Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/141

134 arrival was soon known throughout the Christian quarter. First came Jirius el Yakûb, with his fat, burly figure, his crisp gray beard and twinkling eyes shining from under a large shawl turban. He is Mr. Finn's agent for Nazareth, and is very proud of his office, and of the few words of English which he can speak.

Saleh 's pretty little sister, "Jalîly "—that is, "the Glorious"—led me to the room prepared for me. Her age was about eleven, and her face the fairest I had seen in Palestine. It was a pure oval, with a straight nose, small, well defined lips, long dark lashes, and delicately-penciled eyebrows. The edges of her eyelids were strongly tinged with kohl, which gave strange power to large, melancholy gray eyes. Her finger-nails were slightly stained with henna, and her toe-nails deeply dyed. She wore a violet-colored muslin kerchief folded over her soft, brown hair, crossed under her chin, and tied in a bow at the top of her head. Her dress was green, edged with yellow braid, and open at the throat, showing a necklace of silver and coral ornaments.

(I think that green is a favorite color among Christian Arabs now, because, till lately, they were forbidden to wear it, for the Moslems regard it as their sacred color.)

I awoke, and rose early, for a half-opened door, which I had not noticed by the dim lamp of the previous night, attracted my attention. Just within it were three narrow steps, each higher than my knee. I climbed up, and turning sharply round, groped my way up three other steps, still more steep, and then stumbled against a low, cracked wooden door, which I unfastened with difficulty. When it burst open I found that it led to a terraced roof, to which there was no other access. The roof was high, and commanded a beautiful view of the town, with its mosque and