Presently a wild Arab in charge of a camel train recognized an old friend

in Ferguson, and they ran and fell upon each other's necks and kissed

each other's grimy, bearded faces upon both cheeks. It explained

instantly a something which had always seemed to me only a farfetched

Oriental figure of speech. I refer to the circumstance of Christ's

rebuking a Pharisee, or some such character, and reminding him that from

him he had received no "kiss of welcome." It did not seem reasonable to

me that men should kiss each other, but I am aware, now, that they did.

There was reason in it, too. The custom was natural and proper; because

people must kiss, and a man would not be likely to kiss one of the women

of this country of his own free will and accord. One must travel, to

learn. Every day, now, old Scriptural phrases that never possessed any

significance for me before, take to themselves a meaning.

We journeyed around the base of the mountain--"Little Hermon,"--past the

old Crusaders' castle of El Fuleh, and arrived at Shunem. This was

another Magdala, to a fraction, frescoes and all. Here, tradition says,

the prophet Samuel was born, and here the Shunamite woman built a little

house upon the city wall for the accommodation of the prophet Elisha.

Elisha asked her what she expected in return. It was a perfectly natural

question, for these people are and were in the habit of proffering favors

and services and then expecting and begging for pay. Elisha knew them

well. He could not comprehend that any body should build for him that

humble little chamber for the mere sake of old friendship, and with no

selfish motive whatever. It used to seem a very impolite, not to say a

rude, question, for Elisha to ask the woman, but it does not seem so to

619

The Innocents Abroad