The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-04-15
The Palestine of the Bible a Land
of Farmers-Among Them Our
Saviour Lived.
Bethlehem and Nazareth Where Our
Lord Was Born and Raised Were
Farming Villages.
A Description of the Conditions az
They Appeal to a Tourist
of To-day.

have seen the real Palestine. with
the same sky, the same rocks and
hills, and the same carpet of wild
flowers that were here in the days
of our Lord. have talked with tho
farmers in the fields, have ridden side
by side with the modern Balaam AZ
he climbed the hills on his ass, and
even put my hand to the plows, such
as were used in the times Of tho
Scriptures. and with goad have
pricked on the bullocks and donkeys
as they turned up the sod, writes F.
Y. Carpenter in the Catholic Colum-
bian.
The Palestine Of the Bible was a
land Of the farmer. The children of
Israel and their leaders were reared
on the farm. Abraham had numer-
GUS sheep, and so had Isaac and Jac.
OBJ. Saul was the son of old Farmer
Kish, and he was hunting his faith
er's asses when he was met by Sam.
uel, the prophet, who gave him a king
dom.
David was watching the sheep
Farmer Jesse, his father, sen, him
to the battle where with his sling he
killed the mighty Goliath, and In tiinly
became Saul's successor. Lot Wa
one of the richest farmers the Jordan
valley has known, and as for job who
lived in old Uz, he was the bonanza
sheep, 5000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen,
500 she asses and large household.
Our Savior Lived Among Farmers.
1t was in a farm village, Bethlehem.
that our Savior was born, and in an
other farming settlement, Nazareth,
that He grew to manhood. A great
part of His life was spent in going
about among the shepherds and farm
ers, and in His preaching the most OF
the examples and parallels relate to
things OF the soil.
The most common sight out of doors
in the Holy Land is the sheep. They
are everywhere. You find them on
the rich plains where the Philistines
lived; they feed among the rocks on
the slopes of the Judean mountains,
and spot the wilderness all the way
down to Jericho. They Craze on ev-
cry part Of Samaria and Galilee and
almost everywhere on the plain of
Esdraelon.
They are always watched over by
shepherds, and are often driven to
new feeding grounds. The greater
part of this country is mountainous.
Limestone rocks are covered with
soil as thin that if you could pare 1t
Off for n depth Of eight inches there
would be nothing but stone. 1t is
different in the plains and the valleys,
but the hills are terraces of rock COW
cred with boulders and sprinkled here
and there with patches of earth. The
conditions, however, are such that the
least DlL vi sui WILL 6Ao" AunuA '1iss
grass, and the sheep seem to grow
fat on the stones.
l remember some focks saw on
my way 10 the Jordan. They were
heavy wooled animals with tails OF
fat hanging down like aprons behind
them. Most of them weighed 200
pounds, and the average was fatter
and finer than the best sheep of Amer
lea.
sIinas Like David's Sling in Use.
The shepherds are about the same
all over Palestine. They are kindly
eyed men with fair faces bronzed by
the sun. They stay out all day on the
hills with the sheep, driving them into
villages at night.
Each shepherd has his staff and his
scrip, a little bag of dried skin. He
uses a sling, as David did, and stones
his sheep to keep them from stray
ing. The string of the sling is OF the
same material often made with silt
in the middle, so that when stone
is nut in the sling it fits close like a
bag. Such things are now used IN
contests between the boys OF the vil'
,.oos who nractice to see who can