, who, one would think, could not move their
legs, dance and rejoice while the lookers-on clap and sing. It is far
more exciting than a wedding in London, for it is considered a 'Mitzvah'
to rejoice with a young bridal couple.

"The dancing goes on for some time, the only miserable pair, I expect,
are the bride and bridegroom, who generally become very weary of it
all, for they started their wedding pilgrimage very early in the morning
and had fasted till the feasting began late in the afternoon--I often
wonder that they have any energy left in them, poor things, for they
cannot retire till late at night.

"The next day comes the ceremony of cutting off the bride's hair. The
bridegroom's mother hands her a few silk handkerchiefs to be worn on her
head on special occasions. Sometimes the poor little bride is so young
that she cries while her beautiful plaits are being cut off.

"At times a quarrel begins between the two mothers: the bride's mother
sometimes insisting that her child's hair shall only be cut short and
not shaved, and she generally gets her way.

"Some brides do not mind being shaved, for they like the idea of wearing
the pretty coloured silk handkerchiefs.

"At nearly every wedding a table is spread for the poor, and I was
present at a wedding when more than a hundred poor men came regularly
for eight days, and the table was spread as bountifully for them as for
the other guests. Here in Palestine the poor share in the joys of their
richer brethren.

"When the eight days of Festival are over, the young couple usually
settle down close by or in one of their parents' homes, who give them a
room. A great deal of the happiness of young couples depends on the
character of the mother-in-law, for they have the power of making or
marring their happiness more than anyone else.

"Huldah told me that she would have been quite happy in her
mother-in-law (for she really was a good kind woman) if only she would
more often allow her to talk to her husband, 'and I do so like a talk
with him,' she said to me with a sigh, 'for he is so wise. When my
mother-in-law sleeps after the Sabbath dinner, we go into the next room
and we sit talking, and he tells me tales from the Talmud, and sometimes
reads aloud from it. I do so enjoy those Sabbath hours,' she continued,
'for I have only my bedroom which I can call my own, but I am not
allowed to be much in it,--the little time I have with my husband each
day makes me very h