The Holy Land and Syria

by Frank G. Carpenter

In some parts of the country the shepherds pasture their flocks separately by day, but at evening several of them often bring their sheep together in a large open field or a spot sheltered from the winds. Then each of the four or five men will take turns at keeping watch while the others sleep, curled up in their sheepskins. The shepherds to whom the “glad tidings” came on the first Christmas Eve were thus guarding their flocks by night. In the morning each shepherd calls out to his sheep, and they, knowing his voice, come to him until he has his whole flock around him again. They will pay no heed to the same call if it is uttered by a stranger or another shepherd. Often to make sure his sheep are all there and also to see that they are all right the shepherd causes them to pass under his rod between him and a rock. He can thus count them, and if one is limping or sickly he can pull it out of line with the crook of his staff and give it special care.

The Palestine shepherd does not use his staff to drive his charges, for he always goes before with the sheep following him. The club or crook he carries is for protection and defence of his flock. If they are frightened the sight of the crook on his shoulder calms their panic. One is reminded of the words of the Psalmist: “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

One of the most important duties of the shepherd is to water the flock. He does this at streams or wells. At the wells the women draw the water for the sheep as they did in Bible times. They use bags of goatskin untanned. The skin is taken almost whole from the goats, and the legs and other openings are tied up so that it will hold water. One hole is left at the throat into which the water is poured. The water for the household is carried in such bags, a network of ropes being wrapped around a skin so that it can be rested upon the back, the bag being supported by a rope around the forehead. The water-bag of the ordinary size, when filled, weighs at least fifty pounds. The women go along with their heads bent far over, carrying water to their village homes. They do this day after day all their lives long. This is one of the most common sights of the Holy Land.

Indeed these Palestine peasants are strong men and women. The men bear astonishing weights, and nobody thinks anything of walking twenty miles and more in a day. One naturally asks as to their diet. This is largely rice, vegetables, nuts, and the whole-meal unleavened bread of the country baked in flat cakes as in Bible days. Meat is a rare luxury. The Arabic name for bread is aish, which means life, and to the peasants of the Holy Land it is the staff of life. They have even a sort of reverence for it. No one will trample a fallen crumb into the dust, and even the smallest bit dropped or thrown away by a careless child will be picked up and lodged in a crack of a stone or wall so the birds may get it. Tomatoes, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, and eggplant are common vegetables. There is a saying of the eggplant that there are so many different ways of preparing it that if during the eggplant season a woman says to her husband, “I know not what to provide for dinner,” he has sufficient cause for divorcing her.

Grapes not quite ripe are much relished when eaten with salt. Cucumbers take much the place of apples with us. Coffee is considered a necessity. It is bought in the raw berry and a housekeeper is judged by her skill in roasting and preparing it. Even if a family cannot afford it for every day it must be on hand for guests. Men often carry some coffee berries in their pockets for use at friendly gatherings, and wherever men meet for business or ceremony coffee is expected.

The Palestine of to-day is a land of donkeys and camels. I suppose the latter are about the same as those owned by Job. They are raised in Beersheba, where the people live largely on their milk. The camel is the freight car of Palestine. In going over the country I have seen many caravans of them. On the way to Zammarin we passed some camels which the Bedouin drivers were shearing. They were clipping the wool from the kneeling beasts, which cried and moaned and now and then uttered shrieks as the shears nipped off bits of their flesh. Not a few actually shed tears. The wool of these camels is woven into a coarse cloth used for making the coverings of the Bedouin tents.

As far as I can see the camels of the Holy Land have no easy job. They carry loads of three or four hundred pounds each, and on short trips their packs are left on day and night. They begin to work at three years, and often last until they are twenty-five years of age.

The donkeys are much cheaper than camels. They are the draft animals of the poor, and are used by the farmers for carrying vegetables and wood into market. I see them loaded with olive roots on their way to Jerusalem, and now and then pass a donkey caravan, every animal carrying a bag of grain which has been balanced upon his back and which the driver holds there as he goes up the steep hills.

With cypresses and palms Jewish colonists have beautified this plantation near Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. The Jews answer the objections of the Arabs to their settlements by pointing out how they have “made the desert bloom like the rose”