GEFT OF HORACE W. CARFENTIER ■*t * " '\:. /<:? y^'o^ SlLfTv '■•:«;?• .v: ': ' ;,. *?.••-■:.■•• :•.*- ■• STLDILS L\ ORIENTAL SOCIAL LIFE StidiI'S l\ Okii-:nt.\l Social I^iI'R AND 6(cams from the (l^ast on the ^^afreLi j.l:ige BY H. CLAY TRUMBULL, D.D. AUTHOR OF "kADESH-MAKNEA," "tKAcIIING AND TEACHERS, ETC. ITonbou HODDER AND STOUC UTON 27, I'ATERNOSTKR ROW MDCCCXCV T7 ,:ARPIlNT\tR PREFACE. The words of the I)ible •^lun in clearness and depth of meanuig when read in the hght of the manners and customs of tlie kinds of the Bible. But there are now so many good books prof- fered as helps in this direction, that a new book must justify its right to a new place by showing wherein it has advantages over works already available. This volume is not, on the one hand, a mere narrative of personal travel and observation ; nor is it. on the other hand, a miscellaneous collec- tion of Oriental illustrations of Bible truths. But it is a classified treatment of certain phases of Oriental life and methods of thought, vivified by personal experiences in the East ; and herein it has a distinctive character. Its basis is a series of leclures on Oriental Social Life, delivered before the Archaeological Association of the University of Pennsylvania, v vi Preface. and repeated, by invitation, before the Semitic Cliil) of Yale University. Added to these are special studies on various topics, in the realm of Oriental customs and traditions. An aptitude of mind for Oriental methods of thouL^ht and life, as well as a knowledg-e of the ways of Orientals, is necessary to the fullest un- derstanding of the spirit and letter of the Bible text. Only thus can an Occidental see Bible truths as an Oriental sees them. I shall be glad if my way of seeing or of showing such things helps others to share in the results of research in this important held of fatl and thought. H. Clav Trumbull. PHILADIiLrillA, May 14^ iSg4. CONTENTS. THE PAST IN TME PRESENT. Advantage of studying Oriental social life. — Eastern life as it was, shown in Eastern life as it is. — All sights and sounds of ancient times still visible, or vibrant, in universal space. — History written on the pages of the air. — Earth as seen from the nearest fixed star. — Oriental history constantlv re-enacling in Oriental lands. — Unchangeableness of life in the East BETROTHALS AND WEDDINGS IN THE EAST. Viewing Eastern life through Eastern eyes. — Attractiveness of love and lovers. — Relative importance of betrothal and marriage in the East. — Responsibility of parents for be- trothal of their children. — Dowry not purchase money. — Love a result, not a cause, of marriage. — A wife a gift of God. — Plow a son seeks a wife. — A betrothal scene in Upper Egypt. — .Mission of a "go-between." — (iifts to friends of bride at Ijetrothal. — Contra(fts of betrothal in ancient Egypt and Assyria. — Marriages for money in tlie East and in ijie West. — Marriages for political power. — Sacred- ness and l^inding force of betrothals in the East. — Signifi- cance of show of "capturing a bride." — Sentiment the basis of survival of customs. — False reasoning of scien- vii viii Conic Ills. tisis.— Festivities at weddings. — Husband to leave his parents for liis wife— Bridal presents.— Why a wife loads herself with gifts.— Divorce customs.— Lady lUuton's ob- servations at a Damascus wedding. — Disjjlay of bride's troubscau. — Ihidal ornaments. — Significance of bracelet, ring, crown, veil.— Wedding processions.— Wedding scene at Castle Nakhl.— Joy of the "friend of the bridegroom." -Unveiling of the bride.— Lessons of betrothals and wed- dings in the East. — Power of romantic love in primitive ages.— Legends of love in the East.— Honor accorded to woman in earliest times. — Mission of Christianity . . . HOSPITALITY IN THE EAST. Oriental estimate of hospitality. — Its significance and scope. — Every stranger a lord while a guest. — Illustration of Bed^vy hospitality near Jezreel. — Cost of saluting one by the way. — A test of honor. — Testimony of Thomas Stevens. — Testimony of J. L. Burckhardt. — Lot and his guests. — Levite at Gibeah. — Strife for the right to entertain. — Con- cealing suffering for comfort of guests. — Refusal to receive remuneration. — Dr. Hilprecht and the shaykh of Zeta. — Having one's satisfadion "heard." — Show of fulness. — Volney's testimony. — Lady Anne Blunt and Ibn Rashid. — " Given to hospitality." — Guest-chambers of the East. — A shaykh' s tenure of power. — Morier and Vambery on the Toorkomans. — Allah Nazr weeping for joy o\er a guest. — Khond fidelity to laws of hospitality. — A paradise for tramps. — Sharp pradice of Arabs. — Dr. Edward Robin- son's guide a vitlim. — Asurvivalin the " doni»;ion party." — An experience at Dothan. — A tradition of Meccah. — Cove- nanting in hospitality. — Drinking together. — Eating to- gether. — Jesus at the well of Jacob. — A lesson at Beersheba. — Jacob and Laban. — Gibeonites and Israelites. — Illustra- tions by Drs. Hamlin and Thomson, and Major Conder. — Covenant of salt. — Sacredness of the right of asylum. — Cubtoms of the Druses. — A Turkish hotel-keeper. — Hospi- Contents. ix tality overriding desire for blood-avenging. — Murderer entertained by son of his victim. — Arabs, Moors, and Khonds alike in this. — Osman and Elfy Dey. — A primitive \ irtue. — Irish traditions. — 1\ religious basis for this senti- ment. — "Guests of God." — Explanation of these customs. — Avenging belongs to (iod. — Cities of refuge. — Jael and Sisera. — Solomon and Joab. — Sodom destroyed for its inhospitality. — Destrudlion of Gibeah. — Naming one's " dakheel." — Calling on the Lord. — Antiquity of this senti- ment. — Egyptian "Book of llic Dead." — Greek and Roman customs. — " Sibylline I^ooks." — American Indians. — Jesus giving judgment on the outside "nations." — Teachings of Muhammad. — Bible teachings. — Lessons from the virtue of Oriental hospitality 73 FUNERALS AND MOURNING IN THE EAST. A sound of wailing near Saqqarah. — A scene of mourning. — Records of ancient Egypt. — Testimony of Herodotus. — Description of the death-cry. — Hospitality paramount to grief. — Calling on the dead. — Irish wakes. — Professional mourners in the East. — Hired quartettes in the West. — Genuine sorrow in conventional forms. — " Skilful in lamen- tation." — Bottling tears. — Cutting one's flesh. — Tear- cloths. — Speedy burials. — Funeral processions. — Funeral feasts. — Funeral displays. — Persistency of these customs. — LTseless efforts to check them.- — Forgiving the dead. — Burial forl)idden to the unworthy. — Supplies for the dead. — Customs of Egyptians, of Chinese, of Hindoos, of Ameri- can Indians. — Three days of grace for the spirit. — Lazarus of Bethany. — Resurretflion of Jesus. — Continuance of mourning. — Mourning scene in Palestine. — Songs of grief. — Periodic exhibits of grief. — Sincerity of mourners. — Comparison of mourning ways in the East and the West. — Mourning days in Eastern cemeteries. — Lessons from Bctlilehem and Ramah. — Tomb of Shaykh Szaleh. — Veneration fur muqams in Palestine. — " Weeping for Tarn- Contents. muz. " — Chaldean, Egyptian, and Greek mourning. — Cry of Isis to tlcad Osiris. — Hope of immortality. — Silence of Old Testament as to future life. — Reason for this. — Primi- tive belief in life Ijcyond the grave. — Temptation to poly- theism. — Importance of present life.^ — Unique inspira- tion of Old Testament writers. — Lessons from Oriental social life I43 THE VOICE OF THE FORERUNNER. First glimpse of the East. — Harbor of .Vlexandria. — Babel and Pandemonium.— Polyglot crowd. — From sea to shore. — Picturesque confusion . — Kaleidoscopic variety. — People, occupations, animal life, buildings, sounds, — novel and Oriental. — Cry of the forerunner in crowded street. — Gaily dressed " sais." — Elijah before Ahab. — Warning by Samuel. — Absalom's display. — Streets of Cairo. — Road to Gheezeh. — Call to prepare the way. — Wretched roads in the East. — Making roads ready for a coming ruler . . 209 PRI.MITIXE IDEA OF "THE WAY." The king's highway. — A royal road in Egypt. — Assyrian road- makers. — Semiramis as a road-builder. — Darius and Ale.x- ander. — Edom and Palestine. — Roman roads. — Talmudic references to road-repairing. — Call of the prophet to make ready for Messiah. — Preparing the way in Abyssinia. — Penalty of failure. — Road-repairing in Lebanon. — Way of the kingdom. — Religious "ways." — Taouism, Shintooism, Booddhism, Sunnis. — "Ways" of evil. — Bible references to "ways." — Jesus " the Way." — Christianity " the way " 219 THE ORIENTAL IDEA OF "FATHER." Meaning of " father " in the East. — Every group a " family." — A possessor, inventor, or pioneer. — " Father of a sauce- pan." — Sons and daughters of a "father." — Shaykh, sen- Contents. xi ior, senator, elder, alderman. — Rising up before the hoary head.— Young shaykhs of Arab tribes.— Advantages of a patriarchal beard. — Legal fictions. — (Government an en- larged family circle. — First table of the Law. — Divine son- ship of kings. — Teachings of ancient Egypt. — Reverence for parents in the East. — Refusing cigarettes in a father's presence. ^Lifelong honor to a mother. — Staljility of government based on filial reverence —A " command- ment with promise." — Lessons from China. — God's repre- sentati\e TRAVERS AND PRAYING IN THE EAST. '-n Praying on the corners of streets. — A fruit-seller in Alexandria. —A dragoman at the wells of Moses. — Thinking to be heard of men. — An 'Azazimeh shaykh at Beersheba. — Using vain repetitions. — Howling darweeshes at Cairo. — Priests of Baal. — Booddhist prayer formula, — Praying cylinders. — Oriental forms of prayer. — Ancient Egyptian ritual. — Rabbinical direflions for prayers. — Learning how to pray. — Making ready to pray. — Ablutions and |)osi- tions. — Praying toward a holy place. — Niches of direction. Jerusalem or Meccah. — Wailing-placc of the Jews. — Mosk on the Mount of Olives. — Morning call to prayer. — Larger pri\ liege of Christians 255 FOOD IN THE DESERT. Possibilities of food in the wilderness. — Supposed changes in the desert of Sinai. — Contrast of the desert with Palestine. — Limited requirements of the Bed'ween. — An ordinary day's supply of food. — \'alue of parched corn and sugar. — Likeness of this to manna. — Dependants of the Con- vent of St. Catharine. — Living on dromedaries' milk. — Fed with crumbs. — Rarity of animal food. — Broiled quails. — Fasting and gorging. — A good appetite as a gift of God. xii Contents. — C;ira\an possiljiiiticb in the dcbcrt. — Food Ijiuiiylu iVom afar. — Sowing and reaping in the uadies. — Reasonable- ness (il llic ISiblc miiacles 277 CALLS FOR IIKALING IN THF FAST. Reprodutlion of 15ible pidlures in the East of to-day. — Scenes of suffering in Egypt. — Contrast between Egypt and the desert. — Halt and mainicd and blind and diseased in Palestine. — Lepers at the gate of Naljlus. — Blind men at Jericho. — Approach to Constantinople. — Healing looked for from the hakeem. — Testimony of travelers. — Arab at Wady Gharandel. — Following a Philadelphia dentist. — Asking for a new leg. — Sight better than bread. — Calls for healing at Castle Nakhl.— Napoleon at Jafta. — Prince of Wales at Lebanon. — Reason for the healing miracles of Jesus. — Medical missionaries. — Testimony of Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop. — Testimony of Sir William Muir. — Dr. Allen in Korea. — Bible promises 295 GOLD AND SILVER IN THE DESERT. Gold and siher among the Israelites. — Golden calf. — Taber- nacle treasures. — Borrowing from the Egyptians. — Coins and ornaments worn by Oriental women. — A wife's per- gonal possessions. — Protecflion in case of divorce. — A camel-driver's loss of gold. — Gideon's spoil from the Midi- anites. — A specimen woman of the desert.^Riches of Arab shaykhs. — Bakhsheesh in the East. — Fig paste and a silk handkerchief for the governor. — Added coin for Shaykh Moosa. — A representative dragoman. — Dr. Hil- precht and his muleteer. — Egyptian bakhsheesh to the departing Hebrews 319- THE pil(;rimac;e idea in the east. Prominence of pilgrimages in the East. — Importance of the Aleccah Hajj in Egypt. — Track of the Hajj on the desert. — Pilgrimages to Jeiusalem. — Footprint of Jesus on the Contents. xiii Mount of Olives. — Goini^ noithward in Holy Week. — rilt^rinis journcyin'^^ In' night. — Anliiiuity of pilgrimngcs. — Testimony of Herodotus. — Figurative meaning of pil- grimage. — Abraham, Jacob, and Davitl, — Spiritual mean- ing of Majj. — " Songs of the Goings Up." — Feast of taber- nacles. — Symbolism of the three feasts of the Hebrews. — Strangers and pilgrims. — Pilgrimage circuits. — Circuits at Jericho. — Circuits at Jerusalem. — Circuits in the syna- gogues. — Circuits in Christian (lunches. Circuits in India. — Circuits at Meccah. — Hooddhist circumambula- tions. — Local pilgrimages in Morocco. — Survivals in the Hebrides. — Survivals in America. — Survivals in children's games. — The lesson of the pilgrimage 333 AN OUTLOOK FROM JACOB'S WELL. A lovely spot. — Plain of the Cornfields. — Highway of the rulers. — \'alley of Shechem. — Historic associations. — Jesus and the woman of Samaria. — Work in the grain-fields. — Covenant in thinking. — Saladeen and Prince Arnald.— Omar and Hormozan. — Lesson from sowing and reaping. — Truth taught in former days. — Christianity and outside religions. — Words of Whittier. — Spirit of Christ in his missionarv followers 355 THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. Jerusalem and the passover sacrifice. — Samaritan sacrifice at Gerizim. — A mongrel people. — A visit to (reri/.im on the passover evening. — Preparations for the sacrifice. — High- priest and assistants. — Worshipers. — Solemn service.— Slaying of the lambs. — Marking with the blood. — Mutual rejoicings. — The children's share. — Spitting and roasting tlie lambs. — A guest of the high-priest. — .\ taste of bitter herbs. — Midnight cry. — Lhicovering of the oven. — I'ass- ovcr feast. — A storm. — After the storm. — "A shadow of the tilings to come " 37^ xiv Contents. LESSONS OF TlIK WILDERNESS. Old Testament pictures. — The wilderness. — A'nrying titles. — Experiences of Ha.Ljar, Moses, Elijah. — Jesus and his temptations. — Paul and his training. — Three typical lands. — Lessons of Arabia. — Variety and grandeur in the desert. — Impressive silence. — Loneliness. — God's region. — Man's littleness. — Man's dependence. — Man's needs. — Tokens of God's love. — Stars, flowers, springs of water. — "Guests of God."- — Fitness of the camel to the region. — Lessons for our pilgrimage ...... 387 INDEXES. Topical I.vDEX 411 Scriptural Index 4-53 LIST OF ILLLSTRATIONS, PACE I'vramids of Chcczch, from East (if the Xilc ..,,.. i " Forty centuries look down upon you." Tonil) (if Raclicl, with Bcthleheni in the Distance 6 Rich with memories of Rachel, of Ruth, of David, and of Jesus. Egyptian Bride Starting for the Bridegroom's Home .... 7 " The voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, . . . and the voice of the b>-ide." Taj Mahal at Agra 72 " One majesty of whiteness the Taj of Agra stands Like no work of human builder, but a care of angel hands." Black Tents of Bed^ween, in Northern Africa 73 " (jod's guests " in the desert welcome all whom God sends. Well of Beersheba 142 " If thine enemy . . . thirst, give him to drink." " Pyramid of Degrees," at Saqqarah 143 Shadowing the dead of old, and the mourners of to-day. Mourners at a Grave in Bethany 208 " She goeth unto the grave to weej} there." XV xvi List of Illuslrations. I-AC.K ri;>rc (if Muliaminad Alec, in Alexandria 209 " roward the East, ami toward the glorious land." Sais, an Egyptian Forerunner 218 ' \'uur sons . . . shall run before his chariots." Traveled Way in the Wilderness of Sinai 219 " Cast up, cast up the highway ; gather out the stones." "Appian Way," the " Queen of Roads " . 236 "All roads lead to Roine." Syrian \'illage Shaykh 237 "The hoary head is a crown of glory. If it be found in the way of righteousness." Old Beggar by the Wayside 254 " Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man." Mosk on the Mount of Olives .255 " Every night he went out, and lodged in the mount that is called the mount of Olives." Postures in Prayers 276 ■■ He stood, and kneeled down upon his knees, . . . and spread forth his hands towards heaven." Women Grinding with Hand-mill, in Palesdne 277 "There shall be two women grinding together. " Little Bread-maker, iii Egypt 294 " She took fl.iur, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread tliereot." List of Illustrations. xvii pa(;e Group of Lepers near Nablus 295 " I'hcsc lepers came to Ihc outermost part of the camp." Blind Leading the lilind, m Judea 3iii " Can the blnul guide the bhud? shall they not butli fall into a pit? " Abyssinian \\\)nien, w ilh Ornanienls and Strings of Coins . . 319 "Jewels of gold, aiikle-chaius, and bracelets, signet-ruigs, car- rings, and armlets." Bed'wy Woman, Carrying Dried \'ines for Fuel 332 " They had golden nose-rings, because they were Ishmaelitcs." Starting of the Malnnal, or Sacred Canopy, from Cairo, for Meccah • • ■ 333 "We will go three days' journey into the wilderness." Pilgrim Climbing up the r^Iountain of Moses at Sinai . . . 354 " And Moses went up into the mount." Jacob's Well, with Mount Gerizim. on the Left 355 "Jacob's well was there. Jesus, . . . being wearied with his journey, sat ... by the well." Oriental I'lowman 37° " One soweth, and another reapetli." Nablus, the Site of Ancient Shechem 371 " .\bram passed through the land unto the place of Sheciiem. . . . And there builded he an altar unto the Lord." Yakob Haroon, High-priest of the Samaritans, with the Samari- tan Pentateuch 386 " Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." xviii Lis I of Jllustratioiis. PAGF W.uly Fayr.in, with " Five-Peaked Serbal " m the Distance . 387 " lie lirou^ht ihciii lo the border of his sancftuary, To this mountain-laud which his right liand iiad purchabcd. ' Outlook on the Desert of Aral)ia 408 "A desert land, . . . 111 the waste huwiiiig wilderness." NOTE. These illustrations are re]iroducl;ions in "half-tone " from pho- tographs by Sebah of Constantinople ; Bonfils of Beyroot ; Bergheim of Jerusalem; Lekegian of Cairo, Sommer of Naples, Good of Winch held, Hants, England ; the Britibh Ordnance Sinvey of the Peninsula of Sinai ; Pancoast of Philadelphia, and others. Those at pages 276, 294, 295, 333, 354, are from the valuable coUedlion of Edward L. Wilson of New- York, who has kindly given his consent to this use of his copyright pictures. THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. The prime advantage of a study of Oriental social life is that the past is there found repro- duced in the present as refleclin;^- the ancient history of our race. The Oriental social life ot to-day is the Oriental social life of former days. There, that which is, is that which has been ; and thatwliich is and has been in the cradle-place of humanit)- is that which has put its impress upon humanity ever^^vhere. The study of the Oriental present is, in fact, a study of the uni\-c:rsal past, and thc-rc fore it is a study for all and for always. One of th<- most impressive thoughts that ever held the human mind is in the suggestion that, in accordance with the immutable laws of light Sliuiics III Oriental Social Life. and motion, every scene in human liistory is new, in a sense, visible at some point in the vast uni- verse of nature, and every sound that ever broke the silence of the air is now vibratino- somewhere within the limits of that universe ; so that all the historic and all ihe unhisloric past is actually an ever-present reality, — if only the point of view and the eye and the ear be suited to the observa- tion of that which is. It is not a thoughtless visionary, but a careful observer of the laws which govern matter, who says: "The pulsations of the air, once set in motion by the human voice, cease not to exist with the sounds to which they gave rise. Strong and audible as they may be in the immediate neighborhood of the speaker, and at the imme- diate moment of utterance, their quickly attenu- ated force soon becomes inaudible to human ears. . . . lUit these aerial pulses, unseen by the keen- est eye, unheard by the acutest ear, unperceived by human senses, are yet demonstrated to exist by human reason ; and, in some few and limited instances, by calling to our aid the most refined and comprehensive instrument of human thought, their courses are traced and their intensities are The Fast i)i the J)csc)iL measured. . . . Thus considered, . . . the air itself is one vast lihrarx-. on who^c paiL^'es are forex-er written all that ni;in has evta" said or woman whispered. There, in their mutable but unerring characters, mixed with the earliest as well as with the latest sighs of mortality, stand lort-ver re- corded vows unr(;deemed, promises unfulfilled, perpetuating in the; united movements ot each particle the testimony of man's changeful will." "Let us," says another thinker, "imagine an observer, with infinite powers of vision, in a star of the twelfth magnitude. He would see the earth at this moment as it existed at the time; of Abraham. Let us, moreover, imagine him moved forwards in the direction of our c;arth with such speed that in a short time (say, in an hour) he comes within the distance of a hundred millions of miles, being then as near to us as the sun is, whence the earth is seen as it was eight minutes before ; let us imagine all this, quite apart from any claims of possibility or reality, and then we have indubitably the following result, — that be- fore the eye of this observer the entire history of the world, from the time of Abraham to the present day, passes by in the space of an hour." Stjidics in Oriental Social Life. Th(^s(! suppositions antl illustrations arc; in the realm of the imagination, l)iit tluir counterpart is in the rc^alm of simple fact to him who has an outlook upon the lands of Abraham's nomadic life froni Chaldea to ELTNpt, where the scenes of the days of Abraham are the every-day scenes of now, Abraham — or Ibraheem, as they call him to-day — is still to be seen coming out from the entrance of his tent to greet the approaching strangers who have caught his eye in the dis- tance, and to urge upon them the welcome of his hospitality. Host and guests, and tent and bread and slaughtered calf, and salutations, are the same to-day as they w^ere forty centuries ago.^ Rebekah can still be found watering her camels at the Mesopotamian well, — ready to consent to her parents' betrothal of her to her cousin Isaac, in another land, whom she has never seen.- The marriage of Jacob to both Leah and Rachel is now in progress, as though it had been delayed many times the seven years of its first postpone- ment.^ The same cry of grievous mourning which startled the Canaanites when the Egyp- tians came up with the body of Jacob to bury it 'Gen. i8 : i-8. -'Gen. 24 : 1-67. ^Gen. 29 : 1-30. The Vast in the rrcscnl. ill the ]);Uriarchal loinl) at 1 l exterior forms of things (as their manners and customs) are the same now as they were two thousand years since, except in such changes as may have been introduced bv' reliL''ion. wdiich are, nevertheless, very inconsiderable." A recent Jewish traveler in the East, from England, says similarly: "Seeing the primitive chara6ler of the dwellings and customs [at Beth- lehem], and remarking the shepherds and their flocks upon the neighboring hills, it can easily be realized how David must have appeared when the prophet Samuel met him liere, and hailed '(;cn. 50 : 7-13. Studies in Onciilal Social Life. liim as the LorI's anointrd ; or, sccinir the exist- ing threshing-lloor, it requires but little force of imagination to re-enact thc^ whole beautiful idyl of Ruth and Boaz. For nothing- has chanwd in Bethlehem since biblical times. The march of progress has gone by, and omitted to pause at this and other kindred spots in the Holy Land. May it not be in order that we may realize the simple truth of the Bible narratives ? " The East of to-day is the East of all the days. To note the Oriental social life of the present is to read history in the vividness of reality. BETROTHALS AND WEDDINGS IN THE EAST. In any examination of the fa els of Oriental social life, it is important to ascertain how those fa6ls are viewed by the changeless Oriental mind, instead of looking- at them merely as they would present themselves to the mind of a practical and progressive Occidental. Thus alone can their true significance and historic value be recognized. And thus alone can they he to us a means of light, — whether that light shows the correclncss or the error of any of our favorite opinions, in the realm of religion or of science. 8 Studies ill Oriiiilal Social Life No phase of social lif(; anywhcn: is likely to be more uniformly attractive to the human mind than \\\v. |)hases of courtship and marria^^e ; for " the truth of truths is love," and in the West, as in the East, "all mankind lov(^ a lover." Nor is there any phase of Oriental social life which is more suggestively instructive, in its salient points of comparison and of contrast with Occi- dental customs, than that of betrothals and wed- dings. A betrothal holds a larger prominence in its relation to marriage in the East than in the West ; and the arranging of a betrothal there depends on the parents or guardians of its imme- diate parties, rathc^r than on those parties them- selves. In India and China, children are often betrothed by their parents while yet in infancy, or even before their birth ; and this pra6lice is not unknown among the Semitic peoples of the Mediterranean coast. Even among those Orien- tal peoples v.'ho take into account the inclinations and preferences of the young man in a betrothal, the wishes of the young woman, or girl, are rarely given much weight. In either case it is an ex- ception for the young persons to meet each other Betrothals a>id ]]\'ddinc's in the Juist. face to face before their lot is fixed by th<' be- trothal compact. Almost universally, in the East, a betrothal is based upon an agreement of dowr)- to be paid by the husband to the family of the wife as a pru- dential measure in conneclion with this important transaction. It is liardly fair to speak of this "dowry" as the "price of a wife," as though the father were actually s(;lling his daughter. Ar- raneine a " marriaofe settlement" in any com- munity is by no means a mere bargain and sale, even though mercenary motives too often have their influence in deciding its details. At first elance it would seem that by these customs the Oriental quite excluded sentiment from the marriage relation ; but, as the Oriental looks at it, the sentiment properly proceeds from the relation, and not the relation from the senti- ment ; while the relation itself is of God's order- ing, — through God's representatives, the parents or guardians of those brought into this relation. Orientals look at the love of husband and wife, so far, much as we look at the love; of l)rother and sister. We say that brother and sister should love each other because they were chosen of God lo Studies in Oriental Social Life. t(i cacli other, In' means of tlieir parents. Orien- tals say the same of husband and wife. Tlicir thought is Browning's thought, that — "The common problem — yours, mine, every one's — Is not to fancy what were fair in life Provided it could be so; but finding first What may be, then find how to make it fair." Whether their view or ours of the place of senti- ment in the order of betrothal and marriaire is the corre6l one, let us not misrepresent or ignore their view, with the purpose of thereby showing a superiority in our view which might not other- wise be obvious. As Dr. Van Lennep expresses it, "The Ori- ental theory Is that love comes after marriage, and that it can be kept from premature develop- m(Mit by the complete separation of the sexes." Raj Coomar Roy, a Hindoo waiter, defending the system of child marriage in India, in the North American Review, says of the conjugal relation, in this line of thought : " It is expressly said to be a divine union. Christ said, ' What God hath joined together let no man put asun- der.'^ We find Solomon calling the w^ife a 'gift 1 Matt. 19 : 6; Mark lo : 9. Betrothals and Weddings i>i tJic East. 1 1 Iruni the Lord,'' and in the inarriairc service ap[)ointcd by the Ciuircli of En^-land some one is rccjuired to stand as the donor of the bride, as is the case in every Hindoo marriage. ' Mar- riage,' says an eminent (Hindoo) doclor of law, ' is viewed as a gift of the bride by her father, or other ^'uardian, to the bride' '"room." The marital union is thus a tUvine tniion ; it is an acl of God, and not of man. . . , The Roman Catho- lics regard it as a sacrament ; so do the Hindoos." In China, also, the belief prevails that matri- monial matches are made in heaven ; and at the time of betrothal, as well as at the wedding, red silk cords are employed as a means of linking the tokens of the marriage compacl:, in accordance with a tradition that at their birth those who are to be husband and wife have their feet supcr- naturally bound together by an invisible red cord — apparently as a symbol of a blood-covenanted union. "When this cord has been tied," says the tradition, "though the parties be of un- friendly families, or of dilferent nations, it is im- possible to change their destiny." Among Semitic peoples generally it is held that ' I'rov. ly : 14. 12 S/iu/ic's ill Oricnlal Social Life. as tlic divine r'athcr provided a wife for Adam/ so the earthly father is to select a wife for his son ; or, in the absence of the father, this duty devolves on the mother or on the elder brother. Thus it was that Abraham felt his responsibility to secure a wife for Isaac,- and that Hagar, when alone with her son in the wilderness, sought out a wife for Ishmael from Egypt.^ It is in the same view of the right and the duty of the parent to sec his children duly wedded, that the father bestows his daughter upon the man whom he deems worthy of her. So it was that Reiiel gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses as a wife,^ that Caleb promised his daughter Achsah as a wife to the man who should capture Kiriath-sepher, ^ that Saul pledged the hand of his royal daughter to that soldier who should kill the boastful cham- pion of the Philistines,'' and similarly with others all along the Bible story. If, indeed, an Oriental son has come to mar riao-eable asje without being betrothed by his parents, it is his privilege to ask his father to find a wife for him, or to secure one of whom i(;en. 2 : lS-24. Mien. 24 : 1-4. 'Gen. 21 : 14-21. *Exod. 2 : 16-21. ^Josh. 15 : 16, 17 ; Judg. i • 12, 13. ^i Sam. 17 : 1-25. Betrothals mid Weddings in the Jiast. 13 lie has aln-ady known somcthiiiL;'. Then it is for llu' lather to deckle whether his son's rc:(|Liest shall be recognized as a reasonable one;. Thus it was in tlie I^ible story when yonng Shcchcm, the son of 1 lamor, liad ialKm in love with Dinah, the daughter ot Jaccjb, "Shecheni spake unto his father liamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife;"' and when Samson had seen a daughter of the Philistines in Timnah who plc;ased him, "he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the dauorhters of the Philistines : now therefore Lret her tor me to wife."''^ Even the daughter's choice is sometimes recog- nized as worthy of consideration, or as essential to the betrothal. This was so in olden time also. Thus the parents of Rebekah asked her if she would L>"o with Eliezer to become the wife of Isaac, before they would send her away;'' and thus Saul consulted the Welshes of his daughter Michal, in proposing to betroth her to David, after her sister Merab had been given to an- other in violation of Saul's promise."^ ^Gen. 34 : 1-4. 'Judg. 14 : 1-3. ^Gcn. 24 : 53-58. ■* I Sam. lo : 17-21. 14 Sliidics in Oriental Social Lijc. l)ccausc ciislums in connection with belrolhal and wcddini^ ceremonies in the East differ in many particulars, a description oi them as ob- served in any one place, or at any one time, can- not be accepted as covering" all their varieties. Yet, on the other hand, there is always a gain in a specihc description as bringing before the mind a more vivid idea of representative customs than can be obtained through any description in gen- eral terms. I will describe, therefore, a method of wife-seekintr and betrothal amon;^- the Arabs of Upper Egypt, as I had it from the lips of a native Syrian, who was familiar witli these details, from their frequent observing during her resi- dence there, and who tells me that it is much the same as in portions of Upper Syria, especially in the Lebanon region. W hen a young man of this region has acquired sufficient mc^ans for a marriage dowry, or, as we should say, is able to provide for a wife, he eoes to his father and tells him that he wants to marry. With his father's approval, he then goes to his mother and asks her to look up a girl to be his wife. The young man is not without his conception of an ideal beauty in person and BetrotJials and Weddings in tJic East. 15 character, so he describes the girl he would like to have his mother find for him. tier face, her form, her eyes, her hair, her disposition, her manner, all are dwelt upon in this description ; and the mother is enjoined to secure the realizing of that ideal. Charged with this mission, the mother, accom- panied by women relatives, sets out upon her tour of examination among the families of her kinsfolk who are known to have marriageable daughters. The mothers of such daughters are as keenly alive to their responsibility and oppor- tunities among the mountains of Lebanon, or by the banks of the Nile, as at Long Branch, Bar Harbor, or the Catskills ; and the formal call on one of them by the mother of an eligible young man is likely to be recognized in its fullest possibilities. The shaking of hands at such a time between the two matrons (including the clasping of each other's thumbs, — as if in survival of the primi tive blood -covenanting by the pierced thumbs) will sometimes occupy fifteen or twenty minutes. While the servants are bringing rugs and coffee for the guests, in the reception-room on the 1 6 Shuilics in Orienial Social Life. lower floor, the hostess mother sends word to her daughter upstairs to dress herself at her best and await a summons to come down. It is a custom in the East to serve two cups of coffee to a guest : one on his arrival, as a token of covenanting with him ; the second at the close of the interview, as an intimation that the conference is at an end and that it closes amicably. After taking the first cup on such an occasion as this, the visiting mother, with due circumlocution, inquires after the marriageable daughter of her hostess. The latter replies by praising her daughter, laying special emphasis on her modesty and shrinking bashfulness. As the request for the daughter's appearance is repeated, her mother expresses the fear that she would a6lually faint from fright if summoned into that presence ; but at last the mother yields to the urgent requests for a sight of her daughter to the extent of going to the foot of the stairs and calling to her to come down and serve the second cup of coffee to her mother's guests. In such a case, the daughter never responds to the first call. She will exhibit no such un- seemly haste as that for a settlement in life ! BetrotJials and JVeddhigs in the East. 1 7 A second call is made U) her by her molher, a third, a fourth, a fifth, or more, before she makes her appearance. When at last she comes, she is closely veiled. In her hand she brini^^s a tray bearing' the coffee, which she proffers timidl)-. The visitors refuse to accept the parting cup until they have seen the face of its bearer. Pressing their request they lift the veil, and the candidate is under examination. Her face, eyes, hair, expression, all are scrutinized. If the ob- servers are pleased, they return to their home, and the praises of the approved girl are sounded in the ears of the wife-seeking young man. All this is preliminary to the betrothal. That follows in its order. When a young man informs his father that he desires to obtain a specified young woman for his wife, the father calls in a w^akeel, or deputy, to act as "the friend of the bridegroom,"^ or would-be brideo^room, or as his "best man " in the negotiations to be made. This deputy is fully informed of the state of affairs, and the requisite dowry, or the portion of it which is to be paid at the time of the be- trothal contract, is put into his hands. Accom- ' Judg. 14 : 20 ; John 3 : 29. 1 8 Studies ill Oriental Social Life. paniccl by the )ouns4' man's father, e^r by some other male member of the family, or by both, tht; deputy seeks an interview with the parents of the young woman. Arriving at the house, the deputy asks if "the father of Maryam " — or whatever the )oung woman's name may be — is at home. \Vh(>n the latter appears to greet his guests, he is told that the deputy will speak for the party. As coffee is proffered, the deputy says that the visitors have come upon a very important mission, and that they can neither eat nor drink until that mission is accomplished. It is now as it was in the days of Abraham. When Eliezer sought Rebekah for Isaac, and he was proffered refresh- ments in the house of her father, he said, " I will not eat until I have told mine errand."^ At this intimation of the already suspe(ited objecl: of the visit, the father of the young woman sends for his wakeel to represent him, or his daughter, as a deputy in the negotiations desired. When the two deputies are face to face on their rugs, the business of the hour is fairly open. "Our son Yoosef," says the groom's best ' Gen. 24 ; 33. BcirolJials and ll^cddinos in the Bast. 19 man, "desires to marry your daughter IMaryam." When the question of dowry, or marriage settle- ment, is satisfacrlorily adjusted, the same "best man " continues : " But sui)pose our son is a lazy man, and will make a bad husband ; suppose he is one who will beat his wife, and will fall to provide her with a good home ; — are you willing to give her to him even then ? Just as he is, he wants to be a husband to her." If the father of the bride, who is standing by, is content, he answers : " Our daughter shall be a slave to your son ; a servant of his servant ;^ and her life and her honor shall be under his feet." Here is the father "giving away" his daughter to a husband "for better or for worse " — especially for worse, "to obey him and serve him," after the most approved modern and Occidental style. Then it is for the bride's deputy to make his qualifications for the party whom he represents. "You are come to secure my principal's daughter as a wife for your son," he says. " But how do you know her? It may be she is blind. It may be she is lazy and good for nothing. It may be she will not make a good wife. Perhaps she ' I Sam. 25 : 40, 41. 20 Studies in Oriental Social Life. is in poor health. How do you know she is a suitable person to be his wife ? " Thereupon the groom's father answers: "Supposing your daughter to have all the diseases and defects in the world, my son is willing to take her for his companion ; and he wants her to stand by his side throuo:hout his life." At this point the deputies rise, and all par- ties exchange congratulations with one another. Coffee is brought in, and they partake of it to- gether. The deputies draw up a written contract, which is signed by the two fathers, a copy being given to each of them. A portion of the bride's dowry is paid at once on the groom's behalf, the remainder being kept back to be paid to the wife in the event of her divorce. The bride's father is expecl;ed to give a like sum with that paid by the groom, — the entire amount being the bride's portion, which is ordinarily invested in coins or jewelry to be worn by the bride as her exclusive personal property. At the close of the betrothal ceremony the parties separate with an under- standing of the date when the bridegroom will come to claim his bride. There are, as I have said, many variations in BetyotJials cuui Weddings in the East. 2 1 these betrothal customs in chfferent parts of the East, and among persons of different reUgions in the same region ; yet certain main features are observable throu^^-h all the varieties of form. Instead of the mother of the young man going herselt on a tour of inspection in search of a bride, a woman "go-between " is often employed to look up a desirable match in the circle of the young man's kinsfolk and acquaintance. In Egypt and Syria, as in China, these "go-be- tweens," or "match-makers," form an important class in the community ; and their occupation gives a fine opportunity for wisdom and tacl, as well as for shrewdness and deceit, in counsel and action. Sometimes these go-betweens arrange all the preliminary details of a betrothal; and, again, they simply report their first observations to their principal, who then manages to enter the hareem reported from, to learn the truth for her- self. It would appear, however, throughout the East, that the parents of the young people, rather than the yoiuig people themselves, are the chief contracting parties to a contract of betrothal ; that a contract of betrothal is the real 22 Studies in Oriental Social Life. contracfl of marriao^c; ; that a payment of dowry to the bride, or of C(Mii[)ensation to her parents, is made on the part of the bridegroom at the time of betrothal ; and that gifts to the bride and to other members of her family are usually made on the part of the bridegroom in conjuncl:ion with a betrothal. There are Lrleams of all these truths in the Bible narratives as well as in the unearthed records of ancient Egypt and Babylon. Eliezer appears as the go-between in arranging the betrothal of Isaac and Rebekah.^ His first inti- mation to her of the obje(5l of his coming was his gilt to her, in the name of his master, Abraham, of " a golden [nose] ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold;'"" and after her father and brother had betrothed her to the yet unseen Isaac, this go-between "brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah : he (jave also to her brother and to her mother precious things."^ When Hamor would have won the daughter of 'Gen. 24 : 1-6. ^Gen. 24 : 22 ; comp. v. 47 (Rev. Ver.). ^Gen. 24 : 50-53. Betrothals and Weddings in the East. 23 Jacob tur his son Shcchein, he said to her lather : "Ask me never so much dowry and L,dtt. and I will give according- as ye shall say unto me : but eive me the damsel to wife."^ Samson's go-be- tween, " his companion, whom he had used as his friend,"- was given the betrothc;d wife ot Samson ; he having" evidently spoken lor himself, as honest John Alden refused to do whiU- act- ing as a iro -between for the Samson ol Mas- sachusetts Bay. An Arabic proverb of to-day shows that Samson Vv^as not the last suitor to be betrayed by his go-between ; for it says of any man who is false to his employer or principal : " He went to woo [her for a friend], and married her himself." The fair equivalent value of a marriageable daughter was specified in the Levitical law ;^ the exacting of personal ser\-ice, or services, from the^ bridegroom in lieu of dowry (which is still a custom in some parts of the Hast) was illustrated in the case of Jacob,^ and of Othniel,^ and of David,'"' Contracts of betrothal between the parents of 'Gen. 34 : 12. 'Ju<-lg. 14 : 20. Deut. 22 : 28, 29 ; E.xod. 22 : 16, 17. ''Gen. 29 : 15-28. 6 Josh. 15: 16, 17 ; Judg. I : 12, 13. •* i Sam. 17 : :^5: '8: ^I'V- 3 24 Studies in OrietUal Social Life. young' persons arc among the documents re- covered from the ruins of ancient I'Lgypt and Assyria ; and these contracl;s show that the pay- ment of dowry to the bride or to her parents was an essential part of every such transacl:ion. The money given to the bride was spoken ot in those days as "pin-money," or "toilet-money;" and the prevalence of such terms for the modern translation of those old-time contracts shows that the mercenary element in plans of wedded life has had enough of a survival to be easily recog- nized by the present generation. Sir Richard BurtcMi, who has perhaps traveled more extensively and more observantly among both civilized and uncivilized peoples than any other man of this generation, says cynically, on this point, that women are "a marketable com- modity in barbarism as in civilization." But it is liardly fair to limit the mercenary element in marriage to the female sex, East or West. There are cases in Christian lands, whatever may be true of the lands of barbarism, where it is men who are bought, rather than women ; and where parents who are able to give their daughters a sufficient sum of purchase money, or dowry, can Betrothals and Weddings in the East. 25 hope to bu)' a husbaiul ot almost any desirable pattern, all the way along h'om a spick-and-span dude to a dilapidate duke or an impecunious prince — whichever way the gradation runs. Or, if the woman has had some experience in the matrimonial line, she can sometimes make the purchase for herself with the money of a former husband — dead or divorced. But this is cpiite apart from marriage customs as a rule, West and East. Betrothals in the East are often made as a means of a social or political alliance between families or rulers. This has always been so there ; and a survival of the custom is found in the marriages for diplomatic reasons which prevail in the royal families of Europe to-day. Rameses 1 1., in the days of Moses, married a daughter of the king of the Hittites as a conclusion oi a treaty of peace with that sovereign after the great battle of Kadesh-on-the-Orontes. Solomon made several marriages of this character,' and so did other rulers of whom the Bible tells us.^ While I was on the desert of Sinai, my drago- 1 I Kings 3 : I ; 9 : 16; II : 3. «i Kings II : 19; 16 : 31 ; 2 Kings S ; iS ; 2 Chron. 21 : 6. 