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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



cap it covers the entire headgear, except 

 the coins in front. It is considered im- 

 proper for women to have their head or 

 hair showing in public. At home they 

 put off the veil. 



Ordinary veils are made of heavy white 

 linen, with sometimes a little embroidery, 

 while in the districts north of Jerusalem 

 each girl makes one almost covered with 

 needlework, so that it will match the 

 white embroidered tobe for her wedding 

 (see page 307). 



Whenever a woman lacks a basket or 

 bag, the veil comes into use. She places 

 what she has to carry in one end of her 

 veil, gathers and ties it around with one 

 corner, and places the burden on top of 

 her head. 



The story of Ruth, when Boaz says to 

 her, ''Bring the veil that thou hast upon 

 thee, and hold it; and when she held it, 

 he measured six measures of barley, and 

 laid it on her: and she went into the 

 city/'* clearly shows that this use of the 

 veil is the survival of a very ancient 

 practice. 



Those not acquainted with this land of 

 ancient customs may find themselves un- 

 able to understand how Ruth's veil could 

 contain so much grain, because of their 

 having in mind a veil of gauze and of 

 small dimensions. The khirka, as the veil 

 is called, is not only large and strong 

 enough for this work, but such usage is 

 very common down to the present day. 



Nor is it only the veil that has sur- 

 vived, but the entire costume. Ezekiel 

 the Prophet gives us a matchless descrip- 

 tion of the woman's attire of his day 

 when, speaking allegorically of Jerusa- 

 lem, he says : 



"I clothed thee also with broidered 

 work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, 

 and I girded thee about with fine linen, 

 and I covered thee with silk. I decked 

 thee also with ornaments, and I put brace- 

 lets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy 

 neck. And I put a jewel on thy fore- 

 head, and earrings in thine ears, and a 

 beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus 

 wast thou decked with gold and silver; 

 and thy raiment was of fine linen, and 

 silk, and broidered work." f 



* Ruth 3 : 15. 



t Ezekiel 16: 10-13. 



THE JEWEES OF BIBEE TIMES AND OF 

 TODAY 



Jewelry is very much prized, although 

 it is mainly confined to heavy silver 

 pieces. 



A heavy silver chain is attached to the 

 cap on either side and hangs down about 

 the neck and below the chin (see page 

 307). A collarette made of plaited silver 

 wire with many chains hanging from it 

 used to be extensively worn by Bethle- 

 hem women, but is fast disappearing. 



In the Hebron district the unmarried 

 girls wear a large silver coin on their 

 forehead (see page 259). Earrings are 

 used and silver finger-rings, with Mecca 

 stones or glass imitations, are much 

 prized. 



Were we living much later we would 

 find it difficult to learn the meaning of 

 the prophet's word, "And I put ... a 

 beautiful crown upon thy head." The 

 tasseh, a disk of wrought silver or gold 

 which, according to the old men, used to 

 be so common, and was worn by the wo- 

 men sewed to the crowns of their caps, 

 is today almost non-existent. They can 

 occasionally be picked up at the silver- 

 smith's, where they have been sold for 

 the silver that is in them, but the present 

 writer has not seen a single one in use 

 among the peasants. 



In the Nazareth district European ma- 

 terial is fast displacing hand-made goods. 

 Even around Jerusalem the women are 

 taking to shawls of foreign manufacture 

 in place of the handsome hand-embroid- 

 ered veils whose colors harmonize, which 

 cannot be said of these shawls, with their 

 flaming roses and pink backgrounds. 



Few of these peasant women can be 

 said to be handsome ; still, they make an 

 interesting and picturesque sight, as they 

 walk in companies along the roads, going 

 to town with their baskets of produce, or 

 returning, chattering like magpies over 

 the day's transactions. 



When the road is very stony or wet, 

 it is a common custom for them to take 

 off their shoes to save them, placing them 

 on top of their loaded baskets (see page 

 306). It takes metaliks (coppers) to 

 mend shoes, but feet mend themselves. 



The Bethlehem women have the repu- 



