DOI issue:
No. 299 (February 1918)
DOI article:Hughes, Myra Kathleen: Impressions of Palestine
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21356#0009
THE STUDIO
IMPRESSIONS OF PALESTINE. that of Belgium, and yet it has had more to do
BY M K HUGHES ARE W^ destinies of the Western world than
has any other portion of the globe. In its
WHAT is one seeing mentally short length the most violent extremes of
these days in Palestine ? In- climate are experienced, from the eternal snow
stead of pictures of Crusaders of Lebanon to the sub-tropical heat of the lower
in shining armour, or of Saladin Jordan Valley. There is also to be noticed the
with his picturesque hosts, we see khaki-clad contrast of landscape—desert and fertile land,
soldiers accompanied by tanks and aero- Its inhabitants, who still dress as our father
planes! Certainly there is no country in the Abraham did, hop in and out of the Damascus
world so full of contrasts and inconsistencies electric trams as if they had done so since the
in things big and little as Palestine. Here are world began. The sheep are white—the goats
a few that came under the notice of the are black—a contrast not always thought of
writer when making a tour of the country, in connexion with the sorting out of good and
Think of its size in comparison with the im- bad people! Europeans think these Orientals
portant part it has played in the history of the —to put it mildly—rather unwashen, but they
world ! Its square mileage does not exceed think us very dirty because we are content to
"the damascus gate (also calledjthe 'sheep gate*), jerusalem." water-colour by m. k. hughes, a.r.e.
LXXIII. No. 299.—February 1918 3
IMPRESSIONS OF PALESTINE. that of Belgium, and yet it has had more to do
BY M K HUGHES ARE W^ destinies of the Western world than
has any other portion of the globe. In its
WHAT is one seeing mentally short length the most violent extremes of
these days in Palestine ? In- climate are experienced, from the eternal snow
stead of pictures of Crusaders of Lebanon to the sub-tropical heat of the lower
in shining armour, or of Saladin Jordan Valley. There is also to be noticed the
with his picturesque hosts, we see khaki-clad contrast of landscape—desert and fertile land,
soldiers accompanied by tanks and aero- Its inhabitants, who still dress as our father
planes! Certainly there is no country in the Abraham did, hop in and out of the Damascus
world so full of contrasts and inconsistencies electric trams as if they had done so since the
in things big and little as Palestine. Here are world began. The sheep are white—the goats
a few that came under the notice of the are black—a contrast not always thought of
writer when making a tour of the country, in connexion with the sorting out of good and
Think of its size in comparison with the im- bad people! Europeans think these Orientals
portant part it has played in the history of the —to put it mildly—rather unwashen, but they
world ! Its square mileage does not exceed think us very dirty because we are content to
"the damascus gate (also calledjthe 'sheep gate*), jerusalem." water-colour by m. k. hughes, a.r.e.
LXXIII. No. 299.—February 1918 3