Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/370

Rh dispute between an English naturalized subject and an English protégé. The Arabs praised his judgment and tact loudly, and said, "He has done well and wisely. He has saved the lamb without leaving the wolf to suffer hunger." The disputants declared themselves content and reconciled.

At four o 'clock we started to go by land up the coast to Hâifa. A large number of our friends walked with us as far as the town-gate, and then took leave of us, saying, "Go in peace," and "God direct you." The broad sandy road outside was, for the distance of a quarter of a mile, lined with people, sitting on very low stools, or half-reclining on mats. I do not know any place where there are so many well-dressed turbaned and tarbûshed loungers to be seen smoking, musing, gossiping, and playing with their rosaries, as outside the gate of the town of Yâfa just before sunset. In the same place a market is held in the early morning, and then there is a crowd as large, but much more motley, noisy, and busy.

We soon made our way to the shell-strewn shore. The sea was rolling toward us on our left hand, the white-crested waves washed over the half-buried skeletons of the many ships and boats which had been wrecked there, and threw under our horses' feet masses of sea-weed and large fragments of sponge. Little birds were running swiftly along the sands, and gulls were flapping their broad white wings above our heads. The cliffs on our right were very low, and here and there covered with thistles and shrubs. Sometimes we could see the inland country, the Plain of Sharon, bounded by the far-away hills of Judea. The sea margin is broad, and composed almost entirely of broken shells.

We were approaching a river called "Nahr el Aujêh." We saw some peasants who were ahead of us preparing to cross. They took off their clothes. One of the men made a tight bundle of his scanty clothing, and threw it with a bound safe on to the opposite bank. The others, less ven-