A LADY'S VISIT TO THE EAST

Otago Witness, Issue 2857, 16 December 1908, Page 89

A LADY'S VISIT TO THE EAST

.*> • Bt Chablotti- Devekell.

Ko I.— FROM PORT SAID TO HATFU AND ACRE. Arriving at Port . Said in the morning of -April 6 we embarked on the evening of the same day on the Austrian-Lloyd steamer Maria Teresa, «n route for Beyrout «nd intermediate ports. Along with our first and second class passengers, we carried about 400 Russian pilgrims and several others on their way to Jerusalem for the Easter celebrations. These travelled as deck passengers, and what a motley crowd they were— the Russian men clad in sheepskin .coats nlgsil«Kg«<l boots, aaid fur cape, their women in rusty black, and the others in all the colours of the rainbow. Being deck passengers they carried their bedding with them, and viewed from the upper deck early in the, morning the place seemed a perfect litter of tag6- : -some of them very dirty nags, — and it was strange to see a human fa.se look : ng oat here and" there from the bundles. One woman was evi.detctly as Oriental el high rank — judging from the richness of her dress and from •ihe way the others" waited on her, making up he-r bed, and certainly giving her the .beet place 'amongst them. Yet she was travelling in a Way that an English woman would have thought impossible. I remarked on this to a gentlemen \jrho knew ihe country well, . and he explained tihat they were travelling this waj, not because they could not afford to go in better style, but merely because they had no higher idea of comfort.

We left Port Said at 10 o'clock at night, and anchored off Jaffa. — the Joppa of -the Soriptmes— early next morning, and now the troubles of our pilgrims began. Here we were obliged to pass the doctor's inspection, but the pilgrims could not be induced to face the ordeal. Oar second mate, a very gentlemanly young feldow, urged them quietly at first, and then, as that had no effect, hands were waved and shouldens shrugged, but still po impression was made. Tney merely turned and stared stupidly at each other. In sheer desperation the officer esized two of the leading men by the shoulders, and ran them up before the doctor, whereon the rest followed like a. flock of shetp. After the passengers had passed the dooox, he people in the boats alongside the ship were allowed on board, when such a babel broke loose, each one gesticulating and ehcruting at the top of his voice, trying to induce the passengers to patronise his particuJiaT boat. We trusted ouwetves to the agent of the Ameri-can-Hamburgh ./Company— a very fear complexioned gentlsnvan, whx* said his brother would mcc* us on shore and act as our guide. The brother proved to be- very dark. He' turned out to be a very con-eci'-nstious, intelligent youmg fellow, educated at one of/the British Syrian schools. ' The landing leads through the large sheds of the Turkish Custom-house— for we are not now in British territory,— and the noisy officials demanded to see our passports, with which we had provided ourserves at Port Said. After the passports had been read and roughly stamped, or "visseyed, one franc was demanded for the trouble? and as we were returning to our steamer again the passports were retained till we came back, and we were free to pass out by the long corridor into the main strc?t of the town. The traveller must indeed be dull of brain end cold of heart who decs r.ot experience some feelings of strong emotion" on Betting foot for the first time in tlie Holy Land. Here we were in a country whose history was ar.ei-ent and whose glory had long passed before tho Briton knew anything about the l>enefit>» of civilisation — a country from which we -'.erive our moral law, our knowledge of God; and, above all, the country in which our divine Lord lived and laboured, taught and suffered. Well, here we were. We had passed 6afe*y through the opening in the rooks, which is here the only means cf reaching the landing-place, for Jaffa is truly described as having one of the woret harbours in the world, and can only be approached by the narrow opening referred to."

We were now at liberty' to go and see the place under fcbe escort of our g-uide. How narrow the streets were, how crowded and noisy, and above all how very dirty! Every few -arete w«' were obliged to flatten our"f^lves against the wall until a caravan of camels or donkeys, with their tinkling belH, J-ad-sn with oranges had passed by, for this was the orange season. And the fine British steamer lying in - the roadstead had brought out a cargo of iron rails for the new railway to Damascus, and was now filling up with Jaffa oranges — acknowledged to be tlie best in the world — for the London market. Having got 6omewh»t used to the noise and confusion in the thronging street, we looked ahead and noted what an extra-

ordinary place we had come to. How varied were the dresses of the men-, how gorgeous the colours ; and at the same time we were surprised to see that the- women were much plainer in their apparel — in fact, they looked dowdy in their rtuty black garments. Our guide led us to the bazaars, and there for ihe first time we met the dog of the Bast — a wolfish-looking animal with a rough opat of reddish hair, gaunt and atarved-looking. One was 6niffinc around a provision stall, "end on my asking, "What is that?" the reply was^ "It is a dog, madam; 'tis a- female dog." The question was never repeated, for I suppose we saw some hundreds of them during our short stay in Palestine— always gaunt and 6tarvcd-lookLng, and often, vexy much diseased.

