Page G
THE CHINA MAIL
MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, -1959.
"The real reason for Christmas has been all but burled in an avalanche of glittering shop-windows, high-pressure salesmanship, meaningless cards of greetings and all the commercialised by-products " said a of our day and age which has almost forgotten whose birthday is being celebrated cleric in England last week. Today, in the first of a four-part series, the author of "The Day Christ
Died," recreates with reverence the story of that first Christmas
THE FIRST
THE road out of Bethany threw a tawny girdle around the hill they called the Mount of Olives and the little parties came up slowly out of the east leading asses with dainty dark feet toward the splendour of Jerusalem.
By
They came up all year long from Jericho and the Salt Sen and the Mountains of Moab and the north country of Samaria and Galilee in a never-ending procession to the great temple of Solomon. It was a spawn- ing; a coming home; a communion with God at his appointed house.
Joseph had never geen the city. The elders in Nazareth had told him that it was a rare white jewel set in the green valley between Kidron and Golgotha and he had asked questions about it but the elders--and his father_too-seemed to lose food bug on the other side. Mary confidence to know that themselves in arm-waving of the animal. Her veiled He was everywhere she needed
Mary was Afteen. confidence. and superlatives. Now he hond hung and she saw would see it. He reached millions of pebbles on the Most young ladies of the coun- the rise of the road, the
road moving by her brown try were betrothed of tittoon feet strong und dirty from eves in a blur, pausing, and and married at fourteen. A few
JIM BISHOP
ninety miles of walking, moving by again with each and he unconsciously pulled the jackass a little faster.
"Are you quiet?" he said. His bride, called Miriam in
step of the animal.
CONFIDENCE
were not joined in holinence antil themas
often or sixte
ה
the termer pressing of the tiny father at Bar Mitzvah, Now he
Sometimes business
ancient
AND it
to pass in days, that
came those there
went out a decree from Caesar Augus» / tun, that all the
should world
taxed.
be
"And all went to
be taxed, every one
into his own city.
NOEL
"And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem -because he was of the house and lineage of David-to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child." -Luke 2: 1-5.
Ég trees
THE HOUSE
A rich priest might afford
people used the sastance
SQURTER Across
top of the oven. On chilly They slept in the open, saving offer so, conversationally, she nights, the heat seeped through what little money they had for shifted the attack. to warm the sleepers. To the the day of the baby. Some "There are many people in right of the room was a table, times, when there was no mom, these places," she mic. There were no chairs because Joncpli set the lamp on the Joseph shausged. "A public only rich des sat, to ent, and ground and Maty removed her house," be anid. He was a they had learned this from vell and brushed the long dark stium-sized man with deep travelling Greeks, Next to the hair which hung to her waist, brown curls hanging to his table was a wooden tether for She said that she would like to shoulders. The hair won thick the ass. He was a member of balle in the Jordan, and the and parted in the micklia
becaus the family, and most important mak it wistfully
che beard was thin and soraggly, but member because he did the knew that Joseph would say no, he wiped it with his hand ag charying of the rasy lumber and and a good wito did not dispute though it was full. This Mary the Anished
anti be the will of her husband. products,
On understood, was natural 1 was also the solc ICANE of ther occasions, be sid no. young man. transportation.
He said it gently, reminding her
She ate leaning against a wall. that her fimo was
that she said it made her back feel this would be their first-bom
He sind danking her, a guxxi. and he would not osaune a risk wall of protection against the in the river. To this, Man crush of people made no reply. Joseph, touched leaving the place, babbling
entering and Ho wus petted and loved and with tenderness, vaid ruffly though this was the last chance spoken to. On the tether, he that the best he could do was to to inici Their watched Mary fo about hi take some cloths to the Jordan, others. duties. He ficked the files from wet them and wring them out, his ears and sometimes, when and bring them to her. Mary tirod of watching, his eyes said that she would appreciate it. clusal and he locked his knees
LOVED
Luau
so that he would not thil, and In the morning, with the sun
He was still behind
the Mountains of
£15
00
opinions
HAPPY
"It is better
together," she
he slept standing up. not a stubborn animal. He was Moab, Joseph arose, adjusted said shyly. ment patient and he would stand his tunic, and fed the animal. "When we must cut in the while Joseph burdened him with He worked quietly, whispering aids" he said, "we will cat in a mound of objects and, when to the jackass, setting the folded the Belds. This eating is rare." the bridle strap was pulled blanket
withers, behind the walked his master, the ass lowered her adjusting and balancing of sunlight
cach
earthen
the drape was pushed aside.
