may be illustrated as a whole from the details of one dinner, at which several distinguished personages were present. A very large circular tray of tinned copper, placed on a coarse wooden stool about a foot high, served as the table. In the centre of this stood another big tray, with a mountain of pillau, composed of rice, boiled and buttered, with small pieces of meat strewn through and upon it. This was the chief dish, though there were other smaller dishes, both meat and vegetable. Ten persons sat round the table, or rather squatted on the carpet, with their knees drawn up close to their bodies. Each had before him a plate of tinned copper and a wooden spoon, which some used without the plate. Most, however, preferred to use the fingers of the left hand, several dipping their hands together into the dish, as the apostles did at the Last Supper.1 As soon as anyone had finished, he rose and went into another room, to have water poured over his hands to wash them, and the vacant place at the table was instantly filled by a new-comer. Such was the dinner provided for three governors, among other grandees. The bread, I may say, was laid on the mat under the tray, so as to be easily reached; and a jar of water, the only beverage used during the meal, stood within reach. Besides rice, stews of beans or cracked wheat, with thicks oup or sauce poured over them, in the great central bowl, are also in fashion. Spoons, though sometimes provided, are often wanting -pieces of the thin bread, doubled, serving instead. Knives and forks are unknown; and as there is no special dining-room, there is no furniture suited for one. Hence tables and chairs are never seen. The meat being always cut up into small pieces, there is no need for a knife, and chickens can easily be torn asunder 1 Matt. xxvi. 23; Mark xiv. 20. with the hands. So far, indeed, are Orientals from thinking it strange to dip their fingers into the common dish, that it is a special act of politeness to grope in it for the visitor, and lay nice morsels before him, or even to insist on putting them into his mouth. Chickens are the most common form of animal food met everywhere. A traveller from the West, in fact, gets disgusted with their constant appearance at every meal, especially as he often hears their death-cries only a few minutes before they are served up. "To kill and eat" follows with the same closeness now as in the days of St. Peter,' whether it be chickens or anything larger. 1 Acts x. 13. CHAPTER XVII. THE COUNTRY NORTH OF HEBRON, THE road from Hebron to Jerusalem is rough and mountainous, but very direct. Our kind host wished us to stay with him longer, but this being impossible, we sent on our donkeys with the tents, the Turkish soldiers having duly found the wanderers and brought them to Hebron. They had been overtaken by night, they said, at Falujeh, and fearing robbers, had slept there-that is, they had lain. down beside their beasts in the dress they wore. A spring runs down from the north side of the hill as you leave Hebron, and makes the track for a time muddy; but this is rather a welcome sight in Palestine. A fringe of grass at the sides, below the broad, low walks of loose stones picked off the small fields, vineyards, &c., which skirted our way, was a lovely green. The path soon after was for a time roughly paved-when, or by whom, is a very hard question to answer; but the stones are now at such angles, and in such heights and hollows, that they would break the legs of any horses not bred in the country. Before long the road became simply fearful, running in the dry bed of a winter torrent strewn with stones of all sizes, in thick masses. Every patch of soil on the bare hill-sides was in some way utilised. Four camels passed us with bags of tallow, then a man with a very primitive gun-a shepherd from the hills. We next came to a well, where there were women in blue cotton, with white cloth over their heads, some drawing water, others pounding household linen with a stone at a small pool by the well-side; the linen, I fear, sadly wanting their kind offices. Not far from Hebron a small valley ran into the one we were climbing, with fine vineyards growing on terraces up the hills. This has been thought to be the valley of Esheol, from which the spies brought back the grapes,1 but, as I have previously said, the fruit must have been gathered much farther south, near Kadesh. The road, bad though it was, bore every appearance of having always been the highway between Hebron and Jerusalem, for it is direct, and has evidently been made by human labour in a long-past age. It is certain, however, 3 that it could never have been passable for wheels, for they could not be dragged over such a wilderness of boulders and loose stones of all sizes, or up slopes so steep. Nor, indeed, do we hear of wheeled vehicles in the parts south of Jerusalem, except when Joseph sent waggons to bring down his father Jacob to Egypt; and they only came as far as Hebron, whence Jacob, then very old, travelled in them to Beersheba. As in olden times, the ass is the main help for a journey, horses still being few, and mules only used for baggage and other burdens. Big men on diminutive donkeys are seen everywhere, and, at times, a woman and child on the family ass, while the husband walks at the side of his wife. Thus Joseph, it is to be supposed, travelled with the Blessed Virgin from Bethlehem to Egypt, and from Egypt to Nazareth. So, also, rode the ancient kings, and so rode our Lord, as the Son of David, in fulfilment of the words of Zechariah: "Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass; and we are 1 Num. xiii. 23. 3 Gen. xlv. 19, 21, 27; xlvi. 1. Y told that Saul rode to the field spear in hand, as peasants on their asses now carry their clubs or guns, and with a small water-jar tied to his rude saddle, as in our day.' About three miles from Hebron a path runs off towards Tekoa; and on this, about five minutes' ride from the road we were following, are two courses of ancient hewn stones, among which one measured fifteen and a half feet long, and three and a third feet thick. There are two such walls, at right angles to each other, apparently the remains of an enclosure, one side of which measures 200 feet, and the other 160. The Jews of Hebron call this "the House of Abraham," regarding it as the spot where the patriarch pitched his tent, and where his famous terebinth-tree grew. Nor is this really improbable, when we see the extreme age of the walls, as shown by their bevel, and by the size of the stones. Besides, the tradition is at least 1,500 years old. When between four and five miles from Hebron, a ruined mosque was pointed out on the right, about three miles from the road, bearing the name of Neby Yunas-" the Prophet Jonah." There is another with the same name, on the coast below Acre, a place natural enough for it; but why there should be a mosque to Jonah near Hebron is not so easy to understand. It shows, at least, how deep a hold the narrative about the prophet obtained on the popular mind. What kind of fish or creature it was that swallowed him has been discussed a thousand times, some insisting that it must have been a whale, since the English Testament says so. But the words used, both in the Old Testament and the New, speak only of a great fish or other sea-monster, leaving the kind entirely an open question. Bochart, in his wonderful "Hierozoicon,' "3 has long ago 1 1 S.m. xxvi. 11. 2 Land and the Book, P. 68. 8 Hieroz. ii. 742-746. |