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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Women of the Arabs, by Henry Harris Jessup
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Women of the Arabs
+
+Author: Henry Harris Jessup
+
+Editor: C.S. Robinson and Isaac Riley
+
+Release Date: December 11, 2005 [EBook #17278]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Stacy Brown Thellend,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of
+public domain works from the University of Michigan Digital
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WOMEN
+
+OF
+
+THE ARABS.
+
+
+_WITH A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN._
+
+
+BY
+
+
+Rev. HENRY HARRIS JESSUP, D.D.,
+
+_Seventeen years American Missionary in Syria._
+
+
+EDITED BY
+Rev. C.S. ROBINSON, D.D., & Rev. ISAAC RILEY.
+
+
+"The threshold weeps forty days when a girl is born."
+--_Mt. Lebanon Proverb._
+
+
+NEW YORK:
+DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS.
+
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873, by
+DODD & MEAD,
+in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
+
+
+
+
+_THIS BOOK_
+
+IS DEDICATED TO THE
+
+CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF AMERICA.
+
+
+
+
+                              Beirūt, Syria, _July, 1873_.
+
+        _Owing to the impossibility of my attending personally to the
+    editing of this volume, I requested my old friends_, Rev. C.S.
+    Robinson, D.D., _and_ Rev. Isaac Riley, _of New York, to superintend
+    the work, and would gratefully acknowledge their kind and
+    disinterested aid, cheerfully proffered at no little sacrifice of
+    time._
+
+                                                  H.H. JESSUP.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The Orient is the birthplace of prophecy. Before the advent of our Lord,
+the very air of the East was resounding with the "unconscious prophecies
+of heathenism." Men were in expectation of great changes in the earth.
+When Mohammed arose, he not only claimed to be the deliverer of a
+message inspired of Allah, but to foretell the events of futurity. He
+declared that the approach of the latter day could be distinguished by
+unmistakable signs, among which were two of the most notable character.
+
+Before the latter day, the _sun shall rise in the West_, and God will
+send forth a cold odoriferous wind blowing from _Syria Damascena_, which
+shall _sweep away_ the souls of all the faithful, and _the Koran
+itself_. What the world of Islam takes in its literal sense, we may take
+in a deeper spiritual meaning. Is it not true, that far in the West, the
+gospel sun began to rise and shed its beams on Syria, many years ago,
+and that in our day that cold odoriferous wind of truth and life,
+fragrant with the love of Jesus and the love of man, is beginning to
+blow from Syria Damascena, over all the Eastern world! The church and
+the school, the printing press and the translated Bible, the periodical
+and the ponderous volume, the testimony of living witnesses for the
+truth, and of martyrs who have died in its defence, all combine to sweep
+away the systems of error, whether styled Christian, Moslem or Pagan.
+
+The remarkable uprising of christian women in Christian lands to a new
+interest in the welfare of woman in heathen and Mohammedan countries, is
+one of the great events of the present century. This book is meant to be
+a memorial of the early laborers in Syria, nearly all of whom have
+passed away. It is intended also as a record of the work done for women
+and girls of the Arab race; to show some of the great results which have
+been reached and to stimulate to new zeal and effort in their behalf.
+
+In tracing the history of this work, it seemed necessary to describe the
+condition of woman in Syria when the missionaries first arrived, and to
+examine the different religious systems, which affect her position.
+
+In preparing the chapter on the Pre-Islamic Arabs, I have found valuable
+materials in Chenery's Hariri, Sales and Rodwell's Koran, and Freytag's
+Arabic Proverbs.
+
+For the facts about the Druze religion, I have consulted Col.
+Churchill's Works, Mount Lebanon, and several Arabic manuscripts in the
+mission library in Beirūt.
+
+Rev. S. Lyde's interesting book called the "Asian Mystery," has given me
+the principal items with regard to the Nusairīyeh religion. This
+confirms the statements of Suleiman Effendi, whose tract, revealing the
+secrets of the Nusairīyeh faith, was printed years ago at the Mission
+Press in Beirūt, and translated by that ripe Arabic Scholar Prof. E.
+Salisbury of New Haven. The bloody Nusairīyeh never forgave Suleiman for
+revealing their mysteries; and having invited him to a feast in a
+village near Adana, 1871, brutally buried him alive in a dunghill!
+
+For the historical statements of this volume, I am indebted to the files
+of the Missionary Herald, the Annual Reports of the Syria Mission, the
+archives of the mission in Beirūt, the memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith,
+and private letters from Mrs. Whiting, Mrs. De Forest, and various
+missionary and native friends.
+
+Information on the general work of the Syrian Mission may be found in
+Dr. Anderson's "Missions to the Oriental churches," Rev. Isaac Bird's
+"Bible Work in Bible Lands," and the pamphlet sketches of Rev. T. Laurie
+and Rev. James S. Dennis.
+
+The specimens of poetry from ancient Arabic poetesses, have been
+gathered from printed and manuscript volumes, and from the lips of the
+people.
+
+Some accounts of child life in Syria and specimens of Oriental stories
+and nursery rhymes have been gathered into a "Children's Chapter." They
+have a value higher than that which is given by mere entertainment as
+they exhibit many phases of Arab home life. The illustrations of the
+volume consist of drawings from photographs by Bergheim of Jerusalem and
+Bonfils of Beirūt.