against
IMPORTANT
seldom found a choice anan and wore rantent to be shepherd'
Mary ale well, stealing furtive wives, lying in
in Cuves
the
the glances at Joseph and wonderingg sides of the tills, raising their powdery alkaline soil, but, other
floor, head, switched his tail than date palme and
sehat he did to rieserve all the enfldren in select loneliness,
average, his fanks, and started off, the goatskin and the food bag, he-
she
felt knowing only the great stars of and soft fruit orchards it was Mary's house, like the
was small and set against a hill little hooves making sounds like fore awakening his wife. He tumult of happiness
compassion when he was none. It was like the Aramcan tongue, ant Sometimes the felt ill, but she the night as they lifted over the a bald hilly country,
in Nazareth. At the front there an inverted cup dropped in felt an enormous
for this girl, but he could never a tame storm in her heart, a re the whistle of the Mary in others.
Over it mud jogged swallowed this feeling and cone hills, and
was a stone doarsill,
explain it. Not even to himself. laxation of caution accompanied on what a beautiful shepherd im he turned to leadi
hung a cloth drape. To enter,
by the excitement of knowing sidewards on the little pentrated
baby be was about to have and his flock to
pictures
This was the winter solstice of He had once felt this way tv-
that she belonged to this grow- The galet3" of ward a little boy who had a animal, and said that she kept Thinking about 11.
the year 3790. the Mary married a carpenter. He
ing boy. She had never been Chanukalı feeding, hat
The interior consisted of two the Poast of
had withered foot, been apprenticed by his was quiet. She felt no pain, bailing the oils, the
anywhere, except to visit old L'OORTES. The front Onc
as Joseph and his wife was coded
relatives, and now, in advanced This was the fifth day from body against her breast-and the was nineteen and had his own hotee of wood but most of the
the left Nazareth, They had come Nazareth and, from hour to
only Joseph's shop. In ft were
pregnancy, she was soelig auch through down from Nazareth
and knowing work bench, the saws, the sugur Naku and on down into the
much in a few to decorate the interior. The the hour, she had progressed
bamuntis.
day's. There for the mom, I wasn't much of a businem, houses were of stone cut from the awl and
It wnd valley of the Jordan. from tiredness to fatigue
but no even for the Gallkean country, big deposits 18 inches under the were clenn-smelling boards and hot along the valley floor.
The rood was busy at dawn.
In the morning, Joseph led to weariness to the deep bles and the dwelt on the he was young and, even thought topsull. It was soft, when blonde curls of shavings on the the Jews of the upland country Sometimes Joseph hari to
Mory and the
Into the anesthesia of exhaustion, wonder of God and saw Him in he was carnest to the point of exposed to air, and
be floor. In the back room was in soldoms risked travel by the until he could find room between wilderness and it was twenty
The road. miles to Bethany, into earthen oven to the left, three direct route MAWN
through Simaria parties going south. no a fleecy cloud, a w.udowle wall being humourless he was She felt nothing. She
Was ways allve.
the heart of al lan, hummock of trees, try and was prone to mistakes cubes. These were staggered in feet wide, six feet long and two and Bychar, where the people it seement, longer noticed the chafe of
of in his calculations. In all of comes to make a wall. Win-
cooking waiting backward in front
feet high. The
Wore was at the village wolls
- The rich Greeks travelled on there, three to
A man with club. Jerwilem. the
t of Sepphorison-sedan-chair-te could walk it, tenting un ** goatskin against her her husband, beckoning him on. Juden there was little Jumber. dows were sinali And pinced done in the stone-Bined intertur. Hendly and orgumentDriver
thu servoats shouldering the animal and ቤ woman, before of the God was everywhere. It gave Some stately eedars grow in the high on each well, so that daily The family slept on the earthen
Castly unit Each night, when the sun was yokus
walking sundown.
