From Cedar to Hyssop
IV. Plants with Folk Uses
I. Fuel and Tinder Plants
Fuel Plants
Poterium Spinosum L. Billan; Netish. Thorny Burnet. (Pl. 35).
Retama Roetam Forsk. Retem. White Broom.
(Pl. 36).
Noea Spinosissima
L. Surr; Thirr.
(Pl. 37).
Ononis Natrix L. Baswi. Yellow Rest Harrow. (Pl. 38).
Tinder Plants
Helichrysum Sanguineum
L. Şoufan. (Pl. 39).
Phagnalon Rupestre
L. Soufan. (Pl. 40).
Billan, or Netish,
the "thorn that crackles under the pot," crackles also famously in
the limekilns, where fierce fires are required. It grows everywhere in rocky
ground, the soft pink of its fruits contrasting beautifully with the pale grey
thorns, a joy to behold until the heats of summer dry the bushes and ripen the
seeds and it is ready for the furnace. Then the sight of the tangle of forking
thorns confirms the justice of its favourite name of Nefish, "Scratcher." One would think it a
difficult matter to make such crooked branches into a portable bundle at all,
but the clever wood gatherers contrive to build up a neat, flattish round
packet and balance it on their heads and piles of such packets can be seen
outside every village in the late summertime.
Well may they sing of the carrier as
buried in the cruel thorns!
Well may they repeat the rhyme of the
reapers:
"O would that thorns were not
seen nor created nor existing!"
(Ya
ret el shok ma ban – Wala t khallak
wala kan).
Yet the girls vie with one another as
to who can carry most on their heads, till they look like trees walking, and
they have their reward not only in the appreciation of their labours at home, but in the admiration of young men on the look out for the ideal peasant's wife, a strong bearer of
burdens. This admiration finds expression in an amusing little verse
celebrating the Baswi (Ononis
natrix), Shiĥ
(Artemisia herba alba) and Surr (Noea spinosissima): [1]
[49]
"The wood carrier of the Baswi
isn't worth five farthings;
The wood carrier of the Shih is worth a hundred
whole piastres;
The wood carrier of the Surr
is worth ninety and nine slaves and a perfect man."
(Hattabat el baswi khams igta'
ma betiswa
Hattabat el shih tiswa
mit qirsh el sahih
Hattabat el surr tiswa tisa'
w tis'in abid w hurr).
The meaning of that is that she who
has the energy to go down into the desert to gather the Surr,
the best fuel going, is a lass worthy of a handsome
husband, and ninety and nine slaves to do her bidding.
Dalman gives another song, similarly
chaffing the wood gatherers,
"She who gathers Alende
(Ephedra), how shameless she is;
The fool brings Awarwe
(Mullein) far brushwood,
But my brushwood is Kertam
(Ballota) and Shih (Artemisia).
Put the brushwood, put the small wood on the fire,
All save that named with the name of the Beautiful One, Do
not burn that!"
The allusion in this case is to a
girl's name, 'Adbe – it is 'Adbe that must not be burnt, i.e., Zygophyllum
dumasum.[2]
It will perhaps
strike the reader here what very small firewood is being spoken of; indeed,
the small brushwood gives a fierce heat and is reckoned good to cook with by
the people, thaugh when it comes to serious baking a
larger plant than those yet mentioned is preferred to heat the oven, the White
Broom, Retem (Retama
roetam); it is most popular for the purpose because
it keeps its heat so long. These folk rhymes we have been quoting, as
ever, speak of a Primitive way of life – the sort of milieu where a light may
be obtained by striking flint and steel on to tinder made from the fluff of pappus on the seeds of certain small 'everlasting' flowers
(Plates 39, 40) and where all cooking is done on little open fires. They
reck not of life in houses where good wood and coal are burnt for comfort and kitchen. As the standard of life
rises and the European (or the Europeanized) population of Palestine increases
so does the need of the warmth of good fires and trees fall ever far this need.
It is good that in these latter days Europeans are beginning to realise that they aught to give
as well as take, witness the forest nurseries and young plantations of olive
trees. May consciences grow tenderer still .and hands more apt to plant than to
uproot!
[50]
II. Plants with Amusing Names, Proverbs or Uses
Adonis
palaestina, Boiss. (Ranunculaceae). 'Ain el Biss. Pheasant's Eye.
Pheasant's Eye never seems adequate
for this brilliant flower, but really Cat's Eye ('Ain el Biss)
seems to argue colour blindness on any who can so
confound green and red. Those see perhaps better who
call it the Blood Drop.
Alcea
acaulis, Cav. (Malvaceae). Khutmia; Khubz el 'Adra. Mallow.
These names are
given to several mallows. Virgin's Bread (Khubz
el 'Adra) is said of the
fruit, eaten by children in Palestine as the 'cheeses' of aor
mallows are by children in England.
Arisarum vulgare, Targ
(Aroideae), Siraj
el Ghule (Witches Lamp).
The siraj
is the clay lamp of olden days which still survives in the
little pinched up types used for offerings at the tombs of Sheikhs and
other shrines. If the calyx of this arum be held
sideways it will look rather like this shape, with the pistil standing out like
the wick.
Ammi Visnaga, L. (Umbelliferae). Khilleh.
This umbellifer
with large heads of white flowers grows in masses an the
fallows of the plains, making fine foraging far the
bees. The fruiting pedicels are used as toothpicks.
