Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-08-14

Tor twenty-five cents IN tho market
near DaYid's tower. He was
stopped and charged three cents
duty before he was permitted to
pass. Thus it is with everything
salcable. II
The Philistincs had, by all odds,
tho best lands in Palestine. The
plains of Sharon have been worked
ever since tho days of Abraham, and
they produce the richest of crops to,
day. The soil is deep brown loan,
and l found tho farmers blowing
when visited it in May. The i'm
plcmcnts used were the same as
those of the time Of Christ. There
was tho wooden plow, with its point
shod with iron and with its single
handle, which the plowman held
with one hand while he walked be-
hind his donkey or OK. Tie had Il
long goad in the other hand to stir
up his boast, and tho words of the
Scripture about the man putting his
hand TO the plow arc applicable to
this. lii ono OF the fods ! saw Il
camel hitchcd to plow, and tho
great, ungainly beast shamblcd up
and down tho field with sullcn mir.
Nowhere did 1 see any improved
machinery; and l am told that there
is not thrcshing machine in PaIcs-
tine, though the advanced farmer
who owns the land further up in Sy-
ria, where Abraham farmch, has n
mower and reaper in active opera
ton.
There are no big bank-barns in
Palestine. The grain is either kept
in house, and in some districts slowed
away in tombs and caves, or
packed down into boxes made of
mud and dung. The hills of palcs-
tine arc full of caves, and the houses
of the people arc little better than
holes cut out into the rock. Many
of the villages are built against the
sides of hill, so that The hill forms
one side OF the house, and the cattle
and sheep are often kept in the
same room IN which the people sleep.
The food OF the people is of tho
cheapest variety. Whole families
live on from fifty to scvcnty-livc
dollars Il year, and the clothing of n
village would not exhaust the stock
Of a country dry goods store. Only
one man in twenty wears shoes, and
the most common garment among
the peasants is a WOODEN blanket of
black aud white stripes, made at
home, and of full Turkish trousers
and vest under this. The women,
to large extent, wear the blue de-
MIN, night-gown-likc costume which
you see in Egypt, except they do not
veil their faces unless they be Mo-
hamcdans.
Some of them are very beautiful.
| found the women of Bethlehem
among the most beautiful in the
world. They seemed to he better
off than those of other parts of Pal
cstinc, and their faces were rs rosy
and fresh as those OF the girls of
Ireland. They had beautiful eyes,
and Raphael might have found
model for the Sistinc Madonna in
the land where Mary gave birth to
Christ. The shepherds of Bcthlc-
hem are finc-iooking men, and the
sheep arc tended on the plains about
the city to-day as they were eighteen
centuries ago. Many of these shcp-
herds wear shcep-skin coats. They
have their slaves in their hands,
and they drive the sheep into folds
near the villages now as they did
when Christ was horn. The sheep of
Palestine arc OF the fat tailed variety.
Some If the tails, | was told, weigh
as much as thirty-iivc hounds. Pal
cstine sheep arc worth from three to
five dollars apiece, and great guam
tity Of wool is shipped from Syria
and Palestine to the United States.
In the valley of the Jordan and
along the Dead Sea there are many
fine pastures and about three fourths
of million pounds Of wool is ship
ped annually from Syria. | was in
Palestine just before the Shcaring
time, and | noticed that the ilccccs
were very heavy. The most of the
wool is exported unwashcl, and the
bulk Of it goes to the United States.
The wool is sometimes washed after
it is cut from the sheep. The wash
ing is done by woman, who arc paid
from eight to ten cents Il day for it.
Wages are very low I'LL over PalcS-
tine. You can get a farmland for