Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/178

Rh naked feet were almost as busy as his fingers. They served him to hold his work. When he wanted to wind a skein of cotton he always fixed it on his long, pliant toes, and used them as pegs when he doubled and twisted the thread; in fact, in many ways he made them useful.

In the mean time an Arab carpenter was engaged in sawing planks and joining them together, ready to place on low trestles round the rooms. On the rude benches thus formed, mattresses, about a yard wide, and cushions, covered with chintz or Manchester prints, were arranged. Deep, full borders, sewed on to the outer edge of the mattresses, quit concealed the rough woodwork underneath. This is all the mystery of the grand Turkish divans. Two native Jewesses assisted me with the musketo and window curtains.

Reed mats, to cover the cemented and stone floors, were made for us at 'Akka according to measure. I furnished one little room as nearly in English style as I could under the circumstances, but the rest of the house was semi-Oriental. There were no fireplaces in any of the rooms. In the kitchen there was a row of cooking-stoves fit for stewing and baking; similar, probably, to "the oven and ranges for pots," referred to in Leviticus xi, 35.

There was a good well in the corner of the court, and a little bell tinkled merrily every time the bucket was in motion. The former occupants of the house were Arabs, and they had left for my benefit a fine henna-tree—lawsonia. It is very like the privet, but the blossom is more yellow and delicate, and the scent is rather oppressive. The green leaves—which produce the dye—are dried, crumbled to a fine powder, and carefully preserved.

The stocking of the storeroom was the next consideration. It soon contained provisions for the Winter. A case of maccaroni, a basket of Egyptian rice, and two sacks of wheat, one of which I sent to be ground by millstones moved by cattle. Afterward I had the meal sifted at the house, the smeed was set apart for white bread, etc., and