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Transcriber’s Note:
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.
Footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are
referenced. Full-page illustrations have also been moved to a paragraph
break and are represented by their captions.
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please
see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding
the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.
[Illustration: A SILOAM WOMAN, HER INFANT ON HER BACK AND PRODUCE ON HER
HEAD]
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BIBLE LANDS AND PEOPLES—MODERN
BEING A COMPANION VOLUME TO “THE ORIENT IN BIBLE TIMES”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PEOPLE
OF PALESTINE
AN ENLARGED EDITION OF
“THE PEASANTRY OF PALESTINE, LIFE,
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE VILLAGE”
BY
ELIHU GRANT
PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE IN HAVERFORD COLLEGE
_ILLUSTRATED_
[Illustration]
PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY ELIHU GRANT
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.
TO THE MEMORY OF
HINCKLEY GILBERT MITCHELL
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
We thought that Palestine had passed into ancient history, but it has
been a centre of modern events. No country in the world has a more
continuously interesting and profitable story. Its present population is
made of sturdy and able people. Three great religions call it Holy Land.
It presents to view three distinct types of human society, the desert
nomad who dwells in the tented encampment, the peasant villager who
reminds us in so many ways of the people of the Bible, and the more
foreign looking and mingled folk of the large cities.
We have picked the village life as most suggestive of the quaint customs
of the past. It has been gratifying to have those who know this life
best, including villagers themselves, praise the accuracy and sympathy
of the descriptions.
The volume has not been compiled from books, but drawn from life. An
additional chapter seeks to sum present conditions.
Life has changed even in the East but much remained in Palestine,
especially under the Turkish régime, that is suggestive of Bible Times.
We trust that we have provided here a cross-section of a most
interesting period. We hope for even more, that the reader with dramatic
imagination may be able to fill the places and figures of the biblical
past with life.
E. G.
HAVERFORD, PA.,
FEBRUARY 24, 1921.
A few words that are pretty well fixed in popular usage, as Beirut,
Jaffa, Jerusalem, etc., are not changed in spelling, but for most Arabic
words the following alphabet has been used in transliteration:
— r gh y
b z f a
t s ḳ u
th sh k i
j ṣ l â
ḥ ḍ m û
kh ṭ n î
d ḍh or ẓ h
dh w
The use of y final and of ô as aids to pronunciation will be of obvious
import. When a foreign word occurs in the book for the first time it is
put in italics.
CONTENTS
----------
CHAPTER I
Introductory. Remarks on the country of Western Palestine: Page 11.
historical, topographical and geological; distances,
levels, rock composition, hills, valleys, caves, soil,
etc. The waters: rivers, lakes, the watershed, the
Shephelah, ponds, springs, cisterns, reservoirs and
pools. The seasons: wet and dry, the rainfall, sun,
drought, the weather according to the months, effect on
health and on food supply, harvest. The winds. Flora:
trees and flowers. Fauna: wild animals, birds. Scenery:
appearance of cities and villages in Palestine. Sites,
buildings, gardens, roads, paths, wilderness,
agricultural matters, ripening fruit, vineyards, care of
the soil, walls, watch-towers, terraces, orchards,
olives, figs, pomegranates, etc.
CHAPTER II
General characteristics of the population of Palestine. Page 43.
The Bedawîn or nomads. The village and its people.
Moslems and Christians: their distribution, their mutual
relations. Description of the peasant man and the
peasant woman.
CHAPTER III
Village Life. Introductory. The tribe: how constituted, Page 51.
its fellowship and significance. The family within the
tribe. Importance of a strong family. Marriage in family
and tribe: marriage settlement, qualities of a good
wife, customs and ceremonies preliminary to marriage,
wedding festivities and the celebration. The status of
the new wife. An anomalous state of affairs. A
disappointed lover. Children: boyhood and girlhood,
importance of sons, birth, announcing the newly-born,
naming the child. The midwife, care of babies, attention
to children in health and in sickness, clothing, growing
up, play, amusements and work, training. Family and
personal names.
CHAPTER IV
Village Life. The houses of the peasants: structure, Page 75.
arrangement, conveniences, utensils and furnishings.
Foods: their preparation and storing, eating customs.
Costumes; male attire, female attire. Household
industry: division of labor between members, women’s
work, house, oven, field and wilderness. Health data:
poverty and superstition as foes to health, treatment of
the sick, common ailments, diseases, hospitals and
medical assistance. The dumb and the blind. Treatment of
the insane, the leprous. Death, mourning, burial,
graves. The cholera and its ravages in Palestine in
1902, attendant evils, famine and quarantines.
CHAPTER V
Village Life. Religion. The religious basis of the peasant Page 110.
life. Country shrines venerated by the peasantry,
saints, tombs, lamps, ruined churches, mosks, reverence
for patriarchs and prophets, sacred trees. Superstitions
concerning localities, minor superstitions, hair,
doorways, food, evil eye. Prayer of women. Fatalism.
Moslem prayer. Neby Mûsâ procession. Ramaḍân, Bairam.
Eastern and Western Churches, organization, priesthood.
Fasts, feasts, proselyting. The Samaritans and their
Passover.
CHAPTER VI
Village Life. Business. The Palestine peasant as a worker. Page 130.
Farming the first business of the village. The
transition from the life of the nomad to the life of the
peasant. Fellaḥîn. Land holdings and titles. Farming
rights. Crops and sowing, work animals and their
management, care of the standing crops, tares, mists,
simultaneous reapings, harvest-time, threshing and
cleaning. Grape season, vineyard districts, use of the
fruit, raisins, export trade in raisins, care of
vineyards, watch-towers in vineyards and orchards. The
olive crop and its care. Flocks of sheep and goats, the
young, varieties, the shepherd. The wool business and
kindred industries, spinning and weaving. Undeveloped
agricultural possibilities. The village market, shops,
stores, bargaining and trade customs, measures and
weights, currency, accounts, money-lending, village
crier, the go-between, the shaykhs in business capacity.
Transport and travel in the country, roads and vehicles.
Stone and building trades, the materials and the tools.
Miscellaneous trades, peasants in the city for business
or for hire, dealers in antiquities and their ways.
CHAPTER VII
Village Life. Social privileges and customs. The elements Page 158.
that contribute to these, kinship, religious
association, party traditions, proximity. Predominance
of kinship as a factor. The influence of religion as a
factor. Diversions of the peasant, conversation and the
amenities, calling and calls. Greetings, salutations,
colloquial address, business talk and discussion.
Guest-house and its uses, coffee-making, food for
guests. A roofing-bee. Play, games, celebrations.
Hunting. Gipsies. Quarrels as an anti-social and social
factor. Revenge, etc.
CHAPTER VIII
Village Life. Intellectual matters. The state of learning, Page 170.
revival, services of the press in the Levant. Education,
schools, missionary influence. Languages heard in the
country, native and foreign. The peasant’s pride in his
mother tongue. The Arabic language, its beauty and
symmetry, literature, dialects, idioms, colloquialisms,
exclamatory remarks, gestures, curses, proverbs.
CHAPTER IX
Village life in the concrete. Description of actual Page 187.
villages, Râm Allâh and el-Bîreh.
CHAPTER X
Village life in the concrete, continued, with some village Page 213.
environs. Eṭ-Ṭîreh, Khullet el-‛Adas, ‛Ayn ‛Arîk, Kefr
Shiyân, ‛Ayn Ṣôba, Baytîn, Khurbet el-Moḳâtîr, Dayr
Dîwân, eṭ-Ṭayyibeh, Jifnâ, ‛Ayn Sînyâ, Bîr ez-Zayt,
‛Âbûd, Mukhmâs.
CHAPTER XI
The village in its external relations. Attitude of Page 225.
villagers to the city and city people, now and formerly.
Administration of the village from the city. The peasant
and the government, taxes, private and official
settlement of disputes. Postal service, native and
foreign, telegraph. Passage of news and rumor. Travel,
hindrances, quarantines, coastwise shipping, railway
travel, peasant travel, pilgrimage travel, Russian
pilgrims and the peasantry, other European pilgrim
parties, tourists, traveling passes, transference of
parcels, baggage, money, banking, consular service, the
desire of the natives to emigrate.
