THE BUSINESS LIFE OF THE VILLAGE
The Palestine peasant can do hard work. When half starved, anemic,
hounded and terror-stricken he naturally enough fails to be as brisk and
as inventive as he might otherwise be, but with half a chance he is
industrious and thrifty. There are the lazy and the active as in other
countries. As a general rule it might be said that the Palestinian is
accustomed to work hard, but not steadily; liking to rest occasionally,
not understanding, nor benefiting by, a system of sharp espionage or,
more properly, “nagging.” This latter frets him and destroys his
efficiency, and ought not to be practised on him. A good-natured
firmness that holds him to the letter of agreements in simple, plainly
understood terms is much better.
[Illustration: FARMING IMPLEMENTS]
1. Plow. 2. Threshing sledge, showing the under side. 3 and 4. Grain
forks. 5. Wooden shovel or fan. 6. Seed-tube. 7. Sieve. 8. Dung basket.
9. Goad and share cleaner, the iron-shod end being used as the latter.
11. Yokes. Pruning knives and sickles are also seen in the picture.
(From the Hartford Theological Seminary Collection.)
The country life of Western Palestine to-day is organized on the basis
of farming. The original estate of the Arab is to own flocks and tents,
with the auxiliary pastimes of raiding and hunting. This life is
represented to-day by the nomad tribes of the Syrian desert and of
Arabia. They still roam over Eastern Palestine and penetrate into
Western Palestine, but their range is being narrowed in these regions by
the pressure of the Turkish government, which is organizing the country
more closely in favor of its own authority. The transition stage between
herding and agriculture may be seen in the Jordan Valley and eastward,
where the nomads and the village peasants go into partnership together
to raise grain. Ordinarily a desert nomad scorns the farmer and
villager, but there are Bedawîn farmers who are a sort of industrial
bridge between the civilization of the villagers and the primitive
freedom of the dwellers in tents farther east and south.[126] The
breeding of horses and camels falls to the nomad, while the rearing of
sheep, goats and cattle is the vocation of the villager. It is hardly
necessary to say that a scattered farm life, with dwellings far apart,
as in Europe and America, is not known in Palestine, since the country
is not yet secure enough to encourage it.
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The farmers (_fellaḥîn_) are the foundation of the village population.
Their lands lie out around the village and may extend a considerable
distance from it.[127] It will be well to understand the system of
landholdings in Palestine. There are three kinds of landholdings to be
distinguished, _wakf_, _mulk_ and _mîreh_. _Wakf_ land is land that is
held in perpetual and inalienable right by some ecclesiastical
establishment, as, for instance, the properties of the Jerusalem Mosk,
“The Dome of the Rock,” or the landed properties of the Hebron Mosk,
which is a very wealthy foundation. Or _wakf_ land may belong to a
school or other institution, or to a family. _Wakf_ land is supposed
never to change its character. If it belongs to a family there is an
elder of the family or some representative who is the wakf
administrator.
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_Mulk_ land is absolutely free and transferable land. It is usually in a
city or a village, or it may be in a certain border around such a place
of, say, forty yards in width. This is house and garden property for the
actual needs of city or village life. It can be sold or otherwise
transferred at the pleasure of its owners. Such a piece of property pays
an extra tax where a house is built on it, as the occupancy of the land
by a building prevents that land from yielding taxable produce.
_Mîreh_ land is domanial or state land. The ultimate title is with the
state, to whom it reverts in the event of the failure of proper heirs.
There are nine degrees of heirs eligible as owners of such land,
children, grandchildren, brothers’ children and grandchildren and so on;
lastly the wife of the owner, if all the other degrees fail. If the land
is sold, then the degrees count from the new owner and go right through
the nine degrees from him. So it is very possible that mîreh land may be
in continuous ownership other than the state’s.
Village cultivable lands are mîreh lands. In cases where they are
village lands they are held as communal lands. In villages like Râm
Allâh and el-Bîreh the land that is held thus in common as cultivable
land is divided into three grades according to quality. Then each grade
is divided into _feddâns_. A _feddân_ is, in the first instance, a team
or yoke; in Râm Allâh, four yoked cattle. Feddân then comes to mean the
amount of land apportioned to the owner of such an equipment, which
amount is presumably as much as the feddân of cattle could plow in a
day. Finally the term feddân is used by the peasants to indicate the
acknowledged right of a village farmer to own and work his plow and team
and participate in the annual divisions of the arable land of the
farming community. The feddân is the unit, but one feddân may be shared
by several owners, each partner contributing his share to the outfit and
being recorded as entitled to privileges in the feddân. These legal
fellaḥîn, then, receive by lot as their assignment for the year some of
each quality of land. Hence the man, or family, or company interested in
one _feddân_ may have land here, there and in a third place. A deep
furrow, the width of a plow, marks the boundary between the different
strips. Or a succession of small heaps of stones may mark the line.[128]
The workers on such a strip or strips pay the government taxes or tithes
on the produce of their land.
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[Illustration: A SOWER]
[Illustration: CHILDREN GLEANING]
To obtain a place in the list of such fellaḥîn and share in the use of
the communal lands is a matter of some complexity and difficulty and,
perhaps, of serious discussion amounting to a quarrel. A stranger coming
to the village to live cannot ordinarily enter into the land privileges.
A newcomer may occasionally be worked into a privileged family by
marriage. The old families of the villages, having had these land rights
for years, hold them tenaciously. Newcomers are ordinarily compelled to
turn to some other business, to open a shop or go into some kind of
manufacture. By a difficult procedure, eased with money, communal land
may become the private property of one person and be made into a
vineyard or an orchard.
It is customary, under intelligent management, to let the village grain
lands rest every other year.[129] Dressing the land is not resorted to.
The limestone in the soil supplies to some extent this lack.
Distinctively farm-buildings, such as barns, etc., are scarcely to be
seen unless it be at some farm-school or foreign colony.
