CHAPTER XITHE VILLAGE AND THE OUTSIDE WORLD

As one becomes acquainted with Palestine life to-day one is impressed with the submissive attitude of the villagers towards the city dwellers, especially towards the Moslem official class,the effendîyeh. But we are assured by those within whose lifetime the period falls, that half a century or more ago things were not so well ordered as now. For some years before that time, according to veracious writers, there was a state of internal turbulence in which the fellaḥîn were often in the ascendency and the city people glad to treat with them. In those days the walls of Jerusalem were of practical use in resisting the power of the country folk. Two great parties divided the allegiance of the villages. They were called Yemen and Ḳays. Headed by shaykhs and aided by Bedawîn, these partisan villages waged feuds and rendered commerce and travel precarious or impossible. Abu Ghôsh and his sons from their vantage of Ḳuryet el-‛Anab held much of the country in terror of his raids.[204]He levied toll on travelers and was too powerful to be curbed by the government, such as it was, at Jerusalem. ‛Abd er-Raḥman and other shaykhs held certain districts. The troops were few and the Turkish hold on the country weak. The province came near to a condition of anarchy. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.[205]To this day any intelligent peasant will tell the inquirer which of the villages are of the Yemeny and which of the Ḳaysy party. The lines of division are still plain though the feuds are dormant. The Turkish government has strengthened its position in the interior affairs of Palestine steadily for forty or fifty yearsback. To-day there is not a murmur that avails nor the disposition to antagonize the centralizing authority of the ruler. Even the east-Jordan country appears to be growing tame. Within a few years a firmer hold on the village situation has been taken by the establishment of extra mudîr-ships, so that instead of governing the village districts from Jerusalem and other large centers by a squad of soldiers sent out occasionally to do police duty or to bring in taxes, now a local official called a mudîr is placed in the most important village of a small district. He is a subordinate of the governor,muteṣarrif, of Jerusalem. By the appointment of such as he a closer observation and administration are secured. At Râm Allâh in 1903 a mudîr was appointed to have charge in that and a score of other villages in a district thereabouts. Jerusalem is still the head of those villages, but a compacter administration is effected.

To the country peasant the chief functions of the government seem to be those of restriction and oppression. The fear of imprisonment, fines and confiscations keeps the peasants down. The imprisonment of a peasant leaves no taint of dishonor, having as purely unfortunate an aspect as confinement in a hospital. There is no such thing as successful complaint unless it can assume such influence as would procure the removal of the official involved. The peasants look suspiciously on every movement of every officer, refusing to believe that any government representative can have good intentions or do worthy actions. Government provisions or improvements are looked upon as gloves for the hand that is stretched out for more of the means of the villager. The taxes are farmed out to tax-collectors whose approach is dreaded extremely.[206]Every dozen years or so a new schedule of valuation is made by the assessors, who travel about the country revaluing businesses and properties. Their progress from village to village is the signal forfeasting, treating and bribing. The cost of the many attempts to persuade these assessors to reduce valuations or readjust them in favor of the briber must be considerable. There is a possibility that all such attempts may be defeated by the revision of the entire list at headquarters. The visits of the soldiers to a village are always occasions of dread, and much relief is felt when they leave. On the frontiers and in out-of-the-way places, where the task of the government is less easy, a more conciliatory spirit is shown. In the Ghôr, for instance, the tax may be paid in kind, and this always makes it easier than the practise into which the collectors have fallen with the villages. They drop in upon the villagers at odd times through the year, long after the crop is out of the way, and demand money payment in cash. This helps to make the fortunes of the local money lenders, but it causes a double damage to the peasants, who are forced to sacrifice their stores for low prices in ready money, or to mortgage their crop expectations for the coming season.[207]At Bîr es-Seba‛ and all such places where the government is seeking to strengthen its hold upon a district, the early steps are taken courteously and softly and the later with a nailed heel. At points east of the Jordan, where the problem of every government that ever sought to control the country has been to withstand, and finally to render impossible, the raids of the desert tribes of nomads, the present government is slowly reclaiming the country to authority. In some places colonies of Circassians have been introduced as buffers on the frontiers.