CHAPTER XII
Recent events. Effects of the revolution. Syrians and the Page 242.
World War. Syrian ability. Schools and education. The
new administration; certain functions and methods.
Archæological interests. The Arabian problem. Arabia and
its people, social customs, politics, poets, prophet and
religion.
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
A SILOAM WOMAN, HER INFANT ON HER BACK AND PRODUCE ON _Frontispiece_
HER HEAD
RIVER AUJA OF JAFFA 20
DONKEY AT THE THRESHING FLOOR WITH A LOAD OF WHEAT 28
WILD ANEMONES FROM WADY EL-KELB 32
A VINEYARD AT RÂM ALLÂH 36
RÂM ALLÂH MAN AND A BASKET OF OLIVES 38
STRETCH OF OLIVE TREES ON ROAD TO AYN SÎNYÂ 38
A BEDAWY HOUSE 42
BEDAWY DRINKING 42
PEASANTS ON WAY TO MARKET WITH PRODUCE 44
BEDAWIN HORSEMAN 44
WOMAN’S WORK 48
BRINGING HOME THE BRIDAL TROUSSEAU 54
GIRLS AT PLAY CARRYING HEADLOADS OF GRASS IN IMITATION 54
OF THE WOMEN
WASHING A CHILD 58
A SWADDLED INFANT 58
THREE KINDS OF HOUSES—MUD, DRY-STONE, STONE-AND-MORTAR 68
HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS 76
BREAD-MAKING UTENSILS 82
IN A DOORYARD. WOMEN CLEANING WHEAT 94
ON TOP OF AN OVEN. WOMEN SIFTING WHEAT 94
POTTERY 114
ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. FOR THE NEBY MUSA PROCESSION 126
A NEBY MUSA CONTINGENT ARRIVING WITHIN THE JAFFA GATE, 126
JERUSALEM
FARMING IMPLEMENTS 130
A SOWER 132
CHILDREN GLEANING 132
THRESHING 140
A THRESHING SCENE IN THE OLD POOL AT BETHEL 140
1. HAND SPINNING 2. REELING 3. STRAIGHTENING THREADS FOR 142
LOOM
VARIOUS ARTICLES MADE OF SKIN: BOTTLES, BAGS, POUCHES 150
AND BUCKETS
A MARKET SCENE: PEASANTRY NEAR DAVID’S TOWER, JERUSALEM 154
WOMEN AT THE SPRING 164
FOUNTAIN AT NAZARETH 164
A HOUSE-ROOFING BEE (ET TAYYIBEH) 172
A RÂM ALLÂH MATRON AT HER OWN DOOR 187
CAMEL CARRYING A ROPE NET FILLED WITH CLAY JARS 194
RÂM ALLÂH, AS ENTERED BY THE SINUOUS, WALLED LANE FROM 194
THE EAST
LITTLE GIRLS OF THE VILLAGE 196
THE VILLAGE OF RÂM ALLÂH AND OUTLYING VINEYARDS 204
EL-BIREH (FROM THE SOUTH) 212
VINEYARDS AND STONE WATCH TOWERS 220
PEASANT PLOWING 220
PRIMITIVE RUG WEAVING (BEDAWIN) 230
STRAW MAT AND BASKET MAKING: JIFNA WOMAN 230
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_The PEASANTRY of_
PALESTINE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY. THE COUNTRY OF WESTERN PALESTINE. GENERAL FEATURES
This little book will make no attempt to tell all that could be said of
its subject, but we hope that its selection of things to tell will be
gratifying to you. Our wish is that not many of its pages may be
condemned as dry, but that most of them may have interest and
refreshment. If sometime when you are tired you can sit down and be
pleased with some of these pages, here or there, you will know a little
of how the trudging peasant of the village feels as, going over hill
after hill, from each top he gazes off towards the west and sees the
evening mists thickening and looking like good, cool mountains in the
sea. It is pleasant to see the face of the native light up as he catches
sight of the clouds heavy with blessings of moisture. Perhaps fierce
sirocco days have followed one another for some time, longer than usual.
Such days are usually looked for in trios at least, but often they hold
for a longer time. Their peculiarly enervating heat is very trying, and
when they have passed one welcomes eagerly an evening that brings the
heavy mist. This announces that the succession of hot days is broken and
that some days of respite are coming. The welcome moisture blesses the
vineyards, the fig orchards, the tomatoes, squashes and melons, and it
is sure to bring out ejaculations of blessing from the fervent peasant,
praising the Father of all, whose favoring mercy he feels.
Look out on a morning early and you will see the mists[1] scudding,
drifting, veiling and dissevering like masses of gauze, like streamers
of truant hair. Perhaps some near mountain may be cut off from the
little hill half-way down by a moat filled with billowing fog. Soon the
sun cuts it and scatters it away and the hot, dry day sets in. The roads
and rocks are powdered with lime dust, the somber morning tones on the
hills are touched with whitening brightness. Here and there is the dusty
gray of an olive-orchard or the bright green of vineyards. Overhead, the
brightest blue is set with one yellow gem of fire that creeps up and up
until noon, and then the toiling peasantry, who have watched this
timepiece of the heavens, sit down in the nearest shade to eat their
food and chat. That done, they roll over for the luxury of a nap and
forget a hot, dry hour in a healthy doze. The click of the chisel in the
quarry ceases, the hoe is cast aside, the driver is lying on his face,
fast asleep, while the donkey nibbles and rolls his load-sore back
deliciously in the dust. The camel sits like a salamander, apparently
minding no change of weather. Little birds pant for breath. All is very
still and hot.
-----
-----
But work-time comes again before the heat goes, and the workmen half sit
up, looking around, perhaps playfully tossing a stick or clod on the
head of a lazier comrade. The work-saddles are roped on the backs of the
animals. The camel, long habituated to complaining, whether made to
kneel or rise again, utters grating gutturals from his long throat. He
is the Oriental striker, objecting, vocally, at least, to every new
demand upon him. Well waked, the countryside begins to be busy again and
work goes on until sundown. As the afternoon slips into the evening you
will see traveling peasants hastening to make their villages. The hills
are touched with pinks and purples that shade into dark blue. The gray
owl calls, the foxes reconnoiter the fields, the village dogs bark,
lights straggle out from the settlements. One may hear the song of a
watcher in a vineyard or the bang of his musket as he shoots at a dog or
fox meddling with the vines. As we hastened one evening through a
village two hours distance from our own, the people, sitting about the
doors and in the alleys, seemed astonished and urged us to stop
overnight, not understanding our preference to travel on in the growing
dusk. But we went on, passing possible sites for Ai, then Bethel and
Beeroth, and so to our own Râm Allâh. The way was precarious and stony,
with only the starlight to help us, and the evening was chilly.
We might call Palestine, even the western part of it, which is more
familiar to us, a world in little, so much has been packed into this
little space between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Sometimes it has
been a kingdom and sometimes kingdoms. As a province or provinces it has
acknowledged masters on the south, east, north and west.
Far back in time the country was the range of numerous unruly tribes.
To-day it contains several districts within the Asiatic holdings of the
Turkish Empire. As one looks inland from the Mediterranean on the Judean
country, first comes the straight unindented coast line of sand, then a
fertile strip of land parallel to it in which the orange and the grains
flourish. Next comes the secondary ridge of Judean hills; then its
primary ridge of mountains. These latter are thirty-five miles from the
sea and three fifths of a mile above its level. Now, as we stand on the
mountain range, we have only twenty miles between us and the country of
the Dead Sea, but a rapid fall in levels which, in so short a distance,
makes the sand-hills seem to drop down and away from us in a precipitous
stairway to one of the lowest spots on earth, the basin in which the
Jordan River and the Dead Sea lie, the so-called Ghôr. This depression
is a quarter of a mile below sea-level and hence three quarters of a
mile below the high country in the neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Western Palestine is a limestone country that is, geologically speaking,
new. Faulting, erosion and earthquake as well have been hard at work in
comparatively recent geological times to make a most diversified surface
in a land of short distances. Its rocks are peppered with nodules of
flint. The weather wear on the country rocks of some districts allows
the flint nodules to drop out, thus leaving a peculiar worm-eaten look
in the stones and cliffs. In other localities the cherty material runs
in ribbon-like bands within the limestone. The lime rock is often
beautified by geode-like recesses of lime crystal, and the slabs of
lamellar stone so much used for flooring, window-seats and roofing are
frequently penciled with exquisite dendritic markings. Often the face of
cleavage between blocks of building material is glazed with a native
pink. There are a few houses in the villages whose external walls are
constructed of regular blocks so arranged as to alternate in a manner
resembling checkerwork of pink and white squares.
