carried in a few minutes to
every quarter of the town, and you may be sure that no story
heard at the spring loses anything in the re-telling. But it is
entirely domestic " tittle tattle " which forms the talk of the
women — births, deaths, and marriages ; the price of sugar in
the market ; the last household to be cast into gloom due to the
seizure of an unwilling son by the recruiting officer ; the letter
just received from a brother who sailed for the States ; these
and similar topics give rise to the babble of sound which con
stantly rises from the neighbourhood of the spring. Sometimes
the even murmur of conversation is broken by a scream, and
two women are at each other with hands like claws. One has

THE ROUTINE OF THE DAY 31
tried to force her jar below the streaming tap before her neigh
bour's jar is full, so the first has risen and, in her anger, tipped
the empty jar on to the stone floor, where it lies a heap of
fragments. Other women intervene, and very quickly only the
broken water jar bears any witness to the dispute. The eastern
temper is quickly roused and as quickly subsides, and the two
women who fought may return home engaged in friendly
conversation. Miriam's turn comes at last ; she fills her jar and Shofika
helps to lift it on to her head. The weight of the jar filled
with water is considerable, yet the girl supports it on her head
unaided, and waits on the outskirts of the circle until Shofika
joins her, similarly laden.
There is a constant stream of women and girls going to and
coming from the spring. The empty jar is carried horizontally,
the full jar upright is balanced not exactly in the centre but
tilted a very little to one side. This daily duty has a beneficial
effect upon the carriage and bearing of the girls. As a surgeon
I find fewer cases of spinal curvatures than one would expect
where there is so large a population and so much hygienic
ignorance. In summer, when more drinking water is required,
and when it is as agreeable to carry burdens by night, the pro
cession continues throughout the twenty-four hours. It is an
event in the life of a girl when she becomes old enough to take
her water jar to the fountain. Even at the age of seven or
eight children are supplied with miniature jars holding a pint
or two, and quickly they learn the art of balancing them, empty
or full, upon their heads.
So Miriam carries her jar home and finds that her father
and brother have finished breakfast, and are about to go into
town to open their shop in the bazaar. Her younger brother,
Salim, still attends school, and need not leave until a few
minutes before eight o'clock.
The breakfast of the family is not a set meal. The goat's
milk is boiled as soon as received, and when plentiful a small

32 THE ROUTINE OF THE DAY
bowlful, with a round flat loaf of bread aud a piece of cheese
or a handful of olives, is the usual menu. Each person takes
what he or she wishes, when and where it suits best. The
milk is always boiled ; indeed when unboiled it is considered
to be raw. During autumn and winter milk is scarce and dear,
and then a cup of Arabic coffee or a cup of tea, very weak and
very sweet, is substituted. Any milk which remains over the
breakfast is turned into " leban " by adding a small quantity of
the "leban" of the previous day. The whole is allowed to
stand for several hours and the result is an acid mass, either
curd-like when cow's milk is employed, or creamy if the milk is
from goats.
The women of the house take their meal after the men
have left, and then the process of bread-making for the day
begins. Im Ibrahim, " the mother of Ibrahim " (in other
words Yusif's wife), finds that the flour box is empty, and
Miriam has again to go an errand; this time she takes several
"saas" of wheat to the mill to have them ground. For the
grinding three halfpence for each "saa" is paid. The days
when the women of Nazareth ground the wheat between two
circular stones have gone, although it remains the custom in
many villages from which a mill is inconveniently distant.
With the fresh flour the dough is made in a large flat copper
pan and a lump of yesterday's dough is added to leaven it.
The kneading is done while the woman kneels on the floor.
The dough remains in the pan for five hours and is then
divided into handf uls and rolled into flat loaves on a " tablieh,"
which is a circular board raised three inches from the floor.
A white cloth is spread upon a round straw tray, and on this
Miriam carries the loaves to the bakehouse or " f urn."
Each quarter of the town has several " furns," and a family
makes a monthly payment for all the baking it needs done.
Yusif's family pays three bishlicks (equal to one shilling and
fivepence), and for this sum they bake also any special dishes
0f meat or macaroni prepared on feast clays. If the baker

THE ROUTINE OF THE DAY 33
has the duty of dividing the dough into loaves, he expects a
measure of flour for this purpose, and any flour left over
becomes his perquisite. Miriam meets several of her friends
at the bakehouse, and while the firing is in progress their
tongues are by no means silent.
The forenoon's housework includes duties which vary con
siderably with the season of the year, but one constant task
is the picking of the next measure of wheat which will be
sent to the flour mill. When bought the wheat contains tares
and numerous small stones from the earth of the threshing
floor; every stone must be carefully picked out, and if many
tare seeds are left, and they are ground up with the wheat,
the bread will cause dizziness when eaten.
This cleaning is performed by placing a small heap of
grain on a low round table and picking out all the foreign
materials by hand. The old grandmother, in spite of her
weak eyes, considers this one of her special duties, and she
will sit over this tedious work for hours at a time. The lentil
store requires to be gone over in the same way before being
put into the pot. If the wheat has been many months in
the store "khabies" there is the danger of "soos" infection.
These small black insects get into the grain and eat out the
complete kernel, leaving only the husk behind ; and when this
misfortune appears the entire supply must be picked through
and the contaminated grain thrown out.

CHAPTER VIII
THE WINTER STORE OF FOOD
Being spring-time, with milk abundant, " leban " made in the
villages and by the Arabs begins to come into town. Each
year Yusif's wife buys several large basins of such village
leban and pours it into a bag of unbleached calico. She
allows the watery part to drip out for the first few days, and
then puts pressure on the bag by means of heavy stones, and
so gets rid of the last of the fluid.
Daily for three days she kneads the contents of the bag
with salt, and the result is a white mass of the consistence of
soft cream cheese. It is called "lebany," and when fresh is
most delicious. But it is as a winter food that it is chiefly
used ; and the women divide the mass into short thick pieces
having sharp ends, or into small round balls the size of a
walnut, and immerse them in olive oil. Two or three pieces
of lebany with bread is considered an ample meal, and it is
indeed most digestible and highly nourishing.
During late March or April " semin " is brought up from
the Arab encampments in the Jordan valley. Semin may be
described as boiled butter, which keeps easily for two years.
The flocks of goats and cows are brought into the centre of
the camp as the sun is setting, and the women do the milking
into large copper vessels, which are then set to boil over open
fires. When lukewarm the leban ferment is added, and by
next morning the fresh leban has formed. This is emptied
into a large goat-skin bag which is slung on a wooden tripod,
and shaken vigorously until butter is produced. The butter
34

THE WINTER STORE OF FOOD 35
is then boiled and the resulting yellow fluid is " semin." The
best semin is made entirely from cow's milk, but quite
commonly goat's and cow's milk are mixed. Some of our
Nazareth men act as middlemen in this business, and bring
up donkey-loads from the Arab encampments. Each load
consists of four full paraffin tins, and the total weight is
one hundred and forty pounds. Yusif takes a whole load
each year, and it costs about £5,
Being a careful housekeeper, Im Ibrahim insists upon
re-boiling her semin, and removing the " scum " before weigh
ing it; and to clear it properly a handful of "burghul" is
added to the pot. " Semin " is the fat most commonly used
in cooking, and an abundance of it in the dishes indicates
prosperity. Being an animal product it is not eaten by
Christians during Lent, when olive oil is substituted.
Cheese is another common article of diet which must be
bought at the proper time for storage. Certain villages are
famed for its manufacture. Only one kind is brought to
Nazareth ; it is a white curd cheese pressed lightly into square
cakes, each weighing about half a pound. The coagulating
material is the lining of the stomach of a new-born kid. No
salt or any colouring material are used in the manufacture,
but when preserved as a winter store it is kept immersed in
salt water. Yusif's family needs nearly fifty pounds of cheese,
and this quantity costs him rather more than £4. Con
siderable care must be taken to avoid cheese which may have
absorbed a poisonous salt of copper during the process of
making. Owing to lack of experience, or carelessness, the
¦curd may have been kept in copper pots which have lost part
of their tin coating. Travelling tinsmiths who renew the
coating on copper vessels visit villages at intervals, but a
small village may not often have the chance of getting this
done. Then it is that such an absorbable material as milk,
remaining in contact with copper, runs a grave risk of con
tamination, and fatal cases of poisoning occur yearly.

36 THE WINTER STORE OF FOOD
The choosing of all these articles of food needs experience
to be sure of quality, and no store is finally purchased until
the grandmother, the mother, and the daughter have given
an opinion. Any neighbour will give advice in case of unusual
difficulty ; and as a rule many mouths taste the sample
before any bargain is concluded.
The spring stores being safely secured, the women have
several weeks when they can spend their mornings in sewing.
Practically all the clothes for husband and sons are made at
home, and the women employ a dressmaker only when pre
paring for an occasion of special importance. A sewing-
machine is a luxury only few can afford ; but with plenty of
time and skilful fingers they manage to achieve good results.
Im Ibrahim cuts out accurately without the aid of shapes,
and she measures by the span of her hand. In patching she
excels ; it may be from abundant practice, for no garment of
any member of the family is finally discarded until it becomes
questionable whether or not the sum of the patched surfaces
does not equal the rest of the garment.
Miriam occupies her time in making needle lace. A reel
of cotton, usually Coats', and an ordinary sewing needle is
all that she requires to make doyleys, collars, or insertion lace.
It is slow work, and calls for considerable skill. Amongst
tourists such fancy work finds a ready sale. Miriam herself
does not go down to the hotels, but several native women
who speak English act as agents, and take a commission on
what they are able to sell.
As soon as the harvest is in progress the outstanding
household question is the purchase of wheat, lentil, and
"homoos." Qualities and prices are then the most common
topics of conversation. Samples are procured from several
sources and carefully compared. Special care must be taken
in selecting lentils, for what may seem to be clean, full, and
of good colour may not soften well in cooking. So the sample
is boiled to test this all-important quality, and only what

THE WINTER STORE OF FOOD 37
softens readily is purchased for storage. The family takes one
keil of lentils, and it costs about fourteen shillings.
Wheat is purposely bought in two qualities. The long
thin grain does well for grinding into flour; the shorter,
thicker grain is preferred for "burghul." Burghul is wheat
which has been boiled in the whole grain, dried in the sun
for two or three days, and stored. It is prepared for cooking
purposes in small quantities, by damping the grain and then
grinding it in the handmill. The result is four different
grades of fineness. The coarsest quality is reserved for cooking
with butter alone or with meat; the second quality is used
for "kibby," a dish which is easily the favourite in most
Syrian houses on feast days; quality number three is mixed
with chopped onions, moistened with water and semin, formed
in balls, and boiled in leban ; the finest of all is only used
for making a thin yeast in which turnip slices are pickled.
The twenty-four keils of wheat which Yusif buys at harvest
time costs him nearly £14, but the market price of that
quantity may rise to £25 during the spring months.
" Homoos " is a seed about the size of a large green pea, and
grows in pods on plants not unlike the lentil. It is eaten
raw or roasted while yet green as a luxury, but it is stored
for winter use when hard and yellow, and is added to certain
dishes of meat and vegetable.
As the summer advances donkey-loads of raisins arrive
from the east of Jordan; the finest come from es-Salt. Dried
figs are purchased in September, and of both of them Yusif
lays in a year's supply. Still later olive oil is bought; but in
this crop good and bad years alternate, and therefore a double
store is secured each second autumn.
Yusif has a cousin in Rameh — a village a whole day's
journey north — which is famed for its olive groves ; and he
can rely upon getting good quality direct from there. Indeed
he does a small trade in olives and oil with several neighbours
who order their supplies through him. The tasting of the

38 THE WINTER STORE OF FOOD
fresh oil requires a delicate palate, for the slightest bitterness
imparts a sharp taste to all food cooked with it. It is sold
by the " hawa," a measure which equals two pints, and Yusif
takes twelve gallons at a time, which costs him about £2.
Green olives are ordered from the north ; and each berry
is separately bruised and immersed in salt water until the
bitter taste has disappeared, which requires at least three
days. If unbruised, the green olive should be preserved for
a year before being eaten ; and both sorts improve by keeping.
Towards the end of the year black olives are procurable.
They are the ordinary fruit, which has been allowed to ripen
on the tree, and are full of oil. For storing, they are dusted
with salt, and bottled in a solution of salt to which a weed
called " fagin " and some oil have been added.
The securing of proper and adequate stores at the appro
priate time is of the greatest importance to all families who
can afford this outlay. Of course very many of the poor
cannot buy their provisions in large quantities, and for such
the cost of living increases month by month.
Very few of the merchants deal in cheese, lebany, olives,
raisins, figs, etc., out of season, and even such an essential
food as wheat was sold this year in April at more than double
the price it cost in the previous August.
In the larger towns of Palestine the custom of annual
storage has been almost discontinued, but in Nazareth it
still obtains.

CHAPTER IX
SYRIAN COOKERY
All the cooking is done on charcoal, which is bought by the
camel-load from the Arabs who make it near Mount Tabor, and
the load of two large sacks costs about six shillings. But for
the open fire below the wash-tub branches and roots are
burned, and a donkey-load of such firewood costs about five-
pence halfpenny.
The marketing for a household is done by the male members
of the family. The head of the house, before his hours of busi
ness, buys in the bazaars the vegetables, meat or fish required
for the day, and he carries them home himself or sends them
with his son. No shop has a message boy to run errands. It
is quite usual to meet a man of good position carrying a basket
of vegetables on his arm and holding several fish or a piece of
meat in his outstretched hand.
Many of the native dishes are tasteful and wholesome, and
the Nazareth women are generally good cooks. But there is
little variety in the food, and no attempt is ever made to alter
or improve a dish by changing the methods of preparation
or the usual ingredients employed. No cookery books exist
to help the housekeeper, and rarely are weights or accurate
measures employed in the home.
The following recipes have been compiled by my wife
from observation in the kitchen: —
M'Jaddara
Wash and clean the lentils, put them into a pot with cold
water, and bring to the boil. Cook until tender. Next chop

40 SYRIAN COOKERY
up a few onions and fry them in olive (salad) oil until slightly
browned. Pour off the oil into the pot of lentils and b®il
the onions in the frying-pan with a little warm water until
a dark brown. Add this to the lentils. Finally put in the
rice (washed) or "burghul," as preferred, and boil altogether
until cooked. It should be of a dry consistency.
Rice and Yachnie
Fry pieces of meat in a saucepan with semin until the
meat gets browned, and then place the vegetable marrow,
peeled and cut into bits, over the meat ; cover but do not stir.
Cook on a slow fire, and when nearly done pour on some
strained tomato juice and stir gently.
For the rice : — Melt some semin in a saucepan, and when
hot pour in some water. Allow to boil, then put in the rice
(washed) ; stir well, add salt, and allow to cook until dry and
soft. Tomato Preserve
Squeeze the tomatoes and strain the juice from the seeds,
boil the juice with plenty salt until it thickens. It is then put
out in the sun in shallow basins until it dries into a thick con
sistency. It should be well stirred each morning. When dry
enough it is put into jars, a little olive oil poured on the top
and covered up. This preserve is used for cooking purposes
when fresh tomatoes are unavailable.