The tendency among the villagers is to settle their disputes so far as possible without resort to the government. If quarreling arises and the government gets information of it, soldiers are sent out to investigate and compel order, and incidentally to secure as much money as possible. To avoid these dreaded quarterings of soldiers on themselves, and toescape the money-making ingenuity of city officials, who seem to welcome quarrels and litigation for the profit ensuing, the disagreements and even bitterer issues may be submitted to councils of neighbors. Sometimes eight or ten men from a village will be asked to act as arbitrators in the quarrel of another village. We know of one such case where a quarrel of some years’ standing was settled by the assistance of men from another village. The case had been complicated by the heavy claim for damages put in by a man whose finger had been shot off by his enemy. Very often, even after the government has apparently settled a case, the parties concerned will come to an additional settlement, through their representatives and friends, to wipe out all old scores and the sense of personal resentment. Sheep, rice, semen, garments and such country articles are used as presents back and forth until good-will and satisfaction seem established by mutual consent.

The attitude of the local government to the people may be gathered from the following incident. A Râm Allâh man, going back to his village from Jerusalem, was entrusted by a friend in the city with the sum of four napoleons, partly in gold and partly in change, to be taken to Râm Allâh. The man put the money in a handkerchief, knotted it up and tucked it into the bosom of his dress. It slipped out and fell to the ground without his knowledge. A woman from Silwân picked it up, but was noticed by a Jew, who demanded it, asserting that it was his. Then a third, who was passing, put in a claim for the money. An officer coming upon the party, seized the handkerchief with the money, saying that he would have the public crier announce the find. The man who had lost the money did not notice his loss until the afternoon. He went to the Serâi to claim it. He described the handkerchief, the gold pieces and the small change, but the officer denied the accuracy of the description. The man begged to be allowed to see the find, declaring that if everythingdid not agree with the description already offered the money was not his. The officer, thus pressed, said, “Look here, no money goes out of the Serâi when it once gets in,” and turned the peasant away. The loser made an outcry and sought the help of one of his village’s shaykhs who happened to be in the city. The poor have very scanty legal resources, but they have an almost preternatural persistence and a genius for making themselves disagreeable. Witnesses of the finding were brought and other measures taken, despite repeated rebuffs. Finally the officer of the Serâi acknowledged having the man’s money and gave him a receipt for four napoleons which could be presented in lieu of payment of future taxes to that amount. Further satisfaction it was impossible to obtain.

Those who ought to know claim that the body of Turkish law is excellent and that impartial administration of it would be all that could be asked. But administration is lamed by the refusal of the courts to recognize in any practical way the testimony of those who are not Moslems and, among the Moslems, of those who are not rich. The court performs merely a formal function, the cases being determined in most illegal ways. No case is taken to court when there is any possible way of keeping it out and settling it. If a case must come up in court one seeks out among the influential official class of the city the most powerful help he can afford to pay for and forestalls his opponent, if possible, the court being a mere incident in the problem. Does a squabble take place in a village and is some one injured with an ever-ready stone? The families of the participants would fain patch up the matter themselves, but they know very well that the news will soon reach the city and that soldiers will be sent out to investigate. The result will be arrests and heavy fines all around. To anticipate this, representatives of either side may be seen hastening along the road to Jerusalem. The first one in tells his story and buys upfriends among the officials. The most money counts, but the officials take care that each side of the matter is made profitable to themselves. The case may drag on for months, scores of dollars being reaped by the officials, who may then consent to an amicable agreement among the principals. And yet, the fear of such pecuniary consequences acts as a restraining influence in many villages in which there is not a single official representative of the government. Such villages are controlled through an abundance of talebearing. On the other hand, who can blame an underpaid class of influentials for welcoming lucrative disturbances? Those who hold office have to pay largely for the privilege, and the salary being merely nominal, they have to reimburse themselves and live in the only way that Turkish practise encourages.

The officials in charge of the important posts are usually sent from Constantinople and are not generally citizens of Palestine.