One thought that may occur to an American or European as he looks at the
numerous hills and mountains up and down the middle and back of Western
Palestine is that never before has he had such a fine opportunity to see
the shapes of hills and valleys. For at home he seldom sees the whole,
real shape of a hill or a mountain, so covered is it with trees or
smaller growth. But here there is very little clothing on the hills.
Their knobs and shoulders, cliffs and ribs, are almost as naked of trees
as the blue skies above them. The rock layers stand out at the worn
edges very plainly. Some hills are banded round and round horizontally
with successive layers of rock. Others are made up of layers slightly
inclined, and some look like giant clam-shells set down on the land. In
yet other hills the twistings and heavings have given the sedimentary
layers a vertical position up and down over the mountains, as if they
had been tipped over. These bands of rock are usually of limestone
interspersed with chunks of chert. Ordinarily the tops of the hills
assume a long, sloping, rounded shape because of the soft nature of the
rock and the wearing power of the deluging rains.
All around the highland country of Western Palestine are mellow plains
and fertile valleys. Up and down the western border between the
highlands and the Mediterranean is the Maritime Plain, from eight to
fifteen miles wide. Along the eastern edge is the great depression of
the Ghôr, the low fertile basin that separates Western from Eastern
Palestine and provides a bed for the plunging current of the Jordan and
a sink for the Dead Sea. These two fertile strips are barely connected
toward the north by an arm of the Ghôr, formerly called the Valley of
Jezreel, that reaches to the site of ancient Jezreel, and a succession
of plains formerly called the Plain of Esdraelon, that touch the
Maritime Plain around the nose of Carmel. The highland country is
pierced by many a cut called, in the language of the country, _wâd_, or
_wâdy_, the equivalent ordinarily of our _valley_, though the climate of
Palestine is such as to make it almost always the case that a wâdy is a
brook in the rainy weather of winter and a dry gully during the rest of
the year.[2] Some of these wâdys are of considerable breadth and offer
arable lands; others are narrow, deep gorges. Into some of these gorges
the débris from the hillsides has tumbled so as to make it impossible to
use the valley bed as a road even in dry weather.
-----
-----
Many of the passes mentioned in the literature of Palestine are really
highland paths. Valleys must often be avoided as impassable during the
winter rains and as stiflingly hot in summer. Invading armies would
seldom risk using narrow valleys for their approach, as they would be
easily assailable from the hillsides.
The limestone is full of holes and caves varying in size from a pocket
to a palace. The caves may be near the surface or far in the secret
places of the deep-chested mountains. They make reservoirs for the
catching of the rain from the surface and hold it through the long dry
season, giving some of it in springs[3] and probably losing floods of it
in lower and lower caverns. Sometimes the caves are like small rooms,[4]
let into the sides of the cliffs, as at ‛Ayn Fâra in the Wâdy Fâra, a
few hours northeast of Jerusalem, where there is a suite of four
connecting rooms in the side wall of the valley, thirty feet above the
path. In front of the rooms is a narrow ledge overhanging the path, and
up through this natural platform is a manhole which offers the one way
of access from below. All up and down this wâdy are caves, some having
been improved, probably for purposes of hermit dwelling. In Wâdy
es-Suwaynîṭ, that is, the valley of Michmash, there are a good many such
cliff dwellings[5] which seem to be approachable only by a rope let down
from the top of the precipice above. All through the wild gorges of the
country one is apt to come upon these caves with signs of use in some
previous age by troglodytes and hermits. When possible they are now used
as goat-pens, and thus offer unclean but dry quarters to any one caught
in a rain. At the cave near Kharayṭûn the entrance is difficult to
reach, up in the side of a precipitous mountain. It is a narrow passage
leading to a large, high, vaulted room, a sort of natural cathedral,
with a large side chamber. Thence one may go through a low, tortuous
passage to other smaller rooms as far as most of the adventurous care to
go, the natives say to Hebron, but the guide-books, something over five
hundred feet. About Jeba‛, east of er-Râm, the ground sounds hollow
under foot because of caves to which one may descend, in some cases by
cut stairs, to find that the caves have been enlarged and cemented.
About two thirds of the way from el-Bîreh to Baytîn, on the left of the
path, is a cave which has been made to do service as a catch-basin for
the water from the spring above. The mouth of the spring has been
enlarged artificially and connected by a rock-cut channel with the cave.
This channel has little grooves branching from it and there seem to be
here the conveniences of an ancient laundering or fulling place. In the
cave are two supporting columns cut from the rock. The interior is well
adorned to-day with a pretty growth of delicate maidenhair ferns.
-----
-----
There are many caves in the hillsides of what is called the Samson
Country,[6] through which the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem passes. In
and about Jerusalem are caves the discussion of which does not belong
here, though they can hardly have failed, in their long association with
the history of that city, of having much significant connection with the
political and religious history of the people of the country. Such are
the caves about the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the little one under
the great rock beneath the Dome of the Rock, the artificially enlarged
caves on the south side of the Valley of Hinnom, the huge cave of
Jeremiah, north of the city, under the hill where the Moslems have a
cemetery, not to mention its counterpart across the road and under the
city, called Solomon’s Quarry or the Cotton Grotto.
-----
-----
Near the village of Ḳubâb, but nearer the tiny village of Abu Shûsheh,
is a large cave now used as a sheep and goat pen. It is called by the
neighboring Moslems Noah’s Cave. The top of it has evidently at some
time fallen in, thus diminishing its size, but giving it an immense
mouth, quite conspicuous all about the neighboring country to the north.
The peasantry, in their double desire to account for it and also to say
something against the Jews, tell this story about the cave. They say
that Noah was making war against the Jews who, being hard pressed, ran
into this cave for shelter. Thereupon Noah brought up his heavy guns and
bombarded the cave with such effect as to crush in the top, which fell
on the Jews, killing them all.
In connection with caves the peasants tell certain stories of hyenas. To
the peasant any story that has to do with these creatures is gruesome.
The hyena, they say, will accost a lone pedestrian, rub up against him
and cast a spell over him until, in a dazed way, the man follows the
animal to its cave, where the hyena will despatch him. The tale is
continued to describe how the hyena is captured. They say that a man
strips himself naked and crawls into the cave of the hyena, carrying one
end of a rope which is held by his companions outside. Once inside, his
condition deceives the hyena, as does also a cajoling tone which he uses
until the creature, quite unsuspecting, begins to fawn and roll over.
The man at once secures a leg of the hyena with his rope, whereupon the
men outside draw out the beast and kill it with their clubs.
New graves are usually loaded with heavy stones and watched at night to
prevent the hyenas from exhuming the dead bodies.
As the rock of the country is of a quickly dissolving kind, the
torrential force of the winter rains greatly facilitates soil-making.
The ground is strewn with loose stones, in some places so thickly that
the soil cannot be seen a few rods away. Soil is carried rapidly about,
so that where there are no terraces or pockets to catch it the shelving
rock is soon denuded and the only deep earth is found in the valleys or
hollow plains.
The Jordan and the ‛Aujâ (Crooked) are the two largest rivers of
Palestine; Ḥûleh (Merom), Tiberias (Galilee) and Baḥret Lût (the Dead
Sea), its three lakes. There are many streams, brooks and winter ponds
that disappear with the rainy season. In a few deep-cut beds, where
strong springs supply the brooks, water flows in a current all the year.
