Peasant Life in the Holy Land (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: day, as would appear to have been also the case in Bible times, especially in the hill country. Besides the oak?which is invariably the evergreen kind, and not the deciduous species of our English woods?the terebinth, tamarisk, sidr, or nubk (the Zizypkw-spina-Christi, sometimes called Dom by Europeans), and other trees, are to be seen as well. Occasionally the grove is represented by one large solitary tree under whose shade the Wely nestles. The shrine itself usually consists of a plain stone building, for the most part windowless, but having a Mihrtib, or prayer-niche. It is kept in fair repair as a rule, and whitewashed from time to time both inside and out. Occasionally a grave is to be found inside, under the dome, an ugly erection of stone plastered over, about 3 feet high, and frequently of abnormal length; that of the so-called grave of .Joshua, near Es Salt, east of the Jordan, is over 30 feet in length. Occasionally there is no building over the tomb, and in such case, where it is one of great sanctity, the most extraordinary collection imaginable of odds and ends is to be found on and around the grave, having been placed there by way of honouring the dead saint, and of claiming his intercession at the Day of Judgment on behalf of those who have thus reverenced his memory on earth. The most striking instance I have seen of this latter kind of Wely was the so-called tomb of Noah at Kerak, the ancient Kir of Moab, before the present conventional building was erected over it. The accompanying illustration gives some idea of its day, Bibl solii bur a J, as . bot be of fre, gr, i is c an tht ani ha do I) si V chapter{Section 4 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS ROUND A WELY. Tofacepayen. COURTYARD OF VILLAGE MOSQUE. NOAH'S TOMB 27 former conditio...