The levies of troops are sent for service to parts of the empire distant from their homes, so that the local soldiery in Palestine has little in common with the people.

One will be pained to miss the spirit of public weal, the commiseration of the unfortunate or the willingness to undertake enterprises that would be for the general good. Absolutism means individualism only relieved by the wonderful tie of kinship and family among the common people.

There is a local Turkish postal service, with offices at all the large centers and in some of the inland villages of importance. Mail destined to points without the empire must bear postage stamps of a different issue from those affixed to domestic matter. The readiest way to distinguish these two issues is to notice that the stamps allowed to go out of the country are provided with the emblem of the crescent at each of the upper corners, while the stamps restricted to domestic use have but one crescent at the top, and that in the middle of the top line.

PRIMITIVE RUG WEAVING (BEDAWIN)

STRAW MAT AND BASKET MAKING: JIFNA WOMAN

Besides the Turkish postal facilities there are also, by special rights of extraterritoriality, offices and services by the posts of other countries. At Jerusalem and Jaffa there are Austrian, French, German and Russian post-offices. The Germans have one at Ramleh also. The telegraph service is in charge of the government and connects a number of towns east and west of the Jordan with each other and the outside world. The service is reasonable in price, but precarious in results. I once telegraphed from Beirut to Jerusalem and asked the operator if the message would reach its destination by noon, then several hours away, and was answered, “If God wills.” During the unquiet times in Beirut in the summer of 1903 some one in Jerusalem, anxious concerning friends in the disturbed city, essayed to send the simple inquiry, “Are you well?” but the message was refused at the office. No reference, inquiry or information is ever allowed, officially, concerning any troubles in any part of the empire. Nevertheless, news has a remarkable way of sifting into the country and passing from lip to lip very rapidly. When the Ottoman Bank was dynamited in Salonîka the news quickly reached the ports on the Syrian coasts and went as a rumor all through the country. For some reason or other, messages by telegraph and cable for European and American destinations, and messages from those places, often take three or four days in transmission, and sometimes longer, if, indeed, they “come through” at all.

Travel to and from Palestine is often impeded by the imposition of quarantines against certain ports. Very much of the time a quarantine of from five to ten days is ordered against vessels from Egyptian ports, and sometimes from other directions. The excuse for the discrimination against Egypt is usually the bubonic plague, sometimes cholera. All vessels from Egypt must proceed to Beirut, or some other port provided with a quarantine station, and pass the required time. If, in returning to Jaffa after the quarantine,severe storms should hinder a landing, and the vessel should proceed southward to touch an Egyptian port again, the quarantine would again be enforced on the ship and passengers, and the same procedure as before be necessary. Passengers have thus been carried by Jaffa more times than once and greatly hampered, even though they had joined the ship at Beirut only, with Jaffa as their destination. These inconveniences are overshadowed by the crippling effect on trade and travel when a state of panic has resulted in the enforcement of quarantine back and forth between different ports, and even different towns and villages within the country itself.

The coastwise traffic is carried on by means of several lines of steamships: the Khedevieh Line, under English control; the Russian, the Austrian Lloyd, the French, “Messageries,” and sometimes the German Lloyd. Some of these touch at Haifa as well as at Jaffa and Beirut. There is a little coasting steamboat that plies between Haifa and Beirut, touching at Acre, Tyre and Sidon. This is called the Jolly Boat, but unless one is an extraordinarily good sailor I should advise him not to be beguiled by that name. On the other lines mentioned there are generally three classes of passage tickets. The deck passage is taken by many Orientals, who travel with ample equipment of bedding, food and bottle-pipes, and camp out on the decks day and night. Much of their time is spent in the routine of family duties and religious observances. The rest is devoted to music, stories and games. Mohammedans, Jews, Greeks, Copts, Abyssinians and Armenians are seen at their devotions. Their object may be trade, migration, military service or a religious mission. Many are pilgrims, saving long and tedious land travel by the swifter, safer and healthier journey on sea.

