LIFE AND HABITS OF THE FELLAHÎN.
In the last chapter the Fellahîn have been considered in their religious
aspect, and matters connected with the possible origin of their race
have been discussed; but we have now to sketch their manners and
customs.
The wonderful account given by Lane of the life of townsmen in Egypt,
would apply almost equally well to the middle classes in Damascus and
Jerusalem; but the life and manners of the peasantry are far more
valuable in illustration of the Bible narrative than are those of the
townsmen; and for this reason the present sketch, however imperfect,
will, I hope, prove of some value, by drawing attention to a people who
have been as yet but little studied, and who are often confounded with
the Bedawîn, or with the governing nation--the Turks--of whom, perhaps,
scarcely a hundred are to be found in Palestine.
A Fellah village consists of from twenty to a hundred cabins, huddled
together, generally on rising ground and near water. In the hills the
village is built principally of stone, the materials being collected
from ancient ruins, and hardly ever, I believe, fresh quarried; in the
south the roofs have stone domes, in the north they are of brushwood,
supported on logs or beams as rafters, and covered with mud, which
requires to be rolled every year. The interiors generally contain no
furniture beyond bedding, mats, and cooking utensils; the house has no
chimney, and the smoke of the wood fire goes out at the wooden door, or
by the unglazed windows. Among the better class of the peasantry a few
carpets will be found in use; and a raised diwân, as described in the
account of our feast at Jeb’a, occupies part of the room. The village
generally has one high house, of two storeys, in its middle, where the
Sheikh or hereditary chief lives; booths are erected in summer on the
roofs of the houses, where the inmates sleep at night; on the outskirts
of the village are orchards of fig or pomegranate, with hedges of
prickly pear, and perhaps fine olive-groves; close by is the Mukâm, with
its white dome, and round it the shallow graves with rough headstones,
between which the purple iris (or lily of Palestine) grows very
commonly, while in the better-built tombs a little hollow for rain water
is scooped in the covering slab of stone, as an act of charity towards
thirsty birds.
In the plains the only difference in the villages is, that the cabins
are built of sun-dried brick, and roofed with mud. The bricks are made
in spring by bringing down water into ditches dug in the clay, where
chopped straw is mixed in with the mud; thence the soft mixture is
carried in bowls to a row of wooden moulds or frames, each about ten
inches long by three inches across; these are laid out on flat ground
and are squeezed full, the clay being then left to harden in the sun.
The houses thus built require to be patched every year, and the old
roofs are covered in spring with grass self-sown, which withers as soon
as the sun becomes strong (Ps. cxxix. 6).
The population of a village averages about four hundred, ranging from
thirty or forty, up to a thousand in the well-built Galilean towns. The
men are employed in agriculture, the boys tend the flocks, the women
cook and fetch water. The first scene on approaching a village is that
at the well or spring, to which lithe damsels and portly matrons,
scantily clad, bring down the great black or brown jars, returning
rapidly with the load of water poised on a pad on the head. The
screaming, scolding, and chatter of these crowds of women passes all
description; if of one of them the traveller asks for the Sheikh, he
still receives the old answer, “Behold, he is before you” (1 Sam. ix.
12).
On entering the village the Ghŭfr or “watchman” (2 Sam. xviii. 24) is
next met, and the stranger is brought to the guest-house (Saha), where
he is served with coffee, and entertained at the public expense, a small
gratuity being given to the Ghŭfr on leaving. The visitor will be
struck above all with the power exercised by the Sheikh, or by the
elders, and with the respect for age, and for etiquette, leaving the
impression of a patriarchal form of society, which really exists among
the villagers.
The food of the peasants is almost entirely vegetable, consisting of
unleavened bread dipped in oil, of rice, olives, grape-treacle (Dibs),
clarified butter (Semn), and eggs, besides gourds, melons, marrows, and
cucumbers; in times of scarcity the Khobbeizeh, or mallow, cooked in
sour milk or oil, forms an important element. Meat they hardly ever
touch, save at the great feast, or at the Kod sacrifices; and their
drinks consist simply of water and coffee, both of which they imbibe in
enormous quantities. To this diet the beauty of their white teeth, the
toughness of their constitutions, the rapidity with which their wounds
heal, are no doubt traceable, while the prominent stomachs of the
children are due to drinking too much water. Coffee with lemon-juice is
also commonly used as a remedy for dysentery.
The costume of the Fellahîn differs in various parts of Palestine,
resembling that of the Egyptians in the south, and that of the Lebanon
mountaineers in the north, while in Samaria it is more distinctive. The
dress of Christians is also entirely different from that of the
Moslems.
The typical male peasant dress in Palestine consists of five articles
only. On the head is the turban, consisting of a woollen or silk shawl,
wound round a red cap (Tarbûsh) with a blue tassel, inside which cap is
a second, or perhaps two, felt caps (Libdeh), and within these again is
a white cotton skull-cap stitched all over (Takîyeh). The colour of the
turban shawl among the richer, or more pious, is white; a Sherîf or
descendant of the Prophet wears a green Mukleh, or large turban, and the
Samaritan colour for the turban is crimson. In the south of Palestine
the commonest kind is striped with yellow and chocolate. This respected
head-dress, which is never willingly taken off in public, is drawn down
behind the ears, thus causing them to grow out at right angles, or even
to become doubled down.
