Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/131

124 I expected to find very large families in those houses where there were two or more wives; but, as a rule, this was not the case. In the Jewish and Christian quarters the children are much more numerous than in the Moslem quarters. The Jews in Syria are permitted to take a second wife if the first has no hope of having any children.

Early in October, on a pleasant afternoon, I went with my brother into one of the fruit-gardens just outside Hâifa. We cautiously made our way, one by one, down a short, narrow lane of prickly pears, and passed a little mud and stone hut, the dwelling of the gardener and his family. They were Egyptians, who are considered much more skillful than Arabs in the cultivation of the ground. Fig trees, pomegranates, almonds, elders, olives, palms, lemons, shaddocks—or, as they are called in Arabic, "lemûn helû," sweet lemons—and cucumbers of many kinds, flourished under his care. However, as every thing is sold in the market according to a tariff regulated by the Government, there is very little motive or inducement for emulation among gardeners, and no attempt is made to improve and perfect the delicious fruits and valuable vegetables of the country—quantity, without regard to quality, is the consideration of the Oriental cultivator.

Under an olive-tree, in the middle of the garden, on an old piece of matting, sat an aged Arab woman; her ragged white linen head-dress was arranged so as to shade her eyes, which were afflicted with ophthalmy. Her cotton dress was patched over and over again, and a heavy, striped abbai, or traveling cloak, was thrown over her feet. She was intently mumbling to herself, and slipping the beads of a black rosary rapidly through her long, thin fingers. Near to her was a little nook made of piled-up stones and earth, and covered with old matting. It was not much bigger than the hood of a bassinette, but it was evidently intended to shelter her head at night, for a rolled-up mattress and some heavy-wadded quilts were close to it. Old