The Holy Land and the Bible; . enjoy the security yielded by the villagestreet. A small cup of coffee, profuse salaams, and a very formalleave-taking, ended the visit, and we remounted our horses for BeitJibrin. The Arabs are, as a race, very ignorant and childish. None of themknow how old they are, nor can they tell how long ago it may havebeen since any event in their history occurred, unless they chance toremember the number of harvests between then and now. Aswe rode slowly on I enjoyed some stories about them, gatheredfrom the wide experience of my friend. A Bedouin, who lived withhim in
The Holy Land and the Bible; . enjoy the security yielded by the villagestreet. A small cup of coffee, profuse salaams, and a very formalleave-taking, ended the visit, and we remounted our horses for BeitJibrin. The Arabs are, as a race, very ignorant and childish. None of themknow how old they are, nor can they tell how long ago it may havebeen since any event in their history occurred, unless they chance toremember the number of harvests between then and now. Aswe rode slowly on I enjoyed some stories about them, gatheredfrom the wide experience of my friend. A Bedouin, who lived withhim in Gaza for a time, came one morning, radiant of countenance. What has happened ? Oh, my wife has a son ! By night, how-ever, his happiness had passed into sadness. What has happened?Ah, the boy has turned out to be a girl! His wifes mother hadbeen so frightened lest he should divorce her daughter for having agirl, that she had pretended it was a son. In another case a husband, 1 Gen. xxiv. 67. 2 Prov. xxvii. 22. 3 See page ?i // I View from Beit Jibrin toward the Mediterranean. (See page 103.) ^•J GAZA TO FALUJEH. 177 iinxious to be the fatlicr of a son, soleniiily vowed that lie woulddivorce his wife if she had a girl. Unibrtuuately, she had twin daugh-ters. The poor fellow, however, really loved his wife, and racked hisbrains to get out of his oath. At last he solved the difficulty. 1said I would divorce her if she had a daunliter, but not if she hadtwo; and so he kept her. How forcibly such incidents remind oneof the words of Jeremiah: Cursed be the man who brought tidingsto thy father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making himvery glad;^ or those of our Lord: A woman hath sorrow, but assoon as she is delivered of the child she remembereth tlie sorrow nomore, for joy that a man is born into the Indeed, so proudis a husband of a son, that he is henceforth known only as the fatherof Mahomet, or whatever be the name given to the child. We mayfrom this
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