1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



01 



TAXATION OF BEES IN PALESTINE. 



now THE PEOPLE AHK I'lAINDEUED irNDEK THE 



CRESCENT OF MOHAMMED; A HINT TO 



THE ENEMIES OF THE CKOS.'^. 



By Ph. J. Baldensperger. 



Palestine is a small province belonging to the 

 Turkish empire, as everybody knows. A pasha, 

 or gov(>rnor, is in command of Southern Pales- 

 tine, reigning in -Jerusalem. This, again, is 

 directly dependent on the icali.or chief govern- 

 or, of Syria, reigning in Damascus; but of late 

 this has been erected into an independent gov- 

 ernorship, or pashalik, depending directly on 

 Constantinople. The pashalik of Jerusalem is 

 about as it was in ancient times— Judea— 

 though Philistia and Sharon should come un- 

 der this jurisdiction. Sharon depends on the 

 pasha of Nablous (a corruption of the Neapolis 

 of the Greeks, and the ancient Sichem), while 

 Philistia is under (or, rather, without) control 

 of the reyem-makam — a sub-governor of Gaza, 

 the city whose gates Samson carried oflf. Those 

 governors and sub-governors command only as 

 long as they have direct influence — in fact, in 

 some places it is only robbing the peasants in 

 harvest time and hurrying home loaded with 

 treasure. Some villages are more daring than 

 others. Philistia is open to highway robbery. 

 In fact, the most dangerous is the direct road 

 from Jaffa to Gaza; and only a few miles from 

 each of the above-named cities it is still more 

 so. Jaffa is also commanded by a sub-governor, 

 or rayem-makam, a very daring Bedouin rob- 

 ber, who, carrying his exploits up to'the gates 

 of Jaffa, was taken hold of by four gensdarmes, 

 near one of our apiaries, and bound to be taken 

 to Jaffa ; but four Bedouins followed them, 

 killed two of their horses, gave them a sound 

 flogging, and told them to go and tell their 

 master what they had seen and heard, and not 

 to put their foot there again, and it was so. 

 They never came again, and the robbery goes 

 on. Two years ago the robber assassinated a 

 very rich and influential man. A hundred 

 cavalrymen were sent out to arrest him. He 

 used to come around and chat with my apiarist, 

 laughing at the squadron looking for him in 

 places where he was not. A few days after, the 

 captain and cavalry and the sub-governor of 

 Gaza retired, not finding him; and Abu-Henna, 

 undisturbed, went on to rob. Our apiaries were 

 thus in the three divisions of land. Being on 

 the borders, we had our apiaries very often in 

 Philistia, while our machines and tents were 

 put up in Sharon. This helped us subsequently 

 a great deal. 



The population of Palestine is mostly 

 Mohammedan. There are very few villages in 

 which are Christian natives belonging to differ- 

 ent sects— Greek, Roman, and others. Bethle- 

 hem, and the village of Bethjala, have almost 

 wljoUy Christian populations. 



Our increasing apiaries, and the quantity of 



honey taken, awakened the jt^aloiisy of the 

 authorities and also that of some villagers 

 through whose ground we used to pass with 

 our bees. Taxes are gathered in different ways 

 in the different districts. In principle, the 

 tenth part of all income is to be given to the 

 government direct, but the olTicials sent to us 

 were bribed by the villag(!rs, and, of course, very 

 little reached the treasury. Every system was 

 tried, till at length taxes were put up at pub- 

 lic auction, and those that paid most had a vil- 

 lage to gather. Naturally enough, under such 

 circumstances the purchaser would buy the 

 mayor of every village, and some councils, and 

 levy taxes at leisure. Thus one day, to avail 

 themselves of the taxes in the village of Urtas, 

 near Bethlehem, they resolved to make us pay 

 a good deal more than was due. Bees are gen- 

 erally taxed at sixty paras (about Tj^' cents) a 

 hive. As this would not raise a big sum, they 

 stated before the council of finances in Jerusa- 

 lem that our big hives ought to be taxed differ- 

 ently, as yielding more honey. The council 

 deliberated, and agreed to make us pay four 

 times the price laid on the native hives. Ac- 

 cordingly the tax was put up to six piasters, 

 government money, equal to about 30 cents; 

 but even this would not raise the sum high 

 enough, for they came and found only 180 hives. 

 So, again, another trick must be contrived to 

 extort more money. In a council of the village 

 they concluded to say we had 1800 hives. This 

 was a simple thing to do— a zero was put after 

 the 180; but we refused to pay such a sum. 

 After considerable arguing, I went to the gov- 

 ernor of Jerusalem to declare that we had only 

 180 hives, and were ready to pay what was law- 

 ful, but not more. The governor was ready to 

 help us, but he insisted that we really had 1800 

 hives, and made me stay quite alone with him. 

 I could not then see why. When we were alone 

 he addressed me in I'rench. I was standing 

 some distance off talking to his "excellency;" 

 but when alone he put a chair beside him and 

 asked me to sit near him. which I did, but still 

 insisting on being ready to pay for 180 hives. 

 He now tried to make me understand that he 

 could arrange affairs; but as I did not under- 

 stand the point, he bade me adieu and I left 

 his presence. I heard ultimately he was full of 

 wrath against me for not having offered him a 

 sum of money. I went thence to the Court of 

 Justice. The supreme court is held in the 

 Turkish language and translated into the Ara- 

 bic. Here again I met the same " Lord Judge." 

 He walked up to me, and, hand in hand, we 

 went through corriders and rooms to his "excel- 

 lency," the governor. As I had had very little to 

 do in these palaces I was not" up to the times." 

 This judge asked, as I afterward heard at an- 

 other trial, whether I would not bribe them. 

 These" Lords of the Justice" are not satisfied 

 with small sums, but we still hoped to get over 

 the difficulty by referring toour consul-general, 