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Wheat and barley are the common grains. The peasant knows nothing of
oats. Of hay, as the Western farmer raises it, he is likewise ignorant.
Large quantities of _dhurah_ are raised. This is a kind of millet. The
early part of the winter is the time for sowing wheat, or, as the
natives say, “When the thirst of the land is quenched.”[130] Barley,
which matures quicker, is sown a little later than wheat. In broadcast
sowing of grain the farmer sows first and plows afterward.[131] He
starts early with his companions for the field, a little donkey carrying
the plow and the seed-bags. The plow animals are usually unencumbered
while going to and from the fields. Arrived at the field the donkey is
turned loose to browse,[132] the men throw aside their upper garments
and tuck the corners of their skirts into their belts. The sower[133]
goes ahead, tossing the grain as evenly as possible over the ground,
while the plowman follows and turns it under. There is generally a good
deal of shouting on the part of the plowman in directing or stimulating
his animals.
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This talk to the domestic creatures is interesting. Here are some
samples: To start a mule the expression used is _dîh_; to stop it,
_hûs_. To start a donkey, _ḥe_, and to stop, _hîsh_. An ox is encouraged
to go by _imshi_ or _iṭla_, and commanded to stand by _huwwa_. So there
are appropriate words or sounds for the different creatures. To make a
camel kneel the driver says _ikh_; to make him rise, _ḥawwil_, and to
walk, _ḥay_. A horse is stopped by _hûs_ and started with a sucking
sound of the tip of the tongue back of the front upper teeth. Dogs are
called with _kity_ and sent away with _wisht_. Cats are called by _bis,
bis_, as one rubs thumb and finger, and scared away with a rough _biss_.
Hens are gathered with _tî‛ah_, chickens with _sîs_; both are driven off
with _kish_.
If the rains be fairly good the wheat springs up soon, varying as to
luxuriance with the richness and depth of the soil. Sometimes one will
see a donkey nibbling at the tender tops of new grain or animals walking
through it without rebuke from the owners. They seem to think that such
things will not materially hurt the crop if done during the early weeks
of newly springing growth, but that more rain and the later growth will
make up for the slight setback. But when the grain is fairly up more
care is exercised. The peasants are fairly respectful of the rights of
the owners of the grain that grows near the paths and roads.[134] One
seldom sees a passing native allowing animals to disturb the green
grain, though sometimes an insolent soldier will ride his horse right
into an unreaped field. For wheat, especially, the peasant has great
regard, considering it a sin to damage the growing wheat or to waste the
kernels and flour. His respect for this breadstuff is almost awe. A
donkey-boy in attendance on a party of tourists who were going to the
Valley at Mukhmâs (Michmash) was greatly perturbed because one of the
forward animals in the cavalcade began to nibble some green wheat by the
wayside. The boy shouted out _Ḥarâm Allâh, Ḥarâm Allâh_ (forbidden of
God) and stopped the creature as quickly as possible. Many peasants are
so poor that they have to substitute barley bread for wheat, but
ordinarily wheat is the food of the properly fed peasant and barley the
choicest food for horses, donkeys and mules. Chopped straw is also fed
to these animals.[135] For other animals, _kursenneh_, a grain
resembling lentils in appearance, is a common food. Tares[136] (_zawân_)
often make their appearance in the grain, especially if the seed is not
carefully separated before sowing. If the tare seeds are not taken out
of the wheat before it is ground, any considerable proportion of it in
the flour is apt to cause dizziness and nausea. The tares are of some
use, being sought as food for young chickens.
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It is especially favorable for the farmers if mists prevail at night
during the time just preceding the harvest. The moisture keeps the heads
of the grain from becoming brittle and so allowing the kernels to rattle
out too easily. Then, too, the work of reaping, hard at best, is much
pleasanter if the cooler weather is on for a few days. It is commonly
ordered that the farmers shall proceed to reap simultaneously, and it is
often forbidden to go out to the fields to reap until all are ready. By
this arrangement the assessment of the tax on the crop may be made with
more uniformity and thieving is rendered difficult. In all these
matters, requiring the regulating authority of recognized overseers, it
is the so-called _ukhtiyarîyeh_, or as we should say, selectmen, the
chiefs of the tribes, who decide questions from the day that the land
was parcelled out to the feddâns until the crop is gathered. The
beginning of the harvest is a time of merry singing and industrious
work.[137] Women as well as men go to the fields[138] and often the
babies are taken along in cradles. Some of the reapers sleep in the
field. The barley harvest always precedes the wheat harvest by a few
weeks.[139] In reaping, the stalks are grasped and cut low down with a
sickle.[140] A bunch is tied with a straw and thrown into a heap to make
a shock. The grain is carried to the threshing-floor by donkeys, mules
or camels.[141] The animals have much hard work during this season. The
threshing-floor is usually a smooth plot of ground near the edge of the
village, beaten hard. Very often a natural rock floor may be utilized.
