Home, The (1940s)

Holy On the east of the Mediterranean lies Palestine. It is a small country. From north to south, Palestine is only 150 mi long. But this little country has played a vital part in the early history of the Near East. It lies near the meeting place of three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa. 2,000 years ago, at the beginning of the Christian era, it was a part of the great Roman Empire. In Palestine, as in all the other parts of their empire, the Romans built wonderful roads. One road ran from Acre to Damascus and was called the way of the sea. Another called the way to the south, ran from Egypt and joined the way of the sea near Capernium. In the hills of Palestine, near these great roads, were many small towns and villages. Most of them probably looked something like this. In the 20th centuries that have passed since the time of Christ, life in these villages has changed very little. In the early morning, the main street of a Palestine hill town would have been almost empty, but gradually the inhabitants would begin to wake up and to appear. Here on the left comes the village carpenter to look out at the weller. Inside his house is built on two floors. The lower one is used as a stable and on the upper one his family are still asleep and have to be woken up. When they get up, they roll up their beds, which are just mattresses on the floor. The rolled up mattresses are stored away in a special alco during the day. Another al cove is the ladder. Here they help themselves to breakfast. Breakfast is just a piece of bread and a handful of dried fruit. Now the carpenter and his son get ready to go out on their day's work. All night the donkey has been tied up in front of the manger. On the door of the house is a wooden box containing a piece of writing from the scriptures. They touch this as they go out and kiss the fingers that touched it as a sign of respect for the word of God. In the street, they load up the donkey with pieces of timber. These they are going to take down the street to their shop. The second little girl has come to the door to wave goodbye to her father and brother. Now she runs into the house where her mother is dressing the baby. A Jewish baby 2,000 years ago was rolled in a shawl and then wrapped round with bandies which were called swaddling bands. This was done until the baby was 3 months old and the idea was to make its bones grow straight. The coins you see on the mother's headdress are her diary. They are the savings bank of the family, and it would be a great loss to them all if one fell off and couldn't be found. As the mattresses are all rolled away in the daytime, the safest and most usual place to put the baby is in the manger. Now the day's housework starts. The mother ties her long sleeves behind her so that her arms can be quite free. The daughters learn to help with the housework from a very early age. And the little girl is being given a tray to go up on the flat roof of the house and fetch some more dried fruit. Mother is going to the well to fetch water. Every house was built with a staircase outside. This led up to a flat roof with a wall around it which was used as an extra room and as a store room. There would only be one well in a village and for many women it was a long walk to fetch water. All the housewives met at the well, and it was a great place for talking and for telling all the village news. She lifts the full jar of water and carries it on her head. It is carefully balanced on a ring of soft material. What can the younger daughter be doing? The elder one runs up to see. It is quite clear that she must have been doing more eating than anything else. The jar of water was used to fill up the big storage jar which stood in every hut. This pottery jar kept the water very cool. Now the housewife gets some grain from the grain bin. Very little housework was done in the house which was dark. So the materials for baking bread are being taken outside. Water fetched all the way from the well was far too precious to risk spilling it. Outside each village house was the cooking place. Here too, under the staircase, the housewife kept her grinding stone. She is starting to grind while the daughter fetches out the rest of the things they want for making bread. The grindstone is a very simple business made up of two stones. The top one is turned with a wooden handle. Grinding is much easier when two people do it together. The grain is poured between the stones through a hole in the top one. The flour falls out between the two stones onto a cloth. Now the daughter is putting a metal cover onto the charcoal fire to get hot. The grindstone is taken to pieces and the extra flour shaken into the cloth. All the flour is now put into a wooden basin ready to make the bread. It is kneaded with water. Then a little sour bread is added to act as yeast or lemon. One disadvantage of cooking out of doors was that travelers sometimes got in your way. The finished dough is now shaped into round cakes and put on the hot metal to bake. A housewife remembers that the lamp in the house has not been filled today. The lamps of that time were made of pottery and had to be kept filled with oil. The lamp and the crews of oil were always kept in a special alco. Now the bread cakes are cooking well and the housewife turns them. She uses a cloth so as not to burn her fingers. A household of five would eat a whole tray full of bread in one day. The second daughter tries an experiment to see if the local bounce. It doesn't bounce. It only gets dirty. But she thinks that what no one sees, no one will mind. The bread is torn away in the lada alco. There were no cupboards in a house like this, but things like needle work were kept carefully put away in a wooden chest. The mother and her two daughters are taking their needle work across the street to sit with a friend at the entrance to her house. By this time, the sun is getting high and the shady side of the street is the more comfortable. The older daughter can sew, but the younger one can only watch as yet. The friend is an unmarried woman, for she has no diary on her headdress. Now during the hot hours of the noonday, the women of the village would sit and talk. They could do the most beautiful needle work and embroidery. And as their hands worked, so their tongues worked, too.