The body is covered with a long shirt, which is made extremely full,
with sleeves down to the knees; this dress is confined by a broad
leather belt (Matt. iii. 4), to which a clasp-knife is often hung. The
shirt reaches to the ankles, but during a journey the peasant girds up
his loins (1 Kings xviii. 46), bringing the hem of the shirt between his
legs up to his belt, and thus leaving the legs bare to the mid thigh.
The sleeves are often used as receptacles for money, which is knotted up
in a corner, while valuable papers are kept inside the Libdeh, and bread
or other provisions are thrust between the shirt and the skin, above the
belt. The sleeves are often tied together with a cord between the
shoulders, leaving the arms bare. The shirt is open in front from the
neck to the waist.
The fourth article is the ’Abba--a cloak coarsely woven of wool; those
made of better materials are black, with coloured binding, and in summer
a very light thin white cloak is used in riding; but the typical ’Abba
is striped white and brown (or indigo) in broad vertical stripes; it is
cut square, with holes for the arms, and is shaped to the neck behind,
being a comfortable, but not an elegant, garment.
The feet are shod with leather shoes, which are generally red, with
pointed toes, and a long pointed flap behind. Horsemen, however, wear
the red boot to the knee, with a tassel in front.
The richer peasants wear, in addition to other garments, the Kumbâz, or
cotton gown, striped in red and purple, or in yellow and white, with
narrow vertical stripes; and they even have the Jubbeh, or short cloth
jacket: both of these articles are worn by the townsmen.
The Kufeiyeh, or shawl head-dress of the Bedawîn, is worn by the boys
and herdsmen in many parts. The shape of the turban also differs in
various districts, being very high in the centre of the country, and
large in the south. The shawl is sometimes twisted, sometimes laid in
flat folds. The enormous turbans once worn are now scarcely seen, though
a few old men among the peasant Sheikhs will put them on for great
ceremonies.
The dress of the women is, as might be expected, far more varied. In
Philistia it resembles that of Egypt--a full blue robe, sweeping the
ground, a black head-shawl, and a face-veil hanging from the eyes to the
waist, supported by a wooden or metal cylinder, which acts as a clasp,
fixing the face-veil to the head-veil. These face-veils are ornamented
with a fringe of silver or gold coins. In Gaza and Ashdod the women wear
a sort of visor, covering the nose, mouth, and chin, and made of white
stuff, ornamented with gold coins.
In the Jerusalem and Hebron hills the dress is less complicated, and is
probably unchanged since the earliest times, for it could not well be
simpler. The blue shirt is not quite so full as that of the men, but it
is rather longer, and the sleeves are pointed. No face-veil is worn, but
a heavy white head-veil comes down to the waist, and the requirements of
modesty are supposed to be fully met by drawing this over the mouth, or,
if the woman’s hands are engaged, by holding the corner in the teeth.
As the traveller advances northwards, through Samaria and Lower Galilee,
he meets with another distinct costume: a dress with tight sleeves and
fitting the figure, descends half-way below the knees; a chemise is worn
under it, having sleeves full at the wrist, and a pair of blue cotton
drawers or trousers--peg-topped in shape, tight at the ankle, and fuller
above--appear under the dress, which is generally of striped stuff,
purple (or pink) and white. A heavy sash is wound round the waist, and a
coif or kerchief is tied over the head, while the hair is cut in a thick
fringe above the eyebrows. This is the dress of the girls, and that of
the matrons sometimes differs only in the headgear, though many of them
wear the full white shirt, as in the south, with a black cloak drawn
over the head.
The women’s head-dress in Samaria has never, apparently, been very
accurately described, but it is of peculiar interest. It is a sort of
bonnet, with a horse-shoe shape in front, and on the front are sewn
silver coins, lapping over one another, and making a crescent-shaped
tire round the forehead and down to the ears. This tire is bound by a
handkerchief round the head. It is apparently heavy, and a woman will
carry her dowry of perhaps £5 round her face. Seen in profile, it makes
the forehead appear high and the back of the head depressed. A crimson
face-veil is attached to it, covering the mouth, chin, and breast. There
can be little doubt that in these head-dresses we find still in use the
“round tires like the moon,” against which the prophet inveighs (Isaiah
iii. 18). This costume is the one shown in the illustration.
The women have fine eyes, and the use of _kohel_--a mixture of soot and
other substances--skilfully applied to the lashes has certainly a good
effect; but the little daubs of indigo or soot, rubbed into punctures
which are made by a bunch of needles, forming regularly tattooed
patterns on the face, breast, feet, and hands, have anything but a
pleasing appearance. A single mark between the eyes is usual, and looks
not unlike a patch (Lev. xix. 28).