There is an illustration in Gerarde of "Spanish Tooth Pick Chervil," which
looks very like this plant. He says, "It is reported among the Bastard
names to be called by the Romans Bisacutum, of which
name some show remains among the Syrians who commonly call the latter, Gingidium, Visnaga, this is named
in English Tooth Pick Chervil. ... The hard quills wheron
the seeds do grow are good to cleanse the teeth and gums and do easily take
away all filth and baggage sticking in them, without any hurt unto the gums, as
followeth after many other Toothpicks, and they leave
a good scent or savour in the mouth."[3] All
of which is very well known to Palestinians to this day.
Anacyclus radiatus, Loisel (Compositae) Beisum.
A yellow daisy whose petals are thrown for their fragrance into sour milk and clarified
butter (leben and semn).
Artedia squamata,
L. (Umbelliferae) Drehme.
The name here comes from dirhem, ar drachma, a coin,
because of the seeds, which are large and round; the name is
also given to Tordylium AEgyptiacum,
Daucus carota and other Umbelliferaus plants for the same reason. There is an
amusing proverb said of the Wild Carrot: "You are like the monkey in the Drehme" (Ente zey qird el drehme),
said to a conceited person, or one who likes to make himself conspicuous in
company. The "qird," or "little black monkey" is the little
dark purple flower in the centre of the white ones,
which though small is conspicuous because of its colour.
[51]
Ballota
undulata, Fresen (Labiatae). Kerian; Kariamm. Fetid Horehound.
This Horehound has not a very
pleasant smell though it is considered good for
washing out milk pails with. The dry calices were it is said
once used for the wicks of clay lamps. They are used sometimes nowadays for
nightlights; turned upside down floating on oil, the stalk serves as the wick.
Calycotome
villosa, Vahl (Leguminoseae) Qundol; Qundel.
The sweet yellow flowers are put into sour milk and clarified butter (leben and semn). Dalman says that
the name means a lamp and refers to the shining yellow flowers.[4]
Convolvulus
sp. (Convolvulaceae). Madada; Muddede.
This is a name given to all plants of
this kind, it means the "Spreaders."
Cuminum cyminum,
L. (Umbelliferae). Kammun.
Cumin.
"Abu Kammuni"
is said of a stingy person because the fruiting head
of the plant closes over like a closed hand. It is amusing that the Cumin had
also a similar application among the Ancient Greeks. The mean and stingy were
called 'cumin splitters' (it is said that Marcus Aurelius was so nicknamed
because of his avarice), but this was an allusion, not to the 'grasping hand'
of the plant, but to its minute seed, as is also the Biblical "tithe of
mint and anise and cumin."
Cuscuta sp. (Convolvulaceae).
Sha'r el Ajaiz
(Old Women's Hair). Dodder.
Dodder with its tangle of reddish
thread like stems looks to the fellahin like the hair of an old lady dyed with henna. This colour is admired by them, but even more by the Bedu.
Pere Jaussen says: "Among the Bedu the favourite colour for hair is russet bordering on red (roux tirant sur le rouge). 'But black
is more beautiful,' I said to the Bedouin. 'For the eyes.' he answered, 'but
for the hair, it must be the colour of henna." So the women wash their hair in camel's urine to make it
reddish.[5]
[52]
Daucus carota, L.
(Umbelliferae), Shemsiyet
el Rahib (Monk's Sunshade. Wild Carrot.
The name is given
from the shape of the umbel of white flowers, spread out like a parasol.
Erodium
gruinum, L. (Geraniaceae). Ibret el Ajuz. Blue Cranes Bill. (Plate 41).
The name of Old Lady's Needle (Ibret el Ajuz) is given
because the long beaked seed vessel suggests the large needle suited to the
old lady's failing eyesight; another name is Shepherd's
Needle (Ibret el Ra'i).
Euphorbia sp. Haleib el
Bum (Owl's Milk).
A name given because of the milky
juice of these plants.
Lepidium
chalepense, L. (Cruciferae). Carnebiet el djaj. (Chickens Cauliflower).
The round white heads of flowers
suggest a tiny cauliflower.
Linum usitatissimum,
L. (Lineae). Kittan.
Flax.
Flax, for which Palestine was once
famous, is now hardly cultivated at all, except for its seed; it is sometimes
found wild. The only proverb we know about it is one used of a stupid,
lethargic person.
"Her blood is as thick as a linseed poultice"
(Dammha itqil zey lazqa
bizr el kittan).
Marrubium vulgare, L. (Labiatae),
Kriha; Horehound.
As the Arabic name shows, this plant
is 'despised', which is curious, because it is, as with us in Europe,
considered medicinal and useful.
MIedicago orbicularis, All (Leguminoseae). Dredra; Im tabaq Ter.
Medick. (Plate 43, p. 68).
These names refer to the seed pod,
coiled round and round, 'dredra' from durr to roll, or turn round, and 'Im
tabaq ter' (Mother of a
Birds' Tabaq), referring to a dish called 'Imtabaq' which has layers of dough and cheese and
fruit. 'Tabaq' itself is a round dish, or dish
cover, in coiled basketry. Both these names are applied
to other Medicks, especially to Medicago denticulata, Willd, and to Gerarde's 'Moon Trefoil,' Hymenocarpus
circinnatus, L.
Onobrychis cristagalli,
L. (Leguminoseae). Durreis.
Cock's Comb Onobrychis. (Plate 42).
"El Durreis
ma bit amin el Ghally"
(the Durreis does not trust in the corn).
This proverb is
always said of one who does not trust in Providence but is over careful,
'You are like the Durreis,' because the plant always
has the old seed visible at the root. She will not trust in the harvest to
come, but keeps the old seed by her.
[53]
Ononis antiquarum
L. (Leguminaseae). Shibriq;
Shibruq. A Rest Harrow, with pink flowers and
long thorns.
