THE SOUTH-EAST CORNER OF JERUSALEM, AS SEEN [From a Drawing by Henry A. Harper.] Ghoul, or Cemetery-Hag, is supposed to feed on the dead, and a spot said to be Ghoul-haunted is avoided if possible, and, if perforce approached, the shivering visitant utters the most courteous salutations to appease the dreaded spirit. The Kerad is, as its name implies, a monkey-like goblin. Shaitan, Satan, is feared as openly manifesting himself. It is not generally known that the little oil lamp kept burning in their houses by Easterns all night is lighted chiefly to drive away evil spirits, and on this account they would not dare to lie down in darkness. Books of magic and magical medicine still form a part of the very small Arabic library of those who can read; and you will not go far in any direction amongst these before you will find the possessor and consulter of a Dictionary of Divination, giving detailed interpretations of dreams and omens. Easterns are terribly afraid of the cholera, though in the case of Mohammedans their fatalism comes to their aid. But the Latins and Greeks and the other ignorant native Christians are quite carried away by their "fear of the death that is in the world." Yet when the Howa el Asfa, "the Yellow Wind," as they call cholera, had been raging at Haiffa in the autumn of 1855, the panic was quite allayed, and confidence and tranquillity amongst the people restored, in the following superstitious manner. "On the night of Sunday, the 16th of December, a woman dreamt that she saw four malignant imps; each one held a stone with an inscription on it in his hand. She said to them, 'What do you want; why are you here to trouble me?' They said, speaking as with one voice, 'We come to throw four stones.' Then she said, 'Hasten to throw your stones and go in peace.' One was thrown at her; the others flew in different directions. She told her dream the next day, and seemed very much alarmed. The imps of her dream were said, by the interpreters thereof, to be imps of the Yellow Wind. The majority of the people believed that there would be only four more deaths in Haiffa from cholera. On the 18th, fourteen individuals were attacked, but only two died, one of whom was the dreamer. On the 19th there were two more deaths, the last which were reported."1 In Palestine and the adjacent lands money is not placed in a bank, as with us, or invested in securities. or house property, but when put by, all that is not turned into jewellery and worn by the women on their persons is hidden in the ground, and disposed of as Achan and the slothful servant in the parable so naturally disposed of their possessions. The owner of such buried treasure, until at his last gasp, will seldom if ever reveal the secret hiding-place even to his wife, and therefore when he dies suddenly or amongst strangers, his secret dies with him. Hence the country, through thousands of years, has come to be honeycombed with hidden treasures. In conse 3 1 Domestic Life in Palestine, by Mary Eliza Rogers, p. 151. London, Bell & Daldy, 1862. 2 Jos. vii. 21; Matt. xxv. 18, 3 Jer. xli. 8. quence of this, there has arisen a class of men who, like gamblers, abandoning their proper calling, and often neglecting their families, spend almost their whole life in wandering about to seek out buried property, and these have made the words, "to dig for it more than for hidden treasures," a proverbial expression for the most eager and devoted pursuit.' One class of these treasure-hunters are called Sahiri, or "Necromancers." Their method of procedure is to seek out certain nervous and highly-sensitive individuals, who are credited with the faculty of perceiving objects concealed under ground, or in any other place of hiding; "but the faculty is only active when roused by the influence of necromantic ceremonies, which are understood by the professional treasure-seeker. He properly prepares the medium, and calls into full activity the visionary power; then, in obedience to his command, the hiding-places of treasures are said to be minutely described. On being restored to the normal state, the medium does not remember any of the revelations which may have been made. The practice of this art is considered haram, that is, ' unlawful,' and is carried on secretly and not extensively. Those people of whom I made inquiries on the subject, spoke with fear and trembling, and mysteriously whispered their explanations.' This applies, more or less, alas! to all the religions, the so-called Christians, whether members of 6 1 Job iii. 21. See also Prov. ii. 4. 2 Domestic Life in Palestine, by Miss Rogers, p. 116. C |