A STRIKING SCENE. 
355 
wretched appearance of the hovels on either side. Some of 
them are built of mud and straw, in the shape of bee-hives, 
scarcely ten feet in diameter, and only five or six in height. 
In these miserable dens of filth whole families of men, wo¬ 
men, and children were living like so many pigs, and quite 
as dirty. 
We found rather good quarters in the ruins of an old Khan, 
among goats, chickens, and smaller nuisances; all of which 
we endured with great resignation after our experience in 
Djenin. 
At an early hour in the morning we took our leave of Sin- 
gil, and from the top of the mountain saw the sun rise in his 
most inspiring style, gilding the mountain peaks in the vast 
circle around with all the radiant glory of his rays. Stop¬ 
ping awhile at Ain-el-Haramayeh, we enjoyed a sight less 
grand, but scarcely less striking. It was washing-day with 
the women of the village. About three-score of leathern¬ 
faced and skinny old hags were standing up to their knees in 
water at the foot of the fountain, scolding one another, or 
more probably (as I took it) abusing their husbands; and 
pounding their husband’s breeches with great clubs, as if 
nothing would please them better than to be pounding legs 
in them at the same time. I saw one ferocious old hag take 
up a ragged shirt, wring it maliciously by the neck, then 
place it on a flat stone, and mash it into a shapeless mass by 
the desperate and malignant blows that she gave it with her 
club. I was really very glad that her husband was not in¬ 
side of that shirt, while she was wringing and pounding it; 
for I should have felt called upon to expostulate with her, 
and there is no telling how such interference from a stranger 
would have been received by the excited bevy of furies who 
were flourishing their clubs all around. The probability is 
that I should have been compelled in the end to seek protec¬ 
tion behind Yusef; who by this time, however, was a long 
way off, because, as he afterward admitted, he always kept 
clear of women on wash-day. He disliked the female sex 
every day in the year; he disliked them on wash-day more 
than ever; because it always brought to mind a favorite sash 