Khubbazie (a kind of weed)
Chop up the leaves and stalks, wash and leave in the water
until required. Fry sliced onions in oil until a golden brown,
take out the minced leaves in handfuls, squeeze, and put in
the saucepan with the onions until cooked.

SYRIAN COOKERY 41

KlBBEY

One or two pounds of meat (no fat) very well pounded in a
mortar. Take out meat and bruise one large onion with salt,
pepper, and a little cinnamon, then return meat and mix.
When ready add the "burghul," which has been washed with
water, and pound well together, moistening occasionally with
the hand dipped in water. Pass a knife through the mixture
to take out the tendons. Grease a large copper tray with
semin, put a layer of the meat mixture, and spread it smoothly
over about an inch thick ; put a layer of cooked minced meat,
onions, and pine seeds, and cover with another layer of meat.
Cut the whole surface into diamond squares, place large pieces
of semin on the top and bake in the oven.
Fried Egg-Plant
Peel the egg-plant, cut in slices lengthwise, and put in the
sun to dry a little. Then fry in hot oil until nicely browned
on both sides. Coussa Mahshee
Procure some small tender vegetable marrows, cut a slice
off the top and scoop out the pulp, leaving a little more than
the rind. Wash and pick some rice, add finely-chopped meat,
pepper, and salt. Mix all the ingredients with some semin,
then fill the vegetable marrows a little more than three-quarters
full to allow for the expansion of the rice. Place all evenly in
a saucepan. If tomatoes are procurable, squeeze, strain, and
boil the juice, and pour it over the vegetable marrows; or
put layers of sliced tomatoes and vegetable marrows alter
nately, pour over them some hot water, and boil until tender.
Early vine leaves can be rolled up, with the same stuffing, and
packed tightly in a saucepan. They are covered with boiling
water and cooked on a slow fire.

42 SYRIAN COOKERY
Sheeshbarak
Knead some unleavened dough. Finely mince the raw
meat, rub chopped onions with a little salt, then add the
meat, with a little pepper. Divide the dough into round balls
the size of an ordinary marble and flatten it out between the
fingers, place a small quantity of meat in the centre, fold the
dough over and give it a slight twist.
Have ready in a saucepan some boiling goat's leban, add
water and boil again, put in the dough balls and boil until
cooked. When nearly done bruise a few slices of garlic, add
salt and a little semin, and place on the fire until a strong
odour is perceptible, then add to the leban and dough. If any
mint is to be had a little may be added also.
Lebaneeyeh
Heat goat's milk until it boils over, then add water. Wash
and pick some rice, put it in, and boil altogether until the rice
is soft. Pickled Cheese
Wash the flat cakes of cheese in cold water, sprinkle
freely with salt, and put under a heavy weight for three or
four days. Then boil some salt and water, put in the cakes
of cheese and cook until soft. Remove, cut into four squares,
and put into a wide-mouthed bottle pressed down tight.
Prepare spring water and salt, dense enough to float an egg,
and allow to get cold. Next day strain the water from the
bottle of cheese and pour in the cold boiled water to cover
them, and, lastly, a little olive oil, which preserves it from
the air.

CHAPTER X
THE BAZAARS
While the mother and daughter are occupied with the details
of the housework, Yusif and his son are engaged with their
business in town. Their shop opens at no fixed hour, for all
work is regulated by the time of the year and the consequent
daylight. No "Daylight Saving Act" is required in Galilee,
where already all the customs of the people are regulated by
the hours of sunrise and sunset.
Speaking generally, Yusif turns back the lock of his shop
door some time between half-past six and eight o'clock, and he
is neither the first nor the last to start business in the bazaar.
The shops on his right and left, as well as all those on the
opposite side of the street, sell exactly the same articles.
There are no shutters to take down, for there is no window ;
and the door, in two halves, is the entire width of the shop.
The floor space measures four feet by ten feet, and the inside
walls are lined from top to bottom with wooden shelves divided
by partitions, in which the goods are packed tightly. Native
cloths of all sorts and Manchester cotton goods are stored
together in this fashion, which economises space in a wonderful
way, but by no means helps to display the wares for sale.
From Damascus these merchants bring " deema," the strongest
woven native dress material. It is made of cotton, or sometimes
of a mixture of silk and cotton. The pattern is always a
stripe, and each piece is a dress length. There is also extra
fine " deema " made of pure silk, but such a cloth is used for
special garments only. The long dress worn by the men,

44 THE BAZAARS
which reaches the ankles, is called a " khumbas," and for this
the ordinary cut length of " deema " is sufficient.
The " kafeyeh " or " hutta " is a large square of cotton, wool,
or silk, or it may be a mixture of these. It may be plain or may
have interwoven threads of silver. Folded cornerwise, thrown
over the head, and kept in position by the " akal " — a round
double ring of black twisted wool — this kafeyeh is the universal
dress of the villagers, and many of the townsmen have never
adopted the Turkish tarboosh or fez. For the cold of winter,
as well as for the heat of summer, this head covering forms an
ample protection. The "hutta" is made in several colours,
but once chosen it is rare for a man to change that colour.
Thus Mousa our servant has adopted black, and would scarcely
be recognised in a "hutta" of any other colour. Elias is a
friend of his, well into the fifties, and has worn yellow all his
life. The colour indicates nothing, it is merely a matter of
personal choice.
Yusif Abdulla also sells " jazmat," or long red leather boots
made in Damascus. Only Bedouin Arabs wear these, but
much of the trade in this bazaar is with the Arabs of the
Plain of Esdraelon and the Jordan valley. There are camel
bells, brass coffee-pots, strings of blue beads to keep off the
"Evil Eye," and brightly coloured saddle-bags.
The methods of conducting business with the country
customers as they come in from the villages are entirely
Oriental in character. Very few goods are displayed, and no
effort is made to attract possible purchasers ; indeed Yusif
seems to pay scant attention when several Arab women wander
up the street and stop at his door to enquire for a pair of long
boots. He happens to be rolling a cigarette at the time, and he
deliberately completes the process, finds a match with difficulty,
and begins to smoke, while the women remain in the street
outside the door. A pair of the red boots hang from a nail
close to the entrance, and Yusif tells them to take them down
and try them. One of the women does so and asks the price.

THE BAZAARS 45
He quotes a figure much in excess of what he expects to get,
and adds that he is making it cheap for her because he will be
ordering new goods soon, which is an untruth. The Bedouin
woman says that a sister-in-law bought the same quality for
half that price, which is equally untrue, but that she will give
rather more. Yusif comes down a few piastres, but she hangs
up the boots on their nail and goes to a shop across the street,
where the same sort of bargaining process is gone through.
Meanwhile Yusif remains seated on his low stool and prepares
another cigarette. The woman may come back, and if so, Yusif
will come down by stages until both are satisfied and the
bargain is concluded. He will exhibit his goods to other
enquirers who have already been to half a dozen shops in the
bazaar, and as the result of a day's haggling his profit may
amount to five shillings. No doubt expenses are light ; there
are no clerks to pay, no heating, no lighting, no insurance to
be reckoned for ; but there is always a certain amount of money
out on credit, for cash is scarce with the villagers throughout
the year until the harvest is gathered and the grain is sold.
Then it is that old accounts are settled, and wheat or oil may
have to be taken as part payment. In the spring of this year
Yusif and his son were paid in cheese for cloth and " kafeyehs "
they sold last autumn. Once or twice each year the father goes
to Beyrout and Damascus on business, leaving Ibrahim in
charge of the shop. All the European goods are purchased
from large wholesale houses in Beyrout, and the Oriental cloths
and brass goods are brought down from Damascus. There are
no new fashions to be considered by our merchants; their
customers from village and from encampment wish nothing
more than what pleased their great-grandfathers. In other
bazaars of the town, where shops of a different character exist,
European prints, French silks and parasols, high-heeled satin
slippers for the richer townswomen to wear at marriages and
on feast days will be found. But none of these articles ever
enter the bazaar in which Yusif does business, Probably his

46 THE BAZAARS
stock in trade at any time would not be valued at more
than £60.
When the noon bells ring Ibrahim takes sole charge of the
shop and his father goes home for dinner. Miriam brings a
dish of meat and vegetable stew called " yachnie," with a loaf
of fresh bread, to her brother, and waits with him during the
meal to take back the empty dish. The dinner served at home
at midday is also a single course meal. It may be a meat and
vegetable stew, fried fish, baked macaroni, stuffed vegetable
marrow or vine leaves, rice and tomato, with plenty bread in
each case.
The afternoon business in the shop is light and uncertain,
for the country folk are anxious to leave town early and so
reach home before twilight. But it is in the afternoon that
the Nazareth women are free to leave their houses to pay
visits to their friends, or make their purchases of cloth for
home-made garments. Yusif gets his share of such custom,
for he belongs to an old family, and has an extensive circle of
relations. It is always considered desirable, if at all possible,
to deal with a relative.
Towards sunset shop doors begin to shut, and before the
short twilight commences the whole bazaar is deserted.
Frequently the merchants take a walk along one or other
of the roads leading out of town. Three or four of them
may saunter in the direction of Tiberias. They often carry
in their hands their "wasabha," or strings of amber beads.
The pace is one of sedate deliberation, and the men spread
themselves across the carriage way. If a discussion arises the
party stops in the middle of the road to argue it out. Politics
are talked, prices are compared, and gossip freely repeated.
There is a strange want of privacy in concluding business
transactions, and in many matters where only two men are
concerned the others will force upon them their unasked
opinions. In midsummer, when the hot day is ending,
several townsmen may set a brisker pace and reach the

THE BAZAARS 47
hill-top to enjoy the cooling breeze from the Mediterranean
Sea. Nazareth has many "cafes" of a primitive sort, but it is
not considered good form to frequent them, and the only place
of this sort where men of position may be found is down near
the threshing-floor. In the cafes " arak," a native spirit, is
taken freely, and a good deal of gambling with the dice goes
on. Drunkenness is not at all common, but any excess there
is can be traced to those low spirit stores. Before it is actually
dark all Nazareth is at home, and supper is in progress. This
is the only meal when the father, mother, two sons, daughter,
and old grandmother are able to sit down together. The low
circular table is set in the centre of the lewan, the cooked
dish, whatever it may be, is put in the middle, and a plate of
olives, lebany, or cheese may be placed beside it. There are
loaves of bread freshly baked and a bowl of water. Round this
table the family squats in true Arab fashion, with feet tucked
underneath. There is no serving, but out of any dish each
.person helps himself or herself. A spoon is provided, but as
often as not it is considered superfluous, and a piece of bread
torn from the flat loaf serves to assist the fingers. The bowl
of water is common to all, and is replenished by Miriam from
the jar which stands in a corner of the room. The meal is
quickly over, for no time is wasted in conversation and there is
no changing of plates. Each person when finished goes to the
tin of water and washes th«ir hands.
There is a small paraffin oil lamp in the house, and Salim,
who is still at school, may do some study. The others gossip
together, or a friend may come in if he has special news to give,
but there are no evening entertainments of any sort in town,
and by nine o'clock the day is ended and the household is ready
enough to retire to bed.
The customs and modes of living in a poor family vary
in many details from the more fortunate households as that
of Yusif Abdulla, and we have very many poor folk whose

48 THE BAZAARS
poverty is of such an extreme kind as cannot well be estimated
by the standard of Britain. In Nazareth no Poor Laws aid
the indigent, no parochial grant assists the needy, no alms
house exists as a last haven for the aged, no incurable home
cares for the dying. No parks, public gardens, picture galleries,
museums, libraries, municipal music, or children's playgrounds
are provided to brighten their lives.

