by priests, in their gorgeous robes, and pictures, and treasures, from France, Italy, Spain, and Greece, I could scarcely even believe that I was in Bethlehem.
We visited the convent schools. In one room fourteen handsome, intelligent-looking Bethlehem boys were learning Italian. They showed us their exercises and translations, and sang a Latin hymn to the Virgin, giving a peculiarly Oriental twang to the last sounds of every line. Another school-room which we entered was crowded with younger boys, learning to read and write Arabic; but they were dirty, disorderly, and noisy, and we did not linger there.
After taking breakfast with the Latin Superior—who related to us stories of recent miracles wrought in the sacred grotto, with earnestness and simplicity, as if he thoroughly believed what he said, and wished us to benefit by it—we hastened away, and walked through the steep streets and passages, and among the scattered buildings of the town. It is almost entirely peopled by Christian Arabs, of the Latin, Greek, and Armenian Churches, and they number altogether about three thousand two hundred.[1] They cultivate their fields and terraced gardens with care, and send large supplies of vegetables and fruit to Jerusalem every day; but one of the principal occupations of the Bethlehemites is the carving of various articles in mother of-pearl and olive-wood.
We inquired for a young man, an orphan, whom my brother knew to be one of the most skillful carvers in the town. The neighbors who guided us to his door said:
- ↑ There was formerly a considerable Mohammedan quarter in Bethlehem; but after the insurrection of the people in 1834 it was entirely destroyed. The houseless Moslems fled and distributed themselves over the neighboring country, some settled in Moslem villages, and others enlisted. A few took to tent life, and have ever since wandered about like the Bedouins, except that they retain their custom of observing religious forms and ceremonies, fasts and feasts, more strictly than nomadic tribes usually do. During the month of Ramadan, they select a spot for their encampment within sight of Jerusalem, that they may see the flash of the gun fired from the citadel at sunset, to announce the moment when Moslems may break their fast. Some of these scattered Moslems, however, are by degrees returning, to settle in Bethlehem.
