Norwich bulletin., 1915-01-07

ant village that has been founded in modern times.
 Village streets are crooked, mar row and unpaved. The farmers houses are crowded close together for protection. These houses consist o1 one large room, usually square. About two thirds of the space within is de- voted to raised, masonry platform, some s to 10 feet above the ground, and this is the kitchen, store-room, bedroom and living of the fam fly. Below this platform, the cattle and 1ocks are housed, goats and sheep, l few work cattle. and perhaps a don key or camel.
 Each village has a guest chamber which is the social center for all the village men who love conpanionship and are great gossips. Each day, by turn, one of the villagers furnishes the coffee beans and sugar to be served to the men who gather at the guest-chamber. He, also, supplies the food and bedding if some ordinary guests come along.
 They are of course, great respec- | ters of persons; so that if a common man happens in, a. couple of fried eggs with bread and olives will do for him. rives, a pair of roast chickens is pro- vIded for his supper; but if a still more honored one or a company of | men appear, a lamb or kid is killed. l llS N44IdEC S4SSSI-SiAcNAAipC1 iS cb C4uO of the village men.
 Children in the peasant families are always welcomed. The father brides | himself on his boys. Even the moth
 CT prefers them. and when questioned 1 as to the number of her offspring, she
 will say she has five children and two girls or whatever the numbers may be. This Is the more strange since the \ would-be- husband must pay his 1 father-in-laW a handsome price for I AI, -,1 -E.s H. 1 pense, and their wives and weddings l are costly affairs.
 1 Women are looked upon as some | thing inferior. The woman may never i call her husband by his first name, 1 but oh father of Ahmed,' or what The wife takes the name of her first
 born son. The husband will never say 1 my wife or mention her first name, but will say either the mother of
 Ahmed or my family, the relative iIl my house, the forbidden. or the daughter of my uncle!' The reason 1 for this last title is that the village men in the Holy Land marries his | first cousin in preference to any one else, and in fact she cannot marry an | other if he wants her.
 When the fellah or peasant child is l born, it's tender skin, without being l washed, is rubbed with olive oil and l salt For seven consecutive days ii IS Te-SOlI6d. and when a week old gets 1 it's first bath and is again oiled. Tn some localities they consider it unsafe to bathe the baby before it is forty days old. Mortality among the ba- bies is great and it is not to be wondered at, for, in view of the rough treatment they receive, it becomes 3 question of the survival of the fit test.
 "The ways of these village folk their methods of agriculture, of ad- ministration of household and uom- munity, and of sanitation are primi- tive "reminiscences of the days before the coming of Christ. The refuse ot their villages are piled in great>heaps around it. and there left to fester Their blowing is a, bare scratching o1 the ground with wooden blows, while they thresh their grain by failing anG
 reading, and mill it in stone mul tars.
 1 The marriage customs of these people are interesting. Young me1 marry at about 20 and girls betweer F and Is. The son. on coming ot
 marriageable age, picks his wife by choice of sight-no courtsllip is al. iIowed-when his father arranges al further details. The girl has no voice
 in the matter. The price of a bride depends on her age, beauty. useful
 ness and family connections. |
 ranges, in our money, from SIo0 tc
 S400.'