+
+The pages of Arabic were electrotyped in Beirūt by Mr. Samuel Hallock,
+the skilful superintendent of the American Press.
+
+I send out this record of the work carried on in Syria with deep
+gratitude for all that the Lord has done, and with an ardent desire that
+it may be the means of bringing this great field more vividly before the
+minds of Christian people, of wakening warmer devotion to the missionary
+cause, and so of hastening the time when every Arab woman shall enjoy
+the honor, and be worthy of the elevation which come with faith in Him
+who was first foretold as the seed of the woman.
+
+                                        HENRY HARRIS JESSUP.
+Beirūt, Syria, Nov. 28, 1872.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+                                                             PAGE
+_State of Women among the Arabs of the Jahiliyeh,
+or the "Times of the Ignorance."_                               1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+_State of Women in the Mohammedan World._                       7
+
+CHAPTER III.
+_The Druze Religion and Druze Women._                          20
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+_Nusairīyeh._                                                  35
+
+CHAPTER V.
+_Chronicle of Women's Work from 1820 to 1872._                 45
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+_Mrs. Whiting's School._                                       57
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+_Dr. De Forest's Work in Beirūt._                              73
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+_Re-opening of the School in Beirūt._                          97
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+_Luciya Shekkur._                                             114
+
+CHAPTER X.
+_Raheel._                                                     120
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+_Hums._                                                       140
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+_Miriam the Aleppine._                                        151
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+_Modern Syrian Views with regard to Female Education._        158
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+_Bedawin Arabs._                                              180
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+_Woman between Barbarism and Civilization._                   191
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+_Opinions of Protestant Syrians with regard to the
+Work of American Women in Syria._                             200
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+_Other Labors for Women and Girls in this Field._             204
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+_The Amount of Biblical Instruction given in Mission
+Schools._                                                     215
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+_The Children's Chapter._                                     233
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+STATE OF WOMEN AMONG THE ARABS OF THE JAHILIYEH, OR THE "TIMES OF THE
+IGNORANCE."
+
+
+In that eloquent Sura of the Koran, called Ettekwir, (lxxxi.) it is
+said, "When the _girl buried alive_ shall be asked for what sin she was
+slain." The passage no doubt refers to the cruel practice which still in
+Mohammed's time lingered among the tribe of Temīm, and which was
+afterwards eradicated by the influence of Islam. The origin of this
+practice has been ascribed to the superstitious rite of sacrificing
+children, common in remote times to all the Semites, and observed by the
+Jews up to the age of the Captivity, as we learn from the denunciations
+of Jeremiah. But in later times daughters were buried alive as a matter
+of household economy, owing to the poverty of many of the tribes, and to
+their fear of dishonor, since women were often carried off by their
+enemies in forays, and made slaves and concubines to strangers.
+
+So that at a wedding, the wish expressed in the gratulations to the
+newly-married pair was, "with concord and sons," or "with concord and
+permanence; with sons and no daughters." This same salutation is
+universal in Syria now. The chief wish expressed by women to a bride is,
+"may God give you an arees," _i.e._ a bridegroom son.
+
+In the Koran, Sura xiv, Mohammed argues against the Arabs of Kinaneh,
+who said that the angels were the daughters of God. "They
+(blasphemously) attribute daughters to God; yet they _wish them not for
+themselves_. When a female child is announced to one of them, his face
+grows dark, and he is as though he would choke."
+
+The older Arab Proverbs show that the burying alive of female children
+was deemed praiseworthy.
+
+     "To send women before to the other world, is a benefit."
+
+     "The best son-in-law is the grave."
+
+The Koran also says, that certain men when hearing of the birth of a
+daughter hide themselves "from the people because of the ill-tidings;
+shall he keep it with disgrace, or bury it in the dust." (Sura xvi.)
+
+It is said that the only occasion on which Othman ever shed a tear, was
+when his little daughter, whom he was burying alive, wiped the dust of
+the grave-earth from his beard!
+
+Before the Seventh Century this practice seems to have been gradually
+abandoned, but was retained the longest in the tribe of Temīm. Naman,
+king of Hira, carried off among his prisoners in a foray, the daughter
+of Kais, chief of Temīm, who fell in love with one of her captors and
+refused to return to her tribe, whereupon her father swore to bury alive
+all his future female children, which he did, to the number of ten.
+
+Subsequent to this, rich men would buy the lives of girls devoted to
+inhumation, and Sa Saah thus rescued many, in one case giving two milch
+camels to buy the life of a new-born girl, and he was styled "the
+Reviver of the Maidens buried alive."
+
+The following Arabic Proverbs having reference to women and girls _will
+illustrate_ the ancient Arab ideas with regard to their character and
+position, better than volumes of historic discourse:
+
+     "Obedience to women will have to be repented of."
+
+     "A man can bear anything but the mention of his women."
+
+     "The heart of woman is given to folly."
+
+     "Leave not a girl nor a green pasture unguarded."
+
+     "What has a girl to do with the councils of a nation?"
+
+     "If you would marry a beauty, pay her dowry."
+
+     "Fear not to praise the man whose wives are true to him."
+
+     "Woman fattens on what she hears." (flattery)
+
+     "Women are the whips of Satan."
+
+     "If you would marry a girl, inquire about the traits of her
+     mother."
+
+     "Trust neither a king, a horse, nor a woman. For the king is
+     fastidious, the horse prone to run away, and the woman is
+     perfidious."
