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are allowed to gather Olives in the groves. This proclamation is repeated 

 once or twice, according to the season. In November comes the general and 

 final summons, which sends forth all Hasbeiya. JNo Olives are now safe 

 unless the owner looks after them, for the watchmen are removed, and the 

 orchards are alive with men, women, and children . It is a merry time, and 

 the laugh and song echo far and wide. 



Shaking of the Olive. 



Everywhere the people are in the trees, " shaking " them with all their 

 might, to bring down the fruit. This is what the prophet had in mind. The 

 effort is to make a clear sweep of all the crop ; but, in spite of shaking and 

 beating there is always a gleaning left—" two or three berries in the top of 

 " the uppermost boughs, four or five in the outermost fruitful branches." 

 These are afterwards gleaned up by the very poor, who have no trees of their 

 own ; and by industry they gather enough to keep a lamp in their habitation 

 during the dismal nights of winter, and to cook their mess of pottage and 

 bitter herbs. I have often seen these miserable outcasts gleaning among the 

 groves, and shivering in winter's biting cold. In fact, the " shaking of the 

 Olive " is the severest operation in Syrian husbandry, particularly in such 

 mountainous regions as Hasbeiya. When the proclamation goes forth to 

 " shake," there can be no postponement. The rainy season has already set 

 in, the trees are dripping with the last shower, or bowing under a load of 

 moist snow ; but shake, shake you must, drenching yourself and those below 

 in an artificial storm of rain, snow, and Olives. JNo matter how piercing the 

 wind, how biting the frost, this work must go on from early dawn to dark 

 night ; and then the weary laborer must carry on his aching back a heavy 

 load of dripping berries, two or three miles up the mountain, to his home. 

 To comprehend the necessity of all this, you must remember that the Olive 

 groves are in common — not owned in common, but planted on the same general 

 tract of land, and are without fences, walls, or hedges of any kind, mingled 

 together like trees in a natural forest. This tree belongs to " Zeid," that to 

 " Abeid," as they say, and so on through the whole plantation. Such at least, 

 is the case with the groves we are describing. This vast orchard of Shwoifat, 

 through which we have been riding for the last hour, has a thousand owners, 

 and in " shaking time " every one must look sharply after his own, or he 

 loses all. There is an utter confounding of the weum and tuum in the 

 general conscience of Olive gatherers, 



Olive Plants bound the Table. 



To what particular circumstance does David refer in the 128th Psalm, 

 where he says, " Thy children shall be like Olive plants round about thy table " ? 

 Follow me into the grove and I will shew you what may have suggested the 

 comparison. Here we have hit upon a beautiful illustration. This aged and 

 decayed tree is surrounded, as you see, by several young and thrifty shoots, 

 which spring from the root of the venerable parent. They seem to uphold, 

 protect, and embrace it. We may even fancy that they now bear that load 

 of fruit which would otherwise be demanded of the feeble parent. Thus do 

 good and affectionate children gather round the table of the righteous. Each 

 contributes something to the common wealth and welfare of the whole — a 

 beautiful sight, with which may God refresh the eyes of every friend of mine. 



