HOME AFFAIRS
The houses of the peasants show at a glance the grade of well-being in
the different villages. There are many in the lowlands made of mud, or a
worse material, with thatch and straw. But in the hills stone is so
plentiful that even the poorest builder may use it. The low, hutlike,
_sḳîfeh_ cabin is made of loose stone piled up without mortar. The roof
is constructed of boughs, on which clay and straw are laid to make it
water-tight. The usual stone house is called, in contrast to the above,
_ḥajjar-wa-tîn_, that is, stone and mortar, and is more or less
substantial according to the hardness of the stone, the care in dressing
the blocks and the proportion of lime in the mortar. The arch for the
roof of such a house is usually so high as to be able to support itself
by its own weight. The result, in the typical house, is a square box
room with a lofty ceiling, the walls being unrelieved in most instances
even by whitewash. But as this must serve in many cases for the family
and also for such animals as are possessed, or for a living-room and a
store cellar combined, an extra floor is put in, over most of the room,
from four to six feet higher than the ground. This platformed portion
may be supported by small stone arches and paved with beaten clay, or
lime, or flat stones. From the door stone steps ascend to this living
floor. In former times these steps were so constructed that any shot
from a firearm sent through the wooden door would strike them and thus
fail of reaching either the people on the platform above, or the animals
sheltered underneath. Sometimes there is excavated under the house a
cistern to which the rain-water from the roof is conducted. As the
family prospers and outgrows the accommodations of a single room, others
may be built at right angles on either side around a little court on
which all the doors open. Still more rooms may be added above as a
second story, with stairs leading up outside. By such a process of
agglutination the house grows, looking like a miniature fort or castle,
where father, brothers and sons with their families live in patriarchal
unity. Rooms with inner connecting doors come as a later refinement of
the more wealthy.
In summer-time a little shady booth of boughs may be made in the court
or on the roof. Many of the peasants sleep out-of-doors fully half the
year.
Within the house the floor of the living-room will be covered in part
with straw mats. Grain and food-bins made of clay stand along one side.
Large jars stand back against the wall or in corners. One jar is to hold
spring water brought for drinking; another will hold olives; and a
third, olive-oil. There are also wooden bread-bowls, straw covers, the
stone flour-mill, some baskets, a clay brazier, copper cooking vessels
whitened, sieves, a wooden chest or two, gaudily painted, utensils for
grinding, roasting and cooking coffee, a clay fire-pot set in a
fire-nook, and on pegs in the wall a brass-bound flint-lock and a
water-bottle made from a goat’s skin. A recess in the wall, across which
a curtain is drawn, holds the bedding. At night the pallet bed is spread
on the floor,[83] the chief covering being a quilt enclosed in a cotton
case.
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In a two-room house one room will be the kitchen and women’s apartment
and the other the place of entertainment, where the men chat and eat
together. This extra room may have divan couches and perhaps an Oriental
rug on the floor. Glass _nârjîlehs_ (often pronounced _ârjîleh_) stand
ready for the guests who smoke. This glass smoking-bottle and pipes, an
outfit which foreigners sometimes call the hubble-bubble, is used by men
and some women of the well-to-do classes. The common name for it among
the peasants is _shîsheh_.
[Illustration: HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS]
1. Woman’s wardrobe and treasure box. 2. Rough straw basket. 3. Wheat
basket. 4. Vegetable basket. 5. Chair. 6. Groups of baskets. 8 and 9. On
this shelf are coffee utensils, wooden spoons, a wooden lock and a gourd
bottle. 11. A cooking vessel on top of a wooden cutting-board. 12.
Bellows. 13. Wooden mortar and pestle for pounding coffee berries. 14.
Short-handled broom. (From the Hartford Theological Seminary
Collection.)
Below is a list of the utensils and furnishings commonly found in houses
of Palestinian peasants.
_Khâbyeh_, a large store-bin made of clay.
_Ṣandûḳ_, a small box used by the women as a chest for clothing and
personal treasures.
_Ṭâḥûn_, a stone mill for grinding wheat.
_Môḳadeh_, an earthen fire-pot.
_Kânûn_, a clay brazier on which charcoal is burned. Coffee is roasted
and cooked over this brazier.
_Jurun_, a mortar.
_Mahbâsh_ (_mahbâj_), the pestle.
_Maḥmaṣeh_, a rotary coffee-roaster of tin, turned by a handle.
_Ibrîḳ_, a small pitcher or pot.
_Ḥaṣîreh_, a straw mat for the floor.
_Mikniseh_, a short-handled broom.
_Ḳuda‛_ (or ḳudah), a large basket, wide and shallow.
_Ḳuba‛_, a tiny basket of the same shape.
_Ṣînîyeh_, a plain straw mat used as a tray or as a cover for the
_bâṭeyeh_.
_Ṭubuḳ_,[84] a fancy straw mat used in the same way as the _ṣînîyeh_.
_Hanâbeh_, a small clay eating-dish.
_Kirmîyeh_, a trencher.
_Bâṭeyeh_, a dough-bowl (of wood).
_Ṭôs_, an earthen bowl.
_Zibdîyeh_, a larger bowl.
_Ṭunjereh_, a copper cooking vessel, whitened, sometimes used as a
serving-dish.
_Dist_, a very large ṭunjereh for serving food to guests; also used as
a pan in which to wash clothes.
_Maftûlîyeh_, a special dish for making _maftûl_, a paste that looks
like buckshot. The dish has a perforated bottom like a colander.
_Jarreh_, a general name for a jar.
_Ghuṭâh_, a cover of a jar (a general name for a cover).
_Mughṭâs_, a dipper.
_Ḍharf_, a goat skin for fetching water.
_‛Aslîyeh_, a slender jar.
_Sifl_, a jar for oil.
_Sherbeh_, a drinking jar.
_Ghurbâl_, a wheat sieve.
_Minkhul_ (corrupted into _mûkhil_), a flour sieve made of hair.
_Sirâj_, a lamp.
_Misrajeh_, a lamp shelf.
_Khûṣeh_, a knife.
_Sikkîneh_, a knife.
_Finjân_, a cup.
_Mughrafeh_, a ladle.
_Mua‛laḳah_, a spoon.
_Watad_, a peg driven into the wall.
_Ḳûseh_, an alcove for stowaway.
_Khurraḳeh_, a poke-hole in the wall.
_Firâsh_, a bed.
_Ilḥâf_, a quilt.
_Mukhaddeh_ (or _wasâdeh_), a pillow, often filled with _tibn_.
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Wheat, the most important item of the well-to-do peasants’ food, has
been spoken of elsewhere. It offers a scheme for classification in
welfare. Those on the level of wheat bread and those below that level in
life form very readily distinguishable classes. Bread made of barley or
of millet is used by the poorest people. The flour used for most of the
wheat bread is of graham quality. A lump of dough is saved from the
mixture for the next batch. This leaven[85] goes by the name _khamîreh_.
