026. A Contentious Woman

A Contentious Woman (Proverbs 27:15-16) A continual dropping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike, said Solomon. Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which betrayeth itself. The force of this proverb is well understood in all its details in Palestine. Such rains as they have thoroughly soak through the flat roofs of those homes, and the water descends in numberless leaks all over the room. This continual dropping - tuk, tuk, all day and all night, is the most annoying thing in the world, unless it is the ceaseless clatter of a contentious woman.

Let me describe a quarrel I heard part of, and these people would rather quarrel than eat, about anything or mere nothing. A quarrel started between two neighbor women about a chicken one owned. It lasted fourteen hours. Through all this long period, the "contentious woman" ceased not to scream, scold, curse her enemy in a very original way, and so loud that the whole neighborhood could understand every word. She would run into the room where her victim was, then rush out again, run around the court like a maniac, tear off her veil and tarbouch, tear her hair, pound her chest, screaming as loud as she could all the time. She would stop and get her old shoes and throw them at her victim, all the time trembling like a leaf. Nothing could stop her, until finally she became run down like a clock.