26 Studies m Oriental Social Life. man, finding,'' much difficulty in arran^'ing terms with the Tceyahah Bcd'ween, told mc of a plan of his to marry a daughter of the chief shaykh of that tribe in order to better his prospects of safe transit in that region. And there are men on this side of the Atlantic who would appreciate this phase of Oriental shrewdness. A betrothal in the East is counted quite as sacred and quite as binding as a marriage cere- mony. It may indeed be broken, but its break- iuCT is even more of a matter than a divorce, and a woman who is betrothed is looked upon as already a wife. In India, a girl betrothed in childhood is a widow for life, if he to whom she was betrothed die before she has seen him. Jacob's betrothal to Rachel was a period of full seven years ; and when Jacob claimed her, at the close of that period, his words to her father were, •' Give me my luife ;''^ not Give to me thy daugh- ter to be my wife, but Give to me the one who is my wife. The frequent references in the Levitical law to "a virgin betrothed unto an husband'"- and to a man who " hath betrothed a luife and hatii * Gen. 29 : 20, 21. ' Deut. 22 : 23, 24 ; Lev. 19 : 20. Betrothals and IVcddiiigs in the East. 27 not taken her," ' as well as the later references to Joseph and Mary of Nazareth during- the time of their betrothal," show that the; primitive view of the betrothal compacl has been much the same among Semitic peoples as among the Ar\ans. In some communities a feast, with its gathering- of the; friends of l)olh j)arties, is an accompaniment of a betrothal, while in other communities all festive displays are postponed to the time of the taking of the bride to the bridegroom's home. Amone some of the Arab tribes of the Sinaitic Peninsula, when a young girl has been betrothed by her parents to a suitor for her hand, or while negotiations for a betrothal are in progress, she flies to the mountains as if she would escape the betrothal tie. Then it devolves upon him who has won her parents' consent to his possession of her. to make good his right to her by finding and winning her for himself. He must pursue her, and bring her back to her parents' tent, or his betrothal compact is a failure. If she be really averse to the match, she eludes capture if 1 Dcut. 20 : 7 ; 28 : 30. 2 Matt. I : iS-25 ; Luke i : 26, 27 ; 2 : 4, 5. 28 Studies in Oriental Social Life. it is possible for her to do so ; but it she be not iinwilhng- to ratify the betrothal, she makes only a reasonable show of earnestness in this conven- tional attempt at escape. Instances are not un- known, however, of the suicide of young girls, at such a time, in preference to an unwelcome marriage. This custom of "capturing a bride " is preva- lent, in one form or another, widely throughout the East, and in other parts of the world as well. Its significance would seem to be obvious, as based upon the natural characteristics of woman, and upon the circumstances of her betrothal to a husband by the will of her parents without her prior consent to the arrangement. A woman has a will of her own, and there was never a time when she did not have. If a woman's will be not recognized at the start, it has to be met and con- quered, in one way or another, sooner or later. A modest shrinking from the entire surrender of herself to another is instinctive in a woman's nature. She must manifest it, and a way has to be found for her to do so. Moreover, it is natural for a man to prize most that which costs him most, and to depreciate the BctrotJials and Weddings in Ihc East. 29 value of that which can be had for the askino-. Hence, whatever betrothal compact is made for a young woman l)y her father, at the; request of a young man, it still remains for the young man to win for himself her whom he w^ould have to him- self, and for the young woman to say whether she shall be fairly won, or shall be taken in spite of herself. And so it is that apart from all quc^stion of parental control, or of bargain and promise between parent and suitor, he who would have a wife must capture her for himself; and the widely prevalent custom of "marriage by capture" is based, like every other world-wide custom, upon a sentiment that is common to the human race, and not upon any Jiistoi^ie pracliee which was an incident of a passing period. Yet, strange to say, many a truth-seeking sociologist or anthropologist, more learned than wise, has seriously advocated the claim that this simple and natural exhibit of manly and womanly feeling in conne61ion with betrothal and marriage is to be accepted as merely a survival of a jjre- historic method of securing wives from the peo- ple of a hostile tribe by rapine and violence. If it were not that this claim had been put for- 30 Studies in Oriental Social Life. ward and a[)provcd In- men of eminence in the world of science and letters, it would hardly de- serve any other treatment than sheer ridicule. As it is, it stands out as one of the remarkable illustrations of unscientific method employed in the; realm of science. The poets have a truer appreciation of senti- ment than the mere scientists in their estimate of a woman's way with a wooing lover. Milton, describing the first woman's reception of the first lover's approaches, says, in the name of Adam : " She heard me thus, and though divinely brought, Yet innocence and virgin modesty, Her virtue and the conscience of her worth. That would be wooed, and not unsought be won, Wrought in her so, that seeing me she turned ; I followed her." And Dryden makes Eve to answer Adam's ap- peal with : " Somewhat forbids me, which I cannot name ; For ignorant of guilt I fear not shame ; But some restraining thought, I know not why, Tells me you long should try, I long deny." A theory by which this idea of primitive mar- riage by capture is supported is, that, in primeval BetrotJials and IVeddings in the East. 31 times, marriages between members of the same family or tribe were not permitted ; hence wives must be secured by force outside these hues. But to this day, in Egypt, Arabia, and Syria, the marriage of blood relatives is preferred. As recently as 1878, Sir Wilfred and Lady Anne Blunt made a journey from "Tadmor in the wil- derness" of Northern Syria,^ to Nejd. in Central Arabia, to secure for a young Arab attendant, whom they valued, a wife from among his blood relatives, the Ibn Arooks, whom he had never seen. Their story ot this adventure shows the same essential features in a courtship and mar- riage among that primitive people now as in the days of Abraham and of Jacob. Sir Wilfred acled as Eliezer in the negotiation. And the attempt was made on the part of the parents of the bride to have the elder sister taken instead of the younger, A "professional go-between" was employed by the parents to arrange details. At last the betrothal contract was signed, and the younger sister consented to go to a iar country as the wife of her stranirer cousin. We know that among the ancient Hebrews ^ I Kings 9:18; 2 Chron. b : 4. 4 32 Studies in Oriental Social Life. niarriai^^c \\\\\\ relatives was preferred ; ^ and it is an established fact that amonof the ancient Egyptians, and also among the Assyrians, the marriage of brothers and sisters, and even of iathers and daughters, was an approved custom. A similar state ot thini^^s is known to have existed among the Peruvians in the Western world. The sweep of testimony in the earlier records of the human race is opposed to the imderly- ing theory on which the claimed necessity of the capture of brides from a foreign people or tribe is based. When, in the East, the day approaches for the wedding of two persons betrothed, preparations are made for festivities in the homes of both par- ties. Invitations are sent out in advance, by the parents on both sides, to their kinsfolk and friends, to come to the feasts which are provided in both homes. The marriage proper is the bringing of the bride by the bridegroom to his own home, or to his mother s home, — as his home is at such a time ordinarily spoken of. Thus it is that the Bible record says that after Rebekah ' (^.en. 1 1 : 29-31 ; 12 : 10-13 ; 20 : 2-12 ; 24 : 2-4 ; 20 : i, 2 ; 2 Sam. 13 : 10-13. BetrotJials and Weddings in the East. 33 was bctrothcel to Isaac, " Isaac brougliL lur inlo his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekali, and sht' became his wife."' This looking upon a 1)ridc: as belonging to the mother of the bridegroom is a distinctive feature of the family life; of the [)rimitive East. It is fre(|uently referred to by the observers of Orien- tal customs. Morier, the English traveler, re- ports the Persian c;nvoy as saying that "the kine's mother IkuI more business than can be described. She had the control of all her son's harem, which might consist all together ot more than a thousand women ; and you may well con- ceive the trouble which they would give."^ It would seem, indeed, to be in view of this primitive custom in the East that such emphasis is laid, in the first book of the Pentateuch, upon the primal plan of separating from the patri- archal home each new couple of young people. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife : and they shall be one flesh." ^ It is not that therefore shall a woman k:avt: her father and her mother and shall cleave unt(j her husband, f(jr ihat will 'Gen. 24 : 67. - bcc Song of Songs S : 2. -"(Jcn. 2 : 24. 34 Studies in Oriental Social Life. be secured in the nature of the case ; but it is that, contrary to the custom of a patriarchal people, the man who marries a wife ought to leave his old home, and make a new home with and for his wife. TJiis is the Bible doctrine, and this also is the custom, away from the East, under the inlluence of Bible teachings ; but this is not, nor was it, the custom in the patriarchal East. Customs vary in different regions concerning wedding festivities and the invitations to them, as well as concerning betrothals. But quite generally among the wealthier classes these fes- tivities cover a week or more. It was so in the days of Jacob, when Laban urged his son-in-law not to interrupt that week's rejoicings merely because he had been given the wrong woman for a wife. ^ And "so used the young men to do," in Samson's time, as we are told in the Bible record.- So, also, are the young men and their friends accustomed to do in Egypt and Arabia and Syria to-day. In some cases the father of the bridegroom sends out a number of his friends to bear invita- ' Gen. 2y ■ 27. ^ Judg. 14 : 10-12. Bch'otJials am/ U\(/(/i)i o's in fJic East. 35 tions to those whom he would liavc as crucsts, griviiv-- to every oik; of thest! messenofers a new suit of clothinij;- for the occasion ; and at the same time he sends a himp witli ohve oil for its iiUinij;" to every one whom lie inxites to the wed- dint^ festivities. Similarly, in some cases the mother of the bride provides new garments for the women messengers by whom she sends invitations to her women friends. Sometimes, again, the invitations are sent with less formality, and with(nit any such outlay for new garments and lam[)s. Invited guests send gifts to the house of the bridegroom in advance of their comine, n.nd the eifts sent to or with the bride are made as prominent as possible in their display. An examination of the bridal presents at the time of the wedding festivities, with a critical estimate of their cash value, on the part ot the invited guests, is, indeed, quite as prominent a feature of such an occasion in the East as in the West. The bride herself is loaded with all the gold and silver and precious stones she possesses ; and there is a special reason for this as apart from any possible question of a woman's innate 36 Studies ill Oriental Social Life. love for finery. There is a utilitarian aspect of it tliat is worthy of note. Oriental law and Oriental custom give to a woman the undisinitcd i)roprietorship of Ik r purely personal ])roperty. such as her money, her jewelry, and her wearing apparel ; but beyond this her property rights are at the best a matter of question. This facl; makes it for a woman's interest to be her own banker, and to attach her worldly treasures to her person. Miss Whately, at Cairo, while pointing to the little girls of her school who were showily adorned with strings of coins and ornaments of silver and gold, said to me on this point: "Any woman who is a wife may by Muhammadan law be divorced and put away by her husband at any hour. He has but to speak the word and she must leave him. Then she must go out from her home to get on by herself as best she can. But her husband cannot take from her any- thing that she has upon her person. So you see those rings and necklaces may come to be all-important to these girls in their hour of need. I can hardly, therefore, have it in my heart to insist that they shall strip themselves of their Bcirot/ials a? id IVcddrnps m the East. ■^o i,^ vn^. j^uoc. jy only assured propcrt)- in the eye of Eg-yptian law." The divorcing- word in Turkey is " Bosh." American husbands, I fear, sometimes speak that word to their wives without reahzine its Oriental origin and potency. It was to hmit this power of the primitive Oriental husbands to tlivorcc their wives by a spoken word, that the Mosaic law required the husband to give a written bill of divorcement when from any cause he would put away his wife.^ The difficulty of enforcing even the Mosaic requirements, so far, on an Oriental people, is shown in the prevalent cus- toms of divorce among the Arabs of to-day. A divorced wife in the East is entitled by common law to all her wearing apparel, as well as to any portion of her dower which may have been retained by her husband at the Umc of her betrothal ; but she is obviously at a disadvantage in pressing such a claim as this, whereas there can be no question concerning that which is aClually upon her person. Hence it is that so much interest attaches to the costli- ness of a bride's personal adorning in the East, ' Dent. 24 : I ; Matt. 5 : 31, 32 ; 19 : 3-1 1. 38 Shiciics in Oriental Social Life. and that its market value indicates what she by herself may fairly be said to be "worth." And this would seem to account for the wearing of coins and of gold and silver ornaments so gene- rally by women in the East, — even among the poorer classes ; as also for the custom of giving presents to a bride in the form of gold and sil- ver and jewelry, which has its survi\al in the West as well as in the East. The women guests at a wedding, in many parts of the East, deck themselves with all their jewels and other personal adornings, not so much with a view to the esthetic advantage of these to the wearer, as with a purpose of showing them off in their purely financial aspect. In illustration of this, Lady Burton, wife and biographer of the famous English traveler, gives her observations at a "splendid Eastern wedding" in high life in Damascus. " It lasted five days and five nights," she says, "the men celebrating it at one house and the women in another. . . . It was a erand sisfht. . . . The dresses were won- derful in richness and gaudiness : diamonds blazed everywhere ; but there was one very re- markable usage which took my fancy. The best BctrotJials and JW^ddiiios jn fJic East. 39 women dn^ssed in a plain cashmc^rc robe of 7^:) hilt and 1)\' point, now back of his howcd hc;acl, and now on oik; shoulder or the; other, while moving- alonij;- with a lini])inht('d tomb, the brideo-room was escorted back to the fortress by a more circuitous route and more slowly than he had come, — it being a point of ]\Iuhammadan etiquette for a bridegroom to seem more in haste to reach the place of prayer than the place where he is to meet his bride. This may suggest to some ingenious scientist the theory that there was a primeval leap-year period when women dragged reluctant husbands to the homes prearranged for them. And he may believe it who will. The music and dancing of the bridegroom's party were kept up until the bridegroom reached ^Matt. 23 ; 27, 2y. 5.S Studies in Oriental Social Life. th(; castle. Then "they tliat were ready went in with him to the marriaoi-e feast: and the door was shut.^ leavino^ lis in "the outer darkness'"'^ of the desert niglit. According to Oriental custom, it is immediately after his rc;turn from j)rayer that the bridegroom is escorted to the door of his bride's apartments, on entering which he is permittc;d to lift the veil of her who became his wife by betrothal. It is perhaps the first time that either has seen the other's face. All the possibilities of a lifc;time center then in a single look. One glimpse will show whether it is dull-eyed Leah or beautiful and well-favored Rachel whom the veil has covered,^ and whether he who lifts it is one to win or to repel a true woman's love. Bitter dis- appointments, as well as unanticipated satisfac- tions are among the recorded surprises of these Oriental bridal unveilings. Instances are known, in th(! far East at least, of a bridegroom's looking with horror at such a moment into the face of a leper bride. And on the other hand, bright examples of happiness in wedded life can be pointed to w^hich had their start in loving glances 'Matt. 25 : 10. 2 Matt. 22 : 13. 'Gen. 29 : 16-25. Betrothals and Weddings in the liast. 59 first exchanged when an ()riciUal brkk'^rooni uncovered the face of his blushintj- bride. for example, ot the; Hindoo women betrothed to their hnsbancls in infancy, and hrst seen by those husbands when chiimed in their marriage, Mrs. Leonowens says : " Tenderness and self- devotion . . . are the chief characlc-ristics of the pure Hindoo woman. Her love tor her oHspring amounts to a passion, and she is rarely known to speak hastily, much less to strike or ill-use her child. Her devotion as a wife has no parallel in the history ot the world." And Sir }»Ionier Monier-Williams declares that "in no country of the world has married life been so universally honored" as in India. If indeed, the Oriental bridegroom is satisfied with his bride, when her veil has been lifted, he goes to the outer door of her room and announces his hearty ratification of the match that has been made for him l)y his representatives. This an- nouncement is at once taken up by the women who are waiting outside, and their cries of joy send the knowledi/e ot it to watchful listeners far and near. Among those whose hearts are thrilled with gladness by the welcome intelli- 6o Studies in Oriental Social Life. gencc that the bridegroom is made happy in the possession of his bride, no one can be more keenly grateful for the announcement than "the friend of the bridegroom " who has conducted the negotiations which led to this event. Then, and not till then, can he be sure that he has planned wisely and well, and that his principal is made happy through his efforts in his behalf. Herein is an explanation of a passage in the New Testament which has lacked explanation from commentators. When John the Baptist was told that Jesus of Nazareth, whom he had baptized, and so ushered into the ministry, was now himself a recognized teacher, and that the multitudes were flocking to him, even to the eclipsing of John's popularity and prominence, the record stands, that "John answered and said : ... Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but. that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom : but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth [outside] and heareth him [expressing his satis- faclion with the union arranged for], rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice [of approval] : this my joy therefore [as the triend Betrothals a) id \Veddi)igs in the East. 6i of the bridegroom Clirist] is fiil tilled [in his union with his bride the Church]. lie must increase, but I must decrease."^ The friend of the bridegroom has no longer a mission when the brideirroom's true mission is fairly entered upon, John's work was done when the work ot Jesus was begun. These marriage processions described by me as observed in the desert were necessarily far less elaborate and showy than many of those which are to be seen in a large city. The bride, as also the bridegroom, is often borne in a "palankeen" or 'Titter,'"- on the back of a camel, or on horse- back, instead of going afoot. And jugglers, or sleight-of-hand performers, as well as musicians, accompany the procession, and exhibit their skill during the frecpient halts made by the procession. But in the prime essentials of noise and show and parade, these processions are much the same in desert and village and city. And here I rest the explanation of the cere- monies attendant upon betrothals and weddings • John 3 : 27-30. ■•'SoriL;" uf Songb 3 ; 6-10; I'bu. 19 : 4-, $• 62 S//i(//cs III Oriental Social Life. in the luist. l)iil before leavini;- the subject, 1 wish to call attention to the evidence that human nature is the same in tlie East and in the West, and that no theory of the marriage relation, or system of training with reference to it, is sufh- cient to shut out the possibility of romantic love between the sexes, — regardless of the opinion and wishes of parents and guardians. Thus it is to-day, and thus it has been in all the days of which we have any historic record. A writer who has essayed a scientific study in this hue of research, says emphatically that "ro- mantic love," or, as he defines it, " pre-matrimo- nial love," "is a modern sentiment, less than a thousand years old;" and he is sure that "the Bible takes no account of it," and that it has no recognition in ancient classic literature. Yet in the very first book of the Old Testament nar- rative there appears the story of young Jacob's romantic love for Rachel, — a love which was in- spired by their first meeting,^ and which was a fresh and tender memory in the patriarch Jacob's mind when, long years after he had buried her in Canaan,- he was on his death-bed in Egypt.'' 1 Gen. 29 : lo-iS. '"' Gen. 35 : 16-30. ^ Cien. 48 : 1-7. Betrothals and M^'cddings in the East. 6^^ In all the literature of romantic love in all the atres there can be found no more touching" exhibit of the; truc--hearted fidelity of a romantic lover than that which is given of Jacob in the words: "And Jacob served seven years for Ra- chel ; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her."^ And the entire story confirms the abiding force of that senti- ment. There are, certainly, gleams of romantic love from out the clouds of degraded human nature in the ancient East, in the Bible stories of Shechem and Dinah." of Samson and the damsel of Timnah,' of David and Abigail,* of Adoni- jah and Abishag,'' and of other men and women of whom the Hebrew Scriptures tell us. Outside of the Bible record we have proofs of the prominence of romantic love in tht; lands of the Bible, in the far-gone ages. It shows itself in the Assyrian legend of Ishtar seeking him whom she loves in the realm of the dead ; and it is seen in the Izdubar (or, Gilgamesh) epic of the Chaldeans, where the wisdom ot Ka-bani's heart vanishes in the presence of Harimtu, and 1 Gen. 29 : 20. ^ Gen. 34 : 1-31. ^ Ji'flg- 14 : i-3- * I Sam. 25 : 1-42. ^ i Kings 2 : 13-17. 6 64 Studies in Oriental Social Life. he is ready to follow th(^ wise and winsome woman whithersoever she will. An E^ryptian papyrus of the; days of Moses tells us the story of a long crone time, when a prince's daughter, in the very land where Jacob wooed and won Rachel, was shut in a lofty tower, with her father's promise that whoever should scale the walls of that tower should be her husband. And the story narrates that when the runaway son of an Egyptian king had scaled the tower the princess loved him from the moment of their meeting ; and every effort to induce her to forgo her purpose of being the bride of the unknown hero was unavailing. " By the Sun, if he is slain, ... I will die too," she said. And after the pat- tern of the modern love-story the lovers were married, and were all the happier for that. And so it has been all the way down the ages. The leeends and traditions of the East abound with stories of romantic love, as does the literature of Arabia and Syria and Turkey and Persia in modern times. "Sometimes love has been im- planted by one glance alone," says an Arabic proverb, in suggestion of the truth that it re- quires no long courtship, East or West, to make Beiyothals and ]W\i dings in the East. 65 lovers. And a Syriac [)rovcrb, whicli is a coun- terpart to this, in its suggestion that )()u cannot compel love by a betrothal an)- more than )()u can guard against it by seclusion, is this : " Every- thing is [to be found] in the druggist's shoj) ; but ' Love me by torcc" ' is not there." And our English proverb which supplements these two is " Love laughs at locksmiths." Love has been, love is, and love will continue to be, simply because it is in human nature to love, and there is a great deal of human nature in most persons. Romantic elopements are a feature of social life in the East as well as in the West ; and there are hopeless lovers and jilting lasses there as well as here. Morier tells, for example, of a large painting in a pleasure house in Shiraz, illustrative of the treatment of a loyal lover by a heartless coquette, which is one of the popular legends of Persia. "Sheik Chenan, a Persian of the true faith, and a man of learning and con- sequence, fell in love with an Armenian lady of great beaut\', who would not marry him unless he chanijed his relig"ion. To this he a^jreed. Still she would not marry him unless he would drink wine. This scruple also he yielded. She 66 Studies in Oriental Social Life. resisted still, unless he consented to eat pork. With this also he complied. Still she was coy, and refused to fulfil her engagement, unless he would be contented to drive swine before her. Even this condition he accepted ; and she then told him that she would not have him at all, and laughed at him for his pains. The picture represents the coquette at her window, laughing at Sheik Chenan as he is driving his pigs before her." So we see that there is no lack of evidence that romantic love has had sufficient sway to make fools of wise men — as well as to make fools and wise men happy — in the East, as truly as in the West, in spite of all the traditional guards which have been erected against it by Oriental methods of betrothal and marriage. There was never a time when sentiment was counted out as an important fa61or in the mar- riage relation, and there never will be. There is one other point which is worthy of special attention in an outlook over the field of Oriental marriage customs past and present. In observing the position of woman in the East as maiden, wife, and mother, and also simply as Betrothals and Weddings in the luist. 67 woman, we sec much that is in unpleasant con- trast with the corresponcUnt,'- position of woman in our own i)ortion of the worKI, under the in- lluence of Christianity as it is to-chiy. Yet, on the other hand, it is unmistakably the facl that the hicrhest honor accorded to woman as woman, and as maiden, w^ife, and mother, among our- selves in this nineteenth century of Christian civilization, does not transcend the position which has been recognized as her right at some time and at some place in the ancient Oriental world. And this facl we ought to recognize as a facl:, whatever be its influence on our favorite theories of human progress. The very earliest Egyptian records that we have, show the one wife of the king as his true consort and partner, loved and trusted by him, and known to and honored by the people. A thousand years before the days of Abraham, Egyptian law secured to women the right oi suc- cession to the throne of Egypt ; and queen after queen swayed the empire of Egypt when Eg)'pt swayed the empires of the world. The oldest sculpture yet recovered from the ruins of Egypt represents a prince and a princess as husband 68 Sludws HI OriciUal Social Life. and wife, scatctl side by side, the wile unveiled, and her face showini^ a measure of characrter and of intelligence worthy of her princely husband. And all the records of those ancient days tend to show that, in the realm of the heart, woman's power was as dominant then as now. It was not in Egypt alone that w^oman's worth and w^oman's ability secured a measure of recog- nition in the early East. However much of purely mythical character there is to the story of Semiramis, it is obvious that the facfls of history in the ancient Oriental world were such as to justify credence to an ideal like that, of woman's royal supremacy. We know something of the record of Miriam^ and Deborah'- and Jezebel'^ and Athaliah^ and Huldah ^ among the Hebrews ; of the famous Queen of Sheba f of Dido, queen of Carthage ; of Cleopatra the greater, and of the lesser Cleopatras ; of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians;"^ of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra; and of many another woman who was a leader and a ruler of men, in the East of the olden time ; 'Exod. 15 : 20, 21 ; Num. 12 : i. ^Judg. 4 : 4-10; 5 : i. ■' I Kings 16 : 29-33; 19 : 1-3; 21 : 4-16, 25. *2 Kings II : 1-16. ^2 Kings 22 ; 12-20; 2 Chron. 34 : 20-28. «i Kings 10 : 1-13; 2 Chron. 9 : i 12. 'Acts 8 : 27. Betrothals ami ]]\'ddiiigs in the luist. 69 nor arc such instances unknown in later Oriental histor)-. And all this has been in spite of those Oriental theories and customs which have seemed to us certain to crush and degrade woman. The Old Tcstamttnt narrative presents beauti- ful pictures of true wives and mothers even as viewed in the clearest light of this nineteenth Christian century. What description, for ex- ample, of a model woman in those relations of life, could surpass that which was already [)ro- verbial among- the Hebrews of twenty-five hun- dred years ago or more ? She is a faithful wife and a true helpmeet : " The heart of her husband triisteth in lier, And he shall have no lack of gain. She doeth him good and not evil All the days of her life." She is an efficient housekeeper : " She riseth also while it is yet night, And giveth meat to her household, And their task to her maidens." She is a competent business woman : " She considereth a field, and buyeth it : With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. . . . She perceiveth that her merchandise is profitable." :o Siudics ill C h-ioital Social Life. She has a kindly and g-cnerous heart : "She sprcadclh out licr hand to the ])(»()r; Yea, she reacheth forth her hands to tlic needy." She has good taste, and evidences it : " For all her household are clothed with scarlet. She maketh for herself cushions of tapestry ; Her clothing is fine linen and purple." She is a power over and behind her husband : " Her husband is known in the gates, When he sitteth among the elders of the land." She lacks neither brains nor heart : "She openeth her mouth with wisdom ; And the law of kindness is on her tongue." She is just the best wife and mother that can be : " Her children rise up, and call her blessed ; Her husband also, and he praiseth her, saying: Many daughters have done virtuously, liut thou excellest them all."' And what better could any husband say than that ? There was no room in such a family for the question, "Is marriage a failure " ? Yet it is an old-time Oriental family that is here de- scribed — described not merely as it ought to be, ' Prov. 31 ; 11-29. BctrotJuils and IVcddings in the liasL 7 I buL as it was eii-ht centuries or so bclurc the Christian era. There are model wives and mothers in the East to-day; and nowliere are husl)ands more completely under the inlluence of wise and de- voted wives, as also of evil and designing ones, than in some of the homes which are there. Oriental literature abounds with the portrayal of conjugal love and fidelity, as well as with in- stances of the lack of these. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the Mauso- leum ere6led to the memory of her husband by his wife Artemisia, who is said to have mingled his ashes in her daily drink, in token of her un- dying sorrow. And one of the most beautiful architectural strucilures under the whole heavens is the Taj Mahal at Agra, ere6led by a royal and loyal Oriental husband, as a token of his surpass- iuL!" devotion to the memory ot his nobU; wile. In short, a truth which stands out in all the pages of Oriental history concerning the mar- riaL''e relation of primeval times is the truth which Jesus of Nazareth affirmed, when he declared that long before the days of Moses there was a purer, nobler ideal of the marriage relation than Sliidics in Oriental Social Life. could be fully realized in ihe days of Moses. ^ And a conclusion which Christians are entitled to accept in the light of this truth is, that, while Christianity did not originate that ideal, Chris- tianity has a duty to promote its restoration ; so that at the last, as at the beginning, betrothal and wedding shall be but successive steps to bring two hearts and lives into loving and changeless union. Matt. 5 : 31, 32; 19 : 3-1 1 ; Mark 10 : 3-1: HOSPITALITY LN THE EAST Hospitality in the East is not merely a per- sonal and social virtue : it is a center froni which all social virtues radiate, and it takes precedence of all other personal virtues. As it shows itself at its best, and among' the more primitive |)eoples of the East, — not the more savage but the more primitive peoples, — hospitality would seem to be a virtue havinir its root in no selfish considera- tions, and being trained within no limits of mere utilitarian convenience. Its highest exercise, as understood in the East, requires a measure of 73 74 Studies in Oriental Social Life. self-abnci^^ation aiul of iiclclit)' to a sentiment as a sentiment, demanded in no other duty ot a man toward his iellow-man. Of course, it is not to be supposed that this virtue, or any other virtue, has prevaihng sway with every individual among the peoples recog- nizing it as their loftiest ideal ; nor yet that its exercise is in every case unshadow^ed by any taint of personal infirmity on the part of those who admit the force of its claims. But it is true that among Orientals, from Eastern Turkey to Central India, and from Northern Persia to Southern Arabia, and more or less beyond these bounds, the virtue of hospitality has a pre-emi- nence, in its obligations and in its significance, not recognized to the same extent elsewdiere in the world at large, and which is worthy of atten- tion because of its holdinir in control the more selfish instincls of human nature to an extent that is the more marvelous the more fully it is known. In the primitive East, hospitality is more far- reaching in its scope and more exacting in its ob- ligations than anything which we know of under that name in the conventional West. With us. Hospitality in tJic East. 75 one is hospitable; when he extends a hearty welcome to his chosen guests, and makes them sharers of his family life, or of an entertainment given in their honor. But the idea of true hospi- tality in the East is indicated in the Oriental proverbs : " Every strang-er is an in\ ited guest," and "The guest while in the house is its lord." Even an enemy becomes a friend by choosing to be a guest, in the East, — a truth that would seem to have a survival in thi; West in the fa6l that the terms "hostile," "host." and "hospitality," as in use among us, are from one and the same root. "Guest" also is from the same root. A host, according to the Oriental conception, is one who gives the first place to an enemy while that enemy is his guest. The exhibit of this idea of hospitality is to be seen by every traveler in the East who has any opportunity of observing the mon^ primitive life of that region. It is much the same, at its best, in Palestine to-day, as it was in the days of Abra- ham, and long before. A gleam of its light on my pathway through that land, was illustrative of the life that has been the same there from the days of the patriarchs downward. 76 Studies III Oriental Social Life. It was just out tVoni "the valley of Jczreel." ^ near the place where Gideon made his night attack upon the host of the Midianites,^ that I saw the black tents"' of a party of Bed'ween in the distance as I passed along, one forenoon in th(; springtime, on my way from the ruins of ancient Jezreel toward the Sea of Galilee. These "childnM-i of the East"Mvere apparently of some branch of the great 'Anazeh tribe, which is thought by many to represent the Midianites of the Bible story ; coming in as they do across the fords of the Jordan upon these plains of Pales- tine, from their tribal grounds on the east of the river. The picluresqueness of the scene im- pressed me, but I had no thought of making a stop at that point ; nor should I have done so except for the unlooked-for exhibit of a phase of Oriental hospitality on the part of these desert rovers. As our party neared the tents, with the inten- tion of passing to the north of them, I observed a Bed'wy woman with a bulky cloth bag, or sack, upon her shoulders, the bag oozing moisture as ijudg. 6 : 33. 'Judg. 7 : i, 12-23. 3 Song of Songs I : 5- *Judg. 6 : 3, 4. Hospitality in the East. ^J if its c()nt(;nts were liciuid. 1 reined 14) my horse, in order to see how it was tliat wat(?r was btnnjj^ carried in a cloth hixg. In answer to my (jnes- tion I was told that the ba^,^ containc^d leben, or thickencnl milk, which is a staple article of diet anions;- the pastoral peoples of the East. I)Ut that (piestion of min'^ had put m(; into a new relation with the; Px^d'ween there. It had brouL^ht our i)arty within the scope of the tribe's hospi- tality, as I quickly had occasion to realizt^ The Bed'wy shaykh was sitting in th(^ entrance way of his tc:nt, as Abraham was accustomed to sit in his day.^ And the shaykh's tent was design- edly nearest the traveled way, in order that he could be on the watch for stranger guests. See- ing a party of travelers stop in the vicinity of his tribe, he arose from his place and came for- ward, with all the dignity of bearing and court- liness of manner of the true Arab chic;ftain, to ask them to honor him by alighting and accept- incr the hospitality of his tent. To have declined this invitation without a good and sufficient rea- son would have been a positive rudeness on our part, as Orientals view it. Therefore we dis- 1 Gen. 18 : I. 7 8 Studies in Oriental Social Life. mounted, and were conducted to Shaykh Moosa's tent. The best rugs were spread on the ground for us just inside the entrance of the tent ; and the rear flap of the tent was hfted in order to give us all the fresh air available in the heat of the day. With expressions of grateful acknowledg- ment of his sense of the privilege of entertaining us, the shaykh proceeded with his preparations for our entertainment. He called to his wife, who was within hearing but out of sight behind the curtain, or tent flap, which separates the hareem, or women's apartment, from the men's,^ and bade her hasten and bake a cake of bread for the guests.^ A fire of sticks was kindled before us by the shaykh's own hands. He was our servant for the time being — Christian strangers though we were. Coffee-berries from the Hejaz were put into a small iron saucepan, and slowly roasted by him over the fire. Water was poured into a brazen coffee-pot and set upon the fire to boil. Meanwhile the curdled milk, or "butter," as it is sometimes called in our version of the Bible,'^ ' Gen. 18:9, 10. '^ Cien. iS : 6, ^ Conip. Judy. 4 : 19 ; 5 ; 25. Hospitality ui the East. 79 was served to us iVecl)- from sucli a sack as iliaL which had first attracted our attention. When the coffee was roasted it was put into a liardwood mortar, and pounded very line with a metal pestle. In this process the shaykh kept time with his pestle against the sides of the mortar, in peculiar and pleasing- rh)thmic notes, this " music of the pestle " being one of the esteemed accomplisliments of an Arab host. From a small leathern case the shaykh took a number of tiny china cups and their metal holders or saucers. Each of these cups was carefully washed b)- him in its turn, as was every article which he brought into rec|uisition. The finely pounded coffee was put into the pot of hot water, and was speedily ready for use, — Arab coffee when served for drinking being rather of the consistency of chocolate paste than of our infu- sion of ground coffee. The lirst tiny cup of this coffee was reverently poured out on the ground as a libation ; the second was drunk by the shaykh himself, as if in proof of his good faith ; and then the coffee was gracefully served to us in turn, according to our ages, — the shaykh standing while we sat ; each visitor receiving two cups. 7 8o Studies in Oriental Social Life. The shaykh meanwhile askeci our permis- sion to shiy a lamb tor us, to be eaten with the bread that his wife was preparing ;^ but our stay had already been unduly prolonged, and we said that our business demanded our departure. The shaykh urged us not to be in haste, for there was time enough before us, — an Arab having no idea of the value of time. It was only when we assured our host that now we must be going, but that if we came that way on our return we would stop longer with him, that we were permitted to take our leave. He repeated his thanks to us for our visit, as if he alone had been honored ; although we did not refrain from thanking him most heartil)'. As we mounted our horses the shaykh held my stirrup, I being the senior of the party ; then he kissed our hands, and pressed his forehead to them, and gave us a parting *• Ma'assalame " as we rode away. For this entertainment of us no payment or gift of any sort would be accepted by that typical Bed'wy shaykh. It was simply an exhibit of the virtue of hospitality, which is the virtue of virtues in Oriental estimation. Nor was even this an 1 Gen. 1 8 : 6-8. Hospitality in the I\ast. 8 1 exhibit of that virtue at its extremest bounds. Incidentally, however, as a result of my stopping to question a member of that tribe of Arabs, I had been ijiven a new understandinlunt. "is the first and i^reatest of all virtues in Arab estima- tion." And Sir Richard Burton, in bearing simi- lar witness to the prevalence of this virtue among Arabs, merely qualifies his statement by limiting its present sway to those now "rare tracts in which the old barbarous hospitality still lingers ;" where, in facl:, the chief virtues of primitive peoples have not yet been destroyed or vitiated by contact wath civilization and its vices. What is true, so far, of the Arabs, is true of many another Oriental people. The Toorkomans of Central Asia, for example, are hardly less remarkable than the Arabs for this virtue of unselfish hospitality. Morier, who visited anion lt the Toorkomans about the time of Burckhardt's travels among the Arabs, says of them: "Their hospitality, the theme of so many pens, is not exaggerated." And Vambery, a more recent and no less observant traveler, Hospitality i)i the East. 97 illustrates the spirit of the Toorkomans \\\ this particular by many an incident of his extended journe)inys. On one occasion as he traveled, he came with his party upon an out-of-the-way encamp- ment of these people, and was made welcome in the tent of one Allah Nazr. "This old Turkoman," says X^ambery, "was beside himself from joy that Heaven had sent him guests. The recolleclion of that scene will never pass from my mind. In spite of our protestations to the con- trar\', he killed a goat, the only one which he possessed, to contribute to our entertainment. At a second meal which we partook with him the next day, he found means to procure bread also, an article that had not been seen for weeks in his dwelling. While we attacked the dish of meat, he seated himself opposite to us, and wept, in the exacl:est sense of the expression, tears of joy." Imagine that manifestation of feeling in one of our homes, when an added delegate to an ecclesiastical or missionary gathering had been quartered upon us as a guest ! "Allah Nazr," continues Vambery, "would not 98 S/n(/ies in Oriental Social Life. retain any part of the; goat he had killed in honor of us. The horns and hoofs, which were burned to ashes, and were to be employed for the galled places on the camels, he gave to llias [an at- tendant of the guest]; but the skin, stripped off in one piece, he destined to serve as my water- vessel, and after having well rubbed it with salt, and dried it in the sun, he handed it over to me." Vambery speaks also with warmth of the spirit of hospitality among the people of Eastern Turkey. Other travelers lay special emphasis on the prominence and the prevalence ot this virtue among the Khonds, of Orissa, in India. Hunter says of this people : "As soon as a traveler enters a [Khond] village, the heads of families respeclfully solicit him to share their meal. He may remain as long as he chooses, as [according to a Khond proverb] a guest can never be turned away. Fugitives from the field of battle, and even escaped criminals, must be hospitably treated." " For the safety of a guest," runs another Khond proverb, "life and honor are pledged; he is to be considered before a child," — a princi- ple illustrated in Lot's readiness to sacrifice his Hospitality in the East. 99 daughters for the protcclion of his guests in Sodom/ Xor does this Oriental virtue of hospi- taHty cease to show itself in a remarkable degree as a virtue, even as far east as China and Japan. It is the trait of traits among the more primitive peoples of all the Hast. It requires no argument to prove that a virtue of this sort must subject to imposition those who exercise it unstintingly, so long as there are evil- minded and designing persons in the world ; and that its exacting demands must press heavily upon those who are at the centers of busy life or along the greater thoroughfares of travel. It will, therefore, be readily understood, that in all the Oriental world there are those who try to make as much as they can, and those who try to lose as little as they may, out of this practical virtue of Oriental hospitality. Inasmuch as every stranger is entitled to enter any Arab home; and be entertained there for, say, a period of three days, and then to move on to the; next house, or tent, and spend a like period there, it would seem as if the East must be a paradise for "tramps." And inasmuch as the ^ Gen. 19:8; see also Judg. 19 : 22-24. lOO Shiciics in Oriental Social Life. guest is always entitled to the first place, and to the choicest fare, at the table of his host, there is a peculiar tc;mptation to a stranger to make him- self a oiliest at a timti when a host has most to be shared. If, indeed, it were not for the restraints of a rigid public sentiment on these points of social custom in the East, there would be more difficulty than there is in keeping the causes of trouble within bounds ; but, even as things are, there are cases of special hardship on the one hand, and of sharp pra6lice and shrewd evasions of the law of fairness on the other hand. Dr. Edward Robinson gives a good illustration of one of the perils of the Arab law of hospitality. While in the Sinaitic Peninsula, accompanied by a trustworthy band of Tawarah Bed'ween, he bought a kid from a party of Arabs whom they passed on the way, and gave it to his escort, in order that they might make merry with it that evening, in Oriental style. "When evening came," says Robinson, "all was a61ivity and bustle to prepare the coming feast. The kid was killed and dressed with great dexterity and dispatch ; and its still quivering members were laid upon the fire, and began to Hospitality in the East. loi emit savory odors particularly gratifying- to Arab nostrils. Hut now a change came over the fair scene. 