As Adam lay a-dreaming, beneath the Apple Tree, The Angel of the Earth came down and offered Earth in fee. But Adam did not need it, Nor the plough he would not speed it Singing: "Earth and Water, Air and Fire, What more can mortal man desire?" As Adam was a-working outside of Eden-wall, He used the Earth, he used the Seas, he used the Air and all: And out of black disaster He arose to be the master Of Earth and Water, Air and Fire, -Kipling. FELLAHIEH RETURNING FROM MARKET IN JERUSALEM. The empty baskets show they have sold the jars of sour milk, eggs, or herbs, brought from their village homes. FELLAHIEH RETURNING FROM THE VILLAGE WELL. Huntting FOREWORD THIS book is the outcome of first-hand observation and of copious notes made in the course of the last twenty-four years, during frequent periods of residence in Palestine, of never less than two years' duration. It has been thought worth while to give them a permanent form, partly because they record conditions which, under present circumstances, must shortly cease to exist; and partly, because few of those who might have found opportunity to observe and record primitive customs have been at any pains to do so. We owe an immense debt to the Pilgrims of early times and of the Middle Ages. Doughty's matchless work must forever remain the unique classic upon Desert life. Consul Finn, and Mary Rogers, and various travellers, mainly German, have given us interesting glimpses of the fellaheen during the latter half of last century. Later, we have the works of the Scottish missionary Mackie, of the German missionary Hanauer belonging to the London Jews Society, of Frau Einsler, daughter of the well-known architect Schick, of the Baldensperger brothers (Alsatians), as well as many useful articles in the Journals of the Fathers of the Lazarist and Franciscan Orders, not to speak of those by Haddad and Canaan, Arab writers of high culture, to whom, Haddad more especially, partly because he writes in English as well as in German, many recent publications emanating from Jerusalem have been much indebted. I gladly acknowledge, on the part of my husband as well as myself, the advantage of Haddad's companionship in some of our travels in the country of which he has absorbed the spirit of the Past as no others may now hope to do. There are valuable papers also in the pages of the Palestine Exploration Fund, especially those of the late Dr Post of Beirut, though they refer to Syria rather than to Palestine. I have drawn somewhat from my own addresses to the Folk Lore Society, but have avoided subjects upon which I have written elsewhere. Without the help of my Husband and his companionship in travel, I should have seen little and recorded less, and the "We" so frequently used in these pages, is not |