At Baytîn (Bethel) the immense ancient pool, now dry, at the southwest
of the village, makes an excellent threshing-floor. On the floor the
grain is piled up in what look like huge walls, each family’s crop by
itself.[142] Watchers sleep on the floor at night to prevent theft[143]
and fire. When all is ready the families owning grain on the
threshing-floor throw down circular beds of the shocks and drive the
animals around upon it. In the middle highland country the hoofs of the
animals are depended on alone as threshing instruments.[144] But in the
north, and in some other sections, a sledge is drawn about by the
animals. In the bottom of the sledge teeth of iron or stone are
inserted, which tear the straw.[145] At Samaria we saw threshing being
done with the sledge and animals on the third of May. In Râm Allâh,
where they use animals only, and where the season is later, it may be
observed in June and possibly in July. Even down on the plain between
the Shephelah and Jaffa we saw the peasants at work on the thirtieth of
June, sometimes with a camel and a donkey hitched together. The animals
generally used are the plow cattle, but all animals available are liable
to be drafted into the service. Horses, donkeys, cattle and mules are to
be seen hitched together promiscuously.[146] The mouths of the animals
are often muzzled with sacking.[147] Their drivers follow them up with a
kind of basket on the end of a pole to catch the manure and prevent its
falling into the grain. When threshing begins the heap of stalks and
heads may be four feet high and fifteen or more feet across. Midday is
the best time for threshing, as the stalks are then brittle. When
thoroughly ground and beaten by the hoofs of the threshing animals the
heap may be but a foot deep. When the process of threshing is completed
the resulting mixture of chaff and grain is tossed into the air so that
the wind may carry off the chaff,[148] while the heavy grain falls
directly under the fan or wooden fork which the laborer is using. The
women then sift and clean the grain with different grades of sieves[149]
and the men put it into sacks. Another more thorough sifting and
cleaning is necessary before it is ground. The chopped straw, called
_tibn_, is used as a fodder for animals. Some of the worst of the refuse
is burned in the ovens. The fine dust-like chaff, called _mûṣ_, is also
swept up and used in a mixture with clay with which the roofs are
covered. A camel-load of wheat-tibn, two huge sacks, may cost from
fifteen piasters to twenty-three according to cleanness and the size of
the sacks. The lowest price that we ever paid was thirteen and one-half
piasters. This is the Jerusalem market piaster, which equals about three
and four-sevenths cents. The great wheat-field of the country continues
to be the Haurân, east of the Sea of Galilee. From that region caravans
of camels bring the sacked wheat into Western Palestine as far south as
Jerusalem. The local wheat supply is entirely inadequate for the needs
of the large villages, to say nothing of the cities, and must be
supplemented from the fields of Esdraelon, the Maritime Plain, the Ghôr
and the Haurân. When quarantine cuts off district from district, as in
cholera times, the suffering is considerable. The ordinary country
store-place for grain is a cemented cistern underground. Lentils,
kursenneh and chick-peas, _ḥummuṣ_, are subjected to threshing in a way
similar to that in which wheat and barley are treated.
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The grape season is the happiest of the year. It begins late in July and
reaches well on towards the rainy season, the first of November, or
possibly even to the first of December. It includes the time for ripe
figs, pomegranates, quinces and almonds. Comparatively few of the grapes
are turned into wine except on foreign initiative. The Jewish colonies
that have come into the country make considerable wine. A native spirit
called _‛araḳ_ is made from refuse grapes. A grape molasses, _dibs_, is
made. The fresh fruit is consumed in large quantities. Donkeys loaded
with box panniers of grapes go as far as Jaffa, thirty-five miles from
the grape regions. Hebron and Râm Allâh are famous for their grapes. Râm
Allâh is ten miles north of Jerusalem, and Hebron (el-Khalîl) nearly
twice as far south of the city. The Jerusalem market is kept abundantly
supplied with fresh grapes from these two places. Whole families go to
live in the vineyards during the season of ripening grapes.
A very important manufacture from grapes is the raisin. The business is
growing and the raisins are exported from the country through Jaffa. The
grapes, when picked from the vines, are washed, given a bath in a
mixture of lye-water and olive-oil, and then spread out on a cleanly
swept space of ground. The lye makes the skins tender and the oil tends
to keep off insects. The siroccos of September are of great assistance
in raisin making, though not at all good for the unpicked grapes, as
they are apt to turn them into raisins on the vines. The favorite raisin
of the country is that made from the little seedless variety of grapes
from es-Salṭ, east of the Jordan. These grapes go by the name _banât
eshshams_, that is, daughters of the sun. The next in favor are those of
Hebron, where the larger varieties of grapes, reddish and white, are
raised, and where the raisin making has been carried on for some time.
Third in quality, perhaps, come the raisins of the Râm Allâh district,
including Jifnâ, Bîr ez-Zayt, Silwâd, etc., where the industry has but
made a beginning. In this district the grapes are usually greenish white
or white, that is, somewhat similar to the Malaga variety. Native
business men of Râm Allâh go about the district paying from two cents to
three cents a pound for the raisins, subject to a discount of ten per
cent for waste. The German contractors provide wooden boxes for packing
the raisins. Women and girls are engaged to sort them, as they are
brought into Râm Allâh from the country around, at a daily wage of from
seven to twelve cents. Something less than a third of a cent a pound is
paid for camel transport to Jaffa, to which must be added the charges at
that port. On board ship the German contractors pay for the completed
consignment about three cents a pound, possibly a little more. The
native vine owners think that they are discovering that the early
picking of the grapes for raisin making prevents waste and saves the
strength of the vines.
After the season the vines should be pruned and the vineyards plowed and
dug over, once in early and once in late winter.[150]
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In vineyards and fig-orchards one will notice the stone huts called
_ḳaṣr_,[151] plural _ḳuṣûr_. Between seasons, when they are not in use,
they swarm with hungry fleas. Near each of them is a tiny sunken pit,
walled on three sides, which makes a little fireplace. A similar pocket
makes a hiding-place for dry figs which are left here under slight
pressure beneath a flat stone. The latter place is made to look like the
ground about by covering with small stones so as to mislead thieves.
Such a hiding-place is called a _mikhba_. Most of the fig crop is dried
for later use. The smaller varieties are most suitable for this purpose.
The fruit is picked into small baskets and spread out on the ground.
Sometimes the fruit is crushed by the hand to hasten the drying.
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The olive crop is ready late in the autumn. The trees are beaten[152]
with long poles by the men, while women and children gather up the
berries from the ground. Seldom is care exercised to select and sort the
best of the berries. They are piled in heaps inside the house, where
they often become heated through, thus producing an inferior quality of
oil. The berries are first put into a circular stone bed, where they are
crushed, seed and all, by a sort of millstone set on edge and run like a
wheel around a central pivot by a shaft. The crushed mass is then put
into gunny sacking or coarse baskets and carried to the press. The
oil-presses have always been very primitive, bungling affairs, but of
late iron screws are being introduced.
