courtyard, even the cooking; for each family
uses tiny stoves, made of mud, into which they put a little lighted
charcoal and cook just outside or near their own doors; for there are no
kitchens or fireplaces in any of the rooms, and thus we see what each
family cooks. The Sephardim (Jews who have lived here for years) eat
their meals in the courtyard. They lay a mat on the marble tiles, on
which they place a small low table, and they sit on the mat and eat. Two
Sephardim families have rooms in the house and they speak Arabic and
Spanish, and their ways of living are more like those of the Turks, just
as the Jews in England live more like the English.

"Everyone seems most interested in us. Many people have come to visit
us, to see the new arrivals!

"The evening of the day on which we arrived was Friday; there was a
clear moonlight such as you would not often see in England, and it was
very warm, too; so we and our visitors sat in the courtyard. All eagerly
asked us many questions, till quite late; and thus the evening passed
very quickly and pleasantly.

"After prayers on Sabbath some people sent a bottle of wine and a most
delicious pudding, which is made nowhere but in Jerusalem. It tastes
like milk and honey, with other tasty things mixed up in it. Others sent
a lovely sponge cake, coated with different-coloured sugar-icing: many
other good things were also given to us; and they lasted us for nearly a
month.

"Later in the day the people who sent the eatables paid us visits, and
ate some of the good things. It is rather a nice custom, I think, for
new arrivals to have no bother to prepare food for their visitors, as it
gives them time to enjoy their company. What a lot of talking there was!
The men discussed several things with Father, while the women wanted to
know many things about England which Mother could tell them. The boys
and girls could not take their eyes off our clothes, so much did they
admire them! It was quite amusing, the funny questions they asked us
about them. They all promised to help us look for a dwelling; and they
kept their promise. I can tell you it was a great help and comfort to us
that they did, for I don't know what would have become of us out here,
away from our old friends, where the ways of living are so different
from what we have been used to. Whether it will always be so or not, of
course I can't say--time alone will show.

"Very soon afterwards they found us a vacant dwelling