Proverb: "You are like the camel
eating shibriq with his eye an
another thorn" (Ente zey
el jemel ille boqul el shibriq w 'ainuh 'ala gher shok). This is said of a greedy
person with much the same sense as the English saying, "A gooseberry in
the mouth, one in the hand, and another in the eye"
Opuntia
Ficus Indica, Haw (Cactaceae), Subbeir. Prickly Pear.
The Subbeir
is often used punningly in
sayings about patience,[6] in
the same kind of sense as the African "Wait a Bit Thorn." Here is
also a quite modern saying which seems to have spread
about in a remarkable way, referring to an Englishman called Thomson, who is
reputed to have always picked all the seeds out before he would eat a prickly
pear. It is said of any too particular behaviour, or too carping criticism, "Like Thomson's
Prickly Pear" (Zey Subbeir
el Thomson), i.e., "there will be nothing left of it if you pick it to
bits like that."
Pallenis spinasa,
L. (Campositae), 'ishbet
el Dabwe (Plant of the Tarantula).
So called because of the sharp scales
of the involucre which stick nut round the yellow
daisy flower like a spider's legs. Because 'dabwe'
also mean sores, some think that it has virtue for healing them.
Papaver rhaeas, L. Khash Khash
(Rattle). Corn Poppy.
The capsule with the dry seeds in it
resembles a child's rattle; another name is the Fortune Teller (El Bukheite), because children play a game with the buds,
picking one and asking it a question before they tear it open. The first
question in the game is, "Is my father's horse red or white?" and the
colour inside the bud gives the answer.
Paranychia argentea,
Lam. (Paronychieae). Ijer
el hammam (Dove's Feet).
This is a prostrate plant with a
silvery fuzz of scarious calyx lobes, and slightly
fleshy stems. Children will eat the tips of these stems when young, and because
they are red at the joints, they give the plant the name of Feet of the Dove,
that blessed bird, who always has henna on her feet. And
why does the dove always have henna on her feet?
[54]
Because when Noah sent forth a raven
and a dove from the Ark, the raven never came back. Therefore this curse was
put upon him, "May your face be black as night," and he was eternally
condemned to fill a sieve with water. "Qwak, Qwak," he cries, "I have filled it, I have filled
it" (Maletuh, Maletuh),
but he lies. This is why they say in the village to one who is false, "You
are like the raven who never brought back the answer, O
black faced one!" (Ente zey el ghorab ille ma biraja
el jawab, ya wij el asmar).[7]
But the dove returned, and therefore
Noah blessed her with every blessing, saying, "May you every month have a
pair of young ones" and "May your face far ever shine white." And since that time the dove is born with henna on her feet.
Petroselinum sativum, L. (Umbelliferae). Baqdunis.
Parsley.
Cultivated but sometimes escapes and is found wild. The following proverb really refers more to
the soil than to parsley. It is said of a stupid
person, "He has a mind so thick that you could plant parsley in it" (aqlu ghaleed tizra
el baqdunis fi).
Ricinus cammunis,
L. (Euphorbiaceae). Kharwa'.
Castor Oil Plant.
This plant grows wild in the Jordan
valley and other warm places in the country. It is not to be
called a popular medicine in any sense of the word. This proverb about
it refers to its spreading habit and is said to anyone
who takes up too. much room, "You are like the
castor oil plant on the canal bank" (Ente
zey el kharwa' fil qana). 'Qana' is used for
canals or any small aqueduct used for irrigation, it is thought to be a word
left in the country by the Crusaders.
Solanum nigrum, L. (Solanaceae). Black Nightshade. Bandoret
el Haya. Serpent's Tomataes. \
Trifolium gloabosum,
L. (Leguminaseae). Neflet
Qutn. Catton Clover.
The allusion in the name is to the
fruiting head, especially the variety eriosphaerum,
Post, in which the calices became densely woolly, looking just like fluffy
little balls of cotton.
Urginea
marittima, L., Liliaceae. Unsul; Basel; Basalan; Kharif.
Readers may wonder why we have not
put the Squill among the medicinal plants considering
its European reputation, but we have come across no case of its use in our
district. The fine spikes of white flowers appear in autumn, therefore it is
often said in speaking of that season, 'when the Squill
flowers.' The leaves come later, in the winter; where, as on the coast lands and Birsheba way, the
bulbs are allowed to grow in rows on the boundaries, they make fine dark green
lines on the bare plain.
[55]
The aspect of the flowering Squill is taken in Artas and
elsewhere to be a presage of the coming season .of rains and seed
time. Canaan says that from the way in which it blossoms the peasant
believes he can foretell whether the winter or summer crops will be good or
bad. "He holds that the blossoming may take place at three distinct
periods (called rabtat or bruj).
If the first period is marked by abundant blossoms it
is a good omen for the winter crops. Abundant blossoming of the third rabtah is a sign of a good summer crop."
This exactly agrees with the account
given by Theophrastus, in the 4th century B.C.: "In Squill it is the stem proper which thus appears, and
presently the flower appears emerging from it and sitting on it. And it makes three flowerings, of which the first appears to
mark the first seed time, the second the middle one, and the third the last
one; accordingly as these flowerings have occurred so the crops usually turn
out.[8]
Verbascum tripolitanum.
Boiss. (Scrophulariaceae). Awarwar. Mullein.
This mullein has yellow flowers and
woolly stems; the woolly down is considered dangerous
if it gets into the eyes, hence its name, which means 'blindness,' and mothers
warn their children not to go near the plant. In spite of this,
or perhaps because of this children seem interested in the plant and sing
rhymes about it, asking it why it nods its head. "Is your Grandmather dead?" they say, and the tall MuUein, trembling as ever in the wind, nods its head sadly
in reply.
