THE LAST ISRAELITISH BLOOD SACRIFICE 



41 



be observed of all the children of Israel 

 in their generations." 



Thus the three Passover services are 

 ended. The first, before the lambs are 

 slaughtered, is called "Salat el Dabih" 

 (Sacrificial prayers) ; the next, while the 

 fleecing is taking place, "Salat el Tismeet" 

 (Scalding prayers), and "Salat el Garub" 

 (Sunset prayers). Under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances prayers are always said at 

 even, but since the Passover service is 

 the more important, the evening prayer 

 is unavoidably delayed. 



WHERrC ARE THE WOMEN? 



During the afternoon and the early 

 evening the women have played no role 

 in the scene. They have kept to their 

 tents, while those unable to make their 

 ablutions, and therefore prohibited from 

 eating the Passover, are confined in one 

 tent. 



Like the older but now passing Jewish 

 and native Christian custom, the Samari- 

 tan women do not strictly hide from men, 

 but only veil when on the street and 

 keep out of the way when strangers are 

 present. 



The present paper is written after hav- 

 ing witnessed the Passover ceremony 

 four times — twice before the great world 

 conflict and twice during it. The first 

 occasion was when the author was a 

 youth, the second in 1914. 



On both of those occasions the women 

 were hardly seen, eating their portion of 

 the sacrifice in the tents, some of the little 

 girls alone showing themselves. During 

 the years of the war this phase of the 

 scene materially changed. There were no 

 tourists or professors, with large cork 

 hats and western clothing ; no note books 

 and pencils ; no inquisitive questions to 

 embarrass the women or to mar the an- 

 cient atmosphere of the spectacle. 



Once the sacrifice had been slain, the 

 crowds from Nablus, smaller these years 

 than usual, descended and the Samaritans 

 were left alone. In the moonlight there 

 was no sight nor sound foreign to the 

 surroundings to distract one's attention, 

 and the imagination was given rein. The 

 conception wandered back thousands of 

 years, and one only awoke with a start to 

 the reality of living in the twentieth cen- 

 tury when a sudden flash of magnesium 



powder lit up the sky and then left all in 

 deep darkness. 



The evening prayers over, some retire 

 to rest in their tents, some pray or read 

 to keep awake, while not a few sit around 

 the smouldering altar watching that every 

 scrap is burned. 



No sooner are we left alone with the 

 Samaritans than the women begin to ap- 

 pear. They whose lives are so immersed 

 in small things that they seldom leave 

 their homes, the older women having no 

 education at all. find great pleasure in the 

 freedom of sitting around the sacrificial 

 altar, conversing in their native tongue 

 with Mrs. Whiting, and enthusiastically 

 displaying their babies, awake or asleep, 

 at this late hour. 



OPENING THE ROASTING PIT . 



Thus the three to four hours between 

 putting the lambs to roast and the time 

 of the feast roll quickly by. Incidentally 

 we retire to our tent and dine on roast 

 lamb, killed and prepared by peasants of 

 the neighboring villages in identically the 

 same style as the paschal lambs, except 

 that the skin is removed, for no non- 

 Samaritan is ever allowed to partake of 

 the sacrifice. "And the Lord said to 

 Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance 

 of the Passover: There shall no stranger 

 eat thereof." 



It is because of this injunction that the 

 Samaritans so scrupulously collect and 

 burn any scraps cut away during the in- 

 spection, and that the burning altar is so 

 rigorously guarded. 



Even after the ceremony is at an end, 

 the ditch and oven are filled with stones 

 lest any remaining charred bone or frag- 

 ment fall into the possession of a Gentile. 



As the midnight hour approaches, the 

 sleepers are awakened by callers and sud- 

 denly the camp is again astir. The youths 

 with hands and hoe remove the seal from 

 the oven, and clouds of steam pour out; 

 so that, even with the aid of a lantern, 

 little can be seen. It is interesting to no- 

 tice the air of hurry, although time is of 

 no consequence. The cover is now lifted 

 with much shouting and screaming, and 

 the same prayer said as when the lambs 

 were placed in the oven. At once the 

 spits are withdrawn and closely guarded 

 while the meat is slipped off, each lamb 



