278 ILLUSTRATION OF SCRIPTURE. number of these is increased according to the respect the donor desires to manifest to his guest; so that six or eight, or even twenty times the quantity he can eat will often be set before a man of rank; but in the case of a traveller, his dragoman, servants, and muleteers seldom find the supply, however large, to be excessive. The people of Zebedanee were in great distress owing to the recent seizure of twenty-one of their men as recruits. Many had fled into the mountains from fear, and the bereaved women were everywhere to be seen in tears. Here, as in all the Arab villages, the houses are built of bricks dried in the sun; and the roofs are composed of mud laid over branches of trees supported on long straight trunks of aspen. Each is furnished with a stone roller, as in the isle of Castel-Rosso, and rolled after heavy rain; without which precaution it falls in; nor is it uncommon to see half a village destroyed by a rainy season, while the loss of a roof is an event of ordinary occurrence. The houses are all of the same height, never exceeding one story; and their tops communicating with one another form a favorite promenade in dirty weather, as well as the sleeping-place of the men in summer. A knowledge of these ARAB SALUTATIONS. 279 facts and of the construction of Syrian dwellings throws light on the narrative of the paralytic whose friends uncovered and broke up the roof of a house to let down his bed before our Lord. It was not unusual to place a sick man's couch on the roof; to open a hole in it was a simple operation; and to repair the damage was scarcely more difficult. In front of the abode of a sheikh and the richer inhabitants a square platform of mud is often erected under the shade of a tree: here the village politics are discussed; the noon-day siesta enjoyed; the fumes of the chibouque inhaled; and the coffee-cup hourly circulated. In the absence of mental resources and of a necessity for bodily labor, coffee and tobacco may be regarded as a real blessing, since they occupy and amuse without recourse to the aid of spirits or other vicious indulgences. The day following our arrival at Zebedanee we paid a visit of ceremony to the sheikh, who, roused from a siesta on his shady mud platform, evinced all the vacuity which characterizes his nation. The usual enquiry after our health and the health of our mules was succeeded by ample potations of coffee and whiffs of tobacco. Each observation hazarded * Mark ii. 4. 280 PECULIAR ARAB CUSTOM by us was met with the usual reply, "God is great," or "God is merciful," or "Thanks be to God:" and the only topic of conversation that came to our relief was suggested by the ivory handle of my umbrella, carved in the form of a hand holding a serpent, in which our host seemed to trace some strange enigma or the communication of some magic power to its owner. One of our muleteers was called Aboo Georgius. He was a Greek; and it appeared that he was christened Michael and retained the appellation till the birth of his son; after which, according to a prevalent custom, he ceased to be known by his baptismal name and was always addressed as Aboo Georgius, or the father of George. The same custom prevails among the Jews; and Moses is no longer called Moses when elevation to the dignity of a parent entitles him to the more honorable appellation, "Father of Levi." It is very usual in Syria to give an individual a sobriquet, styling him the father of anything that is peculiar to him; thus, a man with a finer beard than ordinary will probably be called "Father of a beard:" when first an European appeared in Damascus with a white straw hat, he was designated "Father of baskets; REGARDING NAMES. 281 and the children of Nabloos, who traced in my black hat some resemblance to a common kitchen utensil, followed me up and down the town crying out, "Aboo tinjarah,” or “ Father of saucepans ! In the case of proper names the Arabs reverse the European custom exemplified in the names Fitz Simon, Williamson, Ap John, or Upjohn, O'Neil, M'Adam, De La Martine, Vandyck, Von Essen, Paulovich and others, where the son is designated as the offspring of his father. This would seem to be according to the natural order of things; and the oriental practice may, probably, be traced to the excessive desire of progeny, the stigma attached to barrenness or a single state, and the special honor conferred on the parental relation, which have characterized the inhabitants of Syria from the days of Rachel to the present. The distance from Zebedanee to Damascus is nine hours. The road runs through a valley lying between a few straggling roots of Anti-Lebanon, terminating in a narrow gorge, and then, after a few ascents and descents, leading into the great plain of Damascus. * Genesis xxx. 1. "And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die." The only structure which attracts attention is the "Tomb of Abel," said to have been erected over the spot where the first subject of the "king of terrors" fell under his power, and to have given the name of Abilene to the adjacent country. In the way, we overtook a man walking by the side of his donkey. Both were bowed under the weight of many years; but the old man's soul seemed to be groaning under a heavier load, the load of grief; and we sought a participation in his sorrows. He was going for the fourth time to Damascus to see his son, recently pressed into the army. The lad would soon leave the capital, and the aged parent could not expect again to embrace the long-cherished prop of his declining years; for leave of absence is seldom, or never, granted to a soldier, and enlistment is a virtual banishment from home for life. "My son," said the sorrowing parent, "is no longer mine; and, a short time since, my daughter went to see her brother snow was on the ground and she perished: thus am I bereaved of my children!" We thought of Jacob, and sympathized with the aged sufferer. the For the last two hours the road skirts the banks of the Chrysorrhoas, now called Barra |