FOUNTAIN AT NAZARETH
Often in a conversation where there seems to be a likelihood of ill feeling, as, for instance, in business matters, the one who is leading the conversation will pronounce the opening salutations and addresses all over again. So in the middle of a conversation that does not appear to be “getting anywhere,” he may break in suddenly with “Good morning, sir; how are you?” This repeated several times during a long talk has the effect of a fresh start with the erasure of what has passed. Sometimes a man who is being pressed, as he thinks, unduly, will break out into vituperation, pass his hand over his brow in sign of weariness and the unreason of his opponents, even weep a little with vexation. Meanwhile all the other talkers about him observe him soberly and silence may rest on them for some minutes before the subject is resumed. All these things make little difference with the results of the business in hand, however. He who has the advantage holds it unmoved, though he may be as diplomatic as possible in forcing the conclusion. Any exhibition of passion or impatience usually betrays the weaker side in the discussion. Such conversations may be continued at odd times through days.
When there are visitors at the guest-house who are to be fed, the people take one of the huge dishes known as the minsaf, fill it with food, generally rice and mutton, and several help to carry it to the guest-chamber, supporting it in a large piece of sacking, which they hold by the four corners.
One of the gala times to which the neighbors look forward is what might be called a roofing-bee. When a house which is in the course of building has been finished except the roof, the master mason in charge becomes practically the head of an open-air festival, for besides his usual helpers the whole neighborhood turns out to assist. The women bring stone and mortar, the men stand in line to pass it, and amid shouting, singing and the firing of guns the work goes on merrily to completion, when the mason is supposed to receive as a present a new robe and the merrymakers are feasted on rice.
Among the rich, women as well as men smoke the nârjîleh, which is supplied with tumbâk, a Persian variety of tobacco.
A great deal of entertainment must be afforded the natives who come in contact with foreigners, as these latter attempt, and mangle, the language. But with imperturbable and polite deference the native listeners betray no sense of our blunders, even declaring our gift in acquiring the tongue remarkable. The eager learner is fortunate indeed if the natives do not answer back in the same broken Arabic which he is perpetrating. Such an excess of accommodation hinders advance in the difficult idiom. A missionary friend told me of the amusing experiences of herself and another worker in their early attempts to force their ability at talking in Arabic. They were almost totally ignorant of the language, but they went to a garden where there was a group of women and boldly essayed to tell the story of the rich man and Lazarus. One of them knowing a word for man, zelameh, said it, and was followed by the other, who said the word for poor, fakîr, and pointed upwards. The first then said zelameh again, when the second, who also knew the word for rich, ghany, said that and pointed downwards. That was the extent of their exposition. Some one, hearing of it, asked our friend if she thought any impression was made upon her hearers. She laughingly replied that she didn’t know, but that some one had stolen her pocket-handkerchief during the performance.
There is play for all ages. The feasts, the weddings and even the funerals are practically occasions of play for the adults. The young men often play a game similar to our duck-on-the-rock. The old men sitting in the streets about the doorways are often seen playing a game called sîjeh or lîwan. In the dust or on the flat surface of a stone slab forty-nine or twenty-five squares are marked off, as on a checker-board. The markers or men are, perhaps, small stones. The one suggesting the game says, “I’ll take the lîwan” (hall), which is the central square of all, and places one of the markers in a space next to the lîwan. Then each player in turn places a marker in a vacant square anywhere on the diagram, the central lîwan excepted, until all but that one are filled. The first player then, he who claimed the lîwan, moves his nearest marker into it. The player next in turn jumps the marker which the first player moved. The third player moves into the lîwan and is jumped by the following player. Jumping must always be towards the lîwan and is allowable whenever there is a marker in the lîwan, one or more empty spaces between the jumper and the lîwan and an empty space beyond the lîwan into which to jump. The game continues until there is but one marker left on the board, and that in the lîwan.
The more vigorous game called dôsh is played with pitching stones. The two players try for the first turn by seeing which one can come nearest, with a throw of his stone, to some mark. Keeping the positions in which they land in this trial-toss, the first player (the one nearest the mark) throws his stone at the stone of the other, trying to drive it as many feet as possible. He continues until he fails to drive his opponent’s stone, measuring with his feet the ground over which he has driven it and adding up the score. The other then tries to drive his opponent’s stone in the same fashion. The one first driving his opponent’s stone a total distance of forty feet is the winner and is entitled to be given a ride on the back of the defeated player.
The village men greatly enjoy motion songs, with dancing, swaying, clapping of hands, etc. Many of these exercises are combined in the mil‛ab[[177]] at wedding celebrations. When clapping of hands is the prominent motion, the song may go by the designation ṣaḥjeh.[[178]] When a sort of dance, which consists chiefly in stamping the foot forward, characterizes the motion, the accompanying song is designated as dabkeh.[[179]] In this latter the dancer or dancers, for there may be one or several in line, hold handkerchiefs fluttering in the hands and stamp forward first with one foot and then with the other in groups of three stamps or steps with each foot, changing gracefully from one foot to the other.
There are strolling gipsies who go about entertaining by dancing and thrumming on instruments. Sometimes a man with a baboon or a bear comes to a village.