CHAPTER XI
A POOR FAMILY
Where the western hill-side slopes nearly to the level of the
bazaars Mousa Yacob rents a single room about twelve feet
square. The door opens from the main street, and there is no
additional accommodation of any sort. Inside the room there
is never sufficient light, for the only window opens on a lane
where the next building rises only three feet distant. For this
room Mousa pays a yearly rent of ten medjedies, which equals
£1, 13s. His family consists of his wife and four young
children, and they belong, as regards religious persuasion, to
the Greek Catholic community. They are Catholics because
Mousa's father and grandfather were Catholics. Had these
ancestors been Moslems, Druses, or Protestants, the present
family would have continued in the faith of the parents.
Religious conviction rarely decides the particular creed to
which a Syrian adheres.
Unfortunately Mousa knows no skilled trade ; for this he
blames his eyes, which are no doubt weak from chronic inflam
mation. But his roving disposition when young, and an entire
lack of parental control — for he was an eldest son, and as such
was never " crossed " — led him to try many trades, and fail to
stay in any; so now he is a labourer, and generally carries
stoves and lime for the masons. His daily wage is three or
four bishlicks, which equals one shilling and fivepenee to one
shilling and tenpence halfpenny. On an average he finds
employment five days in the week, and his annual income is
under £20. On such an income the purchase of large stores of
49 4

50 A POOR FAMILY
food is impossible, and Khuznie, his wife, purchases the wheat,
olive oil, cheese, etc., as required, in small quantities, at a greatly
larger cost.
In the morning she herself goes to the market-place, for
Mousa is away to his work by daylight. She carries the grain
to the mill and brings back the flour. The making of the bread
and taking it to the nearest " furn " occupies much of her time ;
but the most exacting duty of all is the fetching of water from
the spring. Not far from her house there is a second spring,
but it is the merest trickle, and in summer and autumn the
water only drops out of the tap, so that a jar will take half
an hour in the filling. Half a dozen water jars may be lying
beside it then, and the women place each in its proper turn
below the tap. The Virgin's Fountain in the Greek quarter is
ten minutes' walk distant, but Khuznie is obliged to go there if
she is to get water at all, and twice a day she brings back a
full jar upon her head, carrying her baby underher arm at the
same time. Then there is the cooking to do, and any spare
hour is occupied in the endless patching which is required by
the family's clothes. The eldest boy is eleven years of age, and
has gone to learn cobbling in a shoemaker's shop. His younger
brother and sister (six and four years old) go to the Catholic
schools, where they learn to speak a little French. Their
education is free and all books are provided, for this is a
charity of the church. The baby is ten months old.
When Mousa's work is near at hand he comes back at noon
for dinner ; but such fortune is rare, and usually he takes with
him two flat loaves, some cheese, a few olives or a piece of
" halaway," which is a sweet mixture of a pounded root, sugar,
and sesame oil. Khuznie has a cooked supper ready when her
husband returns at night. Rarely is meat served, but generally
eggs fried in semin, or vegetables in oil, and when the meal is
finished they go to a neighbour's house for an hour's gossip.
Of course she walks a pace behind her husband, as is the custom
of the land. With work waiting at daylight each morning there

A POOR FAMILY 51
is every inducement to retire early to bed." In such a family
there are few social pleasures ; the only relaxation is the " feast
day," which comes fairly frequently in the Catholic calendar.
Schools are closed, and no good Catholic is expected to do even
an hour's work. Then the family put on their best clothes,
and pay visits to friends in their quarter. New clothes are
obtained once a year, and are donned for the first time on
Easter day, an occasion when the poorest Christian Nazarene
strives to possess at least one new garment. The crowd of
women and girls coming out of church service on an important
feast day is a brilliant scene, in which many bright colours
blend, but closer inspection shows that the materials are thin
and cheap, and made for show rather than for wear.
The usual rise in the price of nearly all foods as the year
goes on is a very serious thing for Mousa, and as the cost of
one article becomes prohibitive a substitute must be found.
They have recently been living entirely on barley bread owing
to the scarcity of wheat, and suet takes the place of semin and
oil. But even in such times of stress there is no abatement in
the heavy taxation, which even the poor must pay ; nor are any
systems of relief instituted by the Government.
Fortunately Mousa is just beyond the age for conscription,
and has escaped the fate of many younger men in Nazareth
who have been taken forcibly to fight for the Turks in Thrace.
Like all his fellow Syrians he is an Arab by origin, and has no
wish to fight the battles of the Turks.
For several weeks there was much anxiety lest his name
should appear on the lists of those wanted for the " Redif " or
reserve regiments, as his "official" age was rather uncertain,
for the age according to the Turkish register rarely coincides
with the actual age of the subject. Mousa himself, to delay as
long as possible the calling out of his sons, deliberately neglected
to enter their births in the Government books until they were
several years old ; and thus they will be in their twenties
before they are seventeen officially.

52 A POOR FAMILY
In the house there is very little furniture, and the absence
of storage boxes and earthenware jars gives it an unusually bare
appearance. The customary wardrobe, chest of drawers, and
long low box with a lock is all they possess, and for seats they
use hard cushions. When the medical missionary attends an
invalid in this home, several hard pillows are piled one above
the other to heighten the seat to something approaching his
ordinary chair. But balancing upon these cushions while
auscultating a patient is a feat he finds difficult, and sometimes
impossible, to accomplish.
The advent of serious illness into such a household is a sad
circumstance. If Mousa be indisposed all wages stop, and there
are no provident societies to help him. When Khuznie is laid
up the problems of cooking, washing, fetching water, and
managing the children keep her husband at home all the day.
Fortunately both are strong and healthy, and most of the
sickness has been confined to the children. Early in spring
the girl of four years old developed broncho-pneumonia. No
attention was paid to the child's distress until she became
unable to rise from bed and take food. Then the mother
became somewhat anxious and called in an old woman who
practises as a midwife for the one and only reason that she is
aged and has herself borne many children. Her knowledge of
her art is " nil," her eyesight nearly gone, and her general
condition dirty beyond description. But her tongue is a loose
one, and her knowledge of all manner of superstitious charms is
profound. Therefore her opinion is often asked and her advice
frequently taken when babies and young children become sick.
This old woman diagnosed " reich," which can only be translated
— and then imperfectly — as " wind," and advised cauterisation,
which is the commonest of all native treatments. She rolled
up a strip of cloth into a cigar form, and having lit it applied
the smouldering stump to the child's chest in a number of spots,
while the friendly (?) neighbours held her down and stifled her
screams with their hands. The pain of such slow burning is

A POOR FAMILY 53
excruciating, and the poor girl was panting with agony and
terror when they let her go. But another bad restless night
spoiled the reputation of the old midwife, and the general feel
ing of the neighbours was that she required blood-letting. So
a barber was summoned, who scarified the girl's back and chest
with the edge -of a razor. Approximately fifty scratches were
inflicted, and a considerable amount of blood was lost. Even
this proved insufficient to cure broncho-pneumonia, and next
morning, seeing that her child's breathing was worse, Khuznie
took her to the dispensary of the Medical Mission. The doctor
soon discovered what was wrong, reproved the mother for the
barbarous treatment they had adopted, and insisted on the
patient being taken home at once and kept quiet. Daily, until
recovery, the medical missionary visited the house, and nowhere
in Nazareth can be found a more grateful family for the help
they then received than Mousa and his wife.

CHAPTER XII
THE HEALTH OF THE TOWN
The health of the population of Nazareth is a subject upon
which it is difficult to secure any statistical information. No
death certificates are required, and the nearest approach to truth
is obtained from the various church registers. This leaves out
of account, however, the entire Moslem population. Yet if one
may not know accurately the rate of mortality per thousand, a
doctor who practises for many years amongst all classes of the
people obtains a good idea of the usual conditions of health and
disease. One outstanding fact is that water-borne disease is
uncommon. Each house has its own cistern for the storage of
rain, or else draws a supply of drinking water from the fountain
in its own jars. Contamination of a source from which many
persons will drink is not possible, therefore typhoid fever is
rare and an epidemic of cholera rarer. Within the last ten
years cholera cases have been imported into town from Tiberias
and from the coast; but on each occasion no fresh case has
resulted. No doubt the absence of any serious overcrowding
in any part of the town, and the comparative separation of
many of the houses in the outskirts are factors which help
greatly in combating such diseases.
When cholera is reported as being in the neighbourhood —
and it seems to reach Palestine periodically — a meeting of the
town council is held, and the council invites the co-operation of
the doctors. All possible information is laid before the gather
ing and all sorts of suggestions are brought forward, but the
advice given by the doctors is not always taken. A few years

THE HEALTH OF THE TOWN 55
ago, when the disease appeared amongst the villages near the
Mediterranean coast, it was recommended that several loads of
vegetables which had just come to market from the infected
area should not be destroyed, as the doctors wished, for this
would be wicked waste, but should be given away free to the
poor. The usual precaution taken is the establishment of a
cordon round t,he town. This means the placing of a tent or
wooden shelter on each principal road where it enters Nazareth,
and appointing watchmen, whose duty it is to prevent the
entrance of any person from cholera-infected towns or villages.
Theoretically this is admirable, as very many of Turkey's laws and
regulations are, but if the watchmen are open to bribes, and
the inspectors who may be appointed to visit them equally
corrupt, the whole system fails. This is what usually happens,
and the poor may be kept in quarantine at the barrier while
the richer persons from the same cholera district find ways of
gaining entrance. During one epidemic the chiefs of certain
uninfected villages were allowed to grant signed permissions to
their own inhabitants which would gain them free passage into
Nazareth. They undertook this duty willingly, and gave their
signed letters to any strangers from cholera areas who paid
them for the trouble. It is such ideas of what is honest and
honourable which makes all internal reform in the Ottoman
Empire impossible. Two years ago a quarantine station was
established on the Haifa road to accommodate the many
refugees who were fleeing from the cholera in the coast towns.
Two small tents were erected and a wooden shelter. No provi
sion was made for sleeping, no water provided, and no feeding
arrangements considered, yet it was ordered that every
traveller from the coast must spend five full days in the
encampment, and to enforce this soldiers were placed on duty
all around. During the first day the regulations worked well,
and the people who had left Haifa without being warned of
this quarantine station were made sufficiently uncomfortable
and hungry and thirsty to please everyone but themselves.

56 THE HEALTH OF THE TOWN
The authorities seemed pleased with their plans. But next day
a carriage full of well-known Nazarenes, wealthy and influential,
came along the road. They had also come from the infected
town, but being who they were it was obviously impossible to
insist upon rules to which they objected. So they drove
through. Rumour said that most of the quarantined people
entered town each night after dark by bribing the soldiers and
returned to their quarters with the daylight, and otherwise it
is difficult to understand how they managed to exist. It is a
fact that cartloads of iron and cement for building were halted
at the barrier, the horses and drivers allowed to proceed to a
stable at the entrance to the town, while the carts and their
contents remained in quarantine. Humorously it was then
stated that the municipal doctor paid a visit daily to the cart
loads of material to see if any of the cement barrels had
developed choleraic symptoms overnight.
Although water-carried disease is not likely to become
epidemic, all the air-borne fevers spread readily. Smallpox
visits Nazareth every few years, and sometimes claims a
number of victims. The people strongly believe in vaccina
tion, but there is no constant demand, and if it is not in
fashion to be " scratched " a large number of infants may
grow up to the age of three or four without being vaccinated.
When a rumour spreads that smallpox is in the vicinity
there is a general clamour for vaccination, which, however,
almost entirely disappears again as soon as the infectious
disease appears in town, for a strange prejudice says that
newly-vaccinated children are more likely to catch the
illness. The two most fatal infantile diseases are diarrhoea in
summer and broncho-pneumonia in winter. Together these
illnesses cause a high mortality among children under two
years of age. The gravity of the early stages is not realised
by the mothers, and generally even after serious symptoms
develop the advice of a midwife or a barber is taken for several

THE HEALTH OF THE TOWN 57
days before skilled medical help is sought. Too often the
doctor sees the baby for the first time when all hope is over.
Yet there is an undoubted improvement noticeable during
recent years, and the value of proper treatment early in illness
is being more and more realised. The Medical Mission has
used every endeavour to save the children from the barbarous
native treatment they so often undergo, and the teaching is
having its effect. A recent baby show where a prize was
given for cleanliness has drawn attention to the value of daily
washing. Previously it was not uncommon for the baby to
receive no bath of any sort until at least one year old ; now
it is not uncommon to give it a daily tub. Water was sup
posed to be a most dangerous element, and the new-born babe
was only rubbed with olive oil and coarse salt. Earth took
the place of toilet powder, and a thick crust of dirt on the
head was believed to be a protection. There are occasional
epidemics of measles, chicken-pox, whooping-cough, and mumps,
but scarlet fever is rare, and diphtheria even more so.
On the whole, the men and women are strong and healthy,
for the hill air is bracing and the heat rarely extreme. Malaria
is not common, and most of the patients have become infected
while down in the plain. Phthisis is more common than it
used to be, and it is greatly dreaded ; but it is not so frequent
as in Europe. Owing to the fear of infection the friends can
scarcely be induced to give proper nursing attention to the
phthisical patient. Also the long persevering treatment and
the constant living out of doors so necessary in the illness seem
to be beyond the endurance of the people. They must see a
definite improvement from the first day, and almost from the
first dose of medicine, else they wish to experiment with some
fresh line of treatment, or at least with a bottle of medicine
having a new taste and especially a different colour.
Accidents occur rarely, for no street is suitable for vehicular
traffic, and the three flour mills comprise all the machinery in
town. Falls down wells and off flat roofs, and the collapse of

58 THE HEALTH OF THE TOWN
builders' scaffolding, account for some injuries each year. Much
more common are gunshot and revolver wounds, often resulting
from playing with loaded weapons, and sometimes due to assault
or defence ; but burns of great severity happen now and then,
and can generally be traced to negligence in using paraffin
lamps. They do not seem to realise the highly inflammable
nature of the fluid, and deal with it in a reckless fashion. The
lamps used are often extremely cheap and very faulty. Poison
ing cases are due to inattention to bottle labels. One pattern
of bottle, the continental beer bottle, is commonly used for
many purposes, such as storing olive oil, paraffin oil, creosote
for camels, turpentine, nitric acid, as well as for medicine pre
scribed by the doctor. All the bottles sent out by the Medical
Mission Dispensary are properly labelled, and if a liniment is
given a red "poison" paper is attached; but even then mis
takes happen through illiteracy and carelessness. Many poor
people, and especially villagers, fail to realise the need for
accuracy in dosage, and a prescription in which any unusually
potent drugs are included must take into consideration the
possibility that the patient may drink the medicine directly
out of the bottle if a spoon is not at- hand.
Carbon monoxide poisoning happens in winter when a fire
is lit and the fumes from the black charcoal are allowed to fill
the room. The movable fireplace ought to be exposed to the
outside air until all trace of black carbon has disappeared and
only the red embers remain, but this loss of time and dissipa
tion of heat tempts many to run the risk. If the chamber be
small a person may become unconscious before he is able to call
for assistance. Self-poisoning, and indeed suicide in any form,
is the rarest of occurrences. In ten years I know of only two
cases in Nazareth. Murder by poison is also almost unheard
of, although suspicions of such a cause of sudden death are
sometimes hinted at in gossip. A form of lump arsenic, used
to get rid of rats and mice, is generally mentioned as the
drug used, but post-mortem examinations we have conducted