The wilderness is a obscure, steadily, en routo to Jerusalem barren place in the mountains, gone and the road
rich Jewe Joseph led the ass a little way off to trade with the
where nothing of consequence traffic from the river, nway from the The northbounet
rows and the tiny peaks look Jerusalem and niso from rowd fund into a clearing where from
alike, ochre and white and there was very little brush and as far away as Egypt, and the chalky, a place where bandits
leg, nor the sway
sickness. went away.
there
she murmure! prayers and,
Was
+ 2nd and
ua- cut
with wodKÜLTI
first
Conilth
Where Statues Go "Bang"
"VICTORY
Italian Tyrol it might BOLZANO. Here in the
be almost be Ruritania. But first impressions
so misleading....
can
over the Barbarians," said the imposing plaque on the pedestal. I was in the square of a small village in the Italian Tyrol, looking at one of the monuments that Mussolini put up all over Italy in the 1930's, after his "conquest" of Abyssinia. I looked up to see the statue above, and saw
nothing.
Only a few days bes
fore, that statue
had
been blown to
smithereens, For, here,
area.
-From-
BRIAN
GARDNER
1 has called for self- isn't done for us very soon
The
ling up their spaghetti mare at
the herrs working Wiener schnitzels.
Last year an ancient local order called the Schutten (rifte- men) was revived. Its revival
sensation K
among
was
In Night
the Schutzen.
few insocle, and then he tied the were ass, titer the goatskin uni un metal earthen jar was full of water, spices.
wait
and softens the sandals.
and from
his
laden with fabrics and melt the ornate sedan elmira
objects and expensive
They left their cant and the sun sinies the walker and sat. There was not much good wishes on the air behind until the sweat itches his legs
straps of Ho talk about. Their
minke them. were troubled with momentour
On the evening of the fourth evande far beyond
Joseph stopped at the top of their scope day, they were at Jericho, a of thought: far beyond the few miles
the rise. The am stopped," and above
the Salt Sea used a hind leg to kick rationalisation two simple
of
tho
hia
poasants of the family of David, and within glance of Mt Nebo flies from the underside of
to the east. Joseph wanted to belly. Mary looked up, a sick I went to see Herr Partatscher, On the few occasions when they stay at inn, where they could
child with eyes partly conscious RX their the man behind the revival of discussed it both Mary and pay for space on the floor,, but of the scene.
Joseph became overwhelmed Many begged him not to do it, and shy. They lapsed silences and Joseph would mend she said. He knew
into This is not an importent day," “Jerusalem," Joseph
what she pointing. She
looked. the conversational rip with
meant.
wonderment of what she question about Mary's family.
caused the nausea to fade. "One does not 500 3 Great ever fast the glazed look. She ploce like Jericho often." he said had heard her father describe Softly. "It will be just as well this place when the was a little if we cal at an inn and, as you girl. A glance told her that the say, sleep in the fields." He our man did not know how to looked away. I was thinking make
He told me the fact that the been re-formed riflemen had The was "sheer coincidence. Italians. The authorities can do "It's just for the tourists," he nothing about it, because it is raid. ostensibly for athletics" shooting competitions.
Vineyard
AWKWARD
про
A
said.
The
saw The
Jerumiczn anyone see
Joseph opened his mouth to They ate at a inn on the far speak, but what lds eyes RADUJ
where the de
his mind drunk an
and Partatscher drove me to hig vineyard. We sampled wine from various enormous casks
Mary was big with the baby and ate the customary slices of bread.
It seemed a shame to and awkward, but she managed of you" in one of the most determination. It has press may not be able to control our
get back to politics, but I ushed to folch the food and the bread picturesque parts of the Austriai Govern- young extremists much longer."
Part of the activities of this him, it guerrilla warfare should from the pouch on the near alde Across the grey, gushing Europe, private armies ment Into bringing the mat-
rifle club. I learn, are military break out, would the Schutzen of the donkey, and to set it down side of town, near
as neatly and as uppetisingly as wilderness begins. It was an paralysed his tongue, of the Eisack river, Na tertent
tactics. They wear uniforms of lake part?
possible. use everything.
There was "We would
meat, ordinary place,
to catering are on the march. Some ter up in the United
which cuts the town in two, is embroidered belts, hats with
Even at home, they never had transients. It was a stone place, tions.
the new, Italian part of the cockades. and long. white The spinsters union, if neces
week. and óne had to eat whatever the people even believe that
But it is, of course, a Saly German military bands town. No cobblestones here. In stockings.