After the early morning grindings the dough is mixed in a wooden bowl,
the woman generally sitting outside her door on the ground. When the
dough has been mixed the bowl is covered with a straw mat called the
_ṣînîyeh_. When ready for baking, the whole, surmounted by a tiny little
basket, _ḳuba‛_, filled with dry flour for the hands when the loaves are
formed, is carried on the woman’s head to the nearest oven. One oven is
shared by several neighboring families. The oven is within a stone hut,
or cabin, not much unlike the _sḳîfeh_, or loose stone house, mentioned
elsewhere. The woman may have to wait her turn at the oven, as other
women may be baking before her. She sits at one side and chats with the
women and girls about her as she plies her needlework, sewing or
embroidery. Being at work and unobserved, she generally has her
head-shawl thrown one side. The oven is a domed pit. Inside the pit are
little stones on which the cakes of bread are baked. The clay dome has a
cover which may shut the baking bread within. The fire of grass[86],
refuse from the olive presses, twigs or caked dung, is built outside the
dome, and therefore does not come in contact with the interior when the
oven is heated for baking. The cakes of bread are from a quarter to a
half-inch thick and of the shape and size of a medium dessert plate. The
hot stones give a hubbly surface to the loaves, and as the dough is not
very stiff a delicious warm, spongy, graham bread results. The bread
baked for sale in the shops is generally made of lighter flour and the
loaves are smaller and sometimes thicker.
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In buying wheat for _burghul_ we sought the best grade of white wheat,
paying three piasters a ruṭl for it, that is, about eleven cents for six
and a quarter pounds. Burghul is prepared as a winter food. The wheat,
after cleansing, is boiled until it is partly cooked. It is spread in
the sun and dried and finally crushed in the hand-mill to the required
fineness. The favorite size is about like broken rice. The chaff-like
refuse is then blown off and, after another cleansing, the burghul is
ready for a winter supply. Crushed wheat, called _jerîsheh_, may be
prepared and used as a breakfast cereal would be with us. _Smîd_ is the
name given to the unground portions of wheat, called with us semolina,
separated from the flour by the bolting-machine of a modern mill.
The lentil,[87] _‛adas_, is considered by the native peasant a very
nourishing food. The little seeds are reddish or brown and are shaped
like tiny eyestones. When made into soup the taste is similar to that of
dried peas. For the winter supply they are sifted, washed and given a
treatment with olive-oil to prevent the attack of a little fly called
_sûs_, which eats out the inside of the seeds, leaving only the shells.
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Rice is consumed in large quantities, but, as it is an imported food, it
is bought as needed. A sack weighing two hundred twenty-five pounds may
sometimes be bought for five dollars. A brand called Japanese rice,
harder and cleaner, supposed to swell better and absorb less _semen_ in
cooking, costs considerably more. In the markets one often sees rice
which has been colored with a red powder. Pine-nuts from the cones of
the _ṣnôber_-pine, which are very toothsome, are often cooked with rice.
The olive fruit as it comes from the tree is exceedingly puckery in
flavor. For early eating the people put the berries into a strong brine,
cracking them somewhat with stones to hasten the curing process. For
late use the cracking of the berries is dispensed with and they are
simply set away in the salt water. It takes several months to extract
all the bitter taste of the whole berries and render them pleasant in
flavor. The peasant much prefers ripe olives to green ones for eating.
Most people who learn to eat ripe olives share in this preference for
them. Usually the ripe olive is black, though some varieties are not so.
They are very nourishing and full of oil, while green olives are a mere
relish. Olive-oil is used very commonly as a food. The purest grade may
be purchased as low as the rate of six cents a pound when bought by the
jar. It is usually measured out in a heavy copper vessel shaped like a
water jar of the _zarawîyeh_ type, holding seven ruṭls, or about
forty-four pounds, of oil. These copper jars are always very bright in
color, as the action of olive-oil on copper is sufficient to keep it
perfectly clean from corrosion. Those who make olive-oil have large
cemented cisterns in which to store it, and as the cisterns are not
cleaned very often, and the different grades are put in promiscuously,
the flavor becomes disagreeable to the European palate, though the
peasants do not mind if it acquires even a sting in taste. This defect
in flavor is increased when the heaps of berries are left too long
before pressing them. They become heated and more or less rancid, and
acquire the sting which we think so unpleasant. But if one is
painstaking, one will learn where and how to secure some of the
first-grade oil which comes from the early berries and direct from the
press. This early oil is often so delicate as scarcely to have any
distinctive flavor. It is of a light greenish color.
Much of the inferior grades of oil is made into a soap very soft to the
touch. The Mount Carmel soap is especially well liked. A great deal of
soap is made in Nâblus.
As has been suggested, the grape is the choicest fruit of the country.
With bread and grapes many hundreds are daily content. The native people
do not wait until August, when the first ripe grapes are to be had, but
enjoy eating green grapes, _ḥiṣrim_, with salt. Grape molasses, _dibs_,
and grape marmalade and jam, _ṭoṭleh_, are prepared for winter by the
more prosperous households.
Figs are next in general favor and are dried in large quantities for
winter use.[88] Some are strung on strings, but most of them are pressed
in bins. The black variety is preferred, as it is somewhat richer than
the white and green kinds. Figs make a hearty food. Nothing more
delicious in the line of fruit can be found than large, fresh figs with
the morning dew yet on them. Fresh, ripe figs are often brought into the
village in the little home-made, wheat-straw baskets, covered with the
strong-smelling _marâmîyeh_ leaves. The very early fruit that precedes
the regular crop by two months is called _dâfûr_ and is esteemed a
luxury. A cooked dish of dried figs flavored with anise is called
_khubayṣeh_.
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This list of the most common staples for the peasants’ use would not be
complete without coffee, which, while it might appear more in the light
of a luxury, is yet so essential in a respectable household as to be
classed here with the necessities. It must be on hand for guests,
whether afforded for daily use or not, and wherever men meet for
business or ceremony coffee is expected. It is purchased in the raw
berry at about eleven cents a pound for a good grade, and the
preparation of it becomes a matter of personal accomplishment. Men often
carry some coffee berries in their pockets for use at gatherings with
their friends. In drinking coffee, one cup is frequently passed about
among a company of men, being replenished for another drinker when one
has had some. The beverage is drawn into the mouth with a noisy sip that
both cools it, if hot, and testifies to the drinker’s satisfaction with
the quality. When done properly the business of coffee-making includes
roasting on an iron spoon, pulverizing in a wooden mortar with a wooden
pestle, and boiling in a tiny copper or tin pot from which it is poured
into a handleless coffee-cup, _finjân_, of about the size of an egg.
To continue the list of foods. Tomatoes, though comparatively new to the
country, have become a favorite vegetable. Tomatoes are a summer crop,
and acres of them may be seen. A cooked tomato sauce is boiled down and
then evaporated in the sun until of considerable density, when it is set
away as a winter seasoning for soups, stews and rice. Sliced tomatoes
are dried in the sun for preservation. The fresh tomato is enjoyed in
salads. The price per pound is something less than one cent.
The seed pods of okra or gumbo, or, as the peasants call it, _bâmyeh_,
are strung on twine and dried for the winter stores. It is cultivated in
the plains near Ludd.
[Illustration: BREAD-MAKING UTENSILS]
1. Wheat bin. 2. Stone mill. 3. Fine sieve. 4. Wooden bread-bowls. 5.
Straw mat used as a tray or as a bread-bowl cover. 6 and 7. Ovens made
of clay, fire is to be built around the outside. 8. Metal cooking plate.
9. Tiny basket for dry flour. (From the Hartford Theological Seminary
Collection.)
Many of the villages fail to cultivate garden vegetables in any
considerable variety or quantity. They submit to a more monotonous diet
than seems necessary. Other villages go into gardening extensively. They
are villages with superior facilities for irrigating the crops. The
vegetables are retailed in the less favored villages, or, more often,
taken to the surer market of the nearest city. Squash, pumpkin, cabbage,
cauliflower, lettuce, turnip, beet, parsnip, bean, pea, chick-pea,
onion, garlic, leek, radish, mallow and eggplant are common varieties.