The railway service actually working in Syria consists of the line between Jaffa and Jerusalem, the service between Beirut and Damascus, the extension from Reyâḳ on theDamascus line through Ba‛albek, and the line from Damascus southward to Mezayrîb and the east-Jordan country, destined ultimately to reach Mekka. A line from Haifa to connect with this latter line is under way. Two classes of passage are provided. The cars generally have compartments, though some, as the second class on the Jaffa-Jerusalem line, have one-room cars with seats running along both sides and a bench through the middle. Even in the second-class cars a separate section is often provided for the use of women. This section is known as theḥarîm. In the seclusion of the ḥarîm apartment the women may put off their veils and have the freedom of the place. When the conductor comes for the tickets he raps sharply on the door of the ḥarîm to give the women warning. After sufficient time has been allowed them for veiling their faces the conductor may step inside if necessary for the collection of fares. The wordḥarîmsignifies any place reserved for the exclusive use of women. It may be in a dwelling, a mosk or a railway-train, or it may apply to the group of women sitting under a tree or on the roadside or in the cemetery. This term, generally spelledharemin English, has no polygamous connotation in itself whatever. A man’s wife, mother, sisters and daughters, as we should say collectively,the women of the family, are denoted by the analogous expression ḥarîm.

The great majority of travelers go afoot or astride the backs of animals. Pilgrimage opens connection with the outside world and makes the road travel take on a cosmopolitan look. The largest contingent of foreign pilgrims is that from Russia, made up of peasants, who number sometimes as high as ten thousand in one season. These are, of course, members of the Greek Orthodox Church. They are assisted by a pilgrimage society in Russia and by a system of escort and hospices within the country of Palestine. Montenegrin kawasses (cavasses) and other officers guide theparties. Arrived at Jaffa by Russian steamships, they undertake long marches afoot and show every sign of religious ecstasy at beholding the land of their desire. A few asses are provided for the infirm. Young people, particularly very young women, are not usually allowed to come. The pilgrims are for the most part middle-aged or old peasants. They live very humbly and visit the holy places with great zeal. They often march through the country singing, picking flowers and decorating with them their pilgrim staffs. The observance of Easter at the shrine in Jerusalem is the climax of such a pilgrim’s errand, but additional journeys of devotion are undertaken to Nazareth, Bethlehem; also the Jordan, where the pilgrims bathe in the waters. At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem all the traditions are observed and many objects of piety, as they are called, pictures, crosses and souvenirs of the Holy City, are purchased to be taken back to Russia. Some of these are carried within the tomb and laid on the venerated slab, where, for a few cents, an attendant of the church sprinkles the articles with holy water, thus giving them a permanent value as sacred treasures.

These Russian pilgrims often suffer severely when caught on the road in raw, inclement weather. Such as die in the land are counted as favored, especially if they die at Jerusalem. They thus secure burial near its sacred shrines. A large caravanserâi is provided at Jerusalem, where they set up housekeeping while in the city. On the road, hospices and the Greek churches are open to them. One’s general impression is that they are well protected. They usually change their money into metliks, small Turkish coins valued at a little over a cent. In Jerusalem a number of shops cater especially for their trade. These are arranged in the sides of the street leading to the gates of the Russian Compound, within which the lodging quarters, a fine church and the administration buildings are found. They are thus enabledto hear their own language and buy tea, bread and other articles of food somewhat familiar to them.

The pilgrim business brings Russian interests to the notice of the country people. The result has generally been a favorable attitude on the part of Palestinians towards Russians. This has been helped by a generous expenditure of money for courtesies as well as in the purchase of land and the construction of buildings. Churches, schools and hospices have been erected and much land has been transferred to the Russian agents.