1 he Arabs of whom we had bought the kid had in some way learnc:d that we were to encamp near ; and naturally cmough concluding that the kid was bought in order to ^be eaten, they thought good to honor our Arabs 'vHth a visit, to the number of five or six penjibns. ':• " Now the stern law of liedawin hospitality demands, that whenever a guest is present at a meal, whether there be much or little, the first and best portion must be laid before the stranger. In this instance the five or six guests attained their objed:, and had not only the selling of the kid but also the eating of it ; while our poor Arabs, whose mouths had long been watering with expectation, were forced to take up with the; fragments. Besharah [the chief guide], who played the host, fared worst of all, and came afterwards to beg for a biscuit, saying he had lost the whole of his dinner." An Arab proverb cited by Burckhardt, to the effect that "those who give the wedding feast sigh for the broth," seems to be based upon this peril of hospitality. Possibly there is a survival i02 Studies hi Oriental Social Life. of this Oriental state of thinqs in the modern "donation party" sometimes given to a country minist{;r, at which the guests bring the eatables, count \\\v.m on the minister's salary, and then devour them. It is instru61ive to see how well an Arab will control himself when he is being imposed on by th;- la>,v8 of- hospitality. And an Oriental has wonderful power in this dire6lion. Burton says on this point: "Shame is a passion with Eastern nations. Your host would blush to point out to you the indecorum of your conducl: ; and the laws of hospitality oblige him to supply the every want of a guest." My own traveling party on the way through Palestine halted for lunch, one midday, near the plain of ancient Dothan, where young Joseph was sold by his brethren to the Midianitish mer- chantmen. Hardly w^as our lunch spread, when hurrying down a hillside near us came a man, a w^oman, and a boy, of the native fellaheen or peasantry, making toward our halting-place as though their lives depended on their speed. The dragoman, who was sharing his meal with the chief muleteer of our party, saw the danger, Hospitality in tJic East. 103 and said to his companion, " Eat quickly. They arc cominfr." P>nt before many mouthfuls could be taken, the visitors were at hand. The; woman, accordino- to custom, passed on. and seated her- self on a rock at a respe6lful distance, with her face turned away from our party; whih; the two men presented themselves to our attendants. The dragoman arose, and with all the suavity and gracefulness with which an American society woman would greet an unwelcome visitor, bowed and said, "r///^/^/^?/"— 'TMease." or "Welcome." " I am your guest," responded the stranger ; " I and my brother's son." Then the two guests took hold of the lunch, wdiile the dragoman and the muleteer watched complacently the skilful work of the visitors, absorbed as they wa^re in the occupation of the moment. It will be understood that where an Oriental lives at a center of travel he is peculiarly liable to imposition through calls on his hospitality, Philadelphians who have survived the series of centennials celebrated in that city within the past twenty years, as also the Chicagoans with their more recent experiences, will therefore be quite ready to believe that at such a city as I04 Sfjif^ics in Oriental Social Life. Meccah there are residents to whom the enter- taining of euests becomes something- more than a deHghtful nov(;lty. They have, indeed, a tradition at Meccah of an old shaykh in that vicinity whose experience was sadly representative in this line. They say that he worshiped God zealously, and performed his prayers and ablutions five times a day, while being hospitable to all. But a Turk who was his guest ran away with his wife ; a Persian guest stole his horse ; an Egyptian guest stole his camel ; a Moorish guest stole his ass ; and so things went on — or went off — until the good old man was utterly destitute. Then a Hindoo pil- orim came alone, and abused the shaykh because he had nothing left worth stealing. This was too much for the long-suffering shaykh. He turned and killed his reviler ; and in the ragged cloth around his victim's loins he found a hoard of eold. The obvious moral — if you can call it a "moral " — of this tradition is, that hospitality is not always sure to pay so well as its opposite. Public sentiment in the East, however, enjoins some of the guards against a life of useless idle- ness which are found to work well in our Occi- Hospitality in tJic East. 105 dental organizations for the systematizing of charities. In case a guest seems cHsposed to prolong his stay beyond the " three days of grace," his host will suggest to him, on the morning of the fourth day. that, as he is now one of the family, there is such and such house- hold work to be done, in which he can bear his part ; and so he is set at work for his living.^ With human nature as it is, it is not to be wondered at that there are Orientals who abuse the privileges of hospitality ; or, again, that there are Orientals who chafe under the obligations and responsibilities of hospitality. The wonder is that Orientals, being human, are so generally true to the letter and to the spirit of their un- written law of hospitality, in all that it imposes upon them of an unselfish ministry to others. There is, moreover, something in this Oriental law of hospitality which goes deeper than the mere duty of providing sustenance to those who are in bodily want. It involves and carries with it the covenanting of peace and friendshij), in the sharing of a common meal ; and beyond this it includes the giving of an asylum to all those who ' Mark 6 : 10. io6 Sf?if/ics in Oriental Social Life. require protc61:ion, however unworth)- they may be. These two phases of sentiment are often confused by observers of Oriental customs, and they are not always recognized in their distinct- ness by the Orientals themselves. Yet they are by no means one and the same thing. The sharine of food or of drink with another is a symbol of covenanting, among the Orientals, as among all primitive peoples. To give even a cup of cold water to a stranger,^ in the East, is to proffer recognition to the stranger as one worthy of reception. To ask a cup of water of a strano-er, is to ask to be received on terms of peace and good-will. When Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, went as a stranger among his mas- ter's kinsfolk in Mesopotamia, he sought a wel- come, at the well outside of the city, by saying to the maiden who came thither to draw water, "Give me to drink, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher." When she replied, " Drink, my lord," it was a sign that he was welcome there.^ When Jesus, at Jacob's well, said to a woman of Samaria, "Give me to drink," she wondered that a man of the haughty Jewish race should ' Matt. lo ; 42 ; Mark 9 : 41. ^ Gen. 24 : 10-21. Hospitality in iJic East. 107 be \villini>- to invite recoLrnition and favor from a woman of tlu; cU-spiscd Samaritan stock ; and her rejoinder was : " How is it that thou, beincr a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a Samaritan woman ? " ' Bruce, the traveler, while in Upper Egypt, re- fused for a while to share coffee with an Arab leader with whom he was at variance concern- ing an imj)ortant matter, because their drinking together would be proof of their amity. When, after some discussion, the Arab asked for a drink of the coffee, and it was given him, he said conh- dently, " Now the past is past." Having drunk together they were in friendship again. When I entered Palestine by way of the Negeb, or South Country, while guided by the Teeyahah Bed'ween, I found the principal well at Beersheba surrounded by a motley crowd of the quarrelsome 'Azazimeh Bed'ween, watering their camels. My cautious Moorish dragoman warned me not to venture among these "wild 'Azazimeh," as he called them ; but, in my recklessness, I rushed in where angels mi ■ J I. \ FUNERALS AND MOURNING IN THE EAST. It was on the west bank of the Nile, not far from the ancient step-shaped pyramid of Saq- qarah, or " the Pyramid of Degrees " as it is sometimes called, a few hours' donkey-ride above the plains of Gheezeh — on which the greatest of all the pyramids looks down, that I first heard the cry of Egyptians wailing over their dead. I had already groped my way through the subterranean chambers of the Serapeum, or tombs of the sacred bulls, and had studied with wonder the 143 144 Studies in Oriental Social Life. sculptured scenes of Egyptian life of forty cen- turies ago on the walls of the tomb of the archi- te6l Tey, and was slowly riding northward again, with my thoughts intent on the ancient past that had thus been vividly brought before my mind, when I was started out of my revery by a cry. A sharp, shrill, ear-piercing shriek, as from one in mortal pain, was the first sound that broke in on the desert silence. Then came other shrieks, shriek upon shriek, a chorus of shrieks. The shrieks were followed by wails, — loud, high, pro- longed, quavering wails. These wails rose and fell in stranofe weird cadences ; but all the while they seemed no less really heartrending cries of agony. Yet no human being was in sight of our party, in the dire61ion of these sounds of suffering, in advance of us. Our impulse was to hasten forward to the help of those whose cries we heard ; and doing this we came to an eleva- tion in the rolling desert, and saw at a distance, a little to the right of our pathway, standing out against the sky, a group, or semi-circle, of women, from whom came the shrieks and wails which had startled us so. Riding toward this group, we learned the na- Fiinc7^als and Aloicrning in the East. 145 turc and cause of these sounds of sorrow. Two men had been working together in a quarry, there, that morning. In a moment one had fallen dead. The one was taken and the other left.^ And now there was a wailing over the dead Egyptian. Ihe body ot the dead man, covered over with a thin cloth, was strc^tched out on the desert sand. Close beside him crouched his wife, who had been promptly summoned. Her head and face were uncovered. Her hair was disheveled, hanging down upon her shoul- ders and about her face. Her loose garments were disordered and torn. Her bosom was bared. Upon her face and hair were thrown masses of the black mud of the Nile. Swaying her body back and forth, she violently struck at her bosom with her hands, or clutched at her hair, while shrieking out in wild cries of hope- less agony. StandincT about the crouchinor woman were other women, all with their heads and faces uncovered and mud-bespattered, their hair dis- heveled, their bosoms bared ; swinging their arms above their heads, and waving wildly dark ' Matt. 24 ; 40, 1 16 S/u(/n's ill Oriental Social Life. scarfs or handkerchiefs, whiU; they shrieked out those piercing shrieks, and wailed those loud, high, prolonged quavering wails of mourning, which we had heard at a distance that morning, and the like of which were heard on that very plain, five centuries before the days of Moses, when the family of the archite6l Tey had laid his embalmed body away in that tomb I had just visited, under the shadow of the Pyramid of De- grees at Saqqarah. Twenty-three centuries ago, Herodotus, whom we call the Father of History, visited Egypt, and was impressed by its strange mourning cus- toms, which he described much as I am describing them to you to-day. When any one died there, he said, all the females of his family, covering their heads and faces with mud, ran through the streets with their bosoms exposed, striking them- selves, and uttering loud lamentations. Twenty centuries before Herodotus, there were pi61:ured on the walls of the tombs in Egypt representa- tions, which are fresh to-day, of wailing women mournine over the dead, their heads uncovered, their hair disheveled, their bosoms bared, fling- ing their arms, or beating their breasts, or tear- Funerals ajid Aloiirning in the East. 147 iiiL^ their hair, or throwiiiLr mud on their heads, in demonstration of their sorrow, wliile the wife with similar expressions of grief crouches at the teet of her dead husband. The Hfe of the East of the present is the Hfe of the East of the past in the hour of mourning as it is in the hour of rejoicing. At the very moment of death, one of these wild shrieks, by whoever is nearest the dead, announces the facl of the death to all who are within hearing. This cry is taken up and repeated by friends of the family near and far. Every sympathizing woman friend who hurries to share the mourning over the dead, announces her approach to the sorrow- stricken home by the conventional shriek, and then adds her voice to the shrieking chorus when she is fairl\- within the mourning circle. If, indeed, the death occurs away from home, as in the case at Saqqarah which 1 have de- scribed, the first announcement of it to the tamily is by the death-shriek at the door, by those wdio have come to break the intelligence thus abruptly to the bereaved ones. And from the house of mourning the wailing women hurry through the streets of the neighborhood, shriek- 148 Studies in Oriental Social Life. ing out the piercing death-cry, with or without the aid of musical instruments, in order to com- municate the news of a death ; as our church- bells communicate it, in their tolling the age of the deceased, in many an Occidental community. It is in the East to-day, as it was in the days of Herodotus and of Qoheleth, that "man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets." ^ The Oriental death-cry is indescribable in its peculiar tones and in its unique impressiveness. I have tried to tell you how it sounded to me ; yet I am as sure that my description of it is inadequate to give you an idea of its wild weird- ness, as I am that no two intelligent observers agree in the figures by which they would make it known to others. Sir John Chardin calls it " an image of hell," starting off in the dead of night with a " sud- denness which is . . . terrifying," and "with a greater shrillness and loudness than one could easily imagine." When he first heard it, in Persia, two centuries ago, he " imagined his own servants were murdered," and he was well- 1 Eccl. 12:5. Fiuicrals and Mourning in the East. 149 nifh fricrhtened out of his senses. Burckhanlt speaks of it as " the most lamentable howlings." Van Lennep says that it is a " shrill and piercing cry," which can be " heard at a great distance, and above every other noise, even the din of battle." Klunzinger describes it as " the shriek- ing- of women, now wound off in the trochees of a machine in aclion, anon in the daclyls of the steam-horse thundering along at full speed, or breaking ui) into the indefinite clack of a mill," while " high up, from time to time, like a rocket rises a shriek from a hundred throats." There is a certain semblance of the figures em- ployed by modern travelers in their description of these wild cries to those used by the Old Testa- ment writers when referring to them. Thus Dr. Am.elia B. Edwards, in recording her first hearing of this death-cry, says : "All at once we heard a sound like the far-off quavering sound of many owls. It shrilled — swelled — wavered — dropped — then died away, like the moaning of the wind at sea. We held our breath and listened. We had never heard anything so wild and plaintive." Dr. William ^I. Thomson adds that the death- chant "runs into a horrid deep growl, like wild 1 50 Sfuc/ics in Oriental Social Life. beasts, in which it is impossible to distinguish any words." And these comparings of the cry to that of wild beasts and birds seem to have been in the mind of the old Hebrew prophet Micah when he said : " For this will I wail and how4, I wall go stripped and naked : I will make a wail- ing like the jackals, and a mourning like the ostriches." ^ These varied and divergent comparisons may not, indeed, give you any well-defined idea of the distinguishing peculiarities of this Oriental wailing for the dead ; but I assure you that if its sound were once to come into your ears, its echoes would be a lifetime memory wath you. As an illustration of the w^onderful consider- ateness of Orientals for those who have a claim upon their hospitality, of which I have spoken in another place, the Rev. Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon tells me that, while he was traveling in Koordistan, he heard this wild death-cry break out in the stillness of the night, but that it was quickly hushed. The next morning he learned that his host had sent word to the mourners, on the first shriek reaching his ears, that there were 1 Micah I : 8. Funcrats and Mourning in the East. 1 5 i straneer euests with him, wlio miLrht be disturbed by this waihng ; and promptly tlie privileges of mourning gave way to the demands oi hospi- tality. The Oriental wailing over the dead, before the burial, includes a calling of the dead by name, or by the designation of his relation to the mourners, with a lamenting of his loss: "O my father!" "O my master!" "O my glory!" "O my pride! " " O my strength! " "O camel of the house!" "Alas for him!" "Alas for him !" Such cries as these are heard over the dead in the East to-day, as they were heard when King David wailed over his dead son Absalom: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"^ or when the mourners over the disobedient prophet at Bethel, in the days of Jeroboam, "mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!"'- or when the prophet Jeremiah said of the unworthy king Jehoiakim: "They shall not lament for him, saying. Ah my brother! . . . they shall not lament for him, saying Ah lord! or, Ah his glory ! "^ '2 Sam. iS : 33. '^ i Kings 13 : 30. '''Jer. 22 : 18. 1 5 2 Studies in Oriental Social Life. There is a remarkable survival of these Oriental mourning customs so far, among Occi- dental people, in the Irish wake as it is still ob- served in some Irish communities. It has. in facl, been shown that the designation of the Irish mourning cry, the "uUagone," — " ulla gulla, guUa g'one " — is identical, in both sense and sound, with the Arabic designation of the Ori- ental mourning cry. The dirge in which this cry is employed is called the " keen " (or, in Irish, caoine), and it is spoken of as " a pro- longed ear-piercing wail," unequaled as a " sound at once so expressive of utter despair, and ap- pealing to heaven or hell for [help or] ven- geance." An ancient Irish record shows that the cries over a dead son of Connal, in the night following his death, were much like those which are to be heard on the banks of the Nile, or of the Jordan, to-day. "O son of Connal, why didst thou die? Royal, noble, learned youth! Valiant, active, warlike, eloquent! Why didst thou die? Alas! awail-a-day! . . . Alas! alas! why didst thou die, O son of Connal, before the spoils of vi6lory by thy warlike arm were brought to the hall of the Funerals and Mourning in the East. 1 5 3 nobles, and thy shield with the ancient? Alas! alas!" And the common cry in the "keen" is " Mavoitrnciii ! Alavourneen ! (Jh, why did you die ?" in the spirit of the Oriental mourner. Nor is this by any means a solitary instance of the sur- vival of Oriental primitive customs among- West- ern peoples of Celtic or Gallic stock. The ancient monuments of Egypt seem to in- dicate a class of professional women wallers in attendance on an occasion of mourning. The famous inscriptions of Telloh, in Chaldea, make mention of them. Herodotus speaks of them as employed in Egypt in his day. The Hebrew prophets make mention of such wailing women ; as when Jeremiah says, in view of the dead of Israel: "Call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the cunning women, that they may come : and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us;"^ and as when Amos speaks of the need of "such as are skilful of lamentation."" It certainly is true that professional wallers are frecjuently employed, at a time of mourning, in 'Jer. 9 : 17, 18. * Amos 5 : 16. 154 Studies 271 Oriental Social Life. various parts of the East to-day. This might seem at first thought to be a very formal, if not indeed a positively heartless, mode of evidencing one's grief for a dead friend. But perhaps it would have a somewhat different aspe6l to us if these wailers were engaged by fours, and were called "quartettes," or "double quartettes," while their peculiar notes of sympathetic sorrow were attuned to the training of Occidental ears. Certainly we cannot say that the voices of pro- fessional wailers are less helpful to Orientals who sorrow in sincerity, because of their sounding in other strains than those in which non-religious professional singers sing words prescribed for them at many a funeral service in our portion of the globe. "You must not suppose," says Dr. Thomson, in writing of these wailing-customs in Syria, " that there is no frenuine sorrow amont/ this people. . . . Amid all this ostentatious parade there are burning tears, and hearts bursting in agony and despair." In Tully's narrative of life in Tripoli and Morocco, we are told that the suf- ferings of a bereaved family in the season of wailing over the dead are sometimes "shocking Funerals and Mourjiing in the East. 155 to behold." While some who have become ac- customed to such scenes do not suffer so acutely, " there are many who from their great affection for the departed, and their delicacy of feelings, are by no means equal to these strong emotions ; [and] they either fall a sacrifice to them at the moment, or languish out the remainder of their days in a debilitated state." Orientals are emotional and demonstrative, and their tears flow freely on an occasion of sorrow. They feel intensely, and they give full expression to their feelings. With their sympa- thetic natures, they are able to weep with those who weep^ almost as readily as they would weep on their own account, and their weeping with others is a cause of intensified emotion to those with whom they weep. Describing the scenes of mourning in I3ar- bary, Dr. Thomas Shaw, an English traveler of the last century, says that among the hired w^ailers on such occasions there are some "who, like the . . . mourning women of old ^ are skilful in lamentation,^ and great mistresses of these melancholy expressions ; and indeed they per- ^Rom. 12 : 15. ^Jer. 9 : 17, 18. ^Amos 5 ; 16. 156 Studies in Oriental Social Life. form their parts with such proper sounds, ges- tures, and commotions, that they rarely fail to work up the assembly into some pitch of thought- fulness." And he adds that the British resi- dents in Barbary have "often been very sensibly touched with these lamentations, whenever they were made in the neiohboriuL^ houses." The tears of friends in a time of sorrow are peculiarly prized in the East ; and, even though they flow so freely there, they are sometimes caught as they fall, and preserved in little bot- tles or flasks, to be sealed up and buried with the body of the person wdiose death caused their flowing. This is true to-day, and it was true long centuries ago ; for these tear-bottles are unearthed from ancient tombs in Egypt and Syria. Again these tear-bottles w^ith their pre- cious contents are preserved among the living, instead of being buried with the dead. Morier, describing the wailings over the dead in Persia, says : " In some of their mournful as- semblies, it is the custom for a priest to go about to each person at the height of his grief, with a piece of cotton in his hand, with which he care- fully coUedls the falling tears, and which he then Funerals and Mourning in tlic East. 1 5 7 squeezes into a bottle, preservini^ them with the greatest caution." Morier adds that "some Per- sians believe that in the agony of death, when all medicines have failed, a drop of tears, so col- le6led, put into the mouth of a dying man, has been known to revive him ; and it is for such use they are collected." Tears of sympathy arc a portion of one's very self eiven out for another ; and therefore it is, probably, that they are supposed to be a means of life to the dying. And even more truly than tears does one's blood represent one's life ; hence we hnd that mourners in the ancient East were accustomed to cut and slash themselves over the dead as if in evidence of their willingness to o-ive of their life to the one whose life was ex- tincl. And there are traces of this custom also surviving in the East. Of the mourning at one of the scenes already described from Tully's sketches of life in Morocco it is said: "The lamentations of the servants, slaves, and people hired on this occasion, were horrid. With their nails they wounded the veins of their temples, and, causing the blood to flow in streams, sprinkled it over the bier, while they 1 5 8 Studies in Oriental Social Life. repeated the song of death, in which they re- counted all the most melancholy circumstances they had colle6led on the loss of Abderrahman [the dead man], and ended every painful ac- count with piercing outcries of 'zunllia/i zuoof in which they were joined by the whole of the im- mense numbers of Moorish mourners that were present." In other regions than the East, where this cus- tom has survived, down to the present genera- tion, the blood is sometimes caught, or sopped, in a cloth, and given, when dried, to the relatives of the one for whom it was shed. For instance, the Rev. William Ellis, an English missionary to the South Sea Islands, in the early part of this century, describing this custom as he found it in Polynesia, said : "The females on these oc- casions sometimes put on a kind of short apron of a particular sort of cloth, which they held up with one hand, while they cut themselves with the other. In this apron they caught the blood that flowed from these grief- infli61ed wounds, until it was almost saturated. It was then dried in the sun, and given to the nearest surviving relations as a proof of the affe(5lion of the donor, Funerals and Mourning in the East. 159 and was preserved by the bereaved family as a token of the estimation in which the departed had been held." There is something analagous to this preserva tion of the tear-bottles and of the blood-stained cloths as memorials for the living- in a Chinese mourning custom, noted by Doolittle. On the death of a parent, in China, where there is no grandparent to be chief mourner, "it is custom ary for the family to prepare strips of narrow- white cloth, about two feet in length by one in width," to be "given to a class of relatives who come to weep with the family of the dead. A bit of red paper is pasted on each piece" of cloth , red being the color of life, in China, as white is the color of mourning. "These strips of white cloth are called 'cloths to cry with,' and are de- signed to be used for wiping away the tears, and for holding up to the face or eyes of the weepers while lamenting, according to established rule. . . . The [tear-stained] strips are always taken away by their owners [the weepers] when they return home." Strange customs these ! No one of us would think of preserving such a memorial of our weep- 12 1 60 Studies in Oriental Social Life. ing and mourning, or of the sorrowful sympathy of our friends in our bereavement. Yet it is possible that some one of us might be moved to preserve a flower from the coffin of a dead dear one; and most of us have seen funeral wreaths preserved, dried or w^ax-covered, and framed as a household ornament ; or again, perhaps, a name-plate from a coffin. It is in every case only a sentiment that prompts to the preserva- tion of the memorial. But whether the Oriental's sentiment in such a case is less profound and tender than the Occidental's may be a question ; and, again, it may not be. That the present Oriental mourning customs w^ere all of them known in the days of the Bible- writing, is evident from the repeated references to them in the text. " Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead."^ said the Levitical law, in prohibition of all blood-letting over the bodies of the dead. " Put thou my tears into thy bottle."- is the call of David to his God. as he asks that his sorrow and its cause be remembered of the Lord. \Mien David wept over Saul and Jonathan, he "took hold on his ^Lev. 19 ; 28; 21 : 5 ; Dcut. 14 : I. ■' Psa. 56 : 8. Funerals and Mournin_<^ in the East. i6i clothes, and rent them ; aiul likewise all the men that were with him : and they mourned [or, wailed], and wept."' Psalmists and prophets make use of expres- sions which indicate the; intense and demonstra- tive character of Oriental weeping and wailing. Says the Psalmist : "Every night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch witli my tears. Mine eye wasteth away because of grief."* "Mine eyes run down with rivers of water."' The prophet Jeremiah, in a time of national sor- row, cries out : " Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people." * The prophet Amos foretells the sad day when "w^ailing shall be in all the broad ways, and they shall say in all the streets, Alas ! . . , And in all vineyards shall be wailing."' In the gospel narrative of the coming of Jesus to the house of Jairus to raise up his dead daughter, it is said that he found alread)- there "many [persons] weeping and wailing greatly,"*^ and ' 2 Sam. I : 1 1, 12. ^ Psa. 6 : 6, y. ^ Psa. 119 : 136; comp. Lam. 1 : 16; 3 : 48, 49. *Jer. 9:1. ^Amos 5 ; 16, 17. *Mark 5 : 38. i62 S/?((//cs i)i Oriental Social Life. the " minstrels," or " the (liite-players, and the crowd making a tuniuU ; "' just as would be the case in many a home in Palestine or Egypt, at the present time, an hour after a young girl's death. Now, as then, in the East, a burial quickly fol- lows a death. The necessities of the climate and of the cramped quarters in the houses generally, promote the desire for this ; and there is, more- over, a popular reluclance to leave a body un- buried through a single night. If the death occurs early in the day, the burial follows before sunset. If the death occurs in the latter part of the day, the burial takes place the next morning. Meanwhile the wailing over the dead continues, with but brief intervals, from the hour of death until the removal of the body for burial, its most vehement intensity being renewed at that moment. A funeral in the East would seem to be the prototype of all funerals everywhere. In the streets of Cairo I saw, more than once, an Oriental funeral procession ; and it was not very different from a funeral procession in Italy, in Ire- ' Malt, y : 23. Funerals and Mourning in the East. 1 63 land, in Pennsylvania, or in New England. In. advance came a number of men, two by two, chanting relieious sentences in a monotonous and gloomy strain. These were followed by boys, also two by two. Then came the bier, on which lay the body, uncofFincd. but cov(;red with a shawl, or pall. This bier was borne on the shoulders of four persons at a time ; the bearers being changed from time to time along the route. Followintr the bier were the mourning women relatives, with veiled faces, weeping and wailing with Oriental demonstrativeness. As the pro- cession passed on toward the grave it grew in numbers ; for in the East, as in the West, it is considered meritorious to join a funeral proces- sion, and yet more so to put one's shoulder under the bier for a brief season. There, as here, a person who would deem it a small matter to min- ister to the living, or to walk after an ambulance carrying a sick man to the hospital, would count it both a privilege and a duty to follow the funeral procession of even a stranger toward his grave. This idea, indeed, of a formal and orderly and extended procession accompanying a body to its 1 64 Studies in Oriental Social Life. last resting-place, would seem to be coeval with the earliest history of the human race. Figures of imposing funeral processions bearing the em- balmed body to its prepared tomb appear among the prominent decorations of the ancient temples and tombs of Egypt, and elaborate descriptions of these funeral processions are found in the most ancient Egyptian literature. There would seem to be something more than a utilitarian aspe6l to a formal procession in connection with a funeral, as also with a wedding, in the East. Indeed, the religious sentiment has, from primeval times, been inclined to manifest itself in proces- sions, as if in recognition of the pilgrim nature of human life ; and the prominent stages of the earthly existence, at the entering of the marriage state, and at the passing away from earth, are fittingly signalized by these pilgrimage proces- sions. The main features of these funeral processions have been much the same from the beginning until now. The bier, the pall, the bearers, the mourning relatives and the following friends, — all of which can be seen at funerals in our land to-day, — were to be seen in Egypt in the days of Funerals and Mourning in the East. 165 the earlier Pharaohs. Ev(mi the lon<^^ llowincr black hat-bands, or scarfs, which are worn so generally by pall-bearers and others at funerals in England, and sometim(;s in this country, are often worn Ijy relatives of the dead in an Egyptian funeral procc^ssion ; and they are also represented on the heads of mourning women in the tombs of ancient Egypt. A feast is an accompaniment of a funeral, in Egypt, Arabia, and Syria, and elsewhere. This custom seems to have a religious origin. It apparently includes the idea of a sacrifice, with the outpouring of the blood of the animals slaughtered on the occasion, and also of a cove- nanting with the dead in the sharing of the food provided at the burial. Burckhardt tells of an invitation he received to a funeral feast in Nubia, where a cow had been slaughtered, and its meat distributed among the people of the neighbor hood. At two hours' distance from the village he " inet women with plates upon their heads, who had been receiving their share of the meat." Of such funeral feasts he says : "Cows are killed only by people of consequence, on the death of a near relation ; the common people content them- 1 66 Studies in Oriental Soeial Life. selves with a sheep or a goat, the flesh of which is equally distributed ; the poorer class distribute bread only at the; grave of the deceased." In one case, Burckhardt found a man in Berber slauo-hteriner a cow for a relative "who died several months before, in the time of famine, when it was impossible to find a cow to slaugh- ter for that purpose." This also would seem to indicate that the funeral feast is a religious observance, rather than a utilitarian custom ; althoueh here a^ain the feast was shared with the multitude. " Many poor people were treated, in the courtyard, with broth, and the roasted flesh of the cow, while the choice morsels were presented to the friends of Edris [the provider of the feast]." Referring to the common habit, among the Syrians, of sending out gifts of food after the funeral to friends and neighbors, " in the name of the dead," Dr. Thomson says: "A custom prevails among the Bedawin Arabs, and espe- cially those around the Huleh, which illustrates this whole subjecft. When one of their number dies, they immediately bring his best ox or buffalo and slaughter it near to the body of the Funerals and Mourning in tlic East. 167 deceased. They then cook it all for a erreat feast, with burghul, rice, and whatever else good to cat they may possess. The whole tribe, and neiehbors also, assemble for the funeral, and tro direct from the grave to this sacrificial least. The vast piles of ])rovisions quickly disappear ; for the Bedawin dispatch their dinners with a rapidity that would astound a tabic cT Jiotc at a Western railway station. How^ever, every one must partake at least of a morsel. It is a duty to the departed, and must be eaten in behalf of the dead. Even strangers passing along are constrained to come and taste of the feast." So obligatory is the custom of this funeral feast "that it must be observed though it consume every item of property and of provisions the man possessed, and leave the wife and children to starve." Dr. Thomson points out an apparent refer- ence to this Oriental custom in an avowal of the ancient Jew's fidelity in his consecrated use of the sacred tithe of his field's increase. " I have not eaten thereof in my mourning," he was called to say; "nor given thereof for the dead."^ M)eut. 26 : 14. 1 68 Sf?idics 2U Oriental Social Life. This would show the antiquity of this custom. Of its survival even here in the West there arc many tokens. An Irish "wake" includes pro- vision for the inner man of the mourners ; and "the funeral baked meats," to which Shake- speare refers, have been known as an expensive accompaniment of funerals in the rural communi- ties of New England in my younger days ; and I presume they are not yet wholly done away with in England or America, Increased display in all the appointments of the funerals of those who have occupied exalted station, or who have been held in exceptional esteem, has been as prominent a feature in the East as in the West. There were costly cata- falques and cars and barges for the bearing of the body, and elaborately wrought and orna- mented coffins for its covering, in ancient Egypt; and even in these later days, in that land, a funeral procession sometimes includes the favor- ite horses of the dead man, and also buffaloes, which are to be slaughtered at the grave, and camels bearinor other food for distribution there. The procession itself is perhaps swelled by the members of various oro-anizations with their re- Funerals and Mourning in the East. 1 69 spe6Hve banners or standards. And th(; lon^"cr the cavalcade the more honor to the dead. The Bible story tells of an impressive funeral procession goino- up out of Egypt into Canaan some thirty- fiv(; ctMituries ago. The patriarch Jacob had died in Egypt. His body had been embalmed there. Seventy days of formal weep- in cj for him had been observed. After that, Joseph had requested the royal permission to bear his father's mummied body across the desert, to lay it away in the patriarchal family tomb at Hebron, This permission was granted. "And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and ... all the house of Jo- seph, and his brethren, and his father's house. . . . And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen : and it was a very great company. And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation [or, wailed with a very great and sore wailing ; the Hebrew word employed here signifying that breast-beat- ing which accompanies the Oriental wailings for the dead] : and he made a mourning [a season 1 70 Sfudics in Oriental Social Life. of this g-ricf-showing] for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in th(! lloor of Atad, they said. This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians."' And they gave a name to that place, in memory of that impressive scene of Oriental lamentations. It is the survival of the sentiment expressed in that funeral procession which bore the patriarch Jacob to his tomb, which has shown itself in these later days in the funeral processions at the burial of Napoleon in Paris, of Wellington in London, of Grant in New York, and of Sheridan in Washington. That sentiment is deeply fixed in the nature of man. It cannot be eradicated. At the best it can with difficulty be controlled. In fa6l, the agreeing upon desirable reforms in funeral customs is easier than the securing of their adoption. Muhammad forbade the conventional wailing by women at a funeral, and the reciting of the vir- tues of the deceased while following him to the tomb ; but the followers of Muhammad adhere to both these customs. Roman Catholic priests ^Gen. 50 : i-i I. Funerals and Mourning in the East. 1 7 1 have issued many a caution to their [)oor [)arish- ioners to refrain from multiplying carriages in a funeral procession ; but the funeral processions are not perceptibly shorter for these cautions. No dictates of prudence, nor counsels of sound advisers, seem able to induce the average family of moderate means to refrain from taking the sorely needed money of the living to extend the funeral procession of the dead, in our own day and land. And the reason for all this, or the sentiment which is the cause of all this, must be looked for in the siofniticance of the funeral cus- toms of the primitive East. Apart from those distincflively religious services at the burial of the dead in the East, which are direClly shaped by the special tenets of the vari- ous schools of religious thought in the world, there are many purely primitive customs in con- nection with funerals and burials, retained more or less generally among Oriental peoples. One of these is the habit of calling on the living to bear witness to the fitness of the dead for a life beyond the grave, or to bear their part in tiLting him for that life. Thus in modern Egypt, as Lane tells us, at the close of the prayer for the 1/2 Shidics ill Oriental Social Lije. repose of the spirit of the deceased, the Muham- madan leader of the funeral services says to those present. "Give your testimony respecting him," and their answer comes back, " He was of the virtuous ;" and not until then can the body be borne from the mosk to the grave. In illustration of a kindred sentiment to this, in Palestine, Miss Rogers says that, in the Greek Church there, it is the custom of the officiating priest to ask pardon of the living for the dead before the body is removed from the church to the place of burial. She instances the funeral of one Khaleel Sekhali, at Haifa, where, at the close of the ser- vice, "the chief priest said to the congregation, ' Dear brethren and children, Khaleel Sekhali was a man who lived A^ery long in this world. He has had a great deal of business, and has been in communication with a great number of people. It is possible that in certain transactions he may have given cause for offense. Some per- sons may have felt themselves insulted, some may have been grieved or offended, either with or without reason. This now is the time for par- don, and I hereby beseech you all present, and Funerals and Mourning in tJic East. 1 73 by the blessing of God I implore )ou all to par- don him fully, to forgive him all offenses, as you hope to be forgiven. The whole congregation then answered, ' May God pardon him ! ' " As showing that this is a survival of a primi- tive custom, we find that in ancient Egypt the right of burial was granted only to those who were acquitted of evil-doing by a tribunal of their survivors. As Sir Gardner Wilkinson says, even " the most influential individual could not be admitted to the very tomb he had built for him- self, until acquitted before that tribunal which sat to judge his conduct during life." The king him- self could be kept from burial, by charges against him, from his subjeds, proved to the satisfaction of the judges who passed on his worthiness. All along through the Hebrew Scriptures there are references to the lack of burial as the con- sequence of sin and crime. Thus in the Prov- erbs it is said : " The eye that mocketh at his father, And despiseth to obey his mother, Tlie ravens of the valley shall pick it out, And the yuung eagles shall eat it."^ ' Prov. 30 : 17. 1 74 Studies in Oriental Social Life. The meaning of this would seem to be, not — as I supposed while a boy — that a special judgment of God is to brin^r a rebellious son to a violent death, but that in man's judgment rebellion against a parent will be deemed a sufficient cause for refusing burial to the unnatural son. Yet the lack of burial would have been deemed a sore judgment of God against any person in the ancient East. Thus the bitterest prophecy of Elisha pro- claimed against the idolatrous queen of Israel was: "And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her."^ And in Isaiah's prophecy against Babylon, the gloomy declaration stands: "All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast away from thy sepulchre like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, that are thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit ; as a carcase trodden under foot. Thou shalt not be joined with them in l)urial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people." ^ 1 2 Kings 9 : lo. '' Isa. 14 : 18-20. Funerals and Motcrtiing in the East. 1 75 The fad that OricMitals were famihar with this custom of being called on to pass judgment on the dead, and to say whether they would give or refuse forgiveness to those who lay dead be- fore them, must have put added meaning into some of the words of Jesus to his disciples, as those words fc;ll on the ears of Orientals, Thus : "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged : and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you." ^ And so again that peti- tion in the Lord's Prayer : " Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors ; " ^ v>'ith the comment upon it : " For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." '^ Another of the primitive customs in connexion Avith Oriental funerals is the preparation of sup- plies for the dead in the realms beyond the grave. Burckhardt tells of seeing white pebbles strewn over a grave in Nubia, with th(; thought that the soul of the deceased mio;ht find them o ' Matt. 7:1,2. ^ Matt. 6 . 12 ; Luke 11:4 ^ Matt 6 14,15. 13 T 76 Studies in Oriental Social Life. convenient in telling his prayers ; for the rosary has its origin in a primitive Oriental custom. We know from the disclosures of the tombs of Egypt that the ancient Egyptians were accus- tomed to provide food for the dead, leaving a full supply of it in their last resting-place. This custom still survives in China, in Russia, and in portions of Africa. Even among the Chinese in America it is adhered to. At the entrance of a receiving-tomb of the Chinese in a cemetery near San Francisco, I saw supplies of food provided for the dead whose bodies were there awaiting a removal to the land of their birth. While a Brahman in India lies waiting for burial, boil id rice and water are supplied afresh each day for the use of the deceased. This custom, like many another Oriental cus- tom, is found among the North American Indians, together with that of burying garments and war- weapons, and dogs and horses, for use by the dead in his spiritual existence. Similarly, in equatorial and Southern Africa, the wives of a dead king or chieftain, with other attendants, are killed, and buried with him, in order to be his companions or servitors in the life that follows Funerals and MoiLvning in the East. 177 this. The sentiment that underlies this custom is apparently at the bottom of the practice of wife- burning in India; as, also, of practices akin to this among primitive peoples all the world over. Although the burial quickly follows death in many portions of the East, the more violent mourning over the dead is by no means at an end with the burial. It is a primitive Oriental idea that the spirit of the deceased remains with, or hovers over, the body for several da)'s after death. Three days are understood to be the limit of this lingering of the spirit ; as three days are the ordinary limit of a guest's right to be provided for by any Oriental host whom he may elecl;, and as " three days of grace " are deemed a proper allowance of time in the performance of any contracl;, all the world over. During these three days the spirit of the dead is deemed as in a sense within hearing of the body, and the wail- ing calls on the dead by the mourning relatives are repeated accordingly, as at the hour of death. It would seem to have been in view of this Oriental idea that Martha, the sister of Lazarus of Bethany, protested against the opening of 178 Studies in Oriental Social Life. her brother's grave, when he had already " been dead /wr days," and when, therefore his bo<_ly was beyond the hope of reviving;. ^ And because Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, his disciples could see in his resurreclion a fulfilment of the prophecy in the Psalms that the Messiah's flesh should not "see corruption."