The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-10-04
prepared by the National Geographic
Society, Washington, D. c.

TORE is known in general OF
MI Palestine, perhaps, than of
1N any other Eastern country,
because Of the wide reading
Of the Bible. Few, however, realize
that the manners and customs which
prevailed there in Biblical days are
still in large part unchanged even
after an interval of 5000 years. In
addition to the native and immigrant
Jews and the relatively few Chris
tians, the land today is inhabited by
three distinct classes of Arabs, the
BedOuinS, or nOmadS, a wandering,
war-lOving race: the FeIlaheen, who
are the agriculturists, shepherds, and
village dwellers: and the Medaniyeh.
who live in the towns and cities and
are artisans
With the advent of civilization the
townsDeOple are fast losing their an
Gent customs and quaint costumes.
but the villagers adhere to both far
more tenaciOusly.
The present-day villages are To-
Gated, as a rule, either on the tops of
hills, originally for protection, or near
some spring or source of water. Many
are built upon the foundations of
dwellings whose origin dates back
thousands of years. There does not
exist single example of peasant
village that has been founded in mod
ern times. This does not apply, of
course, to the small Jewish towns.
With almost every village or dis
trict there are, to a greater or lesser
extent. variations in the dialect of the
Arabs, their style of dress, and the
homes they live in.
On the Plain of Sharon, where stone
are made of sun-dried brick. the roofs
matched and covered with clay to
shed the rain, while in the mountains
they are built Of stone, since of that
material there is an inexhaustible
supply.
\ Many have pictured in their minds
Mary and Joseph, after arriving at the
linn" at Bethlehem and finding no
room, being forced to turn into some
barn built of timber, with lofty roof.
hay mows, wooden managers, and stalls
for cattle and sheep. Such stable
has been the subject of many medieval
and modern artists, but it does not
present a really true picture. Let us
consider the old-style village home
that is most common in the districts
around Jerusalem and Bethlehem. for
that will give US a better idea of what
happened on that first Christmas day.
= In An Old Village.
The village streets are crooked. mar
row, and unpaved. As in many of the
countries of the Orient, farmers live
close together for protection. and not
on their lands; therefore in the viii
lagos there are no open fields or gar
cept for the small walled-in Enclosures
or sheepfolds through which one gen.
orally passes when going into the
dwelling.
The house itself consists of one
large room. usually square. The walls,
from three to four feet thick, are built
of blocks of stone roughly dressed and
laid In mortar. rooted over with a
dome, also of stone. The outside of
this roof is covered with a cOating of
mortar made of clay, which, on being
pressed with a small stone roller or
pounded with a board, becomes hard
and compact enough TO shed the rain.
steep outside staircase. unpro-
tected by any railing. is built up. TO
the roof, for the surface must be re-
paired at times. The fiat, open space
of the roof also forms a handy place
on which to dry figs and raisins, and
during the hot weather the family may
sleep there at night.
Entering the door we find that
about two-thirds of the space is de-
voted TO raised masonry platform
some eight or ten feet above the
ground, and supported by iow-domed
arches. This raised space. called ell
mastaby. is the part occupied by the
family, while the lower part Is used
for the cattle and f1ocks A few mar
row stone steps lead Up TO the mast
ably, and a couple OF small windows
pierce the wall, high up from the
ground. On one side is an open fire
place, with chimney running through
the wall and terminating on the roof
often in an old water jar whose bot
tom has been knocked out, and so be-
comes a sort of smokestack. The fur
e e;y