The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1907-11-21
EASTERN PEOPLE
FIR. Art Writes of the Inhabitants
of Palestine
SOME QUEER CUSTOMS
A Glimpse Into the Life and Manners
of Folks Who Live in the Land
of the Jews

FIR Arzt's third letter relating Incl
dents in his eastern travels this year
IS given herewith:
With but few exceptions Palestine
has remained what il was since the
days when first we hear Of its exist
ence-"The land that | will show thee
Gen. XII:1.'D
In the following sketches great
pains have been taken to describe the
manners, customs, everyday objects,
clothes, etc, of the people of the holy
land. The most striking feature in
the East, especially 10 the traveller, is
the difference in the clothing of the
various classes, which almost makes
them seem like separate nations, from
Tie serene Effendi in his fur OvercOat
and spCtless white turban, to the spale
and almost naked Bedouin in his
short shirt and almost colorless and
dirty keffiyeh or headclcth. The
Franjy appears here and there III the
towns and is at once recognized, not
merely by his European clothing
which has been generally adopted but
more especially by his hated hat. The
E'ranjy was the official name of Ro-
man Catholics or western Christians.
PrOtestants were unknown to the
masses up to the Crimean war, and
still in some degree up to as late as
1870. The Russians or Moskob are
known as the ancient enemies of the
empire. The Christians are known
only as Mascara or Nazarenes, ma
lion opposed to Islam. The nation
al feature, the talbush, marks the
great line of distribution, the Eater-
shed as it were between Orientals and
Credentials.
AS the country is gradually being
improved, at least little, it is nee
essary to go back for a moment to the
sixties of The last century, and Ian
ish from our thoughts such innovations
as carriage reads, the first of which.
was made in 1869, 10 receive the
Austrian emperor and other princes
VINO were present AT the opening OF
tie SueZ canal.
Strictly speaking the population is
divided into four great and distinct
classes, the townsmen, the Tellahln,
the NIadaniyeh, and the Bedu or Arab
in the plural form. According 10 a
legend current among the natives,
the origin of the division of classes
goes back to the time of the found
ers of Islam. A man had four SONS
whom he wished to start in life, each
according to his own inclination. So
he called them together and said to
them: MY SONS, you are now old
enough to look after yourselves
choose whatever you please and leave
your home" The eldst chose a COW
and a plough and became the father
OF the tillers OF Tellahln. The sec
ond asked for shop and became
father of possessols and traders IN
towns. The third took a horse and
became the father of intrepid horse
men. The fourth rode off on a camel
and became father of the camel-pos-
sessing Bedouin.
These four classes differ in costume,
habits and character. The townspeo-
ple call themselves Madanich or Har-
dar. In Palestine proper the chlef
towns are Jerusalem, Jaffa, Ranch,
LYDIA. Hebron. The Madany is OF a
commercial turn OF mind but artisans
arc numerous in towns. Persons or
tbe same calling usually have their
sbons in the same street, but in Jer-
nca,em and Jaffa there is a tendency
to spread about in every direction.
Every oriental town has its apothe-