+
+     "My father does the fighting, and my mother the talking about it."
+
+     "Our mother forbids us to err and runs into error."
+
+     "Alas for the people who are ruled by a woman!"
+
+The position of woman among the Arabs before the times of Mohammed can
+be easily inferred from what has preceded. But there is another side to
+the picture. Although despised and abused, woman often asserted her
+dignity and maintained her rights, not only by physical force, but by
+intellectual superiority as well. The poetesses of the Arabs are
+numerous, and some of them hold a high rank. Their poetry was impromptu,
+impassioned, and chiefly of the elegiac and erotic type. The faculty of
+improvisation was cultivated even by the most barbarous tribes, and
+although such of their poetry as has been preserved is mostly a kind of
+rhymed prose, it often contains striking and beautiful thoughts. They
+called improvised poetry "the daughter of the hour."
+
+The queen of Arabic poetesses is El Khunsa, who flourished in the days
+of Mohammed. Elegies on her two warrior brothers Sakhr and Mu'awiyeh are
+among the gems of ancient Arabic poetry. She was not what would be
+called in modern times a refined or delicate lady, being regarded as
+proud and masculine in temper even by the Arabs of her own age. In the
+eighth year of the Hegira, her son Abbas brought a thousand warriors to
+join the forces of the Prophet. She came with him and recited her poetry
+to Mohammed. She lamented her brother for years. She sang of Sakhr:
+
+    "His goodness is known by his brotherly face,
+    Thrice blessed such sign of a heavenly grace:
+    You would think from his aspect of meekness and shame,
+    That his anger was stirred at the thought of his fame.
+    Oh rare virtue and beautiful, natural trait,
+    Which never will change by the change of estate!
+    When clad in his armor and prepared for the fray,
+    The army rejoiceth and winneth the day!"
+
+Again, she lamented him as follows:
+
+    "Each glorious rising sun brings Sakhr to my mind,
+    I think anew of him when sets the orb of day;
+    And had I not beheld the grief and sorrow blind
+    Of many mourning ones o'er brothers snatched away,
+    I should have slain myself, from deep and dark despair."
+
+The poet Nabighah erected for her a red leather tent at the fair of
+Okaz, in token of honor, and in the contest of poetry gave her the
+highest place above all but Maymūn, saying to her, "If I had not heard
+him, I would say that thou didst surpass every one in poetry. I confess
+that you surpass all women." To which she haughtily replied, "Not the
+less do I surpass all men."
+
+The following are among the famous lines of El Khunsa, which gave her
+the title of princess of Arab poetesses. The translation I have made
+quite literal.
+
+    "Ah time has its wonders; its changes amaze,
+    It leaves us the tail while the head it slays;
+    It leaves us the low while the highest decays;
+    It leaves the obscure, the despised, and the slave,
+    But of honored and loved ones, the true and the brave
+    It leaves us to mourn o'er the untimely grave.
+    The two new creations, the day and the night,
+    Though ceaselessly changing, are pure as the light:
+    But man changes to error, corruption and blight."
+
+The most ancient Arab poetess, Zarīfeh, is supposed to have lived as
+long ago as the Second Century, in the time of the bursting of the
+famous dyke of Mareb, which devastated the land of Saba. Another
+poetess, Rakāsh, sister of the king of Hira, was given in marriage, by
+the king when intoxicated, to a man named Adi.
+
+Alas, in these days the Moslem Arabs do not wait until blinded by wine,
+to give their daughters in marriage to strangers. I once overheard two
+Moslem young men converging in a shop, one of whom was about to be
+married. His companion said to him, "have you heard anything about the
+looks of your betrothed?" "Not much," said he, "only I am assured that
+she is _white_."
+
+In a book written by Mirai ibn Yusef el Hanbali, are the names of twenty
+Arab women who improvised poetry. Among them are Leila, Leila el
+Akhyalīyeh, Lubna, Zeinab, Afra, Hind, May, Jenūb, Hubaish, Zarifeh,
+Jemīleh, Remleh, Lotifeh, and others. Most of the verses ascribed to
+them are erotic poetry of an amatory character, full of the most
+extravagant expressions of devotion of which language is capable, and
+yet the greater part of it hardly bearing translation. It reminds one
+strikingly of Solomon's Song, full of passionate eloquence. And yet in
+the poetry of El Khunsa and others, which is of an elegiac character,
+there are passages full of sententious apothegms and proverbial wisdom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+STATE OF WOMEN IN THE MOHAMMADAN WORLD.
+
+
+Our knowledge of the position of women among the Mohammedans is derived
+from the Koran, Moslem tradition, and Moslem practice.
+
+I. In the first place, the Koran does not teach that women have no
+souls. Not only was Mohammed too deeply indebted to his rich wife
+Khadijah, to venture such an assertion, but he actually teaches in the
+Koran the immortality and moral responsibility of women. One of his
+wives having complained to him that God often praised the men, but not
+the women who had fled the country for the faith, he immediately
+produced the following revelation:
+
+     "I will not suffer the work of him among you who worketh to be
+     lost, whether he be male or female." (Sura iii.)
+
+In Sura iv. it is said:
+
+     "Whoso doeth good works, and is a true believer, whether male or
+     female, shall be admitted into Paradise."
+
+In Sura xxxiii:
+
+    "Truly, the Muslemen and the Muslimate, (fem.)
