El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-01-14
FRANK q. CARPENTERS LETTER.


with fresh oil. saIted and bound up
again. This wrapping, oiling, sailing
and rewrapping goes on for about ~
days, when the child is ready 10 wear
the ordinary clothes of baDyhood- rms
usually consists OF one garment, and
in the summer if the child be poor that
is omitted, although a naked baby may
wear a skull cap. The ordinary gar
ment is a shirt which reaches to the
knees, and as the children grow older
they may have 9 jacket over the snlrI
One Of the important ceremonies IS
naming the boy. In this the name OF
the father is always added. holden
times If the son Of James was named
John his name would be John, son OF
James, but now the words ''son or are
omitted and he is known as John James
Pretty Little Nazarenes.
I am surprised at the beauty of the
Nazarene girls, and especially Of the
little ones. They have rosy cheeks ana
Upright eyes and are quite as good'look-
ing as our American babies Iney
dress in bright colors, some having
rows Of coins on their headdresses and
rings on their fingers.
1 see many little girls at the fountain
o. Mary. each carrying a jar in which
to bring water home. This is the Work
of almost every woman in Syria Inc
little ones are taught by beginning
with a tiny jar which they steady on
the head with the hand. As they grow
older they use larger jars, until at last
they are able to walk through the
streets carrying four or five gallons
of water on the head without toueh-
ing the jar. This work gives them
erect figures, and there are no stoop
shoulders nor curved spines among
them.
When ? girl reaches 10 or II years
OF age she begins to think Of marriage.
and il is not an uncommon thing Ior
her TO be mother at IS or Il AFTER
marriage the wife becomes member
of her husbands family, and for time
at least, she lives with her motherin-
law For this reason people believe in
early marriage whereby the girl may
be trained by her husbands mother IN
to a suitable wife when she grows up
A Look at the schools.
I wonder If the boys Of our Savior's
time studied as do the Nazarene boys
of today Many of them are taught by
the sheiks, as half the town is Mo-
hammedan They sit on the floor and
sway back and forth as they scream
out the verses and texts they are try
ing to learn The teacher is sometimes
blind but he knows the voices so well
that when one stops he can strike the
place where that boy should be sitting
with stick to start him again In our
Lords time the scriptures were prob
ably taught the same way TO the Jew
ish children. The states used here are
largely made of castoff coal oil cans.
the tin being cut into squares and I
pounded out fiat. The Arabic eharac-
tiers are painted upon such tins with
brushes and india ink.
The chief study of the Mohammedan
boys is the Koran, and of the Jews the
Psalms. At harvest. time the schools
close and the children go out into the
fields, gardens and vineyards They
are accustomed 70 work. and every
where go / see them herding the
sheep. The boys use sings just as Da-
did and they are sxillful in sending
the stones where they please.
Like Little Americans.
Some of these Palestine children are
polite and others are the reverse.
When the good Arab boy comes into q
room full OF older people he goes
around and kisses the hand of each
one and places it on his forehead. He
can be so sweet you might think him
the soul of innocence and piety, but
take him outside and he win fight
kick and scratch with his fellows 4
great deal Of slang is used and IN a
quarrel the most common expressions
are those of cursing your enemy's an
cestors. One boy will say to another.
Curse your father and the other will
reply, And your grandfather" And so
they viii go on 10 the fourth and fifth
generations, cursing the various
branches of the others genealogical
tree. Here at Nazareth we find the
children very polite. but at Nab1ous
they threw stones at me and called me
"a Nazarene," contemptuous term
which the Mohammedans OF Samaria
use for all who are not of,their faith
Frank G. Carpenter.