Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/254

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
230
FOLK-LORE OF THE HOLY LAND

cistern a jinnìyeh who liked Thaljìyeh, the latter immediately felt the drag catch hold of something heavy; and when she drew it up, there was her bucket full of the most lovely jewellery—rings, massive gold bracelets, anklets, chains for tying the headdress round the neck,[1] and gold chains for the head-tie. Full of joy at her good fortune, the girl took the pretty things into the tower, and when her relations came home she gave them into their keeping. They, however, pretended not to want them, and, having been told how Thaljìyeh had come by them, said they would get some for themselves. They, therefore, each in turn dropped the bucket into the cistern, and in loud arrogant tones of command uttered the words of the spell which Thaljìyeh had sung so sweetly. Try as they would, they always brought up the bucket full of mud, stones, and loathsome crawling things. So, in their disappointment, they took Thaljìyeh’s jewels, continued to treat her with great unkindness, and one evening, after her father’s death, actually turned her out of doors.

It was raining, and the poor girl did not want to spoil her pretty shoes made of red Damascus leather, which had been her dead father’s gift. She tied them together and threw them over her shoulder, one hanging in front of, and the other behind, her.[2] It was now dark, and Thaljìyeh knew not where to go. Seeing a light glimmering from the

  1. ↑ Ar. Iznâk.
  2. ↑ As the fellahìn in Palestine always do whenever it is raining, and they go barefoot in order to save their shoes.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.