Of the eggplant it is said that, since there are so many ways of
preparing it, should a woman say to her husband, during the eggplant
season, “I know not what to provide for dinner,” he has a sufficient
cause for divorcing her. Doubtless, if he were hungry and sensible at
the same time, he would at least try the expedient of getting a dish of
the savory vegetable before discharging the cook. But, on the other
hand, one might quote the Arabic proverb, “Minds are lost with
stomachs.” There are two kinds of cucumber. The one like our own goes by
the name _khîyâr_. The other, called _faḳûs_, is thinner, longer and
fuzzy, and is eaten without peeling. The buds of the artichoke when
boiled make a delicious dish. Potatoes are getting to be quite common
now. Most of them are still imported, but probably more and more success
will be met in raising a native crop.
A pleasant little story is told of how potatoes may have first come to
Jerusalem. Sister Charlotte, a Kaiserswerth deaconess, was for fifty
years in mission work in Jerusalem. At the time of her death in 1903 she
was the revered head of the German Orphanage for girls in the city. When
the Emperor Frederick, then Crown Prince, visited Jerusalem, he accepted
an invitation to dine with Sister Charlotte and the other German
sisters. He asked them what, of all things, they would like from
Germany. They said that they thought potatoes would be their choice. Two
barrels of potatoes were the result of this incident, and Sister
Charlotte thought that these were the first potatoes in Jerusalem. It is
to be regretted that this is not the place to go into a thorough
appreciation of the work of these blessed women who, in hospital, school
and other Christian service in the East have performed a most gracious
ministry of Christian womanliness.
The milk of the flocks is made into butter, and that in turn is often
cooked down into what we should call clarified butter, but which the
Arabs call _semen_. It will keep a year and is much used in cooking,
especially in preparing rice. There is a very pleasant, cooling
preparation of milk called _leben_,[89] which is thick and has a
slightly acid taste. It looks like junket. A little of it, when put into
slightly warmed milk and set away in a warm place for a few hours, will
make leben of the milk. The process is one of partial digestion and
makes a wholesome food for invalids, particularly for those suffering
from fevers. _Lebbeneh_ is strained _leben_ to which a little salt has
been added. It is a sort of compromise between butter and cheese. A
cream cheese, _jiben_, is made in square cakes averaging the size of a
man’s hand. These cakes are put away in brine for keeping and, when
needed, are soaked in hot water. Many meals are made of wheat bread and
cheese. Hard, dried leben, pressed into little balls, may be kept for
months. It is then called _kishk_. When they are to be used the balls
are cracked into little fragments and soaked in water.
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Eggs, mutton and goat’s meat are obtainable in most villages. For game,
the gazel, pigeon, quail and partridge, as well as smaller birds, are
shot and used by a few of the peasants. For those who live near the Sea
of Tiberias (Galilee), the fish there found add to the variety.[90] In
parts of Palestine locusts are eaten.[91] They are usually dried or
roasted. A story and a proverb are mentioned concerning the vigor and
spryness of these insects. A man who was in great haste and yet wished
something to eat caught a locust and, holding it by the legs, roasted it
over a fire. He didn’t wait to do it very thoroughly before he put it in
his mouth. Fearing that it would burn him he delayed shutting his teeth
together on it. The moment he loosened the grasp of his fingers,
therefore, away went the locust. Now for the proverb: “Âflat min
jarâdeh,” which means, “Better at escaping than a locust.”
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Baked dishes are not common among the peasantry. Boiling, roasting and
frying are the common modes of preparing food. _Kibbeh_ is a mixture of
meat and burghul, bruised together in a mortar until it becomes a
jellied mass, when it is pressed into pans, scored off into cakes and
fried with semen. _Maḳlûbeh_ is a preparation of rice and eggplant
cooked in a deep dish, and, when served, turned out, upside down; whence
the name, which means “turned over.” _Keftah_ is a meat cake fried in
semen, not very different from Hamburg steak. _Mujedderah_, or
_‛aṣîdeh_, is a mixture of rice and lentils. Sometimes fried onion
scraps are served with it.
A favorite vegetable called _kûsâ_, which looks like a cucumber and
tastes like our summer squash, is often hollowed out, stuffed with meat
and rice and boiled. Here is a combination of fruit, flesh and vegetable
worth trying: A roll of tender grape-leaves stuffed with rice and meat
and then boiled. It makes a little sausage-like affair of which a Scotch
professor said that, if there were sausages in Paradise, they would be
of this kind. The natives call all stuffed dishes of these sorts
_maḥshy_, _stuffed_. A maḥshy made of eggplant is called _shaykh
el-maḥshy_, the chief of the maḥshys. Kids, lambs and chickens also are
stuffed. With some of these maḥshys, leben sauce is served and with
others lemon-juice.
Salads of all kinds are enjoyed by the people. _Ḥumuṣ b’ṭeḥîneh_ is made
from dried chick-peas boiled, mashed with olive-oil and flavored with
_ṭeḥîneh_. Ṭeḥîneh is a mixture of olive-oil, _serej_ and some sour
substance, either vinegar or lemon-juice.
Caraway, anise, thyme and mint are used as seasonings.
The common cooking fats are semen, olive-oil and _serej_, the latter
being a rich cooking oil made from simsim seeds.
An out-of-door luxury is the new parched wheat,[92] called _frîḳy_, when
immature heads are roasted, and _kalîyeh_, when ripe grain is roasted.
The peculiar milk of a fresh goat or sheep, curdled a little, by being
placed over the fire, and sweetened, is considered a dainty. Cooked
sheep’s brains are a delicacy and very nourishing.
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The fruits of Palestine are many. The better known varieties are the
grape, orange, lemon, apricot, plum, pomegranate, quince, citron,
watermelon, cantaloup, date, mulberry and medlar. This last mentioned
fruit is known by the Turkish name _akydunya_, literally, _the next
world_. The cherry and peach find a congenial climate in the country.
The apple and pear do not thrive so well in Palestine as in the
neighborhood of Damascus. Of apricots there are several varieties. A
large sweet kind, of which the seed pit has a taste similar to the
almond nut, is called for that reason _lôzeh_. Another kind is called
_klâby_, and yet another _mestkâwy_. Apricot leather is displayed in
large sheets in the markets. From pomegranates, of which there are at
least three flavors, sweet, medium and sour, and from lemons, drinks are
prepared. Distilled orange-flower water is esteemed as a flavoring
extract. A little of it in water is good for a sour stomach.
Of nuts there are the almond, pistachio and walnut. The almond is
frequently eaten green, when the kernel is in a milky state and the
whole nut with its shell is tender. Chestnuts and peanuts are imported.
Melon and pumpkin seeds are eaten. Sesame, or simsim, seeds are
sprinkled over cakes. Partially ripened chick-peas, roasted on the
stems, are very much liked. _Mulabbas_, which simply means _covered_,
generally refers to sugar-coated, roasted chick-peas. These roasted peas
without the sugar are called _iḳḍâmeh_, or _ḳâḍâmeh_.
Jellies are called ṭoṭleh. They are often served to guests, in such
cases being offered before the coffee, which must always be the last of
any number of refreshments. A dish of jelly or jam, with several spoons
and a tumbler of water, is passed around. Each guest takes a spoon and
helps himself to a taste of jelly, then puts the soiled spoon into the
vessel of water.