The watershed of Western Palestine is considerably nearer to the Jordan
than to the Mediterranean, being about thirty-five or forty miles from
the Sea, but scarcely more than twenty miles on the average from the
river. The valley courses of the streams generally take a southeasterly
direction from the watershed to the Jordan basin, and a northwesterly
direction towards the Mediterranean Sea. Those on the east are narrower
and more precipitous, since they have on that side of the country the
shorter distance and the more remarkable fall in levels.
Fertility and population have generally favored the western side of the
watershed, with some notable exceptions. This western slope is flanked
by the low-lying hills of the Shephelah and comes gradually down to the
Maritime Plain. The hills and plain on this side have very great
historical interest and have formed the bridge of the civilizations to
the north and to the south of Palestine. At the present time, when
travel comes by sea from the Western world, this country is a threshold
to the shrines and ancient sites of Syria and the East.
The only ponds in the country are the winter ponds called by the native
name, _balû‛a_. These are formed by the winter rains. They stand for
about five months in low places, and then disappear until the next rainy
season.[7] Robinson, in 1838, passed by one of these on his way from
el-Bîreh to Jifnâ. As his journey that way was on June 13, the pond was
then dry. But this same pond may now be seen every winter and spring
full of water. The new carriage road cuts the eastern end of it at a
point a little over a mile north of el-Bîreh. Another of these ponds may
be seen just under the village of Baytûnyeh, towards Râm Allâh. Were it
not for such short-lived ponds many of the country people would have
little idea of any body of water larger than a rainwater cistern. The
Dead Sea may be seen from the high hills to the east of these ponds and
the Mediterranean from those to the west, but only a small proportion of
the peasantry ever get to see either one of them. A distant view gives
the unexperienced no adequate notion of their size. People living in
Jaffa, on the sea, have been known to poke fun at the upland folk and
bewilder them with yarns about the sea. One story that they impose on
the credulous countryman is that every night, at dark, a cover is put
over the sea, as one would cover over a jar of water, or a bowl of
dough. One man, on reaching Jaffa late in the afternoon for his first
visit, hastened down to the beach in order to see the water before the
cover should be put on for the night. Perhaps the best known winter
ponds are in the extensive _sunken meadows_ of the Plain of Esdraelon,
athwart the way from Jenîn to Nazareth.
-----
-----
The springs of Palestine are its eyes, as the Arabs put it, and when
they are sparkling with life the whole face of the country lights up
with a wholesome expression.[8] In places where the springs are remote
from the present settlements, and now used only for the flocks or by
travelers, there are often to be seen remains of former buildings.
Sometimes villas or even villages may be traced; old aqueducts also, and
ruined reservoirs, showing how great pains were once taken to utilize
the water supply. At ‛Ayn Fâra is a copious supply of water forming one
of the few perennial brooks. In its deeper pools the herdsmen water and
wash their flocks.[9] There is a very feeble attempt at gardening in the
vicinity, but for the most part the precious treasure flows away unused.
The valley sides show ancient masonry belonging to more thrifty times.
On the hill ‛Aṭâra, a mile south of el-Bîreh, are ruined reservoirs to
which the waters of the spring now called ‛Ayn en-Nuṣbeh were carried by
stone conduits, of which only small pieces remain. So may similar
indications be seen at ‛Ayn Ṣôba, at ‛Ayn Jeriyût, ‛Ayn Kefrîyeh, all of
which are west of Râm Allâh. Present-day villages are often a
considerable distance from the spring on which they depend for drinking
water. Many large places are provided with but one spring. Nazareth and
Jerusalem are thus limited to one good spring each. Around the Sea of
Galilee and the Dead Sea are warm, even hot, springs once much prized as
watering-places. They are generally sulphurous in character. Those at
Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, are used now as baths.
-----
-----
[Illustration: RIVER AUJA NORTH OF JAFFA]
Of wells Palestine has but few. Some of those mentioned in the Bible
still remain, though not all are in use.[10] It comes more naturally to
the mind of an Oriental to devote the labor and expense that it would
take to dig a well to the construction of something in which to catch a
portion of the rainfall. It is quite essential to the prosperity of
Palestine that its water resources be husbanded through the long dry
season.[11] As has been suggested, there is plenty of evidence that
formerly this was done in a very painstaking manner, but at the present
time far less care is given to this very important matter. Numerous
cisterns and reservoirs were made to catch rain-water and the overflow
of the fountains. The large number of these ancient devices for saving
water, in contrast with the few made and used in these days, offers one
basis for a comparison of the condition of the country in old and new
Palestine. Rain-water was caught in cemented pits not very unlike huge
pear-shaped bottles. Such water was used for all household purposes
where spring water failed; also for watering the animals. It was drawn
up as from a well. Occasionally these old cemented cisterns are still in
use. But all through the country there are vast numbers of them that are
no longer used. All about Jerusalem, especially north of the city, among
the olives, they may be seen; also about the district of Râm Allâh, at
Teḳû‛a and at Jânyeh.
-----
-----
The overflow of springs was provided for by more pretentious
structures,—the great rectangular box pools built of solid masonry. The
most noteworthy of these reservoirs are the so-called Pools of Solomon,
three in number, south of Bethlehem, by the road that leads to Hebron.
These three immense reservoirs, each of which, when full, would float a
battleship, have a combined capacity of over forty million gallons.
Formerly stone aqueducts conveyed the waters to Jerusalem. Remains of
these are still to be seen. The water is conveyed now through iron
pipes, fully eight miles, to the city. Jerusalem itself has the famous
Pool of Siloam,[12] the Sultan’s Pool and the Pool of Mâmilla. The last
one mentioned feeds a large reservoir within the city walls, sometimes
called the Patriarch’s Pool and sometimes Hezekiah’s Pool.[13] At Bethel
(Baytîn) the spring is surrounded by an old reservoir larger than the
Pool of Mâmilla. It is now dry and its bottom is used as a
threshing-floor. And so all about the country are found the remains of
costly works designed for the saving and proper use of the water supply.
With such means of irrigation the productiveness of the country must
have been much greater than at the present day.
-----
-----
Sometimes, in speaking of the seasons in Palestine, we say summer and
winter,[14] and sometimes we mention the four seasons. Perhaps if we
should say wet season and dry season it would be less misleading, but
even then one would have to bear in mind that the wet season is not a
time of general downpour but simply the season in which the rains of the
year come.
-----
-----
The wet season, or winter,[15] as it is more generally called, ought to
provide, for the welfare of the country, from twenty-five to thirty
inches of rainfall in the highlands. Sometimes it is as low as sixteen
inches, and it occasionally exceeds thirty-five or even forty inches.
Roughly speaking, the wet season claims the five months, November to
March. In a very wet winter, perhaps, the rains will reach over a period
of nearly six months, but, on the other hand, the rainy period may
shrink to four. The most frequent and heavy falls of rain in an ordinary
season are looked for near the beginning and at the close of the wet
season. Many pleasant days,[16] and even some entire weeks of rainless
weather, may be expected during this wet season. Now and then there may
be a winter during which the water will be glazed over in the puddles a
few times, or there may be several falls of snow.[17] Driving, raw,
chilling rains and winds may prevail for a week at a time, or longer,
and be less easy to bear than the stronger cold of a more northerly
climate.[18]
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-----
The dry season is more in keeping with its name throughout its control
of nearly seven months, although rain in May has been experienced and a
_slip_ in one of the summer months is not unknown. At the end of
September or at the beginning of October a slight shower is expected.
One scarcely expects rain, however, until well into November. Despite
the very hot days in the dry summer season, the nights in the Palestine
highlands are generally cool. The Syrian sun is a synonym for piercing,
intense heat, and foreigners are more apt to be thoughtless of its power
than to overdo caution. During the midsummer months it is hard to take
photographs except very early or very late, or with very slow-acting
lenses and plates. Then, too, the poorest light for distant views may be
in summer, when the intense heat fills the air with a haze. Those who
have seen the dead, brown look that comes on a district of country which
has suffered an unusual period of drought may partly imagine the
appearance of Palestine after a six months’ absence of rain unrelieved
except for the night-mists that may prevail during some of that time.