Other pilgrim parties arrive from different countries of Europe. The Roman Catholics from France and Austria are most numerous after the Russians. For a quarter of a century past, a large French party of tourist pilgrims has been made up each year to start from Marseilles and make the Palestine visit. The round trip costs about two hundred fifty dollars. We saw the party in May, 1901, when it numbered one hundred ninety-four. They entered the country at Haifa, drove by carriage to Nazareth and to the Sea of Galilee. Thence they rode to the top of Mount Tabor, where there is a Roman Catholic as well as a Greek monastery, and so on down through the country via Dôtân (Dothan), Samaria, Shechem, etc., to Jerusalem. The Franciscan monasteries and the hospices of other foundations give ample accommodations. The Armenians, Copts and Abyssinians, also, as well as the Greeks other than Russians, make ample provision for the entertainment of the religious pilgrims. Whenever the rightful claimants on the hospitality of these various houses do not take all the accommodations, any foreign traveler may find shelter and assistance at them. In some cases letters of introduction from the Jerusalem patriarchates are required, but these are not difficult to secure. The German hotels in the country are excellent providers for the wants of tourists.

The companies of tourists, if they are to be distinguishedfrom the pilgrim parties, are generally made up of Americans, English and Germans, the first mentioned being the more numerous. Tourists go in parties under the care of a director and his corps of assistants, or sometimes singly or in very small parties with a native guide. Sometimes the travelers depend on the shelter of hotels, monasteries and native houses by the way; sometimes they take a complete outfit for a tenting party. Horses are provided for the travelers, and mules for carrying baggage and equipment. Supplies are usually purchased at such starting-points as Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut and Haifa. The peasants along the route are on the alert to sell services or beg favors.

For any extensive travel through the country an official certificate is required. Foreigners and natives must have these official papers, calledteskerehs, which describe the bearer’s person, residence and destination. They must be produced, when required, and at the destination must be stamped as a sort of permit for the return journey. Without this authorization delays are apt to occur and fines may be imposed before the defect can be remedied.

The Turkish coinage alone is sure of general acceptability in the back districts.

The different posts register parcels and sell money-orders at very reasonable rates. For sending small sums to and from the country the money-orders on the Austrian, French or German post-offices have proved the safest and cheapest way. There are forwarders whose business it is to assist in the passage of goods through the ports, and to see to customs, freights and insurance on the same. Mr. K. U. L. Breisch and the Messrs. Singer, of Jaffa and Jerusalem, do a great deal of this business for Europeans and Americans. Baggage should always be in trunks; never, if it is avoidable, cased up in boxes, as it is then very difficult to explain to the officials the difference between personal effects and merchandise. Most of the leading tourist agents, forwarders anddragomans have an understanding by which trunks are passed through the customs without opening, on payment of a small fee, especially if a considerable number of people are traveling together.

The Credit Lyonnaise and the Deutsche Palestina Bank are very much used by foreigners. Drafts on London and letters of credit are in constant use.

The consulates are retreats of great comfort in Asiatic Turkey. The complaints that are so often heard against such service in other countries are changed to praise in Syria. One may expect intelligence and consideration on the part of the official of one’s own race and tongue, but one should not make unreasonable demands upon even a countryman. The United States of America and Great Britain are nobly represented by men who understand both the Western and Eastern points of view.

One traveling in the country and getting at all familiar with the people will be sought pretty surely by persons who wish to be helped to emigrate to America or some other Western country. The first impulse will be the generous one to assist such in their ambitions. But on second thought one will often reflect that it would be a doubtful kindness. The Syrian peasant, especially the Christian, who is most apt to wish to go, is surrounded by family interests and a respect that he could seldom, if ever, enjoy anywhere else. If he emigrates he usually goes alone and has chiefly in mind the earning of money. While in America he acquires little culture, being a sort of exile here, endeavoring to make and save money to take him back to live comfortably where he was born, or immersing himself for life in one of the foreign colonies of our great cities. A visit to the Syrian colonies in the American cities will convince many that the Syrian there is less attractive than in his proper and unique setting in the Holy Land. That land is to be redeemed by the vigor of its own people, not by their absence. One will notice thatmany of the would-be emigrants are of the best stock of Syria, very often skilful, wide-awake people, who are very valuable at home in the development of the country and among their families, but are of negligible quality and importance in another country, where foreigners are at a discount. I have in mind a strong, capable young man whose desire for emigration to America has been very earnest. He gave up a good position and made ready to start, but his wife interposed firmly. She said that she had been widowed once, having lost her first husband. According to the custom of the country, when she married again her children by the first husband had to be separated from her. She objected to losing her second husband and being left with his children, helpless to provide for them except by giving them up. So she said that if her husband would take their children along with him she would submit, but she objected to his going off on a venture of so uncertain issue and leaving his family in such a precarious condition. She prevailed, and the man remained, being fortunate enough to secure his old position. He is a respected, capable young man of large and fond family connections. His wife is industrious and skilful, his children young, healthy and favored. He has the advantage of being a somebody in his village and tribe and of setting an excellent example. Anywhere else he would be cut off from all his advantages and introduced to an appalling list of disadvantages and limitations. He would be homesick, for he loves his family. Money alone would explain his absence from them, and that would not be a sufficient cause for the unnatural condition which would be brought about. It is these good people whom their country cannot spare and whom no Western country especially needs who are most apt to have the emigration fever. Those who do not come up to this high standard are of questionable value anywhere.

