Native village in early 1900s

“The most important and most frequented portion of the house next to the reception-room is the roof.

The roof is made in various ways. Mr. Haddad speaks of a common way in Syria, to lay beams across from one side to the other of the walls, then a mat of reeds on the top of these beams, then some bushes of a thorn, and finally, a coating of clay or earth, and scatter sand and pebbles on the top of the earth, then they roll it with a roller of stone, to make it compact, so that the rain will not run through.

Sometimes a little space three or four feet square is cut in the roof, with separate pieces, made like the rest of the roof, or covered with mat or tiling, which can be taken up when desired. It might have been such a place in the roof that was used in letting down the paralytic on his rug or quilt, which would be the only bed an Oriental in such condition would be likely to have.

These roofs are flat, and the terraces or parapets around them are low, and made of dried bricks, or stone, just like the wall. If a higher terrace is required, it is made of lattice-work to screen the women of the household. In summer the people of Palestine, Egypt, and Mesopotamia usually sleep upon the housetops. The servants sleep on bedding or the ground in the court below. The very poor people often sleep in the streets, the open squares, the market-places, and courts, rolling themselves in a coverlet, a rug, or their outer garments, and screening their faces.

Many occupations are carried on upon the roof. Here the wheat is washed and spread to dry, the flax is prepared, and vegetables and fruits to be stored in winter; wool and cotton when washed is spread out upon the roof, clothes are hung there to be dried; as now, so has it been of old” –Edwin Wilbur Rice, Orientalism in Bible Lands (1910): 249.

The photo and quotation are taken from the Traditional Life and Customs volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (Library of Congress, LC-matpc-06851).

John Whiting described the capture of locusts in “Jerusalem’s Locust Plague,” published in National Geographic in 1915:

“The fighters now made two long lines, one on each side of the trap. To noise and racket the locusts seemed only to turn a deaf ear; but a large flag—the darker the better—with which to cast a deep shadow upon the ground, proved to be the most formidable tool one could employ to make them move in the desired direction; in fact, countless numbers could thus be guided and held in check if one but anticipated the general direction they wished to go.”

“In their path was sunk a bottomless box, the inside lined with shining tin, up which the locusts could not crawl, while on each side a wing was provided, similarly prepared with a smooth metal face, with the object of directing them into the box.”

“Once, however, they made in the right direction, they jumped, hundreds at a time, into this death trap. . . . Thus in about an hour’s time four large sacks full were caught and destroyed each containing no less than 100,000 of these insects” (535-36).

Locusts crawling on overseer’s trousers, 1930

“Whenever touched, or especially when finding themselves caught within one’s clothes, they exuded from their mouth a dark fluid, an irritant to the skin and soiling the garments in a most disgusting manner. Imagine the feeling (we speak from experience) with a dozen or two such creatures over an inch long, with sawlike legs and rough bodies, making a race-course of your back!” (533).

The photos and quotations are taken from an extraordinary collection of 80 photographs of locust plagues that occurred in Palestine in the early 1900s, now published on the Traditional Life and Customs volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (Library of Congress, LC-matpc-01912 and LC-matpc-02938).

“The principal ceremonies with wedding are the processions of the bride and bridegroom through the street, accompanied by their friends. The procession of the dower is also accompanied by a band of women, singing, clapping the hands, and uttering shrill cries; but the bride’s fortune among the peasantry is necessarily small, and, as in Italy, a single chest on a mule conveys the whole trousseau”
–C. R. Conder, Tent Work in Palestine (1878): 2:249.

The photo and quotation are taken from the Traditional Life and Customs volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (Library of Congress, LC-matpc-01300).

“The shepherd goes before, to see that the way is practicable and safe. He is armed in order to defend his charge, and in that he is very courageous. Many adventures with wild beasts occur not unlike that recounted by David; and though there are no lion here, wolves, leopards, and panthers still prowl about these wild wadys. They not infrequently attack the flock in the very presence of the shepherd. I have listened with interest to their descriptions of desperate fights with those savage beasts. And when the thief and the robber come, and come they do, the faithful shepherd has often to defend his flock at the hazard of his life” –William M. Thomson, The Land and the Book (1885): 3:594.

The photo and quotation are taken from one of two collections of photos related to Psalm 23 on the Traditional Life and Customs volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (Library of Congress, LC-matpc-00962).

Ruth 3:15 (NIV) “[Boaz] also said, ‘Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.’ When [Ruth] did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her.”

This photo is one of thirty in the “Ruth” set on the Traditional Life and Customs volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (Library of Congress, LC-matpc-10172).