I must cay that the bazaars here are very poor, the fabrics consisting for the greater part of oheap, gaudily-coloured prints, co we did nQt stay long, but took our way to a khan, or native inn — a walled enclosure for travellers with their camels, donke-yg, sheep, etc. Here we saw for the first time a fat sheep of the country, and it certainly .was a curiosity. At first sight I exclaimed, • c Why, it has three tails!" But the guide said "No, madam, it has only one tail; the rest is fat." We afterwards saw the carca«ee of fat sheep exposed for sale. Tho reader can imagine an ordinary-sized tail is the usual place, and two enormous exeresoonoes of fat hanging down, o)>« on each side of the tail, and he will know something of how a Syrian sheep looks. In conversation with a mwsioirary, who bad ageat 25 yean in the place, he told me

that the fat sometimes weighs as much &a 18 pounds, and was a provision of nature a-gainst the hot. dry days of summer, when the grass would be all withered up and living would be a hard matter for the poor sheep, which would then draw on the surplus fat for nourishment, and at the end of the summer it would be all gone. V\e were fortunate in finding a caravan of camels and donkeys resting m the khan at the time of our visit, and these my Husband photographed after bestowing some backsheesh demanded by the owners. This place was of the greatest interest to us, for in just such an enclosure the Saviour of the world was born — "because there was no room for Him at the inn."

Our guide intimated that he was about to take us to see the tomb of Tabitha or ', Dorcas, and asked us if we would walk or ! take a carriage? We decided on the former, greatly to his disappointment, I am afraid, so we set out through highwalted, narrow, dusty lanes, past com« fine orange groves, and some large houses, with very plain exteriors, more like barns than the homes of wealthy merchants, for it is not cafe in a country ruled by the Turk to make any outside -• display of w-ealth. ' Yet these same plain houses, with their shuttered windows, might contain real art treasures within. Continuing on the road, a fine fountain, erected in memory of some good ruler, is seen, the water welling up ' cool and refreshing to satisfy the thirsty traveller. The mam road diverges h-ere, and runs through a waste of cactus, iuxu- ' riant in its growth, but, like the furze, . very troublesome when unrestrainsd. A 1 little further on we reach the Greek church, j which has been built here to the memory iof the Saint. Services are held in this ' church only twice a year. It was clean j and airy, the walls painted in rather 1 bright colours, -with pictures illustrating I incidents in the Scriptures, and it had a I very fine tower, with a staircr.se leading to j the top, from which we had a splendid ' view of the town and surrounding country. 1 At our feet lay th? town, with its flatI roofed, irregularly built hotrees. In 'front i of the town were the dark blue waters of the Mediterranean, and at the back orange grov£6 stretching for miles, until they were lost in the plains of Sharon. On descend- ! ing from the tower we were shown the reputed tomb of Tabitha, some distance from the church. A few steps led down to a kind of grotto, and there, near the bottom. -H^as & stone shelf, covered with a white antimacassar, on which burned a lamp. Our guide explained that the tomb was at the bottom, but we had seen enough, and were glad to g«t back to the r-unshine again. Opinions may differ about this foxing the spot where the dust of Tabitha reposes, but it really doe-s not matter. The great thing is that a good -woman lived, in whose h-eart God had implanted His own love of suffering and helpless humanity, and the world for nineteen centuriea has been better and happier because once upon a time a good woman called Tabitha or Dorcas lived.

Our guide next suggested taking U3 to a hotel for lunch — "a nice hotel, where it was all the same as ihe English." but to his evident surprise we declined the tempting offer, and told him to take u3 to a. respectable native place. He did as we suggested, but we were never anxious to repeat the experiment. The food looked <=o strange "to us that we thought it wiser io stick to something with which we were familiar, so we ordered a cup of tea, with broad and butter. Tlie tea was not very good, the bread was •excellent, but there was r.o sign of butter. We explained that we could not get along without that, so our guide left the room, and after an interval of five minutes or more he returned and placed a plate containing- something on the table. The '"something" was

v<>ry white, wit-h dark green streaks runring through it. and wlinn I a»k«d what it wa^ I was told, "It is ihe butter, madam."