+    The believing men and the believing women,
+    The devout men and the devout women,
+    The men of truth and the women of truth,
+    The patient men and the patient women,
+    The humble men and the humble women,
+    The charitable men and the charitable women,
+    The fasting men and the fasting women,
+    The chaste men and the chaste women,
+    And the men and women who oft remember God;
+    For them hath God prepared
+    Forgiveness and a rich recompense."
+
+II. Thus Mohammedans cannot and do not deny that women have souls, but
+their brutal treatment of women has naturally led to this view. The
+Caliph Omar said that "women are worthless creatures and soil men's
+reputations." In Sura iv. it is written:
+
+    "Men are superior to women, on account of the qualities
+    With which God has gifted the one above the other,
+    And on account of the outlay they make, from their substance for them.
+    Virtuous women are obedient....
+    But chide those for whose refractoriness
+    Ye have cause to fear ... _and scourge them_."
+
+The interpretation of this last injunction being left to the individual
+believer, it is carried out with terrible severity. The scourging and
+beating of wives is one of the worst features of Moslem domestic life.
+It is a degraded and degrading practice, and having the sanction of the
+Koran, will be indulged in without rebuke as long as Islamism as a
+system and a faith prevails in the world. Happily for the poor women,
+the husbands do not generally beat them so as to imperil their lives, in
+case their own relatives reside in the vicinity, lest the excruciating
+screams of the suffering should reach the ears of her parents and bring
+the husband into disgrace. But where there is no fear of interference or
+of discovery, the blows and kicks are applied in the most merciless and
+barbarous manner. Women are killed in this way, and no outsider knows
+the cause. One of my Moslem neighbors once beat one of his wives to
+death. I heard her screams day after day, and finally, one night, when
+all was still, I heard a dreadful shriek, and blow after blow falling
+upon her back and head. I could hear the brute cursing her as he beat
+her. The police would not interfere, and I could not enter the house.
+The next day there was a funeral from that house, and she was carried
+off and buried in the most hasty and unfeeling manner. Sometimes it
+happens that the woman is strong enough to defend herself, and conquers
+a peace; but ordinarily when you hear a scream in the Moslem quarter of
+the city and ask the reason, it will be said to you with an indifferent
+shrug of the shoulder, "that is only some man beating his wife."
+
+That thirty-eighth verse of Sura iv. is one of the many proofs that the
+Koran is not the book of God, because it violates the law of love.
+"Husbands love your wives," is a precept of the Gospel and not of the
+Koran. Yet it is a sad fact that the nominal Christians of this dark
+land are not much better in this respect than their Moslem neighbors.
+The Greeks, Maronites and Papal Greeks beat their wives on the slightest
+provocation. In the more enlightened towns and cities this custom is
+"going out of fashion," though still often resorted to in fits of
+passion. Sometimes the male relatives of the wife retaliate in case a
+husband beats her. In the village of Schwire, in Lebanon, a man beat his
+wife in a brutal manner and she fled to the house of her brother. The
+brother watched his opportunity; waylaid the offending husband, and
+avenged his sister's injuries by giving him a severe flogging. In
+Eastern Turkey, a missionary in one of the towns noticed that not one
+woman attended church on Sunday. He expostulated with the Protestants,
+and urged them to persuade their wives to accompany them. The next
+Sunday the women were all present, as meek and quiet as could be wished.
+The missionary was delighted, and asked one of the men how they
+persuaded them to come? He replied, "We all beat our wives soundly until
+they consented to come!" This wife-beating custom has evidently been
+borrowed by the Christian sects from their Moslem rulers and oppressors,
+and nothing but a pure Christianity can induce them to abandon it.
+
+III. Some have supposed that there will be no place in the Moslem
+Paradise for women, as their place will be taken by the seventy-two
+bright-eyed Houris or damsels of Paradise. Mohammed once said that when
+he took a view of Paradise he saw the majority of its inhabitants to be
+the poor, and when he looked down into hell, he saw the _greater part_
+of the wretches confined there to be _women_! Yet he positively promised
+his followers that the very meanest in Paradise will have eighty
+thousand servants, seventy-two wives of the Houris, _besides the wives
+he had in this world_. The promises of the Houris are almost exclusively
+to be found in Suras, written at a time when Mohammed had only a single
+wife of sixty years of age, and in all the ten years subsequent to the
+Hegira, women are only twice mentioned as the reward of the faithful.
+And this, while in four Suras, the proper wives of the faithful are
+spoken of as accompanying their husbands into the gardens of bliss.
+
+    "They and their wives on that day
+    Shall rest in shady groves." (Sura 36.)
+
+    "Enter ye and your wives into Paradise delighted." (Sura 43.)
+
+    "Gardens of Eden into which they shall enter
+    Together with the just of their fathers, and their wives." (Sura 13.)
+
+An old woman once desired Mohammed to intercede with God that she might
+be admitted to Paradise, and he told her that no old woman would enter
+that place. She burst into loud weeping, when he explained himself by
+saying that God would then make her young again.
+
+I was once a fellow-passenger in the Damascus diligence, with a
+Mohammedan pilgrim going to Mecca by way of Beirūt and Egypt, in company
+with his wife. I asked him whether his wife would have any place in
+Paradise when he received his quota of seventy-two Houris. "Yes," said
+he, looking towards his wife, whose veil prevented our seeing her,
+although she could see us, "if she obeys me in all respects, and is a
+faithful wife, and goes to Mecca, she will be made more beautiful than
+all the Houris of Paradise." Paradise is thus held up to the women as
+the reward of obedience to their husbands, and this is about the sum and
+substance of what the majority of Moslem women know about religion.
