KEEPING HOUSE INSTEAD OF CAMPING OUT
Let us suppose that we have been invited to spend a day or two as
guests in the home of one of these Hebrew families who have just
settled in Canaan and begun to learn the new arts and customs of the
land. It is one of the poorer homes. We have slept through the night
on our mat spread on the dirt floor of the house, with our cloak over
us to keep us warm. Before daylight we are awakened by the older
people moving about in the dim light of the burning wick in the saucer
of oil. Soon everyone is awake. The mats are rolled up and piled in a
corner. In the early dawn one of the older girls takes a jar on her
shoulder and goes for water to the spring, which is outside the
village half way up the hill.
If we are expecting to be called to breakfast, we shall be
disappointed. There is no regular morning meal, although everyone
helps himself to a bite or two of bread from the bread basket in the
corner of the room. By and by father and the older boys take the ox
and the ass from the shed just back of the one-roomed house (we are
lucky if the animals were not kept all night in the house itself) and
start for the field. And the women also have their day's work before
them in the house. First of all, there is a bag of wheat to be ground
into flour.
HOME TASKS
In the desert the wheat or barley, when they had it, was merely
pounded between two rough stones such as could be picked up anywhere.
The flour, or meal, which was made in this way was not very good.
Here in Canaan, each house had a rude stone hand-mill for grinding
grain. It consists of a large lower stone with a saddle-shaped hollow
on the upper side. The upper stone is somewhat like a large, very
heavy rolling pin. The grain is poured into the hollow and the upper
stone is rolled back and forth over it while the flour gradually sifts
out over the sides on to the cloth which is spread on the ground
underneath the mill. It is a monotonous task, and very often two
people work it together, one feeding in the grain and the other
turning the millstone. This is pleasanter, as each worker is "company"
for the other. Perhaps our hostess will let us roll the millstone for
her while she feeds in the grain and sweeps up the flour from the
cloth on the ground.
=Baking bread.=--After the wheat is ground into flour there is bread
to be baked. On the plains they do not use much yeast-bread, for this
requires an oven for baking and one cannot carry heavy ovens from camp
to camp. But in Canaan each family has its oven. It is made of baked
clay and looks like a section of tiling standing on end, about two
feet high, the clay being about an inch and a half thick. There is a
cover of the same material. Sometimes the fire is made on the inside
and the loaves of dough plastered on the outside. More often the
loaves are placed on a baking tray, let down on the inside of the
oven, and the fire built all around and over it outside.
All sorts of fuel are used. Wood is the best, of course, but in that
land wood has always been scarce. In the times of the Hebrews, as
to-day, dried manure, straw, and all sorts of refuse were used. Jesus
speaks of the grass of the field, "which to-day is, and to-morrow is
cast into the oven."
=Baking day.=--To-day, while we are visiting, our Hebrew hostess is
kneading some dough. She "set it" last night, pouring in some liquid
yeast. By and by it is ready for baking. A tray of small loaves about
the size of biscuits is placed in the oven, and a great pile of dried
grass placed around the sides and over the cover. By and by the fire
is lighted from some coals on the hearth; and in a few moments the
house is filled with smoke. We all go out on the street until the oven
is heated and the smoke has escaped.
WEAVING WOOL AND FLAX
Another household utensil which Hebrew women learned to use in Canaan
was the heavy loom. This consisted of a low horizontal frame, with a
device for separating the odd and even threads of the "warp" while a
shuttle was drawn through them, carrying the yarn for the "web," or
the cross threads. With this kind of a loom it was possible to weave
much more rapidly than when one had to insert each thread, plaiting it
over and under, by hand. There is, no doubt, one of these looms in the
house where we are visiting.
=Making linen out of flax.=--In the desert almost all garments were
made of wool, especially in the case of the poorer tribes, who could
not afford to buy linen. In those days the use of cotton was probably
unknown. Now everyone knows how it feels to wear a flannel shirt on a
hot summer day. And one of the things which drew the Hebrew shepherds
to Canaan was the hope of raising a little flax on each farm, and
spinning it into cool, soft linen garments for the hot summers. So it
may be that a part of the work in the house we are visiting to-day is
to soak some of the stalks of flax in water, or to beat out from them
the long fibers, or to spin and weave some of these fibers into
cloth.
PREPARING DINNER
Of course the main business of each day in the household then, as now,
is to get dinner ready. There is a light lunch about noon for the
women and children. To-day perhaps we have some bread and milk. But as
the sun begins to sink in the west we know that before long the men
folks will come home hungry. We must have dinner ready for them when
they come. If it has been a good year, even poor families in Canaan
can have a fairly good meal. There is no meat, unless perhaps a lamb
or a kid has been killed, especially for us as guests. But there is
the curdled milk, and bread with olive oil and other things which
shepherd folk never have. Here's a steaming kettle of beans or
lentils. How good they smell! And here are some bunches of raisins and
figs, just as sweet and luscious as those which we buy in the fruit
stores in America. The figs in our stores may have come from that very
country of which we are studying.
=Serving the meal.=--Soon the father and the boys come home. The ox
and the ass are fed in the stall behind the house. The mother spreads
a cloth on the ground and on it places a small stand about eight
inches high, which is their only dining-room table. The pot of beans
is placed on this stand, and the bread and other good things on the
cloth around it. We all sit down on the ground and begin to eat.
Fingers were made before forks. For the beans, however, we need a
spoon, and here are some shells from the beach that serve admirably
for that purpose; and we all dip into the same dish on the little
stand. By and by, when all is gone but the liquid, we sop that up
with pieces of bread. When every crumb is picked up and eaten, we all
lift our eyes to heaven, and the father repeats a prayer of
thanksgiving to God. Dinner is over. The sun has set. It is growing
dark, and soon it will be time to go to bed.
STUDY TOPICS
1. Explain the following Scripture passages in the light of this
chapter:
Judges 16. 13; Deuteronomy 24. 6; Matthew 24. 41.
2. Read Proverbs 31. 10-31 for another picture of daily life in an
ancient Hebrew home. What is said in this chapter about the making of
beautiful as well as necessary things, and about the doing of kindly
deeds?