Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/172

Rh which usher in the rainy season, and it lasts till the rain falls regularly and in abundance. This interval does not generally exceed two or three weeks, but when it is prolonged—as in the year 1855, of which I am writing—fevers or other epidemics prevail.

On the 2d of November, a strong sirocco wind, hot, dry, and scorching, as if it came from a furnace, warped our books, and split and cracked our olive-wood furniture. We closed all the window-shutters on the eastern side of the rooms, but we could not exclude the fiery air.

There were four English merchant ships at anchor in the port, as well as several small Greek brigs. The masters complained, in no very gentle terms, of the injury done by the fierce hot wind to the woodwork and fittings of their vessels.

An English captain, on the point of embarking, came in, saying, "I hope you will give me a clean bill of health, Consul."

"As clean as I can," he answered: "but I must state, ' Six deaths within six days—sudden, and reported cholera. ' "

After this the street- cleaning was for a time abandoned, and I noticed funeral processions almost daily, sometimes going from the mosque out at the east gate to the Moslem burial-ground, sometimes from the Greek or Latin churches slowly walking toward the Christian cemeteries through the west gate. Moslems are always carried to the grave in the open bier, head foremost, and buried in costume. I shuddered the first time that I saw a body thus committed to the earth, it looked so much like being buried alive.