Viscum cruciatum.
Sieb. (Loranthaceae). Enab. Red Mistletoe,
This mistletoe has bright red berries
and grows chiefly on alive trees. A fellaha met on
Mount Scopus one day told us that the berries were put
into olive oil sometimes to improve the colour and
ate several of them to prove to us that they were not harmful.
III. Dead Sea Apples
When we asked fellahin about Dead Sea
Apples they said to us, "The plain is full of cursed plants, empty apples
and serpents' grapes." When questioned further about this or that plant
they became vague and readily agreed that it might be either of the two usual
claimants, Calotropis ar
Solanum; their idea was really a general one, covering all the uncanny and
unprofitable plants that might grow on that cursed soil.
[56]
We will give here what lore we can of
these claimants and a third, the Colocynth, and readers shall decide for themselves which best deserves the title.
Citrullus Colocynthis,
L., Handal. Bitter Cucumber.
The Colocynth has
been taken by some to be the fruit of Sodom, because it trails on the
ground, vine-like ("for their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the
fields of Gamorrah"),[9] and
when dry the gourds may be imagined to contain 'smoke and ashes.' But the plant is not peculiar to the Dead Sea region, being
found on other plains in Palestine, and it does not seem to be regarded by the
people as at all uncanny. The gourds have a sale, and Jaffa is one of the
traditional places of export. But though their
medicinal use is quite well known it is not favoured
locally, the purge is too drastic and dangerous. One tale we heard of its use
is rather amusing. An Englishman who has spent much time out in the desert, and
has good command of the language, noticed a Beduin
who was travelling in his company gathering some colocynth gourds. Understanding
from the man that it was to be used as a purge, he
asked to be allowed to see exactly how the medicine was concocted and
administered. Arrived in camp, he watched the boiling of the shells in water,
and then looked to see the nauseous draught go down. To his utter surprise the Beduin put the brew
into a pan and immersed his heels in it for a time, vowing that this manner of
application was highly efficacious! Indeed it probably
had the value of a mustard bath.
We have heard of no other local uses,
save these, that the dried shells of the gaurds are
good to lay among clothes, being much disliked by the
moth, and among lentils, to keep away insects.
Solanum incanum, L. Khadak. Dead Sea Apple. (Syn. S. Coagulans,
Forsk. S. sanctum, ,etc.).
(Plate 44).
The prickly low bushes of this
Solanum grow near Jericho, and in the wadis about the
Dead Sea. It has purple flowers, followed by small yellow fruit, like little
apples. These keep their shape somewhat when dry, and may be
found, when some insect has been at work on the seeds, to be literally
full of dust. The people know the fruit to be poisonous and they do not use it
in any way, so far as we know.
This is the Ethiopian Apple of some
of the old herbalists, and indeed it does also grow in
Ethiopia. The deep chasm of the Dead Sea and Jordan valley is full of tropical
plants, recalling that country, and the very illustrations we are using for
this Solanum and the Calotropis were
drawn from specimens in the Sudan.
[57]
Calotropis
procera, Willd. 'Ushr. 'Ushr. Dead Sea Apple. (Asclepia gigantea). (Fruit, Beid
cl 'Ushr, i.e., Eggs of the 'Ushar,).
(Plate 45).
The tall bushes of
the Calotropis, some 15 feet high, are much more
striking to the eye than those of the Solanum; the leaves are large and thick,
the flower is a strange waxy white and mauve, and the fruit is ,also more
imposing; it has large obovate follicles, first green then yellowish, and
filled with silky fibres, Some think that the way the
ripe seeds puff forth when the fruit is opened, floating away like perfect
little parachutes, may have suggested the 'smoke and ashes' ,of the ancient
writers. Otherwise it does not seem to fit the part so well as the
Solanum. Dalman says indeed that the Beduin regard
them as "bewitched lemons," but so far as
our observations go they find it has some uses. P. Baldensperger
says of it, "Far from the Asclepia gigantea being associated with the idea of death and
destruction, it was, to Sa'ad's mind, the symbol of
life. 'Was not its name,' he asked me, 'Oshair,[10] -
the pregnant-maker, and had not a barren woman once sat within the shade of the
tree and soon after had a child?' And to prove that life was indeed its
essential element, he showed me how a thick milky juice could be made to flow
from the plant like opium from the poppy."
Pere Jaussen
mentions also the same idea, saying that Beduin women
rub their bodies with the milk of the Sodom apple, the 'ushr,
believing that, thanks to the treatment, conception will become easy. He also
tells how among the nomads the burnt wood enters into the composition of a
powder;[11] the
milk is used as a remedy against sterility in women and mares, and the down is
used for stuffing cushions."[12] We
have heard too a most unlikely tale that the down was once used for spinning;
it is not quite impossible, but a more refractory thread fibre
for the purpose can hardly be found. A similar story is told
of another Asclepiad, also growing in the same region, the Gomphocarpus,
that the fibre from its follicles was used in olden days
to spin the thread for the robes of the priests of the Samaritans at Nablus.
These two plants got dreadfully mixed by the old
herbalists and it is amusing to meet our 'ushr, in
some of their arguments recognizable under the names of Ossar
and Beidelsar.