Mostly, it wa lumb
offered chopped house
11 came in before long they may he
purely peaceful movement a typical, modern Itallan office have been staging large block I found Dr Andrea Mite-
Crowds come out to watch the ine moment."
into cubes and roasted and then gleaming bowls, and Mary ad- fighting in guerilla war- calo recruiting
set on a pinto beside charoseth mittex to benkelt that it was cam lot, local leader of the M.S.I. Schulzer as they go deflantly "Of course," I said.
and other herbs and fruits, better than anything she had to peigns (there is
excitable man with marching through the streets. already a small a strange excess of bands waving hands. men over instruments).
fare.
And yet you could hard- ly imagine a more peaceful
scene.
Bandsmen
The Marmalade tains, their craggy capped in snow, above. Chapel bells
These bands practise not only music, but are com petent in military
ilons and drill.
Cockades
forma. "The People's Party
nearly all ex-Nazis," he said "They dynamite the roads,
notional
Moun- In eaves high in the moun- They blow up
peaks tains, Italian police (the police monuments."
ure at Italian) have discovered tower dumps of weapons, ammunition,
echo and explosives.
in the deep valleys, and
trees apricot roads.
Mien eye each other's brief- line the cuse with baleful suspicion.
Is there a bomb in that bulg-
dase? Ing
A secret mes the Tyrolean hal?
Cobblestones
Runkelstein Castle, under
the on glowering down
below, hasn't vineyards heard a shot fired in an- ger for years. Pretty girls in peasant dresses serve wine in the ancient inns.
each
Bolzano, 40 miles south of the Brenner Pass, is the capital of
are
Cafe
หาร
It was Impossible io tell whether he or Dr Ebner telling the truth, because as yet no one has been caught blow- ing up anything.
Dr Mitelot continued: "They call us Italian swine.' I thought he was going to burst into, loare. bey are handing togulker. Suddenly wo And they have an 8,000-sirong fire brigade round here, What do they need all that many for?"
It is difficult to see how the the province. It is really two Seuch Tyrolean problem Is towns the German and the going to be solved, as the Ger- Itallans and Austrians Italian. Tucked away in a deep men side is not going to give
in eleft of the have mingled together
mountain It way and it is, of course, incom- this idyllic scene for hun- caperiences almost no winter,, ceivable" that" the Government dreds of years. But,
on it in Rome would agree to the ap. Sunny skicu shine down
day after day.
erea returning to Austria. parently, they have loathed I walked through the narrow, the sight of
Hoss serious is this problem? other winding streets, past the cobble- It is certainly a case of bitter stoned market-o the office of local nationalian, but it is not every minute of it.
local German Innguage going to set Europe #lgbt. And In the province of Bol- the
ít từ một số tới thời vụ der zano, which was given to
typically povere to take it very mariosjaky", Italy after the First World Germante office, I met Dr Toni I could And Do feel ones of
everyone round discriminations War, there are 217,000 peo- Ebner (nearly
the Germakers. ple of Austro-German blood here is styled "Doctor""), and 118,000 Italians. And leader of the People's Party.
proprietor of the paper and • German, schools, and there is
full employment. Aocial the German-speakers have
De Euper told me about the motion ire printed in the two decided it is high time the Italian party, the M.S.I., which language,
OVER street maman "aya doubled. whole area went back to is his mortal enemy.
They are Fascists," he said. Austria.
"They blow up all our ancient GermĀR "and" "Alstriedî Sosariats The German speaking monuments. They drop the are handed mosazarida Ibadets on the traize bringing tham Peoples' Party, which coms ronda,
They want to take away through the Brenber Pout. plains that the Germans do what He right we have been
Calwaga not get enough, my in the shit to gam. But if something two metus) that signos shqyej-
newspaper.
Here in
the There Аго
meat more than once
7
at
-(London Tayyter Service),
FOR SALE
ALME
Tomorrow:
A Foreboding
THEATRICAL AGENTS
JAY FLOOR
THEATRICAL
AGENTS AUDITIONS BY APPOINTEET
PANTO ARTISTE WANTED. PRINCIPAL BOYS. USLY SISTERS, PUMPKINS
MICE
TIRLS
"'re booked foi Moscow under the Anglo-Russian Cultural Exchange scheme and I'm booked for Panto in Wigen.”
Loudon mapeanE GRENSON,