Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/126

Rh They asked me if I were betrothed, and whether my brother had a harem, and if he were fair and handsome. When I took off my light kid gloves, one of the children began to cry, saying, "Behold, see, the stranger is skinning her hands." Lemonade and sweetmeats were handed to me, and coffee was prepared by a black slave, who crouched down by the charcoal fire. Narghilés and long pipes were passed from one to another. The one which I smoked had a very beautiful jeweled mouthpiece, sent up by the Agha for my use. I explained to them that I had learned to smoke in their country, and that in England ladies do not smoke. They took me into a room well stocked with lehaffs and mattresses, some of which were covered with silk. They asked if I could work, and were surprised when I answered that I could make all my clothes. They told me that nearly all their dresses were made by tailors, and that their mattresses, lehaffs, and divans, were covered and made by upholsterers, so that they did very little needle-work themselves. The eldest son, who had been my guide, came to fetch me, and took me into a small but lofty room, with palm fronds at least twelve feet long in each corner, and dates hanging up in rich clusters from the rafters.

I called afterward on Mohammed Bek. He had only one wife, a pleasant young woman, who, with her infant daughter, were under the especial duennaship of the Bek’s mother, one of the most dignified-looking Arab women I ever saw.

The young wife, Miriam, was dressed in a dark cloth jacket and pink cotton trowsers. She was very much tattooed. A row of blue dots encircled her large thick lips, a star appeared on her forehead, and a little crescent on her chin. Her eyebrows were strongly marked, and her lashes very long. At her side, in her girdle, she had a gold crescent-shaped box or case, embossed and chased. It contained an inscription in Arabic characters, and she regarded it as a potent charm.