The people are very fond of honey. Many kinds of pastes, cakes and
confections have honey as a prominent ingredient. Some of them seem very
cloying to the unaccustomed Western taste. _Ḥelâweh_ and _mulabbas_ are
the very common confections in the villages. The first looks like
light-colored molasses candy and comes in bulk. It is used as a food
with bread. It is made from the root of the simsim plant, the oil of
which imparts to it its peculiar flavor. There is a local hit to the
effect that “the people of Nâblus eat their sweets first.” The word used
to express satisfaction with a flavor is _zâky_, which is equal to our
colloquialism, “it tastes fine,” or the German, “grossartig.” A rebuke
of an inordinate appetite is apparent in the proverb, “Let a dog take a
taste, but not a son of Adam [_i. e._, a man].”
The list of foods should include some of the many varieties of edible
wild growths.[93]
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_Khurfaysh_ is a plant with a little notched leaf having milk-white
veins. The edible stalk that grows up from the center is very delicious
and refreshing when tender.
_Murrâr_, a bitter herb, looks, during its early growth, a little like
the dandelion. Later it develops a thorn.
_Ḳurṣ‛anneh_ bears a small leaf suitable for salad.
_Ḥumayḍeh_ has a leaf with red veins and a red back. It is used less
commonly than the others.
_Dhanbat faras_ (tail of a mare) looks like young onion leaves.
_Ḥasak_ is used more especially for cows, and _ḥalîbet es-sukûl_ is fed
to the kids when milk is scarce. It yields, when broken, a thick milky
juice. The fruit of the cactus or prickly-pear is yellow, seedy and
sweetish. For some reason or other the name for this plant, in Arabic,
and the word for _patience_ are the same, _ṣubr_. This cactus fruit is
much esteemed. A story is told of a man with a prodigious appetite for
it who was going along by the hedges of prickly-pear near Ludd and
followed by some cows which ate up the peelings of the fruit as he
dropped them. The story says that the cows had to stop eating the
peelings before the man’s appetite for the fruit had been fully
gratified. This is only a sample of the many stories told about great
eaters.
The carob-pod is chewed.[94] It has a flavor like that of sweetened
chocolate. Green carob-pods may be cooked in a toothsome way with milk.
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A receipt for making “Turkish Delight.” The first essential is a
perfectly clean cooking dish, as the secret of good Turkish Delight is
to prevent burning or sticking. One-half pound of corn-starch, three
pounds of sugar and ten cups of water are to be used. The corn-starch is
to be dissolved in two cups of water and strained. The remaining eight
cups of water, hot, and the sugar are to be made into a syrup. When the
syrup is almost at the boiling point, clear with the white of an egg,
skim off, add the juice of a half lemon and strain through a cloth. Pour
the corn-starch solution into the hot syrup, stirring continually, and
allowing the mixture to boil until very thick, an hour if necessary,
stirring all the time to prevent sticking to the bottom. This constant
stirring during the cooking is very important. Blanched almonds and the
flavoring (generally _mistkâ_ gum) are put in just before taking the
dish from the fire. The whole is then poured into a large shallow tin
into which fine sugar has been sifted. When the paste has cooled it may
be scored and cut.
There is almost no drinking of alcoholic liquors among the peasantry. On
the feast-days the convents offer _‛araḳ_, a native grape brandy, to
callers. The increasing influence of foreigners tends to an increase of
drinking customs in the cities and the extension of such habits into the
country villages. This influence comes through the foreign ecclesiastics
in the convents, monasteries and patriarchates, business and travel, and
sometimes the example of missionaries. Among Moslems the habit of using
ardent liquors is supposed not to exist, but an aged official of wide
experience told me that he knew of two hundred fifty Moslems in
Jerusalem who were hard drinkers, and that the Turkish officials as a
class were taking up the custom rapidly. Said a poor Moslem girl in
Hebron despairingly of her brother, who had taken up with the drinking
habit, “Why, my brother drinks like a Christian!” Of an inveterate and
shameless toper the Arabs say that “he would drink from his shoe.”
The custom among the country people is to eat out of a common dish.[95]
If it contains rice the food is rolled into balls and put into the mouth
with the fingers. The bread is held on the knee, as one sits in
squatting posture, and bits are torn from it. With these bits of bread
the food may be dipped up, especially if it be oil or leben. Portions of
meat are taken with the fingers. A wooden spoon is sometimes used. When
guests are eating, the women of the family are not present, but often
eat in another place and use the remains of the men’s feast. In the
field the workers gather around the dish that has been brought from the
village. They may be sitting in the broiling sun. It is customary to
invite the passer-by to the repast.
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The first meal of the day is not usually taken until the middle of the
forenoon, and is a light one. The second one, at or after noon, may be
heartier. The evening meal is the best. Meat is almost a luxury, the
increase in its use denoting progress in prosperity.
Almost any discriminating person will decide for the native peasant
costume as more modest, graceful and artistic than the European styles.
One feels disappointed and defrauded at sight of a villager togged in
European trouserings. The village woman descends in the scale of
attractiveness just so far as she submits to the fashion of Western
dressmaking. Stockings are seldom worn by the country people when they
are in vigorous health. At best the stocking is an unsanitary snare. Men
generally wear the roomy shoe having buffalo rawhide from India for the
soles and a red or brown goat-skin for the uppers. Women seldom wear
shoes inside the village for fear of ridicule. When they are out in the
rough places they wear the same kind of shoe as the men.
The fully dressed _fellâḥ_, (peasant) has in his outfit the following
articles:
_Dîmâyeh_, or _ḳumbâz_, a long dress or tunic.
_Shirîhah_, a girdle studded with the _razât_, which are ornaments
like little silver buttons.
_Ṣadrîyeh_, a vest.
_Ṭuḳṣîreh_, a small blue jacket made of _jûkh_, a blue cloth.
Sometimes a European jacket is worn or a sheepskin is used.
_‛Abâh_ (colloquial, _‛abâyeh_), a homespun woolen overcoat, striped.
_Ṣirmâyeh_, a shoe, heavy or light according to the season.
_Leffeh_, a general name for the entire head-dress.
The leffeh consists of the following parts:
_Ṭuḳîyeh_, a cotton skull-cap.
_Libbâd_, a skull-cap of woolen felt put on over the cotton one.
_Ṭarbûsh_, a hat proper, usually a red fez-like head-covering, broad
and flat, put on over the ṭuḳîyeh and libbâd.
Scarfs are wound around the rim of the ṭarbûsh so as to make a very
heavy border (a thin scarf helping to pad out a heavier one).
_Mendîl_, a thin scarf used under a heavier one.
_Maḥrameh_, a white heavy scarf.
_Kefîyeh_, a yellow and fancy variety of scarf.
In the leffeh or head-dress are tucked, for convenience in carrying, the
following articles:
_Mirât_, a mirror (a tiny glass).
_Mishṭ_, a comb for the beard.
_Maṣṣâṣat_, a cigarette holder.
_Dukhân_, tobacco.
_Khalḳat_ (_aṣfat_), a ring (yellow) for the thumb (bahim).
_Khâtim_ (_fuḍat_), a seal[96] ring (silver) for the little finger
(_khanaṣet_).
_Dubleh_, a guard.
