Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and AdventureConder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
History
Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure
Conder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
Palestine -- Description and travel
Soon the town awoke, and the morning hubbub began. Long trains of camels
came in, and the swarthy Bedawîn wrangled with the soldiers at the gate.
The market-girls from Bethlehem appeared under David’s Tower, and, as
the crowd thickened, black priests in saucepan-like hats jostled sickly
Jews, with fur caps, long lovelocks, and dirty gabardines. The
heavily-shod, unkempt Russian pilgrims mingled with sleek Rabbis, with
Europeans, and German residents; Armenians with apple-cheeks and broad
red sashes, and fierce Kurds with long moustachios and swords, were also
numerous.
So motley a scene as that which is presented daily in David Street and
in the market-place under David’s Tower, is perhaps to be found nowhere
else. The chatter of the market-people, the shouting of the
camel-drivers, the tinkling of bells, mingle with the long cry of the
naked derwish, as he wanders, holding his tin pan for alms, and praising
unceasingly “the Eternal God.” The scene is most remarkable in the
morning, before the glare of the sun, beating down on the stone city,
has driven its inhabitants into the shadow; for, later on, the white
houses, white chalk hills, and dull grey domes, present a truly
unattractive prospect; but about eight a.m. the market still lies in
cool shadow, under the huge ochre-coloured tower, with a background of
cypresses, and of white walls belonging to the Bible Warehouse. The
foreground is composed of a tawny group of camels lying down, donkeys
bringing in vegetables or carrying out rubbish, and women in blue and
red dresses slashed with yellow, their dark faces and long eyes (tinged
with blue) shrouded in white veils, which are fringed perhaps with black
or red. Soldiers in black, and Softas in spotless robes, are haggling
about their change, or praying in public undisturbed by the din.
Horsemen ride by in red boots with red saddles, and spears fifteen feet
long. The Greek Patriarch walks past on a visit, preceded by his
macebearers and attended by his secretary. Up the narrow street comes
the hearse of a famous Moslem, followed by a long procession of women,
in white “izars,” which envelop the whole figure, swelling out like
balloons, and leaving only the black mask of the face-veil visible;
their voices are raised in the high-pitched tremulous ululation which is
alike their cry for the dead and their note of joy for the living. Next,
perhaps, follows a regiment of sturdy infantry marching back to the
castle, with a colonel on a prancing grey--men who have shown their
mettle since then, and fat, unwieldy officers, who have perhaps broken
down under the strain of campaigning. Their bugles blow a monotonous
tune, to which the drums keep time, and the men tread, not in step, but
in good cadence to the music. If it be Easter, the native crowd is
mingled with the hosts of Armenian and Russian pilgrims, the first ruddy
and stalwart, their women handsome and black-eyed, the men fierce and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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