Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/344

Rh If, as it is said, this is a distinguishing feature of noble birth, then these young daughters of Israel are of princely race. Some of the little hands were stained with henna, and almost all the nails were tinted, and looked like the delicate, rose-colored shells we find on the sands on English shores.

The children were uniformly neat and clean, and there was a picturesque variety of costume there that struck us pleasantly, contrasting with our recollections of the ugly uniforms in some of our public schools at home and abroad. As we were retiring, a shy little creature summoned up courage to give me the rose from her hair, and then she peeped at me slyly between her tapering fingers.

These two rooms were set apart expressly for the children of parents belonging to the Sephardim Congregation, consisting of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews settled in Jerusalem.

We were now led down-stairs again to the open court, which we crossed; and, after ascending another stairway, we found ourselves in the school of the Ashekenazi Congregation, formed of German, Russian, and Polish Jews. Here there were fifteen children, and they all seemed to be under seven years of age. They were much more fair, though less beautiful, than those in the other rooms. They were sitting, very much at their ease, perched up on the sloping desks, with their little feet resting on the forms. How thoughtful and kind it was to allow them this freedom during the hot weather! There was not a sign of fatigue, or any expression of rebellion against restraint, in any of the young faces around us. There was activity of mind and rest of body, in a pure air.

The Jews of Jerusalem are especially careful not to allow their children to associate with Christians or Moslems; and they will not suffer them to stray away from home, or play in the streets, for fear they should learn bad habits, or be constrained or induced to be baptized