CAMPING IN PALESTINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2206, 11 June 1896, Page 49

CAMPING IN PALESTINE.

In the afternoon, when we came back from a walk, we saw a stir in the camp. A negro held an ass by the kitchen door, and two Arabs with their long matchlocks were hunkering beside him. Oar cook, Yusuf, . was bowing as low as his fat carcase would let him to somebody invisible in our tent. It argued a distinguished visitor. But we were scarcely prepared for a woman. As we got near, a brown-faced, black eyed Bedawee matron, in a long loose robe of blue linen, came forward to greet us, and in her lap a heap of cucumbers, onions, and melons. Like Abigail, she brought gifts. .She was the wife of Ali Dial, a woman of 35 or 40 yeare of age, olean, genial, and " wiselike." She stroked my wife's chin several times and - kissed her repeatedly. She was unveiled, and . spoke freely to myself. Apologising for her husband's absesoo, she gave us an invitation to a feast that same evening. We. begged to be allowed to postpone it till to-morrow. | - " We are Nazarenes," I said, "and this is the day of onr Lord." I cannot tell whether she understood, bat she smiled prettily and - granted our request. "She would send messengers for us at the proper hour," And so Bhe mounted her ass and rode away. The -honest freedom of this woman was very sin- ' gular in that Moslem world ; but it was not the only proof we found among the Bedouin of how much the laws of Mohammed have spoiled the old Arabian manners.

As we were returning from our climb of Mount Nebo, wh'ch occupied most of Monday, and were still some distance from the camp, we saw, approaching the latter from another direction, a very singular procession. A young man in Frankish riding dress was leadiDg a weary hoise; there followed a veiled maiden on a mule, and then an old man with a club. It was even more romantic - than it seemed. Our friend, the Rev. Mr Bjkes, of Es-Salt, who has held for some years that furthest outpost of Christendom towards the desert, had been at Medeba with the Kiimakam and some soldiers to rescue one of the young women of his fleck from a man who bad abducted her. The old man with the olub was-har uncle. They had found her, and unwilling to risk a night in Medeba, unable to return to Es-Salt, and knowing we were in the neighbourhood, they sought our tents for shelter. The bsnefit was still more ours. We welcomed the arrival of a friend with a competent Arab tongue, and engaged • him to go with us to the " Adwan." Just at sunset there arrived four mounted messengers with the word that all things were now ready. So making our retinue as imposing as we could, we rode over the hill and entered the Arab camp just as the stars were - visible. We were welcomed with, a great noise, the men firing their flintlocks in the air, while the dogs barked and tbe children and women cried cut; At the chief's tent, which generally stands «on the right of the entrance to the horseshoe camp, we were " helped to dismount by Ali's two sons, and led into the outer guest chamber, where they 1 set us very comfortably upon pillows on the , ground," a ymag chief on either side, and some of tbe older men round a small fire at the mouth of the. tent. Our friend, the chief's wife, welcomed us and then vanished. Behind us, separated only by a goat'a-halr curtain, was the women's compartment of the tent, and from this Bbc talked to us throughout the meal. For the first course there was placed on the ground in front of us a huge round tray about 3ft in diameter, on which was heaped a mountain of rice. A little digital investigation revealed another component. It was a sheep cooked whole and then torn to pieces, none too small for the method of consumption.- We used as plates the thin scones of the camp; for spoons and forks our fingers. The young chiefs, to show honour to the only lady of the party, groped amocg the rice and handed her from time to time a choice morsel of mutton. Then we had sausages— the only ones I ever saw that deserved to be called ideal, for the skin of each was a vine-leaf and tbe contents raisins and rice. Surely, if they eat sausages in paradise, these are they 1 The third course was a huge water-melon, to accompany ■ which several mahogany babies were rolled under the curtain from the women's apartment for our admiration. The young chiefs behaved very prettily with these babies: they were their own boys. Between each ' course bowls of fresh water from the brook outside were passed round for the washing of our hand?/ and after the last came the . coffee and cigarettes* With that cmioua etiquette —so significant of the barbaric JBaat — by which, in order to disarm suspicion as to the most poisonable dish of tbe featfc, the host lets his guest see every stage of the manufacture of his c.ffee ; the men at the tent door, ever since we entered, had been roasting the beans, bruisiug them, and brewing tbe beverage. Thoy gave us also the festal draught of cinnamon, while we supplied, to their delight, the cigarettes. — Good Words.