- Peter, re- ferring to this point, says that David could not have been speaking of himself in this prophecy ; for David remained in his grave indefinitely; but that by prophecy David "spake of the resurrec- tion of the Christ, [in accordance with the fa6l] that neither was he left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.'" It was in order to make sure that the dead had remained dead, that the tomb was opened on the third day, as suggested in the visit of the women to the sepulcher of Jesus. Violent mourning does not, indeed, end with the three days which follow a death, in the East. Like the marriage festivities, the funeral cere- monies are often continued through seven days and nights, and as feastings and rejoicings are the main features of the marriage celebration, so » John 1 1 : 39. ' Psa. 16 : 10. ^ Acts 2 : 22-32. Funerals and Mourning in the East. 1 79 feastings and wailings are the promiiKMit char- acleristics of the funeral week. When the patri- arch Job was mourninL;- his dead, his friends, as in duty bound, " made an appointment together to come to bemoan him and to comfort him" — with a hearty waiHng. And when they were in sight of him " they Hfted up their voice, and wept ; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him [although they wailed over his lot] : for they saw that his grief was very great." ^ Miss Rogers, describing one of these weeks of weeping, which she witnessed in Palestine, says : "I joined the mourners on the third day. As soon as I entered the house, I heard the minstrels and the loud cries of the people. ... I was led into a laree lone room. Women were sitting on the floor in rows on two sides of it. An open space was left down the middle to the end of the room, where the widow sat apart, with her two youngest children lying at her feet. Her hair was disheveled, and she wore no covering on her ^ Job 2 : 1 1 -1 3. 1 80 Studies in Oriental Social Life. head. Her eyelids were swollen with weeping, and her face pale with watching. She looked as if she had suddenly grown old. Her dress was rent and disordered. "She had not rested or chancred her crarments o o since she heard the tidintrs of her husband's death. She kissed me passionately, and said, ' Weep for me, he is dead ; ' and then, pointing to her children, she said, 'Weep for them, they are fatherless.' I sat near to her. One of her children, who was about three years old, crept into my lap, and whispered, ' My father is dead.' Then he closed his eyes, and pressed his chubby little fingers tightly over them, saying, ' My father is dead like this — he is in the dark.' " The wailing, which had been slightly inter- rupted at my entrance, was renewed with vigor. . . . There were many women from Nazareth and Shefa 'Amer and other villages. They had un- covered their heads and unbraided their hair. They looked dreadfully excited. Their eyes were red with weeping and watching. The air of the room was close and heated ; for the widow and chief mourners had remained there for three days and two nights without rest, receiving guests who Funerals and Moiwiiing hi the East. 1 8 1 canic to mourn with them. The room was always filled ; for as soon as one set of people left, an- other set came in. . . . Three rows of women sat on the matted fioor on the right-hand side, facing three rows on the left. They were all clapping their hands or striking their bosoms, in time with the monotonous melody which they murmured, " Presently an especial lamentation was com- menced, to which I was invited to respond. 1 was still seated at the end of the room near to the widow. The \vomen on my left hand, led by a celebrated professional mourner [the Ori- ental soprano], sang these eulogistic words with vigor and energy : ' We saw him in the midst of the company of riders, Riding bravely on his horse, the horse he loved ! ' The women on the opposite side of the room answered in a lower and more plaintive key, beating their breasts mournfully: ' Alas ! no more sliall we see him In the midst of the company of riders, Riding bravely on his horse, the horse he loved.' The first sins^ers sancf : 'We saw him in the garden, the pleasant garden, With his companions, and his children, the children he loved.' 1 82 Studies m 07^ie?ital Social Life. The second singers answered : ' Alas ! no more shall we see him In the garden, the pleasant garden, With his companions, and his children, the children he loved.' Chorus of all the women, singing softly : ' His children and his servants blessed him ! His home was the shelter of happiness ! Peace be upon him ! ' First singers — loudly and with animation, [in rec- ognition of the primeval standard of chara^ler exhibited in hospitality :] ' We saw him giving food to the hungry. And clothing to the naked.' Second singers — softly and plaintively : 'Alas ! no more shall we see him Give food to the hungry. And garments to the naked ! ' First singers : ' We saw him give help and succor to the aged, And good counsel to the young.' Second singers : ' Alas ! no more shall we see him Give help and succor to the aged, And good counsel to the young.' Funerals and Mourning in the East. 183 Chorus of all the women, singing' softly : He suffered not the stranger to sleep in the streets: He opened his door to the wayfarer. Peace be upon him ! ' After this they started to their feet, and shrieked as loudly as they could, making a rattling noise in their throats for three or four minutes. The widow kneeled, swaying her body backward and forward, and feebly joined in the wild cry." And with a repetition of such scenes and sounds as these the seven days of mourning are continued in the East. Beyond the funeral week, the period of special mourning for the dead is extended, in different portions of the East, to thirty days, to forty, to seventy, to one hundred ; to a year, or even to two or three years, with seasons of renewed wail- ing at stated intervals during that entire period Describing these seasons of mourning in Upper Eg)'pt, with their sounds of " such a sorrowful, slow, monotonous song of lamentation, . . . min- gled with weeping and sobbing, ihat it thrills painfully through bone and marrow," Klunzinger says: "Thus for years does a mother or wife bewail one whom she has loved and lost, on cer- 1 84 Studies in Oi'iental Social Life. tain days of the week, or on certain days of the year consecrated to the memory of the dead, col- leding- lier female friends, relatives, and neigh- bors, and especially practiced mourning women, in order to relieve her sorrowful heart, and to have the virtues of the deceased duly sung ; while the men gather round them a company of their friends, and cause the Koran to be read in mem- ory of their lost ones." Vambery says that, among the Toorkomans, " it is the pra(5lice, in the tent of the departed one, each day for a whole year, without excep- tion, at the same hour that he drew his last breath, for female mourners to chant the cus- tomary dirges, in which the members of the family present are expe6led to join." Vambery adds that the members of the family who have a part in this mourning are not expe6led to inter- mit "their ordinary daily employments and occu- pations " for this purpose. Indeed, he says, " it is quite ridiculous to see how the Turkoman polishes his arms and smokes his pipe, or de- vours his meal, to the accompaniment of these frightful yells of sorrov/. A similar thing occurs with the women, who, seated in the smaller cir- Funerals and Mmtrniui^ in the East. 1 85 cumtcrcncc of the tent itself, are wont to join in the chant, to cry and weep in the most plaintive manner, while they are at the same time clean- ing wool, spinning-, or performing some other duty of household industry." It is very easy to point out ridiculous aspects of social customs that are wholly unlike those with which we are familiar ; and perhaps no phase of Oriental social life has been more fruit- ful of ridicule or contempt, among Occidentals, than its peculiarities of mourning. Christian observers have indeed declared that " in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred, this public mani- festation [of grief over the dead in the East] is the work of that arch-tyrant, custom, and noth- ing more," and that at the best " it is artificial, hypocritical, slavish." Yet " every heart is hu- man ;" and if we begin by saying that no grief can be sincere on the part of those who recog- nize the obligations of custom in its public expres- sion, and that it is simply ridiculous for a mother to sing a dirge in memory of her long ago dead son while busy at her daily work for the liv int'-, which must be done even though the heart aches to breaking, we shall find that others than I S>6 Studies in Oriental Social Life. Orientals are excluded by us from "the high prerogative of grief." Custom in the matter of public mourning has large prevalence in the primitive East, as it has in the conventional West ; but a comparison of the requirements of custom in this matter there and here, would certainly not tend to prove the greater insincerity of feeling on the part of Ori- entals. The first movement of an Oriental in expression of grief, beyond a cry, is in the direc- tion of rendering one's self and one's dress unat- tracftive if not absolutely repulsive. The woman must dishevel her hair, must besmear her face and hands, must divest herself of jewels and ornaments, must scrupulously refrain from any course which would seem to indicate a regard for her personal appearance. She must, during the intensity of the first few days of mourning, refrain from both food and sleep. Afterwards she must wea'r coarser clothing than before, or the finer clothing must be soiled or deprived of all show of newness. It will hardly be claimed that Oriental custom, or fashion, so far, is designed or followed in the interest of a woman's self-seeking insincerity. Funerals and Monrnmg in the East. 187 An Ori(;ntal woman ma\', indct'd, in the hour of her bereavement, send for hired wallers, to sound in her ears the cries of sorrow that are in keep- ing with her sad feehngs ; but she would never think of sending, at such a time, for hired mil- liners and dressmakers, to arranije attractive articles of dress of the choicest mourninof-material available, and in the most tasteful style of the current mourning garb. She may put too high a value on the bottled tears of sympathy given to her by her mourning friends ; but she would never think of adorning herself with jet jewelry as a token of her comfortless sorrow. Instead of bowinsf the window-shutters for a prescribed period after the funeral, in order that passers-by may be informed of her sorrow, she breaks the mirrors and destroys the choicest pieces of furniture in the house, in order that desolation may reign within the walls of her bereaved home. And the grief which finds its expression in these self-sacrificing manifestations at the time of the bereavement, has sufficient vitality to seek renewed expression, in various ways, after weeks and months, or even )^ears, have passed. These ways of violent grief-show- 1 88 Studies in Oriental Social Life. ing may not, indeed, commend themselves to our judgment or tastes ; but let us not be so lacking in charity, or in a knowledge of human nature, as to claim that they have less reason to be deemed consistent with sincerity of feeling in the grief which undcrhes them, than the conven- tional modes of mourning' which have so wide sway in the lands of our Western civilization. Beyond all show of mourninor in the homes of the dead, there is the custom of mourninL:' over the graves of the dead, in the East, that is one of the more marked features and one of the more touching characteristics of Oriental social life. M\" first landing; in Alexandria was on a W'ednes- day eveninor. On the day followine, as I was on the edge ot the city, I saw a large number of veiled women mnvinLf toward a neiehborino- cemetery, in the \icinit\- of the column known as " Pompey's Pillar." They were going to the graves of their dead dear ones, to weep there, or to adorn those graves with tokens of their loving remembrance. As I watched, their numbers multiplied. Not merely those recently bereaved, but those whose dear ones were buried lono- aeo, w^ere among these visitors to the cemetery. Two Funerais and Mourning in the East. 1 89 and two, as a rule, they seated themselves, the one at the head and the other at the foot of a grave, and there bowed their heads in mourning. In some cases a group gathered about one grave. Some entered into the chambers of larger tombs ; while some found a place under a tent or booth, or other temporary structure, erected for the purpose of shielding the mourners from inclement weather. Sobs and moans w^ere to be heard from some of the veiled mourners, and wailings came from others. A great many had leaves of palm, or bunches of myrtle, in their hands, to place upon the graves over which they wept ; every^ grave having an opening in its plaster covering for the reception of flowers and shrubs. It was an impressive sight, that city ot the dead swarming with loving mourners over its silent dwellers ! And I found that that was an occurrence of ever}- week, and oftener ; as it had been for a lone series of centuries. On Men- days and Thursdays — the days which were the market days in Palestine tAvent\^ centuries ago — this visitins: of the grraves of dead friends is a prevailing custom in the lands of the Bible. I go Studies in Orierital Social Life. And there is more or less of it on other days as well. All the way along my journeying in the East, I saw its repetitions. In one instance I saw a gathering of children in bright dresses as visitors at a cemetery in Palestine. And at Nazareth, in the early gray of the morning of Easter Sunday, I saw two veiled women bowed over a grave not far from my tent, the one at the head and the other at the foot, in a drizzling rain, as if they had been there all night, or had come there " as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,"^ to manifest their unfailing love for him who lay buried there, awaiting the resurrection. Surely a custom like this, based upon a pro- found sentiment which can sway an entire people, generation after generation, in the direc- tion of a show oi unselfish loving fidelity to dead dear ones, at the cost of time and comfort, week after week, for long years together, is worthy of respect and honor, rather than of ridicule and sneers. This lovine reverence for the dead, with a rec- ognition of the continued relation of the dead ^Matt. 28 : I. Funerals and Mournin(^ in the East. 1 9 1 with the livino-, shows itself in all the East, in the custom of public wailings over the dead, with invokinirs and evokinos of the absent spirit. Such assemblies are to be seen in Bible lands to-day, as they are mentioned of old in the Bible text. For example : Rachel, the loved wife of Jacob, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, is the type of the true mother in the minds of the ancient Israelites. ^ Her tomb near Bethlehem ■^ was a landmark in the days of Samuel ;•' and its traditional site is reverenced to-day by Jews, Christians, and Muhammadans. And the public wailine of mothers over their children in the land of Israel has been likened ever since to the weeping of this typical mother, when, from her spirit-home, she mourned over Joseph her lirst- born, and aeain over her descendants, carried away into captivity, and seeming as dead. There appears, indeed, to be a gleam of resur- recSlion hope in this very acceptance of Rachel as a type of the mourning mother by the people oi Israel. Jeremiah gives comfort in this direction when he declares: "Thus saith the Lord: A 'See Ruth 411. ' Gcii. 35 ; ly, 20. ' i Sam. 10 : 2. 14 192 Sficdies in Oriental Social Life. voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping-, Rachel weeping for her children ; she refuseth to be comforted for her children, because they are not. Thus saith the Lord : Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears : for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord ; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope for thy latter end, saith the Lord ; and thy children shall come again to their own border." ^ And this hope- less mourning of their dead by sorrow-stricken mothers in Ramah, when they might have had hope even in their sorrow, is referred to again in the New Testament, in connection with the wail- ing of the mothers of Bethlehem — near the tomb of Rachel — at the time of the slaying of the in- fants by Herod, in his purpose of compassing the death of Jesus. ^ Even down to modern times there are illus- trations of this custom of the periodic public wailing by women over their dead in burial- places within the former limits of the tribe of Benjamin, where the descendants of the younger children of Rachel were a people. Le Bruyn, ijcr. 31 : 15-17. ^Matt, 2 : 16 18. Funerals and Moiuniing in tJie East. 1 93 a French traveler of a century and a half ago, reports such a scene as he observed it at the traditional site of Ramah. Seeing a large com- pany of mourning women go out from Ramah toward a neighboring burial-place for the pur- pose of making their accustomed lamentation over the dead, he followed them, and from a con- venient elevation watched their proceedings. First they prostrated themselves on the graves, and wept there for half an hour or more. Then several of them arose and formed themselves into a circle by joining hands, as if they would take part in a circular dance. Into this mourn- inof ringr two of their number entered, and led in a wild dirge, clapping their hands and wailing vociferously. After a season of this demonstra- tive mourninLT, all returned to the Lrraves to sit and weep there once more. Finally they re- turned to their homes singly or a few at a time. When they arose to join in the public wailing, LeBruyn noticed that each of them covered her- self with a close black veil, the use of which is an Oriental mourning custom, haxing its survi- val in the thick mourning veil which is so com- mon among us here to-day. 1 94 St?cdics in Oriental Social Life. The custom of mourning periodically at the graves of eminent personages who died long, long ago, is a prevalent one in the East to-day, as it has been from time immemorial. Passing northward from Mt. Sinai into the desert, I came upon the tomb of Shaykh Szaleh, whose memory is honored in this way among the Bed'ween of that desert. Who Shaykh Szaleh was, or when he lived, is not clear; but his "name is hardly second to that of Moses among the Arabs." As we approached the tomb, our Arabs showed more reverence than I saw them manifest on any other occasion. They bowed themselves in prayer at the entrance of the little whitened stone structure which covers the resting-place of the shaykh, or prophet, or saint, whose memory is held so sacred by their people. They took up dust from before the tomb, and scattered it upon their own heads,^ and again upon the heads of their camels. The inner walls of this tomb are garnished with ostrich eggs, and rich scarfs, and camel trappings, and hanging lamps, as votive ofler- ' 2 Sam. 19:9; Job 2:12; 42 ; 6 ; Lam. 2:10; 3:16; Ezek. 27 ; 30; Rev. it) : ly. Funerals and Mourning in the East. 195 ings from reverent visitors. And such an offering is always safe in such a place in the East ; for to remove it would be a sacrilege, and Orientals are not sacrilegious. Once a year there is a Catherine of Arabs at this tomb, with commem- orative relicfious services, includino- a sacrifice. And this is only one such place among many, or above many, that are thus venerated by the Arabs. "There are very few Bedouin tribes," says Burckhardt, "who have not one or more tombs of protecting saints, in whose honor they offer sacrifices." Not to speak of the tombs of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at Hebron, there are traditional tombs, or muqams, of prophets or shaykhs, on well-nigh all the hill-tops of Palestine, which are held in reverence by the people of that land, as covering the remains of those who though dead are still alive, and who have power to help or to harm those who approach their resting-places. We are told, indeed, by Major Conder, that "the inlluence of a powerful sheikh [represented by his tomb] is thought to extend ten or twenty miles round his mukham." At a muqam in honor of Samson, on a hill-top south of Gaza, to which 1 96 Sfudics in Oriental Social Life. he is supposed to have carried away the gates of that city,^ an annual commemoration of that grim athlete of Israel is still observed after the pattern of that at the muqam of Shaykh Szaleh. After the sacrifice by Jephthah of his only daughter, in accordance with his hasty vow after his vi(5lory, "it was a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah . . . four days in a year."^ When King Josiah was killed, on the plain of Megiddo, by the archers of Pharaoh Necho, "all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah." And afterward it is said that "Jeremiah lamented for Josiah : and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations, unto this day ; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations."^ The more primitive origin of this custom, or of its superstitious abuses, would seem to be indi- cated in the mention by Ezekiel of "the women weeping for Tammuz " at "the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the North ; "^ ' Jtidi^. t6 : 3. ^Judg. il : 39,40. •'2 Chron. 35: 22-25, see also Zech. 12 : 11. ^Ezek. 8 : 14. Funerals and Mourning in I he East. 197 for the annual lament over Tammuz is supposed to represent the same idea as the annual lament of Venus over y\donis of the Greeks, and of Isis over Osiris of the Egyptians, while perhaps it was identical with the mourning of Ishtar over Dumuzi of the Chaldeans. Hear the cry of Isis to her dead brother and hus- band, Osiris, in the literature of ancient Egy[»t : " Look at me; I am thy sister who lovcth thee. Do not stay far from me, O beautiful youth ! Come to thine abode with haste, with haste. I see thee no more. My heart is full of bitterness on account of thee. Mine eyes seek thee ; I seek thee to behold thee. Will it be long ere I see thee ? Will it be long ere I see thee ? [O] excellent Sovereign, Will it be long ere I see thee ? Beholding thee is happiness ; Beholding thee is happiness. [O] god An, beholding thee is happiness- Come to her who loveth thee. Come to her who lovcth thee. [O] Un-nefer, the justified, Come to thy sister, come to thy wife. Come to thy sister, come to thy wife. [O] Urt-hct, come to thy spouse. I am thy sister by thy mother ; 1 98 Studies in Oriental Social Life. Do not separate thyself from me. Gods and men [turn] their faces towards thee, Weeping together for thee, whenever [they] behold me. I call thee in my lamentations Even to the heights of Heaven, And thou liearcst not my \oice. I am thv sister who iovelh thee on earth; No one else hath loved thee more than I, [Thy] sister, [thy] sister." That lament, of forty centuries ago, is almost identical in its strain and spirit with the lament over a husband or brother in Upper Egypt to- day ; or at an Irish wake, in the region where that Celtic ceremony is still observed in its more primitive form. And even though it is a goddess mourning over a dead god who speaks out in this primeval lament, it is to be borne in mind that Osiris was counted as the representative of every dead Egyptian who was adjudged worthy of the rite of burial, and who therefore slept in the hope of a glorious resurrection. And just nere there is to be noticed a marked peculiarity of the Old Testament writings, in their contrast with other religious literature of the same age and earlier, concerning the hope of a life after death. It has even been ques- tioned by many exegetes whether a single Old Funerals and Ahvuniing in the East. 1 99 Testament passage, just as it stands, shows un- mistakably the writer's conviction tliat the dead sliall Hve again, and that the present hfe is a probation for the life that follows this. The Old Testament silence at this point has, in- deed, been accepted by many a student of the })roblem of human progress, as indicating that in the days of the Old Testament writinij the idea of a future life was not yet developed among the Hebrews. But outside history makes clear to us that in Assyria and Egypt, on either side of the Hebrew people, and also among their Canaanitish neigh- bors, at the time of the Old Testament writing, and lonsf before, at whatever date that writinQ^ be fixed, the doclrine of a future life, and of future retribution, and of the influence of the life in the flesh on the destiny of the life in the spirit, was of unquestioned predominance. Moreover, we have no record of any people, in former times or later, so sunken in barbarism or so exalted in civilization as to be without some recocjnition of such a belief Hence it is not only a most un- reasonable but actually an incredible supposi- tion, that the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures 200 Studies in Oriental Social Life were without any convi6lion or speculation in this reahn of thought. In the very earhest days of which we have any knowledge in Egypt, the life beyond the present was even more prominent in the popular mind than the life which was lived on earth. A tomb for the dead was counted as of greater impor- tance than a house for the living. Preparing one's own tomb was a work worthy of one's best endeavors, in his freshest and most vigorous period of life ; and a welcome gift from a royal father to his daughter, at the time of her mar- riage, was a first-class, well-finished tomb, as a resting-place for her body. The careful embalm- ing of the body after death was in view of the value of a preserved body to the spirit which had left it for a season. Every funeral dirge was based on the belief that the dead one was still alive, and that its permanent destiny was affe6led by its earthly career. Over the tombs of the ancient Egyptians there were sometimes inscribed calls to the passer-by to halt and offer up supplications for the souls of those who rested there. At the entrance to the more imposing tombs there were chambers Funerals and Mou7'ning in the East. 201 in which the family and fricMicls of the deceased would gather from time to time to offer prayc^rs in behalf of those who had left them, and whose spiritual presence seemed to be recognized. Referring to these requests for prayers graven on the funerary tablets in ancient Egypt, Dr. Amelia B. Edwards emphasizes the facl that the burden of the intercessory supplications asked for w^as needful supplies for the deceased in the intermediate state. She cites an inscription at the tomb of Pepi-Na, of the sixth dynasty, long before the days of Abraham, and which she fixes at thirty-five centuries before our era : " O ye who live upon the earth ! Ye who come hither and are servants of the gods, Oh, say these words [of prayer to Osiris] : 'Grant thousands of loaves, thousands of jars of wine, thou- sands of beeves, thousands of geese to the Ka [the life or vital principle] of the Royal Friend Pepi-Na, Superintendent of the Royal Household, and Superior of the Priests of the Pyramid of King Pepi.' " And she adds, as to the antiquity of the belief by the Egyptians in the immortality of the soul : " Look back as far as we will into the darkness of their past, question as closely as we may the 202 Studies hi Oriental Social Life. earliest of their monuments, and we yet find them lookincr forward to an eternal future." Under the influence of such ideas as these Moses was trained. All the Hebrews were affe(5led by them. Yet no clear recognition of these ideas is given in the writings of Moses, or of his disciples for centuries after. The dirofes seem to have been much the same in Palestine as in Egypt. The funeral and mourning customs of the Hebrews were not materially different from those of the Egyptians. The care of the dead was as reverent, and the memory of the dead was as faithfully honored, in the one land as in the other. Yet while the Egyptian religious literature gave more emphasis to the importance of the future life than to that of the present, the religious literature of the Hebrews seems to have pra6lically ignored the fa6l of an existence beyond the grave. With the belief of the Hebrews on this point as it must have been, the silence of the Hebrew sacred oracles on this point as it is, is certainly most remarkable. Here are books by the score, written by differ- ent men, at various times in a sweep of a thou- Funerals ami Mourning in the East. 203 sand years, and in countries widely separated ; books of history ; books of prophecy ; books of poetry, of proverb, and of precept; books treat- ing of Hfe and of death, of duty, of danger, and of hope; the writers themselves living in the thought of a future life, planning with reference to it, giving expression to their feeling concern- ing its great realities whenever they bore a part in a funeral service or uttered a lament over a dead loved one ; with not one of the writers in any one of the books saying a single well-defined word in expression of his personal belief in this realm of truth, or in clear recognition of the universality of a common conviction on the gen- eral subject. Is not this a wonder ? An unmistakable tendency of the human mind is, and always has been, to question and specu- late concerning the possibilities of the lite be- yond the grave. The theme of themes in the world's thought, and in the religious writings of the world, during all the centuries of the Old Testament's preparation, was the state of man in the world to come. Yet that theme of themes was religiously excluded from all the Old Testa- ment pages. How can this be accounted tor so 204 Studies ill Oriental Social Life. simply and so reasonably as by admitting that these writers were guided and controlled by a Power outside of and above themselves, both in what they should say, and in what they should leave unsaid ? And to admit this is to admit the truth of the unique inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures in their time and place. The importance attached, in ancient Egypt and in other lands adjacent to the land of the Hebrews, to the life beyond the grave, caused the present life to be overshadowed by that which is to come. And the thought of those who had gone before, as still living, came to be a temptation to think of them as superior to those in the flesh, so as to be objects of veneration and worship. In this way, polytheism had grown up in lieu of primal monotheism ; and the sim- plicity of the worship of the one God, in loving fidelity to his service here and now, was replaced by varied forms of the w^orship of deified ances- tors, in the hope of having a place with them hereafter. It was needful, therefore, that the chosen peo- ple of God should be called away from thinking of the many in heaven, to the thought of the Funerals and Mournmg in the East. 205 one God of heaven and earth, and should be tauo;ht that that God is best pleased by men's doing their present duty in the present life. And thus it is that the silence of the Old Testament scriptures on the subject of the future state is in accordance with the spirit and purpose of those writmgs. All the while, however, as the study of the funeral and mourning customs in the East, an- cient and modern, is in itself sufficient to show, the Hebrews recognized the relation of the life that is to the life that is to come ; as that rela- tion has been recognized, in one way or another, by all mankind from the earliest days of which history gives us any trustworthy record or any perceivable intimation. And so the funeral and mourning customs of the East had their part in keeping alive a sense of this great truth among the people who were the representatives and cus- todians of the purest religious truth known to man, until the time had come for a bringing of life and immortality to light in the added revela- tion of Jesus the Christ.^ Yet even now there is a danger of our giving a prominence to the ' Sec 2 Tim. i : lo. 2o6 Sinc/ics in Oriental Social Life. future state, and to its dwellers, that is not justi- fied by the teachings of Jesus or of his immediate representatives. And here I close the treatment of these three phases of Oriental social life : weddings and be- trothals, hospitality, and funerals and mourning. Apart from the interest that attaches to the con- sideration of these themes as showing us more vividly the people of Bible lands as they were in the days of the Bible writing, there is. 1 think, a special value in the bearing of the facts thus brought out on questions of peculiar moment in the history of our race. The study of betrothals and weddings, on the lines of the most ancient history of which we have any authentic record, indicates the primeval nobleness of man as evidenced in his earliest estimate of woman and in his earliest standard of family life. Monogamy, not polygamy, nor polyandry, nor promiscuity, was "from the begin- ning " ^ the basis of the family relation. The study of the virtue of hospitality along the same lines, indicates a primeval recognition ^ Matt. 19 : 4-8. Funerals and Alonrnino- in tJie East. 207 of the; brotherhood of man as a consequence of the fatherhood of God, and discloses a universal standard of character among- primitive peoples, in an ideal of duty recognized by them and di\ inely ai)proved in the IMble record. He who receives and honors a stranirer-fruest as a child of God thereby signifies his readiness to welcome the Son of God when he appears as the mani- festation of God.^ The study of funeral and mourning customs, in a similar light, indicates a primeval recog- nition of the truth of a life beyond the grave, and of the fixing of its destiny by the personal chara6ler disclosed in the present life. Every wailing cry to the dead in the form of question or entreaty, and every proffer of help to the de- parted in the form of gifts at the grave for the supply of their needs, is in witness to the truth that death does not end all.- And a comparison of these fa6ls with the teachings of the Old Testament scriptures in- cidentally points to a divine control of the treat- ment of this theme in the Old Testament and in the New. The silences of the Bible as truly as ' Matt. 10 : 40. 2 fjgi3 g . 2^_ 208 Studies in Oriental Social Life. its utterances are proofs of the inspiration that restrained and guided its writers/ And these important disclosures in the sphere of Oriental social life are but suggestions of the very many truths to be brought into a clearer light by a study of the Bible record in compari- son with the manners and customs of the people of Bible lands. The text of the Bible has a new meaning when we understand the ways of the men who wrote it, and the peculiarities of the countries where they lived. ' Deut. 29 : 29 ; John 16 : 12. THE VOICE OF THE FORERUNNER, My first sight of the East was at Alexandria. And that first sight was so thoroughly Ori- ental, so thoroughly un- Occidental, so utterly unlike anything and everything I had ever seen before, that it is stamped upon my mind to-day with a freshness and vividness that make all other remembered scenes of the East little more than variations and modifications of what then caught my eyes. All the East was before me in a single glimpse. The glimpse was from the sea, as we ap- 209 2 I o Studies in Oincntal Social Life. proached from Naples. What a I'abcl and what a Pandemonuim as the; motley crowd, of all shades of complexion, and in all \arieties of Eastern costume, clambered on to the steamer's deck, and yelled or jabbered in all languages, and crowded and jostled and pushed and gesticu- lated excitedly, as if their very lives were in jeopardy, and everybody else's would have to be ! Egyptians, Arabs, Moors, Nubians, Abyssinians, Turks — from dingy yellow through swarthy red and olive and brown to jetty black. Turbans and tarboushes and bare heads ; flowing robes and baggy trousers, and naked limbs and bodies, in undistinguishable confusion. Boatmen, por- ters, hotel runners, hucksters, guides, interpre- ters, dragomans, and officials of various grades, — all equally vociferous, violent, persistent, and seemingly unsane. How the boatmen battled for a place at the steamer's accommodation ladder, with their primi- tive and varied craft, forcing off a rival's bow, and crowding in past it, even springing forward to hurl back, with loud curses, the competing boatman himself, as if it were in the final struggle of pirates for a first boarding of a coveted treas- The I 'oicc of tlic Forerunner. 2 1 1 lire ship ! And what a cluLching" ihcrc was at the passcn^^crs and their ba^^^gagc on the part of boat and hotel ap[)Hcants ! What giants of strength there were in some of those brawny Nu- bian porters, who swung themselves recklessly amone the lighter forms of acjile Arabs, and the skinny, withered frames of older Egyptians ! One of these Nubians seized a huge traveling trunk of our party, at a signal from our chosen hotel agent, and, throwing a stout cord or small rope around it lengthwise, he stooped at its other end, with his face from it, and, passing the loop of the cord around across his forehead, he rose up, taking the trunk end-wise on his back — its weight steadied by the cord across his forehead ; then he coolly had a second trunk lifted on to his head above the first, and he stepped off lightly with that superincumbent head-dress, a[)parently no more burdened than an American lady with hrr winter's bonnet-pile of velvet and lace and feathers. From sea to shore was only from the shadow to the substance, from the glimpse to the clear vision, of Oriental life. Where but in the East could be seen what was before us and about us 1 2 Studies in Oriental Social Life. at every step in the more crowded streets of Alex- andria ? Where in all the East could anything else be looked for ? Leaving- the European cpiar- ter, in the vicinity of the Place Muhammad Alee, shortly after our arrival at the hotel, I found my way with a friend into the closely packed Arab distrids, and was soon in the bewildering maze of Oriental sights and sounds. How those narrow streets were packed, and with what grotesque appearances! Half-naked cripples and blind beggars, veiled w^omen, men in bright-colored garments, and children in none, were everywhere. Shop-keepers squatted at the window-like openings of their dog-kennel shops on either side of the way. Children were making mud-pies under the very feet of the passers. Tumble-down buildings seemed overhanging the middle of the burlesque street, and mosk mina- rets uplifted themselves against the sky beyond the buildings in the distance. Donkeys trotted through the crowd as a part of it at every turn. Long-eared goats thrust their noses between the buyer and the seller of sweets, or of leeks and onions. Occasionally a buffalo cow, drawing a rude cart, or again a heavily loaded camel, pushed The Voice of the Forerunner. 2 i J) itself into the throng, rather than through it. Water-carriers, with their huo^e ijoat-skin bottles and their tinkling brass cups, proffered "the gift of God"' to the thirsty. All the city seemed gathered at every door,^ with the same purpose and with no purpose. Illuminated bits of every picture of Eastern life which I had ever seen in print or in paint from childhood up were tumbling before my eyes in kaleidoscopic confusion and attractiveness ; and sounds of the peculiar wail of Egyptian music came floating into my ears as we moved on in wonderment from street to street, gradually nearing the open square once more. It was out of all this confusion, and amid all this bewilderment, that suddenly a sharp, clear sound was heard : " O'a ! " (Take care !) " Ya- meenak ! Shemalak ! " (To thy right ! To thy left !) and as I turned to learn its meaning, I saw a lithe-limbed young Egyptian gaily dressed, with his loins fdrded, cominor on the run, swinir- ing a light staft in his hand, and repeating his cries to the throng in the street to make way for those who were to follow. Close behind him 'John 4 ; 10. ^ Mark I : 33. 2 1 4 Studies in Oriental Social Life. canic an open carriage, drawn by a span of showy horses, containing an officer of the government and a ""entleman friend. That was my first sight of a runnel before a rider, — of the typical forerunner of the Oriental sovereign's chariot, according to the Old Testa- ment story. When Ahab, king of Israel, drove furiously before the coming storm across the broad plain of Esdraelon, from the base of Carmel to his ivory palace at Jezreel, after the slaughter of the priests of Baal, the weird old prophet of the wilderness was his forerunner, after this unchan- ging Oriental fashion. "And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah ; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel." ^ When the Israelites clamored for a king to rule over them, Samuel warned them, saying: "This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you : he will take your sons, and appoint them unto him for his chariots, and to be his horsemen ; and they shall run before his chari- ots." " And when the Israelites were granted a king, they found what it was to have their sons as runners before the royal chariot. In Absalom's ^ I Kings i8 ; 45, 46. ^ i Sam. 8:11. The Voice of the Forerunner. 2 1 5 attempt to outdo the display of Saul and David in this line, "Absalom prepared him a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him." ' That was a chance for the young runners ! The first illustration to me of this Bible figure was by no means the last in my journeying. During my stay in Cairo, one of the commonest sights was a carriage of a pasha, or a carriage containing ladies of the khedive's hareem, pre- ceded through the crowded streets by one "sais" (the forerunning groom), or by two or more, calling aloud for the clearing of the way. And when our little party rode out along the banks of the Nile, and on to Gheezeh, to visit the pyramids and the sphinx, a handsome young "sais," bedecked with scarlet and blue and green and gold, ran before us at top speed, calling out for a clear path for 7/.S- amono- the loaded camels and the ambling donkeys and the toiling foot-passers, from the city's heart into the desert wastes. For in these days of Egypt's decline it is as easy to hire a once royal equipage, and to secure the once royal honors, by the hour, as it is to hire a turnout with liveried coachman and footman in New York ' 2 Sam. 15:1. 2 1 6 Shidics in Oriental Social Life. or Philadelphia, when you want to have the credit of a carriage of your own without its trouble and expense. That cry in the streets of Alexandria was also the first illustration to me of the voice of one cry- ing out of a wilderness throng, " Prepare ye the way of the coming one." ^ In the Bible figure of the crier before the comine One, there is a call of the forerunner to prepare the way, as well as to yield it, for him who approaches : " The voice of one that crieth : Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord, Make straight in the desert a high way for our God Every valley shall be exalted, And every mountain and hill shall be made low : And the crooked shall be made straight, And the rough places plain." ^ A brief experience on the wilderness and desert roads of Egypt and Arabia, and on any of the roads of Palestine, would be sufficient to show the need of special preparation if those roads were to be passable, and the value of such prepa- ration when it has been secured. At the best, 1 See Isa. 40 : 3 ; Mark 1:2,3; John i : 23. ^ Isa. 40 : 3, 4. The Voice of the Forerunner. 2 1 7 a road in those rcL^ions is litllc more than a hardly recognized track over the sands or the loose stones, or along or across the cliffs and rocky hillsides. The shifting sands, or the wash of the rushing watercourses of the rainy months, will destroy at one season what was a tolerable path at another. The work of preparing, or of repairing, these roads in advance of the coming of a royal per- sonage, is continued to the present time. At Hebron, as our party entered the Holy Land from the desert below, we were told that the Crown Prince of Austria was just before us, and that the word had gone out from the Turkish au- thorities to prepare his way in advance. At this our dragoman was delighted, as he was sure we should find the roads in excellent condition all the way northward. Again and again he said, gratefully : "This road has been prepared for the prince, I wish there was always a prince before us." He evidently thought that the road was better than usual ; but we did not see how it ever could have been worse. At one point and another we were told that the road we then traveled was prepared, or was improved, for the Prince of i8 Studies in Oriental Social Life. \\^alcs, or for the Grant! Duke Alexander; and in all these cases it was evident that the voice of a forerunner had been heard in advance of the son of royalty : " Prepare ye the way of the comnig one, "1 ^ See Isa. 40 : 3 ; Mark i : 2, 3; John i : 23. i ^.ii5^ I -l-^^' \ y^^^*^' -J^ .