Hebrew Life and Times | Page 4

Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism, arose at
different times among the wandering shepherds of Arabia.
STUDY TOPICS
It would be well to keep a notebook in which to write the result of your
study.
1. Look up in any Bible dictionary, under "Weights and Measures," the
approximate size of an "ephah," which was the common Hebrew unit
of dry measure, and "hin," which was their common unit for measuring
liquids.
2. From the facts given in this chapter, calculate in pounds avoirdupois,
the approximate weight of a talent.
3. To what extent does the Old Testament reflect the experiences of
shepherd life? Look up "shepherd" in any concordance.
4. What are some valuable lessons which great spiritual teachers among
the Hebrews learned from their shepherd life? Read Psalm 23.
CHAPTER II
HOME LIFE IN THE TENTS
Most persons, no matter what their race or country, spend a large
proportion of their time at home. The home is the center of many
interests and activities, and it reflects quite accurately the state of
civilization of a people. In this chapter let us take a look into the homes
of the shepherd Hebrews. We shall visit one of their encampments;
perhaps we shall be reminded of a camp of the gypsies.
A CLUSTER OF BLACK TENTS
Here on a gentle hillside sloping up from a tiny brook, is a cluster of

ten or a dozen black tents. Further down the valley sheep are grazing.
Two or three mongrel dogs rush out to bark at us as we approach, until
a harsh voice calls them back. A dark man with bare brown arms comes
out to meet us, wearing a coarse woolen cloak with short sleeves.
Half-naked children peer out from the tent flaps.
=The inside of the tents.=--Our friend is eager to show us hospitality
and invites us to enter his tent. It is a low, squatting affair, and we have
to stoop low to enter the opening in the front. We note that the
tent-cloth is a woolen fabric not like our canvas of to-day. It is
stretched across a center-pole, with supports on the front and back,
while the edges are pinned to the ground much as our tents are. There
are curtains within the tent partitioning off one part for the men, and
another for the women and children. There are mats on the ground to sit
on and to sleep on at night.
PREPARING FOOD
Like the housewives of all ages, the Hebrew women have food to
prepare, and meals to get. Their one great food is milk, not cows' milk,
but the milk of goats. A modern traveler tells of meeting an Arab who
in a time of scarcity had lived on milk alone for more than a year.
=A meager diet.=--Besides fresh milk there were then as now a number
of things which were made from milk. The Hebrews on the desert took
some milk and cream and poured it into a bag made of skin, and hung it
by a stout cord from a pole. One of the women, or a boy, pounded this
bag until the butter came out. This was their way of churning. Cheese
also was a favorite article of diet. The milk was curdled by means of
the sour or bitter juices of certain plants, and the curds were then salted
and dried in the sun. Curdled milk even more than sweet milk was also
used as a drink. It probably tasted like the kumyss, or zoolak, which we
can buy in our drug stores or soda fountains.
We would get very tired of milk and milk products if we had nothing
else to eat all the year round; and so did these shepherds. They were
eager to get hold of wheat and barley, whenever they could buy them.
The women took the wheat and pounded it with a wooden mallet or a

stone in a hollow in some larger stone. The coarse meal which they
made in this way they mixed with salt and water and baked on hot
stones before the campfire. Once in a great while it was possible, in this
shepherd life, to have a feast with mutton or kid or lamb. But milk and
wool were so valuable that the shepherds were very cautious about
killing their flocks. It was, you see, a very simple and healthful diet on
which these tent-people lived. But one meal was pretty much like
another. Dinner was like breakfast, and tomorrow's meals would be just
like to-day's. It is not strange that they often longed for a change, and
looked with envy at the crops of the farmers in the settled lands beyond
the desert.
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[Illustration: BRONZE NEEDLES AND PINS FROM RUINS OF
ANCIENT | | CANAANITE CITY] | | |