+
+Women are never admitted to pray with men in public, being obliged to
+perform their devotions at home, or if they visit the Mosques, it must
+be at a time when the men are not there, for the Moslems are of opinion
+that the presence of women inspires a different kind of devotion from
+that which is desirable in a place set apart for the worship of God.
+
+The Moslem idea of woman is vile and degraded. A Moslem absent from home
+never addresses a letter to his wife, but to his son or brother, or some
+male relative. It is considered a grievous insult to ask a Moslem about
+the health of his wife. If obliged to allude to a woman in conversation,
+you must use the word "ajellak Allah," "May God elevate you" above the
+contamination of this subject! You would be expected to use the same
+expression in referring to a donkey, a dog, a shoe, a swine or anything
+vile. It is somewhat like the Irish expression, "Saving your presence,
+sir," when alluding to an unpleasant subject.
+
+A Greek christian (?) in Tripoli came to an American Missionary
+physician and said, "there is a woman, 'ajell shanak Allah' here who is
+ill. I beg your pardon for mentioning so vile a subject to your
+excellency." Said the doctor, "and who may it be?" "Ajellak, it is my
+wife!"
+
+I remember once meeting the Mohammedan Mufti of Beirūt in Dr. Van Dyck's
+study at the printing press. The Mufti's wife, (at least _one_ of them,)
+was ill, and he wished medical advice, but could not insult the Doctor
+by alluding to a woman in his presence. So he commenced, after
+innumerable salutations, repeating good-morning, and may your day be
+happy, until he could decently proceed to business. "Your excellency
+must be aware that I have a sick man at my house. May God grant you
+health! Indeed, peace to your head. Inshullah, it is only a slight
+attack!" "He has pain in his back, headache, and he will not eat." "Has
+he any fever?" "A little." "I will come and see _her_ this afternoon."
+"May God increase your good. Good morning, sir!"
+
+The Mohammedan laws with regard to polygamy, inheritance and divorce,
+are a decided advance on the Pagan Arabs of "the Ignorance."
+
+The Pagan Arabs allowed any number of wives. The Koran allows _only
+four_ to any believer, the prophet himself having peculiar privileges in
+this respect. The modern practice of Mohammedans in taking a score or
+more of wives is directly contrary to the Koran. The Pagan Arabs
+suffered no woman to have any part of the husband's or father's
+inheritance, on the ground that none should inherit who could not go to
+war, and the widows were disposed of as a part of their husband's
+possessions. The Koran says, (Sura iv.) "Women ought to have a part of
+what their parents leave." A male shall have twice as much as a female.
+But a man's parents, and also his brothers and sisters are to have equal
+shares, without reference to sex. "God commandeth you to give the male
+the portion of two females. If she be an only daughter, she shall have
+the half. Your wives shall have a fourth part of what ye leave, if ye
+have no issue."
+
+Among the Pagan Arabs, divorce was a mere matter of caprice. The Koran
+says, (Sura ii.) "You may divorce your wives twice (and take them back
+again). But if the husband divorce her a third time, it is not lawful
+for him to take her again, until she shall have been actually married to
+another husband, and then divorced by him." I have known cases where the
+husband in a fit of passion has divorced his wife the third time, and,
+in order to get her back again, has _hired another man_ to marry her and
+then divorce her. A rich Effendi had divorced his wife the third time,
+and wishing to re-marry her, hired a poor man to marry her for a
+consideration of seven hundred piastres. He took the wife and the money,
+and the next day refused to give her up for less than five thousand
+piastres, which the Effendi was obliged to pay, as the woman had become
+the lawful and wedded wife of the poor man.
+
+No Mohammedan ever walks with his wife in the street, and in Moslem
+cities, very few if any of men of other sects are willing to be seen in
+public in company with a woman. The women are closely veiled, and if a
+man and his wife have occasion to go anywhere together, he walks in
+advance and she walks a long distance behind him. Nofel Effendi, one of
+the most learned and intelligent Protestants in Syria, once gave me the
+explanation of this aversion to walking in public with women, in a more
+satisfactory manner than I had ever heard it before. Said he, "You
+Franks can walk with your wives in public, because their faces are
+unveiled, and it is _known that they are your wives_, but our women are
+so closely veiled that if I should walk with my wife in the street, no
+one would know whether I was walking with my own wife or another man's!
+You cannot expect a respectable man to put himself into such an
+embarrassing position!" No Moslem woman or girl would dare go into the
+street without a veil, for fear of personal chastisement from the
+husband and father, and the Greek, Maronite and other nominal Christian
+women in Syria shrink from exposing their faces, through fear of insult
+from the Mohammedans.
+
+When European women, either residents or travellers, pass through the
+Moslem quarter of these cities of Syria and Palestine, with faces
+unveiled, they are made the theme of the most outrageous and insulting
+comments by the Moslem populace. Well is it for the feelings of the most
+of these worthy Christian women, that they do not understand the Arabic
+language. The Turkish governor of Tripoli was obliged to suppress the
+insulting epithets of the Moslems towards European ladies when they
+first began to reside there, by the infliction of the bastinado.