-.s&ai PRIMITIVE IDEA OF "THE WAY." The ancient Oriental idea of a road, an idea which still has large prominence in the East and elsewhere, is of the highway of a king. Roads were originally built by the king, and for the king ; and they were kept in repair, or put in re- pair, according to the king's need of them. Roads had their incidental advantages for the king's subje6ts, but only by the king's grace. This Oriental idea of a highway affecis all Oriental uses of the term road, or way, or highway. The Hebrew word dcrckJi. and the Greek word Jiodos, 219 2 20 Studies ill Oriental Social Life. translated "way" in our English Bible, mean "road," or "trodden path," or "highway;" and this term is employed both literally and figu- ratively in various conne6lions, yet always with the root idea of the road of a king in the realm of his kingdom. One of the earliest historic mentions of royal road-building is in the Egyptian records of the Nineteenth Dynasty, where Sety I., the father of Rameses II. (supposed to be the Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrews), built a road over the desert into the gold-mines of Upper Egypt and Nubia, making it available by sinking wells, or cisterns, along the route. The road which both Sety 1. and Rameses II. took on their warlike journeys into Syria, was known as the Royal Road, or the Pharonic Road ; and the same road was later known as " Sikkeh es-Sooltanieh," or the Sultan's Road. Professor Sayce, writing of the times of the ancient Assyrian Empire, says : "Western Asia was more thickly populated then than is at pres- ent the case, and the roads were not only more numerous than they are to-day, but better kept. Hence the ease and rapidity with which large Primitive Idea of " The J Fay." 22 t bodies of m(Mi were moved by the Assyrian kings from one part of Asia to another. Where a road did not already exist, it was made by the advan- cing army, timber being cleared and a highway thrown up for the purpose. As road-makers the Assyrians seem to have anticipated the Romans," and all their roads were ways, or paths, of im- perial progress. Among the reported wonders wrought by the semi-mythical Semiramis, in the earlier days of the Babylonian empire, is the building of a royal road through Media. Diodorus says that on her march over a rough and precipitous moun- tain country in that diretlion, " she became am- bitious ... at once to make a deathless memorial of herself, and at the same time to make for her- self a road \_/iodos, a way] which would be a shorter cut. Therefore, she digged down the crags and filled up the hollow places, and so pre- pared a road which was more expeditious, and which was of great cost. And until now it is called from her [the Road of] Semiramis. . . . After these things she went through Persia, and every other land which she ruled throughout Asia. And everywhere digging through the syndics in Oriental Social Life. mountains and the stcn-p rocks, she prepared roads at i^a^c^at expense." Thus in the earhest empire of history,^ tlie symbol of royal greatness was royal road buildincr. In ancient Persia, aq^ain, as Herodotus informs us, Darius established a royal road, from Susa toSardis, in order to secure rapidity of communi- cation in the transmission of his orders to the provincial governors-. This road was more than fifteen hundred miles long, or a journey, by horses, of ninety days. Along its route were post-houses and relays of horses for the accom- modation of his couriers or caravanseries. "Inns were to be found at every station ; bridges or ferries were established upon all the streams ; guard-houses occurred here and there, and the whole route was kept secure from the brigands who infested the empire." This highway of the king was of no small value to the ordinary trav- eler, with its privileges and its protection ; al- though its proprietorship and its primal purpose were exclusively the king's. One of the great proje6ls of Alexander the Great, in contempla- tion at the time of his death, "was the construc- ' See Gen. lo : S-lo. Primitive Idea of " TJie TFaj'." 223 tion of a road all alon^r the northern coast of Africa, as far as the pillars of Herakles." The chief road through ancient Edom, as also through the land of the Amorites, in the days of Moses, was known as the king's way, and per- mission for strangers to pass over it must be sought of the king.^ The Israelites were direcl;ed to build roads, or highways, through the Land of Promise, when they should have it in possession, — roads which should be counted as the Lord's highways to the appointed cities of refuge." Josephus tells us that Solomon made a fuiished and substantial stone causeway along the roads which led to his royal city, not only to render those roads easy of travel, but "to mani- fest the grandeur of his riches and government." Even all the great roads of the Roman em- pire, which held the civilized world in a network, were designed and built as royal roads, as roads of empire ; built first as military roads, and kept in repair primarily as a means of governing. "It was not until tlie Romans had eneaLTed in com- paratively distant wars, with the Samnites and Italiote Greeks," says a well-known writer on 'Xuia. 20 : 14-20 ; 21 : 21-23. ^ Dcut. 19 : 1-3. 16 2 24 Studies ill Oriental Social Life. Roman antiquities, "that the necessity of keep- in^'- iiu regular and sccnn; communication with the armies became imperative ; and accordingly about the middle of the fifth century [B. C] they appear to have commenced upon a large scale the construction of those great military roads (rvV^ inili tares) which have proved some of the mostenduring monuments of their greatness." Rome was indeed distinguished as the road- maker of the world ; and it was because the world's roads everywhere were controlled by Rome in the day of its greatest power, that the Romans could say proudly, wherever they found themselves, "All roads lead to Rome." The famous ]la Appia. built in the fourth century before our era, and known as the Queen of Roads [Reoiiia I 'iarunt), stands to the present day, even after a thousand years of negled, as a monument of the labor and expense and skill lavished on the royal way to and from the capi- tal of the world, in aid of the world's govern- ment and supply. And all this work was but a Roman adaptation of the Oriental idea of roads and road-making, in an empire which was both Eastern and Western in its scope. Pri7nitivc Idea of " The Way!' 22 --0 From the Talmud \vc learn that eacli year a new order was issued, on the first of the month Adar. for the inspection and repairinjj^ of the roads leading to Jerusalem, as well as those lead- ing to the cities of refuge. The branches of all trees which bordered a road must be cut off at a height sufficient to permit a camel with his rider to pass under it, without danger of such a calamity as Absalom's.^ And the balconies and other projeClions of houses along the line must conform to the same rule, with the farther limita- tion that they should not darken the street by their shadows. And these were the royal require- ments for the preservation and annual repairing of the royal roads of the land of Jehovah, In many parts of the East the ancient roads were prepared or repaired only at the special call of the king, for his special service on an excep- tional occasion. " Even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet :^ 'Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, Who shall prepare thy way [thy road] ; The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way [the road] of the Lord, Make his paths straight.' "^ ' J Sam. iS • 6-9. - Isa. 40 . 3. ^ Mark I : 2, 3 ; see John i : 23. 2 26 Studies in Oriental Social Lije. Bruce, the famous African traveler, tells ol a custom of the king of Abyssinia, in makini;- ready for one of his military campaigns, which illus- trates this Oriental call for the preparation of the road for the coming of the king. The first proclamation goes out through the king's do- minions, announcing his proposed movement, in this form : " Buy your mules, get ready your pro- vision, and pay your servants ; for after such a day, they that seek me here shall not find me." Then, a little later there follows another procla- mation : "Cut down the kantuffa in the four quarters of the world ; for I do not know where I am going." This " kantuffa" is a troublesome thorn-tree, which impedes the progress of a march by catching at the clothing of the rider, or by scratching and stinging his flesh. Bruce adds, that on one occasion when the king's outer robe was pulled off by a branch of the kantuffa, as he was on a march, the king sent immediately for the " shum," or local ruler, of the distric;!;, and had both him and his son executed by hanging from that kantuffa tree which they had negleded to cut down according to the requirements of the king's proclamation. Any Primitive Idea of " The I Fay." 227 one who has been compelled to push his way on horseback through the; sharp thistle-bushes, or the masses of the prickly pear, along some of the; lowland roads of Palestine, will appreciate the feelino-s of the kintr of Abvssinia, even if he does not altogc^ther approve the vigorous retali- atory measures of that king. Dr. William M. Thomson says, in illustration of the royal call for the preparing of the way in the East in modern times : " When Ibrahim Pasha proposed to visit certain places on Leba- non, the emeers and sheikhs sent forth a general proclamation, somewhat in the style of Isaiah's exhortation to all the inhabitants, to assemble along the proposed route and prepare the way before him. The same was done in 1845, ^^^ ^ grand scale, when the present sultan visited Brusa. The stones were gathered out, crooked places straightened, and rough ones made level and smooth." In connection with these calls for public ser- vice, the criers who announce the command of the ruler to the people precede their statement of the duty imposed, by the threefold repetition of a call equivalent to the injunction, " He that 2 28 Sf II dies ill Oi'icJital Social Life. hath (\irs to hear, let him hear."^ On hcarincr tliis call, every person has a duty of tiirnnig away from every other occupation, and of listen- ing as for his life. The royal summons to him to hear carries with it an admonition of his re- sponsibility for hearing", and a warning of the peril of negle(5ling to hear. He has no excuse for ignorance after that call on him to open his cars to the message from his ruler. From the Oriental idea of a road or highway as the peculiar possession cf a king, to be always at his disposal and for his service, and to be made ready and kept in order at his call, there seems to have come the common term "king's road," as applicable to a public highway, in more or less of the European countries. And the same idea gives color to all the uses of the term "road" or "way" when applied to a course of condu6l or to a system of religious truth. To the Oriental mind, a road, a way, the king's highway, includes primarily the idea of a king- dom ; of a kingdom planned and a kingdom con- trolled. Again, it includes the idea of a personal ' Matt. 11:15; 13 : 9, 43 ; Mark 4 : 9, 23 ; 7 : 16 ; Luke 8 : 8'; 14 : 35. Sec, also, Isa. 6:9; Ezek. 12 : 12. Priniitivc Idea of " The Way!' 229 sovereign ; of a sovereign whose plan is l)ack of that highway, and whose purpose is before it. Yet acfi^i'i it. includes the idea of the kinof's com- manchnent, in th(^ building of that road and in the keeping of it in repair; of a sure course to one's destination b)' means of tliat road ; of safety while on that road ; of duties which grow out of being on the line of that road ; of the duty of watching for the king's coming, and of making the road ready for his passage ; of the duty of followine: in the train and in the service of the king, when he is moving along that road. And this covers everything that we understand b)' the way of duty, the way of privilege, the way of safety, in our moral and spiritual life- course ; the way, or the road, which God has planned and provided for the control of, and as a means of intercommunication throuo-hout, his kingdom ; for the progress of his providential movements, and along which he would have his servants to advance, or to stand, at his call. The term "Taouism," as applied to one of the religions of China, is from the Chinese tao, the "way" or the "path;" and it indicates as thus used the search for, or the study of, the i)ath of 230 Sfiidics in Oriental Social Life. holiness. " Shintooism." the dcsiprnation of the ancient rehgion of Japan, is from the Chinese shin, "i^od," or "spirit," and tao, "the way," the path of the gods. Booddhisni makes much of the patli or wa)-, even though it ignores the Sovereign wliose "v/ay" is to be traveled. Bood- dha's " Dhammapada," or guide in the progress toward Nirvana, is the " Path of Virtue," or the "Way of Holiness." The Orthodox Muham- madans call themselves "Sunnis," or "People of the Path." "Sunnah" is a path, or road, or way; and it is applied to the example and teach- ings of Muhammad. The stricter followers of the prophet say that the "way " of Muhammad is indicated in what he said, in what he did, and in what he sanctioned by his silence when it was said or done in his presence. And so in Oriental thought generally the "way" is the path or road that has been prepared for travel by those who would go aright. This idea of a road as the highway of God's kingdom, shows itself all alonor in the Bible record. Hardly had the Israelites moved out from Egypt to enjoy the privileges of Jehovah's kingdom, before they gave themselves up to the Primitive Idea of " TJie J Taj'." 231 worship of a oroklcn calf, and the; Lord's word came to Mos(;s on Monnt Sinai : "Go, get thee down ; for thy people, which thou bronghtest np out of the; land of Egypt, have corrupted them- selves: they have turned aside cpiickly out of the way which I commanded th(mi [out ot the highway along which I started them]." ^ And, again and again, fidelity to God's service is spoken of as continuing in "the way which the Lord thy God commandc^d thee to walk in."^ And because there are roads, or seeming roads, or pathways, which are not the king's highway, frequent mention is made in the Bible of ways of evil, as well as ways of good, — roads within the kingdom which are not roads of the kingdom ; just as there are said to be, in a sense, "gods many, and lords many," while "there is no God but one," ^ — false gods which are no gods, roads which are no roads. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are th(i ways of death."'* "Enter not into the l)ath of the wicked, and walk not in the way of ^ Exod. 32 : 7, 8. ' See Deut. 13 ; 5 ; 31 : 29 ; Judg. 2 : 22 ; 2 Kings 21 : 22 ; Jer. 5 : 4. 5- ^ I Cor. 8 : 4, 5. ' I'l'ov. 14 : 12; 16 : 25. 232 Shidics VI Oriental Social Life. evil men. . . . The way of the wicked is as dark- ness : they know not at what they stumble." ^ "The way of the treacherous is rugged." " "The way of the sluggard is as an hedge of thorns : but the path of the upright is made an high way."^ "Envy thou not the man of violence, and choose none of his ways."* "Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death." '' "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destrucl:ion. , . . Narrow is the gate, and straitened the wa)-, that leadeth unto life."*' And this view of the possi- bility of being out of the way while in a way gives added force to the cr)- of the Psalmist : "Teach me thy way, O Lord ; and lead me in a plain path." ^ "Teach me thy way, O Lord; [and] I will walk in thy truth."- It also gives added preciousness to the Lord's assurance to those who trust in him: "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it ; when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." '^ Wliat light all this throws on the Old Testa- ^ Prov. 4 : 14, ly. '^ Prov. 13:15. '^ Prov. 15 : 19. * Prov. 3:31. ^ Jer. 21:8. ^ Matt. 7:13, 14. ' Psa. 27 : II. * Psa. 86 : 11. " Isa. 30 : 21. Primitive Idea of " The JFaj'." 233 mcnt propliccics concerning- the Mcssiali and llie Messianic kinq-dom ! And how it clears up th(! New Testament n^ferences to Christ as tlit^ Way, and ai^ain to Christianity as the Way of Christ ! When the old kinoi'doms of Judali and of Israel were failing, or had already passed away, the Lord's promise was that a new kingdom should be established, and a new King should come to reign gloriously in that kingdom. The sign of that kingdom was similar to the sign of the an- cient kingdoms of Egypt and of Babylon and of Persia ; a highway should be builded in advance of the King's coming, and that highway should be extended and established for the benefit of all the subje6ls of the King. The old prophets cried cheerily, in the days of darkness and despon- dency : " Comfort ye, comfort yc my people, Saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her. That her warfare is accomplished. . . . The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord, Make straight in the desert a high way for our God. Every valley shall he exalted, And every mountain and hill shall be made low : And the crooked shall be made straight, and tlie rough places plain : 234 Studies in Oriental Social Life. Aiul tlic glory of the Lord shall he revealed, And all flesh shall see it together: For the mouth of the Lord hath sjioken il." ' " And 1 will make all my mountains a way, Antl my high ways shall be exalted." -' " For in the wilderness shall waters break out. And streams in the desert. ... And an high way shall be there, and a way, And it shall be called the way of holiness ; The unclean shall not pass over it ; but it shall be for those : The wavfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there. . . . But the redeemed shall walk there." •'' " Behold, 1 send my messenger, and he shall pre- pare theWay before me.""^ And so on in repeated and remembered prophecy, until John the Bap- tist came "preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ; " and his voice was recognized as " The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight." ^ WhcMi Jesus came, he said explicitly of himself: "I am the Way. . . . No one cometh unto the Father but by me." ^' And after this the Mes- ' Isa. 40 : 1-5. ^ Isa. 49-11. ^ Isa. 35 ; 6, 8, 9. * Mai. 3:1, * Matt. 3:1-3. ^ John 14:6. Primitive Idea of " TJie Way!' 235 sicili's king-dom, the Messiah's cause, the Messiah's service, aiul the Messiah himself, were frequently spoken of by his followers and by his enemies as the Way. Even the chief priests and the scribes said craftily to Jesus: "Thou , . . teachest the Way of God." ^ Paul said of his earlier zeal ai^ainst Christianity : " I persecuted this Way unto the death." ^ And at Ephesus Paul found some who "were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude,"^ Again the appeal came to the Hebrews of old, as it comes to all of us to-day : " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the Way which he dedicated for us, a new and living Way, . . . let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith."' The fulness and the force of the Oriental figure of the Way, and of its preparing, once recognized by the reader of our English Bible,'' its various and varying ai)plications throughout the Old Testament and the New are simple and evident, ' Mark 12 : 14 ; Luke 20 : 2i. "^ Acts 22 : 4. ^ Acts 19 : 9-23. ^ Heb. 10 : 19-22. ^ This word " Way " occurs more than six hundred times in the Old Testament, and nearly one hundred times in the New. 236 Shi dies ill Oriental Social Life. and always to the advantac^e of the truth. The Book written by Orientals, primarily for Orien- tals, must be read in the Hi^ht of Oriental modes ol ihouoht and speech in order to be best under- stood and appreciated. THE ORIENTAL IDEA OF " FATHER." The term " father" has a much wider scope in the East than as orcHnarily employed in the lan- euaees of the West. In the East the term "father" apphes not merely to the parent of his children, but to the head of a household, to the senior of any allied party or group, to the chief of a tribe, to the sovereie^n of a nation, to the ancestral founder of a people, and so on all the way up to the eternal Father — God. This it is which gives to the Fifth Commandment its place in the hrst table ot the Law, instead ot ^17 238 Studies in Oriental Social Life. the second ; as looking upward, and not out- ward; as including those over, rather than those alongside of, the persons enjoined. I had an illustration of this truth at the very- beginning of my desert life in the East, My two traveling companions were young men, neither of them being a relative of mine. This facl: was well understood by our Egyptian dragoman ; but when we first met old Shaykh Moosa, who was to convoy us from Cairo to Sinai, the three were presented to him as — " Mr, Trumbull and his two sons." At this I touched the dragoman, and said quietly, " Not my S071S, but young friends of mine." "That's all right/' said the dragoman, ''He wouldn't understand anything else." Then I found that each traveling party was known as a " family," of which the senior member was the "father." So it was simply a choice in our case whether I should be called the young men's father, or one of them should be called mine : one of us must stand for the father of the other two. In view of this alternative, I, from that time on, passed as the father of the "family" until the desert was crossed. While in mid- desert we were told that a European family had The Oriental Idea of '' FatJierT 239 passed that \va)' not long before. Inquiring more particularly, we learned that the; "family" consisted of a photographer and his two assist- ants. Had it been a party of seven bachelors all of the same age, it would have been still one family, and the most venerable appearing man amontr th(.;m would have been called the "lather" of the other six. There is nothing new in this comprehensive view of the term " father," The Bible abounds with illustrations of it. In the very earliest story of the race, it is said of Jabal : "He was the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle."^ Here the fatherhood is clearly not of natural descendants, but of those who follow in the same line of life and occupation. Of Jubal, similarly, the record is : "He was the father of all such as handle the harp and pipe."- God's specific dec- laration to Abraham was : " The father of a multitude of nations have I made thee;"" and the inspired comment on this declaration is: "That they which be ot faith [all of them, of whatever natural stock they may be], the same are sons of Abraham." "* ' Gen. 4 : 20. Gen. 4: 21. ^(".011.17:5. '' Gal. 3 : 7. 240 Studies in Oinental Social Life. Later on, Joseph, referring; to his providen- tial place in the government of Egypt, declares to his brethren : " God . . . hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt." ^ Here, ap- parently, the term "father" indicates superiority of position by a reversal of the order of natural precedence — the son becoming as a father, the subject as a sovereign. " I was a father [a pro- te6lor and dispenser of aid] to the needy," ^ says the large-hearted Job. "Dwell with me," said Micah to the young Levite; "and be unto me a father and a priest;"^ and so again the tribe of Danites said to the same Levite : "Go with us, and be to us a father and a priest : is it better for thee to be [a father and] priest unto the house of one man, or to be [a father and] priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?"^ In this case it is a spiritual superiority, over one or over many, which is rec- oonized in the term "father." Salma is called "the father [the founder] of Bethlehem," ^ and "Joab the father of Ge-harashim [or, the valley 1 Gen. 45:8. 2Job29:i6. ^Jiidg. 17 : 10. *Judg. 18 : 19. '^ I Chron. 2 ; 51. The Oriental Idea of ''Father'." 241 of craftsmen] ; fur ihey [in that valley] were craftsmen." ' An inventor, an owner, a master, is, in Orien- tal usage, a "father" of that which he invents or owns or controls. Dr. Thomson says that "the Arabs call a person distinguished for any pecu- liarity the father of it. Thus, a man with an uncommon beard is named Abu dakn — " Father of a beard;" and I have often heard myself called Abu tangera — "Father of a saucepan" — be- cause the boys in the street fancied that my hat resembled that black article of kitchen furniture." Conversely, the followers or imitators or de- scendants of a distinguished personage are called his children. Thus there are the "sons of God"^ and the "daughters of men ; " ^ the "sons of Heth " ^ and the " sons of Midian ; " ^ the " chil- dren of Abraham" "^ and the "children of Israel ; " ^ the "sons of Judah " ' and the "sons of Benja- ' I Chron. 4 : 14. ^ Job 1:6; 2:1: Hos. I : 10; John i : 12; Rom. 8: 14, 19; Thil. 2:15; I John 3:1,2. ^ Gen. 6:2,4. "Gen. 25 : 10; 49 : 32. ^ Gen. 25:4. « John 8 : 39 ; Acts 13 : 26; Gal. 3 : 7. ^Gen. 32 : 32 ; Exod. 12 : 27 ; Num. 2:2; Ezek. 44 : 9 ; Hos. 3:4; Amos9:7 ; Matt. 27:9; Acts 5:21 ; Rev. 21 : 12. " Num. 26 : 20 ; Ezra 3 : 9. 242 Stnciics in Oriental Social Lijc. mill ; " ' the " cliiklren of the East ; " - the '"'sons of BeHal " ^ and the "daughters of Behal," * and the " children of Behal ; " ^ the " children of wisdom,"'' the "children of disobedience," ^ and the "children of wrath ;" ** the "children of the bridechamber," '-' and the "children of light," ^" and many another similar designation. Dr. Thomson calls a Bed'wy woman, who lives in a goat-hair tent while tending her Hock, a "daugh- ter of Jabal,"^^ and he speaks of this form of expression as very common in the East. " Brethren and fathers" ^" was the address of Stephen to the Jewish council, as indicating his deference to those who were his seniors in years or in wisdom ; and Paul used the same form of speech to the multitude, as he stood a prisoner on the castle stairs in Jerusalem.^'' Evidently it is in yet another view of the term "father" that our Lord says to his disciples, " Call no man ' Num. 26 : 38, 41 ; i Chion. 8 : 40 ; 9:7; Neh. 11:7. ''' Judg. 6 : 3, 33 ; 7 : 12 ; 8 : 10 ; 1 Kings 4 : 30. ^ |ud;4. 19 : 22 ; I Sam. 2 : 12 ; 23 : 6 ; i Kings 21 ; 10. ^ I Sam. I : 16. ^ Deut. 13 : 13 ; Judg. 20 : 13 ; i Sam. 10 : 27 ; i Kings 21:13. ^ Luke 7:35. '' Eph. 2:2; 5 • 6 ; Col. 3:6. ^ Eph. 2 : 3. '■^ Matt. 9:15; Mark 2 : 19 ; Luke 5 : 34. 1° Luke 16:8; I Thess. 5:5. " Gen. 4 : 20. '-Acts 7:2. ^^ Acts 22 : I. TJic Oriental Idea of '' Father ." 243 your father on the earth : for one is your Father, which is in heaven." ' The thing" forbidden here is the putting one's self in servile subjecl;ion to an earthly teacher of spiritual truth. Paul has no fear of calling his natural seniors "fathers;" nor does he hesitate to speak of himself as the spiritual "father" of those whom he has begotten in the truth, as when he writes to the Corin- thian converts : " For though ye should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers : for in Christ Jesus / begat you through the gospel. I beseech you therefore, be ye imi- tators of me."" The very term "shaykh " — the head or chieftain of an Arab tribe — means a venerable man, — an elder ; because of the patriarchal idea that the senior ancestor is, by his very seniority, the ruler of all his descendants. It represents the idea which underlies a whole class of words in our own laneuaee, such as "senior," "senator," "elder," " alderman," etc. As a matter of fact, the shaikh is not always the oldest man of his tribe ; for the son of the ruling household in the great tribal family may come into succession of authority 'Matt. 33 : 9. 'I Ccr. 4 : 15, 16. 244 Studies in Oriental Social Life. while much younger than many of his depend- ants ; but in becoming the hereditary shaykh he assumes the paternal office in the tribe. On the other hand, the shaykh in fad will at all times pay a certain deference to his senior in years. For example : when coffee is brought in — and that is on every occasion of ceremony, or busi- ness, or pleasure — the eldest person in the com- pany must be served first, even though the shaykh of the tribe be present and his senior be a beQ^o-ar. Thus the divine command went forth to Jeho- vah's people: "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man." ^ And in the East that command is well heeded to the present time. At Castle Nakhl we changed camels, and changed shaykhs also, Shaykh Mus- leh of the Teyaheh Arabs taking the place of Shaykh Moosa of the Tawaras. Because of his illness, Shaykh Musleh was unable to accompany us to Hebron, and he sent his young son, Hamd, in his stead. Hamd, therefore, was to be honored and obeyed by the Bed'ween of our party as their lawful shaykh, or venerable man, while he was * Lev. 19 : 32. The Oriental Idea of '' Father y 245 the junior of them all. Yet this was not the only fi6tion necessary to conform to the desert idea of the term "fathc^r." I was the assumed "father" of th(^ traveling" party to h(; escorted ; and more than this, I was much th(' senior in years of Shaykh Hamd, and had a [)atriarchal beard, while he was beardless. This difficulty must be met by another construcilive relationship. When the details of the trip were fully arranged, Shaykh Musleh brought his son Hamd to me, and, having placed the son's right hand between my two hands, he took our three hands tocrether between his two, and said to me in Arabic: "This has been my son ; now he is your son. Be to him a good father." And so, for the remainder of the trip over the desert, I was the "father" of the young shaykh as well as of my young American companions, while the young shaykh was "father" of all our Bed'ween attendants. So, including my children by courtesy, and the children of my newly borrowed son, I had quite a family with me by the time I reached Hebron. In just such harmless fidlions, or assumptions of relationshij), as this — so prominent in Oriental life — lie the germs of great principles, wide reach- 246 Studies in Oriental Social Life, 'wYg in their ap[)lication. Sir Henry Sumner Maine says of this very practice, in ancient hnv, of countino;" all who an? under cjne authority as members ot \\\v. same? family with a common father, even though they are not of kin : "1 his confli(5l between belief or theory and notorious fa(^t is at first sicrht extremely perplexing; but wliat it really illustrates is the efficiency with which legal fictions do their work in the infancy of society. The earliest and most extensively employed of legal fictions was that which per- mitted family relations to be created artificially, and there is none to which I conceive mankind to be more deeply indebted." Of the far-reaching scope and essential limita- tions of this constructive family relation, he says further: "The family, then, is the type of an archaic society, in all the modifications which it was capable of assuming ; but the family here spoken of is not exaftlythe family as understood by a modern. In order to reach the ancient con- ception, we must give to our modern ideas an im- portant extension and an important limitation. We must look on the family as constantly enlarged by the absorption of strangers within its circle, The Oriental Idea of '^ FatJiery 247 and wc must try to regard the fiction of adoption as so closely simulating the reality of kinship that nt^ither law nor opinion makes the slightest difference between a real and an adoi)tive con- nection. On the other haml. the persons theo- retically amalgamated into a family b)- their common descent are pra6lically held together by common obedience to their highest living ascen- dant, the father, grandfather, or great-grand- father" — or the accepted representative of such "ascendant." when in any instance the shaykh (or elder, by another ficlion) be a junior. This truth it is which brings Urquhart to say: "The structure of Eastern orovernment is but the en- largement of the paternal roof." The head of that government is the father of all his people. In this idea of the fatherhood of the ruler, and of the unity of the family ruled by him. there is the germ of the two tables of the Law : the looking upward reverently to the parents as toward God, whom they represent ; the look- ing outward with love toward all fellow-subjecls of the one ruler as brothers and equals. If only the idea were carried far enough, it in- cluded the common fatherhood of God and the 248 Studies ill Oriental Social Life. common brotherhood of all men. So it was "from the beginning."^ In tlie old Egyptian theology — where are many glimpses of God's original revelation to man — the Kinir's riofht to rnle is based on his sonship from God. Le Page Renouf says on this point: "Amenophis II. is the 'victorious Horus ; who has all nations subject to him, a god good like Ra, the sacred emanation of Amen, the son whom he begot ; he it is who placed thee in Thebes as sovereign of the living, to represent him.' The King himself says, Tt is my father Ra, who has ordained all these things. . . . He has ordained for me all that belonged to him. . . . All lands, all nations, the entire compass of the great circuit [of the sun], come to me as my subjects.' . . . The royal inscriptions are full of similar language. . . . There is a long inscrip- tion which first appears in honor of Rameses II., at Ipsambul. . . . The god says to the king, ' I am thy father ; by me are begotten all thy mem- bers as divine.' " Not only did the sovereign of Egypt make this claim for himself, but it was conceded to 1 Matt. 19 : 4-8 ; Mai. 2:15; Jer. 6 : 16. The Oriental Idea of '' FatJier!' 249 him by all his people. " The dodlrine was universally received. 'Thou art,' says an ode translated by M. Chabas and Mr. Goodwin, * as it were the image of thy fatJicr the Sun, who rises in heaven. Thy beams penetrate the cavern. No place is witliout thy goodness. Thy sayings arc the law of every land.' . . . 'This is not the language of a courtier. It seems to be a genuine expression of the belief that the king was the living representative of Deity.' " With this view of the origin of all human authority, to honor the father was to honor the God- appointed ruler, and to honor the God-appointed ruler was to reverence God through his repre- sentative. To this day, reverence for parents is wellnigh universal in all the East. "An undutiful child is very seldom heard of among the Egyptians or the Arabs in general," says Mr. Lane. "Among the middle and higher classes, the child usually greets the father in the morning by kissing his hand, and then stands before him in an humble attitude, with the left hand covered by the right, to receive any order, or to await his permission to depart ; but, after the respectful kiss, [the child] 250 Studies in Oriental Soeieil Life. is often taken on the lap. . . . Nearly the same respe6l is shown [by the child] toward the mother. . . . Sons scarcely ever sit, or eat, or smoke, in the presence of the f^ither, unless bid- den to do so; and they oftc:n even wait upon him, and upon his guests, at meals and on other occasions: they do not cease to a61; thus when they have become men." A glimpse of this peculiarity was given me at Castle Nakhl, while the negotiations were pro- ceeding leisurely with Shaykh Musleh for our es- cort to Hebron. When pipes and cigarettes were proffered to the Arab guests, young Hamd po- litely declined them in his turn. At this I essayed a compliment to him for not being a tobacco-user ; but a grim smile came over his face, and our dragoman informed me that a Bed'wy son could not smoke in his father's pres- ence, althouorh he would be glad to do it when his father was out of sight. Then I remembered to have seen more than one American boy pull a cigarette out of his mouth, or thrust a lighted pipe into his pocket, when he saw his father coming ; but I had not before connected this with an over- sensitive reijard for the Fifth Commandment. The Oriental Idea of '' Fathei'."' 25 I The mother, also, was always entitled to honor, in the East, as having authority from God. Her equality with the father before God, even though second to her husband in precedence in the line of authority, was "from the beginning." Long before the days of Moses, a woman's riglit to succeed her husband or her father on the throne of Egypt had been formally proclaimed b)' royal edi6l. The kintr's mother was in a certain sense the king's superior. The place of queen-dowa- ger has been at times of chief importance to the kingdom, from the da)s of Aahmes-Nefertari, of Egypt, down to the days of the mother of the Em- peror of China, including many of the queen- mothers of J udah and of Israel. ^ "In domestic life, the Egyptian [of early time] was attached to his wife and children, and the equality of the female sex with the male most marked ; the Egyptian woman always appearing as the equal and com- panion of her father, Ijrcthrcn, and husband." Even now the mother-in-law reigns supreme in the Egyptian household so long as she has strength to keep control. And as it is in Egypt, ' I Kings 2 : 19, 20 ; 1 1 : 26 ; 14 : 21,31 ; 15 : 2, 10; 22 : 42 ; 2 Kings II : I ; 12:1; 14 : 2; 15 ' 2, 33; 18 : 2 ; 21 : i, 19 ; 22 : I ; 23 : 31, 36; 24 : 8, 12, 15, 18; 2 Chron. 24 ; i. 252 StiLciics in Oriental Social Life. so it is in the desert; and so it has been in all the centuries, among the unchanging- Orientals. The father and the mother are looked at as God's representatives in authority — however poorly they may fill their representative place. And this is the obvious idea of God's revelation concerning the family. Read in the light of the land where it was first proclaimed, the Fifth Commandment^ means a great deal more than a command to honor the human authors of our being. It is a call to re- vere all who are above us as the representatives of God ; the parents in the household ; the ven- erable ones in the community ; the rulers in the state, the elders and overseers in the church ; all those who have authority over us and under God. And the basal idea of the promise accom- panying this commandment is, that thus, and thus alone, are secured stability and permanency to the life of the individual, of the family, of the tribe, and of the nation. Reverent subordination to God-given authority is the surest guard of length of days in the possession of any home or land which the Lord gives for an inheritance.^ ^Exod. 20 : 12. ^Eph, 6 : i. The Orioital Idea of '' Father. '" 253 It is a remarkable fa(5l that China, whose gov- ernment has been longer established than any other now existing, is founded on the basis of this commandment. " Filial piety," says Professor Douglas, " is the leading principle in Chinese ethics. It is the point upon which every teacher, from Confucius downwards, has most strongly insisted, and its almost universal pracS:ice affords ground for the belief held by some that in the long continuance of the empire the Chinese are reaping the reward held out in the Fifth Com- mandment of the Mosaic decaloirue." But the trouble with China is that it recognizes only one commandment in the decalogue, and misses the gain of keeping other commandments. Reverence for parents, as the Chinese under- stand it, includes reverence for all one's ancestors, and for the emperor as the human father of all. Among the examples of filial devotion taught in Chinese text-books is the story of Yu Shun, who is said to have lived twenty-two centuries before our era. "His father was stupid" and "his mother depraved;" but he was so loving and dutiful a son that God gave him elephants with which to plow his field, and birds to weed it ; 254 Shidics in Oriental Social Life lukI ihe emperor sent nine of his sons to be his s.:rvants, and gave him two of his daughters to be his wives. Finally the emperor abdicated in his favor, feeling sure that one who could be so dutiful a son could govern an empire. It is in this way that Orientals generally look at the duty of filial devotion. The "father" idea with them includes God as over all, and all who stand between one's self and God. 'I u .^ ■ -1 1 '■**^sii^P^ « PRAYERS AND PRAYING IN THE EAST. Many of thc! Bible references to prayer would have little meaning if they were not made clear in the light of prayers and praying in the un- changeable East. "They love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of streets, that they may be seen of men." ^ That is not o//r way of praying, but it is the way of the Orientals. It was a few hours after my landing at Alex- 1 Matt. 6 : 5. 18 255 256 Studies in Oriental Social Life. andria tliat. as I stood in the Place Muham- mad 'Alee, I saw for the first time an Oriental at prayer. It was an Arab fruit-seller, at his little portable stand in the open square. The mu'az- zin's call had sounded out, from the minaret of a neighboring mosk, to sunset prayer, and the Arab, in the lack of his prayer-mat (for a Mu- hammadan is reluclant to touch the unclean ground in his prayer-prostrations), had mounted one of the little benches that skirt the square, and begun his conventional Muhammadan prayer. The busy throng surged past him without inter- rupting his prescribed posturing, or diverting his attention. Meanwhile, an Arab boy, who had come up for a trade, stood by in waiting until the prayer was finished and the dealer was ready for another bargain. This novel sight soon be- came a familiar one. At the corners of the streets and in the mosks, in all the Eastern cities vv'hich I visited, men stood and prayed, and evi- dently loved to stand and pray, in proof to their fellows of their prayerfulness. Again it was after our first night on the des- ert, at the Wells of Moses, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea, near the probable crossing-place Prayers aiid Praying in the East. 257 of the children of Israel,^ that I was wakened in the early morning by a sound of prayer that was evidently intended to be heard of men — whether God should hear it or not. It was a prolonged and energetic intoning, with an occasional rise of the voice that would make sure of starting the soundest sleeper. It had its effecT;. I was up and astir. When the prayer had ended, my faithful dragoman appeared at my tent door. "Good morning, my master," he said; "I hope you are well this morning." And when he was satisfied on that point, he added: " Did you hear me pray this morning, my master?" "Indeed I did," was my reply. And then he told me of his zeal and earnestness in prayer, and of the scope and reach of his prayers ; determined that if he could not be seen of men in his sunrise prayers, he would be heard of men, in his prayers, and concerning them. WHien, some weeks after, we stood on the bor- ders of the Holy Land, at the wells of Beer- sheba," — at the old home of Abraham and Isaac • Exod. 14 : 9. ^ Gen. 21 : 14; 21 : 31-33 ; 22 : ig; 26 : 23, 33 ; 28 : 10; 46 : i, 5 ; I Kings 19 : 3 ; 2 Kings 12 : i ; i Chron. 4 : 28 ; 2 Chron. 19 : 4; 24 : I ; Neh. 11 : 27. 25'inLr i^reetinLTs with a surly 'Azazimeh shaykh, the blazing sun reached its midday height above us. As the old shaykh observed this, he ostentatiously prepared himself for prayer. Spreading his cloak on the glaring desert chalk-bed, he turned his face Meccah- ward and gave himself to his devotions with an absorbed intensity that was utterly oblivious of the din and confusion about him. He alone of his party stood and prayed. And when he had finished his [)rayer, there was a look of compla- cency on his face because he had been seen of men to pray ; for he knew as well as we that it is not a common thing for a Bed'wy to be a pray- ing man. He was complimented on his prayer- fulness by our dragoman ; and he graciously re- ceived the meed of praise as his fitting due. "And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do : for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." ^ My first illustration of that text was obtained in Cairo, 1 Matt. 6 : 7. Prayers and Praying in the East. 259 at a gathering of the " howHng," or "shouting," clarweeshes in the performance of their "zikrs," or in\ocations of the name ot God. It was on a Friday — the Muhammadan Sabbath. It was in a room of the IMosk Akbar devoted to such services as this, somewhat Hke a small skating- rink. These darweeshes are a class of men de- voting themselves to religious ceremonials, like the Pharisees of old, or the friars of modern Romanism, Standing, or crouching, (or both by turns.) in a circle, facing inward, the darweeshes began their worship by simply repeating aloud the Mu- ham.madan name of God, "Allah!" "Allah!'' "Allah!" This they did, not merely once, nor twice, nor a score of times, but hundreds of times in rapid succession. The word itself was jerked out convulsively trom the very lowest depths of the lungs, with a terminal emphasis and prolonging of its peculiar hollow sound ; at the same time the whole body was swayed to and fro as if in the effort to put added force into the sepulchral ejaculations. Again, the phrase spoken was varied by "' AllaJi akbar,'' — "God is great;" and "'La ildha illd Allah,'' — "There 26o Studies in Oriental Social Life. is no god but God," The swaying of the bodies increased in intensity, and the rapidity of the utterances kept pace with this, until the longhair of some of the worshipers alternately touched the ground behind their backs and before their feet, in almost lightning-like swiftness, and it seemed as if the very heads of the darweeshes were flying from their shoulders. These invoca- tions and bodily movements were continued until ecstatic exhaustion was attained to, and a final cry of " Hod " — or He, The Person, The God — terminated the worshiper's devotions. While this was the course of the more vicjor- ous and able-bodied men in the circle, the older and more feeble ones would gently move their bodies back and forth, in time with the wilder worship, and give fainter expression to the one monotonous cry to God, When the scene came to be that of a circle of maniacs in the height of their delirium, an Egyptian who stood near me in the larger circle of curious or of devout spec- tators, exclaimed in admiration, "They are veiy religious men," " They are very good men." But I recalled, with a new understanding of its mean- ing, that record of the four hundred and fifty Prayers and Praying in the East. 261 prophets of Baal on the summit of Mount Car- mel who called on the name of Baal from morn- ing until noon, saying, "O l^aal, hear us ! () Baal, hear us! O Baal, hear us !"^ And I appreciated afresh the suggestion of our Lord, that in multiply- ing their vain repetitions such worshipers "think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."^ A form of prayer in common use among Bood- dhists, in Tibet and other regions of the far East, is a sentence of six syllables : " Qui niani paduie Humy — " Om! the Jewel in the Lotus ! Hum !'' Sir Monier Monier-Williams says of this mystical formula : " No other prayer used by human be- ings in any quarter of the globe is repeated so often." It is thought by the Tibetans to be "a panacea for all evil, a compendium of all knowl- edge, a treasury of all wisdom, a summary of all religion." The more times it can be repeated by the lips, or by aid of any mechanical contrivance, the better it will be for the one who causes its utterance. Every time it is repeated, it will, ac- cording to Booddhistic belief, shorten the period of its utterer's continuance in the misery and evil of some subsequent state of existence. ' I Kinjjs 18 : 26. ^Matt. 6 : 7. 