Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/209

202 When I am within walls I am as one struck blind, or as if a vail were held before my eyes. There is no space for sight within the towns."

We rode on quietly along the base of the hills among low brushwood, thistles, and flourishing thorns. The grooms had great difficulty in keeping the hounds in, so violently did they struggle to escape. We traversed a well-watered valley, where the mallow was growing extensively, to the hight of one or two feet, with lilac, pink, and silvery gray blossoms, and large, thick leaves. Men and boys were busy cutting it and rapidly filling their baskets. This plant is very much used by the Arabs medicinally. They make poultices of the leaves to allay irritation and inflammation. Lotions are prepared from them also. "Khubazi " is the Arabic word for mallows, and the little, flat, round seed-vessels, so well known to English children as "cheeses," are by the Arabs called "Khubiz," that is, "loaves," for the Arab bread is always flat and round.

While Stephani was explaining this to me, I saw five gazelles leaping one after another from a thicket of thistles. They disappeared behind some juniper-trees. We directed the attention of the now scattered huntsmen to the spot. They came galloping recklessly over bushes and rocks. The dogs were set free and soon started the gazelles. I rested in my saddle with Saleh Sekhali by my side, watching the graceful bounds of the startled animals, the racing and leaping of the hounds, and the skillful maneuvers of the horsemen. They missed the gazelles, but they succeeded in capturing four fine hares. Then there was a start in another direction, where a troop of antlered gazelles had been seen. I followed in the rear with the lieutenant and his little charge, Nimr, and from a distance we observed the chase for some time. Then we rode across the plain between cultivated fields and gardens of wild flowers. We paused at the fountain of Jethro, which had been fixed upon as the place for meeting after the hunt. There we