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When the grapes have all been picked from a vineyard the sheep and
goats[153] are turned in to eat the leaves from the vines. The flocks
are allowed to feed in the wheat and barley-fields, also, after the
harvest. Goats and sheep are very often seen together in flocks.[154]
Their keepers, who are their inseparable companions through the day,
take care to secure safe folds for them at night. A party of us were at
Teḳûa on the 30th of December, 1902. After examining the ruins we turned
our attention to the modern aspect of the place. The caves and recesses
about the ruins were used by shepherds, who were living there and caring
for large flocks. As the sheep and goats came home late in the
afternoon, the little lambs and kids, whose tender days forbade their
accompanying their mothers to pasture, were hungrily awaiting them.
There were about sixty of these young ones skipping about. When the
plaintive cries of the little ones were answered by the motherly calls
of the returning elders there was considerable excitement and motion on
both sides, until by some mysteriously hidden sense families were united
and all was quiet again as supper progressed. A few days later, on our
way in from Mâr Sâbâ, we saw the newborn of the flocks in the desert
places where animals were browsing. The shepherd usually carries the
newly-born in from the fields.[155] Very rarely is one missed. Once, in
the valley called Wâdy el-‛Ayn, between eṭ-Ṭayyibeh and Dayr Dîwân, I
traced a little kid by its bleat, and seeing no flock about carried it
home in my saddle-bags, hoping to rear it; but, missing the peculiar
quality of the new milk of its mother, it did not survive many hours.
Sometimes, in order to curb the inordinate appetite of a young kid for
the milk, the shepherd puts a little bit in its mouth, made by two
pencil-like sticks and secures the ends by cords crisscrossed over the
sprouting horns.
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[Illustration: THRESHING]
[Illustration: A THRESHING SCENE IN THE OLD POOL AT BETHEL]
The sheep of Palestine have immense tails, which often weigh fifteen
pounds and more. In the Lebanon this weight is doubled on the sheep that
are specially fattened for the winter supply of meat. These sheep,
called _ma‛lûf_, are fed on the remains of the mulberry leaves not
devoured by the silkworms. As the worms eat only the tender parts of the
leaves, the sheep are given what is left. When the animal is so
surfeited as to refuse more food, an attendant makes it her business to
roll it up in leaves and force it into the unwilling creature’s mouth.
The sheep attains an almost incredible size under this treatment.
The goats have very long flapping ears, which often get torn in the
briers as they hold their heads down to feed. On some breeds the ears
nearly, if not quite, touch the ground as the goats walk along. Goats
and sheep are allowed to overrun all the wild places for pasture, so
that any shoots of trees or shrubs that start are nibbled off. They
browse upon some of the driest and least promising ground. They flourish
best in the time of the rains. As the country’s surface is burned over
with the hot summer and autumn, the flocks are driven to the few moist
valleys.[156] Most frequently a boy is in charge of a smaller
flock.[157] He whiles away some of his time on a reed flute.[158] If his
animals get too far from him, or go in the wrong direction, he heads
them off with a call and by dropping a stone from his sling,[159] or
hand, just beyond them in the forbidden direction. The shepherd’s usual
weapon is a heavy oaken club, called locally _dibbûsy_ from its
resemblance in shape to a pin, the long handle being ended in a round,
heavy knob. This club is under three feet in length and weighs from one
to two pounds. It is a powerful weapon. Often, too, a shepherd will
carry one of those long, rickety, brassbound muskets that look very
dangerous,—for the manipulator. A leathern pouch, flint and steel, a
knife and a sling of woolen yarn complete the outfit, except the actual
clothing. The main garment is a long cotton shirt that comes to the
knees, belted with a leathern belt. For sleeping and for rainy weather
the homespun woolen overcoat, called an _‛abâyeh_, is worn. Shoes and
head-dress finish off the man, who is the loneliest of Syrians, though
he sings and plays and talks to his animals. Sometimes, as you see him
in silhouette against the sky-line, he seems to be transfixed on the
club or musket on which he leans, so long does he stand unchanged. When
he moves it is with singularly slow movements.
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[Illustration:
1.—HAND SPINNING 2.—REELING
3.—STRAIGHTENING THREADS FOR THE LOOM
]
Besides meat and milk, which both goats and sheep provide, the sheep
produce wool. Considerable raw wool is bought by the weavers of the
village. A man in Râm Allâh, whose house abuts unpleasantly on more
valuable property, refuses to sell it to a well-to-do neighbor[160]
because it is on the outskirts where he is in a position to get first
chance at those who come into the village from that direction to sell
fleeces. The wool is washed, combed, dyed and spun into thread by the
villagers. We had occasion to purchase a lot of wool in fleeces for
mattresses. We bought five hundred and ten pounds at eleven cents per
pound, but after a thorough cleansing we found that the lot weighed four
hundred and twenty-six. Having purchased ticking for mattresses, quilts
and pillows, and cotton for filling the quilts, our next step was to
engage the services of the mattress-maker from Jerusalem. His name was
Baruch, a Spanish or Sephardim Jew, tall, wiry and dark, with stooping
shoulders and remarkably successful in getting hold of one’s hand and
planting on it a reverential kiss before his object was discovered. The
kiss felt and sounded like the bursting of a smoke-ball. He came for a
few days’ stay, bringing his tools and a boy helper with him. The most
novel of the implements was one shaped like a huge bow which is used in
fluffing up cotton or wool. It might be compared to an attenuated
single-stringed harp. It is held in the hand by the wooden part, the
string resting in the cotton. By striking the cord with a wooden mallet,
a vibration is set going that twangs musically and throws the cotton
into a light, billowy mass. He is very skilful with his needles. He
would sew and quilt nearly twenty hours out of the twenty-four in his
haste to complete the task and get back to Jerusalem. We were put to it
to feed him properly, as certain things were unlawful for him to receive
and eat from our hands. But eggs, olives, bread and tomatoes were
acceptable. In case of a doubt concerning an article of food we simply
asked him whether it was lawful or not. He was very gentle and pleasing.
