XXXI. ORIENTAL DWELLINGS. FROM time immemorial, primitive peoples have been grouped into two classes-those having temporary and movable, and those having permanent dwellings, tents, and caves. This division is recognized in the early Genesis narrative. Thus, Jabal is called "the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle,” and “Cain was a tiller of the ground," and "he builded a city."1 346. Cave Dwellers.-Whether prehistoric man dwelt in dens, caves, or cliffs is a question which lies beyond the scope of this work. Natural caves and rocky and cliff-dens exist in great numbers throughout all Western Asia. Many of them bear evidences of having been occupied by man at different periods. Tyrwhitt Drake tells us of Syrian troglodytes, who inhabit old caves with their cows, sheep, and goats. The walls of these caves are seldom smoothed, are circular or oval, and rarely six feet in height. The center is occupied by the cattle, the portion reserved by the human part of the community is marked off by a line of stones or a slightly raised narrow dais. The state of the cave after a heavy downpour of rain, added to the general uncleanliness, the slimy damp of the walls, the mosquitoes, the vermin, the reek of men and beasts, make an ordinary pigsty a palace in comparison. The indolent, ablebodied rascals, dignified by the title of reasonable beings, who own this byre, are too lazy to build themselves huts. The cave dwellers, Mr. Drake says, are sunk but little lower than their house-sheltered brethren. 347. Rock Refuge.-Van Lennep tells us of shepherds who stable their flocks in these caves of Western Asia, and people oppressed by tyranny and war forsake villages and dwell for a 1 Gen. 4:2, 17, 20. time in these wild and inaccessible places to escape from their oppressors. Bandits and outlaws make these caverns their abode, as in olden time, and from these they sally forth to commit robbery and murder. David and his outlaws escaped from Saul and dwelt in the cave of Adullam, whither he gathered malcontents of every sort.1 Extensive habitations of this kind are still found east of the Jordan and in Arabia. Porter describes with much swelling rhetoric the giant cities of Bashanland, and the wonderful cliff city of Petra is attracting troops of tourists in our day. Similar extensive rock excavations, with apartments and rooms, may be found in Lycia, on the coast of Asia Minor. The Persian town of Sherazûl, near where Alexander gained his victory over Darius, is also largely dug out of rock.2 Similar caves exist in various parts of Palestine, bearing evidences of having once been dwelling-places of man, thus confirming references thereto in the Scriptures.3 348. Nomads.-These cave dwellers led a nomad life, and many of them are still found in the East, following much the same kind of life that their ancestors did, six thousand or eight thousand years ago. A large class of Arabs of the desert, widely known as Bedouins, dwell either in caves or in tents, and roam over wide areas. The other class of peasants, or fellahin, dwell in huts and hamlets, and abodes that are a step toward a more permanent type of dwelling, but scarcely possess more comforts than the cave dwellers themselves. Drake describes these fellahin as living in miserable huts, dark, dirty, and comfortless. In the mountains they are built of mud and stone, generally roofed with beams of rough timber, on which bushes and a couple of feet of soil are laid. Roofs require careful rolling before rains, or the water sinks in, and causes them to collapse. A few pans and jars for cooking, a few rush mats, or if the man be well off, a cotton quilt, is a catalogue of the furniture. They seldom eat meat, except when an animal is to be killed to prevent its dying a natural death.1 11 Sam. 22: 1, 2. 2 Tavernier, p. 73. Josh. 10: 16 ff; Judg. 6: 2; 1 Sam. 13: 6; 23: 14, 25, 29; 24: 3, 4. Pal. Survey, Special Papers, 312. 349. Tents.-The tent, and the hut or house, as I have said, are the product of two kinds of life and society-the nomad, or pastoral, shepherd and herdsmen, and the settled farmer or dweller in some village. Each of these modes of life and of dwellings is found widely in the Orient now. Buckingham tells of the Bedouin tents which he found to be "almost universally made of black or brown hair cloth. When made in camp the cloth was often a mixture of goats', sheep's, and camels' hair, in various proportions. The tent cover was of black goats' hair, woven into cloth about a yard wide, and as long as the tent. These long strips were stitched together, and he found from experience they would keep off the heaviest rains." Such tents are graphically described by the author of Song of Songs: "I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the curtains of Solomon." 2 Of the setting up of an Oriental tent, Buckingham says, "It was formed of one large awning, supported by small poles (twenty-four in four rows, six in a row), the ends of the awning being drawn out by cords, fastened to pegs driven in the ground. Shaw also saw and used tents put up in a similar way. He says they were kept firm and steady by bracing or stretching down their eaves with cords, tied to hooked wooden pins, well pointed, and driven into the ground with a heavy mallet." 350. Family Tent.-The usual shape of an Oriental tent is oblong, rarely round. If intended for a large company or family, it is divided by awnings or curtains into two or three apartments; one for males, another for females, and sometimes a third room for servants or for cattle. Layard tells of a sheikh's camp at Nimrud, in which the tall, robust, courageous, and intelligent chief received him. At the entrance to his capacious tent, of black goats' hair, he was met and led to the apartment 1 Buckingham's Notes, p. 37. 2 Song of Sol. 1: 5. |