One evening as we journeyed homeward from the city we saw a group of Moslems squatting around in a circle on the ground eating their first meal for that day. They had been overtaken by the proper time while on a journey. We made a visit to Teḳû‛a and Herodium on the last day of Ramaḍân. We were gone from 7 A.M. until late evening. Our Moslem guide fasted all day. On the way back, after dark, as we passed through Bethlehem, he took a small quantity of food. Later, as we were going up the road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, the guide broke out joyfully, “Ramaḍân finished; not a day left,” and soon after we heard the Jerusalem guns ushering in the feast of Bairam.
Doubtless the strongest visible cord of union among the native Christians is the priesthood. Most priests feel themselves to be soldiers of the faith as well as expounders of its doctrines. They are exceedingly jealous of prerogatives. The hand-to-hand fights between Greek and Latin priests at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the feuds and wars between Maronites and Druzes in the Lebanon, the tireless rivalry all through the country of those who represent the native churches, witness to a sense of rights and also of a commission in a militant order. Any newly discovered ancient site of especially religious significance, such as the ruins of a church or a monastery, is seized, if possible, with avidity. The Orthodox Greek Church is easily the master of the situation in Christian Palestine. The wealth and influence of this church are great and its presumptive rights are unquestionable, since it is the church that was in possession of the land before the Moslem conquest and the church with which the conquerors have dealt. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic Church represents the faith of the Crusaders, who held power for over a century in the country, and to-day the interests of this church are upheld by French, Italian and Austrian influence. Wealth has poured in and a secure place has been won for this Western church in the cities. In the village progress for it is difficult. The Roman Catholic organization is closer than the Greek, and their representatives in Palestine are well educated, as a rule.
For the Orthodox Greek Church the patriarchate at Jerusalem is the ecclesiastical center in Palestine. The chief ecclesiastical positions are filled by foreigners speaking Greek. In any village the church, if large, is under the care of a foreign head priest, called raîs, assisted by native priests called khûrys. These khûrys must know a little, presumably, about reading and writing, in order to read the services in Arabic; but, as a matter of fact, some of them would be put to it if handed a bit of sight reading in their own tongue. In Râm Allâh, when a vacancy occurs in the number of these native assistants, each tribe nominates one candidate and the village elders choose one from the number. The chosen one goes to the patriarch in Jerusalem for his authority, regalia and induction into office. Each khûry assists in the prayers for a week in turn. They receive a monthly stipend from the patriarchate paid through the raîs. This may amount to between six and ten dollars. The Râm Allâh people pay into the church a fee of one and a half or two dollars for a marriage, forty cents for a funeral and about twenty-two cents for a baptism. A khûry may have been a tradesman before being chosen to office and have no special preparation for his work. He may be a married man when chosen and in such a case would retain his wife. The patriarchate in Jerusalem is possessed of great revenues from rentals and business interests and is disposed to be generous to its members and to make sure of their loyal adherence. Free quarters, provisions and other assistance are granted when such concessions will do good in cementing the allegiance of the communicants.
The native Greek Christian has no zeal for the conversion of a Moslem to Christianity. Some abhor the thought of giving the Christian gospel to the unbeliever, and some believe that the nature of the Moslem is irredeemable. Most of the natives, however, believe in a division or allotment[[120]] of religions to the peoples, that the gospel is for Christians and the Ḳurân for Moslems and that this is a very proper arrangement. The lack of interest on this subject is probably the result of centuries of habit and sentiment. Certain it is that few, if any, Moslem renegades would be allowed to live in Palestine. Two converted Moslems have been baptized in recent years and shipped to Egypt for safety. Moslems now and then convert Christians. In the mixed village of ‛Âbûd some Christians have turned Moslem.
The Christian year in Palestine, among the Greek Church peasantry, is according to the Julian style. Whenever a fast is the order of the Greek Church calendar those who heed it refuse resolutely any animal food, or food that is cooked in fat or that contains any amount whatever of butter, milk or other animal substance. Once while out traveling, during Greek Lent, we wished to share our lunch with a Christian native who attended to the riding animals. Among other supplies were some cookies. These were, of course, a new style of food, but sufficiently near to what the natives call “ka‛k,” cake. Being a little uncertain as to how such a thing might be made, the conscientious man had to inquire, and on our confessing that there was some animal substance in the article, he felt it necessary to decline it.
Easter goes by the name of the “Great Feast” among Oriental Christians, and its approach and occurrence arouse the keenest ecclesiastical activity during the year. Weddings, not being allowed during the Lenten fast, come in rapid succession after Easter Day. On a Palm Sunday we saw girls dancing on the threshing-floor of the village.[[121]] In the week preceding Easter come the ceremonial of feet-washing[[122]] before the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and the descent of the Greek fire at the Sepulcher, inside the same church. Good Friday evening is such a time of general attendance at church for prayer that it offers opportunities to those not of the faith to break into the village houses and steal.
The feasts constitute a convenient calendar, marking the seasons for the peasantry. For instance, in the autumn three of the feasts are connected in the minds of the peasantry with the coming of the rain. At the Feast of the Cross, towards the end of September, the peasants say there is rain on one hand and summer weather on the other. At the later Feast of St. George (el-Khuḍr), observed especially at Ludd, it is expected that the rain will come in an amount sufficient to enable the farmer to sow and plow. At the Feast of Burbâra (Barbara), in December, they say the rain will come in through every mouse-hole in the house, that is, in an exceptionally heavy downpour. On the first and last of these feasts, The Cross and St. Barbara, parents like to make for their children dishes of boiled wheat with little candies stuck around the top.
The Roman Catholic priests are zealously cultivating the native Christian population, and trying to increase in influence, though the feeling against them on the part of the Greeks is one of bitter hostility. They are forced to adopt a missionary policy and their growth in the country villages is very slow. They have established excellent monastery accommodations for the shelter of such of their pilgrims as pass through the country.
The United Greek Church, which is so important in the north, is making a small beginning in Palestine. It uses the Arabic language in the service. It is that section of the old Greek Orthodox Church which was won over to papal allegiance, and is being used as a sort of bridge between the Greek Church and the Roman. Protestants find the Greek Orthodox Christians much less hostile than the Roman Catholics. However, a priest of the United Greeks (Roman Catholic) has been known to bring boys to one of the Protestant boarding-schools for entrance for the sake of the training there afforded.
The Greek monasteries in the lonely country districts are often penal establishments, such as those in the Wâdy Kelt, on Mt. Quarantana (the traditional site of the temptation of Jesus), and at Mâr Sâbâ.