[58]
IV. Bee Plants (Plates 46, 47).
Village beekeeping in Palestine is a
constant source of surprise and interest to newcomers in the country. The bees
are housed in clay pipes built up into stacks, placed usually inside the
village in courtyards or on low roofs, and they often have a very picturesque
appearance. They are like the beehives of Egypt,[13]
which go back, we know from a basrelief at the Temple
of Abusir, to at least 2600 B.C., but in Egypt the pipes are made of reed mats plastered with clay,
while here the tubes are made of clay mixed with straw. In both cases the ends of the tubes are sealed up with mud plaster,
and one small hole only is left for the bees to go in and out. The honey is taken by blowing smoke into a tube and driving the bees
out of it; it is often of excellent quality, but marred by dirt owing to
primitive methods of dealing with the comb.
It is a great sin to kill a bee;
recently a robber broke into a courtyard in a village by night and burnt out a
hive, killing the bees to get the honey, and this was
reckoned a terrible thing. The fellah who told the tale said bitterly,
"There is no religion in this village any more."
Bees love cleanliness, and those who
tend them should have clean hands and a pure heart. The anger bees show against some individuals may be due either to some
defect in their character, such as anger, or their dress, which should
preferably be white and clean, or to an obnoxious smell – they detest people
who perspire much. In spite of these primitive hives, bees,
seem able to live healthily in them; at least there is no record of disease
before the introduction of infected bees from South Russia. But
the system has one great defect: the hives arc fixed, and the crop is therefore
limited to what the bees can get near the village. Nowadays modern beekeeping
is spreading in Palestine, in the Jewish colonies, and among the Arabs too. It was all started by the Baldensperger
brothers with their introduction of the first movable hives in 1880.
They were the first to have the brilliant idea of carrying their hives about,
from the coast to the hills, and so assuring a crop of honey all through the
season, and many were their adventures on beginning to put the idea into
practice.
[59]
When the time came to take the bees
from the orange blossom of Jaffa to the thymy uplands
they bound the hives on a camel and proposed to travel by night while the bees
were asleep, and rest and let them forage by day. But
one night they miscalculated and had to travel on till dawn. The bees began to
escape from the hives and the camel bolted – down went the hives on to the
ground, out came the swarms, and the beekeepers ran for their lives. It was not
till dusk that they got the angry population back into
their homes and were able to continue their journey through the darkness.
Another disaster happened one year when the bees were being
conveyed to their summer camp by a cart. The brothers, having much
household stuff to carry too, piled the bedding on top of the hives. To their
horror when they unpacked on arrival all the bees were
dead – suffocated. But the brood, could that be saved?
Hastily getting horses they rode off to the village of
the beekeepers, the Nahali, and bought some clay
tubes full of bees. When they returned the smell of the dead bees in dozens of
hives was terrible, no sooner, however, had they introduced the tubes when the
good little bees began cleaning up at once. They removed the corpses, fed and
raised the young brood, and went on working so successfully that many were the
pounds of honey that they had made by the end of the thyme season. Nowadays the
bees travel swiftly by motor lorry and the excitements of other days are no
more, or perhaps we might say changed, for we think that beekeeping is never a
very quiet kind of occupation.
The yearly journeyings
of the bees from Mr. E. Baldensperger's Apiary at
Jaffa are never quite the same, the flower seasons may overlap or some may
fail, so visits of inspection have to be made beforehand to study the region
and judge where best to place the hives. He has kindly given us the following
notes of the plants of most importance for the bees and the usual order of
their flowering.
1. Almond. Broad Beans. Small Red Clover. (February).
These are the most important of the
earliest flowers. They are 'given to the bees'; the honey is
not taken, but left to give strength to the bees so that they may be ready for
the heavy work in front of them.
2. Orange Blossom. 'March-April.
Then comes the Orange Blossom from
March 15th to April 30th. The
honey is highly popular on account of its delicate flavour. In a good year hives will
give two crops of orange honey of some 25 kilos per hive on about the 1st
and the 15th of April respectively.[14] By
the end of April there is usually no orange blossom
left.
3. Opuntia Ficus-Indica,
Haw. Prickly Pear. Subbeir. (April-June).
Mr. Baldensperger's
bees are usually sent to Ramleh
for this crop. There are two kinds of prickly pear, sabr
beledi, and sabr
ifmngi, a more prickly plant, with red fruit. The
first is the best, the second fowers later, but the
Arabs think nothing of the honey from either. It really is inferior, containing
a high proportion of sugar against a low proportion of protein, though it may yield
a good crop, 10 to 15 kilos more.
[60]
4. Crucifers.
These are useful at this time,
especially Brassica and Sinapis. Also Clovers,
especially Trifolum alexandrinum.
5. The Labiates. May. (except Salvia
triloba, April).
The most important of these are Thymbra spicata (Sabbali), Teucrium chamaedrys (Kamendra), and
Teucrium rosmarinifolium.
Salvia triloba (Miriamiya)
and other salvias are also useful; a little later Origanum
maru (za'tar) is
welcome and Lavandula stoechas,
where it can be found. To find these plants the bees
have to be carried up into the wadis, such as Wadi Ali, wher:e
our photograph was taken (Plate 9), and later Tell el Safi, el Tineh, or Dnibbeh. The honey from
these plants is reckoned to be good, in an exceptional
year the orange blossom and they almost meet, and some of the hives would be
taken straight from Jaffa to Wadi Ali or other
similar place. But generally there is a gap and the
visit to the prickly pear has to intervene.
6. Ammi Visnaga. Khilleh. (May-June).
This again is a flower of June, most
valuable for both nectar and pollen. It is an umbelliferous
plant, spreading readily over amy
waste land, in a foaming sea of white blossoms.
7. Prosopis Stephaniana.
Yenbut. (Plate 46). (June-July).
