Tent Work in Palestine — Part 156

The pilgrims had been standing in their places for at least ten hours, yet they showed no signs of weariness. Every face was turned to the fire-hole, and but one interest seemed to absorb them, save when the great pewter cans of water, supplied by the charity of the priests, were brought round.

The variety of national character was also remarkable. Patient and stolid the Russians and Armenians stood in their places, and a little forest of candles rose from amongst them, ready to receive the fire, each pilgrim having a bunch of perhaps a dozen in his hand. Silent and motionless sat the Egyptians, awaiting the event with all the apathy and dignified indifference of Orientals. On the north, however, an entirely different scene was enacted. Here stood the Greek Christians, mostly Syrians by birth, who were worked up into a state of hysterical frenzy which would not allow them to be quiet for a moment, and which seemed ever on the increase. Every now and then a man would struggle on to the shoulders of his neighbours; in one case six arms, extended full length, supported him, three to each foot, whilst his baggy trousers were grasped to keep him steady; another man was pushed and rolled along, over the people's heads, as if he was swimming. These individuals became fugle-men, and led the numerous well-known chants, of which I collected the following:

This is the most common chant, meaning "This is the Tomb of our Lord,” and repeated by hundreds of voices in perfect time with the accentuation as given above. Another chant was to the same cadence:

"God help the Sultan.” The next was rarely heard:

"Yá Ye-húd, Yá Ye-húd, 'Aíde-kúm, 'Aid el ku-rúd.”

"O Jews, O Jews! your feast is a feast of apes.”

Two longer chants were also used pretty frequently.

"El Messíh 'Atá-na Bi dumhu, Ishterá-na Ahna el yóm fe-rána Wa el Ye-húd hizá-na.”

"The Christ is given us, with His blood He bought us. We celebrate the day, and the Jews bewail.”

"Sebt en Nár wa 'Aíd-na Wa hádha kub-er Sa-ídna.”

"The seventh is the fire and our feast, and this is the Tomb of our Lord.”

Nothing was more remarkable than the patience of the soldiery who had to keep order. The Greeks gave most trouble, and in 1873 the feeling evinced by them was very bitter, because their favourite Patriarch had just been deposed. A very fat old colonel walked up and down, armed with a murderous _kurbaj_, or whip of hippopotamus hide; he would sit on the floor and look at the crowd, sometimes putting an additional big soldier at a weak point in the line. The men were armed with the Snider, and were very stalwart and tall. Sometimes the crowd became dangerous, and hissed. As fast as his legs could carry him, the Colonel rushed to the spot, and down came the whip; then where a moment before were angry faces and arms stretched out with clenched fists, there was suddenly nothing but a flat surface of backs, or a few arms raised to protect the heads. Yet on the whole it was a good-natured crowd, and the soldiers were wonderfully patient. Little incidents of a comic nature occurred, and an Arab chief, who tried to swagger down the lane, found his head-shawl off and far away in a moment, tossed from hand to hand amid shouts of laughter.