The use of henna is common to men and women alike. Henna is a sign of
rejoicing, and is not worn in mourning. At a marriage, the tails of the
horses and the doors of the house are coloured with it, as well as the
faces and hands of the guests. Women colour the nails, the
finger-joints, and the palms of the hands. A little henna has rather a
pretty effect, being a sort of orange-red in colour.
Bracelets and anklets are worn, the commonest being of coloured glass
such as is manufactured at Hebron, or of bad silver; various charms and
amulets for protection against the evil eye are also carried.
The dress of the Christians in Palestine differs from that of the
Moslems. It consists of a shirt with tight sleeves, a waistcoat of a
flowered or embroidered pattern, a shawl neatly wound round the waist,
trousers, of blue cotton or of cloth, reaching to the ankles, and of the
baggy description commonly shown in sketches; and lastly, they wear a
short cloth jacket with tight sleeves, open in front, called Jubbeh,
which, as above noticed, is sometimes worn by the richer Moslem
Sheikhs, and by the townsmen. The Christians wear the Kufeiyeh in
travelling, or the Tarbûsh, with the inner caps, but without the roll of
silk or stuff which forms the turban.
The ordinary dress of Christian women is very picturesque; their dark
curly hair is confined by a little kerchief folded diagonally with the
peak behind. Their jackets of striped or flowered stuff fit tightly to
the figure, and show the shirt in front; and they wear the Shintiyân, or
trousers, made as full as a petticoat, tied below the knee, and falling
in plaits round the ankle--an extremely graceful and pleasing dress.
The above description of Christian costume applies chiefly to the
Galilean district, for the Christians are most numerous in Upper
Galilee. In Nazareth, where the peasantry are rich, the white Izâr, or
enveloping mantle of linen, coming over the head and swelling out like a
balloon round the figure, is worn by the women; but this is, properly
speaking, the dress of townsfolk, not of the agricultural classes.
The Bethlehem costume is unique. The men, though Christian, wear the
turban, and also the Kumbâz, or striped dressing-gown of cotton, which
is generally adopted by the upper classes. The dress of the women
consists of the full shirt with painted sleeves, but it is made, like
Joseph’s coat, of many colours, and has broad squares of yellow or red
let in to the breast or sleeves, giving a most striking brilliancy of
colour. The girls wear a white veil, the matrons an extraordinary
cylinder of felt, not unlike a Greek priest’s cap, generally sewn over
with coins, and partly covered by the white veil. This dress is figured
in many works (as in the illustrated edition of Farrar’s “Life of
Christ”), and needs no further description. A string of coins often
hangs from the bonnet under the chin, and more than one poor woman has
been murdered for the sake of her head-dress.
There is a class of the peasantry of whom a few words must now be said,
namely, the lepers. The common diseases of the country are ophthalmia,
dysentery, fever, and liver complaints; but on the whole the peasantry
are healthy, strongly-built, and of great strength and endurance. They
drive the lepers from their villages, and oblige them to resort to the
miserable communities which live, supported by charity on the outskirts
of great towns. Loathed and neglected, they drag on a miserable
existence, and propagate a diseased race--a reproach to the Government,
which does nothing to assist or control them.
The following notes are obtained from the best possible
authority--namely, from Dr. Chaplin, at Jerusalem:
Leprosy appears to be a mysterious disease, the origin of which doctors
do not know. It is not peculiar to one nation--Norwegians, Italians,
Spaniards, Hindoos, suffer from it, as well as Syrians. It is not caused
by food, not seemingly due to climate, and temperature has no connection
with it. It is doubtful whether it is contagious or hereditary. One
curious fact is that townsmen do not suffer from it, though the lepers
live close to the towns. From almost every village a few lepers come to
the towns, and notably from the Christian village of Râm-Allah.
The ordinary tubercular leprosy is due to the presence of _bacteria_ in
the tubercles, and the disease works out from within, not inwards from
without. It appears not to be the same disease described in Leviticus,
though the white leprosy--a spot deeper than the skin, with white hairs
(Levit. xiii. 3)--is still found in Palestine. The name leprosy is
derived from El Burs, a corruption of the Hebrew term used for the
disease.
No cure is as yet known for tubercular leprosy, for the reason of the
presence of the microscopic parasites is not yet discovered. The
prevention of this plague, which is now rather on the increase in
Palestine, seems to be possible, if habits of greater cleanliness and
morality, with more comfort and better food, could be introduced among
the peasantry, and if at the same time strict laws were enforced for
secluding the lepers in asylums.
This dreadful plague does not become manifest before the age of twelve,
nor later than forty-five. The patients suffer pain at first, and, in
later stages, much distress; their physical strength and animal life
dies out, and they are, in their own words, “like oxen,” without feeling
or intellectual power, scarcely conscious of the outer world; their
voices become changed to a feeble whine, husky and querulous; their
joints and features waste away, and swelling and black discolouration
ensue. The flesh decays, until the appearance of an advanced case is
ghastly in the extreme; and a raw wound may be burnt with an iron in
their bodies, producing only a slightly pleasing sensation. They die
finally of leprosy.