We had to be careful to see that he did not go to sleep among his
inflammable materials and leave the lamps burning according to Oriental
practise.
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When otherwise unemployed a villager will spin off a ball of yarn by
hand. Two sticks, like thick pencils, are laid one across the other at
right angles. This makes the bobbin. The upright one is notched at the
top to catch the thread when needful. A hank of clean wool is disposed
over the left forearm. A little of this is started through the fingers
of the two hands. It is then caught on the notched end of the bobbin,
which is given a whirl and allowed to hang down, while the hands play
out the twisting yarn to govern the thickness. When the bobbin carrying
the spinning yarn has reached the ground, the amount of yarn already
made is wound up on it and caught at the notch. The whirling, feeding
out and spinning go on until a ball of yarn is produced.
The looms are primitive and heavy. They are constructed in the dark room
which serves as the weaver’s house. A pit is made for him to sit in, and
only the light from the door falls on his work. Cotton and wool fabrics
of heavy texture are produced. The heavy woolen ‛abâyeh is the chief
garment made by the peasant weavers. The light-weight cloth for the
other garments is purchased from the city shops. Coarse rugs are made on
a still more primitive loom, which is often seen out-of-doors,
especially among the Bedawîn.
The land of Palestine bears abundant evidence of a higher state of
cultivation once upon a time than that of the present day. Remains of
villas, terrace walls and numerous cemented cisterns to catch rain-water
are observable. The soil lacks only water to produce abundantly. For the
most part the list of things grown has narrowed to those requiring the
least care and capital. Where springs are plentiful, and where the
people have a little ambition, a variety of vegetables and fruits are
cultivated. But because of the uncertainty of the amount and incidence
of the tax there is little incentive. In the neighborhood of Jaffa some
of the finest oranges in the world are raised. The Sidon oranges come
next in desirability. The Jordan Valley is one of the richest garden
spots imaginable. The vine is perfectly at home in the lime country of
the highlands, as are the fig and the olive.[161] This same region is
excellently well adapted to silk culture, and might exceed the Lebanon
in this respect, though scarcely a dream of such a possibility is
indulged in Palestine. The gardens of Urṭâs, near Solomon’s Pool, of
‛Ayn Kârim, of Silwân (Siloam) and of Jenîn might with encouragement be
matched hundreds of times. Around Haifa, and on the way to ‛Athlît, the
Germans have shown what improvements are possible. There is also the
fine agricultural farm at Jaffa, called Mikweh Israel, or Natur’s, under
French management. By pools and cisterns, conduits and irrigation, the
peasant farmers could make garden spots where now to the eye of the
stranger all looks hopeless. The peculiar powdery effect of lime rock,
and the countless tons of small stones constantly breaking up and
showing on the surface of the ground, look, but are not necessarily,
forbidding.
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The market of a village is usually its chief street, in which the buyers
and sellers meet each other, where the laden animals from the country
about come with goods, and where people bent on business are most apt to
meet those who can serve them. Shops and storerooms line the market
street. The Arab name for this interesting locality is _sûḳ_. Thither
the gardener takes such of his produce as he cannot himself use, and if
he be not a merchant himself, puts it into the care of one who is, on
commission. Venders of fabrics, pottery, breadstuffs and meats assemble
here and display their goods. The shopkeepers naturally seek localities
in the market street and, when space fails there, in the adjacent
streets. If there are a number of tribes in the village, each tribe, in
its own section, may have stores for the supply of the simple stock of
foodstuffs required. A shop or store is a little room from six to a
dozen feet square, with a door, seldom a window, a counter and the
necessary bins and shelves. What we should call a grocery store will
keep in stock sugar, flour, oil, matches and possibly grain. Some simple
candies, some spice, starch, dried fruit, coffee and rice may complete
the list. The scales will be on the counter. No wrapping-paper need be
used, as the purchaser brings his own dish if he be purchasing a liquid,
and if not, carries his purchases in the skirt of his dress or in a
handkerchief. The sugar comes in a huge loaf covered with blue paper.
Salt is heavily taxed by the government. Tobacco is a government
monopoly and to be sold only by a specially authorized merchant, who
wears a brown coat as a sort of uniform designating him and his rights.
Such a shop as has been described may add cotton cloth and thread to its
stock. Shoe shops confine themselves to the making and displaying of
peasant shoes. The weaver of cloth and ‛abâyehs ordinarily has no
separate place of sale, but sells from the loom-room or else makes a
journey to the villages about and displays the goods in their market
streets. The shops have their regular customers, to whom they sell on
credit, with some favor and less haggling than is customary with other
purchasers. The butcher hangs his freshly-slaughtered sheep on hooks in
the side wall of the market street and sells at a uniform price per ruṭl
or _oḳḳîyeh_ any part of the creature. Perhaps he has not killed until
there is a likelihood of demands enough for meat to warrant the venture.
If local restrictions do not hinder, the butcher may kill and dress his
animals right in the market street.
The traders are keen and allow no points of advantage to escape their
notice. In fact, the conversation of the common people of the country is
in terms of the currency and concerns the ins and outs of bargaining,
loss and gain. Sometimes, in the heat of trading, the parties appear to
rise into a frenzy of altercation. But nothing is ever settled at this
high tension. After a few seconds of comparative calm the haggling and
controversy begin again and an attempt is made to find a common basis of
argument in which neither party may yield too much. The difference
between wholesale and retail business is not very clearly recognized in
the villages. Few peasant producers know what their own expense has been
in the production of their commodities. Striking a bargain is a tedious
process to the stranger, but an exercise of great interest to the native
and full of possibilities. He declares that the business arrangement
shall be as you like, utterly. He is a servant of God, he seeks not
money but your happiness, your good-will. Is not that the sweetest
possession, the love and favor of brothers? If it is a house that you
are trying to rent at a decent price, he says, “What is such a thing as
that between us? Take it for nothing.”[162] An utter stranger once came
to my door with a young gazel which he had found in the wilderness. He
declared that it was a present to me. I offered him forty cents for it
and he demanded sixty. I gave him the forty, however, promising the
other twenty if the little creature lived.