THE HEALTH OF THE TOWN 59
to discover the truth of the suspicions have never revealed a
crime. Gastric troubles are very common, and difficult to deal with
where invalid cookery is an unacquired art. Intestinal parasites
are probably the rule rather than the exception.
Mental disease is comparatively rare, and one is tempted to
account for this welcome fact by the quiet tranquillity of the
usual course of life in Galilee— no haste, no excitement, no
insistence on constant change ! It may seem monotonous, but
there are compensations.
Surgical diseases are common in many forms. Tubercular
conditions of glands and joints are frequent. Abdominal
diseases, hernias, and vesical stones are often seen, and have
to be dealt with on the spot. The meagre attention received
in childbirth and the deplorable lack of ordinary care during
convalescence produces a crop of gynaecological ailments. As
might be expected, eye disease in very many forms is rampant,
especially during summer and autumn. Blemishes and even
blindness of an eye as the result of untreated acute inflam
mation is too common to call for notice. But the special
ophthalmic illness is trachoma, which is a chronic inflammation
of the eyelids, and few, if any, families are free from this
scourge. The disease is slow in developing and extremely
difficult to cure, many months' constant treatment being
required even when dealing with an intelligent and persevering
patient. So common is this form of conjunctivitis that its
presence is often unnoticed until the eyelids are examined by
the surgeon. Recent desire to emigrate to America has dis
closed the extent of the disease, for its presence is a barrier to
admission into the United States or Cuba. Parents who find
out too late that they cannot enter because of trachoma take
the precaution to have their children treated early in view of a
possible desire to emigrate later in life.
For most common illnesses there are native remedies. Old
women thought to be skilled in such matters are consulted as

60 THE HEALTH OF THE TOWN
to which herbs grown in the neighbourhood should be used.
Infusions of fresh leaves of various sorts are prescribed in large
doses. Dried and powdered leaves are used to aid the healing
of ulcers. Human milk is used as eye-drops, and a bead
allowed to dangle over the forehead will accelerate the cure.
But the most popular Syrian remedy for any ache or pain is
the "kye." One form of this barbarous treatment is a raw
surface caused by burning, and kept raw for weeks or even
months by the application of green leaves daily. Or a wound
may be made with a knife, and into the wound a hard pea is
pressed and kept in by a cloth bandage. The continual dis
charge from the "kye" is supposed to be most beneficial. I
know of patients on whose arms " kyes " have been kept open
for as long as five years to prevent attacks of eye inflammation.
Babies who cry are burned over the abdomen, and children
with convulsions have a " kye " applied to the top of the head.
Indeed few Nazarenes reach maturity unseared and unscarred.
For fevers bleeding is still considered proper treatment, and
the barbers will remove a quart of blood if desired. It is not
uncommon to find intelligent people who firmly believe that
they must be well bled each spring if they are to retain good
health throughout the rest of the year. Where there is evident
local inflammation scarification is generally employed. No
antiseptic precautions are taken and often erysipelas follows.
When an abscess is forming leeches are applied freely, and
serious diseases are sometimes transmitted by passing on a
leech from one person to another. There are lepers in Galilee,
but they are few, and I do not know of a single case in
Nazareth.

CHAPTER XIII
THE PROTESTANT MISSIONS
It is nearly fifty years ago since the Medical Mission of the
Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society was established in
Nazareth. At that time there was no European doctor between
Jerusalem and Beyrout. The entire population of Jews,
Syrians, and Arabs in town and in village had only the bar
barous remedies of the local " medicine men " and " wise
women" in which to trust when sickness overtook them.
Searing with red-hot irons was the universal treatment for
all internal pains, the production of a chronic discharging
wound by the introduction of a raw pea into the flesh was
generally employed when joints ached, and blood-letting was
performed for all fevers.
Insanity in its various forms was treated by certain village
sheichs on the presumption that the mad persons were
possessed by devils, and the strong measures employed to drive
out the evil spirits not frequently resulted in the death of the
patient. And even now, after the lapse of fifty years, some of these
old methods of treatment remain. Especially do those old
beliefs hold their ground with the less educated of the people
in eases of mental derangement. Within an hour's ride of
Nazareth are several caves to which the insane are taken
by their relatives, and there they may be kept for weeks tied
up or chained. Last year I visited a village close at hand
where the sheich assured me that the most efficient treatment
for severe cases is to keep them in total darkness for thirty

62 THE PROTESTANT MISSIONS
days, and to ensure this he opened the door of the cave at
midnight only for the introduction of food and drink.
The beginning of medical work in the centre of Galilee was
accompanied by many difficulties. Naturally the attitude of
the old native " medicine men " and the " wise women " was
that of bitter opposition ; eastern conservatism had to be over
come before the new remedies could receive a trial ; the
Moslems looked with suspicion on the Christian teaching which
accompanied the medical work ; and the Turkish Government
took active measures to hinder progress. In time, however,
the obvious superiority of the new remedies brought from the
West, the startling cures effected by modes of treatment
infinitely more humane than those in vogue, and especially
the gracious personality of the medical missionary, Dr. Vartan,
who had come to live in the midst of them, steadily broke
down opposition and secured the growing confidence of the
people far and near.
To trace the history of the Medical Mission from these
early days is outside the scope of this book ; all that is possible
is to describe the condition of the mission as it exists to-day.
The dispensary building consists of a waiting - room large
enough to hold a hundred patients, a consulting-room with
surgical dressing-room attached, and a small pharmacy. On
three days each week the patients gather from the surround
ing districts, and even from distant parts. The majority are
villagers from such places are Nain, Endor, Cana of Galilee,
Jezreel, and many others less familiarly known. A proportion
of the patients are townsfolk, and there are always Arabs from
their tents in the plain. It is not unusual to find one or
two patients who have travelled two or three days to reach
hospital. Early in the morning we start the work of seeing these
waiting patients. They have received numbered tickets in the
order of their arrival, and by rotation they are admitted to
the consulting-room. When only advice and medicine are

THE PROTESTANT MISSIONS 63
required, the prescription is written out and is dispensed at the
pharmacy. But amongst the many cases seen are some patients
so ill as to require hospital treatment, and from these as many
are selected for admission to the wards as there may be vacant
beds. Those patients are given the preference who will prob
ably benefit the most by the treatment in hospital, and almost
every day many in real need of proper nursing have to be
sent away disappointed owing to the narrow limits of the
present hospital accommodation.
The following statistics indicate the work undertaken last
year : —

Attendances at the dispensary
Visits paid to patients in their own homes
Patients treated in the hospital wards .
Number of operations performed
Teeth extracted
Confinements conducted

97991153 553
759 114 46

The European staff of the mission consists of two medical
missionaries and two fully certificated nurses. Native Syrian
girls who have some knowledge of English are received for
three years' course of training in nursing, and the ability they
show is encouraging. Even if they do not make nursing the
vocation of their life — and there are few openings for profes
sional nurses in the homes of the natives — the knowledge they
have acquired in hospital proves of value when they have
homes and families of their own. As a missionary agency the
hospital is auxiliary to the pastoral and educational work of
the Church Missionary Society in Galilee; the two organisa
tions work in co-operation. Services are conducted daily in
the hospital, and a prosperous Sunday school meets in the
dispensary rooms.
In estimating the moral progress achieved by a people,
many factors must be considered. The same amount of effort
made by the missionary will produce the most varying results

64 THE PROTESTANT MISSIONS
in different lands. Favourable circumstances are found in the
temperament of the people, the character of personal ambition,
the existing system of government, etc., and a suggestion made
may be welcomed, and the new direction then taken result
in progressive good. In a heathen land the people may have
been waiting, perhaps unconsciously, for a knowledge of the
Truth, and the state of the country's laws and customs may
be found to be favourable to the ready acceptance of Christianity.
Under such favourable circumstances the preaching of the
Gospel may lead to rapid change in the religion of a whole
race, and its influence on the lives of individuals be expressed
by many outward manifestations of their change of belief.
Such favourable factors, however, do not exist in Galilee. For
many generations the deadening effect of Islam has permeated
all departments of life ; the Turkish systems of government,
whether in its departments of Imperial control or local adminis
tration, have arrested the spirit of progress, and the unequal
treatment accorded to the various denominations have handi
capped the enthusiastic adoption of the faith of their conscience
by many individuals.
The Syrian is given to subterfuge, for he often suffers by
upholding the truth ; he is content to remain in all respects
as his forefathers, because visible improvement may bring
unavoidable disaster. He is counted as a subject of the
Ottoman Empire, not by his nationality as much as through
the register books of the creed to which he belongs. Matters
of taxation, conscription, etc., reach him through the medium
of the church organisation. In case of any legal proceedings
involving him, his religious connections are of real account.
The complications, delays, and expenses which such a state
of things produce needs no description, but they make for
constant anxiety in the present and uncertainty as to the future.
In Nazareth more than half the population belong to various
Christian sects, and church-going observance of fasts and feasts,
and other outward symbols of loyal attachment to their several

THE PROTESTANT MISSIONS 65
creeds are duly observed. But the result is passive respect
ability rather than active virtue. Most usually the deeper
effect upon character is lacking in the Syrian, owing to the
existence of the unfavourable factors to which I have referred.
Thus to the Christians the missionaries have, more especially,
to expound the meaning of Christianity in its spirit, as distin
guished from its external forms and ceremonies. The Syrian
Christians think of their religion only as expressed by its out
ward symbols ; they require to be taught the cultivation of the
spirit of the Master in their daily lives.
In his relationships with the Moslems of Palestine the
missionary is handicapped by the examples of Christianity
existing in the country. Wherein, they ask, does a religion
which contains institutions where scores of nuns are perpetu
ally secluded from the world around differ advantageously from
the Moslem principle of the seclusion of women in the harem ?
Why cannot the several sections of the church in one town
agree to celebrate the Birth of their Lord on the same date ?
What would happen between the various Christian sects in
possession of adjacent portions of Holy Shrines, as, for instance,,
in Bethlehem, did not the Moslem soldier stand near to preserve
peace ?
Doubtless these and many other questions can be explained
by the Christian missionary to the individual Moslem inquirer,
but for one to whom explanation is given there are hundreds
who have no opportunity of learning the truth. By such the
first appeal to consider the claims of Christ is repulsed because
of the examples of mere nominal Christianity which surrounds
them. It is these circumstances which give medical missions
their special value. The tending of the sick and wounded is
full of opportunities for exhibiting Christian love and sympathy.
It is free from all formalities, and it appeals to human nature
at the very time when the wearied mind is most receptive
of kindness.

CHAPTER XIV
BABYHOOD
Some of the customs of the Nazarenes on the occasions of birth
and death are distinctly peculiar to the town. The safe arrival
of the baby is greeted by the women in the room with a loud
"zulghat." This "zulghat" is the native cry of joy used on
all occasions of ceremony. It is an accomplishment to which
not all women can attain, but once acquired it is freely used
whenever births, baptisms, engagements or marriages call for
loud expressions of gladness. A few complimentary sentences
are shouted in a high-pitched voice, and then the tongue is
vibrated in a peculiar fashion, giving a trill to the sound.
Especially if the new-comer is a first-born son the family
exhibit great glee. A baby girl is less demonstratively received,
and if she be the third or fourth daughter in succession when
a son and heir has been long desired, her welcome is probably
a cold one. The midwife receives a larger fee for her services
if she can announce a " suby " (boy) ; more often she calls him
an " arice " (bridegroom). The congratulations bestowed upon
the father are more profuse when a son has been born, and a
mere girl may call for no remark whatever. A Moslem
numbers his children by the sons of the family ; girls do not
count. The baby is well oiled and salted and wrapped in
swaddling clothes. All but the most intelligent and well-
educated women make no sort of preparation for the new baby.
To make little clothes would be in the nature of tempting
Providence to bring disappointment. And so the babe's
swaddling clothes are pieces of old dresses, or anything fairly

BABYHOOD 67
clean which will tear up into squares. These are wrapped
round the infant, and the arms are included in the bundle ; the
ends of the clothes are turned up over the feet and abdomen,
and the whole is encircled by a long strip of cloth selvage
brought from the tailor's shop. The process of untying, loosing,
and unwinding the many layers of cloths — as many as six
layers may be bound round him — takes time, and is a perform
ance gone through thrice daily.
Tied tightly up in his swaddling clothes, baby is as stiff as
a mummy. He can be handled freely without much danger
to his neck or back. Mothers stand their children upright
when only a few days old, and hand them about to each other
like a wooden log. The midwife also paints " kochal " — a black
antimony powder — along the edges of his eyelids to strengthen
them, and fixes upon him somewhere a blue bead to save him
from the effects of the " evil eye." A boy's first skull cap is
elaborately decorated with charms, blue beads, and coins, all of
which are there to save him from such harm.
Tbe next day visitors arrive to congratulate the mother,
and each woman is expected to drink a cup of "mughlie."
"Mughlie" is cinnamon tea, very sweet, and having walnuts
and pine seeds, chopped fine.'floating on the surface. When
returning the empty cup they express good wishes for the
baby's future. Rarely is the mother's convalescence at all
prolonged, and in eight or ten days she is considered well
enough to resume light household duties. There is no talk of
artificial feeding for the infant ; indeed the custom is to con
tinue nursing at least until all the teeth are cut, and it is not
unusual to delay weaning for two years. That does not mean
that all other food is withheld ; for as soon as a child indicates
the wish for anything he is given it. Especially to withhold
anything from a baby boy is considered a shame; and it is
usual to offer to him the first of all the fruits and vegetables
as they appear on the market. In late April, when cucumbers
are first ripe, the smallest baby will be allowed to nibble at one

68 BABYHOOD
if he wishes. Unripe almonds, apples, and apricots are always
given to small children, and the results are often disastrous.
The christening ceremony takes a varying form according
to the particular church or creed of the family. If connected
with the Greek Orthodox Communion, the event is postponed,
if possible, until one of the chief Feast days, and on that day
as many as twenty babies may be baptized in the Church of
St. Bashara. In a large stone font warm water is placed, and
while the priest, with much intonation, blesses the water by
sprinkling oil on it in the form of a cross, and by blowing upon
it, the babies are completely undressed and one by one are
totally immersed. The priest, holding the child in both hands,
plunges him through the water head foremost, and this is
repeated three times. To the spectator for the first time this
performance looks almost dangerous, but the experienced priest
will cover the baby's mouth and nose with his fingers during
the dipping. After baptism the infants, wrapped in towels,
are carried by godfather or godmother holding lighted candles
in procession round in a circle. A strict regulation is that the
enwrapping towels, which have been wet with holy water,
must be washed in the church by the godmother's own hands.
The next interesting event in the baby's life is when he
cuts his first tooth. Whole wheat is then boiled, heaped upon
a dish, and covered with sweets of various kinds and colours, and
this present is sent to the houses of friends, who are supposed
to eat it to the health of the small boy.
It may be that the child is delicate in health, or he may be
seized with a sudden dangerous illness. The mother will then
take a vow, to be fulfilled if he recovers. She may devoutly
promise to leave his hair long until he be four or five years old,
and that the cutting shall take place only on Mount Tabor
or in Jerusalem, where the priest will remove the first few
locks in the form of a cross; or she may clothe him in
miniature costume of a monk, and for a few years the boy
toddles about in a brown Franciscan cloak and wears a hempen