All these small articles following are in or about the girdle or belt:
_Ghâb_, a cartridge-belt.
_Shibrîyeh_, a dirk carried in the belt.
_Ṣifn_, tow.
_Zinâreh_, a steel for igniting the tow in striking a light.
_Ṣuwâneh_, a flint.
_Mûs_, a clasp knife.
_Zaradeh_, a chain to which the knife is attached.
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The fellâḥah (peasant woman) wears the _Khurḳeh_, an embroidered dress
of linen crash, with silk stitching. Over this dress she wears the
_Khalaḳ_, or _Tôb_, a long veil of the same material as the Khurḳeh. But
she is mostly distinguished by the
_Uḳâ_, a head-dress which is a snug little bonnet of cloth embroidered
and heavily decorated with coins.
_Ṣaffeh_, a row of coins over the top of the head on the bonnet.
_Shakeh_, a row of coins or bangles across the forehead.
_Iznâḳ_, a coin of especial value which hangs by a chain from the
head-dress, under the chin.
This head-dress is bound into the hair by strings and is worn night and
day.
In the division of household labor the man goes to the market, field or
on the road with the animals, leaving almost all the work about the
house to be done by women and children. Indeed, these may often be
called upon to assist in carrying to or from the market, in watching on
the threshing-floor or in the vineyard and orchard, in helping harvest
the crops or in gleaning, sifting and cleaning grain. Children sometimes
carry food to the workers who are at a distance. The man may make
repairs about his house, if skilful enough to do so. He drives the
bargains and settles business matters. Upon the woman falls most of the
work of the household. It is often hard and long because of primitive
methods and scanty means.[97] The older girls may help considerably,
especially by taking much of the care of the children. The woman’s day
begins early with the grinding of flour for bread.[98] She probably
cleaned the wheat on the previous afternoon while there was light.
Grinding can be done in the early morning before daylight. The woman
sweeps and cleans and cooks food for the family. She makes long trips
into the uncultivated country about the village to bring home head-loads
of brush, thorns or grass. She must make daily trips at least, and
sometimes several a day, to the spring, or possibly to a cistern, for
the water supply. She often keeps chickens. Gardening is the man’s work,
though the woman must often help in the little plot if there be one. Now
and then a woman may find time to attend to her personal appearance. If
her dress of linen crash be soiled she may take it with other washing to
the spring or cistern. She first soaks her clothes and then laying them
on a rock pounds out the dirt with a short club. If the silk embroidery
on the dress makes it unadvisable to wet the cloth, she rubs off the
dirt with bread-crumbs. She occasionally gets an opportunity to take off
her head-dress of coins, clean the coins and comb out and wash her hair,
or she may do the similar service of washing and head-cleaning for her
children.
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The peasant women are sometimes skilful in embroidering in silk, with a
cross-stitch, on linen and on cotton. They make a good deal of
basketwork from wheat straw, which they dye a brilliant blue, green,
red, purple and brown. Cooking dishes, platters, bowls and jars are made
of clay by the women. The women of any village keep to the making of
such vessels and shapes as they have learned best. The Râm Allâh women
make a reddish jar of huge size ornamented with a brown painted band of
a basketwork pattern. This jar is known colloquially as _jarreh_. The
smaller size goes by the same name or else by the term _hisheh_. _Hish_
is a kind of red stone that is pulverized to make jar material. The long
jar that is used for carrying water from the spring to the house is
called _zarawîyeh_. The _zarawîyeh zerḳa_ is a product of Gaza, and the
_zarawîyeh bayḍeh_ of Ramleh and Ludd. Another large variety of jar is
called _zîr_. Any tiny jar used as a drinking vessel or for cooling
drinking water may be called _sherbeh_. The little milk jars with a very
wide mouth are called _kûz_ or, by the fellaḥîn, _chûz_.
The peasant, when well fed, clothed and sheltered, is a fine specimen of
physical humanity. When ill he is miserable indeed, and greatly to be
pitied. Hospitals and other European helps are assisting of late where
but a short time ago there was nothing but native ingenuity. Even now
the very poor can hardly be said to be supplied with adequate
assistance. In the more backward villages, farther from centers where
physicians and dispensaries are available, the most curious shifts are
made to drive off disease and win health. Among Moslems and Christians
similar means are taken. Mothers pray at shrines and sacred trees, tying
up bits of rag to keep the prayers in the minds of the saints who have
been invoked. It takes kindliness and patience to win over the poorest
and most suspicious of the sick peasantry. And it will take more than
that to secure suitable nursing for invalids.
One child of Christian parents wore a bone from a wolf’s snout about the
neck as a charm. It was the gift of the paternal grandmother. A wolf’s
jaw-bone is a potent charm. A Moslem said that the wolf was a friend of
his family and that if one killed a wolf with a knife and then wrapped
the knife in a handkerchief or other cloth it would prove efficacious in
time of sickness. For instance, if a child were ill with a cough it was
only necessary to draw the back of the knife-blade across the throat in
imitation of cutting and say, “Allâh and the wolf,” “Allâh and the
wolf,” then make a noise like the growl of a wolf and the child would be
well. The many superstitious remains of primitive religious notions are
usually preserved among the women of the land.
Slips of paper, with verses from the Ḳurân written on them, are soaked
in water and the drink administered to patients by the very ignorant.
Burning and bleeding are frequently resorted to. More nauseating
practises are the utilization for medicinal purposes of the froth that
forms at the mouth of a maniac, or of a _derwîsh_ (dervish) who, in the
excitement of his exercises, has fallen down insensible. It is
considered proper for the friends of the sick to call, and sometimes the
room where the patient is lying is full of talking neighbors.[99]
Fortunate is it if some of them be not smoking as well as making a
noise. Figs are used as drawing plasters.[100] For soreness of the gums
or teeth a dry fig is heated and laid on the spot. A relic of the days
of quacks is found in the proverb, “Ask one who will try and not a
doctor.” Doubtless the next proverb in order would be the one running,
“Patience is the key of relief.” Of palsy the peasants say, “Palsy, then
don’t doctor it.”
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[Illustration: IN A DOORYARD. WOMEN CLEANING WHEAT]
[Illustration: ON TOP OF AN OVEN. WOMEN SIFTING WHEAT]
The following data, taken from accounts of medical assistance rendered
to inhabitants of a score of villages in the country about Râm Allâh for
a year are suggestive of the distribution of ailments. Leaving out of
the account wounds, the chief ailments were classified under
fevers,[101] malaria and typhus, with gastric troubles nearly akin. Then
comes the second group of troubles, with influenza and pneumonia. Third
in frequency was rheumatism. Enteric troubles were rarely mentioned. Eye
troubles are common, but the physician is not resorted to as frequently
as would be supposed. A few cases of abscess, dropsy and eczema were
mentioned. May and June, October and November, brought numerous cases of
fevers. January and March exceeded in pulmonary affections, though they
were pretty generally met with throughout the year. Autumn is a very
unhealthy season. The dust blowing about the villages in the high winds
is laden with abundant filth in pulverized form. Sunstroke is not
unknown among the natives.[102] The reapers in the Ghôr are often
stricken with deadly fever, probably because of the poor water supply,
hot sun, cold nights and irregular meals. Contagious skin, scalp and eye
diseases are to be dreaded. Because of the lack of facilities and
knowledge in the care of children convalescing from measles, _ḥuṣbeh_,
that disease is much feared, and the mortality among the young is great.