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Measures and weights vary as between villages. In the cities the French
system prevails, but in the country the peasantry persist in the use of
the variable weights and measures. Many things are weighed which with us
are measured, as, for example, olive-oil and vegetables. The _oḳḳîyeh_
approximates a half pound. Six of these oḳḳîyehs equal an _oḳḳa_, and
two oḳḳas equal a _ruṭl_. One hundred ruṭls equal a _ḳonṭâr_. The linear
measure of one _dhrâ‛_ or _drâ‛_ equals about twenty-seven inches. The
grain measure, called _ṣâ‛_, is the least regular of all. The Râm Allâh
ṣâ‛, for example, is a little larger than the Jerusalem ṣâ‛ and more
than double that of Ṭayyibeh.
In theory the coinage of the country consists of the Turkish gold pound
of one hundred piasters, the silver _mejîdeh_ of twenty piasters, the
half and quarter silver mejîdeh, the silver double piaster, piaster and
half piaster. There are also coins of nickel and copper alloy, one
called _bishlik_, which equals two and a half piasters, a double
bishlik, called _wazary_ in Jerusalem and _zahrâweh_ at Haifa, a half
bishlik, a half piaster and a quarter piaster. There are some copper
coins of small value. This list and these values are according to the
government standard, which is called _ṣâgh_, and they hold for all
payments of taxes, for the post and telegraph and for legal business.
For ordinary trade in the country, though these same coins are used,
different values are assigned to them. Thus Hebron, Jerusalem and other
places have their own systems of reckoning. In Jerusalem the tariff
_sherk_, or market, as it is called, makes the mejîdeh twenty-three
piasters instead of twenty as in government reckoning. The result is a
diminution of the piaster and an increase in the number of them in each
of the coins mentioned above. The Turkish gold pound is not seen in the
country, but the gold twenty-franc pieces of the Latin Monetary Union
are frequently seen and go by the name _lîreh fransaweh_ or _nubalyôn_
(Napoleon). This coin equals one hundred and nine piasters according to
the Jerusalem market rate.
Change is seldom made for the large coins except in the better city
shops, but must be purchased of the money-changers who sit behind their
little tables at different points on the main streets. A very common
rate for change is the charge of a piaster and a half for changing the
Napoleon into small money. In the villages the storekeepers sell change.
The peasants refuse to accept damaged coin or any coins that arouse
their suspicions as to genuineness or weight. A few coins are less
acceptable in some sections than in others. The big copper coin called
the _ḳobbuḳ_, worth five _paras_ in Jerusalem, is not used in Beirut,
and conversely the _neḥâsy_ of Beirut and vicinity is not used at
Jerusalem. When the new style _metlik_ had been issued by the government
and had been in use in Constantinople for some time, it was slowly
gaining favor in Beirut and was being refused in Palestine except in a
few places, where it was taken at a discount of one-fifth from its legal
value.
A primitive method of keeping a record was seen at the village of
eṭ-Ṭayyibeh. A small bow was made from a twig and on the cord was strung
a lot of paper slips. Every slip contained the names of five Ṭayyibeh
men. The whole village was thus divided up into groups of five. Whenever
soldiers coming from Jerusalem were quartered on the villagers one of
these groups was responsible for feeding the soldiers. Each group took
its turn. Another bow, string and bunch of written slips represented the
order of turns of the citizens for feeding the soldiers’ horses.
Money lending is common among the country people and often the rates are
very high. Seldom is the rate less than ten per cent, and more often it
is twenty. A clever man possessed of a small capital multiplies it
rapidly by judicious loans, though it must be confessed that the
gambling element enters pretty largely into the business. Some
possessors of ready money invest it in the form of advances to owners of
future crops, taking their pay in the crop when harvested. This is often
done when soldiers, representing the government, descend on a village
and demand the taxes. The peasants in seeking the ready money with which
to pay are compelled to dispose of barley and other produce cheap.
Often of an evening one will hear the crier publishing something of
general concern to the villagers. In Râm Allâh this officer, called
_nâṭûr_, and chosen by the shaykhs, receives a yearly allowance of
seventy mejîdehs. The tribal elders decide upon some matter for general
observance and the crier makes it known. For instance, when an
especially dry season was on, the village crier was heard proclaiming
that no woman should draw more than one jar of water from the springs at
a time. If any woman were caught offending the extra jar would be broken
and a fine of a bishlik (eleven cents) imposed. At another time it was
forbidden the people to harvest the olives until a certain date. Lost
articles are advertised by the criers, and those lounging about in the
evening are kept in touch with business news, as the voice penetrates
all quarters of the village.
The go-between, or _wasîṭ_, is a familiar figure in Syrian business
matters. A merchant from Nazareth explained to me the popularity of this
intermediary thus: “If there are two men, each wanting something of the
other and neither wishing to express his whole mind before the other has
done so, they can avoid the difficulty by employing a third person to
whom each unbosoms freely, and this third person, possessing the secrets
of both, knows how to approach either one with the business of the
other.”[163]
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The village shaykhs are agents in many business matters. The shaykh is
chief of his family or tribe in all matters needing a representative.
The position often goes from father to son, if the ability which secured
the position for the father be a characteristic of the son. Or it may go
to some other near of kin to the former shaykh. The shaykhs are
sometimes chosen by acclamation or by general consent and are recorded
by the general government. The shaykh is in charge of the guest-room of
his tribe. Here it is that out-of-town business men are taken,
especially if they have come to buy commodities of the village. When the
soldiers are sent by the government to a village with a levy they are
entertained at the guest-house. The shaykhs of the different tribes in
the village deal with the soldiers. The amount of money asked of the
village is apportioned between the shaykhs representing the tribes. Each
shaykh distributes his apportionment to the members of his own tribe. If
any man prove obstinate in meeting his obligations he is turned over by
the shaykh to the soldiers, who may beat him or carry him off to prison.
