Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/102

Rh The largest camel carried, high on his back, two little wooden cradles, painted blue, red, and yellow; one for each of the brides. This piece of furniture is regarded in the East as the most important and necessary item of a trousseau; and she is an unhappy wife who does not soon see rocking in the gaudy cradle an infant son, whose name she may take, and through whom she may become honored among women.

As we proceeded northward, the plain was so much more narrow, that we could distinguish the deep caverns and excavations in the limestone hills opposite, which have, in turn, served as places of refuge or retreat for prophets, saints, and anchorites, banditti or robbers, and beasts of prey.

The village of Tîreh was pointed out to me, surrounded by cultivated fields and orchards. Groups of palm-trees grew here and there, and the hill-sides were clothed with dwarf oak, wild fig, and locust trees. The fruit of the locust, when ripe, is like a large crooked bean-pod, brown and glossy, filled with large seeds. It is so nutritious, that the children of the poor live entirely on it, during the season, requiring no other food, for it contains all the necessary elements for the support of life—starch, sugar, oil, etc., in proper proportion. I found it, when new, rather too sweet to suit my taste. Children seemed to enjoy it, and they thrive on it, eating the shell as well as the seeds. When this fruit is stored, it becomes somewhat dry, and less sweet, but on being soaked in honey, it is like new fruit. The Arabs all like sweet food, and of many a man of Judea and Galilee, as well as of John the Baptist, it might be said, "His meat [for a season ] was locusts and wild honey."

Just before sunset, we reached the foot of the headland which forms the southern boundary of the bay of Akka. On its summits the convent stands. It was too late, and