262 Sfiidics in Oriental Social Life. "The words [of this prayer] are writtcm or printed on roll within roll of paper, and inscribed within cyHnders, which, when made to revolve either by educated monks or by illiterate laymen, have the same efficacy as if they were aclually said or repeated. The revolutions are credited as so much prayer-merit, or, to speak more scien- tifically, as so much prayer-force, accumulated and stored up for the benefit of the person who revolves them." Sir Monier gives an illustration of this praying by machinery, as he saw it at a Booddhist temple in Darjiling : " I found several large barrel-like cylinders set up close to each other in a row at the [temple] entrance, so that no one might pass in without giving them at least one twirl, or by a rapid sweep of the hand might set them all twirling at once. Inside the entrance portico a shriveled and exceptionally hideous old woman was seated on the ground. In her left hand she held a small portable prayer-cylinder, which she kept in perpetual revolution. In her right hand was a cord conne6ted with a huge barrel-like cylinder, which, with some exertion, she made to rotate on its axis by help of a crank, while she Prayei'S and Praying in the East. 26 J kept muttering '' Oj?i viani paninie Hflni'' (so she pronounced it) with amazing rapidity. In tliis way she completed at least sixty oral repetitions every minute, without reckoning the infinite num- ber of rotary repetitions accomplished simultane- ously by her two hands." It is plain enough that there are heathen who "think that they shall be heard for their much speaking,"^ and our Lord seemed to think that there was a danger in his day of those w^ho were better informed making the same error. Are we sure that there is nothinor of the sort amone Christians in our day ? Do we never hear the hope expressed that a certain thing will come to pass because "so many prayers have been offered for it," or that a wild young man will surely re- form before his death, because " he is a child of so many prayers " ? That simple and comprehensive prayer which we call the Lord's Prayer, and which is the ac- cepted model of all Christian prayers, was given by Jesus to his disciples on this wise: "And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples ' Matt. 6 : 7. 264 Studies in Oriental Social Life. said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples ;"^ and Jesus then gave them his matchless pattern of prayer'- as it has come down to us in the Gospels. John's direcl:ions for prayer are not preserved to us ; but from all that we know of ancient methods of prayer in the East, we have reason to suppose that the Jewish disciples of both John and Jesus were accustomed to give large prominence to ritual observances in prayer ; and that their re- quest, "Teach us to pray,"" included the idea of a prescribed form in prayer, and of essential accompaniments of prayer, however their Master may have met and answered their request. On the Egyptian monuments, and in the Egyptian papyri, are forms of prayer which were evidently in universal acceptance ; and the Fune- real Ritual, or Book of the Dead, of the Egyp- tians, was most explicit in prescribing forms of prayer and methods of using those forms. Por- tions of this ritual went back to a period long before the days of Abraham. The rabbinical dire6lions for prayer included * Luke 1 1 : I. 2 Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 1 1 : 2-4. ^ Luke 1 1 : I. Prayers and Praying in the East. 265 prescriptions in details of dress, posture, time, and place, as well as of tone, manner, and phrasing; basing each injunction on some sup- posed command of Scripture. Thus, for ex ami)le, the direc^tion to sway the body to and fro, while calling on the Lord, is said to be in accordance with Psalm 35 : 10: "All my bones shall say. Lord." And again the requirement of the abdominal responses (like the darweeshes' "Al-/^f///") is found in Psalm 130 : i : " Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord," In the estimation of a pious Muhammadan, a prayer is no prayer unless all the essential re- quirements of the prayer ritual are complied with ; and to teach a disciple hozu to pray, is no insignificant part of Muhammadan religious in- stru(5lion. It was in the superb Mosk Sultan Hassan in Cairo, that I first saw a Muhamma- dan carefully preparing himself for prayer, and praying acceptably — as he looked at the stand- ard of acceptable prayer. We who were visitintr the mosk toofether had put off our shoes from our feet at the entrance of the inner court, in order that we micrht not defile the holy ground within that sacred 266 Studies hi Oriental Social Life. enclosure. Then, our devout Alexandrian drago- man asked that he be permitted to pray, while we moved about the mosk at our pleasure. Ap- proaching the larger fountain in the center of the court, he proceeded to cleanse himself cere- monially, to "sanclify" himself for prayer, by the "wuzoo," or prescribed ablutions.^ With special ejaculations at every stage of progress, he washed his hands three times, "in the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." Three times he rinsed his mouth from the foun- tain ; three times he similarly cleansed his nos- trils, his ears, his face, his head, and his neck ; then his right hand and arm, and again his left ; and his riirht foot and his left.'- After a few more prescribed ascriptions and petitions to God, he was ready to turn toward Meccah, and begin his formal prayer. That prayer itself involved the closest adherence to ritual observances in pos- ture and phrasing. The feet must be properly placed, to begin with. Next, the open hands ^ See Num. II : i8; Josh. 3 : 5 ; 17:13; i Sam. 16:5; i Chron. 16 : 1 1 ; Matt. 15:1; Mark 7 : 3. -See Gen. 32 ; 25; Exod. 29 : 19-21; Lev. 8 : 12, 22-30; Eccl. 9 : 10; Isa. 6:7; Jer. 1:9; Matt. 8:15; 9 : 29 ; Mark 7 : 33 ; Luke 22 ; 51 ; John 12:3. Prayers and Praying in tJic East. 267 must be raised to either side of the face, the thumbs touchin<^ the lobes of the ears. Then the bowinir and kneehnir and iJrostratinLr must be in prescribed order, and in conjunc^tion with prescribed plirases of prayer. A slip in the ritual at any point is supposed to nullify the entire prayer of a Muhammadan. With such an idea of prayer, the: request, "Teach us to pray," ' has a well-defined technical mean- ing, throughout the East. That dragoman came to me one evening, on the desert, and told me that he had been teaching a group of the Ta- warah Bed'ween to pray. And when, after much expcM'imenting, his pu[)ils were sufficiently drilled to go through the ritual without a blunder, their teacher seemed as well satisfied with the result as a stricl; Presbyterian would be if his scholars could recite the entire Westminster Catechism, or as the average teacher would be when all in his class could repeat the titles, topics, and ' golden texts of the last cjuarter's lessons. There are, however, allowances made for failures in literal conformity to the ritual, through physical obstacles. Thus, for example, in the desert, ' Luke I I ; I. 268 Studies ill OricutaL Social Life. where water is not easily obtainable, the Mu- hammadan is i)ermitted to use sand or dust in his wuzoo. There are various postures in every form of prayer in the East. An Oriental would not think of remaining standing, or kneeling, or pros- trate, during an entire prayer. He would take one position in one portion of his prayer, an- other in another, and so on. In the light of this fad it will be seen how silly it is to attempt to find from the Bible narrative what was tJic proper posture in prayer in olden time. It was stand- ing, and it was crouching or squatting, and it was kneeling and it was lying prostrate, — each and all of these positions.^ We have reason to suppose that our Lord and his disciples con- formed to the customs prevalent in their time, of varying postures in prayer. The Muhammadan idea of always turning toward Meccah in prayer, as to the chief sanctu- ary of his religion, is but an adaptation of the idea of the ancient Hebrew in turning toward ' See Gen. 17 : 3, 22 ; 24 ; 48 : Num. 16 : 22 ; Josh. 5 : 14 ; 7 : 6; 1 Kings 8 ; 22, 54; i Chron. 21 : 16, 17 ; 2 Chron. 6 : 13 ; 20: 18; Ezra 9:5; 10 : I ; Psa. 95 : 6; Matt. 17 ; 14 ; Luke 22 ; 41 ; Acts 7 ; 60 ; 9:40; 20 : 36; 21 : 5. Prayers and Praying in the Past. 269 the temple at Jerusalem; and there seems to be a survival of that in the; eastward position in worship deemed important by many Christians. At the dedication of that temple, Solomon prayed God to hear and answer every prayer prayed toward that san6luary/ even though it were from those who turned toward the Holy City and its temple from a far-off land of their captiv- ity. And when Daniel was a captive in Babylon, " his windows were open in his chamber toward Jerusalem ; and he kneeled upon his knees three times a da)', and prayed, and gave thanks before his God." - Early in his career as a prophet, Muhammad prayed toward Jerusalem, but after a while he changed the direction — or "qiblah," as it is called, — of his devotions ; and he commanded his fol- lowers to pray toward the Ka'bah at Meccah. It has been said that this change of qiblah by the Prophet materially affe6led the relation of Mu- hammadanism toward other religious beliefs. Had Jerusalem remained a center of interest in the hour of prayer to Jew, to Christian, and to Muhammadan, there would have been a ten- » I Kings 8 : 29-49. ^ Dan. 6 : 10. 270 Studies ill Oriental Social Lijc. ciciicy toward unity of faith, instead of toward a divergency. In every Muhammadan mosk there is a niche, or " niihrfd)," in the main wall of the building, in the direction of Meccah ; and toward that niche every worshiper must turn befon; he can pray. The mihrab indicates the (|iblah of their worship. These niches are to be seen in every " place of prayer," by a stream of run- ning water (like that prosciiche outside of the city of Philippi where Paul met Lydia and her companions^); and again in every sacred tomb of a Muhammadan saint, or "welee." At a wayside fountain near Hebron, I observed such a place of pra)-er. The mihrab was in a low wall just eastward of the fountain ; and a Muhammadan was devoutly praying toward his Holy City as our party rode past him, and as others w(^re noisily chattering while they stopped to take water for themselves and their horses, but a few feet from him, as he prayed. Another such mihrab, marking a place of prayer, I noticed at a fountain on the way to the summit of Mt. Gerizim, not far from the probable standing- i Acts 16 : 14. Prayers and Prayi)ig in tJic East. 271 place of Jotham as he; spok(; his portentous par- able to the www of Shechem/ It was toward the mihral) in a welee's tomb at Castle Nakhl (pr()])ably the site of " El-Paran which is upon the wilderness " in the days of Kedor-la'omer),- that a you no; brideoroom came at midnight, with a noisy procession, to offer his prayers before going- to claim his bride, — as I have elsewhere described the scene. And I saw a similar mihrab in the imposing welee's tomb on that summit of the hill above the village of Nazareth whence the young Jesus must often have looked out upon the lovely view which stretches away thence on every side. In the absence of a designating mihrab, a Muhammadan must have a good knowledge of geography, and of his compass bearings, to en- able him to dire6l his prayers aright. I traveled for some time with a merchant from Bagdad, the famous city of the Khaleefs, all redolent with the memories of the "Arabian Niy-hts." When he started out from his home on the Tio-ris, he prayed southwesterly. Gradually he swept around in his travels and in his devotions, until ^ Judg. 9 : 7-21. *Gen. 14 : 1-17. ^9 272 Sfiidics ill Oriental Social Life. he had coinplctod more than half of a circle ; and when last I saw him at his c;vening prayers, on the deck of a steamer in quarantine at Port Said, in Egypt, he was praying southeasterly. Praying toward a holy place is a reminder of that which makes that place holy ; and if a wor- shiper can be in that place, instead of merely praying toward it, he feels that the value of his prayers is manifolded. Thus a Muhammadan feels that a prayer at Meccah counts for seventy thousand prayers away from there ; and he calls the Ka'bah the "Ear of God," into which his petitions can be spoken directly. And to Mu- hammadan as well as to Jew, Jerusalem also is a holy place for prayer. It is a touching sight to see the Jews, in Jeru- salem, on a Friday afternoon, assembled just eastward of the ruined walls of their ancient temple, praying toward the place where Jehovah's name was set. Old and young, men and women and children, gather there, and read anew in the Scriptures the prophecies of the desolation of the Holy City, and of its restoration. Their sorrow is real, and their devotion is unfeiofned. While some sit at a little distance from the mas- Prayers and Praying in the East. 27^ sive ruins, with their bowed heads toward the former san6luary, others stand with their heads pressed reverently against the sacred stones, and Avith tears and sobs they cry : " O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled ; They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. . . . We are become a reproach to our neit^hbors, A scorn and derision to them that arc round about us. . . . Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name : And deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake." - And asfain : " Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: Build thou the walls of Jerusalem." ^ Yet there was one thing more impressive to me personally, in the biblical associations of prayer in the East, than even this touching scene at the Jews' wailing-place in Jerusalem. My camping-ground near the Holy City was on the westerly slope of the Mount of Olives, under the very walls of the Chapel of the Ascension. Gethsemane was just below me. The valley of the brook Kidron was yet lower down. Beyond was the Holy City, with the site of the temple »Psa. 79 : I, 4, 9. 'Psa. 51 : 18. 2/4 Studies ill Oriental Soeial Life. in full view. At my left swept the road from Bethany, around the southern brow of the moun- tain, down which our Lord had passed in his one triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when " he saw the city and wept over it/ in loving" tenderness. As I stood before my tent on the evening of my arrival there, all these scenes were before me in strange freshness. Many a night had Jc;sus come out into the Mount of Olives, "as his cus- tom was,"" to continue there in prayer until his head was "filled with dew," and his "locks with the drops of the night." ^ It was from near this very mountain that Jesus had ascended to his Father; and the promise of his return is, that " his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the east."* The praying Saviour seemed very near and very real that night. Yet in spite of all this, in my weariness, I went to my tent and slept. While it was yet dark, as it began to dawn toward the day, I was awakened out of my sleep by the sud- den cry : " Rise and pray. Prayer is better than sleep. Prayer is better than sleep." It was •Luke 19 : 41. '''Luke 4 : 16; 22 : 39; Mark 10 : i. 3 Song of Songs 5 : 2. *Zech. 14:4. Prayers and Praying in tJic East. 275 almost as if the very Saviour himself had called anew to his sluggish disciples : "Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, that ye enter not into tempta- tion ;" ^ and the impulse was to render to him his own graciously suggested excuse: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."- Hut that startling call which had awakened me was the cry of the mu'azzin from the minaret of the Muhammadan mosk under the very walls of which our tent was pitched. Century after century that cry has gone up there in the gray of every morning, as if it were the echo of our Saviour's call to his disciples to "rise and pray." And hard by that Muhammadan mosk is a Christian chapel, containing the Lord's Prayer engraven on its inner walls in a score and a half of languages. Thus the Mount of Olives con- tinues to be a place of prayer for all peoples ; although neither it, nor the sacred hill which it overlooks westerly, is now the place of prayer for all the nations.'' And tJiis is the comfort of the Christian be- liever, as he rejoices in his larger privilege of 'See Matt. 26 : 45, 46; Mark 14 : 41 ; Luke 22 : 46 i^See Matt. 26 : 41. ■' Isa. 56 : 7 ; Mark 11-17. 276 Studies ill Oriental Social Life. simple, untrammeled and dire6l prayer to God, anywhere and everywhere. " The hour cometh," said Jesus, "when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. . . . But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth : for such doth the Father seek to be his worshipers,"^ * Juhn 4 : 21, 23. FOOD IN THE DESERT. One of the questions which has perplexed Bible students in conne6lion with the story of the desert life of the Israelites, is the possibility of so great a multitude hnding sustenance in that sterile region. Even the recorded miracle of the manna has not been sufficient to bring the story within the range of human probabihty in the minds of many; and returned travelers from the Arabian desert are sure to be asked : " Did you see anything that went to show the possibility of support in the desert for such a people as the Israehtes?" 277 278 Studies in Oriental Social Life. One popular method of accounting for the story as it stands, is by supposing that at that time the now desert region in question was far better wooded and watered ; and the changes in this cHre(5tion which have taken place in Palestine are pointed to in corroboration of this view. But whatever is the present correspondence of lower Palestine and the desert of Sinai, it is plain that in Old Testament times Palestine was called "a good land, a land of brooks of water, of foun- tains and depths, springing forth in valleys and hills ; a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates ; a land of oil olives and honey ; " ^ while the desert was called a "great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was no water ; " '" and even at one of its richer oases it was said : " It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates ; neither is there any water to drink." ^ There were doubtless more trees, in certani districts of the Sinaitic peninsula, a few centuries ago, than now ; but everything would go to show that the main features of that peninsula stand to- ' Dcut. ti : 7, 8. ^Deut. 8:15. ^ Num. 20:5. Food in the Desert. 279 day as they have stood for forty centuries, and that the differences between earher ages and now in the productiveness of any portion of its hind are onl)- such as the existence or the lack of cul- tivation would produce. Trom all that would appear in crossing that desert, it would be as easy for such a multitude to be sustained there now as at any former period, and the need ot a miraculous supplement to the ordinary provisions of nature would be as imperative. Moreover, there is far less difficulty in sustaining such a people in such a region, and the amount of aid by miracle requisite to their full supply of food and drink is smaller, than would be supposed by one unfamiliar with desert life and desert living. If you suppose that a Bed'wy requires the food of an ordinary American or English able-bodied man, you may well wonder how he gets it on the desert. But when you understand how little it takes to keep a Bed'wy alive, you will have no wonder that he can live, on the desert or any- where, in time of plenty or of famine. And if you think that the standard of home living is the or- dinary standard of pioneer life or campaigning, you will lose sight of the vast difference, shown 2 8o Studies in Oriental Social Life. in the Bible story, between the Israelites by the flesh-pots of Egypt, and the Israelites murmuring over their privations in the wilderness. Why, what do you suppose was the ordinary daily food of one of our Bed'ween attendants as we crossed the desert? In the first place, these men commonly walked all day long without a particle of food. When evening came, and they rested, they had their one frugal meal of the day. That meal consisted of one of two things, as I will show you. Most of them carried a little bag or package of barley Hour. Three or four of them would join together in a "mess," each putting a double- handful or so of the flour into the common stock. This Hour one of them would stir up into a paste, with water and a little salt. A rude oven would be made by digging a hole in the chalky desert bottom, and in this a fire would be lighted, of gathered sticks and vines and camel dung. When the chalky sides and bottom of the oven were well heated, the fire would be drawn out, and the paste, flattened out into a large, thin cake, would be spread upon them ; the fire would be drawn back upon the cake, and left there until Food in the Desert. 281 the cake, or, rather, sheet of bookbinders' paste, as it seemed, was thorouL,dily toughened and dried. Then the cake was taken out, the ashes partially pounded from it by a stick, and partially wiped from it b)' the skirts of the Arab's single garment, and it was divided among its owners. Each man ate his share of this that evening, un- less, as in some cases, he kept a portion until the morning, to chew upon as he journeyed. This bit of dried paste, with a moderate supply of water, was all the man's food for the twenty-four hours, as he journeyed over the desert. Nor is it an Arab alone who can live on such food as this. The Rev. F. \\\ Holland walked from Wady Mukatteb to Suez, "a distance of some one hundred and ten miles," "with no other provision than a little bag of flour ; " and that journey covered more than the entire range of the Israelites' pilgrimage, from their crossing of the Red Sea until the manna began to fall for them. Others, again, of our Bed'ween attendants, carried a small sack — a mere hand-bag slung at the side like a haversack — of Egyptian corn, much like our Indian corn, or maize. At the close of the day they roasted a double -handful 282 Studies in Oriental Soeial Life. of that corn over the fire, in a little sheet-metal pan, somewhat as we would roast coffee, and then they chewed the parched corn ^ as their rations for the da)'. It would be an encouray^ement to a Yankee landlord to start a boarding-house with such eaters as that for steady customers ! Yet those men were able-bodied, crossing' the desert on foot, under the hot sun, and over the burning Hints, with that for their accustomed daily fare. No unreasonable miracle would be called for to supply that amount of food per man to a multi- tude — would there ? General Marcy of the United States Army, in his " Prairie Traveler " gives it as his opinion, based on an extensive experience in border-life campaigning, that a man can get more helpful nourishment in desert living out of parched In- dian corn, ground or pounded and mixed with sugar, than out of any other food of like compact- ness. The correctness of this opinion was verified, to my personal knowledge, by more than one of our Union soldiers who escaped from Southern prisons, in our civil war, and lived for weeks to- gether in the woods and swamps on the way to 'Lev. 23 ; 14; Ruth 2 : 14; i Sam. 17:17; 25 : 18; 2 Sam. 17 : 28. Food in the Desert. 283 their land of promise. The heaven-sent manna, either with or without the parched corn, was about as near as could be to the food thus found in modern times most useful in desert living. '* The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and seethed it in pots, and made cakes of it." ^ "And the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." ^ My visit to the Convent of St. Catharine, at the foot of Jebel Moosa, was during the season of Lent. Of course the monks were then on fast- ing fare. They ate nothing until the close of the day. As they passed out from the vesper service in the convent chapel, they received their scanty portion of daily food, A monk stood outside the doorway with a large wooden bowl of boiled beans or lentils, and to each monk he gave in turn a ladleful of the porridge, pouring it into the outreached hands of the passer. Among the dependants of this convent are the Jebeleeyeh, said to be descended from Egyptian andWallachian slaves given to the convent by the emperor Justinian. The more helpless of these serfs are fed from the convent, and their food 'Num. 11:8. ^'Exod. 16:31. 284 Studies in Oriental Social Life. consists of coarse black bread made in hard l)alls from unbolted barley meal. One ball of this bread, about the size of a small orange, is given to a beggar for a two days' supply. I obtained a specimen ball of this bread, intending to use it as a paper-weight, but it was accidentally thrown away a few days later, being mistaken by me for a bit of granite. Then it was that I realized how a man might give to his son a stone when he asked for bread. ^ But even the parched corn or the barley flour is not an absolute necessity in the desert. There are families which live entirely on the milk of their sheep or goats or camels. For weeks to- gether men have lived on the milk of their drom- edaries as both food and drink, and this while the dromedaries had no other food than the scanty herbage of the desert soil. Professor Palmer tells of " a well-authenticated case of an Arab in the north of Syria, who for three years had not tasted either water or solid food," living on milk alone. And a Bed'wy of the desert could get along on as little as any Syrian Arab. The Bed'ween seem to live on crumbs. As we ^ Matt. 7 : 9. Food in tJic Desert. 285 sat at our meals, our Arab attendants would watch us at a distance, and when we had left the table every scrap remainini^r on it was greedily devoured by them. They would literally eat every egg-shell, every chicken bone, every potato skin and bread crust discarded by us. This fa(?t gave a new meaning to the Bible reference to the poor being fed with the crumbs that fell from the table of the rich.^ Meat is not an ordinary article of food in the desert. The; killing of an animal is called "sac- rificing," — its blood, as its "life," being poured out on the ground as an offering to the Author of life, and its flesh being eaten, as a sacrament of communion with God, and with those who are fellow-partakers of it.^ This "sacrificing" is com- mon as an a6l of hospitality, when a lamb or a kid is sacrificed in order that the guest may share its meat. And it is an accompaniment of any event of gladness, like a wedding, or a cir- cumcision, or the observance of a festival. But if flesh is desired, it is available in the desert wadies, in the goats, or the sheep, or the young ' Luke 16 : 21 ; Matt. 15 : 27 ; .Mark 7 : 28. 2 See Gen. 18: 1-8; Exod. 29: 11, 12; Lev. 4:7, 18, 25, 30, 34; 8: 15; 9:9; 17 : T3; 24:9. 286 Sttidies in Oriental Social Life. dromedaries. And there is wild game like the gazelle, or the ibex, or the quail. I saw quanti- ties of quail in the vicinity of the track of the Israelities in the desert of Sinai.^ An Arab would not be above eating broiled quail, even without toast, if he were in danger of starvation. In connection with the Bible narrative of the Israelites gorging themselves with quails, when they had the opportunity, so that a fearful pesti- lence came among them,- it is to be noted that while the Arabs of the desert ordinarily live on very scanty fare, they are ready to eat voraciously and ravenously when extra food is before them. At sacrifices and feasts, when flesh is abundant, they seem to eat without limit. It is not an un- common thincr for two Arabs to devour an entire sheep at a sitting on such an occasion. That story of the Israelites at Kibroth-hattaaveh seems perfectly natural to one familiar with desert ways. The scanty-fed Hebrews were hungry ; "and the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat ? . . . And there went forth a wind from the ' Exod. 16 ; 13 ; Num. 11 : 31. ^ Num. 11 : 31-34. Food in the Desert. 287 Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp. . . . And the people rose up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered the cpiails." ' Then the silly Orientals gorged themselves with (piail meat; and "while the ilesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague."^ And so the record stands that God "gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul," " As we journeyed through the desert our drago- man was accustomed to invite Shaykh Moosa to eat with him, out of his capacious dish filled with food prepared in Arab style, while the attendants of the shaykh must be content with their ordinary desert food. When we camped over Sunday in the vicinity of Shaykh Moosa's home, he left us for a brief visit to his family, and one " Ibra- heem " was installed in his place for the time being. This entitled ibraheem, by courtes)-, to Moosa's place in the dragoman's mess, and he fully appreciated the honor and the opportunity. ' Num. 1 1 . 4, 31, 32. ^ Num. 1 1 : 33. ^ Psa. 106 : 15 20 2 88 Studies in Oriental Socia/ Life. He seemed to feel that he must eat enougli in those two days to give him strength for forty.' At his first evening meal out of the drago- man's dish, Ibraheem was the center of admira- tion for his capacity for food. The dragoman came to my tent to ask my attention to the man. As we stood back in the shadow, and by the fire- light watched the party over the well-filled dish, we saw Ibraheem stretch out all his fingers for a clutch at the savory mess, and then open his mouth to the utmost in order to throw in the handful ; and so again and again until the last morsel was gone from the dish. "Just see him!" said the enthusiastic dragoman. "What an ap- petite God has given him ! God give us all such an appetite ! " My experience and observation in the desert, as well as my experience in army campaigning and as a prisoner of war, tended to the conviction that as a rule we take far more food than is neces- sary, or than is best for us. If we merely ate to live, instead of living to eat, it would require less for our support, and there would be less of a tax on our vital forces for the work of digestion. ^ I Kings 19 : 8. Food in tlic Desert. 2 89 But it must bci borne in mind, in considering the case of the Lsraehtes, that they went out from Egypt as an entire people, carrying more or less of supplies with them. Now a word as to caravan possibilities in the desert. When I crossed the Sinaitic desert with two young companions, I and my comrades did not live on parched corn, barley meal, black bread, or dromedaries' milk. On the contrar)-, we fared "sumptuously every day." ^ We had comfort- able tents, good beds, and easy chairs. After each day's journeying, we found our tents ready for us, and a eood dinner to be served at our call. Our table service was of P^rench china- w^are, w^ith silver-plated forks and spoons and caster. We had a good hot soup to begin with. This was followed by a curry of chicken and rice, or potted pigeons ; a joint of roast lamb or boiled mutton ; from two to four kinds of vege- tables, and a dish of macaroni; a pknn pudding or a baked custard or preserved apricots, cheese and milk-biscuit, figs and dates, and Egyptian coffee. In the early morning we had a breakfast of ' Luke 16 : 19. 290 Studies in Oriental Social Life. bread and butter and coffee, and boiled eggs or an omelet, and orange marmalade, also cold meat or a mutton chop, if we desired it. Then our tents and their furniture, and oui cooking-uten- sils, and the contents of our larder, were all started off on camels ahead of us, to be ready for our new needs in a new resting-place at the close of the day. Our immediate passenger party moved along more leisurely on the dromedaries. Halting at noon for a lunch, we had the shade of a great rock,' or of a light shelter tent, to shield us from the sun's glare ; and we had a tolerable lunch of cold chicken or lamb, some hard-boiled eggs, milk-biscuit, figs and dates and oranges, cheese, and cold tea with a touch of lemon-juice in it. The table privations of our desert life were by no means the heaviest tax on our endurance. We carried live chickens and pigeons with us, in coops swung at the camels' sides, and we drove along sheep and lambs, to kill as we had need of them. And at several points we made fresh purchases from Bed'ween or from the fella- heen Arabs, to replenish our stores. 'See Isa. 32 : 2. Food in tJic Desert. 291 It ma)' be said tliat our party was a small one, and that supplies for us would be possible where nothirii^- of the kind could be looked for to an ex- tent commensurate with the needs of the Israel- ites. True ; but there is one cara\ an of live thousand [)ersons or more, which crosises that desert from west to enst and back again ev(Ty year, on the Meccah pilgrimage, and those per- sons are cared for without serious difficulty. It is very evident from the Bible record that the Israelites moved with larire household and other supplies. They had th(;ir flocks and herds, their material and utensils for metal-working and weav- ing, and embroidery. It would be unreasonable to look upon them as wholly dependent upon the manna on the one hand, or the mere natural growth of the desert on the other. One thine is essential to an understanding of the Rible story of the Hebrew wanderings, and that is that the atlual caravan march of the host in the desert was in all but a few days or weeks at the most. The resting at Elim, and again in the neighborhood of Sinai, was in a region which to-day, as then, is well watered and compara- tively fertile. And when the boundary of the 292 Sfudics in Oriental Social Life. Neecb was reached at Kaclesh-barn(\i, and the people were turned back for a generation of des- ert life because of th(^ir lack of faith-filled obedi- ence,' there is every reason to suppose that they were not set at marching up and down, and back and forth, in solemn array, for thirty-eight years and a half, as some of the uninspired commenta- ries and maps would indicate, but were simply left to live as the Arabs of that region live to-day — sowing and reaping their barley in the wadies that stretch away from the plains of 'Ayn Oadis southward and westward, and tending their flocks in the mountain passes on every side. Kadesh itself was probably, in a certain sense, the head- quarters of the Israelites during all this period, for they are left there in the Bible story when the sentence of wandering is passed upon them, and there they are found when again they take up their formal march to Canaan. - Let me not be misunderstood as questioning the truth or the need of the miraculous supply of the Israelites in the wilderness. I only claim that there is no such unreasonableness as many have been inclined to see, in the story of such a * Num. 14 : 33, 34. ^ Num. 20 : i. Food in tJic Desert. 293 host as that of Israel sustained in tlie desert, with the ordinary means and possibilities of I i\i nor there, and the added supernatural supply of manna as material for bread, or to be used with bread, day by day, and of water on occasions of special droucrht, as at Rephidim^ and Kadesh,'^ With so vast a multitude, including many women and children, and with all the vicissitudes of sea- sons of drought and scarcity, many of the Israel- ites would have suffered sorely, in those long years of desert life, but for God's special watch and care of them. That watch and care were never wanting. Hence it was that Moses could say to his peo- ple, at the close of their exile: "The Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the w^ork of thy hand : he hath known thy walking through this great wilderness : these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee ; thou hast lacked nothing." ■' "He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knew^est not, neither did thy fathers know ; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only [natural supplies are not enough 'Exod. 17 : 1-6. ^Num. 20 : i-ii. ^ Deut. 2 : 7. 294 Sfitdics in Oriental Social Life. for a man, in tlie desert or out of it], l)nt by every tliinL;' that proceedeth out of the nioutli of the Lord iloth man ]i\-e [a j)romise ot God is a better assuranc(^ of a morning- meal than a IjaL,'^ of llour in )()ur tent, or a h\e chicken in the hands of your coc^k]. Th)' raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither chd thy foot swell, these forty years. 1 I )cut. w of the East to ^\vG a new understandincr of the Bil^le pictun^s of a multitude of halt and maimed and blind and diseased, needing cure ; and of the sure welcome accorded to one comincf amoncf them with a proffer of healing. The pictures of long ago are the realities of to-day. My earliest walk in the Arab quarter of Alex- andria, and in the streets about it, showcxl me, in one hour, more blind beggars ; more children with sore or sightless eyes — sore eyes fairly covered 295 296 Studies in Oriental Social Life. with the ever-present sluggish flics of the East, whicli no one thought of brushing away ; more helpless cripples, and half-nak(;cl creaturc^s " full of sores." ^ crouching in misery at other men's gates, — than I had seen in all my life before. And from that beginning, I was hardly ever away from the sight of disease in some of its more hopeless aspects and its more repulsive forms, until Egypt was fairly behind me, and the purer air of the desert gave freedom from the filth and the sicknesses of that degraded and sin-cursed people. At Cairo, the blind or the sick or the crippled sat at every street corner, and on every square ; were laid at every mosk door; and were cry- ing out for help or for an alms before every bazaar. Again they were found crouching under the Pyramids at Gheezeh and at Saqqarah, and along the Nile banks on either hand. Every mud village swarmed with them, as with fleas, until it seemed as if Egypt itself were a vast lazar-house, and " all manner of disease and all manner of sickness " ^ were there, without receiv- ing help or attention. 'Luke 16: 20. ajviatt. 4: 23. Calls for HcaliuQ- iji tJic East. 297 One of my companions, a medical student, ol)served the varying- phases of disease with peculiar interest; and it was his testimony, when we left Egypt for Arabia, that more than half of all the; people whom wc; had met in that land of darkness were blind or sore-cy(;d, or in some way obviously diseased. It was with a new realization of its original force and meaning that we read, on our first Sunday in the desert, at Elim, that promise of God to murmuring Israel at Marah: "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his eyes, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians : fori am the Lord that healeth thee." ^ And again, we saw the force of the threat of Moses, in case Israel should turn from the service of the Lord: "Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. And he will bring upon thee again all the diseases of ' Exod. 1 5 : 26. >.gS Studies in Oriental Soeieil Life Eii^ypt. wliicli thou wast .ifr.-nd of; and they shall cleave unto thee." ^ And that this threat has been made good, the condition of things in Pal- estine eighteen centuries ago, and to-da\-, gives evidence. Comi)aratively litth^ of dis(\ase shows itself among the Bed'ween of the; desert; but the blind and the crippled and the sick who arc there are no less pitiable in their need, nor are they less importunate in their calls for help, than the wretched sufferers who meet one at every turn in Egypt. Palestine, however, now, as doubtless was the case in the days of our Lord, seems fairly overrun with those affli6led by one form or another of bodily ailment. From Hebron to Beyrout, as our party journeyed northward, we were scarcely out of sight of some blind, or crippled, or leprous beggar, if we were in sight of any one at all. It was during Holy Week that we went from Jerusalem to Nazareth ; and whatever beggars there were, were out along the roadside at that time, to solicit alms from the pilgrims to the Holy City, at Passover season, or Easter. They Hiirly thronged the entrance ' Dcut. 28 : 59, 60. Calls for Hcalina^ in the East. 299 ways to Jerusalem, and the paths to Gethsemane and the Mount of OHves, squattiuL^ in the very- middle of the road, stretching out their skinny arms, and turning up their sightless eyes, with woful cries for pity and bakhsheesh from the howajji. Less prominence Is given to this feature of Oriental life than to many another, in the reports of travelers ; but glimpses of the facl;s in the case are not lacking in the pages of books of travel or of analytic description. Dr. Thomson, in his latest edition of "The Land and the Book," introduces his reader to the people of the land as seen on a market-day at Jaffa: "Many are blind, or have some painful defect about their eyes, and a few, sitting alone in the outskirts, must be lepers." And of his first sight of the lepers near the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem, he says: "They held up towards me their handless arms ; unearthly sounds gurgled through their throats without palates — in a word, 1 was horrihed." "One meets these unfortunate creatures in every part of the country," he says further ; "but it was only at their village in Jerusalem that the horrors of their hopeless condition were fully exposed." 300 Sliidics in Oricidal Social Life. Even "Mark Twain," wlio certainly was not in- clined to sec likenesses to the Bible story where none existed, in the Holy Land, makes mention of the wide prevalence of repulsive diseases in the cities and villages of Palestine and Syria. " Lepers, cripples, the blind, and the idiotic, assail you on every hand," he declares, in de- scribing Jerusalem. "To see the numbers of maimed, malformed, and diseased humanity that throng the holy places and obstruct the gates, one might suppose that the ancient days had come again, and that the angel of the Lord was expe6led to descend at any moment to stir the waters of Bethesda."^ And of the ordinary Syrian village, as the modern traveler finds it, he adds : " rinally you come to several sore-eyed children, and children in all stages of mutilation and decay ; and sitting humbly in the dust, and all fringed with filthy rags, is a poor devil whose arms and legs are gnarled and twisted like grape- vines." As our traveling party passed out the western o-ate of Nablus — the site of ancient Shechem, "a city of Samaria"" — a group of repulsive 'John 5 : 2-9. "•^John 4 : 5. Calls for Healing in the East. 301 lepers greeted us with calls for help. They showed various forms of that terrible disease ; the nose, or the lips, or a hand, or a foot, eaten away ; the limbs distorted ; and in one case, at least, there was "a leper as white as snow." ^ Wlicn we were fairly in our tents, beyond the city westward, those lepers came, fifteen in all, and seated themselves afar off in a semicircle facing our tents, with one of their number a little in advance of the others, holding out a dish for alms ; and as with one voice they cried aloud to us to have pity on them, and to give them aid. This surely was not unlike the days of Jesus in that very region, if not at that identi- cal spot: "And it came to pass, as they were on the way to Jerusalem, that he was passing throu'di the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."^ In view of the innumerable cases ol blindness in the East, there is only ludicrousness in the many critical attempts which have been made to >2 Kings 5 ; 27. == Luke 17 : 11-13. ■502 S//h//cs ill Oi'icii/a/ Sofia/ Life. v) reconcile the several narratives, in tin; Synoptical Gospels, of the healing of blind men by our Lord, on the occasion of his last visit to Jericho. Luke sa\s' that as Jesus wcmU into Jericho a blind man called on him for mercy, and was cured. Mark says- that a blind man, known as Barti- meus, called out and was cured, as Jesus was leav- ing Jericho, Matthew says'^ that as Jesus departed from Jericho two blind men sitting by the wayside called for mercy, and were cured. And what a fuss has been made over these several statements, as if the very integrity of the Gospel revelation were involved in their harmonizing ! Was there one blind man, or were there two, or could there have been three, at the same time, near Jericho? Was it when he went into, or when he came out from, the city, that Jesus heard the cry of the one blind man, or of the two ? Or, is it possible that one blind man cried out for help without securing it, as Jesus went into the city, and that, a second blind man having joined the first before Jesus came out, both then cried for mercy, and both received their sight ? Or, were there two Jerichos, and this happened between ^ Luke i8 : 35-43. - Mark 10 : 46-52. ^ Matt. 20 : 2')-34. Calls J or Healing in the East. 2ft them? A well-known commentator in mention- ing this clithculty refers to "the fourteen or fi(- teen proposed ways of harmonizing the discrep- ancies," What nonsense ! Why, whenever you enter any cit)' or any village in the East, you are likely totind one blind man on one side ot the way, and two blind men on the other side of the way, and all three of them are sure to call on you lor help! Antl when you go out of tiiat place you will probably tind first two blind men. and then one blind man, and then two blind men more, all ot them calling on you to show mercy to them in the name of God. It is the most natural thing in the world to believe that olu" Lord cared one blind man as he went into Jericho, and two or three as he went out. All that either of the Evangelists reports in this line is to be taken as the literal truth, eminently reasonable in the light of the present state of things in the land of our Lord — as illustrative of the state of things in the days of his mission there. l\Iy friend I )r. Hil[jrecht gave me his testi- mony at this point in a striking illustration. While in the line of his Oriental researches in 2 I 304 Studies in Oriental Social Life. Constantinople, he passed daily over \\\v. " New HridLie" across the Golden Horn, connecting the old city of Stamboul with the European quarters of Galata and Pera. On that bridge, at the very threshold of the East, he saw, every time he crossed, from four to six blind beggars, half a dozen lepers, and a dozen or more cripples, in- cluding repulsive deformities of various sorts, and all were pleading for help in their need. Again and again, as he said, the cry of his heart went up, " Oh, if the dear Master would only come down again and clear this bridge of its crowd of sufferers ! " Another facl that sheds light upon the work of Jesus and his disciples in their ministry of healing, is the universal expecftation, in the East, of the cure of disease through \\\v. supernatural power of some reputed representative of Ciod. So it is, and so it has been. This it was that crowded the five porches of Bethesda with the "multilLidc of them that were sick, bhml, lialt, withered," ' waiting anxiously ior a periodic troubling of the waters, supposed to give them curative power, as from heaven. * John 5 : 3. Calls for Healing in iJic East. 305 Lane and Klunzinger botli bear testimony to the power still exercised in lower and in upper Kg-ypt by the aid cl baraka, or " people of bless- ing." who are supposed to bring the cure of dis- ease, or other benefits, through their possession of supernatural favor. This class includes "sha\-khs or saints, especially silly, childish, crazy people, as well as ascetics and hermits ; " also the •' she- chas of the sar," or women who claim to rep- resent the sdr, or the ginji (genii) of sickness. Dr. Jessup gives a corresponding picture of the "strange-looking saints," or "horrible wretches." who wander about the Syrian country on their reputed mission of good through healing, at the present time. Herodotus told of the Babylonian custom, in his day, of la\ing a sick man in the jjublic square, in order that passers-bv miirht be of service to him ; and Dr. Edersheim quotes the Talmud in evidence that, before the days of the Apostle James,^ the " visitation of the sick was regarded as a religious duty ; the more so. that each visitor was supposed to carry away a small portion of the disease." One Talmudic writer afhrms spe- ' James 5 : 14. 