Letters from Arthur Seaforth Blackburn to his family, 1941 - Part 9

Lt Col  A.S. Blackburn
SX6962
2/3 M G Bn
AI.F. Abroad.
6/6/41. 

Dear Bob.
It is your turn for the family letter this time. I hope you are
not all too bored by the different things which I attempt to describe to you. 
Today I was in a town near here and saw an Arab funeral which I found 
most interesting. Picture to yourself a long fairly straight & excessively dirty 
street, well paved on each side & lined all along with Arab shops, which 
are really difficult to imagine unless actually seen. In some cases they are 
nothing except holes in mud walls; in other cases they are obviously the 
remains of rooms or houses which have fallen down or been destroyed; in 
others they are well built - that is according to native standards which are 
almost always mud & straw - but consist of an absolutely square room with 
no window whatever & only the one door opening onto the street. Here & 
there is an Arab cafe - a thing of unbelievable squalor & lack of comfort 
according to our ideas, board tables with no semblance of covering, stools & 
forms without backs, open to the street & all its dust & dirt & with no roof 
but crowded with Arabs, goats, fowls & vermin. Down the centre of the 
road pass an endless stream of donkeys, camels, bicycles, motor cars 
& donkeys donkeys & donkeys. Nearly all the animals laden with huge 
packages  & loads - not tidily done up as we are used to seeing but 
kept together with all sorts of odd bits of rope & wire & all looking 

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thoroughly insecure but evidently not so in fact. Darting in & out of all this is are countless 
children, all barefooted & all clothed alike in long dingy looking garments stretching from 
shoulder to below the knee. Along the footpaths push & jostle a crowd consisting of Arabs, 
Jews, native policemen, soldiers, cool drink sellers, men in European dress & wearing a Fez, 
women veiled so that only their eyes are shewing, others completely veiled & some not 
at all, children of all ages sizes & sexes, dogs (a very few) & donkeys goats & fowls. 
All the time there rises a steady chorus of shrill - and taken in the mass & rather 
musical - cries of vendors of different wares. The cool drink seller carries 
two brass cup things which he clashes together after the style of cymbals, whilst
the sweetmeat & pastry seller has a peculiar deep ringing cry which can be 
heard over it all. Well, I was driving down this street to go to an office 
which I had to visit when out of a mosque, (or rather a yard alongside the mosque) ahead of us came a stream 
of women dressed entirely in black & heavily veiled. Each of them carried a 
yellow, dull yellow with brown markings, handerchief or cloth about a foot
square & apparently made of silk. They were singing in perfect unison &
harmony but without the faintest impression of feeling what was obviously 
a dirge. It was extraordinarily mournful & sad in spite of the lack of 
expression & the sound of their wailing & singing rose far above the babel 
of row already going on. There must have been at least 200 of them & 
they moved straight out into the road five abreast, completely disregarding & 
disorganizing traffic which nevertheless - particularly the donkeys & camels - 
tried to go straight on. For a moment there was utter confusion & row 
but the women just went straight on like a river pushing donkeys camels men & everything else out of the road. Everyone in shops cafes etc immediately adopted a mournful miserable attitude for the 
moments during which the women were passing & then instantly went 

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on with their bickering & arguing & talking & flirting the second the procession or women 
had passed. The women all the time were waving their yellow cloths up & down 
about head high in a peculiar waving manner so that looking along the 
line it looked like a regular wave of clothes thus. All 
this time there wasn't the slightest sign of any coffin or of any men mourners. 
The women passed right down the street & along to the edge of the cemetery 
where they stopped & all faced in towards each other & waving their hands 
up & down from the elbows, held about shoulder high, wailed & cried louder 
& louder. After about five minute along came a procession of men in 
Absolute silence. In front they carried a palm leaf very gaily decorated 
with strips of colored paper & cotton wool. There were about the same 
number of men & in the centre was the body. The "coffin" was in the shape of
an ordinary bedstead & clearly outlined on it under the cover of a thin cloth 
was the body - or at anyrate an article in the exact shape of a body. Whether 
it was actually the shape of the body we could see or whether it was 
some form of covering shaped like a body I cannot say. This bedstead 
was also freely decorated with gay colored clothes & cotton wool. 
The men's procession passed alongside the wailing group of women 
into the cemetery & the women then fell in behind & followed the men 
in. That was as far as we could see. The only thing which gave 
any impression of real sadness or mourning was an occasional 
woman who along the route would suddenly leave the procession, 
walk over to the wall at the side of the footpath & sink down on her 
haunches & stay there utterly motionless. As they were completely 
enveloped from head to foot in black, it was a most pitiful sight 

