Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/372

Rh

Aleim"—"the Sanctuary of Aly, the son of Aleim." This place consists of a few well-built stone houses, clustering round an ancient mosque. It is a very favorite retreat of Derwishes and Moslem saints. We were conducted through several court-yards and passages, then up a steep uncovered stone staircase, on to a wide terrace, where a party of Moslems were sitting round a little mountain of rice, and eating it quickly and silently by star and lantern light.

The sheikh of the village welcomed us, and invited us to enter the spacious and lofty guest-chamber, which opened on to the terrace. Little red earthenware lamps of antique form were lighted and placed in niches round the room, and then we could see that the roof was dome-shaped, the ceiling fluted, and the walls plastered and ornamented. But the whole surface was blackened with smoke from the wood-fires, which are always kept burning in the center of the floor in Winter-time.

There was nothing in this room except a few old reed mats, which were spread all round near the walls. We had some of our tent furniture brought in, and after taking supper, making notes, and chatting with the sheikh over our coffee and narghilés, we walked for a short time on the starlit terrace, where our fellow-travelers and servants, rolled up in their cloaks and wadded quilts, were already in deep sleep. We rested for a few hours in the great guest-chamber, and when the muezzin sang from the little minaret close by, saying, "Awake, sleepers, it is better to pray than to sleep," we answered to the call, and then went on to the terrace.

The day was just beginning to dawn. It was three o'clock, and the loud shrill voice echoing from the courtyard below, reminded us that it was the first hour of "cock-crowing." The moon had not long risen. She was in her last quarter, but looked very clear and bright.

After breakfasting, we mounted at four o'clock, and continued our journey northward along the coast, but at