The lepers at Jerusalem live in huts near the south-west corner of the
town, inside the wall, and marry lepers, and the disease which reappears
in their children thus becomes hereditary.
Turning from this repulsive subject to that of the daily life of the
peasantry, we may next notice their marriages, funerals and amusements.
The distinctive physiognomy of each village is extremely striking. In
one the people will be good-looking, in another ugly; in each case there
is a strong family likeness between the various inhabitants of any one
place, which is apparently due to constant intermarriage between the
peasants of the same village.
The principal ceremonies connected with weddings are the processions of
the bride and bridegroom through the street, accompanied by their
friends. The procession of the dower is also accompanied by a band of
women, singing, clapping their hands, and uttering shrill cries; but the
bride’s fortune among the peasantry is necessarily small, and, as in
Italy, a single chest on a mule conveys the whole trousseau.
At Nazareth, in 1872, we witnessed two of these wedding processions, or
Zeffehs--one Christian, one Moslem.
First came a group of women clapping their hands in time, and uttering
the Zaghârît, or shrill ululations, commonly used as a mark either of
joy or of sorrow. Most of them wore over their heads the black cloak
with an embroidered border; their palms were dyed with henna, and they
had the moon-shaped tire as above described, and tight-fitting bodices
of silk, gleaming with red, green, yellow, blue, and purple, in stripes
and patches. One woman carried a basket of flowers on her head, with a
bottle of wine and a cake. The bride followed, close veiled, dressed in
glorious array, mounted on a horse, and supported by three of her female
relatives, while two other women held the bridle.
Presently the Zeffeh of the bridegroom passed in turn, consisting of
some two hundred of his friends. They were in white, with ’Abbas and
with silk Kufeiyehs, or turbans. Many were armed with old brass-bound
guns, which they let off at intervals. The shouting crowd went before
the bridegroom to the market-place, and there a ring of some hundred and
fifty men was formed; they were jammed close together, shoulder to
shoulder, clapping their hands and shouting “Alla-lá!” at the top of
their voices, their bodies swaying in time, while the best-man, in a
green dress, hopped round on one leg, and another man, in a black and
purple head-dress, which was tied beneath the chin, his cheeks being
reddened with henna, and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, sprinkled
rose-water over the whole circle. A gun was let off, and a sort of
proclamation was made, after which the clapping was resumed at a furious
pace, the best-man becoming almost frantic.
The procession moved on, and the bridegroom appeared on a horse, with a
red saddle and a pad behind; in his hand was a nosegay, and over his
head an umbrella. He smoked a cigarette, and a small boy in green was
mounted behind him. The women of his family followed, and pairs of male
guests danced a sort of Mazurka step beside him. But amid all this
ceremonial rejoicing there was no real gaiety, no one had a smile on his
face, but all was conducted with oppressive decorum.
On the second occasion--that of the Moslem Zeffeh--the women were
preceded by a band of tambourines and kettle-drums, the latter fastened
on a boy’s back, and beaten by a man who occasionally hit the
drum-bearer instead of the drum. The bride wore a pink veil above the
Izâr, and a black face-veil, and she was supported by two women, also
veiled. The bridegroom was followed by a man carrying a rush-bottomed
chair, on which he sat during the dancing. There were two sword-dancers
on this occasion, who went through the usual tame performance, which is
more effectively executed by the Bedawîn, as will be seen in the next
chapter. I was told that the words of the chorus were “Ya ’Aini! Ya
’Aini?”--“O my eye!” a term of endearment.
The ordinary village Zeffeh resembles those above described, but the
dresses are not often so gay as those at Nazareth.
Of the native children there is little to be said; they receive, as a
rule, no education, and are neither disciplined nor cared for, the
affection of the parents being apparently in most cases small. They
learn to curse almost as soon as to speak; and I have seen a boy of six
or seven throwing stones at his father with the most vile language. They
have none of the gaiety of children; but are as solemn as their elders.
To animals they are cruel, and to one another mischievous and
tyrannical. As the boys grow older, they are sent out to keep sheep,
goats, or cows, and they acquire a wonderfully accurate knowledge of the
country round the villages; thus the goat-herds are the great
authorities as to the names of ruins or springs.
I have only once seen children in Palestine playing at any game; this
was near Samaria, and the sport appeared to be a sort of hockey; but as
a rule they seem to do nothing but mischief.
The shepherd-boys, however, have a kind of game called Mankalah, which
Lane has already described as played in Egypt, and the holes which they
make in the rocks for this purpose are often found on the hillsides, and
might considerably puzzle archæologists.
[Illustration: MALE DANCERS.]
The adults appear to have no amusements; they say themselves, with
terrible truth, that they have “no leisure in their hearts for mirth,”
being hopeless and spiritless under their hard bondage of oppression,
usury, and violence.