+
+In 1857, the Rev. Mr. Lyons in Tripoli, hired Sheikh Owad, a Moslem
+bigot, to teach him the Arabic grammar. He was a conceited boor; well
+versed in Arabic grammar, but more ignorant of geography, arithmetic and
+good breeding than a child. One day Mrs. Lyons passed through the room
+where he was teaching Mr. L. and he turned his head away from her and
+spat towards her with a look of unutterable contempt. It was the last
+time he did it, and he has now become so civilized that he can say good
+morning to the wife of a missionary, and even consent to teach the
+sacred, pure and undefiled Arabic to a woman! I believe that he has not
+yet given his assent to the fact that the earth revolves on its axis,
+but he has learned that there are women in the world who know more than
+Sheikh Owad.
+
+In ancient times Moslem women were occasionally taught to read the
+Koran, and among the wealthier and more aristocratic classes, married
+women are now sometimes taught to read, but the mass of the Moslem men
+are bitterly opposed to the instruction of women. When a man decides to
+have his wife taught to read, the usual plan is to hire a blind
+Mohammedan Sheikh, who knows the Koran by heart. He sits at one side of
+the room, and she at the other, some elderly woman, either her mother or
+her mother-in-law, being present. The blind Sheikhs have remarkable
+memories and sharp ears, and can detect the slightest error in
+pronunciation or rendering, so they are employed in the most of the
+Moslem-schools. The mass of the Mohammedans are nervously afraid of
+entrusting the knowledge of reading and writing to their wives and
+daughters, lest they abuse it by writing clandestine letters to improper
+persons. "Teach a _girl_ to read and write!" said a Mohammedan Mufti in
+Tripoli to me, "Why, she will _write letters_, sir,--yes, _actually
+write letters_! the thing is not to be thought of for a moment." I
+replied, "Effendum, you put your foot on the women's necks and then
+blame them for not rising. Educate your girls and train them to
+intelligence and virtue, and then their pens will write only what ought
+to be written. Train the hand to hold a pen, without training the mind
+to direct it, and only mischief can result." "_Saheah, saheah_," "very
+true, very true," said he, "But how can this be done?"
+
+It has begun to be done in Syria. From the days of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith
+to the present time, Moslem girls have been taught to read and write and
+sew, and there are many now learning in the various American, British
+and Prussian schools. But it will be long before any true idea of the
+dignity of woman enters the debased minds of Arab Mohammedans. The
+simple fact is that there is no moral purity or elevation among the men,
+and how can it be expected among the women. The Moslem idea of woman is
+infinitely lower than the old Jewish idea. Woman in the time of Christ
+was highly honored. Believing women followed Christ throughout Galilee
+and Judea, and although enemies stood watching with hateful gaze on
+every side, not one word of insinuation was ever lisped against them. It
+is a most sadly impressive fact to one living in Syria at the present
+day, that the liberty and respect allowed to woman in the days of our
+Saviour would now be absolutely impossible. In purely Greek or Maronite
+or Armenian villages, the women enjoy far greater liberty than where
+there is a Moslem element in the population. And it is worthy of remark
+and grateful recognition, that although Christianity in the East has
+sunk almost to a level, in outward morality, with the Islamic and
+semi-Pagan sects, there is a striking difference between the lowest
+nominal Christian community and the highest Mohammedan, in the respect
+paid to woman. Ignorant and oppressed as the Greek and Maronite women
+may be, you feel on entering their houses, that the degrading yoke of
+Moslem brutality is not on their necks. Their husbands may be coarse,
+ignorant and brutal, beating their wives and despising their daughters,
+mourning at the birth of a daughter, and marrying her without her
+consent, and yet there are lower depths of coarseness and brutality, of
+cruelty and bestiality, which are only found among Mohammedans. I once
+suggested to a Tripoli Moslem, that he send his daughters to our Girls'
+School, then taught by Miss Sada Gregory, a native teacher trained in
+the family of Mrs. Whiting, and he looked at me with an expression of
+mingled pity and contempt, saying, "Educate a _girl_! You might as well
+attempt to educate _a cat_!"
+
+Not two months since, I was conversing with several of the aristocratic
+Mohammedans of Beirūt, who were in attendance at the commencement of the
+Beirūt Protestant Medical College. The subject of the education of girls
+was introduced, and one of them said, "we are beginning to have our
+girls instructed in your Protestant schools, and would you believe it, I
+heard one of them read the other day, (probably his own daughter,) and
+she actually asked a question about the construction of a noun preceded
+by a preposition! I never heard the like of it. The things do
+distinguish and understand what they read, after all!" The others
+replied, "_Mashallah! Mashallah!_" "The will of God be done!"
+
+Some ten years ago, an influential Moslem Sheikh in Beirūt, who was a
+personal friend of Mr. Araman, the husband of Lulu, brought his daughter
+Wahidy (only one) to the Seminary to be instructed, on condition that no
+man should ever see her face. As Mr. Araman himself was one of the
+teachers, and I was accustomed to make constant visits to the school,
+she was obliged to wear a light veil, which she drew adroitly over her
+face whenever the door was opened. This went on for months and years,
+until at length in recitation she would draw the veil aside. Then she
+used to listen to public addresses in the school without her veil, and
+finally, in June, 1867, she read a composition on the stage at the
+Public Examination, on, "The value of education to the women and girls
+of Syria," her father, Sheikh Said el Ghur, being present, with a number
+of his Moslem friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE DRUZE RELIGION AND DRUZE WOMEN.
