Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/158

Rh tian families in Shefa 'Amer lived as strangers to each other. Stephani readily consented to receive Habîb, who soon came, and the two long-divided friends embraced. They have lived in harmony ever since. Before eating, each one of us had water poured on our hands over the marble basin; for the Christian Arabs, as well as the Moslems, "and all the Jews, except they wash their hands, eat not." This is particularly necessary, considering that they do not use knives and forks; but each one "dips his hand into the dish" with his neighbor.

Stephani at first wished to serve us at supper, instead of sitting down with us, for it is the Arab custom for the host to wait on his guests as a servant. We overcame his scruples, and we ate together. Afterward, water was again poured on our hands—a servant stood by, holding native scented-soap and an embroidered towel—then we had coffee and narghilés.

An Arabic Bible published by the British and Foreign Bible Society—a Roman version, by the by—was brought in, and Saleh read aloud the Sermon on the Mount. Bible history is pretty well known in the Greek community; it is read in their churches in the vulgar tongue, and is not withheld from the laity. The bulk of the people, however, can not read. The few who can do so gladly obtain copies, but the Bible is rarely to be met with, except in those families of which one of the members is a priest or very studious, as Saleh, for instance.

The Greek priests must always be married men. Those of the villages and small towns are often very ignorant, and, as they rarely receive a systematic ecclesiastical training, their expositions and definitions of the articles and dogmas of their Church are very curious and conflicting. Their Bishops and higher clergy are generally foreigners, that is, native Greeks and Russians, and do not often learn Arabic, so they make little or no impression on the Syrian branch of their Church. The Latin clergy, on the other hand, are often quite unfamiliar with the Bible, and always