The ordinary amusements of the townsmen are the public readings of
romances, the dances of the Egyptian ’Almehs, and games of chess and
draughts. Gambling, though considered disgraceful, still is common in
towns where low cafés and restaurants exist, but none of these
amusements are known in the villages. Once in the Jordan Valley we came
across a party of Egyptian dancing girls, journeying from Damascus to
their native land, and once in the Lebanon we witnessed the weird
performance of some male dancers in female dress, castanets on their
fingers, and skirts round their waists, as shown in the illustration
taken from a sketch made on the spot; but these performances are very
rare, and confined to the wealthier towns, as are also the tricks of
conjurers and clowns.
The only sport which may be witnessed among the peasants is the mock
tournament of the Jerîd, a combat between two bodies of horsemen, who
throw darts or sticks at one another. But the riding is, as a rule, so
bad that it has but little interest to an Englishman, accustomed to see
better horsemanship. There are often men who ride in front of these
cavalcades as clowns; they are called Sutâr, and are dressed in caps to
which fox-tails are suspended; the clown, indeed, seems to be the only
ideal of comedy which Syrian minds can conceive, their general views of
festivity being rather inclined to pomp than to real gaiety.
The last ceremonials to be noticed are those connected with death. Among
the Fellahîn they are very simple. The body is buried almost as soon as
the breath has left it. Thus, I have seen a boy killed by falling from
an olive, and buried within a quarter of an hour. The graves are so
shallow that the hyenas often dig up the corpses, and they are only
marked by a few stones. The bier, covered with a green cloth, and with
the turban placed on it, is followed by the women with shrill shrieks
(Zaghârît), and in one instance, near Ascalon, each woman held a
handkerchief in her hand, and waved it at the bier as she followed.
Turning next to the ordinary occupations of the Fellahîn, we find them
to be an agricultural and pastoral people.
The land tenure in Palestine is of three kinds: Miri, or taxed
crown-land; Wakûf, or glebe-land, belonging to mosques and other
institutions of a religious character; and lastly, Mulk, or freehold.
The taxes of the first two kinds are farmed to the highest bidder. The
Mulk-land is of four kinds: first, land inherited since the time of the
Moslem conquest; secondly, land legally bestowed from the crown-lands;
thirdly, land so bestowed in return for tribute; lastly, tithed lands of
which not more than half the produce is due to Government. The
Mulk-land is held by private individuals in and round the towns, and
pays a now fixed tax to the State.
The lands belonging to the villages which they surround are reckoned by
the Feddân, a very indefinite measure, being the amount which a yoke of
oxen can plough (or rather two yoke used alternately) working with a
single plough for twelve hours per diem during twenty-eight days in the
summer and fourteen in the winter. In the hills the Feddân ranges from
thirty-six to forty acres, and in the plains from twenty-eight to
thirty-six, the soil being richer and heavier. The corn-seed per Feddân
is from twenty-five to sixty kilos (Constantinople measure), and the
yield per Feddân is about two hundred bushels of wheat, or fifty of
barley. The village lands belong in reality to the Crown, and are held
in fee-simple, paying tithes and also a fixed tax. They are equally
inherited by the sons of a proprietor, but if uncultivated revert to the
Crown.
The limits of the lands are marked by valleys, ridges, or large stones,
by which also the sub-divisions of the land among the villagers are
shown. It is most interesting to note that the word Tahum, used in
Hebrew to signify the “limits” of the Levitical cities (Numb, xxxv.), is
still employed in the same sense by the peasantry, and in one case a
great stone, marking the present boundary of the lands of Es Semû’a
(Eshtemoa), which was a Levitical city, is just about the proper
distance of 3000 cubits from the village, and is called Hajr et Takhâin,
also probably a corruption of Tahum. The village land is annually
divided among members of the community according to their power of
cultivation.
There is a custom regarding the land which seems of antiquity--namely,
the Shkârah, or land which is cultivated by the villagers for any one of
their number who is unable to till it himself; thus there is the Shkâret
el Imâm, or “glebe of the religious minister,” and Shkâret en Nejjâr, or
“carpenter’s portion,” which is cultivated for the village carpenter in
return for his services.
The possessions of a village vary from ten to a hundred Feddâns; thus at
Abu Shûsheh, for instance, 5000 acres of arable land are held by a place
containing some 400 inhabitants.
The ordinary crops are barley and wheat. There are two varieties of
bearded wheat, called “hard” and “soft,” the former being considered the
best. The yield on the average is six-fold. Oats and rye are unknown,
but in addition to the corn, millet, sesame, Indian corn, melons,
tobacco, and cotton, are the summer crops; while lentils, beans, and
chick-peas, with other vegetables, are grown in winter. Indigo grows
wild, and is occasionally cultivated in the Jordan Valley. The land is
never allowed to lie fallow, unless through want of labour to cultivate.