After the drought the peasant, like the country, is pantingly ready for
the first rains of the autumn. He never hesitates to choose between rain
and sunshine. It is always the former. Even if rain comes in destructive
abundance he has only to think of the terrors of a scanty rainfall to
repress all complaints. As we say in a complimentary way to a guest,
“You have brought pleasant weather,” so the Syrian will say, “Your foot
is green,” that is, “Your coming is accompanied by the benedictions of
rain.” Rains usually begin with an appearance of reluctance,[19] but
sometime in November or December they ought to come down heavily for
most of a fortnight. Sometimes there are several weeks of delightfully
balmy weather between the drenching rains. During an unusually dry
winter, when the rainfall is below twenty inches, much of the winter
will be pleasant, at the expense of the crops and of the general
welfare. At such times the price of wheat goes up and the scantily
supplied cisterns give no promise of holding out through the succeeding
summer. Springs dry down until the best of them offer but a tiny stream,
and hours must be spent at some of the fountains to fill a few jars.
Much of January is apt to be rainy. February is strange and fickle, and
because it is especially trying to the vital forces of the aged and weak
is called Old Woman’s Month. We remember a very pleasant February, but
such are rare. Honest March is pretty much its boisterous self even in
Palestine. April is sunny and a charming month for a journey. If the
latter rains have been delayed they may come even in April, though that
is late. But the needed rain has been known to come as late as middle
May, with unusually cold weather. Then the peasants deemed such weather
portentous.[20] The latter rains—how familiar a phrase to the ears of
many who may not know just why they are so called![21] The downpour of
November or December washed out the ground, made the heat flee, brought
back health to the succulent plants, hastened the ripening of the
oranges and did pretty well for the cisterns, but this latter rain is
the key of the situation. If it does not come, wheat may sell at famine
prices and all the pains of a drought take hold of the land.[22] But if
it only will come, then wealth and comfort and a healthy summer.[23]
-----
-----
Harvest begins in the springtime. May brings the yellow heads on the
grain, and it must be gathered or soon the summer will be ended and the
harvest past.[24] The grain on the hills is a few weeks later than that
in the valleys and plains. A little donkey coming in from the hill
terraces with a back-load of sheaves looks very porcupiny. The reaper
grasps the stalks of wheat or barley with one hand and cuts a long straw
with the sickle in the other hand. If he is hungry he starts a little
fire and holds some of the wheat heads over it until well parched, and
then, rubbing off the husks between his palms, he has a feast of the
_new corn of the land_. Thus treated, new wheat is called _frîky_
(rubbed).
-----
-----
During the time of ripening wheat one may see in the fields, close to
the ground, the heavy green leaves and yellow, shiny apples of the
mandrake.[25] The natives say that if one eats the seeds of the fruit
they will make him crazy. The pulp has a pleasant, sweetish flavor and
an agreeable smell.[26]
-----
-----
The only dreadful wind in Palestine is the east wind,[27] because it
blows from the inland desert and brings excessive heat. The Arabic word
for _east_ is _sherḳ_, and so for east wind the Arab says _Sherḳ-îyeh_.
From this we get, by corruption, our word sirocco (or sherokkoh), which
has come to mean simply a hot, enervating blast from any direction. To
the Arab it is that wearing east wind whose coming can be felt in the
early morning before a breath of air seems stirring. There is a certain
chemical effect on the nervous system of those who are particularly
sensitive to the blighting touch of the Sherḳîyeh. Sometimes this wind
goes away suddenly after a short day, but almost always its coming means
that it will run three days at least, and often more. There is a similar
wind in Egypt known to residents of Cairo as the Khumsûn (fifty), from
the likelihood that it will remain fifty days. Such an unbroken period
of hot winds must be exceedingly rare in Palestine, though in the early
autumn of 1902 there was an almost continuous Sherḳîyeh for five weeks.
The east wind of winter is usually as disagreeably cold as its relative
in summer is hot and suffocating. The only good thing that I ever knew
the summer sirocco to do was to cure quickly the raisin grapes spread on
the ground in September.
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-----
The west wind prevails a generous share of the time and brings mists and
coolness from the sea during the summer. In the rainy season a northwest
wind brings rain.[28] The showers are often presaged by high winds from
the west and north.
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-----
September, with its trying siroccos, is often hotter than May. The
pomegranates ripen in this month. In the country districts it is very
hard to get goats’ milk from this time onward for several months. The
flocks are too far distant, having been driven away to find pasture and
water, and a little later on the milk is all needed for the young.
During these days, too, it is not thought good to weaken the goats by
milking them any more than is quite necessary. In the cities milk is
always to be had.
The Greek Feast of the Cross, about the end of September, is looked
forward to as marking the date for an early shower which may be
sufficiently strong to cleanse the roofs. After that the rain may come
in a month, or it may wait two. The people notice a period of general
unhealthiness just preceding the autumn rains. Their advent usually puts
an end to it, bringing healthier conditions. Sometime along in the
autumn there is often noticed a warm spell of weather which the natives
call _Ṣayf Ṣaghîr_, or _Ṣayf Rummân_, that is, _Little Summer_, or
_Pomegranate Summer_.
The cement in the paved roofs cracks under the fierce heat of summer and
the early showers help to discover the bad places which must be patched
before the heavy winter rains. In the case of earth-covered roofs the
first shower ought to be followed by a good rolling, the owners going
over and over them with stone rollers rigged with wooden handles that
creak out upon the clear air after the rain as they work in the sockets.
From the peculiar noise thus made the Râm Allâh people have a local name
of _zukzâkeh_ for the wooden handles of these stone rollers. In the
northern part of the country the name _nâ‛uṣ_ is given to the roller
handles for a similar reason. The roofs of rolled earth can be kept very
tight. The covering of such roofs is made by mixing sandy soil with clay
and with the finest grade of chaff, called _mûṣ_, from the
threshing-floor. On old earth roofs patches of grass[29] grow, and even
grain has been seen springing up in such places.
-----
-----
The Syrian peasant divides trees into classes by pairs. There are those
that are good to sit under and those that are not. Then there are those
that yield food and those that do not. Finally there are those that are
holy, and therefore cannot be cut for charcoal or fuel, and those that
are not thus tabooed.
The fig-tree is a very useful food producer and is much cultivated. As
elsewhere mentioned, the irritating effect of the juices of the broken
fig branch or leaf makes it less desirable as a shade tree, but because
of its dense shade it must be resorted to in hot weather. The olive-tree
gives rather a thin shade. The carob-tree is a fine shade-giver. The
pine is a favorite in this respect, though few pines are left. The
needly cypress shades only its own central mast. One might as well
snuggle up to one’s own shadow for protection as to expect it from a
cypress. Pomegranate, lemon and orange-trees, when large enough, afford
shade, but they are often in low, miasmatic places. The apple-tree does
not do well except in parts of northern Syria, as at Zebedâny, near
Damascus. Some fine pear-trees are to be seen above Bîr ez-Zayt, though
as a rule they are as difficult to cultivate as apple-trees. At ‛Ayn
Sînyâ are flourishing mulberry-trees of great size. The opinion is held
that the mulberry and the silk culture usually associated with it would
thrive peculiarly well in Palestine. Mount Tabor is thinly studded with
trees except on the southeast side. Mount Carmel also has yet some
remains of its one-time forest. The oak is found in a number of
varieties, but is a great temptation to the charcoal burner, as it
affords the most desirable coal. The _zinzilakt_ is a favorite for
shade. The best substitute for a shade tree in the land is a large rock,
the cool side of which helps one to forget the burning glare of the noon
sun.[30]
-----
-----
We shall have to call winter the season of rain, flowers and travel.
Rain ushers in the winter and also closes it. To the middle and latter
part of that season is due the bursting of the blossoms and a push that
sends flowers scattering into the first months of the dry season.[31]
Travel might find a better time than much of the winter, but then it is
cool and if it rains, why, that is the way of the country, and this
explanation often suffices.