This is a low acacia, spreading on
the ground, with fragrant flowers. It may go on flowering for forty days or
more. It abounds near Tell el Safi, el Tineh and Dnibbeh, so the bees do not have to go far away from Jaffa
for it.
8. Thymus
capitata. Zuhef. Za'tar farsi. (Plate 47). (July).
When it can be managed
the bees are given the chance to rival the bees of Greece and make honey of
Hymettus, for this thyme is that which grows on Hymettus itself. It can be found at Dnibbeh, near the
villages north of the Auja, Sh
Mowamis, in many mountain places, and the hills from Maghar to Gaza.
9. Urgillea
maritima. Basalan, Buseil. (August).
Now we are in August, the spikes of
the Squill appear and are welcome, small as the white
bells are, there is much nectar in them.
[61]
10. Carthamus glaucus,
M.B. Qus. (September).
Last of all in September we have this
beautiful pale thistle, a weed and hurtful in some degree in the fields, but
covering them w1th a grey and mauve mantle, and giving abundance of nectar. The
honey is good, but rather queer in flavour; it is always said of Jerusalem honey that it tastes of Qus.
The later moves of
the bees are often troubled by their great enemies the hornets. Jalil,
north of Jaffa, is a favourite late region because
there are no hornets there.
Of all these crops
the Orange Blossom is the most important. Mr. E. Baldensperger
tells us that once in an exceptional year – 1883 – ten hives gave a total of a
little over 3,000 pounds of honey in Jaffa! Surely we
may still speak of Palestine as a land flowing with milk and honey, even if, as
Mr. P. Baldensperger declares, 15 out of 19
references to honey in the Bible are more likely to mean dibs, grape treacle.[15] He
goes so far as to say that in his opinion bees were not brought in till after
the Captivity.[16] The issue
is joined in the Journals of Apiculture, and we wish we
cou1d quote more from Mr. P. Baldensperger on this
subject, but we have already wandered too far down these fascinating paths, our
excuse must be the inseparability of flowers and bees. Remember not only can
the bees not live without the flowers, but many flowers cannot live without
bees; such are the red clover, the salvias and larkspurs, which set no seed in
their absence.[17]
V. Of Sweet Scents
Of the Sweet Scent of Handaqoq. (Plate 48).
Several fragrant little pea flowers
bear the name of Handaqoq, among them Melilotus alba, Melilotus sulcata, Trigonella hierosolymitana and Trigonella arabica, and their petals are thrown into the sour milk or clarified
butter (leben or semn) for
a flavouring. This is reminiscent of the Swiss Ziegerkraut (curd herb), a Melilot
used in some parts to flavour cheese, but that is
used dry in the form of a powder, while in Palestine it is the fresh flowers
that are liked.
The sweetest of all the Handaqoqs is Melilotus alba, the white flowered Melilot.
It is rare near Jerusalem, and, a specimen being needed
for the illustration, one was found unexpectedly, growing in Duke Humphrey's
Herb Garden at Kew, where its perfume overcame even that of the heady mints and
thymes around. For long ago the Melilots
ranked among the herbs and were gathered for medicines; this value has vanished
away, yet they are as much thought of still for the bees as in the days when
they gained their name of Mel Lotus, Honey Lotus.
[62]
The yellow Trigonella
is also a honey plant and very sweet. The third plant we figure was brought in
from Wady Kelt, and the
friend who found it told us that a fellah seeing him pick it called to him and
said, "Take some more of that with you, it is Handaqoq,"
and he wondered why the fellah cared for so insignificant a flower and advised
him to take some home. Next day coming into the room where the tiny sprig was
in water in a glass he noticed that the room was full of a faint exquisite
perfume – that was the value of Handaqoq.
"Smell the scent of Handaqoq,
She above has taken away my mind,
Drive your camels, brother, drive"
(Shamim rihet Handaqoq
Akdat aqli halli foq,
Suq, jamalak khayyi soq),
as the young men used to sing at
weddings when the bride was high above them, perched up on a camel. And who is the maiden who would not be pleased at being
compared to a flower so delicate and of so ravishing a fragrance? The value of
its perfume is less elegantly expressed in the
following verse:
"Lentils divorced me,
Handaqoq took me back;
By the life of your head, O Handaqoq
I'll never taste lentils again,[18]
the explanation of which is that once a poor soul who ate
lentils made herself in consequence so disagreeable to her husband that he made
up his mind to divorce her. She then had the inspiration to chew Handaqoq and her presence became as
acceptable as it had formerly been disagreeable. Delicate in its pale greens
and whites as the true Handaqoq, M. alba, usually appears, it does sometimes grow into a big
bush, quite woody in fact. Post says that pipes are made
from the stems in Syria. Even in Palestine the plant
gets woody enough to be worth burning. When the men are stoking the lime kilns,
at it for three days and three nights, pushing in fuel incessantly, they sing
to pass the time away, and this is one of their songs,
"In it goes |
a juva |
In to the heat, |
El Humma |
'where
have we got to? |
Wen wasilna? |
The way of henna, |
Darb el henna |
The way of thorns, |
Darb el shok |
Handaqoq." |
Handaqoq. |
So the frail beauty ends in the
1imekilns, like the grass which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven.
[63]
The Rose of the Valley of Roses. Ward Juri.
(Pl. 50).
The Dag Rose. Ward Barri. (Pl, 49).
The valley of the Roses lies sa11th
of Jerusalem between Betir and Malha.