BABYHOOD 69
girdle. Well-to-do women have come to us begging clothes for
their only son, and given the explanation that a vow had been
taken to clothe the child entirely by charity.
In spite of all such vows and precautions a baby may remain
delicate or ill. The superstitious folk in Nazareth will account
for this by the " evil eye," which has been cast upon him by some
badly-disposed person. This misfortune has its appropriate
remedies, and certain wise women are able to remove the
harmful spell. When such a woman is called in, she brings
with her a piece of alum, which is then placed upon an iron
dish and heated. The alum becomes fluid, and when allowed
to cool the fantastic form it takes indicates to her discerning
eye whether a man or a woman is the offending party. The
wise woman touches the head, hands, feet, and body of the child
with a piece of bread, which, being then contaminated by the
evil spirit, is thrown to a dog to eat. In case this should not
be sufficient, a few straws from the four corners of the mat
upon the floor are placed, along with a little salt, on a piece of
live charcoal, and carrying this smoking fire in her hand, she
walks round the bewitched baby, repeating meanwhile the
Creed and the Lord's Prayer. The owl is to be dreaded almost
as mueh as the " evil eye," for if a baby is carried out of the
house in the evening and an owl screeches overhead, that baby
will be afflicted with a crick of the neck and die. But such a
catastrophe may be prevented by placing a piece of bread under
the child's arm when carrying him into the open air. Even
while sleeping calmly in the cradle he is liable to be influenced
by any owl flying noisily over the house, and he will be peevish
and restless until properly treated by a woman skilled in the
art of remedies. She will burn the back of his neck, his
stomach, his back, his ten finger-tips, and his ten toes with a
red-hot needle, and assure the mother that by this means all
danger has been averted.

CHAPTER XV
FUNERAL CUSTOMS
Each religious community has a separate cemetery, and the
Moslems have two. A death in the household is immediately
announced to the neighbourhood by the shrieks of the relatives
who have been sitting around the deathbed. If a Moslem, the
dying man is turned so as to face Mecca. No special religious
ceremony is performed then; but if the last struggle seems
to be prolonged, the "khateeb," or priest, may be summoned
to invoke Allah that the spirit may quickly leave the distressed
body. It is believed to be the reward of a virtuous life to
have a quick ending. The hands are lifted up at the very last,
as a final adherence to the Moslem creed. The moment that
the death occurs the women scream, tear their hair, and rend
their clothes, especially the covering of their breasts, and beat
their chests. This frenzy brings all the neighbours, who crowd
into the chamber of grief and add their voices to the tumult.
Such a scene may last an hour, but sooner or later order of
a kind is achieved. The older women lay out the corpse,
putting on the best clothes, and crossing the hands, and then
the formal wailing commences. The leader among the women,
who are squatting close to the wall all round the room, sets
the rhythm of the dirge. She begins to clap her palms
together and the rest join in, until the roomful are clapping
in unison. Then the leader may sing a line in praise of the
departed, and the line is repeated by all in chorus. A new
sentiment is sung by the leader and repeated in unison, and
this performance may go on for hours. Burial must quickly
70

FUNERAL CUSTOMS 71
follow death in this land, and presently a rough deal coffin
covered with cloth is brought, in which the body is placed
lying on its side. The colour of a Moslem coffin is frequently
green. Borne by relatives and male friends it is taken to the
mosque for ceremonious washing, after which the procession
re-forms and proceeds to the Moslem cemetery. Headed by
several priests, the Moslem creed is repeated again and again
as a monotonous chant. Shoulder high the coffin is borne
along by relays of the younger men, for it is a good act to
carry a true follower of the Prophet to his last resting-place.
So the edge of the coffin may be allowed to rest only a few
seconds upon a man's shoulder before he is relieved of the
burden by another. Meanwhile the women go straight to the
cemetery, and form into a circle some distance away from the
open grave. They resume their dirge, but add to it a slow
ceremonious dance in which each dancing woman takes a
handkerchief in each hand and waves them in tune with the
motion of her body. The rest look on, and keep time by
hand-clapping. As soon as the procession of men from the
mosque appears in the cemetery gateway, the women's dance
and chant suddenly stop, and gives place to shrieks and
screams and the rending afresh of clothes, and this continues
until the body is finally interred. The position of the corpse
is such that the face is looking to Mecca. Later on a long
low mound of stones and mortar is built over the grave, white
washed, and painted in various strange designs in brilliant
colours. Thursday is the regular day for visiting the family
graves, and every week on that day women come and recite
prayers over the tomb of their departed friends.
In Christian homes the shrieks and frenzy when death
takes place, the tearing of clothes, and the rhythmic lamenta
tions of the women are not at all less than in the Moslem
quarter. These outward manifestations are not indicative of
the sorrow felt. More often than not they only signify the
grief which is expected of the individual mourner by public

72 FUNERAL CUSTOMS
opinion. The extent of sorrow shown is noted by many
observers, who may remark afterwards freely about a woman
who did not weep enough when the son of her cousin died.
It is very common indeed to date any illness, such as indi
gestion, rheumatism, and especially any inflammation of the
eyes, from the time of the death of a near relative ; and upon
the outward symptoms of grief then shown, to put all the
blame. It is one of the characters of eastern nature which
impresses a stranger that the appearance of real deep sorrow
and grief can be so accurately simulated. One afternoon when
walking along the hill-top we reached a cottage where news
had just been received of the death of a son in the Balkan
War. The single room was filled with women mourners, and
the usual doleful refrains were being chanted. We noticed an
elderly woman climbing up the steep path from the town until
she reached the door ; but she did not go in immediately, for
she was panting with the exertion. She sat down to recover
her breath, and when she felt ready for it she rose, stepped
forward, and flung herself into the room shrieking loudly and
tearing her garments.
As the Moslem body is taken to the mosque, so the
Christian funeral procession proceeds to the church. The
priests lead the way, and large crosses and ceremonial lanterns
are carried. The cloth which covers the coffin is black only
when the dead person is aged, otherwise coloured calico, pink
or blue, is used. Should the corpse be that of a young man,
the lid is frequently omitted and the face exposed to full
view; and if he be of marriageable age, but not yet married,
his young men companions will dance as they go and toss
the coffin with loud repetitions of wedding congratulations.
Having been deprived by grim death of the prospective joys
of a marriage day, this curious procedure is thought to be a
kind of compensation. After the service in the church the
whole party goes to the adjacent graveyard, the women
mourners following behind the men. The noisy bustle, loud

FUNERAL CUSTOMS 73
talking, and shouting of suggestions and directions during the
lowering of the coffin, jars upon the ears of strangers familiar
with the quiet order of funerals in western lands.
When a relative has died in some distant part, great
reluctance is felt by friends who may know of it to announce
the sad event to the family concerned. Generally the letter
or telegram bearing the news is addressed to an acquaintance,
and he, knowing the worst, will likely inform the family that
the relative is not very well ; in a few days he may say he has
news that he is not improving, and still later he will hint
that there is no hope. More strange than this is a case where
companions of a young man who died in America continued to
send letters, as from him, to his family here ; and two years'
correspondence was carried on before the truth became known.
The morning after the funeral and on several mornings follow
ing the nearest female relations go to the grave at the rising of
the sun to weep and pray.

CHAPTER XVI
THE BRIDE
The marriage customs of Nazareth can be best described by
relating the ceremonies connected with the engagement and
wedding of Miriam, Yusif Abdulla's daughter. During the
winter a particular friendliness developed between the house
holds of Yusif and of Michael Butros, higher up the hill.
Visits between the two families became frequent, and one after
noon Michael's wife and sister-in-law made rather pointed
enquiries about Miriam. Their interest in her appearance,
health, and abilities were too marked to be misunderstood.
They were interested to know how much needle lace she sold
during the season, and made a note of the mother's chance
remark that none of her gains went to help the household
expenses — which they did not need, " God be praised " — and
that she had accumulated her own savings. Together they all
agreed that European banks with small rates of interest were
not to be recommended when spare money could so easily be
put into gold bracelets and rings which could always be worn
on the person, and is so much safer in that way. A bound copy
of the Children s Friend, left by curious chance on the divan,
led to the remark that Miriam speaks English, having been a
scholar in the day school of the Church Missionary Society and
gained the book as a prize. They agreed that English is much
more useful than French or Russian or Italian, for who knows
when they may find it convenient to emigrate to America. So
there was little room for surprise when Towfik's mother asked
Miriam's mother one day if she would be willing to give her
74

THE BRIDE 75
daughter as a bride for Towfik. In every way it was a suitable
match, but no answer could be given until Yusif was consulted.
Several days were allowed to pass before he let it be known
that he was willing to receive any proposals in the matter,
and after still further delay for deliberation Michael and his
brother came in one evening and talked in whispers with
Miriam's father. The visitors having been served with coffee
and taken their leave, the nature of the proposals were described
to the women of the house. It seemed that Michael was willing
to pay five thousand piastres (nearly forty napoleons), and give
the bride a gold watch and chain, five rings, and three bracelets.
Miriam, of course, had no say in the matter, but her mother
was quite pleased, and made up her mind to see that the
quality of the jewellery was on a sufficiently lavish scale. The
girl knew the young man by sight, and he had noticed her
more than once on the street, but never had they exchanged
a word with each other, and probably would not have any
chance of doing so until actually married. A week later
preparations were made for the formal engagement. The
reception-room was washed and extra chairs set round the
walls. In the afternoon a parcel of sweets and a basket of
lemons and lump sugar were received from the bridegroom's
family, as practical assistance towards the entertainment of the
coming visitors. After supper a party of men arrived; they
were headed by one of the Greek priests, and consisted of
Towfik himself, his father, and several relations. After being
seated in proper order round the walls of the reception-room,
the sweets were handed round and lemonade offered to each
one. The priest (Khourey Yacob) then made a formal speech,
explaining the eminent desirability of the match, and expressing
good wishes. He produced a pink silk handkerchief con
taining ten gold sovereigns, and handed it over to Miriam's
father. Several remarks of a highly complimentary character
passed across the room, coffee was served, and the visitors left
the house. The formal engagement was thus completed, and

76 THE BRIDE
the date of the marriage was fixed for a Sunday in the middle
of the next month. Their altered circumstances made no
change in the relations between the young people. Probably
they saw even less of each other than before, for Miriam's
liberty was considerably curtailed, and she was no longer
expected to go to the fountain or to the bakehouse. There
was a little unpleasantness when a cousin on her father's side
suggested that he had a primary right to the girl, owing to an
old custom in the family; but he was a poor man with no
prospects, so influence was strongly brought to bear upon him
to renounce any supposed right he had in the matter.
The marriage was a social event of some importance in
Nazareth. Neither family is rich, but both are highly
respected ; and, being long established, the circles of relatives
are large on both sides. As the wedding day approached, the
services of Im Rasheed were secured to make the trousseau.
It was understood that four dresses were to be given as
presents from bridegroom to bride, and Towfik accompanied
the dressmaker — who is paid by him for all her work — to
several shops in the main bazaar to choose materials. Together
they selected a dozen rolls of silks, satins, and velvets of various
hues, ribbons to match, laces and buttons. All the goods were
sent on approval to the bride's home, where several relatives
had assembled to assist her in the task of choosing.
Hours were spent in discussing the merits of the cloths,
and finally one black silk, two satins of delicate tints, and one
crimson velvet were selected. Details of styles and fashions
required endless talk. A Paris fashion journal — not the latest
issue — which someone brought with her, did not help much,
but Im Rasheed promised to try to copy some of the pictured
dresses. Her skill in such copying is beyond dispute ; yet she
cuts the material, fits her clients, and completes her orders
without any more exact method of measuring them than spans
and finger-breadths, the account of which she carries in her
head. Her Singer's sewing-machine was bought by very small

THE BRIDE 77
weekly instalments. From then until the date of the marriage
a room in Yusif's house was turned into a dressmaker's work
shop, and few women in the Greek quarter did not come in and
give their opinion of the styles adopted.
Meanwhile Abu Towfik was helping his son to furnish a
room in his house for the new bride.
He ordered a large wardrobe, a chest of drawers, new
curtains from Damascus, and a real European bedstead of
Austrian manufacture. Towfik himself took a trip to Beyrout
and selected several rings, bracelets, and a watch with a long
gold chain, all of them more ornamental than valuable intrinsic
ally. He brought for himself a length of silk " deema," coloured
old gold, from which his mother made a new " khumbas," or long,
close-fitting garment reaching from the neck to the ankles.
On the Thursday afternoon of the eventful week the family
of the bridegroom prepared a round metal tray, covered it with
a cloth, and placed upon it a quantity of " henni " — a powder
used to stain the skin — sugar in lumps, and lemons. Flowers
were then added as a decoration, and the gift was ready to send
to the bride. After sunset a procession of girls and women
was formed, and the position of honour was given to Towfik's
sister, who carried the tray on her head. Being dark, several
men accompanied the party with lanterns, and acted as escorts.
Clapping hands and singing as they went, the procession
moved slowly down the winding street until Yusif's house was
reached, when the girls and women scrambled into the lewan,
and the mother of Miriam received the loaded tray. Lemonade
and sweets were handed round. Such a crowd it was — such
chattering, such laughing, such singing. Miriam herself, how
ever, remained in modest seclusion, and was seen by no one.
Very soon the house emptied itself of its excited guests, and
the procession was re-formed and conducted back again, with
song and clapping, to the bridegroom's house higher up the hill.
Next morning the tray was returned, and on it lay an
embroidered cap for Towfik worked by Miriam's own hands.