-----
[Illustration: DONKEY AT THE THRESHING FLOOR WITH A LOAD OF WHEAT]
On the flowers of the country Dr. Post’s book offers a mine of
information for those skilled enough in the elements of botany to make
use of it. The little booklets of pressed specimens offered for sale,
when fresh, give an excellent idea of the variety of wild-flower life in
Palestine. Mrs. Hannah Zeller, a daughter of former Bishop Gobat of
Jerusalem, and the wife of the late Rev. John Zeller of Nazareth and
Jerusalem, has been most successful in reproducing in color many of the
flowers of Palestine. Mrs. Zeller’s book of color plates, published some
years ago, is now hard to secure. She still has the originals and an
even larger collection which awaits a publisher. Until some such
publication in color is attempted it will be difficult to describe in
writing the unusual splendor and variety of Palestine’s wild flowers.
The flower season really begins in what we should call midautumn with
the little lavender-colored crocus called by the natives the _serâj
el-ghûleh_ or _the lamp of the ghoul_. A better name for it would be
_serâj esh-shugâ‛_ which would mean _the lamp of courage_, as it thrusts
its dainty head up through the calcined earth, scarcely waiting for a
drop of moisture. After this brave little color-bearer of Flora’s troop
there follow the narcissus, heavily sweet, and the cyclamen, clinging
with its ample bulb in rocky cracks as well as nestling in moist beds.
But of all the flowers the general favorite is the wild anemone,
especially in its rarer varieties, white, pink, salmon, blue and purple.
The most common is the red anemone, which is seen everywhere and
sometimes measures four or five inches across. Near Dayr Dîwân we once
rode through an orchard where the ground was covered with a cloud of
these red ones, so voluptuous, so prodigally spread in a carpet of
crimson beauty that one almost held one’s breath at the charming scene.
The red ranunculus, which comes later, is almost as large, but it looks
thick and heavy in comparison, and the flaunting red poppy, which comes
still later, looks weak and characterless beside the anemone. Even the
wild red tulip suffers beside it. The colors of the anemone other than
red are more rare, but usually come earlier. About Jaffa they appear
shortly after Christmas. White ones and some of delicate shades are
found between there and the river ‛Aujâ. White ones abound near Jifnâ,
and are found east of Ḳubâb and east of Sejed station. Purple, pink and
blue ones are plentiful in Wâdy el-Kelb and the Khullet el-‛Adas near
Râm Allâh. The large red ranunculus mentioned is found in large patches
between Jericho and the Dead Sea in early February. Considerably later
there is an acre-patch east of Dayr Dîwân near the cliff descent towards
eṭ-Ṭayyibeh. The red tulip is rarer and follows soon. The red poppy is
very abundant. It has the delicacy of crêpe. It is scarcely welcome as
it betokens the close of the flower season. But one may for some time
yet gather flowers that blaze forth as brilliantly in middle spring as
do the autumn flowers in America: the adonis, gorse, flax, mustard,
bachelor’s button, anise, vetch, everlasting, wild mignonette and
geranium. In the vineyards, about pruning time, the ground is covered
with a rich purple glow. The sweet-scented gorse abounds in the valleys
towards Ṭayyibeh. The vetches come in many colors, and there are scores
of other scarcely noticed little blossoms.
When the season has been especially rainy, as may occur about every
fifth or sixth year, the valleys such as ‛Ayn Fâra will be knee-deep
with the abundant flowering herbs and weeds. The scented jasmine and the
tall waving reeds over the watercourse will add their charm to this
favored spot. Later, yellow thistles abound.
One of the oddities of the flower family is the black lily of the calla
order, which the natives call _calf (leg) of the negro_.
In the moist, shady caves, and sometimes in old cisterns, masses of
maidenhair fern grow in the cool shelter throughout the year.
On the shores of Tiberias (Galilee) oleanders and blue thistles are seen
in May.
In speaking of the wild animals of Palestine one is almost led to
include the dog and the cat. They are, however, on the edge of
domesticity and may fairly be omitted. Wolves, hyenas, jackals and foxes
are the troublesome wild beasts. The last two are often about vineyards
seeking to feed on the grapes.[32] The jackal cry at night is very
mournful and sure to start up the barking of the dogs, who are
themselves often grape thieves.
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-----
The beautiful little gazels are started up in the wilderness and go
bounding off like thistle-down in a breeze, turning every now and then,
however, to look with wonder at the traveler. Once, near eṭ-Ṭayyibeh we
saw four together, and once, east of Jeba‛, we saw a herd of nine
gazels.
Among the smaller creatures met with are the mole-rat, the big
horny-headed lizard, called by the natives _ḥirdhôn_, the ordinary
lizard about the color of the gray-brown rocks among which it speeds,
the little green lizard that darts about, and the pallid gecko, climbing
on house-walls. The beautiful and odd chameleon must also be mentioned.
Snakes are not commonly seen by the traveler. Scorpions, black beetles,
mosquitoes, fleas and a diabolical little sand-fly, called by the
natives _ḥisḥis_, are among the less agreeable creatures noticed.
At Haifa, in the house of the Spanish vice-consul, we saw the skin of a
crocodile caught in the river Zerḳâ in 1902. They spoke also of one
which had been caught fourteen years before in the same waters.
One of the showiest birds of Palestine is the stork, which is mostly
white, but has black wings, a red bill and red legs. Its eyes, too, have
a border of the latter color. The natives call it _abu sa‛d_. Flocks of
them may be seen frequently. Now and then a solitary bird is seen in a
wheat-field. Crows with gray bodies and black wings are plentiful.
Ravens, vultures, hawks and sparrows are common. Twice I saw the capture
of a sparrow by a hawk. Once, after having started his victim from a
flock, the hawk dashed after him and caught him in a small tree but six
feet from my head. It was done with such terrific quickness as to
surprise the spectator out of all action. Gray owls (bûmeh), partridges
(shunnar), wild pigeons (ḥamâm) and quails (furri) are seen. It seemed
quite appropriate to see doves on the shores of Galilee. On the surface
of the same lake water-fowls were observed. At Jericho we saw the robin
redbreast; in the gorge at Mâr Sâbâ, the grackle. Starlings in clouds
haunt the wheat-fields in harvest. Meadow-larks, crested, are very
common. Goldfinches, bulbuls, thrushes and wagtails are also noticed.
[Illustration: WILD ANEMONES FROM WADY EL-KELB]
The scenery of Western Palestine lacks the charm that woods and water
provide. Yet one grows to like it. The early and late parts of the day
are best for the most pleasing effects. Then the views out across the
vineyards and off on the hills are very restful. The rolling coast plain
backed by the distant hills of the Judean highlands makes a pleasing
prospect, especially when decked with the herbage that follows the
rains. Quiet tastes are satisfied with such pastoral scenes as those in
the valley at Lubban or in the plain of Makhna. Excellent distant views
are afforded from the hills near Nazareth, from which are seen the rich
plains of Esdraelon, Haifa, Mount Carmel and the Mediterranean. The Sea
of Galilee is delightfully satisfying. From Tabor one gets a glorious
sight of Hermon, snow-white, whence the natives call it Jebel esh-Shaykh
(Old Man Mountain). The views from Mount Carmel of sea and coast-line
and much of the interior, the glimpse of the Mediterranean from the hill
of Samaria and the sweeping prospect from Gerizim are all good. An
easily attained and little known view-point is Jebel Ṭawîl (Long
Mountain) east of el-Bîreh. From here of a late afternoon the country
lies open in sharp, clear lines throughout the central region. Jerusalem
is seen lying due south in beautiful silhouette; the Mount of Olives is
a little east of it. The Dead Sea is southeast, eṭ-Ṭayyibeh north of
east, Bethel (Baytîn) northeast, Gibeon southwest, near which is Neby
Samwîl. Near at hand, to the south, are el-Bîreh and Râm Allâh. Only one
thing is lacking in this view; that is the Mediterranean Sea. But this
can be seen, as well as Jaffa, Ramleh and Ludd from Râm Allâh. The
mountain east of the Jordan is plainly visible from all the high points
up and down the middle of the country. Other good view-points are Neby
Samwîl, Jeba‛, Mukhmâs, the hills about Jerusalem, especially from the
tower on the Mount of Olives and from Herodium. Heroic scenery may be
found in the so-called Samson Country through which the railroad from
Jaffa to Jerusalem runs, in the Mukhmâs Valley, the Wâdy Ḳelt and gorges
around Mâr Sâbâ. Crag, ravine, precipice and cave make such places
memorable.