+
+
+The great expounder and defender of the Druze religion is Hamzé, the
+"Universal Intelligence," the only Mediator between God and man, and the
+medium of the creation of all things. This Hamzé was a shrewd, able and
+unprincipled man. In his writings he not only defends the abominations
+of Hakem, but lays down the complete code of Druze doctrine and duty.
+
+It is the belief of many, and said to be the orthodox view among the
+Druzes that their system as such is to last exactly 900 lunar years. The
+date of the Druze era is 408 Hegira, or 1020 A.D. The present year,
+1872, corresponds to the year 1289 Anno Hegira, so that _in nineteen
+lunar years_ the system will begin to come to an end according to its
+own reckoning, and after 1000 years it will cease to exist. Others have
+fixed this present year as the year of the great cataclysm, but the
+interpreters are so secret and reserved in their statements, that it is
+only by casual remarks that we can arrive at any idea of their real
+belief. Lying to infidels is such a meritorious act, that you cannot
+depend on one word they say of themselves or their doctrines. Their
+secret books, which were found in the civil wars of 1841 and 1845, have
+been translated and published by De Sacy, and we have a number of them
+in the original Arabic manuscripts in the Mission Library in Beirūt.
+From a chapter in one of these, entitled "Methak en Nissa," or the
+"Engagements of Women," I have translated the following passages, to
+show the religious position of women, as bearing upon my object in
+describing the condition of Syrian females.
+
+"Believers are both male and female. By instruction women pass from
+ignorance to knowledge, and become angels like the Five Ministers who
+bear the Throne: _i.e._, the Doctrine of the Unity. All male and female
+believers ought to be free from all impurity and disgrace and dishonor.
+Believing women should shun lying (to the brethren) and infidelity and
+concupiscence, and the appearance of evil, and show the excellency of
+their work above all Trinitarian women, avoiding all suspicion and taint
+which might bring ill upon their brethren, and avoiding giving attention
+to what is contrary to the Divine Unity.
+
+"We have written this epistle to be read to all believing women who hold
+to the Unity of Hakem, who knows His Eternity and obey their husbands.
+But let no Dai or Mazūn read it to a woman until he is well assured of
+her faith and her religion, and she shall have made a written profession
+of her faith. He shall not read it to one woman alone, nor in a house
+where there is but one woman, even though he be worthy of all
+confidence, lest suspicion be awakened and the tongue of slander be
+loosed. Let there be assembled together at least three women, and let
+them sit behind a curtain or screen, so as not to be seen. Each woman
+must be accompanied by her husband, or her father, or brother or son, if
+he be a Unitarian. The Dai in reading must keep his eyes fixed on his
+book, neither turning towards the place where the women are, nor casting
+a glance towards it, nor listening to them. The woman, moreover, must
+not speak a word during the reading, and whether she is affected by a
+transport of joy, or moved by an impression of respect and fear, she
+must carefully abstain from showing her feelings either by smiles or
+tears. For the smiles, the tears, and the words of a woman may excite
+man's passions. Let her give her whole attention to the reading, receive
+it in her heart, and apply all the faculties of her mind to understand
+its meaning, in order clearly to conceive the true signification of what
+she is listening to. If she finds any passage obscure, let her ask the
+Dai, (the preacher,) and he shall answer, if he can, and if not, promise
+to ask those who are more learned, and when he has obtained the solution
+he must inform her, if she be deemed worthy.
+
+"The highest duty of Unitarian women is to know our Moulah Hakem and the
+Kaim Hamzé. If they follow Him, let them know that He has released them
+entirely from the observance of the Seven Arbitrary Pillars of the Law
+(of Islam) which are (1) Prayer, (2) Fasting, (3) Pilgrimage, (4)
+Asserting, There is no God but God and Mohammed is the Prophet of God,
+(5) Giving tithes, (6) War on infidels, (7) Submission to authority. But
+on the other hand, all believing women must perform the Seven Religious
+Duties: The First and greatest is Truth in your words: (_i.e._ to the
+brethren and sisters); the Second is, To watch reciprocally over the
+safety of the brethren; the Third is, to renounce wholly and entirely
+whatever religion you may have previously professed; the Fourth is, To
+keep yourselves apart, clear and distinct from all who are in error; the
+Fifth is, To recognize the existence of the Unity of our Lord in all
+ages, times and epochs; the Sixth is, To be satisfied with His will and
+His works, whatever they may be; The Seventh is, To abandon and resign
+yourselves to all His orders whether in prosperity or adversity. You
+must keep these Seven Commandments, and keep them strictly secret from
+all who are of a different religion. If the Druze women do all this and
+fulfil their duties, they are indeed among the good, and shall have
+their reward among the 159 Angels of the Presence and among the Prophets
+who were Apostles, and be saved from the snare of the accursed Iblīs
+(Diabolus). Praise then to our Lord Hakim, the praise of the thankful!
+He is my hope and victory!"
+
+What can you expect of the women, if the teachers are thus warped with
+hypocrisy and falsehood. They receive you politely. Dr. De Forest used
+to say, that there is not a boor in the Druze nation. But their very
+politeness confounds you. The old Druze women are masters of a pious
+religious phraseology. "We are all sinners." "The Lord's will be done."