The typhoid cases in the country are long and tedious, though not
perhaps so violent as with us. Leben makes an ideal food for the
patient.
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Certain of the fountains of the country are provided with a more or less
capacious catch-basin from which animals as well as people may drink.
The fastidious are not to be blamed if they insist on seeing their own
drinking water taken from the actual flow of the spring and under such
conditions as shall not subject them to the washings of other people’s
mouths. Often at such places leeches thrive in the water, and where they
are known to abound the natives seldom let their animals drink if other
available water be near. People, too, are often bothered by the leeches
lodging in the sides of the mouth or throat. Those that are swallowed
cause no inconvenience, but when tiny leeches lodge in the side of the
throat and grow to an uncomfortable size they have to be extracted. One
day I was lunching with the local physician, Dr. Philip Ma‛lûf, when a
poor woman from el-Bîreh, not finding him at the dispensary, sought him
at his home. She was troubled with a leech which had grown to
uncomfortable size in her throat and was using up too much of the blood
needed in her system. After the parasite was removed she haggled about
the price of the operation.
At another time I saw a little girl sitting on a chair in the sun in
front of the doctor’s dispensary. The doctor said that her leech was too
difficult of observation and approach with his tweezers, but that in the
warm sun it would be tempted within reach.
Medical assistance in the form of hospital or dispensary facilities is
now offered at Hebron, Jaffa, Gaza, Jerusalem, Nâblus, Nazareth,
Tiberias, Ṣafed, Haifa, es-Salṭ and Kerak. To these places the peasantry
come from the country about, bringing their ills for treatment at the
hands of foreign physicians. From the country around Nâblus, for
instance, many patients come to receive the skilful attention of the
surgeon at the Church Missionary Society Hospital in the city. Among
these cases are many suffering with diseased bones.
The medical department of the American College at Beirut is an exponent
of modern medical science for all Syria. There native physicians are
trained in medicine and pharmacy and go to all parts of the Turkish
empire, Egypt and the Sudan. The European hospitals in the country are
in charge of expert physicians assisted by well-trained nurses.
Here and there one meets dumb people. In Râm Allâh is a dumb man, the
well-to-do father of a considerable family. He is keen, alert and very
skilful at making himself understood by motions.
The blind are receiving some attention. Schneller’s school in Jerusalem
makes provision for them. Miss Lovell, an English woman, has a small
school for blind girls where she works assiduously for their welfare.
The French Roman Catholic Sisters care for some.
The first hospital asylum in all Syria for the humane and scientific
treatment of the insane was founded a few years ago and first opened to
patients August 9, 1900. It is just a short drive out of Beirut, at a
place called ‛Aṣfûrîyeh, within the Lebanon government district. Its
founders are Mr. and Mrs. Theophilus Waldemeier. Mr. Waldemeier was for
over twenty years the superintendent of the English Friends’ Mission at
Brummana and other stations in Mount Lebanon. Advancing years seemed to
make it wisest that he should relinquish the many-sided mission work.
With his wife he planned a world tour in the interests of a work which
he had thought over for many years. While friends were advising and
expecting him to take a deserved rest he began to plan for this new
enterprise, which he sweetly calls his “evening sacrifice”; a hospital
for the right treatment of the insane, of which the country has many.
The Waldemeiers visited successfully in Europe and America and returned
with funds to build. They found a fine property of over thirty acres
belonging to one of the _effendîyeh_ class of natives, a Moslem who was
in need of funds and good enough not to make too hard terms with these
philanthropists. In the first two years the institution treated two
hundred twenty-seven patients and sent away thirty-six patients
recovered.
Mr. Waldemeier and his gifted wife treated us with the greatest
cordiality, when we called on them, and showed us detail after detail of
the work, the new building and so on, just as if they were enthusiastic
devotees of an interesting new game; and so they are devotees of the
old, the ever new game, of doing good. A large, well-equipped
administration building, another for women patients and still another
one for men were already up and fully used, forty patients at a time
being the capacity. A new building was being erected to be used for the
most violent cases. The story of some cases is a sad one. A surgeon of
the Egyptian army was with us as we inspected the wards where the women
patients are kept, filled mostly with young girls. He said, “I never saw
anything so sad. The wounded and the dying on the battle-field do not
make me feel like this.” The causes of the troubles of these sufferers
are various. Ten distinct kinds of mania are recorded on the books,
among them cases resulting from alcoholic excess, from typhoid fever and
those that are hereditary. No patients are received unless there is
reasonable expectation of their recovery under treatment.
The nurses and attendants in the women’s ward seemed to be much
interested in their charges and to develop a real affection for them.
There are no bonds in the whole institution. The severe cases are put to
bed. As soon as their condition will warrant it they are set to work at
something that will keep them busy, laundering or helping in various
ways about the institution, always with ample supervision. One
bright-faced patient possessed with the notion that the devil was in her
nose made that member the object of her constant thought, keeping it
always covered.
We saw a large, powerfully-made man standing behind the iron grating of
one of the men’s windows. He was an alcoholic case who was sent away
from the hospital at one time apparently cured, but fell into the old
ways again and now is hopeless, incurable.
Some of the patients come to the hospital in a most wretched state of
filth. Some come loaded with the chains that the ignorant country people
have put on them. Some have been isolated in caves and scantily fed,
some have been beaten. Some have been made to drink water in which
written texts of the Ḳurân have been soaked. Many are the ways with
which the superstitious natives would treat these unfortunates.
Sometimes the insane are looked upon with superstitious awe as of an
order other than ordinary human beings and to be invoked. At other times
the people are said to beat them in order to drive out the demon, but
more often, according to their own saying, they let them pretty much
alone. “For,” say they, “God has touched him; that is enough; leave him
alone.”[103] All through the country this unconscious fraternity lives
its life apart from men. Only their bodies are in contact with the world
of reality. They are fed or beaten, caged or prayed to, in turn. We saw
one of these unfortunates who had been groveling in a fit on the street
in Jerusalem near the Jaffa Gate. He had a small cord drawn through a
fleshy place in his abdomen, by working which back and forth
well-meaning spectators had caused considerable blood to flow, thinking
to relieve him. We have seen them wandering in the streets of Damascus
with the freedom of the city, all making way for them; and well they
might; we did, too, for I’ve never seen human beings more unutterably
filthy. In the village of ‛Ayn ‛Arîk there was a dumb maniac who went
about naked.[104] He was credited with being a wily, or holy man.
Families having a sick person among them would sometimes send him
presents of roast stuffed fowls and secure from the wily some of his
hairs, which they would burn near the patient, hoping thereby to effect
a cure.
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The leprous generally congregate outside the cities and follow the trade
of begging. Hospitals and asylums are provided for them, but many of
them prefer the freedom which puts them obnoxiously in the way of those
who can be teased for alms.
