Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/369

362 Ramleh is renowned. It was built early in the 14th century. There are fruit-gardens on each side of it, and the white domes of the houses appear between the green trees. In an open space in front a troop of tired camels were kneeling, and their drivers were sleeping in the shade of the rough stone garden-walls and hedges of cactus. The olive-groves and palm-trees of Ramleh, and the wide undulating plain of Judea could be seen beyond, and the picture was bounded by a range of blue and gray hills, which the sunny haze caused to appear more distant than they were in reality. I sketched this scene, while my good-natured hostess watched my pencil. She said, "Peace be upon your hands, O my daughter!" We mounted again at about five, rode quickly over the sandy plain, and at about an hour after sunset we reached the Yâfa Gardens, where the air was balmy, warm, and fragrant, and reminded us of the atmosphere of a well-kept English conservatory. We went straight to the Latin Convent by the seaside, and found that the suite of rooms belonging to the Patriarch of Jerusalem had been prepared for us, by his orders. A Spanish monk spent the evening with us, on the starlit terrace, looking over the Mediterranean.

The next morning, Sunday, we breakfasted with Dr. Kayat, the English Consul, and then accompanied him to the Mission House, where service was conducted by Mr. Krusé. I spent the remainder of the day there with his family. Mrs. Krusé had established a day-school for Arab girls. She told me that she found it difficult and rather discouraging work, not on account of deficiency of capacity in the children, but because the ideas which they imbibed unconsciously, and therefore perhaps the more deeply, in their homes, constantly counteracted the influence of the lessons which they learned at school. We sat for a long time in the cool of the evening among the flowers on the terrace, and watched the sun as it went down.

The next day my brother was busy at the Consulate. He settled by arbitration a rather serious and long-standing