The approach to cities and villages is as characteristic as any other
aspect of them. There is a look from afar peculiar to the settlements of
different countries. As seen from a distance American settlements are
chiefly noticeable for the chimneys, the sharp spires of churches, the
long, monotonous lines of factory buildings and mills and often the
pointed shape of house roofs. Add to these enormous bridges, miles of
railroad yards and cars, a nimbus of smoke and you have the elements
from which to make a view of any good-sized town. For the smaller,
sweeter, country places you must subtract some of the above features and
substitute some woodsy and meadowy effects. In Syria the contrasts with
our more familiar scenes are plain to us in the distant view of its
cities and villages. Instead of the triangular shape is the square look
of the buildings. Instead of chimneys and spires are the huge domes
resting on square substructures, and the pencil-like minarets rising up
among them. The distant view of Jerusalem is one of the most pleasing in
the entire country. It has been one of the standard charms of Palestine,
delighting warrior, poet and pilgrim, and more lately student,
missionary and tourist. There she sits with her feet in deep valleys,
her royal waist girdled with the crenelated wall and her head crowned
with the altar sites of ancient time. There are about her the things
that charm the poetic sense,—age, chivalry, religion. Not even eternal
Rome can be so rich in these and so equally possessed of them all.
Though it is not always the case, yet the greater number of Syrian
cities and villages seek hilly sites.[33] The ports cannot always do
this, though Jaffa does. Damascus spreads out over a low flat area.
Ramleh and Ludd, being plain dwellers, must live in lowlands. But
defense is very commonly sought by settling on the sides or top of a
hill and building the houses close together, if not one above another,
as if in steps.
-----
-----
Garden plots and vineyards are fenced in with hastily-constructed walls
of the loose stone picked up on the inside.[34] Between these curving
walls run sinuous lanes[35] into the villages from the paths and roads
outside.
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-----
It would be very easy to make a pocket-edition of a book of all the
roads in the country, no matter how small the pocket. Some roads are
planned for, taxed for and looked for a great many years before the
semblance of road-making begins. But never mind that; Orientals enjoy a
road in prospect and in retrospect much longer than in fact. Where the
government does put through a road it is usually good traveling. The
highlands afford the best of road-making materials and, if often enough
repaired, no better roads could be asked for. Many carriageways are over
favoring bits of country where the frequent passing has marked out the
only road. The Romans were the greatest road-makers in Palestine. The
remains of their work may even now be seen in various places. Many of
their old roads are indicated on the best maps. Roman roads at this day
of decay do not, as a rule, offer easy travel. The washings of a
millennium or two of rain have made them of the corduroy order.
Of paths one may make as many as one pleases in a country where no
barbed wire and few walls prevent. The permanency of the old well-worn
paths[36] is very noticeable, the best one always leading to a village
or to a spring. There is such a thing as the tyranny of the path. It is
very evident where railroads rule, and even in a country where the
travel must be on the backs of animals, the little bridle-paths impose
on one and, taking advantage of the inertia of human mentality, mark out
one’s way with arbitrary exclusiveness. When one’s time is limited to
just a sufficient number of days to allow one to see all the more
notable places in the country, it is scarcely to be expected that one
will sacrifice the surety of seeing a noted place for the chance of
stumbling on a place of less popular interest. The paths and time
required for seeing most places are almost as clearly indicated as any
schedule of trips in countries possessed of time-tables. This accounts
for the fact that, although thousands of travelers pass over the beaten
paths, and scores of students go over the rarer paths, not one in the
twenty or the thousand is likely to get off the paths.
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-----
One of the bits of country thus scantily known to foreigners is northern
Judea, especially to the northwest of Jerusalem. Most travelers passing
through it on the way to Jerusalem are in haste to reach the city, and
once there, the fact that any place is a few hours farther distant than
a day’s trip would allow forbids easy investigation.
One does not have to go far to reach the wilderness.[37] It is any
uncultivated place. It is the pasture for flocks,[38] the wild of rocks
and short, thorny bushes. The thorns[39] are gathered every other year
to build fires in the lime-kilns, where the abundant lime-rock of the
country is burned. When the men gather them for the lime-kilns the
thorns are piled in great heaps with heavy stones on them to hold them
down. When needed the heap is pierced with a long pole and carried over
the shoulder as on a huge pitchfork. During the late winter and in
spring only may one see green fields in anything like a Western sense.
The Plain of el-Makhna presents a very lovely prospect from the height
above it. Something like a small prairie effect is had in the Maritime
and Esdraelon plains. Pasture privilege is commonly had anywhere if the
land be not under actual cultivation. In the uplands the custom of
leaving great tracts idle in alternate years[40] in lieu of dressing the
ground permits wide pasturage. As the dry season advances the herdsmen
seek the deep valleys with their flocks. There is little opportunity for
new trees or shrubs to survive this universal browsing. So it comes
about that, except where orchards are set out or scraps of ancient woods
remain, trees are seldom seen.
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[Illustration: A VINEYARD AT RÂM ALLÂH]
Summer is the time of fierce heat, and yet through it all the
grape-vines keep green and the luscious clusters grow larger and ripen
under their heavy armor-plate of leaves. The peasants enjoy the tart
taste of green fruit. Half-grown grapes are sometimes eaten with salt on
them. Green almonds are eaten in the same way. Often it is hard to get
ripe peaches, melons and other fruits because of the tendency of the
peasants to pick them before they are ripe. But the time of the ripe
grapes is the glad time of the year. Instead of saying “August” the
peasants often use the expression “In grapes.” It is a season by itself
to them. The vineyard owners build summer booths among the vines and
sleep there through the season. In large vineyards it is common to
employ a black man, perhaps a Moroccan, as a watcher. The Syrian peasant
stands in peculiar awe of the black stranger. The watchers are provided
with shotguns, for foxes and dogs like to eat grapes. All fruit must be
guarded against thievishly disposed neighbors. One who knows his
vineyard watches the progress of the choicest clusters, having covered
some of them early to keep them from drying and to allow them to develop
unplucked. Should any grapes be stolen he quickly notices the loss. He
sets a thin row of fine stones along the top of his wall in such a way
that a night marauder must necessarily rattle them down and thus awaken
him. One of the heartless bits of meanness that a hostile peasant can
perpetrate in order to pay a grudge is to cut the vine stocks of his
enemy’s vineyard. Since it takes three years for a new vineyard to bear,
such an act is a serious damage.
The finest grapes within reach of Jerusalem are those from Hebron and
Râm Allâh. Large white clusters similar to the Malaga grapes are the
favorites, though purple grapes are also grown. At Râm Allâh the vines
lie flat on the ground. The vine is pruned back to leave three joints on
every small branch that is spared in the rigorous treatment.[41] At
Jifnâ the vines may be seen trained on stakes. At Zaḥleh, in the
Lebanon, the growers have a way of propping up the main vine a few
inches above the ground, so that a vineyard has the look of waves of
green. In Jerusalem some of the grapes at the Greek Hospital and at the
White Fathers’ near St. Stephen’s Gate are raised on arbors, and the
clusters are covered with little bags. Thus protected the grapes ripen
slowly and are enjoyed until late in the season. Vast quantities of
fresh grapes are consumed as an article of daily food during August,
September and October. The price, when cheap, is a cent a pound, and it
gradually creeps up to the fancy price of six cents a pound late in the
season. Grapes have been provided from the country vineyards as late as
the first of December.
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Trees need considerable soil, but the grape-vine will thrive with very
little and will penetrate with its rootlets all the fissures of the
lime-rock for yards about. Then, too, the luscious bunches lying on a
pebbled ground do better than those on clear soil. Most of the grass and
wild, weedy growth of the country is bulbous and clings in scanty soil,
gathering as in a reservoir all the available moisture.