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to see this hunched up, motionless figure, crouched against the wall & entirely 
covered in black cloth. After a bit they were would rise & slowly continue on after 
the procession.
Today (8/6/41) I went right through one of the most thickly populated &
fertile bits of Palestine. It was a wonderful sight; mile after mile of
rich looking vineyards, orchards, orangries, vegetable plots interspersed
with belts of big luxuriously growing gum trees & palms & banana
palms (the latter not very successful I believe). The villages & townships
in this part are very thick. It has all been settled & the towns &
villages built in the last 20 years or so owing to the Jewish settlement
here. The population is extremely thick & the roads & footpaths are
covered with Jewish girls & boys - the boys mostly in bright blue
shirts & the girls in all sorts of bright colored dresses & usually
with red blue green or yellow handerchiefs tied over their
hair. I have just received an invitation to attend an Arab 
wedding at a village near here tomorrow. I shall certainly go if I 
can as it ought to be very interesting.
13/6/41.
Dear family 
I have been so utterly busy lately that I 
have not had time to write any more. I had to cancel 
my visit to the wedding as I could not spare the time. 
Yesterday I motored over 400 miles starting about 7 in
the morning & finishing the last 70-80 miles in the dark
owing to black-out restrictions. I didn't get home back

here until nearly midnight. During the course of it 
you will be interested to hear that I was many  
hundreds of feet below sea level - in a motor car not 
in a submarine!. I must close now as it is almost 
mail time & I want to write a few lines to mummy 
With much love to you all 
Your affectionate father 
Arthur S Blackburn

Lt Col A.S. Blackburn
SX8962
2/3 M.G.Bn 
AIF 
Abroad
14/6/41.

My Darling Wody.
It is your turn this time for the family letter
and as I have just received a nice long letter from you I
am going to start off by answering that. What a lovely time my
dear one you seem to be having. I am so delighted that there is
plenty of dancing etc. I don't know what I should do if you
weren't getting plenty of pleasure & fun my dear. I am glad
Auntie May seems to be getting a little better & hope that she
will continue to do so. Give her my love when next you
see her will you? What a dud Buster was not to turn up
at your party. I hope you don't ask him to any more
at all. You do seem to have had a lovely time with
Ursula Norris but what is this I hear "as I have a slight pain
in my side I wont be playing tennis"? Full details, please,
telling me everything single thing about it & how it is getting
on. How dare you not tell me all about it until I
ask, you little dear! Where are you in the basket ball teams
my dear. Those are the details which I love to hear from
you & you mustn't stop writing about them or you & I
will have a row. 

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We have now moved to another area. We are not in a fixed
camp but are bivouaced in the midst of very extensive
olive groves between two very steep & rocky ridges of
bare hills. I wish you could see it all my dear, you would
be so thrilled with it! Not far away is an Arab village.
The Arabs here seem to be a very much cleaner & better type
than those we saw before. It is entirely an agricultural district
& there is no big town very near & that may account for
the improved type. Yesterday I saw the first really nice Arab
family scene I have seen since arriving here. The man was
on a horse & his wife & three children - two boys & a girl were
all on donkeys. They all looked clean & smiling & not the
dirty drudges which we had previously encountered. Near
here there is a well where the stock are watered. It
is a deep well & is marked by an elaborate water wheel
sort of thing operated by manual labor. The well is inside
quite a big structure like a stone room & all around it are
water troughs. The water comes out of the bucket on the wheel
& is automatically poured into a channel & from there runs into
the trough. Surrounding it on all sides were flocks of sheep & goats
& herds of cattle. As I think I have told you already each
flock keeps seperate & follows its shepherd wherever he goes.
At the head of each flock stands a shepherd - and the
flocks, although only a few yards, & often a few feet,

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apart, never make the slightest effort to mix. When his turn comes
the shepherd just walks up to a trough & his sheep, all follow.
As the first finishes he moves on past the trough & away to another
spot & the first sheep follow & then as they finish drinking
all the rest follow on. Sitting on the side of the trough was
a small boy of about 10 or 12 when I went past. He was playing
a thing like a reed flute & had a most engaging smile.
Goats & sheep were jostling all around him a everyone looked
very happy! In the midst of it were the inevitable donkeys
& in the background was a big head herd of cattle patiently
awaiting their turn. There are far more horses up here than
elsewhere & most of them are glorious looking animals. The hills
are really wonderful to look at. They are terribly stony & 
rocky, but the rocks are picked up wherever possible so as
to clear littll little patches of soil, often only a few feet
in area & on this some crop is planted. The rocks & stones thus
picked up are placed along the edge of the patch & in course of
centuries the hills for miles around have acquired a terraced
effect which looks most extraordinary.
20/6/41
My darling Wody Margie & Bob 
I have not had time  
to write anything for days & days & am now off
on a job which may carry me away from 
mails for a few weeks so I may not be 

able to write again just yet. Look after mummy
dears won't you. I just love getting your
letters so write as often as you can. Goodbye
dears for the time being
Daddy.
C.J Glover