The Holy Land Author:John Finnemore Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: on their heels round the big bowl and begin their meal. As each person dips his hand into the bowl—there are neither forks nor spoons—he utters a pious form of w... more »ords for grace, and then proceeds to whip the grains of wheat or rice into his mouth with his fingers. He does this in so dexterous a fashion that often not a grain will be dropped in the course of a meal. Only the right hand is used, and the liquid of the dish is taken up by soaking pieces of bread in it. When the solid part of the meal is despatched, it is washed down with large draughts of water, and the hands are washed again to cleanse them from the stains of food. Now pipes are lit, and coffee, served without sugar, is handed round. Both men and women smoke, and the favourite pipe of the men is one whose bowl is formed of red clay, and whose stem is of wood and as long as his arm. The women more often smoke a nargileh, or hubble-bubble, the large water-pipe with a long flexible stem. CHAPTER V The Peasant's Year In The Holy Land—i The long rainless summer of Palestine is often a time of great loss and suffering to the Syrian farmer. Perchance the well or cistern upon which he depends to water his flock runs dry, and then he must drive them fur afield to discover some water-hole where his thirstyanimals may drink. If he finds none, they fall and die, and many a hill-side track is white with the bones of poor creatures who have perished of thirst. As a rule, between May and October there are five or six months without rain. The summer may begin with brooks and rivers brimming with water, with fields and pastures green, with groves and gardens full of verdure. But day after day passes without a single cloud to break the force of the scorching beams of the powerful sun. The brooks fail and the rivers dry u...« less