No one knows when it was planted, but it is all wild now, and the bushes grow as they will. It is not certain whether these roses are
descended from the Damask or the Cabbage Rose; they are pale pink and have a
very sweet scent. Women come and gather from them freely in the early summer,
and take the petals to Jerusalem to be distilled into
rose water, 'Ma Ward.' This rose water is most beloved in cookery, and
one of us remembers vividly the occasion when a too enthusiastic cook put rose
water in the soup, and could not understand European annoyance at its exotic flavour.
Rose Jam is a wonderful confection,
the colour a glowing pink and the taste as the
perfume of the rose in life, a spoonful or two can be enjoyed,
but more cloys; it is more often seen in Syria than in Palestine. To judge from
old cookery books (17th 18th century) Conserve of Roses
was formerly appreciated in England in the days when the Damask Rose was
classed with the culinary herbs and more grown than it is now. "Far the
cabbage and damask roses, with musk and Provence roses and sweet briar, are the
only roses for a herb garden."[19]
The sweetness of the rose has
inspired many a local poem and proverb. There is one especially favourite verse comparing pretty girls to roses which is sung at weddings during the dances. The
singer stands in the middle of the circle, armed with a sword, which she swings
above her head; she first sings a line and then the dancers round her repeat
it. The dance is a vigorous one, all the dancers whirling round, now jumping
with both feet at once and clapping hands, now joining hands in a ring. There
are many songs, new and old, sung during the dances, but the Song of the Roses
is rarely omitted: here is one version of it; in an extremely free translation :
"We are daughters like the newly opened roses.
Who should smell our perfume and pluck us may God help him,
You who choose a dark one, O blind and lame
Take a white one for joy at eve and morning."[20]
Seemingly the Palestinian admires a fair girl
as much as Egyptian folk singers who chant endlessly of beauty with the
refrain, "O girl, O White one! See the Beauties, see!" (Ya bint ya Beida! Shuf
el muhasin shuf).
Proverbs about the rose are plenty, we will give three
of them:
"He promised us a Rose and gave us an Oleander"
(Wa'aduna
el ward wa'atuna el dafli).
[64]
This means that the gift did not come
up to the expectations of it, as the oleander, though a flower fair to look
upon, is disliked and even considered to be poisonous.
"For the sake of the rose the briar drank"
(Kurmal el ward shirib el'ulleiq).
This proverb may be
applied in many ways, but a very usual meaning is that those in the
company of an attractive damsel may hope to receive a share of attentions.
"Even if the rose fades its
scent remains"
(El ward lawinu
dablan Rihatu fih).
The favourite
application of this saying is to some man or woman in the village
who, though old and poor, is yet beloved by all for sweetness of character,
Lawsonia alba. L. Henna.
(Plate 51).
The Henna plant is grown in Palestine
and is much loved there, though not so passionately as
in Egypt. There is little trace of it here in olden days; perhaps, as has been
suggested, it was brought from Egypt by one of King
Solomon's wives, hence the verse in the Song of Songs:
"My beloved is as a cluster of henna flowers
In the vineyards of Engedi."
Indeed a cluster of henna flowers is
fragrance itself. 'O sweetness!' cry the flower sellers in the streets of the
Old City and few passers-by seeing henna blossoms can resist taking a few
sprigs, fit gift for a beloved wife at home to place in her hair and so shed
perfume round her. It is sweet in all the ways of life, in love, and in death,
when it is cast, a last taken, into the shroud.
But sweet as the flowers are, the leaves
are still more highly esteemed. They are dried and rubbed
into a paste with halt water and used by women as a cosmetic, dyeing the nails and
sometimes the palms of the hands a bright orange brown. This is most
delicious they say, pleasant to smell, and besides coaling and good for the
skin. Men setting out on a long journey will beg their wives to spread some on
the soles to prevent sore feet, riders swear by it as a preventive of saddle
soreness, and there is great comfort, we are told, to
weary ones, after the bath, in an anointing of feet and hands with henna.
But the triumph of the Henna Bush is
that Wedding Eve, known as the Lelt el Henna, night
of music and odours, when the bride, with much
ceremony, has the paste bound to the palms of the hands and sleeps so, that by
next day she may appear more beauteaus than before, a
rapture to .all beholders. At Nablus the henna is
painted on in pretty little designs, but this is reckoned very
"citified" (mutamaddin) at Artas. Henna is used as the symbol
of sweetness in the following proverbs:
[65]
"Put henna on the bird's claw
And let the affair be smoothed
over."
(Hanni
keff el asfura
W
khalli el ehkaya mastura).
Here henna has exactly the sense of
the French "douceur," where sweetness is synonymous with a tip or
bribe.
"Way of henna, way of
thorns" (Darb el henna w darb el shok). that
is – (Life) –Sweet Way, Bitter Way, often said in moralising
fashion, much like our English, "Take life as you find it, the rough with
the smooth."
VI. Dye Plants. Soap.
There is usually one dyer at least in
a place of any size in Palestine. He has some dipping and dyeing to do for the
townsfolk, but for the most part his customers are the Beduin,
whose women bring in their handspun, being desirous of more brilliant colours than they can effect by their own arts. As far as
we have seen the dyers satisfy these clients by using
violent anilines imported from Europe – accounts have been given to us of
certain places, e.g., Hebron, where vegetable dyes are still in use, but we
have not verified them yet, and must confine ourselves here to a too narrow
sphere of observation.