Death among the peasantry is an occasion for long mourning. The body is
wrapped, and placed in the ground and protected from the falling earth
as well as may be by the use of stones. On the top of the grave the
heaviest stones obtainable are packed to make it difficult for the
hyenas to secure the body. It is customary to watch the grave many
nights to keep these creatures away.[105] The more advanced peasantry
try to secure a wooden coffin for the body about to be buried. The
natives are capable of much tenderness and consideration at these sad
times. The many bearers take turns assisting in the carrying of the body
on the way to the grave. Visitors from other villages come to assist in
the mourning for the deceased. They are provided with food and shelter
while they remain. The public mourning lasts as long as visitors
continue coming to offer condolences, which may be for many days. At
weddings the singers are men, but at funerals the women perform the
part. The same native melody is used on both occasions. The death of a
young man is an occasion for especial grief, since so many family hopes
and prospects are thereby disappointed. A prop and stay in the tribe is
withdrawn and the calamity is very severe. The women are sometimes seen
on the threshing-floor marching slowly round and round, wailing out the
dirge. One of the saddest cases that came under my observation was that
of a young man who, leaving his family, emigrated to America in search
of fortune. While in Monterey, Mexico, he heard of the death of an uncle
in the home village and grieved over it. He was taken ill, probably with
yellow fever, went to the hospital and died there in a short time. When
the news reached Râm Allâh the grief was keen. It is customary at such a
time for the women to go either to the threshing-floor or the cemetery
to mourn.[106] But in this case, as the man was buried far away, the
women assembled on a small piece of ground that was owned by some of the
tribe where there was a fig-tree. They sat under this talking until the
company increased to over forty women. They had all left their
head-dresses, ornamented with coins, at home, and their hair fell in
disheveled condition over their necks and shoulders. Some of them had
daubed their faces with soot. Some were dressed in their oldest and
poorest clothing; one had on a fancy Bethlehem costume, but her
disordered hair was bound with crêpe. A circle was formed and the women
marched to the accompaniment of the mourning song. Now and then a few
would break from the circle into the middle and, tossing their arms
above their heads, perform a funeral dance. The name of the deceased was
Butrus (Peter) and the widow’s name was Na‛meh (Naomi). The following is
a translation of the words which the women sang at the time:
O door of the house, fall down
For one who went and did not return;
For one who left his wife,
A trust remaining with me.
Butrus in the distant country calls,
“O, Ḥanna, take me back to my country.”
The gun appears, but the lion appears not;
Lo, the strap of the gun is damp with mist.
The gun appears, but the lion comes not;
Lo, the strap of the gun is dripping with mist.
(_At the time of the burial_)
O my sorrow, there are his people;
Early were they at the burial place.
Early rose the sexton for the burial,
And the ḥarîm is soiled with dust.
The women of his kindred rend their finery
For Butrus who sank into the grave.
The women of his kindred tear their coverings,
Because Butrus is left in America.
(_Impersonating Butrus_)
Don’t take me down into the ships,
My sister on the seashore is grieving.
Don’t take me down to the foreign ships,
My sister on the seashore is calling.
(_The mourners_)
O my sorrow, they went on the seas and remained:
Oh, I wonder how they are, have they changed?
O my sorrow, they went on the seas and stayed the night:
Oh, I wonder how they are, or are they dead?
Bring me knowledge, O great bird, O little one;
America, is it far away and without a wall?
Bring me knowledge, O bird, O birds;
America, is it far away and without measure?
Greet them, O bird, O pigeon,
In their far country setting up the tents.
(_Impersonating Butrus_)
On the shore of the sea the gazels are browsing;
Oh, the descent to the ship, it is bad.
On the shore of the sea the gazels are airing;
Oh, the descent to the ship, it is bitter.
On the seashore, wondering whither to turn,
Appear, O Na‛meh! the ship goes.
At the hospital I am thirsty, I want to drink;
Bid me good-by, my brother, the ship goes.
(_The mourners_)
Write on the flat slate,
“Thy time came; what could we do, my spirit?”
Write on the flat marble,
“Thy time came; what could we do, my precious one?”
O scribe, writing with a costly pencil,
Greet the absent one and clasp hands.
(_Impersonating Butrus_)
Thy robe is long, Na‛meh, cut from it;
Have slight regard for fine appearance when we are gone.
Thy robe has a long trail;
Have little care for fine style when we are gone.
(_The mourners_)
The tassel on his head-gear dangles;
Tell his mother to continue mourning.
The tassel on his head-dress droops;
Tell Na‛meh to quit fine dressing.
(_Introducing the refrain at the mill_)
Say to us, O Na‛meh, in the night,
“How often have I worn the best of silk!”
Say to us, O Na‛meh, in the afternoon,
“How often have I worn Egyptian silk!”
(_Closing_)
O ye strangers bearing the coffin,
Wait until his family arrive.
O ye strangers bearing the coffin,
Wait until his kinsfolk come.
The grave of Butrus by the road is in neglect;
He wants a guide to lead him home.
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This beginning of public mourning was on November 23. On December 14 the
funeral services were held in the village church, just as if the
deceased were there. But the public mourning did not cease as long as
visiting mourners from other villages came to condole with the family.
It is customary for women in mourning to forbear changing or washing
their dresses for months.
Graves are usually bordered with heavy broken stone partly sunken into
the earth. For shaykhs and notables an oblong, box-like structure of
stone and mortar is built over the grave, and perhaps a headstone
erected, with an inscription in Arabic. The variety in the ornamentation
of graves is very considerable, especially in different districts of the
country.
Egypt was suffering from an epidemic of cholera in the summer of 1902.
The news of cholera in Egypt makes one apprehensive lest through
carelessness the disease should be brought into Palestine, although the
quarantines are supposed to be enforced strictly on all lines of
communication by sea or land. Toward the last of September the rumor got
about that cholera was in the country and that cases had appeared as
near as Hebron, twenty miles south of Jerusalem. By the middle of
October rumor was persistent that Ludd and Jimzû were affected by the
fell disease. English physicians in Jaffa published and circulated a
poster instructing the people as to means of prevention. The Jerusalem
government issued orders to the villages to clean the village streets
and burn up the refuse. This would be a boon under any circumstances.
The city streets were put into an excellent condition of cleanliness.
Whitewash was freely used on the walls of the buildings, especially in
the Jewish quarter. In a day or two Jaffa was reported to be infected by
the cholera and, as the days went by, rumors came from one after another
village that it was attacked by the scourge, which the natives call _the
yellow air_. They give it this name because of their belief that it is a
pestilential breath traveling in the air. One day, when the refreshing
west wind was blowing up from the sea, a peasant in our village
expressed the hope that the wind would change soon, as he feared that it
might bring up _the yellow air_ from the infected villages down in the
Mediterranean plain. This ignorance of the real nature of the disease
accounts, together with a fatalistic carelessness about observing the
right precautions, for the awful hold that it gets on an Eastern
country. It thrives best in the lowland country and least in the
highlands, not being supposed to ascend over two thousand feet with any
likelihood of persistence. But it was often carried to greater heights,
causing much anxiety. Hebron, for instance, is over three thousand feet
above sea-level. The bacillus has its greatest opportunity in running
water, as at springs. In order to attack the human being it must enter
the alimentary canal, usually, of course, by the mouth. A weakened
constitution, excessive fear, nervousness and chills from great or
sudden changes of temperature, make favorable conditions for its seizure
of the individual. It usually begins with a diarrhea, which, if
unchecked, is rapidly succeeded by the peculiar cholera discharges and a
physical collapse that is as complete as the weakness induced by days
and weeks of other severe diseases. Relief has to be prompt, the
temperature restored and the discharges checked very soon in order to
afford any reasonable hope of recovery. Most foreigners escape attack by
attending very strictly and conscientiously to the proper precautions
and heeding early indications, without allowing themselves to be
disturbed by unnecessary fears. But they should be personally sure that
only cooked food is eaten, no raw fruit or vegetables; that all water,
for whatever purpose destined, be boiled, whether it is to be drunk or
used to wash the person, hands, face, teeth or body, or used to wash
clothing or dishes. When cholera is in the vicinity unboiled water
should not be used for any purpose.
