[Illustration: VARIOUS ARTICLES MADE OF SKIN: BOTTLES, BAGS, POUCHES AND BUCKETS]
The background is formed by a large straw floor mat, such as used in the guest rooms. (From the Hartford Theological Seminary Collection.)
Where there are a number of shaykhs, in dealings with the government, the village is represented by one or more of the number who go by the name _mukhtâr_. So in Râm Allâh there are three of these mukhtârs, one for the Greeks, one for the Roman Catholics and one for the Protestants of the village. The last two are a concession to the interests of those who might not be fairly represented by the first mukhtâr.
The stone and building trades are highly respected industries among the peasants. In a typical peasant house there is scarcely any woodwork to be done except to set up a heavy door. The windows, if there are any, are small light-holes merely. Quarrying, stone-dressing and construction are carried on in every large village. The highlands have yielded inexhaustible supplies of building material from time immemorial. Limestone may be found and burned anywhere.[164] The kilns are usually built in valleys or on their sides, where it is possible to dig a good-sized pit before building up the circular stone walls, and where the draft will be good.
A _ḳonṭâr_ of lime is one hundred twenty ruṭls (seven hundred fifty pounds) instead of the usual one hundred ruṭls, and costs about a dollar delivered. The master workers in lime and stone and cement receive from seventy-five cents to a dollar and ten cents per day in the villages. Their helpers receive from twenty-five cents upwards, according to the grade of work.
As the common name for stone is _ḥajar_, the place where stone is found, the quarry, is called _maḥjar_, the prefix _m_ conveying the sense of locality. Rough, undressed stone blocks are called _debsh_. Those roughly squared, but undressed, are called _khâmy_. Dressed building-stones are called _ḥajar_. Flat flagstones are called _balâṭ_. Stone cut for arches goes by the name _maḳâdam_ (singular, _maḳdum_).