Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/145

138 of the head, and the coins fall, lapping one on the other, down each side of the face, and a little below the chin; at a distance it looks like a bonnet-front. Women wear coins as large as crowns or half-crowns; children generally have small ones, about the size of shillings. Muslin shawls or vails, of various colors or black, are folded across the forehead and over the lower part of the face; so that, out of doors, the eyes only are exposed. When in-doors, the lower folds are slipped below the chin; but the forehead is nearly always concealed, except by very young girls. They wear loose trowsers, white shirts, and long dresses, open entirely in front, made of striped cotton or Damascus silk, and girdled below the waist.

I went to Nazareth several times, and visited many of the Christian women in their homes. I found, generally, a great want of order and cleanliness among them. They are very proud of their town, and are constantly invoking "El Sit Miriam"—"the Lady Mary." Their faith in, and reverence for, relics is unbounded. In all their rooms I saw holy pictures, little images, and small crystal or glass cases of fragments of bones and rags. Rings are constantly worn as charms.

I asked a little child, who had once visited Haifa, whether she preferred Hâifa and the beautiful sea, or Nâsirah. She answered directly, "Hâifa is not a holy place; but this town is holy; our Lady Mary lived here, and Christ, and Joseph." But although Nazareth is reckoned a holy place, it is by no means remarkable for its morality. In this respect it strikingly contrasts with Bethlehem, where the fathers and husbands are said to be severe and rigid disciplinarians, and where dishonor is punished with certain death. Nazareth had not a very good reputation in the time of Christ, and it does not appear to have improved.

I find that the younger girls are beginning to dispense with the coin head-dresses. They adopt, instead, the more simple red tarbûsh and mundîl. I expect that soon these curious and weighty ornaments will only be found in the