78 THE BRIDE
That evening — Friday — was left for a private ceremony in
the bride's house. Her nearest women relatives only were
invited, and she was bathed and " hennied." The " henni," a
brown powder, was mixed with water to the consistency of a
thin paste, and strips of cloth were twisted round Miriam's
fingers and hands, leaving most of the skin exposed. The paste
was then applied freely all over the skin, and the whole hand
covered up in a cloth. Next morning, when covering and strips
were removed, the protected portions showed as unstained circles,
while the rest of the skin was coloured a deep brown. Saturday
was the great day for receiving visitors, and as soon as the
noon bells rang Miriam was dressed in her black satin dress.
Her hair was done up in what was supposed to be the latest
Parisian style, and a touch of rouge was added to each cheek.
The eyelid edges were painted with black antimony, and her
lips coloured a brilliant red. Rings, bracelets, necklaces, gold
watch and chain were all put on, and the final touch was a rose
fastened into her hair. So adorned and beautified, the bride
was seated on a well-cushioned chair perched upon a table,
and the door being opened, the room quickly filled with women,
girls, children and babies, until there was barely any breathing
space. About three o'clock in the afternoon an important
party of visitors arrived at the door; they were the bride
groom's female relatives, and much was made of their presence.
After a little while those women helped Miriam down from her
high seat and led her slowly in a circle round the room while
a special song was sung. These same friends then took her
to a side room and changed her dress to the crimson velvet,
bringing her back by another stately walk round the circle of
spectators, and placing her once more upon her high seat.
During her time of exhibition on the chair, the processions
round the crowded room, and even while her dresses were
being changed, Miriam remained entirely passive, willing
friends supporting her, and assisting her in every movement.
All through the afternoon the reception continued, women and

THE BRIDE 79
children from the neighbourhood coming and going. Songs
were sung at intervals, lemonade and sweets were given to
the new arrivals. The next change of dress was into a pink
silk, but this was not put on until the bridegroom's friends
had taken their leave.
This evening was devoted to a dinner, to which men and
women were invited, but of course they dined in separate
rooms. The usual festive dishes were served without stint,
and all were placed on the table at one time. A very young
lamb boiled whole in "leban" formed the central dish, and
round it stood basins of boiled rice; "kibby" and stuffed
roasted chickens were amongst the other delicacies provided.
Flat loaves of bread were piled up at each corner, and two
basins of water served for the company. The first selection of
guests being satisfied, they rose, washed their fingers, and made
place for the second relay, who proceeded to still further
diminish the contents of the dishes. What remained served
to feed the third and least important selection of guests.
In another room the women had their meal together.
Dinner over, most of the guests left for their homes. On
such leave-takings there is no formality, no expression of
thanks for the hospitality, no mention of having spent a
pleasant evening. To the European the breaking up of a
gathering hastily seems impolite, but it is the custom. Several
of the men proceeded to Michael's house, where the bridegroom
was surrounded by his personal friends, making merry with
music and song. There was a suggestion of " arak " drinking
in the odour of aniseed which filled the room, but this native
spirit had been served out sparingly, and no one seemed unduly
affected by it.
The bride's family retired early to rest in the prospect of
the wedding day. Sunday was gloriously bright, and the
household soon astir. By noon Miriam was again seated on
her elevated chair, dressed this time in pale blue silk, and
again a crowd of women filled the room to overflowing. As

80 THE BRIDE
on the previous day, the bridegroom's friends appeared again,
this time to dress the girl in her wedding garment. Miriam
was assisted down, led round the circle and into the dressing-
room, where her creamy white silk gown was put on, and the
orange blossom arranged in her hair. For the final occasion
she was put up for show, and very shortly after it was
announced that the time to depart had arrived. Miriam's
father and brothers were summoned, and the former, stepping
forward to his daughter, raised her from her chair and helped
her to the ground. She kissed his hand, and they embraced
with many tears and much sobbing. A similar farewell was
taken of her two brothers, and then the women again took
possession of the bride. They covered up her head carefully
with a "mandeel," or thin handkerchief, and in front of her
face pinned a thick square of white silk. This protection
against all prying eyes was kept on during the journey to
the church and throughout the entire ceremony, and Miriam
has since told us that the stifling closeness of that thick
veiling was the most trying experience of the whole trying
week. The procession to the church was a slow one. The bride
was supported on each side by a woman from her relatives, and
the crowd of women and girls which escorted her and encircled
her sang lustily all the way. Inside the precincts of the church
the bridegroom was waiting, and he joined her when she
reached the centre of the open floor. The entire area and the
gallery of the church were densely packed, and no sort of order
or quietness could be secured. The voice of the officiating
priest could be heard with difficulty, and his frequent appeals
for silence were unheeded. The long preliminary service was
considered a waste of time, and only when the rings were
produced, to have the sign of the cross made on the faces of
the couple, did even the relatives pay any attention. As usual
the rings were borrowed for the occasion. Then two wreaths
were placed on the heads of bride and bridegroom, and inter-

THE BRIDE 81
changed several times. Finally both received Holy Communion.
The last performance of all was a circular march led by the
priest, when all joined hands, and this gave a good chance to
the younger onlookers to squirt cheap scent into the faces of
the marriage party. The church ceremony over, and the couple
being now man and wife, custom again separated them, the
women escorting Miriam out of church, and Towfik rejoining
his own friends. But now she was taken to her new home, and
seated on a sofa to await her husband's arrival. She remained
veiled, for Towfik's first privilege was to lift the veil from his
wife's face. He was seated by her side, and a glass of water
was offered, from which both were required to drink. Their
two heads were knocked together, and the long-drawn marriage
ceremony was at an end.
Such a luxury as a honeymoon is quite unknown, and
visitors begin to call after the first two days. But the bride's
mother may not come to see her during the first week of her
married life.
In connection with the entrance of the bride to her new
home, there are several curious customs which are never
neglected. Salt is sprinkled upon her head, and she is given
a piece of dough, which she presses upon the lintel of the front
door. If the dough sticks well to the surface of the stone,
luck, it is said, will remain with her. And finally she must
enter the doorway walking backwards if her married life is to
be long and happy.

CHAPTER XVII
THE BRIDEGROOM
Miriam's marriage being safely over, her parents' thoughts
turned to the matrimonial future of their son Ibrahim. He
had passed his twentieth birthday, and was -approaching eigh
teen years of age according to the Government books. This is
the dangerous age when a young man may be claimed by the
military law for a term of conscription. And it has become
difficult to secure exemption, even by the payment of the legal
exemption fees ; for escapement from one class of soldier only
means delay until another class of recruit is called out when
the country is at war. Turkish law, however, acknowledges
the total dependency of an orphan girl upon her husband, and
he cannot be taken as a soldier. When the wife's parents are
still alive, it is presumed that she will return to stay with them
while the husband is serving his country. This law puts a high
premium on orphan girls, and they are eagerly sought for when
a marriage is proposed.
Yusif took his friends into confidence and many suggestions
were weighed, which means that nearly every eligible orphan girl
in the Greek quarter was carefully considered and discussed.
But the search seemed fruitless, until one day a dealer in olive oil
brought a letter from Yusif's brother in Rameh, who told him
of an orphan girl in that village apparently suitable as far as
age and health were concerned. He was willing to open pre
liminary negotiations, and to this Yusif quite agreed, promising
to go north himself if the matter seemed likely to progress satis
factorily. In two weeks' time a favourable answer came, and

THE BRIDEGROOM 83
Yusif decided to visit his brother " on business." Leaving his son
Ibrahim in charge of the shop, he hired a horse at six bishlicks
(two shillings and tenpence) a day, and reached his destination in
eight hours. During the evening the two brothers paid their visit
to the house of the uncle of the orphan girl, and next morning the
call was returned. There were no difficulties in the way ; such a
chance is not often to be met with, and few village girls are not
delighted to marry into the town. Yusif as politely as possible
remarked that Wardy — the girl — was dark, and his son especi
ally wished a fair bride. Then she was not so stout as she
ought to be, if she did not have some weakening disease. And
her village-acquired education was scarcely such as a town girl
would possess. It was a matter of bargaining, and the intend
ing buyer was deprecating the goods offered. In return the
uncle recited her valuable points — her willingness to work,
her skill in cookery, etc., and said that for such a bride fifty
napoleons was very little. The father considered this to be far
too much and offered twenty, but promised twenty-five after a
good deal of discussion, in which an understanding was arrived
at concerning the jewellery and furniture which would be ex
pected. The Greek priest of the place was brought in to ratify
the agreement, and Yusif handed over ten napoleons to him on
the girl's behalf. That night he supped with the family, and
the party did not break up until midnight. Abu Ibrahim was
back in Nazareth next afternoon, and the result of his journey
formed the chief topic of conversation for some days.
The wedding was arranged for autumn, but much prepara
tion was required. In the first place, the house was too small
to accommodate the young couple in a separate room without
building, and this was promptly undertaken. The new room
was added on at the side, and a communicating door was opened.
This was furnished with the usual wardrobe, chest of drawers,
and European bed — which, however, was never used. The
third Sunday in September was fixed as the date of the cere
mony, but on the previous Friday some of the bridegroom's

84 THE BRIDEGROOM
friends rode to Rameh, and escorted the bridal party to town
on the Saturday. Coming into Nazareth, Wardy rode on horse
back and was closely veiled. A dozen riders from town met
the party coming up the hill, and vied with each other in ex
hibitions of skill in Arab horsemanship. They careered up and
down the road, wheeling in small circles, and stopping their
animals instantly by a touch of the strong bridle.
Where the road tops the hill and begins to descend into the
town the escort fired a volley of revolver shots, and all down
the long bend the progress of the party was marked by shooting
and singing. Unfortunately one of the accidents which so
often happen on these occasions marred the arrival of the bride.
When the riders were close to the Virgin's Fountain a revolver
went off in the wrong direction and wounded a horseman in the
leg. Something had blocked the mechanism of the firearm, and
the owner endeavoured to rectify the fault while on the canter.
Unexpectedly the hammer fell, and the bullet lodged in his
neighbour's limb.
Many of the educated Nazarenes have now learned the
advantages of keeping a fresh wound as clean as possible.
Until a few years ago ground coffee would have been pressed
into the wound to stop the bleeding, and a dirty rag applied
over it. But a knowledge of what antisepsis means is at last
finding root in this conservative land. The Medical Mission
has proved by act rather than by argument the value of cleanli
ness, and within recent years gunshots have been so numerous
as to have been frequent object-lessons to the people in the art
of first aid.
Binding only a clean white cloth over the wound, they
carried the wounded man to the hospital, which is in the
vicinity of the fountain, and there he was quickly anaesthe
tised, the bullet removed, and the patient placed in bed.
Meanwhile the procession had reached the house of some
Nazareth people who were related to the bride, and who were
to act as her hosts for the night. The evening was one con-

THE BRIDEGROOM 85
tinued reception in both houses, and Wardy was seated on the
high chair, and dressed and re-dressed in the manner in which
Miriam was treated a few months before.
Ibrahim remained at home all the day, entertaining his
friends. He heard the shots and the singing as his bride came
into the town, but custom forbade him take any part in these
festivities of welcome. Having safely accompanied the wedding
party to the house, the men of the escort came on to Yusif's
house and spent the evening in gaiety. A dinner had been
provided for them, and they sat down to the feast in relays.
Later on a few of his most intimate chums took Ibrahim to
a room, and there washed him and shaved him in preparation
for the morrow.
The Sunday ceremony differed in one detail only from the
wedding of Miriam and Towfik.
Wardy had no father to hand her down from her chair, and
no brothers to weep with her when she was taken away to
church, but she was kindly treated by all, and knew that she
was entering a family where there was every prospect of a happy
future. And thus Yusif and his wife regained a daughter in
their home six months after Miriam had left them.

CHAPTER XVIII
SCHOOL-DAYS
Almost as soon as the Nazareth children can walk they are
sent to school, and if they are much too young to receive
regular lessons they can at least be kept out of mischief and
save the mother much worry. There can be no doubt about
it that Nazareth is exceptionally well provided with educa
tional institutions of all kinds and qualities. Each religious
community provides its full set of schools, well staffed, and
generally well equipped. No parent has any excuse for
neglecting the adequate education of his children, for he can
place them under good teachers at little or no cost to himself.
The Moslems possess a specially built school for the education
of boys, and any passer-by can have no doubt that the scholars
are busy at least by the constant babble of sound which issues
from the open windows. Like most Moslem schools, however,
the Nazareth school teaches nothing very thoroughly, with the
exception of the fluent recitation of the Koran, which is achieved
by a process of endless repetition. Within recent years a Moslem
woman with some education was engaged to teach a few of the
better-class Moslem girls in her own house, but the attendance
is small, and nearly all the Mohammedan girls who go to
school at all attend one of the day schools of the Church
Missionary Society.
A feature of the gratis or almost gratis education which can
be so easily secured in Nazareth is the efficient teaching of
foreign languages. The several orders of Roman Catholics
have a number of schools where French is taught, but in these

SCHOOL-DAYS 87
the boys who wish to do so may learn English as well ; for the
increase of emigration to America has created a demand for
English, and the Franciscans have taken steps to supply it.
The Russian schools are established as a philanthropic or a
national institution rather than as a missionary agency, and
they are most liberally supported from Russia. The Russian
language is zealously taught to all the scholars, girls as well
as boys, and no other European language is permitted.
The Greek Orthodox Church has its own set of schools, and
in these the foreign language taught is English.
The Protestant schools of the Church Missionary Society
were the first to be established, and they have long held a high
reputation for efficiency. As might be expected, the teaching
of English is thorough. Many of their teachers have been
trained in their own institutions in Jerusalem and Bethlehem,
or in the Girls' Protestant Orphanage on the hill above
Nazareth, in which an extremely comprehensive education is
received. With such a wide choice at so little a cost — for a few
shillings yearly is all that is expected from the parents, even
at the Protestant schools, which are considered to be the most
expensive — few children, or at least few boys, do not learn to
read and write Arabic. Many of them know at least something
of one European language, and what they do know they are
ready enough to try on any tourist who may pass their way.
In a morning's walk to see the sights of Nazareth the traveller
in every probability will be wished "Good-morning" in Italian,
Russian, and French, as well as in English. In the matter of
languages it must be acknowledged that the Syrians are clever,
and in some other branches they can hold their own with
western nations, but not in all. They can memorise anything
accurately in a wonderful way, and they can imitate exactly,
but their powers of deduction and their initiative qualities are
inferior. This can be seen in examinations, when, if the ques
tions are formed exactly as the subjects were taught they will