When the crop demands clear ground the native farmer piles the stones
into walls, watch-towers or a huge heap in a less fertile spot of the
field.[42] It is often a problem to find room for the waste stones. They
may be tossed out into the roads and paths. A stranger says, “I don’t
see why these people don’t clear these paths of stone; surely it would
pay.” But the farmers prefer stones in the paths to stones in the garden
patch. With their bare feet, or on their donkeys, they are able by a
lifetime of practise to pick their way over such paths. Moreover,
peasants are not nervous in Palestine. Stones always furnish a handy
weapon,[43] or a reminder on the heels of a slow donkey. In going about
through the country one often sees piles of little stones set up one on
another. Sometimes these little piles are meant for scarecrows;
sometimes they are used to mark a boundary; but there is a wider and
more constant use for such loosely built little columns. They are set up
in sight of holy spots. Apparently they are not only set up in the
vicinity of shrines, _wilys_, etc., but also in places whence a distant
view may be had of some holy place, as Jerusalem, which the natives call
“el-Ḳuds esh-Sharîf” (The Noble Holy) or, for short, el-Ḳuds, which is
practically equivalent to our expression “The Holy City.”[44] These
little columnar piles may also be met in sight of the hill or mount
called Neby Samwîl, which we usually identify with the Mizpeh of
Samuel.[45]
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[Illustration: RÂM ALLÂH MAN AND A BASKET OF OLIVES]
[Illustration: STRETCH OF OLIVE TREES ON ROAD TO AYN SÎNYÂ]
The terrace is a thing of great utility to the hill farmer of Palestine.
To the traveler it is a thing of beauty as it climbs the hills with its
artistically irregular breaks in what would be otherwise a rather
monotonous slope. But with terraces and some water the earth is caught
and filled with many possibilities of fruit and vegetables. A hill well
terraced and well watered looks like a hanging garden. Much of the
farming in Judea is on the sides of hills. The little iron-shod wooden
plow is run scratching along the terraces. Sometimes one of the oxen
will be on a lower level than the other. To go forward without slipping
down the hillside is not easy. What cannot be plowed is dug up with the
pickax, and wheat or barley will find lodgment in every pocket of soil.
As all the reaping is done by hand it offers no especial difficulty, and
the monotony of which some people complain on prairie land is never
experienced on such a pitched-roof farm. Even where the made terrace is
allowed to decay there are many natural terraces where the horizontal
layers outcrop from the hillsides. Were the country well kept up, all
these terraces would be guarded artificially, for in time a natural
terrace loses its protecting edge and the soil and rain come down
cascading over the hill stairs until the bed of the stream is reached.
Of food trees the olive is probably the most valuable. It takes ten or
fifteen years to bring it to the state of bearing much fruit, but it may
go on bearing heavy crops for a century. The oil is freely used in
cooking, for salads, for lighting and for anointing. A hard-pressed
peasant will occasionally yield to the temptation to cut down some of
his olive-trees, selling the finest pieces of wood to the makers of the
olive-wood articles[46] which are prized by tourists, and disposing of
the rest as fire-wood.[47] A hundredweight of such fire-wood sells for
from twelve to twenty-five cents, according to the season and the
market, the city price being considerably higher than the country price.
A good olive-orchard is a sure source of income, unless the taxes are
too harshly and arbitrarily imposed. The cutting them down is a real
calamity to the country, but it is done only too frequently in a poor
year to avoid taxes. The trunk of an aged olive-tree attains a great
girth and a gnarled, knobby look. Sometimes a large part of one of these
huge trunks will be quite hollowed out by decay, in which case the
peasants often fill up the cavities with a core of stones. The tree goes
on bearing with chief dependence on the state of the bark for its
healthy condition. The heavy crops and light crops follow each other in
somewhat the same relation as the apple crops in our New England
country. Women and children gather up those olive berries that fall to
the ground early in the season. Whenever it is desired to gather the
crop of a tree or orchard the men beat the branches with very long light
poles and the women and the children pick up the fallen fruit from the
ground. Of course this is a poor way to gather the best olives, but
inasmuch as the chief use of the olive in Palestine is to express the
oil, it makes less difference. The berries do not ordinarily grow to the
larger sizes so often seen in our markets. Perhaps one of the very
handsomest stretches of olive-orchards in the East is at what is called
the Ṣaḥrâ, near Beirut, between that city and Shwayfât. Other smaller
but excellent orchards are to be seen between Bethlehem and Bayt Jâlâ,
at Mâr Elyâs, Bîr ez-Zayt and to the south of eṭ-Ṭayyibeh.
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The fig in Judea ripens in August and its fruit may be had for several
months, as new fruit keeps maturing. There are several varieties of this
valuable tree. A few ripe figs are often found as early as June and are
luxuries.[48] The natives sometimes hasten the ripening of a few early
figs by touching the ends with honey. The natives declare that the
fig-tree will not thrive near houses but will become wormy. The action
of the milk of fig branches and leaves on the tissues of the eyes, lips
and mouth is very disagreeable, sometimes making them very sore. The
eyes of children in the fig season are often very repulsive. For this
reason the people prefer other shade, if obtainable, than that of
fig-trees. Most fig-trees are small, about the size of an ordinary
plum-tree, but the large green varieties may grow to a considerable
size. When small fig-trees have sent up two pliable trunk-shoots these
are usually twisted together to strengthen each other. They look like a
suggestion of that ugly taste in architecture that delighted in twisted
columns. The appearance of the branches of a leafless fig-tree is not
unlike that of the horse-chestnut in winter time. Large quantities of
the black figs and some of the white figs are dried in the orchards,
being spread out on the ground under the strong sun-rays.
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The pomegranate-tree looks more like an unkempt shrub. The beautiful red
bell-like blossoms are very attractive. Lemons and oranges grown for
profit are often small trees. The sour marmalade orange grows into a
larger, statelier tree.
At Urṭâs, near Solomon’s Pools, the largest and most beautifully colored
apricots grow. Peaches, plums, quinces and almonds are plentiful, and
the cherry, mulberry and walnut thrive.
Concerning trees about the shrines and wilys and all the so-called
sacred trees there will be a more appropriate place to speak later on.
In a land where fruit grows and flourishes one may have far less fruit
than in some fruitless city in a colder climate but favored with ample
facilities for transportation. Right here within a few miles of the
finest orange groves in the land, near the vineyards, under the olive
and fig-trees, with peaches, pomegranates, apricots and plums, we
probably find shorter seasons for each than is the case in some
Anglo-Saxon city of the middle temperatures. Here fruit will be much
cheaper while it lasts, and some fruits, which must be found near the
trees, if enjoyed at all, such as the fig, will be available nowhere
else as here. The peach, plum, orange, apricot and grape go to the
London, Liverpool, New York, Chicago and Boston markets from the place
producing the earliest crops, and the trains and steamships continue
bringing from various markets as the season shifts from one garden spot
to another. But right here, under this particular orange-tree or by this
grape-vine, we usually wait for the ripening of the local crop, knowing
that lack of carrying facilities forbids us eating from a tree that
yields earlier fruit some hundred miles away, or from a tree that yields
when our tree is bare. And so while people who never saw an orange-tree
may buy oranges ten months in the year, we who have an orange-tree in
sight may have to be content with the orange season of our district. But
they will be cheap while they last. Fifty cents is a very ordinary price
for a hundred of the best oranges, and one dollar a hundred is pretty
dear.
The large raised map of Palestine in fibrous plaster, over seven feet by
four, published by the Palestine Exploration Fund, London, and the
smaller one help in the study of the physical features of the country.
An excellent small Relief Map of Palestine is edited by Ernest D. Burton
and published by the Atlas Relief Map Co., Chicago.
READING LIST
WILSON, C. T.: “Peasant Life in the Holy Land.” (Dutton.)
VAN LENNEP: “Bible Lands.” (Harper, 1875.)
SMITH, G. A.: “Historical Geography of the Holy Land.”
HUNTINGTON, ELLSWORTH: “Palestine and Its Transformation.”
The Annual of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem,
1919–20.
BELL, GERTRUDE L.: “The Desert and the Sown.”
SEE ARTS. on Crocodiles in the Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly, 1920 (p.
167), 1921 (p. 19). (Gray and Masterman.)
Stereoscopic Views of Palestine by Underwood and Underwood, and lantern
slides sold by the Palestine Exploration Fund.
(The statement on page 13, line 20, needs change in the light of recent
history.)
[Illustration: A BEDAWY HOUSE]
[Illustration: BEDAWY DRINKING]