MY HOME IN PALESTINE. 139 



anted by the Eoumanian Jews, of whom half-a-dozen 

 were present at the time of my visit, contrasting 

 strangely in their long caftans and curled locks with 

 the swarthy /eZ/a/h're, whose copartners in cultivation 

 they were to be during the early stage of the settle- 

 ment. The latter showed a considerable repugnance 

 to the prospect of this description of co-operation 

 not at all upon religious, but upon purely economic 

 grounds. Practically they saw that they were to be 

 the teachers and the Jews the pupils, and they wished 

 this fact to be taken into consideration in the future 

 division of profits. They made high demands in con- 

 sequence ; and as it is not in the Jewish nature to 

 submit to high demands, there was a good deal of 

 warm discussion on the subject. They looked at the 

 weak chetif physiques of these immigrants, fresh from 

 the Ghetto of some Eoumanian town, with a not un- 

 natural suspicion of their powers of endurance, and 

 indeed it required an effort of imagination to picture 

 them running their furrows at the tail of a plough. 

 However, it is a good sign for the nation that their 

 hearts should be so set upon developing a capacity for 

 agricultural pursuits, and it is one which all well- 

 wishers to the land and its former people would do 

 well to encourage and aid to their utmost. One of 

 the fellahin, seeing my interest in ruins and topo- 

 graphical curiosities, led me to the head of a valley, 

 where he said there was a mysterious rock with a hole 

 in it, where the roaring of a mighty river might be 



