amadan. For a whole month of each year they can eat and drink
nothing between sunrise and sunset, and they become very cross and
irritable. In Hums, some Moslems saw a dog eating a bone in Ramadan, and
killed him because he would not keep the fast. They fast all day, and
feast all night. Ramadan is really a great nocturnal feast, but it is
hard for the working people to wait until night before beginning the
feast. During that fast of 1866, a Maronite fellah came into Beirut
driving a herd of swine to the market. Now of all sights in the world,
the sight of swine is to an orthodox Moslem the most intolerable, and
especially in the holy month of Ramadan. Even in ordinary times, when
swine enter the city, the Moslems gather up their robes, turn their
backs and shout, "hub hub," "hub hub," and if the hogs do not hasten
along, the "hub hub," is very apt to become a hubbub. On the 28th of
that holy month, a large herd entered Beirut on the Damascus road. The
Moslems saw them, and forthwith a crowd of Moslem young men and boys
hastened to the fray. A few days before, the Maronite Yusef Keram had
entered the city amid the rejoicings of the Maronites. These swine, whom
the Moslems called "Christian Khanzir," should meet a different
reception. Their wrath overcame their prejudice. The Maronite
swine-drivers were dispersed and the whole herd were driven on the run
up the Assur with shouts of derision, and pelted with stones and clubs.
"You khanzir, you Maronite, you Keram, out with you!" and the air rang
with shouts mingled with squeals and grunts. I saw the crowd coming. It
gathered strength as it approached Bab Yakoob, where the white turbaned
faithful rose from their shops and stables to join in the persecution of
the stampeding porkers. "May Allah cut off their days! Curses on their
grandfather's beard! Curses on the father of their owner! Hub hub! Allah
deliver us from their contamination!" were the cries of the crowd as
they rushed along. The little boys were laughing and having a good time,
and the men were breathing out wrath and tobacco smoke. Alas, for the
poor swine! What became of them I could not tell, but the last I saw,
was the infuriated crowd driving them into the Khan of Muhayeddin near
by, where one knows not what may have happened to them. I hope they did
not steal the pork and eat it "on the sly," as the Bedawin did at Mt.
Sinai, who threw away the hams the travellers were carrying for
provisions, and declared t