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THE INFLUENCE OF THE PANAMA CANAL

well as the United States, wants to pay for them in manufactures.

It will be seen, therefore, that the products of the various sections within the canal's "sphere of influence” are of a thoroughly interchangeable character.

DOES THE CANAL REALLY SHORTEN TRADE ROUTES?

Next we must consider the relative distances via the Panama Canal and other existing routes, measured between great. trading centers. From Europe we may take Liverpool as a representative point. It represents, with a fair degree of ac

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curacy, the initial point for the trade of Europe.

For the western coast of America we may consider the chief ports from Chile to Washington. For the Far East we may consider Yokohama, Shanghai, Hongkong, Manila, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand, as more or less within the "sphere of influence" of the Panama Canal, while Singapore, Colombo, and the ports of India are so much nearer to both Europe and the United States via the Suez that they need not be considered in a comparison of distances via the two routes.

Distances via Panama to Western Ports of America from Liverpool, New York, and New Orleans Respectively (in nautical miles)

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Distances from New York, New Orleans, and Liverpool Respectively to Principal Ports of Eastern Asia and Oceania (in nautical miles)

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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE

nearer Hongkong and Manila than either New York or New Orleans via Panama.

It may therefore be expected that while the canal will give us decided advantages in the trade with western America and increase the share which we have of that trade, we are not justified in expecting marked changes in the share which we shall get of any part of the Orient except that with Japan and Australia and New Zealand.

However, the Panama route so much shortens the distance to the western coast of America, both from eastern America and western Europe, that we may expect to see most of the trade with western America go via Panama, except perhaps in case of European commerce with the southern ports on the west coast of South America.

EFFECT OF THE CANAL ON OUR DOMESTIC

TRADE

One of the most important results of the opening of the canal will doubtless be found in its effect upon the movements of merchandise between the eastern and western sections of the United States. This trade is already very large.

While exact figures are not available, the data at hand seem to justify an estimate of about 3 million tons per annum of freight moved by rail and about a half million tons by water from the Atlantic Coast section to the Pacific Coast section, and about an equal amount from the Pacific Coast section and Hawaii to the Atlantic Coast section. The sums paid as freight charges on these 7 million tons moved between the Atlantic and Pacific Coast sections are estimated at from 250 to 300 million dollars per annum.

Only about one-fourth of the tonnage which now moves westward across the Rocky Mountains originates east of Buffalo and Pittsburgh, while most of the remaining three-fourths originates in the Mississippi Valley, which is the great producing section of the country and rapidly increasing its production of man

ufactures, which are the most important factor in the west-bound traffic. Of the east-bound traffic across the Rockies, a large share originates near the Pacific coast, especially the fruits, vegetables, fish, wine, barley, and lumber; but only a part of this reaches the Atlantic coast, a considerable share being consigned to the communities of the Mississippi Valley.

At present the railway rates between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific coast are but little if any less than for the entire distance across the continent, but this will probably be somewhat modified when the steamship rates via Panama become sufficiently iow to attract the Mississippi Valley trade toward the Atlantic and Gulf ports. In the actual cost of transportation between the eastern and western sections it may be expected that there will be a marked reduction in the tonnage rates charged.

The water rates between New York and San Francisco, even with the present handicap of transferring to the Panama or Tehuantepec railways and retransferring to steamer, are from 20 to 60 per cent of those charged by the railways, and about one-third of this present water rate is paid for the transferring across the Isthmus.

To sum up, it seems probable that the Panama Canal will carry most of the freight passing between the eastern coast of the United States and the western coast of Latin-America, and that the shorter distances and lower rates which it offers will greatly increase that trade; that the trade between the eastern and western sections of the United States will be greatly increased and transported at a much lower charge per ton; that it will sufficiently shorten the distances to Japan, northern China, Australia, and New Zealand to increase steamship service and materially increase the traffic with those countries, and that the European countries will use the canal in most of their traffic with western America and in exceptional instances with northern Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

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A description of the life of the present-day inhabitants of Palestine, showing how, in many cases, their customs are the same as in Bible times. Illustrated by photographs by the American Colony Photographers, Jerusalem.

P

ALESTINE, often called the Holy Land, is in a general way familiar to all of us from our study of the Bible. Few, however, realize that the manners and customs which prevailed there in Biblical days are still unchanged, even after an interval of 3,000 years. The land today is inhabited by three distinct classes: the Bedouin, or nomads, a wandering, war oving race; the Fellaheen, who are the agriculturists, shepherds, and village dwellers, and the Madaniych, who live in the towns and cities and are artisans.

With the advent of civilization the townspeople are fast losing their ancient customs and quaint costumes, but the villagers adhere to both far more tenaciously. Still, no one knowing the country can fail to see that a time is not far distant when many of their interesting and long-lived habits of life will be things of the past.

THE VILLAGE HOME

The present-day villages are located, as a rule, either on the tops of hills, originally for protection, or near some spring or source of water. Many are built upon the foundations of dwellings whose origin dates back thousands of years. There does not exist a single example of a peasant village that has been founded in modern times.

With almost every village or district there are, to a greater or lesser extent, variations in the dialect of the Arabic they speak, their style of dress, and the homes they live in.

On the Plain of Sharon, where stone is rare or non-existent, the houses are made of sun-dried brick, the roofs thatched and covered with clay to shed the rain, while in the mountains they are built of stone, since of that material there is an inexhaustible supply.

Many have pictured in their minds. Mary and Joseph, after arriving at the "inn" at Bethlehem and finding no room, being forced to turn into some barn built of timber, with lofty roof, hay mows, wooden mangers, and stalls for cattle and sheep. Such a stable has been the subject of many medieval and modern artists, but it does not present a really true picture. Let us consider the old-style village home that is most common in the districts around Jerusalem and Bethlehem, for that will give us a better idea. of what happened on that first Christmas day.

The village streets are crooked, narrow, and unpaved. As in many of the countries of the Orient, farmers live close together for protection, and not on their lands; therefore in the villages there are no open fields or gardens, but house is next to house, except for the small walled

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When a house is ready to roof over, all the villagers, both men and women, lend a helping hand. In this picture we see the men mixing the mortar and placing it on boards, which are passed along by the women to the men working on the roof.

VILLAGE LIFE IN THE HOLY LAND

in inclosures or sheepfolds through which one generally passes when going into the dwelling.

The house itself consists of one large room, usually square. The walls, from 3 to 4 feet thick, are built of blocks of stone roughly dressed and laid in mortar, roofed over with a dome, also of stone. The outside of this roof is covered with a coating of mortar made of clay, which, on being pressed with a small stone roller or pounded with a board, becomes hard and compact enough to shed the rain (see page 252).

A steep outside staircase, unprotected by any railing, is built up to the roof, for the surface must be repaired at times. The flat, open space of the roof also forms a handy place on which to dry figs and raisins, and during the hot weather the family may sleep there at night.

THE UPPER ROOM OF THE HOUSE

Entering the door, we find that about two-thirds of the space is devoted to a raised masonry platform, some 8 to 10 feet above the ground and supported by low-domed arches. This raised space, called el mastaby, is the part occupied by the family, while the lower part is used for the cattle and flocks (see page 310). A few narrow stone steps lead up to the mastaby, and a couple of small windows pierce the wall, high up from the ground. These, as a rule, are the only means of admitting light and furnishing ventilation to the entire house. Until about half a century ago it was thought unsafe to build even medium-sized windows, and any man presuming to do so would have been considered as challenging the rest of the community.

On one side is an open fireplace, with a chimney running through the wall and terminating on the roof often in an old water jar whose bottom has been knocked out, and so becomes a sort of smokestack. Many houses have no chimney at all; small holes through the wall, or the windows, furnish the only exit for the smoke, which on winter days fairly fills the

house.

The furniture is very simple and, as a rule, consists of a crudely decorated bridal chest in which the mother of the

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family has brought her trousseau; a straw mat or heavy woven woolen rug which covers part of the floor, and mattresses, with thick quilts and hard pillows, which at night are spread on the floor.

The cooking utensils are few in number-one clay cooking pot, a couple of large wooden bowls in which to knead the dough, and a couple of smaller ones used to eat from. Wheat is ground in a hand-mill of black basalt, the lower stone being imbedded in a sort of sun-dried clay trough shaped to receive the flour as it is ground. These, with a sieve or two, a large wooden cooking spoon, a small brass coffee-pot, a few tiny coffee-cups. and perhaps a clay dish in which to roast and grind the coffee beans, comprise the entire outfit.

Having inspected the dwelling portion, which at once is kitchen, store-room, bedroom, and living-room, let us descend the steps into what the natives call the stable.

Below the mastaby, or raised platform, just described, among arches so low that a man can scarcely walk erect, are the winter quarters of the goats and sheep. To shut the flocks in, these arched entrances are obstructed with bundles of brush used as firewood for the winter. The rest of the floor space, which is open to the ceiling, is devoted to the few work cattle and perhaps a donkey or camel. Around the walls are primitive mangers for the cattle, built of rough slabs of stone placed on edge and plastered up with mortar.

Often the owner makes a small raised place on which he sleeps at night to enable him to keep better watch over the newly born lambs, lest in the crowded quarters some get crushed or trodden down by the older ones. Here he often sleeps by preference on a cold night, for he says the breath of the animals keeps him warm.

THE LAND, NOT THE PEOPLE, CONSERVES THE OLD CUSTOMS

One cannot become even tolerably acquainted with Palestine without perceiving that it is the land that has preserved the ancient customs. Its present-day inhabitants, who have nothing in common with the modern Jews who crowd Jerusa

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