I thouzht that it po=sib!y might ta*te better

! than, it looked, so, summoning up my couirage, I tried a piece about the size of a

large pea upon a bit of bread. That was ali that we used of it. I said, "Now T know why Jarl. the wife of Heber the K-?nite, brought forth butter in a lordly dish — it •was to eompent-ate for the aufuJ quality of the butler." On leaving we vrsre charged half a franc, but wo did not object. We now know -what native butter is like. My

husband wished to photograph sortip street

, scenes, with me in the foreground, in j memory of our visit, but it certainly wm I photography under difficulties. Whenever I he selected a plao3 suitable for a picture.

and I placed myself witliin the view, the ! people hemmed me in, until I found my- ' self in the midst of a dense, chattering ; throne, and I often smiled to myself, thinking that, perhaps, it was well that I d-id not understand their language, as I am not vain enough to imagine that a.ll the remarks passed ware of a. complimentary nature. Th« uncivilised urchins, eager to look into ■ idle tense of the camera, completely blocked the view, and, in pressing around, up&et the level of the camera. Here tho dragoman came in very handy, for he made use

of some argument or throat that Lad Uie

desired effect of restraining the impulsive , crov.-d for a short time, and the picture vt^ j snapped, but we both thought that photographing- in the Hast was certainly \cry trying to the temper. Wo then took our way to the hou^s of

.Simon the Tanner, through tiie rco-t narrow-

an-ti crooked ttreets we had e*«r &e-en. often being obliged to climb up or go dovrn a

steep st-aircass. This house, which is on the outskirts of the town, is generally be-

lieved to be authentic. Here, on the flat roof, with an outside stona ftair leading up to it, Peter, whilst praying, fell asleep, and

had his vision of a great sheet descending from heaven. Therein were all manner of creeping tilings — that vision which taught Peter that not only the Jews, but a!! mankind were the children of their Heavenly

We sa,t for bometlnse on the roof

pondering over these- things, and admiring the view, and then we descended into th« house- itself — one single poor room, destitute of furniture,— and after givin eonw

baeksliessh to the woman in charge we left

and fook our way back again to a better i part of X the town, past the fine French ! hospital, and Miss Grierson'e School for ' Girls, down to the poorer quarter. I inquin^d of our dragoman, "Do th«y ne\er clean the streets here?" H> eaid, "Oh ye-?, madam ; look, they are cleaning them now." | I looked and saw a man with a donkey. ! Two baskets were strapped, one on each 6ido of the donkey, and the man with a hand shovel took a little of the top dirt from the heaps, which were lying: everywhere .around, and this appeared to be the ' oij'.r cleaning ifcey were ever likely to get.

A thought occurred to me that I would like to see how the common folk lived, and on communicating this wish to the guide, he at once -agreed to take me to the -home of one of his friends. A high, close wall surrounded the house, and on knocking at the gate, a woman opened it a few inches, and on his speaking to her she , smilingly opened it wide and motioned for i me to enter. I had previously explained to the s^uide that I was willing- to contri- . bute some backsheesh in return for the pTi- ' vilege, and this possibly had something to do with the smiles. The house had only one room, not very large, ar.d was utterly destitute of furniture. There was a heap of bedding piled up in or.c corner, and in another a small charcoal stove, with a few dishes and the inevitable water-bottle. Ate far as I could see that was the whole of their possessions. Truly, it does not require much to start a young couple here. There v«?..-e :ivo women and three children squatting on the floor, snd I Thought they did not look any too pleased at my intrusion, but I smiled and admired the babies, and" the frowns quickly gave place to smiles. tl One touch of nature make the whole world kin," and the way to a mother's heart is through her baby all the world over. ~ We were then somewhat tired, and the lengthened shadows from the setting sun suggested a return to our steamer. Our quide — I r«ally ought to say dragoman, but the word seems too long — escorted vs through the Custom-house again, where our pas-ports were returned to us, and saw us safely into our beat. We gave him a small gift, which is always expected over and above his legal charge (four francs), and after saying " Good-bye,'' we were rowed back to our steamer, tired, but delighted with all we had seen. (To be continued.)