88 SCHOOL-DAYS
answer correctly; yet if proof of their knowledge is asked
in an unusual way, if the order of subject-matter of a question
be reversed, they may fail. The children are not required by
their teachers to do much home study, and the lack of efficient
light in their homes makes much reading after dark impossible.
Only in the infant classes are the sexes mixed, and only the
smallest boys are placed in charge of female teachers. As soon
as the scholar enters the boys' school he is taught by male
teachers. For most children the day school completes their education,
a few go on to a teacher's training, and still fewer proceed to
take an academical course in Beyrout, where they may become
legally qualified doctors, chemists, or dentists, or may obtain
a full commercial training on western lines. It is not the
purpose of this book to enter into the subject of the advantages
and disadvantages of such advanced education upon the Syrian,
but it is likely that courses of thorough training in industrial
and agricultural pursuits would achieve equally well the
missionary aims of these higher educational institutions with
out their disadvantages. The danger of deprecating manual
labour and the simple lives of their ancestors is one which
ought to be recognised when dealing with the young genera
tion of an agricultural land such as Palestine and Syria.
The games of the children, as far as they go, are somewhat
similar to games in the West, but there is much less of the
element of combination, such as is found in football and cricket,
and round games of ball. Marbles in the muddy season, and tops
when there is dust, are both favourites. Leap-frog is always
popular. It is still quite common for boys to play at the " dubkey,"
which is the festive dance danced by the bridegroom's friends on
the occasion of a "fellaheen" marriage. And both boys and girls
go through a " pretend " performance of wailing and weeping at
an imaginary funeral. The autumn winds start kite-flying, but
the want of long balls of string usually confines the kite to a
height not much higher than the houses. Probably owing to this

SCHOOL-DAYS 89
the temptation to fly the kite from the flat roof-top is too great
to be resisted, and an unwary step back means a broken limb and
a cot in hospital. Lance-throwing is a pastime, and a modified
form is the flinging of a wooden dart into soft ground, when
the next competitor with his dart tries to split that of the first.
Toys, other than home-made ones, are very rarely seen. In
some shops a few cheap German toys are on sale at the seasons
of the feasts, but even then a penny jumping-jack, a painted
rubber ball, or a wooden doll is the best that a child can find.
Dolls, certainly, are used as playthings by the girls, but rarely
are they more realistic than what can be made at home with a
piece of stick and a few rags. Probably the most common toy
to be seen in the hands of both baby boys and girls is a bone,
usually one of the neck vertebrae of the camel, and this enters
into many simple games. School-boy fights of any degree of
seriousness are unknown, but there is plenty of petty quarrel
ling and boisterous shouting, in which language of a scorching
kind flies back and forward. If by chance two boys come to
actual blows, their comrades do not form a circle to see fair-play
in the contest, but by a series of pushes turn the combatants
from each other and calm their anger.
It may be due to the lack of variety in toys that the following
forms of amusement are only too common. Any bird which may
be entrapped in a room, and any fledgling fallen from a nest,
is tied by one leg and used as a plaything. A stray kitten, a
live mouse, a blind puppy, or any small animal unable to pro
tect itself by retaliation is considered fair game for amusement,
however cruel it may be. This is not due to any desire to hurt
or injure, but results from simple want of consideration, and we
find that if the humane side of the matter be explained it is
understood and has a good effect.
The children on the whole have happy lives during school
years, but there are always many who are compelled to work
hard from a very early age. Where poverty is so extreme,
where wages may be earned by any person able to carry stones

90 SCHOOL-DAYS
or gather sheaves, and where there is no compulsory education
laws, this state of things is unavoidable. From a European
point of view the home life of the children is unsatisfactory
in this, that discipline is often very lax, and spoilt children,
especially boys, are the rule rather than the exception. I know
of more homes than one where the sons, even when only a few
years old, are encouraged to beat their sisters, servants, and even
their mothers on the least provocation. To act in such a way
is said to develop the instinct of command, and increase strength
of purpose, so that the boy may rule autocratically when he
comes to man's estate.
Another feature is the publicity which is given by their
elders, in the children's presence, to matters not mentioned
openly in lands more advanced. It sounds strange indeed in
European ears to hear the familiarity with which such things
are discussed by very young boys and girls without any
restraint.

CHAPTER XIX
RECREATIONS AND FEASTS
The gayest time is during the Great Feast. In the Christian
communities this is Easter, for the Moslems the end of
Ramadan. Special dishes of food are then eaten more liberally
than wisely, and the children revel in sweets and cakes. Small
girls and big are bedecked with ribbons, and boys, proud in
new uniform suits, strut about the streets. Swings and big
wheels are erected, and a sort of " fair " takes place. It is a
great pity that the several Christian churches cannot agree to
hold even this feast on the same day ; but in Nazareth we live
under both the old calendar and the new, so that no uniformity
of such a kind is possible. The recreations of the men and
women are few and simple. Outdoor games for adults are
unknown. The daily walk for the men who can afford the
time is the only exercise they get, and for women a visit to
a friend's house is all they expect. They stroll a very short
distance from their homes to "smell the air," and that very
accurately describes the manner in which they take their
walk. Owners of horses use them only for business; a ride
for pleasure or exercise is almost unknown. There are three
bicycles in the town, and two of these are owned by Europeans ;
but neither roads nor streets are at all suitable for cycling.
Four years ago an adventurer drove a motor car along the
main carriage road; he was the first and last, and probably
warned the rest of the motoring world of the condition of the
highways of Galilee. Our Nazareth people are not the sort to
go in for active games, and tennis, which they see played by
Europeans, to them seems "work without any gain."

92 RECREATIONS AND FEASTS
But there are a certain number of sportsmen who go
shooting on the hills around. Their guns are usually double
bored, sixteen bore, muzzle loaders. The powder is made
locally and secretly, and it is the extreme reverse of smoke
less. Its propelling power is feeble, but the hunter com
pensates for this by wonderful skill in approaching his prey.
Few men shoot birds on the wing, but they are most adept in
taking cover. Plovers in winter time, quail later, wild pigeon
and then partridge are found in the neighbourhood, while all
the year round smaller birds, especially larks, are shot for
food. A few Nazarenes own greyhounds, with which they
chase the gazelles down in the Plain when the heavy rains
have softened part of the land into a boggy marsh. During
dry weather no dog can catch a gazelle, but their thin legs
sink into sodden ground and they are then caught alive. In
early spring parties of hunters go from Nazareth to the Jordan
valley to hunt wild boar; but this is not undertaken as a
sport so much as a matter of business, for boar's flesh is a
delicacy, and sells well in the town.
All over the hills of Nazareth jackals and foxes abound,
and they are destroyed whenever possible as a measure of
protection during the grape season.
The indoor games are also few. Backgammon is played,
and draughts, but chess very rarely. There is a curious game
in which numbers of small stones are counted into hollows in
a board called a " munkaleh." Cards are used, but not as in
the present fashionable games of Europe. For gambling, dice
are tossed, and certain card games played. There are a certain
number of low-class drinking shops in the bazaars, but these
are frequented chiefly by only the lowest type of persons in
the social scale.
Music is not cultivated to any extent. The native musical
instruments are the "mijhwiss," which is considered the
villager's speciality, and the " houd," which is something like
a large mandoline, and is only played by a few Nazarenes.

RECREATIONS AND FEASTS 93
Singing in European style is taught in some schools, and the
French Orphanage has instituted a brass band, but neither
vocal nor instrumental music of the modern type is appre
ciated by the Syrian. When required they can and do
sing European airs, and can even be taught part-singing
of a sort, but as a matter of personal pleasure they choose
invariably the Arabic rhythm, in a minor key. There is
something very quaint and beautiful in the native playing
of "yarrol," or double pipes, on the hills in the evening, and
in the skilful twanging of the " houd." Arabic singing has its
charm in moderation, but as a rule when the Syrian attempts
to sing European music in the European way he is not con
spicuously successful, unless in the volume of sound produced.
One may say that the only recreation of the women of
Nazareth is visiting among themselves. This is an occupation
which requires long preparation and needs much leisure time.
The dressing, ornamenting, and perfuming take hours. The
walk to the neighbour's house is one of slow, stately delibera
tion, and the call itself must never be hurried. Two hours
of gossip and complimentary chatter is not at all out of the
way. The refreshment offered to the caller is never more
substantial than Arabic coffee, sweets and nuts, and a spoonful
of jam. In Moslem circles the women smoke, but this is
exceptional with Christians. The conversation in parties of
women is entirely of a domestic kind; nothing is known of
the outside world, unless it may be during time of war when
the fact of their men being away on service may have widened
the horizon for them. They know nothing of politics, and
even purely local matters of government have no interest to
them. When a near relative has emigrated to America they
may talk of Marseilles or " Nhaw Yerk " (New York) or Brazil,
but rarely do these names suggest any known geographical
position. Spare time at home is, for the most part, unoccupied. The
women as well as the men in the East are adepts at doing

94 RECREATIONS AND FEASTS
nothing; and to work even fancy sewing, when one may
equally well not do so, seems senseless. But to this there
are exceptions, especially amongst those who were educated
in the European schools, and wonderful in design and in colour
combination are the pieces of fancy work which they make.
The paying of a visit by a well-to-do woman means
dressing in her "malayeh," which is an outside garment of
the nature of a cloak. It is entirely unshaped, and consists
of an oblong piece of silk almost always black. If not quite
black it may be striped with white; and the latest fashion
for young women is to wear a " malayeh " of some pale tint.
This silk sheet is gathered round the waist by a silk cord at
about the middle of its length, and the upper half is thrown
over the head. If the call is to be made in another quarter
of the town, and the women find that they must pass through
the bazaars, they cover their faces with a " mandeel " — a heavy-
patterned veil. To a stranger it seems as if all the well-
dressed women are Moslems owing to this custom, but it is
by no means so, and is only a mark of social superiority.
The most striking ornament they wear is the " kubbeyeh," or
necklace of gold discs. They are not real coins, although
they have a definite face value. A piece of gold currency is
not nearly so showy as an equal quantity of gold beaten thin
into necklace discs, and an extensive display of gold round the
neck may represent much less money than at first appears.
One curious fact regarding these gold necklaces is that the
coins are always sewn on to a piece of lamp wick, as it is the
strongest material of the sort procurable in the Nazareth
market. On feast days the men spend the entire day paying
ceremonial calls upon each other, and officially visiting the
heads of the Government or of the churches. Frequently
those visits are paid in sections, according to the communion
to which the people belong. Thus at the feast of the Sultan's
birthday the Kaimakam receives officially in the Government

RECREATIONS AND FEASTS 95
House. The first arrivals may be the bishop of the Greek
Orthodox Church, preceded by his cavass, and followed by
a dozen of the most influential of his church members. He
and his party pay their respects, make brief complimentary
speeches, and drink coffee. When they leave they meet almost
at the door the Protestant minister leading in his company
of Church of England communicants, who sit a. while, have
their coffee, and leave, only to make way for the more
prominent Catholics also in a company. At Easter several
days are occupied in calling, and the members of each Christian
communion call upon all the chief members of the other com
munions, as well as upon the leading families of their own
church. This has often a curious effect, for a member of the
Protestant Church, after spending all the forenoon with his
fellow members in calling upon the others, may suddenly leave
his party, run ahead to his own house, and welcome the new
arrivals with the usual string of complimentary expressions as
if they were then meeting for the first time that day. Each
call lasts only a very few minutes, but sweets and coffee are
offered at each house, and the novice, from feelings of polite
ness, must accept them each time. On one feast day during
my first month in Palestine I entered forty houses and drank
strong Arabic coffee in each house; which was followed by a
compulsory rest for a day or two.
The feast days are numerous, and although only on rare
occasions, if ever, does the entire population "feast" coinci-
dently, a holiday for any one section interferes to some extent
with the occupations of the others. The Moslems have their
own distinct holidays ; but in the Christian section of the popu
lation the Catholics and Protestants celebrate the feasts of their
Churches thirteen days before the equivalent feast days of the
Greek Orthodox community. For instance, Christmas is doubly
celebrated owing to the variation between the New and Old
Calendar. This complicates considerably the commercial, and
especially the institutional, life of Nazareth, for children's

96 RECREATIONS AND FEASTS
holidays do not coincide, and classes are conducted frequently
with half the scholars away.
To any impartial thinker, as well as to the sharp Moslem
observer, it appears to be a most deplorable fact that two
sections of the Christian Church in the town where Christ
Himself lived cannot agree together even so far as to allow
them to celebrate the feasts of Christmas and Good Friday on
the same day of the year.
It is not too much to say that the open jealousies and
differences which exist between the Christian congregations
does much to counteract the influences in favour of the claims
of Christianity which are exerted by the missionaries.