A rotation of crops is observed, but manure is rarely used. To the list
of productions must be added the beautiful and extensive groves of
olives, especially noticeable in the low hills, with the vineyards, on
the high ridges as at Hebron, where the grape is swelled by the autumn
mists, and the fig-gardens, which flourish especially in the Christian
district of Jufna and Bîr ez Zeit. Pomegranates, apricots, walnuts,
plums, apples, mulberries, pears, quinces, oranges, lemons, and bananas,
may be noticed among the fruit-trees which are found in the gardens near
springs. The irrigation of the vegetable gardens by means of small
ditches trodden by the foot, is another instance of the survival of a
Jewish method of cultivation (Deut. xi. 10).
The first agricultural operation is that of ploughing, which is
commenced in autumn at the time of the first rains, and again continued
in spring for the later crops. The first period is about the end of
November, the second in March and April. According to Mr. Bergheim, the
first day of the autumn ploughing varies from the 17th of November to
the 14th of December.
The plough is of the most primitive kind, very small, with a coulter
like an arrow-head, and a single handle like that of a spade, with a
cross piece, which is held by one hand, while in the other the ploughman
has a stick with a nail at the end, used as a goad. To this pointed
spade (as the plough may be called) is attached a long pole, which
connects it with the heavy yoke of the cattle. The furrow is extremely
shallow, and the instrument, indeed, only scratches the upper soil,
leaving virgin earth untouched below. There are generally two ploughs
which follow one another, the first perhaps harnessed to a single camel,
the second to two small oxen, or to an ox with an ass (Deut. xxii. 10).
The sower follows the plough, and scatters his seed, not only into the
good soil of the furrows, but partly among the thistles and artichokes
which grow rank in the unturned soil, partly on the beaten path beside
the field, partly among the rocks and stones which crop up in patches
amid the arable ground (Matt. xiii 3--8).
The barley harvest begins in the plains in April, and continues in the
hills as late as June. The stalk of the corn is very short, and the
stubble is left comparatively very long. The men sit on their haunches
to reap, the sickle (Seif) being not unlike our own. The handfuls thus
cut are tied round with a stalk, forming little shocks (Ghamûr), and
these are stacked in bundles, and then loaded in nets on camels, and
carried to the threshing-floors (Beiyâdir or Jurûn) at the villages. An
ancient custom--to which the peasantry can assign no origin--is observed
in reaping; the corner of the field is left unreaped, and this is given
to the “widows and the fatherless;” this corner is called Jerû’ah, and
in the same way a bunch of wheat is left on the ground to be gleaned by
the poor and helpless (Lev. xix. 9, 10). These gleanings are threshed by
the women separately (Ruth ii. 15--17).
The threshing-floor is a broad flat space, on open ground, generally
high; sometimes the floor is on a flat rocky hill-top, and occasionally
it is in an open valley, down which there is a current of air; but it is
always situated where most wind can be found, because at the threshing
season high winds never occur, and the grain is safely stored before the
autumn storms commence. The size of the floor varies, from a few yards
to an area of perhaps fifty yards square, and rich villages have
sometimes two such floors. The grain is thrown down, and trampled by
cattle, or by horses attached to a heavy wooden sledge made of two
boards and curved up in front. A boy stands or sits on this, and drives
the horse. A number of recesses are sunk in the under side of the
sledge, and into these small rough pieces of hard basalt (Hajr es Sôda)
are let, which, acting like teeth, tear the corn. This instrument is
called Môrej, and is supposed to be that mentioned by Isaiah (xli 15) as
“having teeth.” The name is the same as the Hebrew Moreg, and the name
Jurn, applied commonly to the threshing-floor, is the Hebrew Goran.
In other cases two or four oxen are yoked together and driven round the
threshing-floor. I have seen them muzzled, though this is rare (Deut.
xxv. 4).
The threshed grain is collected on the floor in a conical heap (Sôbeh),
and is winnowed by tossing it with a wooden shovel, or with a
three-pronged wooden fork. The wind scatters the chaff, and the grain
falls round the heap, and it is afterwards sifted.
A tithe from the threshed grain is still set apart for the Derwîsh or
village priest, as for the Levite of old (Num. xviii. 21), and is called
Tazukki, or “alms.” The custom is, however, gradually dying out.
The corn is stored in underground granaries, which are carefully
concealed, and form traps for the unwary horseman. These granaries
(Metâmîr) are often under the protection of the Mukâm, and are therefore
excavated near that building. They are circular wells, some four or five
feet deep, and the mouths are closed with clay like that used for the
house-roofs.
The olive crop seems to require but little attention from the peasants;
the land is ploughed twice or thrice each year, but the trees are
neither manured nor pruned, and hence they only bear the full crop every
other year. In October the fruit is ripe, and the trees are beaten with
long poles, or shaken--much to their injury, and the fallen fruit is
gleaned. It is said that the plague of locusts has more than once proved
a subsequent blessing, because the olive-trees were eaten down and thus
pruned, and yielded a plentiful harvest in the following year. The oil
is pressed in two kinds of mills; one called M’aserah, from its
“squeezing;” the other Matrûf, with a cylinder of stone placed
vertically in a cylindrical stone case, and revolving in it, iron bars
being fitted like spokes into the cylinder.
