Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/144

Rh walls. We went to the Protestant Mission-House, and heard service in Arabic. Some pretty children and a few intelligent-looking men attended it. The pastor and school-teachers are Germans, but connected with the Anglican Church.

All the Latins of Nazareth were in their gayest dresses that day to do honor to the visit of their Patriarch. We met him walking with a little troop of monks and priests. He is a most remarkable-looking man, and wears a pale beard, at least half a yard long, parted in the middle. His broad-brimmed hat, nearly three-quarters of a yard in diameter, is trimmed with artificial colored flowers, and glossy green leaves of metallic luster. The people crowded round him to kiss his hands and to secure his blessing.

The usual dress of the men of Nazareth is bright and cheerful-looking, consisting of a sort of long dressing-gown, made of a mixture of silk and cotton, in patterns of very narrow stripes, commonly either red and purple, violet and yellow, green and blue, or purple and white. This is girdled with a shawl, or a broad leather belt, lined and stitched, with pockets and purses made in it. Red and yellow kefias—shawls with long knotted fringes—are worn in the town as turbans, but are generally put on like hoods for traveling.

The women, who are very handsome, but rather bold looking, use a great deal of kohl for their eyelids; they tattoo their arms profusely and their faces slightly. Their head-dress is very peculiar; it is a tight-fitting cap, made of cloth or linen, with a thick, firmly-padded roll, one or two inches in diameter, round the front, just covering the highest part of the head, and fastened with strings, but not quite meeting under the chin. To this roll silver coins are sewed, as close together as it is possible to place them, except that a little space is left at the top