3o6 Studies in Orioital Social Life. cifically, that " wliocvcr visits the sick takes away a sixtieth part of his suffering;s." Dr. Van Len- nep. referring to tlie testimony of Herodotus, shows that a similar hope of help to the sick from the prescriptions of chance visitors prevails in Syria to-tlay as in Ikibylon twenty-five centuries ago. Certainly the calls for help to the sick and suffering in the East are hardly less impressive to the modern traveler than the need of such help, all the way through Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine. As three of us sat in our tent at Wady Gharan- del, during a Sunday rest in the desert, an Arab came and sc^uatted at the tent entrance, and looking up into our faces beseechingly pointed to one of his teeth, making signs that it gave him pain, and he wanted it pulled or cured. He was not of our caravan, but having heard that " Europeans " — as all Occidental travelers are called in the East — were on the desert, he had come to us for help, in accordance with the uni- versal feeliniJ: that a wise man can cure disease. A simple palliative gave him relief, and quickly it was known in our caravan that a hakeem or "medicine-man" was one of our number, and Cnl/s for Healing in the East. 307 from that time forward calls for medical treat- ment were made on us at every turn. When ihc Re\^ Dr. Georcre Dana Boardman was traveling" over this very path, in comj)any with Dr. Darby, a well-kncnvn dentist of Phila- cU-lijJiia, th(; latter found an Arab suffering" from toothache, and relieved him by extracting^ the tooth. The next morning, as the travelers were starting on their journey, a stranger shaykh with the toothache presented himself, seeking relief lUit as Dr. Darl^y's baggage, including his case of instruments, was already packed on a baggage camel, th(; request had to be refused. When the party halted again at the close of the day, and the travelers were in their tents once more, this shaykh, wlio had patiently jogged after the cara- van all the- day long, was found squatting at the entrance of Dr. Darby's tent, pointing compla- cently at his aching tooth, with a look that seemed to say, "Perhaps you can get at your instruments now, Doctor;" and Dr. Darby so interi)ret(;d it. When the tooth had been pulled, thci old siia)kh was so delight(.;d with the skill of the perform- ance and the sense of relief followincr it, that he asked to have another tooth pulled, in view of •208 Sf?i(^ics in Oriental Social Life. the possibility of a fnsli attack of toothache when till- dentist was no loni^rr at liand. It nia\- lie that tlie Aral) who canir to us to ha\e a tooth piilk-d had been told ol Dr. Darby's skill and kindnt^ss. y\t W'ady Fayran there came a poor crii)ple invokinj^r assistance. He had been bitten by one of the "fiery serpents"^ of the desert. Rude attempts at checking- the sweep of the poison had rt;sulted in the sloughing; off of his foot and the lower part of his leg; and an ugly stump, with its withered muscles and its protruding bone, was the result. But no other aid to him than bakhsheesh was possible; from our party. A blind beggar was one of the many outside dependants of the Convent of St. Catharine at Mt. Sinai. As he sat among the old ruins near the Hill of the Golden Calf, basking in the sun- light which he could not see, I proffered him an orange, since I had found that fruit most rc^fresh- ing in our des(;rt travc;l ; and he thanked me lor it. Our dragoman suggested that the poor fel- low would prefer a crust of bread to an orange. To test him on this, the dragoman put a bit of ^Num. 21 : 6. Calls f 07' Healing in the East. 309 dry bread, brouu'lit all the way Iroin Cairo, into the blind ni;iii's Icfl hand, and ihci orange in his right, telling him that he could have- his choice between the two. Wdth a smile, the beggar cjuickly gave back the orange, and retained the crust. Then, in indication ot a want deeper than hun- ger, he poised the cc:)veted crust in one hand, and pointed with the other to his sightless eyes, asking me, in Arabic, if I could not cure him of his blindness.^ An orange was good ; bread was better; but sight was best of all. How I wished for the? power of opening those closed eyes, as the eyes of Bartimeus and his fellow-beggars were opened ! But I was helpless there. I w^as no hakeem. At Castle Nakhl, in mid-desert, the old Egyp- tian o-()vernor, a veteran soldier of the Crimean W^ar now well-nigh seventy years old, wanted us to cure him of the growinof infirmities of a^-e. Almost any medicine which we might have with us would, he thought, answer his purpose. As our party sat conversing with him, we saw three dromedaries coming at top speed over the des- ert h'om eastw^ard ; and soon old Shaykh Musleh, 'Matt. 9 : 27-30; Mark 8 : 23-25 ; John i : 1-7, 3IO Sf It dies in Oriental Social Life. of th(' Tt'cyahah tril)c, witli his son and an at- tendant, were witli us, having heard of our approach and hurried to meet us. The shaykh was evidently wasting away with consumption, and his eyes were badly inlUimecl. He asked it of us, as a personal favor, to cure his failing sit)'ht and his troublesome couo-h. He seemed to have no doubt that we could help him at both points if we chose to do so. Then his attendant wanted medicines for some sick ones who could not come to us personally. And these are but illustrations of the calls for healing, and of the hope of cure by supernatural help, which prevail throughout the East, as every traveler will be ready to testify. It was in recognition of this popular feeling that, nearly a century ago, Napoleon passed through the hospital of the Greek Convent at Jaffa, and laid his hand on those who were in- fetled with the plague, in order that they might be healed through his touch, — a relic of this Eastern superstition being found, initil lately, in the European idea that scrofula — or "king's evil" — could be cured by the touch of the king. Forty years later, the American traveler Stephens Calls for Healing in the East. 3 1 1 saw so TTiiich of this state of thinq-s in his jour- neying in Palestine and adjacent countries, that, in view of tlie gratitude shown to liiin lor his simple prescriptions to one sick shaykh after an other, his testimony was: "I cannot helj) observ- ing, ... as illustrating the state of society in the East, that if a skilful physician, by the ai)pli- cation of his medical science, should raise an Arab from what, without such application, would be his bed of death, the ignorant people would be ver)' likel)- to believe it a miracle;, and to follow him with that decree of faith which would eive evidence to the savino- virtue of touching the 'border of his orarment.' "' And when the Prince of Wales and his party were in the regions of Lebanon, forty years ago, they were beset with calls for help, not only in the political restoration of a deposed shaykh, but in the recovery of the sick. "\\\? found the stairs and corridors of the castle lined with a crowd of eager applicants," says Dean Stanley, " 'sick people taken with divers diseases,'- who, hearing that there was a medical man in the party, had thronged round him, 'beseeching him ' Mall. 14 : 36. ''■ See Mail. 4 : 24. 3 1 2 Sf?if/ics in Oriental Social Life. that he would heal thc-m.'"^ "I mention this in- cident," adds the Dean, "because it illustrates so forcibly those scenes in the gospel history, from which I have almost of necessity borrowed the language best fitted to describe the eagerness, the hope, the variet)', of the multitude who had been attra(5ted by the fame of this beneficent influence." What a light all this throws upon the human ministry of Jesus Christ and his apostles in Palestine ! He came into that vast open hos- pital of suffering and need, where longing hearts had hope, if at all, of help through some repre- sentative of God. "And Jesus went about all the cities and the villaQ^es, teachino- in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the [looked-for] kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness." "And the report of him went forth into all Syria: and they brought unto him all that were sick, holden with divers diseases and torments, possessed with devils, and epileptic, and palsied ; and he healed them."'' "Wheresoever he entered, into \illacres, or into cities, or into the countr)-. they laid the ' See Matt. 8 : 6, 7 ; Mark i : 40 ; Luke 9 : 38. ^ Matt. 9 : 35. ^Matt. 4 : 24. Calls for Healing in the F.ast. 313 sick in the in;irk('t-])lac('s, and l)(\sonoln hini that they miolit touch if it were but the border of his g-arment: and as man)- as touched liini were made whole."' The l)hnd received their si^ht, and tlie lame walked, the lepers were cleans(>d, the cleat heard, and the dead were raised up. It is no wonder that the people "were b(iyond measure astonished, saying", He hath done all thino-s well." ^ And when Jesus Christ sent out his apostles, in his name, and for his work, he "gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease and all manner ot sickness,""^ They, also, went everywhere, preaching, and teaching, and healing ; and thus the plan of God in the ministry of his Son was conformed to the weaknesses and the needs of the waiting people, among whom that ministry was hrst exercised lovingly. In his essay on The Essenes, De Ouincey calls attention to the fa6l that "at least nine in ten of Christ's miracles were medical miracles — miracles applied to derangements of the human system." *'As to the motives which sjoverned our Saviour ^ Mark 6 : 56. ^ Mark 7 : 37. ^ Matt. 10:1. 314 Studies in Oriental Social Life. in lliis particular choice," lie says, " it would be truly ridiculous, and worth)- of a modern utilita- rian, to suppose that Christ would ha\'(; suffered his time to be occupied, and the great vision of his contemplations to be interrupted, b)- an em- ployment so trilling (trilling, surel)', l)y compari- son with his trausccndcut purposes) as the healing of a few hundreds, more or less, in one small clis- tri6l, through one brief triennium. This healing office was adopted, not chiefly for its own sake, but partly as a symbolic annunciation of a supe- rior healing, abundantly significant to Oriental minds ; chiefly, however, as the indispensable means, in an Eastern land, of advertising his ap- proach far and wide, and thus convoking the people by myriads to his instru61:ions, " P^rom Barbary to Hindostan — from the set- tins' to the risinof sun — it is notorious that no traveling character is so certainly a safe one as that of Jiakiiu, or physician. As he advances on his route the news flies before him ; disease is evoked as by the rod of Amram's son ;^ the beds of sick people," in every rank, are arranged along 'See I Cliron. 6 : 3; I{!xo'^'J cavatinij;- at Niffcr, is said to have fully / 150,0x30 in . 11:13. ^ I I'et. 2: II. The Pilg7'uiiage Idea in the East. 347 ancc.^ The Feast of Tabernacles'- is the chag, or hajj, of booths or tc:nts. And when the He- brew pilgrim band had reachc.-d the Promised Land it moved in formal procession across the Jordan bed, folic )winL;' the ark of the covenant,'' and then, ha\ ing compassed the city of Jericho six da)s in succession, on the seventh day it com- passed the city seven times, until "the wall t(-ll down Hat, so that the; people went up into the city, every man straight before him;"^ and the pilgrims were in their new earthly home. In the days of the temple worship, the priests were accustomed to form in procession, and to make the circuit of the altar, on every one of the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. And on the seventh day they made that circuit seven times. It was "on the last day, the great day of the feast," while the procession, following the priest who had brought water from Siloam to pour it out in libation at the altar, that Jesus "stood and cried, saying. If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."' And it was at that same feast that Jesus said, as if to all of ' Exod. 5:1-3; see also 10:9. ' Lev. 33 ; 36. 3 Josh. 3 : 3-6. * Josh. 6:15, 16, 20. ^John 7 : 37. 348 Studies in Oriental Social Life. life's pilL^rims. " He that followeth mc shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."^ It is a custom among- the modern Jews, in the West as in the East, to make a sevenfold circuit of the synagogue, in procession, following the sacred roll, on the day after the close of the great festival season of the year. This ceremony is known as ''Rejoicing in the Law." To the present day Christian pilgrims at Jeru- salem, on Easter-tide, Greek and Roman Catho- lic alike, make the circuit of the Holy Sepulcher seven times in succession, at first slowly, and then in increasingly rapid succession. In the Greek Church, in Palestine as in Russia, a newly married couple make together a three- fold circuit of the altar before which they have just pledged their mutual marriage vows. And in the Roman Catholic Church, as also in the English, the conventional "processional" circuit would seem to be a survival of the symbolic pil- grimage idea. The Abbe DuBois tells of a custom, at a Hin- doo wedding, of the bridegroom taking his bride ijohn 8: 12. TJic Pil ovinia i^c Idea in fJic F.ast. 349 by the hand and making- the thr^c'fold circuit with her of the fire on which he offers the sacri- fice of the; " homam." This would seem to be symbolic of the beginning of their pilgrimage of life together. At Meccah all the pilgrims from abroad, and all the residents of the city, must make; at certain times a sevenfold circuit of the Ka'bah, the first three circuits being made slowly, and the last four on a quick trot, in a manner similar to that of the; Easter pilgrims to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Life's earlier years lag, but as life goes on the speed of the years accelerates. The Arabs of the Desert of Sinai also encircle, some- what after the same fashion, the ancient tomb of Neby Saleh ; and this is a part of the common worship at the welee, or tomb, of any Arab saint. Sir Monier Monier-Williams says of Booddhist observances in India and elsewhere: "One com- mon way of showing piety is by walking round tt-mpk;s, monasteries, stupas, and sacred walls, from east to west, keeping the right shoulder towards them, and even occasionally measuring the ground with the extended body." M, Hue tells of the same custom among the 350 Sf?idics jn Oriental Social Life. Booddhists of Monc^olia and Tibet. Thousands of pilgrims from China, Tibet, and Mongolia, come each year in processions to sacred lama- series, or monasteries of the Rooddhist lamas ; and, b.ax'inLT reached their destination, they cir- cuniamlndate the lamasery with prostrations in prayer at every step of the way. "Sometimes the number of devotees performing- together this painful pilgrimage is perfectly prodigious," says M. Hue. "They follow each other, in Indian file, along a narrow path which encircles the en- tire lamasery and its appendant buildings. . . . Where the lamasery is of any extent, the devo- tees have hard work to get through the ceremony in the course of a long day, . . . The pilgrim- age must be performed without intermission — so stri(5lly that the pilgrims are not allowed to stop for a moment, even to take a little nourishment. . . . Each prostration must be perfect, so that the body shall be stretched fiat along the ground and the forehead touch the earth, the arms being spread out before you, and the hands joined as if in prayer." Here would seem to be a representation of life's pilgrimage, in its persistency, in its toilsome- The Pilgrimage Idea in the East. 35 i ncss, and in its prayerfulness. "There arc vari- ous modes of performing' the pilgrimage round a himasery. Some pilgrims do not prostrate themselves at all. but carry, instead, a load of prayer-books, the exacl weight of which is pre- scribed by the Grand Lama, and the burden of which is so oppressive at times that you see old mcMi, women, and children absolutely staggering luuler it. When, however, they have successfully completed the circuit, they are deemed to have recited all the prayers contained in the books they have carried," Mr, Talcott Williams, describing various sur- vivals of primitive rites and customs in North Morocco, says of the "local pilgrimages" which he observed there: "They occur all over the East ; but I will confess to a new sensation as I was told of the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Abd es-Salem (Servant of Peace), where his descendant lived on the annual offeriuLTs, the sons of the worthy man making no small scandal by their grasping avarice, to which people went up — men, women, and children — in companies of two or three hundred, and which broke into a solemn intoned chant when the distant shrine 24 352 Studies in Oriental Social Life. was seen, in which men and women went to lay their offerings and pray for children. The fakirs from this shrine came to one village fair I at- tended, and compassed it with a solemn chant of the Moslem creed and the Fathah or opening chapter of the Koran ; and as I saw them pass around with their banner inscribed with the sacred name, and heard the slow rise and fall of their Gregorian notes, I felt I might be listening to sounds as old as the march of priest and Levite in the desert." There are vestiges of the primitive pilgrimage idea in surviving customs of peoples of Europe and America, as well as of Africa and Asia. Mrs. C. F. Gordon-Cumming, in her sketches of life " In the Hebrides," tells of such traces in lona. Speaking of the old time, she says : "When the dead were carried ashore in the Martyrs' Bay, they were laid on the green hillock of Eala, the Mound of the Burden, round which the funeral company tJirice marched suuzcise in solemn proces- sion, as they had been wont to do from time immemorial, in common with many races, both ancient and modern, in all parts ot the world. I do not suppose this custom is even now wholly The Pilgrimage Idea in the East. 35 o r T O extincl:, for even on the more advanced mainland ihc path to a church)ard is often led circuitously, so as to ensure the corpse beinL,^ carried in the more orthodox sunwise course, and the people strongly oppose any short cut, which would inter- fere with this beneficial circuit." In Philadelphia, within a comparatively few years, the body of an eminent Israelite was borne in procession seven times round the synagogue before bein^r removed for burial. And it is a common sentiment, in different parts of the United States, that a body ought not to be brought out of a church by the same aisle that it was borne along on its entrance, but that, in some way at least, a circuit should be made with it. Even the games of children, in so many of which are survivals of primitive customs, include the circuit pilgrimage idea. '"Here we go ruuiul, round, round." " Here we go round ihc mulberry bubh." " Ring around tlie rosic." Indeed, it would seem to be fair to infer that the love of the formal procession and circuit at weddinirs. at funerals, and on occasions ot dis- play the world over, is but a phase ot this idea, 154 Si It dies in Oricnial Social Life. whicli would give renewed expression to the thoLigiu in every thoughtful heart : " I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger; 1 can tarry, I can tarry but a night." "So runs the round of life from hour to hour." AN OUTLOOK FROM JACOB'S WELL. No spot in all the Holy Land was more lovely and attractive in its natural scenery, and none was richer in its varied associations of the earlier and th(' later history of the peculiar people of the Holy Land, than that re2;-ion which came within the sweep of the eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, as he sat down to rest !>)' the well which the patriarch Jacob had dui; in the field that he liought of the sons of Hamor, and gave to his loved son Joseph.^ ' Josh. 24 : 32. 355 •56 Sf?if/irs in Oriental Social Life. That well is on the western border of the Plain of Miikhna. or the IMain of tlie Cornfields,, where the Valley of Shechem opens from th<.' westward, between \\\ii mountains, Ebal on the north and Gerizim on the south, into the great caravan route that runs northward and southward bt;- tween the Nile and the Euphrates — as the hiij^h- way of the nations from the far East to the ever- extending- West. The reiii^ion itself is still the one beautiful spot in central l^alestine. Away from the extended fertile plain, with its signs of varied and hopeful cultivation, there sweeps west- ward between the mountains "a valley green with grass, gray with olives, gardens sloping down on every side, fresh springs rushing down in all directions." Northward the snowy summit of Hermon is seen in the far distance — beyond the hills of Ephraim, which skirt this plain. East- ward are the hills above the valley of the Jordan, over against the Land of Gilead, and southward, beyond Shiloh, are the hills which stand round about Jerusalem northward. The highway which was then the dire6l route between Judea and Galilee (and near which is the well of Jacob) was one of the roads which An Outlook frovi Jacol) s JIW/. 357 Kedor-la'omcr,' the I'^laniitc king-, sought to con- trol in his memorable campaign — the first great campaign of recorded history. It was a road over which the mightiest rulers of Hgypt had passed in their conquering sway — from th(; days of Thotmes HI. and Set)' I. and Rameses II. down to Shishak and Necho and tlie Ptolemies, and along which I>enhadad and Hazael and Rezin and Tiglath-pileser and Scnnacheril) and Shalmaneser and Nebuchadnezzar, and Alexan- der of Macedon also, had moved in their marches of invasion and conquest. Yet never had that road felt the tread of so mighty a ruler as the Avay-worn traveler whose tired feet rested by that well that da}', while his few humble followers had turned from the highway into a neighboring city to purchase bread. The Valley of Shechem, in full sight of the well of Jacob, was a very center, both geographi- cally and historically, of the Land of Promise. It was the first formal resting-place of Abra- ham, in Canaan,- on his pilgrim way from Chal- dea Egypt-ward. I'here Abraham reared the earliest altar in all that land to Him who called ^ Gen. 14 : 1-7. ^ tien. 12 : 5. 358 Studies in Oriental Social Life. liini. ill iinicjiK'ncss, his " iVicMKl." ' Jacob made that spot his liomc also.- There he purchased a liomestead lot, and, of course, lie diio^ a w H there; for land has no value in the East unless there is livinu; water within its bounds, at its owner's control. W hen Joseph died in a royal home in Egypt, his heart looked tcnvard Shechem lor a burial-site, and he made, his brethren prom- ise to carry his bones thither when their })ilg;rim days were over. That promise they made good, after strange vicissitudes.'' In that valley, ac- cording to the command of Moses, the whole land was formally dedicated to the God of Is- rael in a solemn assembly of the people under Joshua, '^ and Shechem itself was made a city of refuge.^ There again the people met from time to time to renew their covenant vows toward Jeho\'ah, There, on the plain, Abimelech, the first claim- ant of royal honors in Israel, was declared kint> in the days of the judges \^ and there, from one of the mountain cliffs, still pointed out, his brother ' Isa. 41:8; 2 Chron. 20 : 7 ; James 2 : 23. - Cen. 33 : 18. ^ Gen. 50 : 24-26; Exod. 13 : 19; Josh. 24 : 32. * Josh. 24 : 1-28. ^ Josh. 20 • 2, 7. ^ Judg. 9 : 6. An Outlook from JacoU s 1J\'//. 359 Jotham spoke his parable aL,^ai^st tliis 1)rief-lived usurpation/ There also, after the clays of royal splendor under David and Solomon in Jerusalem, the whole people gathered as of old in their sacred trysting-place, to inauo^urate a successor to the wisest of their monarchs ; and there the wise king's foolish son wrought the folly that divided for all time the kingdom of his fathers.- Then then; followed the days of Jeroboam and Ahab and Jehu and Jehoash and Hoshea, v.hile the words of Elijah and his successors rang out from time to time on the air of that mountain-girt re- gion ; and fmally the temple, rivaling that of restored Jerusalem, had stood for two centuries on the summit of Gerizim, before its destruction by Hyrcanus. What crowding memories of the varied past, and what teeming thoughts of the possible future, of that center of interest to the descendants of Israel, must have burdened the dream)- air about the well of Jacob, as fesus sat there by himself, in the absence of his disciples ! As Jesus sat thus b)' th(; well, then; came a ' Jiulg. 9 : 7-21. ^ I Kings 12:1; 2 Chron. 10 ; i. 360 Siicdics in Oriental Social Life. Samaritan woman to draw water from th(; wcll.^ It has been a pu/zle to many to know wh)' this woman came from the city for water from tliis well, wlien man)- other ooocl w(;lls were nearer ; and no little ingenuity has been shown in the various sugg-estions of her possible n^asons for so cominc^. F)Ut the text does not say that she came directly froni tin; cit)-, nor would it be natural to suppose that she; did so. This was the well of the cornfields, dug there for the express purpose of providing water for those employed in the sowing and the reaping of those fields. Women were often encjaofed in the labor of the fields, or in ministry to laborers there, and this Samaritan woman seems to have been so employed. Com- monly, the women drew water for the men, al- though, as a special favor, it was said by Boaz to Ruth, when sJic gleaned in th(? field with his maidens: "When thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn." " In this instance the Samaritan woman seems to have come up to the well from a remoter portion of the great grain-field, to draw water * John 4 • 5-14. * Ruth 2 : 9, A?i Outlook from Jacob's Well. 361 for herself or for those to wliom she was a helper. It is even mentioned that when she was prompted to return to her home for a special purpose, she " left her water pot" — there by the well in th«- field where it was needed — " and went away [from her work] into the city."' Why it is that this simple explanation of a natural incident in an Oriental nrrain-field has escaped the notice of commentators so oenerall)-, is in itself a mystery. Jesus said to the woman : "Give me to drink." Her answer was : " How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a Samaritan woman ?"''^ An Oriental would not as a rule speak to a stranger woman ; far less would he ask a drink froni her. In our day, and among us, even an enemy might ask or receive a drink of water without fear of compromising himself or his opponent ; but not so in the East — in th(; olden time or now. There, the giving and receiving of a drink of \vat(;r is the seeking and the making of a covenant of hospitalit)-, with all that that covenant implies. It is not, ind(H'd, like a cove- nant of blood, or a covenant of salt, indis- soluble -. but it is like the covenant of bread- 'John4:28. ^john 4 : 7, 9. 362 Sfitr/ics in Oriental Social Life. sliarinL^-. wlilcli makes a truce, for the time bcin^'- between deadliest enemies, Al^oolfeda tells, for exampl(% of \\m\ different receptions awarded by Saladeen to the king of the b>anks on the one hand, and to Prince Arnald of Caracca on the other, when the two Christian leaders were received in liis tent by the vidorious Saracen, after th(^ battle of Hat- teen. Saladeen seated the Christian king^ l^y his side, and gave him drink cooled with snow. When the king, having tasted it, offered it also to Prince Arnald, Saladeen protested, saying, "This wretch shall not drink of the water with my permission, in which there would be safety to him;" and then, rising up, he smote off the head of the prince with his own sword. Again, we are told, that when Hormozan, a Persian ruler, surrendered to the khaleef Omar, the successor of Aboo Bekr, and was brought a prisoner into the presence of his captor, he asked at once for a drink. "Omar asked him if he Avere thirsty. ' No.' he said ; ' I onl\' wish to drink in your presence, so that I may be sure of my life.' He was assured that he might rest per- fec^lly secure ; and that assurance was kept." An Outlook fro))i Jacol) s U\'ll. 363 The wonder of the Samaritan woman was that a jew should seek, by askini; and receivuig- drink, to make a h'iendly compact with a member ot a hostile race. Yet Jesus was wilHng to show that he would not holel liimseU" aloof from such as she. When the disciples of Jesus had returned to the well, and were wondering over tlu- lact that their Master was in conversation there with a Samaritan woman concerning the holiest truths of their religion. Jesus gave them a lesson of les- sons out of the faclis of the great grain-held about them there. And that lesson it is which all the followers of Jesus have reason to consider anew to-day. In Palestine, neither all the sowing nor all the reaping of tin- fields is done at one and \\\v. same season. As soon as one crop is out of the ground, another is prepared for. Plowing and sowing follow close after reaping and gleaning. Difterent crops require different lengths of time for their maturing ; and, as a consequence, the planting for one crop will sometimes be going on while another crop near it is \\(A yet ready tor the harvest. As soon as the fields are cleared, m the midsummer or in the early autumn, the ground is [64 Studies ill Oriental Social Life, plowed, and the winter wheat or some other grain is sowed, in advance of the rainy season. Again, between the early and the latter rains of the springtime there will be plowing, and the sow- ing ot barley or oats or lentils lor a later crop. In the second week in April, I saw on the Plain of the Cornhelds, not far from Jacob's \\\1I, the grain already well ripened toward the har- vest ; while just southward of that region, and again, two days later, just northward of it, I saw plowing and planting going on. Indeed, I might have been in doubt, from my own observations, whether that were the time of seed-sowing or of harvest; and so it is likely to have been in the days of Jesus, Whether this were the springtime or the early winter, whether it were at noonday or at even- tide, are points which have been much discussed in connecflion with the Gospel narration of the visit of Jesus. It would seem most natural, from the story as it stands, to suppose that the season was the springtime, and that the hour was noon- day ; but, however that may be, it is obvious that there were within the eye-sweep of Jesus and his disciples the signs of seed-sowing on the one An Outlook from Jacob' s Well. 365 hand and of ripcnino;- harvest on the other ; and that it was b)' caUing attention to these two pro- cesses of nature in so close proximity of time and space that Jesus taught the lesson he would have his disciples there receive. Pointing, perhaps, with his outstretched hand, tow^ard the sowers in the field for wdiose ministry the Samaritan woman had come to that well to draw water, he said: " Say not ye [Would ye not say, if ye were to judge from tJiat scene only], There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields [and here he may have waved his hand toward the ripening fields in an- other direction], that they are w^hite already un- to harvest." ^ And by those w^ords his disciples were showni that even while seed-sowing for one crop was going on in the natural world, there miLdit be also a makin^r ready for an ingathering of former cro|)s ; so that sowing and reaping should eo on totrether. Then came our Lord's application of this fact from nature's sphere. Here were sowers of spiritual seed starting out into the world with a mission to make ready for ijuhn 4: 35. 366 S//ui^ics ill Oriental Social Life. o a new planting; of the fields they visited. Yet those very fields had been planted by other laborers in seasons already past ; and there was a harvest work of the earlier crops to be carried on in conjunction witli the new planting. Long before these days there had been truth taught in that region, even by the rites and cere- monies on Gerizim, and by the words of the Law read responsively across the Valley of Shechem under Joshua, and by the loving worship of Je- hovah there, in the days of Jacob and his fathers, and by such teachings as were represented in the spirit and service of Melchizedek, the neigh- boring kingly priest of God Most High; and now the day had come for the gathering-in of a harvest from that old-time planting, as well as for new seed-sowing by Jesus and his disciples. " For herein [in this winning of the outside Samaritans to the truth as the truth is in Jesus] is the saying true, One soweth, anel another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye have not labored : others have labored, and ye are entered into their labor." ^ The disciples ot jesus everywhere are to realize ^Johii 4; 37, 38. An Outlook from yacob' s Well. 367 that Christianity is not set to seed-sowinc;' alone, but that it has a mission of reaping a harvc^st out of all th(; truth-plantini^ of the ages. God did not leave himself without a witn(?ss in fu -kls ■which, until to-day, were unvisitc^l by Christian teachers. He, therefore, who cmters any field, to plant there? the best of seeds, should have an eye to the whitening crop in that very field, which marks the good work of former laborers known to God alone. Herein is that saying true : " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed." ^ And herein is true that other saying also : "So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth [nor yet he that reapeth] ; but God that giveth the increase." "^ There is no form of religious belief which has not some vestige or phase of truth as its basis, however that measure of truth may be overlaid with error or obscured by evil traditions. Thus Brahmanism starts v/ith the truth of the spirit- uality of God ; ^ Booddhism with the truth of a sin-cursed world, and of man in wretched helpless- ' Amos 9 : 13. ^ \ Cor. 3 : 7. '^]o\ix\ 4 . 24. 25 368 Studies in Oriental Social Life. ness ; ^ Zoroastrianism Avith the truth of a con- stant contlicl bctwt'cn oood and evil, lio^Iit and darknc^ss ;•■ Confucianism with the primal superi- ority of man as an ideal of aspiration in life's struirirle ;•' and so on through all the forms of false religion. As saintly \\ hittier sings : " Truth is one: And, in all lands beneath the sun Whoso hath eyes to see may see The tokens of its unity. . . . In Vedic verse, in dull Koran, Are messages of good to man ; The angels to our Aryan sires Talked by the earliest household fires; The prophets of the elder day, The slant-eyed sages of Cathay, Read not the riddle all amiss Of higher life evolved from this. " Nor doth it lessen what he taught, Or make the gospel Jesus brought Less precious, that his lips retold Some portion of that truth of old; Denying not the proven seers, The tested wisdom of the years ; Confirming with his own impress The common law of righteousness. *Rom. 3 : 23. ^Eph. 6 : 12. ^Gen. i : 26; Psa. 8 : 4, 5. All Outlook from Jacob's U^cll. 369 "We search the world for truth : we mil The good, tlic true, the beautiful, From f^ravcn stone and written snoll, From all old flowcr-fields of the soul; And, weary seekers of the best. We come back laden from our quest, To find that all the sages said Is in the Book our mothers read, And all our treasure of old thought In His harmonious fulness wrought, Who gathers in one sheaf complete The scattered blades of God's sown wlicat, — Tlie common growth that maketh good His all-embracing Fatherhood." He who would go in the spirit of Christ to non- Christians as a missionary worker, should begin with them at that which he and they hold in common as a sacred truth, in order that he may lead them onward and upward to the truth which includes all truths, and which reconciles all discrepancies in Him who is " the Way and the Truth and the Life."^ "The hour comcth, and now is, when the true worshippers [(every- where] shall worship the Father in spirit and truth : for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers."-^ All the heart-yearnings, and all - John 14:6. ^ Joim 4 . 23. \lo Studies in Oi'icntal Social Lije. the soiil-outrcachini4"s toward (iod the I'^athca", in all the ages, can fnid their satisfying- in the onh'- begotten Son of God. The disciple of Jesus is to recognize the direction of all these strivings, in order to aid in their satisfying. That is the lesson of an outlook from the well of Jacob. THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. So long as the temple at Jerusalem remained, the Jews went thither to celebrate the passover feast. But when the temple was destroyed, it was no longer lawful for them to sacrifice the paschal lamb ; for the command was explicit : "Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates ; . . . but at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to cause his name to dwell in."'^ And now the Jewish observance of that feast is but a partial one. in the household, with a bit of roasted lamb to represent the com- 'Deut. i6: 5, 6. 2,^2 S/u(//\-s ill Oriental Social Life. mandcd sacrifice. In only one place in all the workl is ihere any conlinuation of that sacrifice; and that is near the ruins ut the ancient Samaritan temple on Mount Gcri/im, by the scanty rem- nant of the Samaritan people. Although that temple was imauthorized by Je- hovah, and the Samaritans were a mongrel peo- ple, with a mongrel religion,^ so many sacred associations cluster around Mount Gerizim, and the connection of the Samaritan rites and cere- monies is so direCl with the original Hebrew ritual, that an exceptional interest attaches to this one vestige of the ancient passover sacrifice, with its standing witness to God's foreshadowed plan of salvation b}' the blood of the Lamb.^ The details of this annual sacrifice, brinoino- to mind the night of the hurried exodus from Egypt, have been several times described by modern eye- witnesses ; but to each fresh observer they bring fresh inijM'essions, which justif)- their fresh recital. On an afternoon in April, with two traveling companions and our trusty dragoman, I rode from Jacob's Well up along the way by which the disciples of Jesus had gone to the city ot ' I Kings 27 : 8-12 ; 2 Kings 17 : 24-28. ^ See i Cor. 5 : 7. The Saviaritan Passover. 373 Sychar to purchase footl, while he sat by the well aiul had that memorable conversation with the woman of Samaria.^ At our right, on the north, frowned Ebal, the mount of cursing;- at our left was Gerizim. the mount of blessing/' Before us was Nablus, the modern city near the site of Sychar, and yet earlier the site of She- chem. Passing through the narrow main street of the walled town, and out of the western gate, we came to our tents, already pitched for us, where we \vere greeted by the Rev. Yohannah el-Karey, a Christian missionary at Nablus, and told that we were just in season for the pass- over sacrifice in Gerizim. A few minutes later found us ascending the mountain under his kind escort. To the manifold associations and traditions of this sacred site the remaining Samaritans cling with superstitious veneration, saying, as said the woman at the well, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ; " ^ saying even more than this, — that it was there that IMelchizedek met and blessed Abraham,'' and that there Abraham laid 1 See John 4 : 5-26. ^ Deut. 17 : 29. ' Deut. 1 1 : 29. * John 4 : 20. ^Gen. 14 ; 18, 19. 374 Sindics in Oriental Social Life. his son Isaac on the altar for sacrifice ; ^ saying this with such earnestness that more than one Christian schohir has been swept along by the strong current of local tradition to the conclusion that the claim of the Samaritan on these points is not without reasonable foundation. Nor do the Samaritans stop here w^th their claims for Geri- zim. They deem it the center of the earth, the highest mountain in the world — the only one not covered by the deluge, the place where Adam and Noah ere6led altars, and where Jacob had his vision of the heavenly ladder." It is to them the house of God and the gate of heaven. The ruins of the old Samaritan temple, still to be seen there, include, according to their tradi- tion, the twelve stones taken up out of the bed of the Jordan, by the command of Joshua, and set up as a memorial of the miraculous stoppage of the river's flow when the Israelites entered Canaan, after their forty years of wandering in the desert.'^ Less than a hundred and fifty of the Samari- tans, all told, now remain, and their number has nut materially changed for many years. They ^Gen. 22 : 9, 10. ^ Gen. 28 : 12. ^Josh. 4 : 1-9. The Samaritan Passover. 375 live in Nabliis, but on the fourteenth day of their month Nisan — at a time corresponding to our Passion Week — they leave their homes, and take themselves to the summit of Gerizim, where they pitch their tents, famih' by family, at a spot a little west of tlie temple ruins, and on somewhat lower ground, for the celebration of the passover feast. It was there that we found them as we reached the mountain top. It was near the close of day. All was ready for the sacrificial services. Between the temple ruins and the tents two fires were burning : the first in a trench, within a low-walled enclosure at the place of sacrifice, for the heating of water in two huiie caldrons or kettles tor scaldinu- the deatl lambs ; the other at a little distance from this and outside the enclosure, in a great oven or pit, some seven or eight feet deep and three or four across it, stoned up inside from the bottom, for the roastini/ of the lambs. Within the limits of the enclosure the congregation had gathered for worship. The high-priest, with a white turban, and in a pearl-colored silk surplice, knelt on a scarlet rug before a small stone bench or desk, facing the 376 Sfitdics in Oriental Social Life. temple site eastward. Two priests were back of him. His children and the children of the assist- ing- i)riests were with their fathers. The men and children of the congregation (the women remaining in their tents) were in a semicircle back of the priests, also facing the temple site. At the right of this semicircle were seven men ready to bring the prepared lambs to slaughter. Their dress was a simple white shirt or tunic, with white under-drawers. They were called "the sacrificers," or slayers. Seven lambs ap- pointed to slaughter were just before the high- priest as he knelt. It was about twenty minutes before sundown that the kneeling high-priest began the service by an invocation, imploring God's acceptance of this sacrifice according to his word, and a con- tinuance of the blessing on his people, accord- ing to his dealings with their fathers the patri- archs of old. Then came a recital of the story of the exodus, and of the institution of this sacrifice, in which the people joined with the high-priest. The service was intoned, some- what like the peculiar singing of the Egyp- tians, or the notes of the wailing darvveeshes. TJic Sauiayiian Passover. 377 At the first mention of the- name of Jehovah, all prostrated themselves, as the Israelites did when they heard that (iod would brini^ them out of l{L;\])t.' Then all rose and stood in silent prayer — in most imi)rt;ssive silence. At every subsequent mention of Jehovah's name the people put their hands to their faces, as if cover- ing their faces in the presence of God. In token of emphasis, as they recited, they repeatedly stretched out their hands with upturned palms, in Oriental demonstrativeness. In every move- ment the children followed their parents, whom they watched closely as the service proceeded. The service of worship must continue until a6lual sundown. As it went on, arrangements were in progress for the sacrifice. The lambs were carefully examined separately by an assist- ant of the high-priest, to see that they were cere- moniall)' worthy — "without blemish."- The un- leavened bread and bitter herbs were brought in on a straw mat, or platter, and laid before the high-priest. When the sunlight on the temple site above him showed that sunset was just at ^ Sec Exod. 4:31; 12 : 27. 2 Exod. 12 : 5 ; Lev. 9:3; 14 : 10 ; 23 : 12 ; Num. 29 : 2. ;^yS Studies in 07Hcntal Social Life. hand, the high-priest stepped on to the stone bench which had been his reading-desk, and looked intently toward the west, watching the sun for its slow dipping in the blue waters of the Mediterranean beyond the Plain of Sharon. He was still reciting the story of the first passover, and the people were intoning with him more earnestly than before. The seven lambs were led by attendants to the place of sacrifice, around the caldron fire, and held firmly there, without a single bleating cry. The flashing knives for their slaying were tested by the attendants. The interest in the service was intensified mo- ment by moment. At precisely sundown — "between the two evenings" — the high-priest gave the signal for the sacrifice by repeating the words of the origi- nal command to Moses: "And the whole as- sembly of the congregation of the children of Israel shall kill it at even."^ Instantly two per- sons at each lamb struggled for the privilege of killing the lamb. The high-priest was at his desk, some thirty or forty feet from the place of sacrifice, where the designated "slayers" were ^ Exod. 12-6. TJic Saiuaritau Passover. 379 already gathered. Throwin<^ off his silken sur- plice, he sprang- to the place of slaughter, and so quick and agik; was he that he killed four of the seven lambs himself. The lambs were thrown on their sides, and their throats cut with a single stroke — nearly severing the head from the body. The spurting blood was caught in basins, and the children's foreheads were marked with it, — a straight lin(^ up and down between the (;yes. The tents also were at once sprinkled with the fresh blood, above their entrance way. At the bloody sight of the slaughtered lambs, some of the children, who had borne a part in the service up to this point so heartily, began to sob and to cry aloud, which added to the excite- ment of the strange scene. Then came an out- burst of general rejoicing and mutual congratu- lations. It was "the beginning of months"^ to that people — a new year's service of thanksgiv- ing. It was like the exchanges of greetings in a New Year's morning prayer-meeting, only far more demonstrative. All embraced one another most heartily, kiss- ino- on the cheek again and again, except in 'Sec Num. 10: 10 , 28: ii. 3assover never seemed so real before. The men ate in ^ 2 Chron. 35 : 5, 6. The Samaritan Passover. 