Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/387

380 filled with visitors. The son of Yassîn Agha, on seeing me go by, came out and asked to be allowed to lead me to his house that I might visit his mother. I did so, and afterward went to three other harems.

On the second day of the feast I visited some of the poorer Moslem families in the back streets of the town. Following the kawass, I made my way with Um Selim through dirty narrow lanes, with gutters running down the middle of them.

We paused at the house of a Moslem who was in my brother's employ, and who had very recently married a poor gardener's daughter. We went through an arched doorway into a square ill-paved court-yard, where a tent or booth of palm-branches and evergreen shrubs had been made. An old mat was spread within it, and we were invited to sit down there. The young wife was rather shy and not at all prepossessing in appearance. Her wide mouth and large glistening teeth were made to appear still more prominent by the row of blue spots round the edge of her thick lips. Her eyes were dark with kohl, and her chest painted and exposed. She seemed to be kept completely in awe by an elderly woman—I think it was her mother-in-law—who played the part of hostess and acted as guardian to the young wife, who did not appear to be very comfortable nor accustomed to her new life. She had never seen her husband till her marriage-day, not quite a month before. The "honeymoon" is not understood among the Moslems; they have, I believe, no word or idea answering to it.

After we had taken a tiny cup of strong coffee without sugar, the elder woman took us to see the house, which consisted of one room only, which opened into the court. It was large, lofty, and windowless, and looked like a barn, and the door was large enough to admit a laden camel. This room served as parlor, kitchen, and bedroom, except in bright weather, when the tent of tree-branches was used. I was very much surprised to see an old Italian print,