of "woman's rights." I have seen several village rows now, and all the women are invariably on one side, and all the men on the other. Whatever happens when high words begin, woman flies to the defence of woman, with a sisterly heroism which is truly remarkable; and the males finding their tongues utterly useless in the encounter, generally end by coarsely taking to their fists. However, I will say for Dahlieh that it is not worse than other villages in this respect – indeed I think it is better – and that the people, taking them as a whole, form a remarkably orderly and good-tempered community: the storm soon blows over, and in a few hours everybody is apparently on terms as affectionate as if it had never happened.
Under these circumstances, life in a Druse village may be made dull or interesting in the degree in which one identifies one's self with the interests of the inhabitants. People wonder what one can find to do in this out-of-the-way corner of Palestine; but practically we never seem to have a moment to spare. In the first place, what would be a trifling operation elsewhere, here becomes an important matter of business, attended with all manner of difficulties. The purchase of half an acre of land, for instance, takes days, and sometimes even weeks: the discussion of the price is a serious matter, and must not be hurried; and when that is arranged, the process of securing a valid title is one requiring both time and money, and probably a journey to Haifa, and difficulties there involving backsheesh. If the value of the land is 10s., the time taken to buy it is at least as many days, and the incidental expenses perhaps as many more shillings. Everything included, however, the best arable land in Carmel costs on an average from 20s. to 30s. the acre; but there are thousands of acres on the mountain susceptible of cultivation which are now lying waste. These may be appropriated by any one who chooses to go to the expense of clearing, and of cultivating them for three consecutive years. He may then receive a title from the Government, provided always he is already a landholder in the village within the limits of which the waste land lies.
I have found it impossible to obtain from the natives of Dahlieh any estimate of the extent of land, cleared and uncleared, within the village boundaries; but it probably does not fall far short of 5000 acres, of which they only cultivate about 700. Of these, 300 are in the plain of Esdraelon, and form the main source of the revenue of the village: the rest are on the mountain; and the uncleared land affords pasture for their cattle and goats, of which they have large herds. The Government tax, which they are called upon to pay in cash upon this total, amounts to about £320 a-year.
The substitution of yearly cash-payments for the payment in kind of the tenth of their crops has only been introduced this year, and has produced consternation throughout the country. The villagers have never been in the habit of having any money of their own. They live largely by a system of barter, and the responsibility of their taxes has hitherto fallen upon the money-lenders of the nearest town, who farm the taxes from the Government, and to whom the villagers pay a share, generally an exorbitant one, of their crops, which includes the Government tenth. Now all this is changed; the villages have been assessed at a very high rate