The olive grows slowly, and there is no doubt that many of the trees
round Shechem and Gaza are of great age. At Gaza the natives say that
not a single olive-tree has been planted since the Moslem conquest of
the land; and indeed, traditionally, they refer the oldest of the trees
in the great avenue to the time of Alexander the Great. The name Rûmi,
or “Greek,” sometimes applied to the olives, appears to be connected
with this tradition. It seems possible that the first statement, that
olives have not been planted at Gaza since the Moslem conquest, may be
true, for the tree rarely dies, but when the trunk decays, fresh stems
spring from the roots, and a group of olives takes the place of a single
tree. The old olives are surrounded by an army of suckers (the “olive
branches” of Scripture--Ps. cxxviii. 3), and these, as the parent stem
decays, grow strong and tall in its room, so that the grove perpetuates
itself without any trouble on the part of the owners.
The olive-tree is the glory of Palestine, and one of the chief sources
of wealth to the peasantry; the cool and grateful shade endears it to
the traveller, and many a time have our tents been protected in stormy
weather by the broad boles. The shade of the fig-tree is considered
unhealthy by the Syrians, as producing ophthalmia, but that of the olive
is a favourite shelter.
The pastoral employments of the Fellahin occupy a good part of their
attention; the young men, as in Jacob’s time, are the shepherds and
cowherds, and are often found far from home. In spring the rich pastures
of the plains and of the Jordan Valley attract the flocks, which are
driven down to temporary settlements known as ’Azbât. An arrangement is
sometimes made with a Bedawîn tribe to protect the flocks, and in other
parts there are lands in the desert recognised as belonging to the
villagers. The sheepcotes along the edge of the Judean desert are
generally caves (1 Sam. xxiv. 3), and in these the boys sleep with their
charges at night, especially during the lambing season, which occurs
early in spring.
The diminutive size of the oxen is striking, and the dry climate seems
to dwarf most of the domestic animals, sheep, goats, and horses being
all small. There are several breeds of goats; one (the mohair goat)
long-haired and white, with enormous horns, is seen rarely; the other is
the ordinary black or piebald breed, with shorter hair. The sheep are
less numerous, and are generally driven with the goats. In the plains,
however, they are better able to find food; and in Philistia especially,
the fat-tailed Syrian breed affords excellent mutton. The way of
fattening sheep for a feast is curious. A child will sit with its arm
round the animal’s neck and feed it with mulberry leaves from a bag,
almost pushing them down its throat. The name given to the fatted sheep
is Kharûf.
Scarcely less important to the villagers than the flocks are the camels,
which supply the place of carts and waggons. These animals give but
little trouble, as they pick up any thorny shrub for food. In spring
they are clipped, and covered with tar and oil, as a protection against
insects. Their black appearance, after the tarring, is ludicrous, and
their odour is then even more offensive than usual.
Such, slightly sketched, are the occupations and daily pursuits of the
Fellahîn. It is almost unnecessary to point out how every act of their
lives, not less than every word of their mouths, contains some echo of
the old Bible times. Their peculiar habits are handed down from so
remote a period that they themselves--being accustomed, with the
ordinary conservatism of Orientals, to tread, without a thought of
change, in their fathers’ steps, have forgotten the origin of many of
their customs. They can only say: “It is from ancient times;” “It always
was done so;” “Our fathers did thus.” And as in their worship so in
everything else, they repeat mechanically the actions of their
predecessors.
Their ordinary expressions are so like those used in the Bible, that one
seems to step back out of the present century to the days of Abraham,
when living in the more remote villages, far away from hotels and
dragomans. “As the Lord liveth” is still a common oath, and the
villagers address the stranger as “my father,” or “my brother,” and
salute him with the words, “Peace be unto thee.”
It is easy to look alone on either the dark or the bright side of the
peasant character; the lights and shades are strongly marked, and a
partial experience would probably lead to a one-sided estimate,
according to the temperament of the observer; but the truth seems to be,
that a people with naturally fine qualities have been degraded, and
entirely ruined, by an unjust and incapable government.
The whole of Southern Syria is under the Wâly of Damascus, and Palestine
is under the Mutaserifs of Acre and Jerusalem, who are appointed by that
Wâly. These provinces are again subdivided, and Kaimakâms or
lieutenant-governors, are placed in such towns as Jaffa, Ramleh, Jenin,
etc. The change of the Wâly generally results in the entire change of
all these various authorities, and the Wâly used to be replaced perhaps
once in six months, perhaps oftener. Thus even if a capable and just man
were appointed, he had no time to carry out any plans he might form, and
his successor probably reversed everything that he had done. The
stipends paid were also so inadequate, that it was impossible for any of
the governors, or sub-governors, to live on them alone. The consequence
almost invariably was that the governor “eat,” as the peasantry call it;
sometimes he eat little, sometimes much; but there is only one
man--Midhat Pacha--against whom one never heard this accusation made.
The rulers had no interest in the prosperity of the country, or in
improving the condition of those they ruled; their only idea was to
enrich themselves, and to lay up for that rainy day which must come when
the Wâly was changed, unless they could induce his successor to keep
them in their posts.