385 haste. Portions were taken to the women in their tents. Whatever remained of tlie lamb — meat or bone — was carefully gathereel up and burned in the hre. "Ye shall let nothiuL^ of it remain until the morniuL;-; but that which re- maineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire." ^ After the feast, prayers were continued by the Samaritans until the break of day, when all re- tired to their tents, — not to their homes in Na- blus, as Dean Stanley supposed ; for although the command was "Thou shalt turn in the morn- ing, and go unto thy tents," the day thus be- gun is a day of holy convocation, the hrst of the seven days' feast of unleavened bread." The first day of that feast and the day following it are observed as a sabbath, and durinof all its days the Samaritans remain at their mountain encampment. And in the early morning, in the renewed storm of rain and hail, we tound our way down the slope of Gerizim to our tents at its western base, with a new sense of the truth that "the law ' Exod. 12 : 10. '^ See 2 Chron 30:13 21 ; 35-. 17; Ezra 6 : 22 ; Ezek 45:21, ;86 Studies in Oriental Social Life. luuiiiL" a shadow of the ijood thini's to come, not the very image oi the things, they can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect:! them that draw nigh " ^ — " a shadow of the things to come ; but the body is Christ's." ^ ' Heb. lo : i. ''Col. 2 ; 17. LESSONS OF THE WILDERNESS. The Old Testament has been called the Soid's Picture Book — God's picture book tor the teach- ino- of his children. Both the history and the pre- cepts of the Old Testament are given largely in pictures, strongly drawn, clearly defined pi(::lures, the lessons of which are for all peoples and lor all times. One of the mon; prominent and more; fre- quently repeated [)ictures of the Old Testament is "The Wilderness." This picture appears over and over again, under varying designations and 387 o 88 Sfitdics in Oi'icntal Social Life. with varyinc^ accessories ; l)Ut it is wcllni^'h always the same wilderness, and ii is tu illustrate or to enforce the same great lessons. " The wilderness of Beersheba;"^ " the wilder- ness of Paran;"- "the wilderness of the Red Sea;"" " the wilderness of Etham;"^ "the wil- derness of Shiir ; " ' "the wilderness of Sin ; " '^ "the wilderness of Zin ; " " "the wilderness of Sinai ;"* " the wilderness of Kadesh ;"■' "the wil- derness ;"'" the "desert land ;"" "the w^aste howl- ing wilderness;"'^ "the great and terrible wilder- ness, wherein w^ere fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground w^here w^as no water," '- — all these are but parts, or but different descrip- tions, of the one great desert of Arabia Petraea, includino- the reofion between the two arms of the Red Sea, and extending northward to Canaan or Palestine. It was there that poor Hagar'^ wandered, with her disowned son, fainting with thirst, finding God nearest when he seemed farthest away. It was there that Hagar's son IshmaeP^ grew up to 'Gen. 21 ; 14. -Gen. 21:21. ^Exod. 13 : 18. ''Num. 33:8. *Exod. 15:22. •'Exod. 16:1. "Num. 13:21. ^Exod. 19:1. 3?sa. 29:8. '"Exod. 3:1. '-Deut. 32: 10. '-Deut. 8:15. "Gen. 21 : 14-21. '*Gen. 16:12. Lr<;sons of flic JVi/do'iicss. 389 sturdy manliood and became a rovinor hunter, the promised progenitor of a separate and huvless peopU;. It was there that Moses,' having left the luxuries of an Egyptian palace- and having crraduated from the hio;hest school of human wis- dom,'' passed forty years of quit^t training for his mighty work of lawgiver and leader to God's peculiar people ; feeding his Hock in " the back [the western side] of the wilderness,"'* and finally seeing the light of God's presence in the thorny sunt, or sin, or sina bush,'' from which the penin- sula is thoucrht to have taken its name. It was there that the children of Israel led a nomadic life "for forty years, to humble them and to prove them ; to show what was in their heart, and whether they would keep God's commandments or no." •"■ It was there that the Lord himself came down on the mountain top, and declared the law which was for all time" — "the word which he commanded to a thousand generations." * It was there again, that, in the days of apos- tate Israel, the hunted and heroic jjrophet Elijah sought a refuge in his flight from the Jehovah- ' Exod. 2:15. ^ Heb. ii : 25. ''Acts 7:22. ^Exod. 3:1. -"^Plxod. 3 :2. •■' Deut. 8 : 2. 'Exod. 19:20. *Psa. 105:8. 390 Studies in Oriental Social Life. hating Jezebel ; and it was there that an angel awakened him Iroin liis tin-d sleej) under a wide- stretching rettnn shrul; (such as gixes noontide shelter to many a weary child of the desert to- day), and fed liini willi heaven-sent food, in the strength of which he went forty days and nights, while God gave him lessons of rebuke and coun- sel and encouragement, in sights and sounds such as have never been seen and heard elsewhere than there from the beginning of days/ And there is ground for the belief that it was in that same wilderness of Arabia that Jesus of Nazareth w^as led up of the Spirit to l:ie tempted of the Devil," in those fearful forty days and nights of spiritual trial of which so much is hinted to us, beyond the little that is described. And we know that the Apostle Paul, with all his rabbinical lore and his religious zeal, and witli the special revelation to him ot the risen and glorified Saviour, w^as not yet counted ready for his pre-eminent mission in the preaching of righteousness by faith in Christ to all the ends of the earth, until he also had had his "perils in the wilderness " " by a visit to " Arabia." * ^ I Kings 19 ; 1-14. ^ Matt. 4:1. ''2 Cor. 1 1 : 26. * Gal. i : 17. Lessons of tJic Wildcinicss. 391 A wonderful wilderness that ! What arc its lessons to you and to me to-day? We have no need of drawing" on our fancy for the teachings of this wilderness picture in the Soul's Picture Book. The ins|)ired text makes them plain beyond a peradventure ; and a per- sonal examination of the region portrayed only brings out the same lessons more vividly, and impresses them indelibly. Arabia stands between Egypt and Canaan. These three lands are typical, — typical in the his- tory of God's ancient people, and typical in the history of every individual child of God. Egypt is the soul's land of bondage — the bondage of sin and sense;'' Canaan is the soul's land of promise — a land of rest by faith.- Arabia is the soul's training-school." the? land of preparation by trial and teaching for the privileges and en- joyments of the spiritual Canaan. Every soul ' Rxnd. 13 : 14; 20 : 2 ; Dcut. 5 : 6 ; 6 ; 12 ; 8 : 14 ; 13 . 5 ; Josh. 24: 17; Judg. 6: 8; 2 Kings 16 : 21 ; Isa. 19: 1-18; Ezck. 29:6-12 ; Rev. II -.8. 2 Exod. 3 : 7, 8 ; Dent, i : 7, 8, 21 ; 3 : 24-28 ; 6 : 3-12 ; 8 : 710; II ; 10-15 ; Heb. 3 : 8-11, 16-18 ; 4 : i-io. '■'■ Exod. 2 : 11-22; 3:1-6; I Kings 19 : 1-18; Gal, i : 1-17. See also Deut. 8 : 1-6, 15, 16; Gal. 4 . 22-26. 392 Sf?(dirs in Oriental Social Life. that would pass from the hmd of its sensuous en- thrahnent to the land of its promised inheritance must nc:eds !>o through the; hmd of its trainingf and instruction, there to learn lessons which can be tauorht impressively only in the facts and ex- periences of "that great and terrible wilderness." It is in the land of discipline and trial that man learns his littleness and his needs, and is impressed with a sense of God's majesty, near- ness, and love. These lessons are taught in the wilderness as they cannot be taught in the land of indulofence or of rest. There is something awe-inspiring in the natural scenery of the Arabian desert. That desert is by no means, as some might imagine, an exten- sive and monotonous sand plain. It is rather a wild mountain w^ilderness than a wilderness plain. It is a vast rolling prairie of mountain and hill and valley. Its lower portion is, indeed, such an acrg-recration of mountains that it seems rather an " infinite complication of jagged peaks and varied ridges" than a cluster of separate moun- tains. Of this portion it has been said poeti- cally, that " it would seem as if Arabia Petraea had once been an ocean of lava, and that while Lessons of the IVi/f/crncss. 393 its waves were ninniiii;- litcralU' mountains high, it was conimanded suddenl)' to stand still." The wilderness has, it is true, its watercotirses and springs, and its trees and shrubs and tlowers ; but all these are merely incidental to the wilder- ness as a wilderness, — a wilderness over which man never had, nor ever can have, the mastery ; and which in its divinel)' ordered diversity and gracefulness of material and arrangement, and in the magnitude of its proportions, sets at mockery man's hieht^st attainments of strens^th and taste and skill. Variety and beauty are found in the very sand of the desert plains and hills. Sometimes this sand glares in chalky whiteness ; again it glistens and sparkles in silvery mica and quartz ; yet agrain it is of crolden yellow. The bare hills, which often shut one in, and among the shifting passes of which one must wind and clamber for days together, are now white, now yellow or orange, now red or pink, now olive-green, now- brown or black; then they show all these hues, and others combined. These hills rise like vast temples, pillared and chambered mysteriously ; they tower like great 394 Studies in Oriental Social Life. cathedrals wilh Lj;"raccfiil ])iiinacl('s and turrets ; they open and make wa\- tor hnished amphi- theaters, — amphitheaters as well defined as the Roman Colosseum, but vaster far ; the)' mount like lotty pyramids ot different-colored strata ; they are iiplitted in the tcjrm ot hug-e sarcophag'i. At one point they show massiv(; walls, as of blocks of stone in reg^ular courses; at another they close together as if for military defense, leaving' only a narrow defile with rocky ramparts risincj eicrht hundred feet or more above the roadway. And so they exhibit the \'aster pat- terns of all the vastest works of man — as from the hand of God alone, with no sign of man's hand in their construcilion. None of the mountains, any more than the hills, are verdure-clad. They have been char- a61:erized as "the Alps unclothed." and their mighty forms are upreared in naked grandeur, ridge upon ridge and crag upon crag, from the vast Hint-covered plains at thtnr rugged bases to the jagged peaks of their loftiest summits. " Shoulder and shelf, red slope nndiry horn, Riven ravine and splintered precipice, Lead climbing thought higher and higher, until They seem to stand in heaven and speak with God." Lessons of the Wilderness. 395 Mountain upon mountain in that wild and sea- girt region stands to-day as all stood in creation's dawning. It is the primitive formation that we sec: there : red feldspar, [)urple porphyry, black hornblende, green diorite, crystal cpiartz, gray gneiss, as they glowed and glistened "when the mornino" stars sani^ tOi>;ether, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." ' They have never changed meantime, nor has man the power to change them. How impressive to the natural sense must have been the lessons of the wilderness to the Hebrews, as they came from Egypt toward the "mount of God"- in the desert of Sinai ! As they turned from the Red Sea, after their rest at Elim, the scenery about them grew wilder. The crags and bluffs were bolder. The foot-hills of the great central mountain range of the peninsula had to be crossed. There were towering hills in startling contrasts of color on every side. The wa)- led through rugged dehles and vast amphi- theaters, and over one lofty mountain pass which gave a final \ iew of the sea they had left, and of the forsaken Egypt beyond it. They had come 'Job 38:7. ^See Gen. 22 ; 14; E.\od. 3:1; 18 : 5. 396 Slii'-iirs in Oriental Social Life. out iroin a hiiul which had no ccjiial in the gran- deur and niagniticcnccof its pyramids, its palaces, and its temples. Its people and its deities had rested their claim to reverence on the surpassing glory of these earthly structures and their adorn- ings ! i\nd now these wanderers Irom Egypt found themselves surrounded by such natural pyramids and temples and obelisks as made the works of Gheezeh and Karnak and On and Zoan the merest playthings of an hour. The brightest colors on the walls of temple or tomb at Luxor, Philaf, Aboo Simbel, Saqqarah, and Beni Hassan, were paled by contrast with the glowing hues of the mountains and the hills among which the Hebrews found their winding way. Nothing that they had ever seen approached the sight that was now before their eyes. And as they passed on from day to day, seeing neww^onders of nature, and hnding the grandeur of the mountain scenery growing with each hour, until the magnificent five-peaked summit of Ser- bal, and again loftier summits beyond it, rose commandingly before them, would it be strange if the feeling of their hearts found expression in the cry of Moses, their divinely sent leader : Lessons of iJic JJlidcrncss. 397 "Jehovah, thou hasl Ijccn our dwcllinc^-place In all generations. Before the mountains were ljrou;.;ht fortli, Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and ihe world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art dod" ?^ What were the sanctuaries of the many L^ods of Egypt in comparison with the vast naUiral It-m- ple of the great I AIM,- the outer corridors of which they were now traversing in order to meet him in the place which he; had said was "holy ground" ! ■' And the experience of the Hebrews is the experience of every traveler in this wilder- ness to-day, as to its impressiveness and its practi- cal lessons. The very silence in those mountain stillnesses is oppressively e;loc|uent — " A silence as if God in heaven were still. And meditating some new wonder ; " and any breaking- of that silence is not less elo- quent, to remind man of his littleness before God. The loneliness of the resfion, the nakedness of the sheer granite walls, and a peculiar atmospheric condition, coniliinc to give a preeminence to the human voice which makes its very use a rever- ^Psa. 90 : I, 2. ^Exod. 3 ; 14. ^Exod. 3 : 5. \gS Studies in Oriental Social Life. bcraLiiiL-' rebuke lo the iiUriKler who has vcn- tui'cd it. It is as tliou^h one were si)eakinL,^ in a vast glass bell, his vuice ringing back to liini ironi every side. Deeply cut inscriptions are seen at the en- trance of cavernous mines, — inscriptions showing that Egyptians worked those mines in the days t)f Snefru and Cheops, builders of the first great pyramids ; inscriptions which were already dark- ened by the changes of a thousand years when Moses read their familiar writing as he led his father-in-law's flocks to feed along their front.^ But those inscriptions only suggest how many generations of the wisest and strongest sons of men have sought the treasures of those moun- tains, and have come and gone over those desert wastes, without the possibility of making that region other than it is, and was, and is to be, a "great and terrible wilderness." It is not as when one moves among the ruins of a former civilization, now a wilderness but once a place of teeming life ; nor is it as when one visits a region yet unsought by man, but which may be rescued from its desolateness. Here, * Exod. 3 : 1. Lessons of tJic U^ildcrness. 399 save in one or two utterly exceptional spots, man never has been, nor ever can he, a dweller, ex- cept as a pilgrim, a fugitive, or an explorer. This is God's region, not man's. Bright -colored flowers, beautiful llowt^rs in varied form and hue and fragrance, spring up startlingly out of the crystal sand, and from among the spear-head flints ; but these give no sign of man's presence, nor encourage it. They are not there by cultivation ; nor could cultiva- tion promote their growth in such a soil. They only show what God can do — anywhere. And the same is true of the scanty and scattered trees and shrubs of the desert. They are there be- cause God is there, not because man is or has been there. Then again there are great stretches of bald desert, of waste howling wilderness, of burning sand under a burning sky. " All around To the bound Of the vast horizon's round All sand, sand, sand ; All burning, glaring sand. • • • • Not a sound, All around, 27 400 Studies ill Oriental Social Life Save the padded beat and bound Of the camel on the sand, Of the feet of the camel on the sand. Not a bird is in the nir, Thouj^h the sun with l)urnin,LC stare Is ]irying everywhere, O'er the yellow thirsty desert, so desolately trrand." ' &' And there are flint-covered plains l)ounded by fire-blackened hills, at the foot and along the sides of which volcanic slag is scattered and heaped as if all the furnaces of earth had thrown their refuse there for centuries. Hissine ser- pents and crawling lizards are the chief signs of life in such regions as this ; and blinding sand- storms and the deceitful miraLre are its bewilder- ing accessories. To move on throucrh the mountain ranches, and among the winding hills, and over the flint plains and sand wastes, of this " great and terrible wilderness" for days and weeks together, with scorching flesh and parching lips, seeing so much of the might of God, and so little of man save his helplessness, forces on the traveler a sense of his dependence and littleness, and brings him 1 W. W. Story. Lessons of the Wilderness. 401 to cry with the Bed'ween : " AlldJiiL akbar Id ildha iir alldJi,^' — "Only God is great. There is no God but God," The Arabian desert proffers in itself no suffi- ciency for the support of human lift; ; and this very lack brinies to a traveler there a peculiar sense of human needs. You must, at all events, face such of your needs as you are called to pro- vide against before starting on your journey. There are no houses of entertainment along the way. You cannot hope to find even a Bed'wy camp to rest in at night. Nor are you sure of a retem-bush or a turfa-shrub to shield you from the glare of noonday. You must carry tents or be without shelter. You must also carry a supply of water, in wooden casks or in leathern sacks, — "bottles," the Bible calls them ; and you never so realize your constant need of water as when )'Our scanty stock of it is failing, and you cannot safely use enough of it to moisten freely your parching throat. All the food you are to live on you must bring from outside, and you are surprised to find how much food you require, and how man)'^ camels to carry your food and water and tents, for even 402 Studies in Oriental Soeieil Life a thirty clays' stretch across the desert. To see your caravan made ready for you, and to learn that it is as small as will meet your necessities, forces the thought, "I never knew before that I had so many needs." You need special guidance as well as supplies. Moses realized this when he entreated Hobab, his brother-in-law, to be a guide to the Israelites on their journey from Sinai to Canaan : "Leave us not, I pray thee ; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou shalt be to us instead of eyes."^ You must have a skilled drao^oman — a man familiar with the desert w^ants and the desert ways — to make intelligent provision for your necessities, and to guide you on your course. And you must have protection as well as guid- ance. The most venturesome dragoman dares not attempt to guide a party over the desert except under the guardianship of the local shaykh of the Arab tribe whose territory he traverses. At each new stretch of the desert you must ha\'e the protection and company of a new shaykh. "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not ' Num. lo : 10-32. Lessons of the Wilderness. 403 up hence ! " ^ was a fitting- cry of Moses, as he thouirht of his mission of "-uidino:- the Israehtes through Jehovah's domain of the "great and terrible wilderness." Yet with the sense of man's littleness and needs, and of God's majesty, coming in the les- sons of the wilderness, the proofs of God's loving nearness are about and above the traveler. Nowhere else in all the world do the heavens seem more impressive, more glorious with the immediate presence of their Creator, than at night in the lonely desert, where their blue vault comes down on every side to touch the horizon of the boundless sea of sand : " In full-orbed glory yonder moon divine Rolls through the dark-blue deptli^. Beneath her steady ray The desert-circle spreads, Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky." Then, indeed, you seem face to face with God, and God's love shines toward you in the soft litfht of his stars. o " The heavens declare the glory of God ; And the firmament showeth his handywork." * ^ Exod. 33 : 13. ^Psa. 19 : I. 404 Studies in Oriental Social Life. And the awe-impressed observer, in the desert, of the divine handiwork above and around him exclaims, in reverence and gratitude : "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained ; What is man that thou art mindful of him ? And the son of man that thou visitest him ? For thou hast made him but httle lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor. O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth I " ^ God's love shines out there also in the beautiful flowers which start up in varied shape and color from among- the flints and out of the sand, as if to speak cheering words to the traveler, who might doubt whether God's curse had not rested on all that region. Flowers nowhere tell of God's love more eloquently than in the desert, where that mission seems their only one. So, again, it is with the occasional springs and wells of water in the desert. The very facl; that they are so few, and, from the appearance of the country, so unlooked for, helps the thirsting traveler to realize that it is God's love which has » Psa. 8 : 3-9. Lessons of the Wilderness. 405 provided them at all ; " which [has] turned the rock into a pool of water, the llint into a foun- tain of waters ;" ' which makes in "the wilder- ness a pool of water, and [in] the dry land springs of water." '^ Every spring or pool in the desert seems hardly less truly a loving gift of God than was the water from the smitten rock at Rephidini'^ or at Kadesh.* The Bed'wy dweller in, or passer over, the desert, seems to realize in a peculiar degree the ever-present love and the unfailing protection and ministry of God. He calls himself, in his nomad life, the "guest of God," and he welcomes gladly every stranger pilgrim as his brother wan- derer in God's domain, and invites him to a share in the free cfifts of their common Father. Striking his "house of hair" in the early morn- ing, the Bed'wy gathers up all his earthly belong- ings, and with his wife and children starts out on another stage of pilgrimage, to seek a temporary rest where the night shall find him; and so he lives from day to day in unwavering trust in, and as a constant witness to, the Divine love that ' Psa. 114 : 8. 2 isa. 41 : 18. ^Exod. 17 : 1-6. *Num. 20; 11. 4o6 Studies in Oriental Social Life. never fails nor falters. The water springs out from the desert for the quenching of his thirst, and the scanty food of the desert supplies his hunger ; and his safety and his sustenance are alike proofs of his Father's love. He has here no "continuing city,"^ but, like the Father of the Faithful, he is a sojourner in a land not his own, dwelling in tents like Isaac and Jacob, looking forward to an abode " in the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.'"^ Only God's love could make such a life tolerable, and only in the desert is it a reality. Even the great, ungainly, grotesque camel is a living witness to God's love in the wilderness. What but that love could have designed such a creature for such a region ? Even its seeming malformations all have their special adaptedness to the special necessities of the wilderness. Its broad, spongy, shapeless foot fits the sand and the flint, to steady the tread where a hoof w^ould sink, or crack, or stumble. Its ugly hump holds a pack-saddle in place as no girth would do it in the wild mountain passes which it must clamber and descend ; and that hump is its reserve sup- ^Heb. 13 : 14. '^Heb. 11 ; 8-10. Lessons of the Wilderness. 407 ply of life-nourishment in the desert. A more shapely or graceful neck or lip would be less suited to reach after and to catch at the scanty herbage along its path as it journeys — its chief mode of desert feeding. If its limbs or its joints or its hide were like any other creature's, or if it lacked its own unique stomach-cistern, it could never fill the place or do the work in the wilder- ness to which it is now so wonderfully adapted by the wonderful love of God. So. in the desert itself, in its produclions and accessories, and in the characteristics and ways of its inhabitants, there are lessons of the needs and the dependence of man, and of the greatness and the love of God, which cannot be ignored there, however they might be ignored elsewhere. They stand out in the greater prominence and impressiveness because of the desolateness and dreariness of their surroundings, and the mind of the dweller there is better prepared to per- ceive and gratefully to acknowledge them. And these lessons of the wilderness are for us all, in our earthly pilgrimage. " The path of hfe we walk to-day- Is strange as that the Hebrews trod ; 4o8 Studies in Oriental Social Life. Wc need the shadowing rock as they, — We need, like them, the guides of God. " God send his angels. Cloud and Fire, To lead us o'er the desert sand I God give our hearts their long desire, His shadow in a weary land ! " INDEXES. TOPICAL INDEX. Aahmes - Neferlari, queen - dowager, 251- Aaron, house of, 112. Aaron, Jacob, Samaritan high-priest, 382. Alicl es-Saleni, shrine of, 351. Ahderrahinan, mourning over, 157 f. Abdominal responses, 265. Abel as pilgrim, 345 f. Abigail and David, 63. Abimelech made king of Israel, 358. Abimelech's covenant with Isaac, 108. Abishag and Adonijah, 63. Ablutions and postures, 266. Abner and Joab, 130 f. Aboo Bekr, mention of, 362. Aboo Simbel, teinples and tombs at, 396. Aboolfeda ; cited, 362. Abraham : and Isaac, 12 ; his gift to Rebekah, 22; references to, 77, 140, 225, 239. 264; tomb of, 195 ; " chil- dren of," 241 ; his old home, 257 f. ; his pilgrim life, 341 f., 406; his first resting-place in Canaan, 357 ; friend of God, 357 f. ; blessed by Melchise- dek, 373 ; offering up Isaac, 373 f. ; dwelling in tents, 406. Absalom, 214 f., 225. Abyssinia: reference to, 81, iii; pre- paring the way m. 226 f. , pilgrims from, 335. Achsah promised in marriage, 12. Acre and Sidon, pasha of, 115. Adabazar, incident in, 115 f. Adam, tradition of, at Gerizim, 374. Adonijah and Abishag, 63. Adonis, Venus lamenting over, 197. Affcj tribes in Babylonia, 326. Africa: hospitality in, 1 18-120; food for dead in, 176 ; burial customs in, 23- 176 f. ; reference to, 222 f. vivals of pilgrimage in, 352. Ahab, 214, 359. Aldcn, John, as " go-between,' " Alderman," meaning of, 243. Alexander, Grand Duke, prcjvaring the way for, 217 f. Alexander the Great : projedled road- making of, 222 f. ; campaigns of, 357. Alexandretta, reference to, 330. Alexandria: hospitality in, 95; mourn- ing party in, 188 f. ; first glimpse of, 209 ; harbor of, 209 f. ; sights of, 212; Arab quarter of, 212, 295 f . ; preparing the way in, 216; Oriental at prayer in, 255 f. ; dragoman of, 266, 329. " AH roads lead to Rome," 224. Allah Nazr, hospitableToorkoman, 97f. Allen, Dr., in Korea, 317. Alms : crying for, 296, 298, 301 ; dif- ference between asking gift and ask- ing, 327. "Alps unclothed," Sinaitie mountains referred to as, 394. Altar . circuit of, 347 ; to God, earliest in Canaan, 357 f. Amen, reference to, 248. Amenophis II., reference to, 248. America: pilgrimage survivals in, 3:;2. American Indians : their hospitality, 138 f. ; their buri:d customs, 176. Amorites, road through land of, 223. Amos . his references to mourning, 153. 161. Amulets, sellers of, 335. 'Anazehs, hospitality among, 76, 115. Animal, "sacrificing" of, 165-167,285. Animal food, rarity of, in desert, 48, 285-287. Anklets ; as bridal ornaments, 41 ; 411 412 Topical Index. worn by ricli and poor, 321 ; made of silver, 326. Anti-Lebanon, hospitality in, 83 f. Anticiuity : of hospitality, 136 f. ; of funeral procession, 163 f . ; of fune- ral feast, 167; of pilgrimages, 339 f. Apocalypse, marriage rejoicings in, 56. Ajioslles: reference to, 312; given authority to heal diseases, 313. Apricots, preserved, in desert, 289. April: grain ripened in, 364; visit to Gerizim in, 372. Aqabar, Gulf of, 334. Arab quarter of Alexandria, 212, 295 f. Arabia : marriage of blood relatives in, 31 ; wedding scene in, 45-58; hospitality in, 81, 94 f,, 125; guest- houses and guest-chambers in, 95; funeral feasts in, 165 ; roads in, 216 ; need of help for sick in, 306; un- changing customs of, 320 f., 325; gold and silver in, 324 ; many names for, 388 ; Jesus in wilderness of, 390 ; Paul's training in, 390; soul's train- ing-school, 391 ; description of, 392 ; scenery of, 392 ; no support for man in, 401. "Arabian Nights:" description of wedding in, 40; reference to, 271. Arabic Africa, hospitality in, 118-120. Arabic words, reference to, 245, 309, 323. 346. Arabs: of Sinaitic Peninsula, betrothal among, 29 f. ; marriage of bloodrela- tives among, 31; of Nakhl, 48; their idea of value of time, 80 ; their estimate of hospitality, 96, 120 ; proverb of, loi ; sharp pradtice of, loi ; their self-control when im- posed on, 102; references to, 124, 210 f., 241, 243, 250, 256, 258, 281, 306-308, 311, 327, 349; mourning among, 194 ; at tomb of Shaykh Szaleh, 195 ; reverence for parents among, 249 f. ; greediness of, 284 f. ; scanty fare of, 284, 286 ; preparation of food among, 287. Arculf, Bishop, quotation from, 336. Ark of the covenant, 347. Armenian love-tale, 65 f. Armenian Christians in Jerusalem, 335. Arnald, Prince, refusal of water to, 362. Artemisia's monument to her hus- band, 71. Aryans : betrothal among, 27 ; refer- ence to, 368. Ascension, Chapel of the, 273 f., 336 f. Ascriptions before prayer, 266. Asia : hospitality in, 82 f., 96 f. ; royal roads in, 220 f. ; reference to, 221 ; survivals of pilgrimage in, 352. "Asking" not "borrowing," 327. Assyria: betrothal contrails in, 23 f . ; marriage of blood relatives among, 32 ; romantic love in mythology of, 63 f. ; docftrine of future life in, 199; roads in, 220 f. Asylum, right of, 105 f., 126 f., 130 f., 134- Atad, threshing-floor of, 169. Athaliah as ruler, 68. Austria, Crown Prince of, 217. Avenger of blood, appeal from, 134 f. 'Ayn Qadis, sowing and reaping near, 292. 'Azazimeh tribe, adventure with, 107 f. 'Azazimeh shaykh, 258. Baal, priests of, 214, 261. Babel and Pandemonium, 210. Babylon: marriage customs in ancient, 22; prophecy against, 174; king- dom of, 233 ; reference to, 269, 306. Babylonia: road-making in, 221 f . ; healing custom in, 305; Affej tribes of, 326 ; exploring expedition to, 326 f. Bacon, Leonard Woolsey : cited, 150. Bakhsheesh : refused for hospitality, 89-91, 115; from howajji, 299; for cripple, 308 ; beggar's cry for, 327 ; conception of, in East, 327-332 ; in- cluded in contradl, 328. Barak and Deborah, 127. Barbarians, hospitality a virtue of, 81. Barbary : scenes of mourning in, 155 f. ; reference to, 314. Barley : land of, 278 ; cakes of, in desert, 280 f. ; references to, 280, 28. ^, 289, 323 ; sowing of, 364. Bartimeus, blind, reference to, 309. Battle of Hatteen, 362. Bazaars : of Cairo, 296, 325, 335 ; of Jerusalem and Damascus, 325. Beard, advantages of patriarchal, 245. Bed'ween : hospitality among, 76- 82, no f. ; funeral feasts among, 166 f. ; honor to Shaykh Szaleh, Topical Index. 413 194 ; tombs of protedling saints among, 195 ; references to, 244 f., 281, 290 ; reverence for father among, 250 ; praying man among, 258 ; limited requirements of, 278- 285 ; comparative hcaltli of, 298 ; descendants of Ishmaelites, 324; gold and silver among, 325. j Roerslicha: adventure at, 107 f. ; cove- nant at, 108; wells of, 108, 257 f. Beggars : references to, 284, 327 ; of Alexandria, 295 f ; of Constanti- nople, 304 ; near Mt. Sinai, 308. ■' Beginning of months, the," 379. Belial, " daughters of " and "sons of," 242. Bcnhadad, campaigns of, 357. Benjamin: reference to, 191; wailing among tribe of, 192; "sons of" 241 f. Benjamite lack of hospitality, 133 f. Berber, funeral feast in, 166. Besharah, reference to, loi. " Best man," 17-19. Bethany : grave of Lazarus at, 177 f. ; road from, 274. Bethel, mourning at, 151. Bethesda, waters of, 300, 304. Bethlehem : and Ramah, lessons from, 191 f ; Rachel's tomb near, 191 f. ; wailing in, 192; founder of, 240. Betrothal : before birth, 8 ; in China, 8, II ; in India, 8, 26; prominence of, in East, 8 ; based on dowry, 9; cord of, n ; recognition of daugh- ter's choice in, 13; in Lebanon region, 14; in Upper Syria, 14; in Upper Egypt, 14-21 ; among Arabs, 14-21, 27 f. ; food-sharing before, 15 f. ; preliminaries to, 15-20 ; ex- amination of candidate for, 17; vari- ations in customs of, 20-22 ; con- tradts of, between parents, 20, 23 f.; compensation to bride's parents at, 22 ; of Isaac and Rebekah, 22; sought as means of influence, 25 ; in childhood, 26 : sacred as mar- riage ceremony, 26 ; among Aryan and Semitic peoples, 27 ; feast at, 27; arranged by professional "go- between," 31 ; lessons from wed- dings and, 63, 206. Betrothal and marriage, contra(5ls of, equivalent, 21 f. Betrothed regarded as wife, 26. Betrothing eider sister for younger, 31. Beyrout : route from Hebron to, 298 ; Prussian hospital at, 330. Bible : dodlrine of marriage in, 33; wedding customs in, 41 f . ; wed- ding processions in, 45 ; descrip- tion of model woman in, 69 f ; guest- chamber in, 95; word dakhecl in, 135 f ; teachings of, as to hospi- tality, 140 f ; tear-bottle in, 160; wailing and mourning in, 161; life afterdeath in, 173 f.. 198-200; assem- blies at graves in, 191 f . ; references to, 207 f , 286, 346; forerunner in, 216 ; translation oiderekh and hodos in,2i9f. ; word "ways" in, 230-236; word "father" in, 239; prayer in, 255 ; posture in prayer in, 268 ; story of Israelites in, 280, 291, 319, 324 f ; resonableness of miracles in, 292- 294; promises of, 318; pilgrimage idea in, 340. Bicycle safe in strangers' hands, 82. Bishop Arculf, quotation from, 336. Bishop, Isabella Bird, quotation from, 315 f- Bitten by " fiery serpent," 308. " Bitter herbs " at passover, 377, 382. Blessmg, mount of, 373. Blind: in Alexandria, 212, 295 f ; in Cairo, 296 ; among Bed'wcen, 298 ; in Palestine, 298-304, 313, 316 ; in Constantinople, 304 ; near Mt. Sinai, 308 f. Blood : for God, flesh for man, 47 f. ; represents life, 157, 285; sprinkled over dead, 157 f. ; aprons stained with, 158 f. ; Levitical prohibition of, 160; covenant of, 361 ; of the Lamb, 372 ; of sacrifice, 379; chil- dren marked with blood 379; door- way springled with, 381 f. Blunt, Lady Anne, quotation from, 31, 94, IIS, 132 f- Blunt, Sir Wilfred, quotation from, 31, 96. Boardman, George Dana: cited, 307 f. Boaz and Ruth, 360. Body taken around church, 353. Booddha's " Dhammapada," 230. Booddhism : and "the way," 230; prayer formula of, 261 ; belief of, 261; in India, 349; circumambula- 4U Topical Index. tions in, 349-351 ; monasteries of, 350; trutli of, 367. Roocklliist temple in Darjiling, 262. Book of the Dead, Egyptian, 136, 264. Hookbindcrs' paste as food, 280 f. Boolaq, museum at, 324. Booths: livingin,344; and tents, 347. " Borrowed," word translated in Eng- lish Bible, 320. " Borrowing " of Israelites, 320, 327. " Bosh," use of word for divorce, 37. Bottled tears : buried with dead, 156 , preserved among living, 156 f., 187. Bottles, goat-skin, 213. Bowing; prescribed by Muhamma- dans, 267 ; toward temple ruin, 272 f. Bracelets ■. worn by all classes, 321 ; of Bed'wy woman, 326. Brahmanism, truth of, 367. Brahmans, food for dead among, 176. Bread : baked on ashes, 93 , sharmg of, 97, no f., 361 f . ; with grape- molasses, hi; made in hard balls, 283 f., 289 f. ; crust of, 285 ; manna as material for, 293 ; preferred to fruit, 308 f. ; feast of unleavened, 340 ; for passover feast, 377. Bread-sharing, covenant of, 361 f. Breast-beating and wailing, 169, 181. Bridal ornaments hired, 51. Bridal veil in ceremony, 42 f. Bride: donor of, 11 ; dowry paid to, 22 ; compensation of parents of, 22; " capture of," 27-30; taken to new home, 32 f., 44 ; belonging to her mother-in-law, 33 ; loaded down with treasure, 35 f. ; presented in her various costumes, 39 f. ; her trous- seau exhibited, 39 f., 44 ; ornaments of, in Damascus and Constantino- ple, 41 ; veiled in red shawl, 50 ; lifted over threshold, 53. Bride and bridegroom : first meeting of, at marriage, 58 ; borne in "palankeens," 61; making circuit of fire, 348 f. Bride's dowry : portion of, 20, 22 ; carried with her, 323. Bridechamber, children of, 242. Bridegroom: " friend of," 17; proces- sion of, to meet bride, 44-46, 53 f. ; joy of, 45, 59; going to prayers, 57. Brooches: as bridal ornaments, 41; worn by rich and poor, 321. Brotherhood of man, 125, 131, 206 f. Browning, Robert, quotation from, 10. Bruce, James, quotation from, 81, 107, 226. Bubastis, pilgrimage to, 340. Buffalo for funeral feast, 166-168. Burckhardt, J. L., quotation trom, 83-89, 96, 101, 114 f., 149, 165 f., 175 f-. 195- Burghul m funeral feast, 167. Burial' on day of death, 162, 177; sharing food at, 165-167; forbidden to unworthy, 171 -175; supplies for dead at, 175-177; circuit of syna- gogue at, 353. Burial customs: in Egypt, 156, 165, 175; in Syria, 156, 165 f. ; in Arabia, 165; among Bed'ween Arabs, 166; in Palestine, 172; in Nubia, 175 f . , in China, Russia, South Africa, and America, 176 ; in India, 176 f. Burning; of wives, 177; of wool and entrails of lamb, 380. Burton, Lady, quotation from, 38. Burton, Sir Richard, quotation from, 24, 82, 96, 102, 342. Busiris, place of pilgrimage, 340. "Butter;" in Bible, 78; in desert, 289 f. Cairo : strings of coins on school- girls in, 36 ; wedding processions in, 44; funeral procession in, 162, "howling" darweeshes in, 259 ; pre- paring to pray in, 265 ; sickness and suffering in, 296 ; bread from, 308 f. : bazaars of, 325, 335. Caleb and Achsah, 12. Calf, golden ear-rings made into, 319. Calling : on name of Lord, 135 ; on the dead, 151, 177. Camel-driver's loss of coin, 323 f. Camels: wedding gifts exliibited on, 44; sacrifice of, 93 ; throwing dust on, 194 ; milk of, 284 ; skeletons of, on great Hajj route, 334. Canaan : Jacob's burial in, 169 f. ; marcli of Israelites to, 292, 374 ; Abraham's pilgrimage to, 357. Canaanite doctrine of future life, 199. Candace, queen of Ethiopians, 68. Canopy for bride in processions, 51. " Capturing a bride," 27-30. Caracca, Prince Arnald of, 362. Topical Index. 4^=^ Caravan of pilgrims : to Meccah, 291 ; to Jerusalem, 339. 343. Caravan route, great, 356. Carmcl, Ahab at, 214. Castle Naklil : wedding at, 45-58; changing camels at, 244; incident at, 250 ; governor of, 309, 328 ; call for healing at, 328 ; bakhsheesh at, 32S. Catafalques in funerals. 168. Catechism, Westminster, 267. Catharine, St., Convent of, 283, 308. Cathay, sages of, 368. Celtic mourning survivals 152 f., 198. Ceremonial cleansing, 266-268. Ceremonies on Gerizim, 366, 371-386. Ceremony : of hand-shaking, 15 ; of pilgrimage, 350. Chabas, Frangois, quotation from, 249. Chaldea: inscriptions of, 153 ; mourn- ing in, 197; Abraham's pilgrimage from, 357. Changeless Oriental mind, 7. Chanting of religious sentences, 163 ; of dirge, 184, 193; of Quran and IMoslem creed, 352. Chapel of the Ascension, 273, 336 f. Chardin.Sir John, quotation from, 148. Chenan, Shaykh, legend of, 65 f. Cheops, builders of pyramid of, 398. Chicken in desert, 289 f. Chicken-bones and egg-shells as food, 285. Chieftain, burial of wives with, 176 f. Child-betrothals in Chinaand India, 8. Child-marriage in India, 10 f. Child-widows in India, 26. Children : in wedding processions, 50 ; in streets of Alexandria, 212 ; with sore or sightless eyes, 295 f., 300 ; personal ornaments of, 325 ; making circuit with load of prayer- books, 351 ; of Gerizim, 376 f. ; their share in sacrifice, 377-380; marked with blood, 379. Children: of Abraham, 241 ; of Israel, 241, 286, 380, 389; of disobedience, of light, of bridechamber, of the East, of wisdom, of wrath, of God, 345. Children's games, pilgrim idea in, 353. Chin.a : betrothals in, 8, 11; "go- between" in, 21 ; hospitality in, 99; "cloths to cry with," in, 159; food for dead in, 176 ; religions of, 229 f. ; emperor of, 251 ; reverence for par- ents in, 253 f. ; medical missions in, 315; pilgrims from, 350. Christ's estimate of marriage, 10. Christian chapel on Mount of Olives, 275- "Christian dogs," 48 f. Christian hakeem welcomed by Mu- hammadans, 316. Christian pilgrims at Jerusalem, 34S. Christian posture in prayer, 267. Christianity: its influence on position of woman, 66 f . ; mission of, 71 f . ; as " the way," 233 ; compared with outside religions, 367 f. Church of England marriage service, II. Church of the Holy Sepulcher, 335. Churchyard, circuitous path to, 353. Cigarettes, refusal of, in father's pres- ence, 250. Circuit: pilgrimage, 346; at Jeru- salem, 347 ; of altar at Feast of Tabernacles, 347; of walls of Jeri- cho, 347 ; in Christian churches and synagogues, 348 ; in India, 348 f. ; at Aleccah, 349; of tomb of Neby Saleh, 349; of monasteries, stupas, and sacred walls, 349 ; of grave, 352 f. ; at Jewish funeral in Phila- delphia, 353 ; at weddings and fune- rals, 353 f. Circuitous route : of wedding proces- sion, 52 f. ; to churchyard, 353. Circumambulations of Booddhists. 349-351- Circumcision, sharing sacrifice at, 285. Cities of refuge in land of Israel, 126 f. Cleopatras, the, reference to, 68. " Close fist, narrow heart," 94. " Cloths to cry with," 159. Coffee : from Hejaz, 78 ; poured out before God, 79 ; served to guests, 79, 93, 95, 244 ; covenanting in sharing of, 107. Coffins in Egypt, 168. Coins : strings of, on school-girls, 36 ; worn by Oriental women, 320; for necklace, 321, 326. Collect, old, reference to footsteps of Jesus in, 337. Colosseum of Rome. 394. " Commandment with promise," 25a. Commentaries, uninspired, 292. 8 4i6 Topical Index. Commentators puzzled over natural incidents, 302 f., 360 f. Comparison of mourning ways in East and West, 185-188. Compendium of all knowledge, 261. Concealing suffering from guests, 87 f. Conder, C. R., quotation from, iii, 195 ; cited, 112. Confucianism, truth of, 368. Connal, death-cry over, 152 f. Constantinople: bridal ornaments in, 41; wedding procession in, 44; blind beggars and cripples in, 304. Contra(5t of betrothal, 20-22. Contract of betrothal and of marriage equivalent, 21 f. Convent of St. Catharine, 283, 308. Coptic Christians in Jerusalem, 335. Corn : Egyptian and Indian, 281 ; parched, as food, 284, 289, 323. Cornfields, Plain of, 356, 364. Cornfields, well of the, 360. Corpse taken toward setting sun, 352 f. Courtship and marriage unchanged since Abraham's time, 31. Covenant: of blood, 15,361; tokens of, 41 ; of peace and friendship, 105 f. ; of hospitality, 105-116, 361 ; bread and salt, in; with dead, 165; of salt, 361 ; of bread-sharing, 361 f. ; in drinking, 361-363. Cow sacrificed for funeral feast, 165 f. Cox, Samuel, quotation from, 343. Cradle among wedding-gifts, 44. Craftsmen, valley of, 240 f. Crazy "people of blessing," 305. Creed, Moslem, chanting of, 352. Crime of inhospitality, 138. Cripples: of Alexandria, 212; of Cairo, 295 f. ; of Gheezeh, Saqqarah, and on Nile, 296 ; among Bed'ween, 298 ; between Hebron and Beyrout, 298 ; of Jaffa and Jerusalem, 299; of Xablus,3oof. ; of Constantinople, 304 ; at Wady Fayran, 308. Crown or diadem at weddings, 41. Crown Prince of Austria, 217. Crucifixes, sellers of, 335. Cry of forerunner, 213-218, 227 I. Cure, calls of sick for, 295-318. Cursing, mount of, 373. Customs founded on sentiment, not on historic incident, 29. Cutting one's flesh, 157-159. Dahf.er, reference to, 89. " Dakheel," naming one's, 134-136. Damascus: wedding in, 38; bridal ornaments in, 41 ; wedding proces- sions in, 44 ; bazaars of, 325. Damascus Gate of Jerusalem, 337. Dancing: before the Lord, 52; in wedding procession, 52, 54 f. Daniel praying toward Jerusalem, 269. Darby, Dr. : cUcd, 307 f. Darius, royal road of, 222. Darjiling, prayer machinery in, 262 f. Darweeshes, references to, 258-260, 265, 336, 376. Daughter : consulted in betrothal, 13 ; equivalent value of marriageable, 23; " of men," 241; "ofjabal," 242; " of Belial," 242. David : Michal and Merab promised to, 13 ; his service in lieu of dowry, 23; dancing before Lord, 52; his love for Abigail, 63 ; house of, 112; and Joab, 130 f. ; wailing of, 151, 160 f. ; royal splendor under, 359. Dead: Egyptian Book of, 136; call- ing on, 151, 177; sharing food with, 165, 176; raising of, 313. Death-cry: description of, 143-150; intelligence announced by, 147. Deborah, reference to, 68, 127 f. Dedication : of Solomon's Temple, 269 ; of Promised Land to God, 358. Deluge : command to Noah after, 116; Gerizim tradition as to, 374. Dependants of Convent of St. Cathar- ine, 283 f., 308. De Quincey, quotation from, 313-315. Derekh, meaning of word, 219 f. Descendants of Israel, 359. Description: of death cry, 143-150; of funeral feast in Hiileh, 166 f. ; of mourning week, 178-183 ; of life in Alexandria, 209-216. Desert: worshiping in, 258; freedom from sickness in, 296 ; first Sunday in, 297; track of Hajj in, 334; Arabs circuiting tomb in, 349 ; Is- raelites wandering in, 374 ; chalky whiteness of, 393. Devils, casting out of, 312. " Dhammapada," Booddha's, 230. Diamonds on person, 41. Dido, queen of Carthage, 68. Duiah and Shechem, 13, 63. Topical Index. 417 Diodorus, quotation from, 221 f. Dirge : clianlinsj; of, for dead, 184, 193 ; in Egypt and I'alestinc, 200-202. Disease: varying phases of, 297 ; uni- versal expedtation of cure of, 304, 306. Diseased : in Egypt, 295-298, 305, 315 ; in Arabia, 297 f, 306-310; in Pales- tine, 298-304, 310-318 ; in Syria, 300, 305 f., 315 ; jesus' worl'C among, 301- 304, 312-318 ; in 'rurl TEXT PAGE ■ TEXT 44 : 9 241 9 : 23 . 45 : 21 385 9 : 27-30 9 : 29 . DAMKL. ISAIAH. 6:7 266 14 : 18-20 174 19 : 1-18 ..... 391 30 : 21 232 32 : 2 290 33 : 24 318 35 : 6, 8, 9 234 40 : 1-5 234 40 : 3 . • . 216,218, 225 40 : 3, 4 . . . . . .216 41 : 8 358 41 : 18 405 49 : II 234 53 : 4 318 56 : 7 275 62 : 3 42 6 : 10 I : 10 3 : 4 PAGE .... 162 .... 309 .... 266 9:35 312 269 10 : I 313 IIOSEA. JOEL. 10 : 40 10 : 42 11 : 15 32 AMOS. 5 : 16 5 : 16, 17 . . . 9:7 9 : 13 MIC.\H. ■ • 139. 207 . - . . 106 __ . _^ 228 ^■}' 13 : 9. 43 228 • ■^•^'14:36 3" 15:1 266 1 15 : 27 285 .. 135 1 17: 14 268 19 : 3-11 . . . .37.72 19 : 4-8 .... 206, 248 I 29 : 6 10 i53i 155 20 : 29-34 302 • • i^^ 22 : 2 47 22 : 13 58 23 : 9 243 23 : II 93 23 : 27, 29 57 241 367 I : lEREMIAH. 9 ■ 17, if 4. 5 16 . I 34 ■ 153 266 155 • 231 . 248 . 161 45.53 ZECHAr7 243' 372 231 I : 14 23 ■ 14 • II 21 9 JAMES. I i'i:ri:R. I lOIIN. • 391 • 391 . 207 .386 • 235 . 126 . 406 • 342 346 389 141 406 358 305 ■346 • 337 . 140 III.X.N.S. , ... 390 GALATIANS. I : 1-17 I : 17 390 391 241 REVEEATION. II : 8 391 18 : 19 194 19 : 6-9 ■;6 21 : 12 ...... 240 Crije tSrpgljain Press, UNWIN BEOTHERS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewals only: Tel. No. 642-3405. Renewals may be made 4 days priod to date due. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. Nd or DAVIS INTERLl&RARY LOaM AUG 4 1972 p- LD21A-60m-8,'7O (N8837slO)476— A-32 General Library University of California Berkeley 727790 OS 4-7 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY