These last occupy "the sides of the house" (1 Sam. xxiv. 3), and
stand facing the "decana," or raised place in the centre, which is
devoted to the family. As wood is scarce in the mountains, and the
climate severe, the animal heat of the cattle is a substitute for
fuel, except as sun-baked cakes of manure are used once a day for
cooking, as is the practice also on the plain. In such houses the
buffaloes sometimes break loose and fight furiously, and instances
are not rare when they knock down the posts on which the roof rests,
and thus bury all in one common ruin.
The influence of such family arrangements, even in the more favored
villages of the plain, on manners and morality, need not be told. It
is equally evident that in such circumstances personal tidiness is
impossible, though few in our favored land have any idea of the
extent of such untidiness. If the truth must be told, vermin abound
in most of these houses; the inmates are covered not only with
fleas, but from head to foot they are infested with the third plague
of Egypt. (Ex. viii. 16-19). This last is a constant annoyance in
many parts of Turkey as well as Persia.
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