Not the least corrupt of these dignitaries was the Kâdy, but with this
difference--the Pacha or Kaimakâm affected no special piety or
principle, regarding the state of affairs with jovial cynicism; but the
Kâdy was a religious character, a judge whose statute book was the
Koran, who had been a Sokhtah (or, as we say, Softa), an “inquirer,”
taught in the school of the ’Ulema at Constantinople. He wore a white
turban, and said his prayers regularly; he had paid a high price for his
appointment, and expected some return for his capital. Thus the land was
cursed not only with tyrannous governors, but with corrupt and unjust
judges.
The system of government is simple. The only duties are to collect the
taxes, and to put down riots, which constantly occur. The crown-lands
are farmed to the highest bidder, who, I believe, occasionally
under-farms the taxes. Soldiers are sent to collect the money, and the
crop is assessed before reaping. This is one of the most crying evils in
the land. In order to save the overripe grain, the peasant is often
obliged to give away half of it, as a bribe to those whose duty it is to
assess the tax, and who deliberately delay so doing until the last
moment.
The Miri tax has been definitely fixed, without regard to the difference
of the harvests in good and bad years; this again is a crying evil, and
leads to the ruin of many a village. At Kurâwa, in 1873, the people told
me, with tears in their eyes, that the olive crop had been so poor that
the value was not as much as the amount of the tax about to be
collected.
The taxes are also very unevenly assessed. In one case 4000 acres paid
£140; in another, 6000 acres paid £65; in a third, 3000 acres paid £320.
The taxes are brought into the towns by the Bashi-Bazouks; sometimes the
Kaimakâm will himself make a tour to collect them, and he, with all his
followers, is received as an honoured guest, and fed and housed at the
village expense. The soldiers also live at free quarters, and exact
money under a variety of pretexts from the luckless villagers, who have
no man to speak for them.
There is a third evil, almost as fatal to the prosperity of the
land--the conscription, which often carries off the flower of the
bread-winning population. The number taken from a village varies, and as
a punishment, the whole adult male population is sometimes marched off
in irons to the head-quarters. Few of the poor fellows, who are thus
torn away from the weeping women, ever see again the dark olives and the
shining dome of their own hamlet, or come back to plough their yellow
fields, and tend the red oxen or the black goats in their far-off native
land. Hurried away to Europe, or to Armenia, they lead a miserable life,
receiving but little pay, and bullied by ignorant officers. There is no
sadder sight than that of the recruits leaving a village in Palestine.
In spite of the appointment of Midhat Pacha as Wâly in 1879, the abuses
of local government were little affected, and the designs of this honest
and patriotic statesman were thwarted by the venality and obstinacy of
his subordinates.
Under such a government it can scarcely be a matter of surprise that the
Fellahîn should be lazy, thriftless, and sullen. They have no inducement
to industry, and, indeed, as one of the better class said to me, “What
is the use of my trying to get money, when the soldiers and the Kaimakâm
would eat it all.” There is only one way of becoming rich in this
unhappy land, namely, by extortion. If in the time of Christ the country
suffered as much as it does now, from unjust judges and tyrannical
rulers, what wonder that to be rich was thought synonymous with being
wicked, or that it should be Lazarus only who was considered fit for
Abraham’s bosom?
The improvidence of the Fellahîn is very great, and is due principally
to a feeling of uncertainty as to their immediate future. Living is
cheap enough, and I have heard of a family of five who spent only
twenty-five pounds in a year. But the peasantry are eaten up by usury;
their very clothes are bought with money borrowed at forty or fifty per
cent; and a company which would lend money at twenty per cent would be a
boon to the villagers, if it could induce the government to assist it in
collecting the interest.
The self-government of the peasants is a reproof to their foreign
rulers. Naturally a docile people, they obey their Sheikhs and elders
implicitly, and have notions of equity, as well as of charity and mutual
helpfulness among neighbours. Their moral code is theoretically strict,
especially as regards the women. In the bottom of a valley west of Beit
’Atâb, is a curious cavern with a stalagmitic gallery round it, which is
called Mughâret Umm et Tûeimîn--“cavern of the two side galleries.” At
the end of it is a great well-shaft in the rock, some sixty feet deep.
It is said that a woman pronounced guilty by the elders is brought to
the cave and cast down this horrible well. A similar cave exists in the
Anti-Libanus, and a similar use is there made of it. In spite of this,
the stories told by lepers and others make it clear that the Fellahîn
are as immoral as they well can be.
The above sketch is intended rather to draw attention to a people well
worthy of study than to form an exhaustive account of their manners and
customs. In language, in dress, in religion, and in customs, they
represent in the nineteenth century a living picture of that peasantry
amongst whom Christ went about doing good; and, indeed, the resemblance
is equally striking when they are compared with the earlier inhabitants
of the land, from the days of Samuel downwards; and the parallel is so
remarkable that it seems justifiable to dub the Fellahîn by the simple
title of “modern Canaanites.”
[Illustration: A BEDAWI WOMAN.]