The people in our own village prohibited the approach of any persons
from the village of Ludd. These local prohibitions through the country
multiplied, making a set of quarantines that prevented travel and trade
in many of the country districts. Our native village physician was taken
by the government and placed in charge of the quarantine station at Bâb
el-Wâd, which is on the Jerusalem-Jaffa carriage road. The railroad
trains between Jaffa and Jerusalem were forbidden to stop anywhere
between Bittîr and Jaffa. Some friends in Jerusalem feared to come out
to visit us, only ten miles away, for fear that quarantine might be
imposed at any moment, thus preventing their return to the city.
However, that necessity did not arise during the whole time the disease
was in the country. But to the north of us we were cut off from Nâblus,
to the east from the Jordan country, to the west from the villages and
cities in the plain. Jerusalem was cut off from Hebron on the south. To
have cut us off from Jerusalem would have made a very tiny island of our
neighborhood. So long as we were part of the large island of which
Jerusalem was the center, and our district remained free of the scourge,
we were in a very happy case compared with what might happen any day.
The peasantry in the villages west of Jerusalem depend a good deal on
the sale of vegetables, fruit, bread and milk in the city, but soldiers
prevented them from coming in to pursue their usual business.
October closed with very conflicting reports as to the nature of the
sickness that was taking the people off, some declaring that it was not
cholera, but only similar; that it was this and that other thing. The
governor called together the merchants of Jerusalem and urged them to
maintain regular prices, but they replied that this was their
opportunity. He forbade any rise in wheat. However, prices on most
foodstuffs and imported supplies began to rise. The train service on the
Jaffa-Jerusalem line was discontinued. People rushed to the shops in the
city and bought up canned goods and groceries. Camphor rose in price
also, as the natives bought it to make little camphor-bags, which they
would smell frequently. Men were stationed out on the paths leading to
our village to prevent the entrance of people from suspected districts.
In Jaffa some deaths were reported in the dirty section about the boat
landings. Gaza reported the highest mortality, forty a day. Some of the
inhabitants of Gaza moved out on the seashore and lived in tents. No
deaths occurred among them. Ramleh set about providing its own cordon,
and although it was very near some of the worst of the afflicted places,
it kept itself free from the epidemic. Some Gaza men who essayed to
reach Jerusalem were put under arrest.
By November 5 the general impression was that the cholera was lessening
its violence. The people of Ludd were getting straitened for food. The
hospital and medical service of Miss Newton of Jaffa were a great
blessing. She sent medical assistance to the people in Ludd also and was
very prompt in getting in food supplies to the quarantined villagers.
The dearth of food in Hebron threatened to cause a rise of prices beyond
the reach of the poor. But some of the officials wishing to come to
Jerusalem, the quarantine was lifted for a day to accommodate them, when
some wheat slipped into Hebron from Jerusalem. In Jaffa the English
church was open twice a day for special prayers for the cessation of the
cholera.
We were greatly saddened toward the middle of November by the news that
Mrs. Torrance, wife of the physician in the Scotch Mission at Tiberias,
had fallen a victim to the cholera.
Some travelers who were having hard work getting through the country on
account of the crisscrossing of the quarantines, were in a hotel in
Nazareth when, during the night, a man came up to that hotel from
Tiberias and developed a case of cholera. The hotel guests found in the
morning that they were quarantined in the house. By the earnest use of
talk and money they got the privilege of passing the time of their
quarantine in some tents. They feared that, if they remained in the
hotel and more cases developed, their detention might be lengthened
indefinitely.
Some Jifnâ men who had been in Jaffa for weeks evaded the quarantine
regulations and returned to their village, which was one hour north of
us. Their own relatives were the first to drive them back with stones.
The neighbors reported the facts to the police in Jerusalem and soldiers
came out and shut up the quarantine jumpers in caves until they could be
returned to the quarantine station at Bâb el-Wâd to pass the legal
number of days.
On November 18 we heard of a man who had come from es-Salṭ to Jerusalem
and died, of cholera apparently, in Khan es-Sulṭân. This was the cause
of some worry, but no cases resulted. On the 19th, as we were thinking
that the colder weather would check the disease, we heard that it had
increased considerably in Jaffa. On November 20 our village physician
returned for a short visit to disprove to his family the report that he
had succumbed to the cholera. He had about a dozen or fourteen people in
quarantine at Bâb el-Wâd, who were taking that tedious way of
journeying. The government provided tents at two and a half or three
francs per day. Each person secured his own food by post carrier from
Jerusalem or elsewhere. The claim is now made that the cholera got into
the country through the faithlessness of the quarantine official south
of Gaza. He is accused of having let through seven thousand persons at a
bishlik (eleven cents) apiece. The story of how the cholera entered
Ḳubâb is illustrative. That village and the village of Barrîyeh use the
same fountain for water, the ‛Ayn Yerdeh. Cholera was in Barrîyeh, and
one mother who had lost a little child wished to keep its garments. She
took them to the ‛Ayn Yerdeh to wash them. Very soon a score of Ḳubâb
people were victims of cholera, and three hundred in all died in that
village. The doctor reported the people in the villages as very eager
for instructions and obedient in observing them when the disease was at
its height. He says that there were no tears, only great desire to
escape the dreadful enemy. He went to the different villages near his
station and, standing outside, summoned the shaykhs and chief villagers
within hearing distance, where he exhorted them to use the necessary
precautions. The Moslems have the custom of washing the corpses of their
dead. This contributed much to the spread of the disease, as the
flushings of water, vile from the body of the cholera victim, carried
the germs all about the house floor and infected a considerable space.
The physician’s orders were to bury the deceased, clothing and all, and
cover with six baskets of dry lime. Then all articles used or defiled by
the sufferer were to be burned.
Friday evening, November 21, some Jaffa Christians sought to flee from
their city and come to Râm Allâh, but the Râm Allâh people drove them
back with threats and stones. Some of the Râm Allâh people recommended a
cordon for all roads about the village, but the poorer inhabitants
declared that they could not stand the increased price of living that
would ensue. December 3 we heard that some Constantinople physicians had
visited Jaffa and declared the disease not cholera but malignant typhoid
fever. It made little difference to the generality what they chose to
call it. By December 6 cholera was reported at Jericho. It was reported
at an end in Ḳubâb but continuing in Jaffa with a very variable
death-rate. By the middle of December six thousand deaths had been
reported in Gaza. The reports from Jaffa always minified the number of
victims. One physician stated that, when the reports said fifteen a day,
he knew there were from fifty to seventy a day. It was said that Moslems
were evading the government’s orders regarding instant disposal of the
corpses and secreting their dead, in order that they might carry out the
custom of washing and otherwise preparing the body for burial. Hunger
probably played an important part in the death-rate. The outside world
never knew the facts. By the middle of January the cholera was announced
at Turmus ‛Âyâ, a little south of ancient Shiloh. But the disease had
done its worst for the country for that season.
The work of Miss Newton in Jaffa and vicinity was very effective and
impressed the Moslems greatly. One leading Moslem in Jaffa tried to
collect money for the suffering, but met with no very generous response.
He exclaimed of this English woman, “Do you mean to tell me that the
Moslems, all of them, will go to heaven and this noble young woman will
go to hell? Her shoe is purer than their souls.”