Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/181

174 sciously by little Katrîne Sekhali through the crowd to an open space in the midst. In the center of this space the widow, young and beautiful, kneeled on the ground. She was unvailed. Her head was only covered by a little red-cloth cap. Her long hair was unbraided, and fell over her green velvet, gold-embroidered jacket. She swayed her body to and fro, tossed her head back, raised her hands as if passionately pleading, then threw herself forward with her face to the ground, but suddenly started to her feet, and, with her dark eyes uplifted, and her arms raised above her head, she commenced shrieking wildly, and all the women joined in the piercing cry. Presently she fell down as if exhausted, and there was silence for a moment. Then a few of the women in the inner circle rose, threw off their vails, and danced round her, singing and making a rattling, tremulous sound from the throat, while the rest of the women joined in chorus. Professional mourners kept up the excitement by demonstrations of violent grief, and the professional singers improvised appropriate songs. This lasted for three or four hours, and the crowd gradually grew larger. I made my way through it with difficulty, for some of the women had worked themselves into fits of frenzy and hysterics.

I observed that the men who passed by kept quite aloof from this group of mourners, and made no attempt to look upon the unvailed widow. My kawass stood afar off, waiting for me. On emerging from the crowd, I could see the funeral cortége approaching along the sands. I was informed by a forerunner that the body of Ibrahîm had been interred in the 'Akka burial-ground, as it was considered dangerous to convey it so far as Haifa. When the procession was near to the town, I went up on to the low roof of the custom-house to see it pass. First came the kawasses of some of the Consuls, carrying their long, silver-headed sticks or poles draped with black; then a large party of young men, dressed in various colors, solemnly silent, walking four abreast. At a little distance from these, Ibrahîm's