“Dear Millie,—­I want to tell you how we spent Lag B’Omer here, for in London we used not to make much of a holy day of it.  Here days are taken in preparing for it, baking cakes and preparing tasty meals.  Both old and young spend that day in visits to the graves of our great Rabbis and in picnics on the Mount of Olives or in the cool shade of the many caves in the neighbourhood.  Those who have large families have their hands full, for the walks in the open air give the children huge appetites; and, unless you are prepared for such appetites it is difficult to supply all that is needed, for you cannot buy extra food, as in England, except perhaps a few nuts and a drink of water.

“Before dawn, our youngsters awakened us and hurried us to get ready to start, as if we should not have quite enough of their pranks even if we left a few hours later.  As we have to form ourselves into large groups, we arrange these a day or two beforehand, for there are a great number of Arabs and Turks about, and many of them are very wild.  If you go alone, or even in pairs, they are often known to attack you, especially in the case of a girl or a woman.  At first I laughed at the girls fearing to go alone when in the country, but, after having had an unpleasant adventure myself, I determined to be more careful and obey those who knew better than I did as to what was safe and what not.

“It happened in this way.  One Sabbath afternoon I went out of the suburb with a few girls, who, like myself, had the spirit of adventure.  As we went along chatting merrily together, we felt ourselves caught from behind by some Turks.  Fortunately we had not got far, so that when we shrieked out our cries were heard in the town, and to our great relief we soon heard a horse galloping in our direction.  We kept on screaming, and one Turk put his hand over my friend’s mouth; but she bit and scratched his hand.  Then, suddenly, we were let loose, and the Turks took to their heels, for they saw Europeans galloping up to us.  Two of them jumped off their horses and asked if we were hurt, for we had been so frightened that we could not quickly leave off crying.  They kindly brought us home, and after that experience I never wanted to go out without enough men in our party to guard us.

“Now this Lag B’Omer a number of girls wanted to go to see some special places, so we formed ourselves into a large party and started very early, for you rarely get such an outing.  It was a most glorious spring morning, and a few of us had donkeys to ride.  To do so is not as much pleasure as you might think, for the donkeys in Palestine stop every few minutes, and, unless you beat them cruelly, which we did not like doing, they will not budge an inch.  Sometimes they consent to be led, but they will not be driven, and you have a weary time of it.  Now and then a donkey will suddenly start off on a quick trot, and, being thus taken unawares, the rider often falls off.  You can imagine the laughter of your friends and how stupid the girl feels, but somehow it is always taken in good part.