If the government seeks an offender in the village it does so through
the shaykh of the offender’s tribe.
[Illustration: VARIOUS ARTICLES MADE OF SKIN: BOTTLES, BAGS, POUCHES AND
BUCKETS]
The background is formed by a large straw floor mat, such as used in the
guest rooms. (From the Hartford Theological Seminary Collection.)
Where there are a number of shaykhs, in dealings with the government,
the village is represented by one or more of the number who go by the
name _mukhtâr_. So in Râm Allâh there are three of these mukhtârs, one
for the Greeks, one for the Roman Catholics and one for the Protestants
of the village. The last two are a concession to the interests of those
who might not be fairly represented by the first mukhtâr.
The stone and building trades are highly respected industries among the
peasants. In a typical peasant house there is scarcely any woodwork to
be done except to set up a heavy door. The windows, if there are any,
are small light-holes merely. Quarrying, stone-dressing and construction
are carried on in every large village. The highlands have yielded
inexhaustible supplies of building material from time immemorial.
Limestone may be found and burned anywhere.[164] The kilns are usually
built in valleys or on their sides, where it is possible to dig a
good-sized pit before building up the circular stone walls, and where
the draft will be good.
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A _ḳonṭâr_ of lime is one hundred twenty ruṭls (seven hundred fifty
pounds) instead of the usual one hundred ruṭls, and costs about a dollar
delivered. The master workers in lime and stone and cement receive from
seventy-five cents to a dollar and ten cents per day in the villages.
Their helpers receive from twenty-five cents upwards, according to the
grade of work.
As the common name for stone is _ḥajar_, the place where stone is found,
the quarry, is called _maḥjar_, the prefix _m_ conveying the sense of
locality. Rough, undressed stone blocks are called _debsh_. Those
roughly squared, but undressed, are called _khâmy_. Dressed
building-stones are called _ḥajar_. Flat flagstones are called _balâṭ_.
Stone cut for arches goes by the name _maḳâdam_ (singular, _maḳdum_).
The limestone of the country is found in several grades of hardness and
desirability for different kinds of building. The very best stone for
house building is a hard white limestone which holds well with lime
cement and is known as _mizzy ḥulu_. _Mizzy aḥmar_ is very similar, but
of a brownish-red color. The softer limestone is called _kûkûly_. The
stronger kind is yellowish, _kûkûly aṣfar_; the other kind, a white
stone, _kûkûly abyaḍ_. _Malakeh_ is a pretty, brilliant, white stone
used decoratively in finishing over doors and windows. The very hard
flint _ṣuwwân_ would ordinarily be unmanageable for building purposes.
_Nâry_ is a soft, easily crumbled stone that cements together in a
compact mass with lime and is used in filling in the core of house walls
and in arches supporting the house floors (_muṣṭaby_) above the cellars.
_Hethyân_ is similar to _nâry_, but even softer and reddish. _Huwârah_
is really decomposed stone, very soft, used as a top dressing in
building roads, where it settles into a natural cement, mingling with
broken rock and soil. Soil is called _trâb_ and a derivative from it,
_trâby_, is used colloquially to designate clay and wet earth as
materials in building. Lime is known as _shîd_ and mortar as _ṭîn_.
Cement goes by an imported name _shementu_, or _ḥomrah_, literally the
_red_ dust of pounded pottery. The hard cement, called _kaḥly_, used in
pointing the house walls, is made of lime, _ḥomrah_, that is, pounded
pottery, and _nehâteh_, the dust that falls from the work of the
stone-dressers’ tools. Plaster is called _ḳaṣâreh_ or _iḳṣâreh_, and
whitewash, _trâsheh_. Tile and brick go by the name _ḳermîd_. The heavy
iron hammer with which rough stone is squared into workable shape is
called the _shaḳûf_. The _râs_ is a heavy sort of iron hammer with
pointed ends of steel used as a pick. The hammer used to drive the
chisels and occasionally to do slight dressing by pounding the edges of
a stone is called _muṭraḳeh_ and is quite unique in shape. Its two faces
are set obliquely on the central part of the head and a short handle
supplied. By this adjustment of the faces a downward stroke is more
easily effected. It is of steel and about three pounds in weight. The
_shâḥûṭeh_ is a heavy double steel hammer toothed at both ends. One edge
may have more, and the other edge less, than twenty teeth. Two grades of
face dressing may be given to a block of stone with this one tool. The
_maṭabbeh_ is a very heavy hammer made of a rectangular bar of steel
with ends about two inches or less square. These ends or faces are
supplied with numerous points, making anywhere from eighty-one to one
hundred and forty needlelike teeth, according to the grade of work
required. The _shôkeh_ is a pointed round steel chisel and comes in
various sizes. The _izmîl_ is a flat, bladelike steel chisel of
differing sizes used in dressing the sides of stone where, in building,
a close joint is desired. Stone is gotten out of the quarries with
wedges, heavy hammers and the râs. The shâkûf is then brought into play.
Mizzy stone may be dressed with the shôkeh (chisel), then with the
shâḥûṭeh and lastly with the maṭabbeh. Kûkûly may be pounded with the
râs and then dressed with the shôkeh and shâḥûṭeh, or, when quite soft,
the shôkeh’s work may be done by the preliminary dressing with the râs.
The trade of stone dressing is known as _daḳâḳeh_ and the workmen as
_daḳḳîḳ_, both terms being connected with the verbal root _daḳḳ_. The
builder or mason is known as the _bannâ_. The more pretentious title
_muhandis_ or _muhandis bannâ_ is given to those competent to undertake
and judge of immense works. Such are often foreigners, resident in
cities, who are called out on jobs demanding expert opinion and advice.
