PEOPLE IN PALESTINE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 52, 11 February 1913, Page 8

PEOPLE IN PALESTINE.

For so small a country as the Holy Laud (lW.j 111 ilos from north to south and an average hreadth of some 75 miles) the variety of types of people to he met even in a day's journey is very great. This cafi be noticed especially by spending a few hours in close observation of the people passing through the chiei gateway oi a city like Jerusalem in the south, or Gaza or Jaffa, or further north at Nazareth, Haifa or Beyrout. A man can seat himself for this purpose in a coffee-shop, one of those generally found close to the gateways of the towns in'question. A coifeesliop constitutes the general meetingplace where men come together to talk about the varied subjects making for interest in their Eastern nays of business and lite; and the chief beverage the men drink consists of tiny cups of coffee. There is no distinction of class either in these coffee-shops; the prosperous merchant will think nothing of sitting next to the servant-man of his next-door neighbor, or close to a peasant who has brought in produce for the markets; and he will take the cigarette from his own lips to give a light to his humble brother. All kinds of types and classes, from the Turkish or Syrian gentleman in his red tarboush (a high brimless cap) to the ordinary soldier or peasant, mingle together in sociable fraternity, and whether they are silent or talking, no one seems to pass unnoticed by them in and out of the city gateway. So the people pass, like figures in a kinematograph, only more vivid and living because the colors of the Eastern costumes are bright and startling although quite in harmony with the clear atmosphere and the blue cloudless skies. Mingled with these Oriental types are many familiar ones from England, America, France, Germany and other Christian lands, both tourists and those engaged in missionary work on the lines of education, medicine, and religious training. Europeans who are employ 'native servants, and the dignified young woman with the coronet of rolled metal coins for a headdress is the valued nur.se of some little English children born, in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Her costume is one worn in a district north of the city, where she will return when negotiations have been made for her marriage.—A. C. Inchbold, in 'Home Words.'