CHAPTER XX
THE MUNICIPALITY
Nazareth being in the Asiatic provinces of the Ottoman
Empire, the Government is Turkish ; and the local authorities
are responsible to Acre, which, again, is under the jurisdiction
of the " wali," or Governor-General, in Beyrout. To describe
the complicated relations of the one centre with the other, and
show the deplorable tangle into which all matters of business
come as soon as they touch official hands, would take far too
much space.
The centre of Government in the town of Nazareth is in
the "Seraiyah," a block of buildings which accommodates the
financial, administrative, and judicial departments. In the
lower storey is the prison, composed of two large cells, into
which criminals of all classes and kinds, suspects, and not
infrequently perfectly innocent persons are thrown. No beds
are furnished, no prison clothes provided, and even the food
must be obtained from outside by the prisoners themselves.
No long periods of imprisonment are served there, convicted
criminals, when sentenced for several months, being transferred
to Acre ; but the " law's delays " are nowhere so extreme as in
Turkey, and weeks may elapse before the formal trial takes place.
In the upper storey of the Seraiyah are the offices of the
various officials. The head of the Imperial Governmental Depart
ment is the '' Kaimakam," who may be termed the Governor.
His powers are limited to some extent, and he has no connec
tions of any sort with the military affairs of the town, hut in
matters of central and of local concern he holds an important
97 7

98 THE MUNICIPALITY
' position. Frequently the Kaimakam is a man of good family,
and his education is somewhat more liberal than usual. To
the European passing through the land the average Kaimakam
appears the polished gentleman with advanced views. In some
cases this impression would be correct, as it would be in the
case of our Nazareth Kaimakam ; but in Turkey appearances
are very often deceptive, and only experience of the conduct of
any Kaimakam in the practical test of business affairs can
decide how much of his polish covers bigotry and religious
fanaticism of an intense kind.
The Governor is appointed from Constantinople, as are also
the Treasurer, the Registrar, the Collector of Land Taxes, and
several others less important. The Department of Justice is
more or less separate, and consists of judge, procurator-fiscal,
and inspectors, etc. To those officials holding office from Con
stantinople three more are added by local election. One of
these is the mayor, who is chosen every three years, and is
alternately a Moslem and a Christian. The other two are
connected with the Criminal Law Court, and are Moslem and
Christian. Nominally there is a Sanitary Department of the
local government, but its methods are inadequate to deal with
the refuse of a fairly large town.
For the cleaning of the town we have several donkey
boys, but they are quite insufficient in number to deal with the
refuse which results from the population and the work of the
bazaars. I remember well an experience of my first month's
residence in Nazareth, when I was requested by the Govern
ment to act as locum for the Sanitary Inspector for a few days
during his illness. After a walk of investigation through the
streets, I compiled a list of the houses where the regulations
had been broken by the discharge of evil refuse into the
thoroughfare. Next day the Kaimakam interviewed me, and
regretted that nothing could be done to inflict penalties for the
offences, because my list consisted chiefly of the residences of
the most prominent citizens. Were it not for the flooding

THE MUNICIPALITY 99
rains of each autumn, which sweep all the accumulated dirt of
summer into the valley, Nazareth would not be the compara
tively clean town it is.
Here and there in the main streets paraffin oil lamps are
fixed to the house walls, and when they happen to be lit at
night they certainly do illuminate a dark corner or two. But
so irregular are the streets and so dangerous the pitfalls in
the paths that a hand lamp is always carried by any person
venturing out long after sunset.
Meat, vegetables, and weights are supposed to be examined
by inspectors, and the owner of food or balances in any way
faulty may have to pay quite a tidy sum to an inspector who
finds out, before he may continue to trade without further
interference. The taxes paid by the people are divided into " Imperial " and
"local." Property taxes and trade taxes — a carpenter pays
because he is a carpenter — go to the Imperial Exchequer.
The road tax, cleaning tax, etc., go into the town fund, from
which they equally rapidly disappear. If all the money
collected for local purposes was spent in the way it ought to
be, our roads would be less like river beds and our streets less
resemble manure heaps. In the matter of currency Nazareth
suffers along with the other towns of the Turkish Empire.
The coins themselves are inconvenient in size and weight, and
are irregular in their values the one to the other. But the
most annoying feature of the monetary system is the different
face values which corns possess in various localities. As an
example of this we find that the largest silver coin, called the
"medjedie," is valued at 27f piastres in Nazareth, while in
Tiberias, twenty miles away, it contains only 24 piastres. In
the medjedie there are 7£ bishlicks ; but the bishlick, a bronze
coin, is worth 3| and 3£ piastres in the two towns respectively.
Such a condition of things would lead to financial chaos were
it not that as an individual coin the piastre does not exist in
Palestine. When considering the price of an article we require

100 THE MUNICIPALITY
to be told if it is quoted in Nazareth, Tiberias, or Jerusalem
piastres before we can know the cost. Besides these local
variations there is another rate of value used exclusively by
the Government departments, which accept the medjedie at
19 piastres only.
The food of the Nazarene is, above all things, simple and
nutritious, and practically all of it is of local production. The
only tinned food in use to any extent is the " sardine." Barrels
of salted herrings are sometimes seen in the markets. But all
the multitude of patent cereals and potted delicacies so common
further west are unknown, to the undoubted advantage of the
local digestion. Besides, in bread-making, wheat is used freely
in the whole grain, and forms the basis of many dishes. Cakes,
scones, pastries are not made, but a form of rusk is sold by the
bakers. Bread is made in two forms. In the town ovens a flat loaf
slightly hollow in the centre is baked, and this sort is eaten
by many of the people. The other is the village type of loaf
baked in the " taboon," and this is preferred by many. Both
kinds are eaten quite fresh ; even a few hours makes it dry and
unpalatable. Bread forms the basis of every meal, and any
apparent scarcity, as might be indicated by giving to a guest
less than a whole loaf at a time, is considered to be a sign of
stinginess. To cut a loaf and offer part is intolerable.
Meat does not play a very important part in diet. All
who can afford it use some meat during the day, but a small
quantity is sufficient for a large family. Joints, roasts,
steaks are not used; all meat is cut into small pieces and
well mixed with vegetables, or else pounded and added to
a liberal proportion of boiled wheat. The meat is almost
always mutton, and the only other kinds ever sold are pork
and wild boar, both of which may be bought occasionally.
The price of mutton is regulated by Government, and varies
from fivepence to eightpence a pound. If the butchers consider
that the legal price has been fixed too low, they refuse to kill,

THE MUNICIPALITY 101
and we are forced vegetarians until the dispute is ended by
concessions on both sides. During such a strike chickens and
pigeons find a more ready sale, and the usual price of about
two shillings and threepence for a chicken and sixpence for a
pair of very young pigeons may be increased. Goat's flesh is
not sold in the town, and rarely does one hear of camel's flesh
being eaten in the Moslem quarter. All meat is cooked on the
same day as killed.
Fresh fish comes from the Mediterranean and from the Lake
of Galilee during winter and spring. The former is always the
dearer, and sixpence a pound is not an unusual price for it.
Tiberias fish is of two sorts ; the favourite is a kind of perch,
which is always cooked by frying in olive oil.
Eggs are plentiful, and ordinarily of a good size. They
are cheap, and probably form the most economical food of all.
In summer as many as four dozen can be got for one shilling,
but this cheapness does not last long, and in mid-winter they
may cost one shilling per dozen. Eggs are eaten boiled or
fried, and in omelette form, but they do not enter into such a
variety of cooking purposes as in other lands.
Puddings are unknown, with the exception of rice and milk,
and a dish prepared with wheat, starch, and sugar.
In the preparation of household meals the women rely much
more upon vegetables than upon meat in any form, and the
housekeeping in this respect is difficult in winter until cabbage
and cauliflower appear on the market. Those are followed by
vegetable marrow, which is used when quite small and tender.
Broad beans grown locally can be bought about the same time,
and a little later lettuce and cucumber. The early vine leaves,
boiled with rice, are eaten in April and May.
Soon afterwards tomatoes become abundant, and the egg
plant is brought from villages where water is available for
irrigation. Cucumbers are eaten raw, as an apple or pear is
eaten, and has no bad effects.
Turnips are cooked by boiling, but the favourite method

102 THE MUNICIPALITY
of preparation is in pickled slices. Beetroot may be found, but
it is not common. Carrots are always poor in quality ; and
potatoes, when grown in the country, worse than the worst
ever seen in Britain. Onions and garlic both grow well in
Nazareth, and are added to many dishes as flavouring.
The scarcity of water limits the variety of fruit. Apricots
grow very well, and one variety from a graft on the almond
tree is specially fine. Damsons, grapes, figs, are all abundant.
Apples and pears do not succeed. Oranges and lemons require
special care and watering. There are pomegranates, but they
also require irrigation to grow well. Almond trees are the first
to blossom, and they herald spring all over the hill-side.
There are several wild plants which are freely eaten by the
poorer people ; indeed many families can and do exist on little
more than bread and one or other of the roadside herbs as
a "relish." In spring-time the women at work in the fields
commonly take with them a loaf of bread and eat with it some
of the leaves which grow beside them where they happen to
sit for the mid-day meal.
Much might be written regarding the wild flowers which
beautify the hills of Nazareth in spring-time, but no description
can do their beauty justice. It may be that the contrast
between the parched cracked land of the late autumn and the
multi-coloured flowery fields of March intensifies the sense of
delight. The almost complete absence of cultivated gardens
in the town may also free the mind from all possible com
parisons ; but I believe that the great charm of the spring-time
lies in the blossoms themselves, with all their varied forms and
tints. Everything seems dead by October, scorched and withered
by months of steady sunshine, and the evening dew flies with
the first touch of the morning sunbeam. Then comes the long-
wished-for early rain, and the next walk one takes over the hill
discovers rocky patches of land where the earth has retained
the moisture. And there, almost hidden by the overhanging

THE MUNICIPALITY 103
boulders, cyclamens begin to show their pink-tipped buds,
and another day of genial warmth opens the curling petals to
the sunshine. They grow in profusion, differing little the one
from the other, yet showing just the faint variety in delicate
tints which keeps one walking on in search of new discoveries.
With Christmastide we get the daisies, crimson tipped, upon
the very top of the Nazareth hill, and the year is hardly begun
before anemones begin to blossom.
Brilliantly red, they give the first distinctive colour to the
fields, but soon others — mauve, purple, pink, and white — appear
and mingle with the first. Miles of grass, lavishly sprinkled
with these flowers, spread in all directions, and one may scarcely
step without crushing them under foot. In the midst of this
profusion of colour the yellow marguerites, the pink flax, the
blood-red pheasant's eyes, the blue cornflower, and the crimson
ranunculus spring up. This last remains when all the rest have
gone, and as it dwindles and falls we feel that summer indeed
is near, and our eyes must wait impatiently throughout the
months of heat until the rains revive the flower seeds already
waiting in the soil, and again the feast of beauty and colour is
spread over the land.
" He sets the bright procession on its way,
And marshals all the order of the year ;
And ere each flowery season, fades and dies,
Designs the blooming wonders of the next."

WILLIAM GREEN AND SONS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

Nazareth from the hill. The view is taken facing south-east.

The Grain Market when no business is being done.

A precipice, sixty feet deep, within the boundaries of the
town (Luke iv. '29).

An entrance into Nazareth from the west. The C. M. >S.
Orphanage is seen on the distant hill-side.

The archway which leads into the Market Square

The Market where "leban " is sold.

A donkey-load of tree branches as used for bakers' ovens.

One of the oldest Moslems in Nazareth.

V-'esri

'^ j» ' A~^

Part of the hill-side in the Christian quarter.

The Virgin's Fountain.

Women at the Virgin's Fountain.

Watering camels at the open reservoir, which is filled by the overflow
from the Virgin's Fountain.

The second fountain in Nazareth. This small spring almost completely
dries up in summer.

The interior of a house in the Moslem quarter.

The Nazareth Mosque.

Showing the maimer in which empty and full water jars
are carried.

Moslem women earning home firewood from the vicinity of Mount Tabor.

Dividing dough into small pieces for cooking with rice.

rt

',
*<*
rfc: :
^Y^lPP^
4Hfe
J
:4^
.#
&¦-; ... -«>:s -=?*SsHaH . . wy
. :¦ — - , \
sShIa8§imH
.. -
Harvesting on the hill-side.
m*

¦>»;¦

w*.

%

A camel-load of sheaves.

Threshing the grain by means of the "morraj " — a heavy wooden board.

$$k

'¦ tim i Wi
' itf'

}fe

ft Will
folk. ¥k<^^*J»fMl»

Harvesting. The long, thin-bladed sickle is seen in
the reaper's hand,

A shop in the Cloth Uazaar.

***%i

-,..'--

Threshing wheat. The farmer is standing on the "morraj " to add to its w-eight.

, A

«==; -*&!&&

%#$?wt

The process of winnowing.

Measuring grain. The wheat is pressed down into the measure by the hands
(Luke vi. 38).

Grinding wheat into coarse flour in a hand-mill.

Women renewing the mud roof in preparation for winter.

A Nazareth Bazaar.

Part of the Bootmakers' Bazaar.

A bootmaker and his Arab customer.

A young carpenter.

A grocer's shop. The shallow vessel contains olive oil
soap from Samaria.

Making knives.

J&as«^**liifi^'

A stone-cutter separating a block of limestone by means of chisel and hammer.

Nazarenes building an arch.

Shaping stones for building.

A Nazareth weaver at his loom.

Charcoal burners on the hills

-L  i  __ 

A poor Moslem family.

Outside a Moslem house.

A Nazareth family.

. -.; '7
*;-.;».£ -»<.¦ •tiYn-a- *»*- — - -  iff*

.:¦&•

A single-roomed house near the hill-top.

.  ------j-."V:::-~X-:^---X-:-i

1

¦ r.

MEfStt*

: 

iierSG

A rain-water cistern, with a native oven in the background.

A cave in the hill-side used as a dwelling-house. The girls are making needle lace.

Making needle lace. The fingers are dipped frequently into
the bowl of cold water.

Houses built on the brink of a precipice in the
Christian quarter.

Jpfc5

Tlie Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation.

The congregation of the Greek Orthodox Church.

A gunshot patient arriving at the Medical Mission Hospital on camel back.

The Men's Ward in the Medical Mission Hospital.

I

"^m^T" — 

Showing the sears resulting from the native method of
treating disease by extensive burning.

The operating room in use.

*Bte

Mothers and babies at the Baby Show.

The two prize babies. The mothers are in Feast dress.

A group of the poorest Nazarenes who attend the soup kitchen
of the Mission.

A village school of the Church Missionary Society.

The youngest girls in the Church Missionary Society's Orphanage.

A Moslem funeral procession.

Moslem mourners at the cemetery. The mourning women are
in the foreground.

Moslem tombs, showing variety of decoration.

A funeral in the Christian quarter. The coffin is open, and the face is
left uncovered.

The Thursday night procession to the bride's house. The tray is'
carried in the centre.

A bride leaving Nazareth. She is dressed entirely in white, and rides
the leading camel.

The arrival of a bride. In front are escorting horsemen.

Christian women and girls in Feast dress.

Nazareth children enjoying a Feast day.

A cave-dweller near Nazareth.

An Arab sheik in the Plain below Nazareth.

Itinerating with a Medical Mission tent.

A Nazarene of the village type.

A Christian woman in ordinary outdoor dress.