We know that
vegetable indigo and madder, etc., were once grown and used here, so on our
visit to the dyers of Jerusalem we enquired whether they had ever used them and
if so why they had given them up, This was the answer given by one of the older
men, "I used to dye with the Indian indigo (Nil Hindi) when I was young,
and I think it was better than this 'ifrangi' indigo,
but it took much more time and skill to prepare the vat, and it cost more. If my customers would pay me a
little more I would dye with the real indigo now. But it is no good your asking me to dye a little bit
of wool for you with it. I should have to make a whole vat, and I could only do
that for a large order. Do I remember how to make a real indigo vat? Certainly
I do. I could make one any day if it was wanted." We enquired what were the necessary ingredients for such a vat and were told
that shid, kille,
and dibs should be used. Shid is lime,
and kille is the name for ashes of various
glassworts (Salsolas, etc.) containing potash, and
the dibs is grape treacle. We are told by those
who know that grape sugar is a common reducing agent, and with the alkaline
substances mentioned could make a satisfactory vat for indigo.
[66]
The dyers were equally positive that
they could dye efficiently with madder if customers wanted it, in fact it does
appear to be sometimes done still in the home. We had
more than one recipe given us in Artas for dyeing
with madder (fawi). The following is the most
interesting of these.
Take green grapes and press them with
a little water. Wash the wool and dry it. Then put the wool into the grape
juice and the powdered madder on top and leave it all night. Next day boil it
for an hour, stirring it. Don't wring out, but put
ashes on top and leave it for a night before washing the wool.
Opinions differed as to whether the
ashes used should be wood ash, or that of sheep or goat's dung.
The leaves of the almond tree are
said to give a yellow, and pomegranate bark with iron, a black; the safflower,
is only used to colour rice, its use
as a dye plant does not appear to be known.
We have only heard of a green once –
at Jerash, in Trans Jordan, it is
obtained by the use of an umbelliferous plant Ridolfia segetum. Mm. (Besbes)
and indigo. This nowadays is the synthetic indigo; in olden days
they used a vat composed of the same ingredients as we have already mentioned
for vegetable indigo.
All other dyes used there for dyeing
the wool brought in by the Beduin were anilines, so
far as could be ascertained.
We are told
that the indigofera is still cultivated in the south
end of the Dead Sea, but we have not been able to make investigation into this
and other points of interest and we think there must be more to be discovered
on this subject.
Soap
The Cyclamen (C. latifolium)
among its many names[21] is
often called "Shepherd's Soap" (Sabunet
el Ra'i), and it is said that its tuberous root
was formerly, and sometimes is now, used as soap; a similar story is also but
more rarely told of Leontice leontopetalum
(Lion's Leaf).
In some parts also
we are told that the Soapwort was cultivated for use as soap and that its root
also was used in the making of sweetstuff (Halawe) under the name of Shilsh
Halawe, but the root sold under that name
today in Jerusalem markets is, according to specimens we have seen and sent to
Kew, not Saponaria, but a Gypsophila.
[67]
Of far greater importance in days
past was kille, the ashes of Salsolas and other similar plants which
grow around the Dead Sea and in other desert places. It is not easy to find out
exactly which plants were used. We think that round
Jerusalem it could not have been S. Kali, but rather S. inermis,
and other plants. One of these, we cannot make out which, is called Ta'om and still has a lingering reputation in
Ramallah and thereabouts as having been excellent for washing clothes. In olden
days the Taamre used to
bring it out of the desert and hawk it round Bethlehem and district exchanging
the plant for figs and olives. One day when some people came round selling mats
at the door, a woman said, "This is like the bartering of the ta'om." She remembered the days when it was so sold. There are old people who can still remember
when the Eastern mountains were red at night from the
flames of the kille fires. In those days the kille was used
with olive oil for the famous soap of Nablus; it is now quite superseded by
imported potash.
1. Medicago
orbicularis, All (Legnminoseae). Im
tabak teir. Medick;
flowers yellow; pod round and coiled. Artas.
2. Hymenocarpus
circinnatns, L. (Leguminoseae).
Im tabak teir. Rather like a Medick, with yellow flowers and
flat round pods.
3. Artedia squamata, L. (Umbelliferae). Drehme. Flowers white.
4. Tordylium Aegyptiacum, L. (Umbelliferae). Drehme.
[68]
[1] These
are desert plants, it must be remembered that Artas is on the desert edge.
[2] Appendix
A 23.
[3] Gerarde, "Herbal," p. 1041-2.
[4] Dalman,
op. cit., p. 375.
[5] Jaussen, "Coutumes des Arabes au pays de Moab," p. 95.
[6] sabr = patience.
[7] Or zey el ghorab la wadda wala jab (Stephan).
[8] Theophrastus,
vii. 13, 6 (Hort). Canaan,
"Plant Iore in Palestinian Superstition,"
J.P.O.S., vol. 7-8, p. 133. See also Dalman, op. cit., p. 97.
[9] Deut.
xxxii. 32,
[10] The
derivation of "Oshair' here is from 'ushr,' pregnancy.
[11] The
dried root is used as a medicine in India under the
name of Mudar.
[12] Jaussen, "Coutumes des Fuqara," pp. 15, 89.
[13] MelIor, "Beekeeping in Palestine and Egypt Compared." Bulletin 82
(Government Press, Cairo).
[14] Mellor, op.
cit.
[15] Hebrew, debhash.
[16] Syrien, Palestinian and Egyptian bees all differ slightly. Mr. P. Baldensperger thinks that the Palestinian bee may be a
cross between the Syrian and the Egyptian. (See "Bulletin de la Societe d'Apiculture. Nice. 1930.
[17] Bees
feed their young on pollen, but more observations are needed
in Palestine as to which plants are visited for these purposes.
[18] Appendix
A 25.
[19] Rohde,
"A Garden of Herbs." p. 120.
[20] Appendix
A. 26.
[21] e.g., Squqa; zouzou; ghalyun; etc.