Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/177

170 Provisions were dear, and milk was very unwholesome, on account of the scarcity of herbage.

Several ships from Yâfa had taken refuge in the port of Hâifa. The winds were so wild and contrary, that two ships were wrecked off ’Akka, and two boats lost in the bay. The west wind was so strong for a day or two, that it filled the mouth of the River Kishon with sand, so that it could be crossed easily on foot. Then suddenly the east wind rose, and swept the bar of sand quite away, so that the river was twelve feet deep at the usual place of fording, and consequently impassable.

At Christmas the rain came; but it was rain such as I had never seen, except in strange old pictures of the Deluge. The town was traversed in all directions by rapid streams of mud and water. Rain came in at the ill-made windows, and our shutters and doors were wrenched from their hinges by the wild wind. Fortunately, the house for which we had been waiting was now ready, and weather-tight; and we managed to move into it, during the short intervals between the torrents. I had to ride there, although it was only at a very short distance. Most of the Arabs went about barefooted, with the water far above their ankles.

During the wet season, there were about three days of nearly continual rain, and three days of sunshine, alternately.

Our new house, the rooms of which were built round a corridored court, was next door to the French Consulate. The Consul's wife—a Syrian lady—kindly initiated me by degrees into all the mysteries of Oriental housekeeping.

Furnishing was a very simple affair. In one of the large empty rooms a native Jewish upholsterer was set to work to take to pieces all the mattresses, cushions, and lehaffs. Then, with a little machine, he separated the cotton which had become hard and close; he tore it and combed it till it was transformed into a fleecy cloud. He quickly remade the mattresses, fitting them to the iron bedsteads and divans, and cleverly quilted a stock of coverlets—lehaffs. His