The muhandis is highly respected as a master of the whole art of
construction.
Foot travel is the rule among the peasants. Those whose business takes
them away from the home village walk the entire day with about the same
endurance that they work in the fields at home.[165] The few who own
donkeys or mules walk behind their loaded animals, carrying produce
between the villages. Hence it comes about that donkey paths make up by
far the great majority of the paths and that the transport of bulky and
heavy articles is difficult in the interior. The government roads
increase slowly, but are very great conveniences when constructed. The
road at present under construction from Jerusalem to Nâblus (Shechem) is
being made in sections by contract. The contractor hires the natives to
bring the materials, broken rock, lime dust and pulverized stone, and an
excellent carriage road results. The natives along the way then begin an
irregular carriage service which creates a business. Seats for citizens
range about twenty cents apiece for a ten-mile journey, though the price
depends somewhat on the number of passengers clamoring for, or
indifferent to, accommodations, and the apparent ability of the
applicant. As in many other kinds of bargaining, the engaging of a
carriage seat is made more sure by receiving a pledge from the owner
that he will keep his word with you. This _‛arrabôn_ is frequently
demanded by the party to a business arrangement who has the greater
interest in its fulfilment and would suffer the greater inconvenience in
the event of default. In the case in question perhaps half a fare will
be demanded from the carriage driver as a pledge that he will perform
the required service, and if he wants business badly enough he will
entrust the sum to the keeping of his prospective passenger. Now and
then, when a family is carrying a quantity of bedding and other
household goods, copper vessels, baskets, boxes, their chickens and
children, the carriage may seem a little crowded, but usually for men
travelers the accommodations are fairly comfortable. Frequently some of
the peasant passengers will become nauseated by the motion of the
carriage and hang their white faces out the carriage door. The carriage
will continue to be a luxury for some time in the country districts.
Sick people and children are greatly convenienced by a carriage service,
since in rainy weather it saves unnecessary exposure. Now and then a
lone pedestrian will succumb to the raw chill of the rainy days and die
on the road. During heavy rains the Russian pilgrims, if caught out in
the dismal weather, suffer and lose some of their number by death.
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[Illustration: A MARKET SCENE: PEASANTRY NEAR DAVID’S TOWER, JERUSALEM]
Camel trains are used in transporting grain. Camels can be used only in
dry weather, as their large, spongy feet slip on the muddy ways and they
are apt to fall spread-eagle fashion and be hurt fatally.
In the village of Râm Allâh the customary width of a road is but three
meters.
A case has been known where a man, who owned land on both sides of the
road, desired to consolidate his properties, and accomplished it by
building in the road and deflecting traffic to such an extent that it
left him on one side of its course.
The trades that need a large patronage for support are usually carried
on in the cities, though the craftsmen go on tours through the villages,
doing such work in their line as has accumulated since their last visit.
So carpenters, glaziers, tinsmiths, cleaners and whiteners of the copper
cooking vessels (_ṭungerer_), sellers of ready-made garments, etc.,
itinerate among the villages. The gipsies are the country blacksmiths.
In the cities native blacksmiths are found. In shoeing a horse the
custom is to place the foot to be shod on a small block and have an
attendant hold up the other foot of the same side to prevent kicking.
Ready money is scarce enough to be a very strong influence in favor of
any occupation that can offer it. Many men and women from the villages
about Jerusalem go into the city to sell their produce or their labor.
Sitting about the streets near David’s Tower may be seen the Silwân
women with vegetables, milk and eggs. Some men who own donkeys or mules
act as messengers between their villages and the city, carrying produce
into the markets and returning with purchases for the village. Some Râm
Allâh men go into the city as mechanics, but more go for domestic
service in the houses and convents. When women servants are needed they
are usually secured from Bethlehem, which is only five miles from the
city.
The peasants use the word _antîky_ (plural, _antîkât_) for any antique
object, such as a bit of carving, an inscription, an old coin or a piece
of glass or pottery. Indeed, some friends of ours met an extension of
the use of the term in Egypt. A girl, very eager to sell them some
oranges, after following the carriage a long way and being continually
refused, hit on what she thought would be a successful method. Thrusting
the fresh fruit close to the Americans she cried, “Antîky, antîky.”
Seldom can the peasants really comprehend the strange delight that
foreigners take in ancient objects, unless perchance the material be
precious metal or stone, but they have learned that antiquities command
a price. So with a money stimulus the mischief is augmented. Certain of
the country people go hunting for old objects, rifling ancient tombs and
scattering the contents far and wide in order to gratify the hideous
taste of curio purchasers. Fearing lest they may be traced in their
philistinism the peasants give wrong information as to the places from
which the articles came so that their “finds” lose much of their value
as historic data. Could the place and conditions of their age-long
burial be known they might give archeological information more precious
than the intrinsic value of the objects themselves. Sometimes a “find”
is more or less injured because it is supposed to be valueless.
The provisions of the Turkish law regarding antiquities are very strict
and operate to make scientific research difficult when not impossible.
But the administration of these laws is not skilful enough to prevent an
immense amount of sly pilfering from old tombs and suspected localities.
Ancient tombs are completely covered from observation by soil. After
heavy rains these sealed tombs are often betrayed by a slight sinking of
the earth about them, and thus possibly a whole series of tombs will be
discovered and their contents disposed of in the distant city.[166]
These opened tombs may be seen all through the country, staring from the
hillsides and among the terraces like ghastly eye-sockets. In the house
which we hired for a boys’ school the builders had placed in one room as
a floor stone an _antîky_ of which they were proud. It was an ornamented
and inscribed slab which they claimed to have found at Dayr Dîwân.[167]
The inscription in Greek read
✠ΥΠΕΡ ΑΝΑΠΑΥΣΕΩΣ ΣΗΛΑΜΩΝΟΣ ΠΡΕΣΒΣ✠
For the repose of Sêlamôn (Solomon) Presbyter.
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