Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/357

350 hundred women assembled, besides groups of children, so restless that I could not count them, attended by unvailed Abyssinian servants.

Several black men came out of the St. Stephen's Gate, carrying provisions; they handed them to the female servants, and then went away directly. Soon a number of circular trays were placed in the shade and covered with simple food and sweetmeats. Water was poured from jars over the hands of the women, and then they sat on the ground round the well-filled dishes. They were not nearly so silent over their meal as men are. They lingered over it, and I could see that they were laughing and talking merrily. Then they washed their hands again, and took coffee and smoked narghilés while the servants had their dinner; and they all remained there, some sleeping and others chatting, under the trees, till an hour before sunset, when they vailed themselves closely and went into the city. It is a very common practice in the Summer-time to keep holiday thus.

On Friday, the 4th of July, the wind rose suddenly at midday, and was so violent that I was obliged to have all the casements closed, and even then the curtains were blown about and papers fluttered through the rooms, yet the heat was intense.

On Saturday, the 5th, I went with my brother, early in the afternoon, to the little village on the top of the central point of Olivet. We called at the house adjoining the mosque. We entered a court and mounted a steep stone stairway, and reached a broad terrace, with high, raised, stone divans on each side of the arched entrance to a large but low room. Carpets and cushions were quickly brought out and spread on the raised seats, and a handsome Moslem, the son of an effendi of some note in Jerusalem, who was staying up there for change of air, invited us to make ourselves at home.

In a few minutes, the master of the house, a fine, gray-bearded, turbaned sheikh, joined us. After we had taken