APPENDIX

In 1904, January 1, according to our Gregorian calendar, came on Friday. The Julian calendar, the one used by the Greek Orthodox Church, made this same day the nineteenth of December. According to the Moslem calendar it was the thirteenth day of the month Shawwâl, and by the Hebrew calendar, as it is read in Arabic by the Jews in Palestine, it was the thirteenth day of the month Ṭebet. For the year 1904 the correspondences of the four calendars were as given on the next page.

The following list shows the names of the months, as used by the native Arabic-speaking Christians (first column), by the Moslems (second column), and by the Jews (third column):

The Oriental churches use the Julian calendar, while Protestants and Roman Catholics use the Gregorian. The Moslem year is a lunar year. Thus it can be understood readily that the variety of designations for any given day is considerable. Moreover, the Copts and the Armenians have methods peculiar to themselves.

GregorianJulianJanuary1Kânûn ith-thâny1Kânûn il-âwwal191414Kânûn ith-thâny118185February1Shibâṭ1191414Shibâṭ117174March1Âdhâr1171414Âdhâr11717418185April1Nîsân1191414Nîsân11616317174May1Âyyâr1181414Âyyâr11515216163June1Ḥazîrân1191414Ḥazîrân115152July1Tammûs1181313301414Tammûs1August1Âb1191212301313311414Âb1September1Aylûl1191010281111291414Aylûl1October1Tishrîn il-âwwal1181010271111281414Tishrîn il-âwwal1November1Tishrîn ith-thâny11999271414Tishrîn ith-thâny1December1Kânûn il-âwwal11899261414Kânûn il-âwwal1MoslemHebrewJanuary1Shawwâl13Ṭebet1314262618Dhû il-ḳa‛dat1Shabâṭ1February1151514282817Dhû il-ḥajjat1Âdâr1March114141427271730Nîsân118Muḥarram12April115161428291630Âyyâr117Ṣafar12May115161428291529Sîwân116Rabî‛a il-âwwal12June117181430Tammûs115Rabî‛a il-âkhir12July117181329Âb114Jumâdâ il-ûlâ12August119201230Aylûl113Jumâdâ il-âkhirat121423September120211029Tishry111Rajab121445October121221030Ḥishwân111Sha‛bân121445November122239Ramaḍân1Kislû11466December123239Shawwâl1Ṭebet11466

TIME

In Palestine villages the time of day is reckoned with reference to sunset, which is called twelve o’clock. If the sun should set at six o’clock, European time, then seven o’clock in the evening, as we should say, would be called the first hour of the night by the Arabs, and seven o’clock the next morning by our watches would be the first hour of the day according to Arab time. The two methods of keeping the time are termed, respectively, Arabi and Franji.

201. טירה, see preface to Arabic and English Name List in Palestine Exploration Fund Memoirs.

202. Matt. 13: 44.

203. See page 17.

204.Cf.Judges 5: 6, 7.

205.Cf.Judges 21: 25.

206.Cf.Luke 19: 2, 8.

207. Neh. 5: 4.

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