+"Praise to His name." "He only can command." "The Lord be merciful to
+us." "He orders all things," and yet they will lie and deceive, and if
+not of the initiated class, they will swear in the most fearful manner.
+The Okkal cannot swear, smoke or drink, but they tell a story of a
+village where the people were all Okkal, and things having reached a
+high pitch of excitement, they sent for a body of Jehal or the
+non-initiated to come over and swear on the subject, that their pure
+minds might be relieved! When they talk in the most affectingly pious
+manner, and really surpass you in religious sentiment, you hardly know
+what to do. Tell them God knows the heart. They reply, "He alone is the
+All-knowing, the Searcher of the hearts of men." You shrink from telling
+them in plain language that they are hypocrites and liars. You _can_
+tell them of the _personal love_ of a personal Saviour, and this simple
+story will affect and has affected the minds of some of them more than
+all logic and eloquent refutation of their foggy and mysterious
+doctrinal system.
+
+They respect us and treat us politely for political reasons. During the
+massacres of 1860, I rode from Abeih to Beirūt in the midst of burning
+villages, and armed bodies of Druzes passed us shouting the war song "Ma
+hala ya ma hala kotal en Nosara," "How sweet, oh how sweet, to kill the
+Christians," and yet as they passed us they stopped and most politely
+paid their salams, saying, "Naharkum Saieed," "May your day be blessed,"
+"Allah yahtikum el afiyeh," "God give you health!"
+
+When a Druze Sheikh wishes to marry, he asks consent of the father
+without having seen the daughter. If the father consents, he informs
+her, and if she consents, the suitor sends his affianced presents of
+clothes and jewelry, which remain in her hands as a pledge of his
+fidelity. She is pictured to him as the paragon of beauty and
+excellence, but he is never allowed to see her, speak to her, or write
+to her, should she know how to write. His mother or aunt may see her or
+bring reports, but he does not see her until the wedding contract is
+signed and the bride is brought to his house.
+
+The following is the marriage ceremony of the Druzes. It is read by the
+Kadi or Sheikh, and in accordance to the Druze doctrine that they must
+outwardly conform to the religion of the governing power, it is a purely
+Mohammedan ordinance.
+
+"Praise to God, the original Creator of all things; the Gracious in all
+His gifts and prohibitions; who has decreed and fixed the ordinance of
+marriage; may Allah pray for (bless) our Prophet Mohammed, and his four
+successors! Now after this, we say that marriage is one of the laws
+given by the prophets, and one of the statutes of the pious to guard
+against vice; a gift from the Lord of the earth and the heaven. Praise
+to Him who by it has brought the far ones near, and made the foreigner a
+relative and friend! We are assembled here to attend to a matter
+decreed and fated of Allah, and whose beginning, middle and end he has
+connected with the most happy and auspicious circumstances. This matter
+is the blessed covenant of marriage. Inshullah, may it be completed and
+perfected, and praise to Allah, the Great Completer! Amen!
+
+"In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. He is my portion
+and sufficiency. May Allah pray for his pure prophet!"
+
+This is the marriage contract between the person named A. son of ---- of
+the village of ---- in the district of ---- in Lebanon, and his
+betrothed named B. the daughter of ---- of the village of ---- she being
+a maiden of full and marriageable age, with no legal obstacles to her
+marriage. (May Allah protect her veil, and have mercy on her relatives
+and friends!)
+
+In view of the mercies of Allah and his prophet Mohammed, they pay fifty
+piastres ($2.00) of full and lawful number, weight and measure, of the
+Imperial mint of our Moulah the Sultan, (may the exalted and merciful
+One give him the victory!) and of new white silver. The agent of the
+husband is ---- and of the wife is ----.
+
+It is the absolute and bounden duty of the husband to provide clothing
+for the body of his wife and a crown for her head, and of the wife to
+give him his due honor and rights and do his work, and Allah will be
+with those who fear Him, and not suffer those who do well to lose their
+reward.
+
+                                        Signed Sheikh ---- (seal)
+                     --                          seal
+         Witnesses   --                          seal
+                     --                          seal
+
+A whole week is given up to festivity before her arrival, and the
+retinue of the bride mounted on fine horses escort her amid the firing
+of musketry, the _zilagheet_ shrieks of the women, and general
+rejoicing, to the bridegroom's house. Col. Churchill describes what
+follows: "The bride meantime, after having received the caresses and
+congratulations of her near relatives, is conducted to a chamber apart
+and placed on a divan, with a large tray of sweetmeats and confectionery
+before her, after which all the females withdraw and she is left alone,
+with a massive veil of muslin and gold thrown over her head and covering
+her face, breasts and shoulders down to the waist. What thoughts and
+sensations must crowd upon the maiden's mind in this solitude! not to be
+disturbed but by him who will shortly come to receive in that room his
+first impressions of her charms and attractions! Presently she hears
+footsteps at the door; it opens quietly; silently and unattended her
+lover approaches her, lifts the veil off her face, takes one glance,
+replaces it and withdraws."
+
+He then returns to the grand reception-room, takes his seat at the head
+of the divan amid the throng of Sheikhs and other invited guests. He
+maintains an imperturbable silence, his mind being supposed to be
+absorbed by one engrossing object. It may be delight. It may be bitter
+disappointment. It is generally past midnight when the party breaks up
+and the family retires.
+
+A plurality of wives is absolutely forbidden. If a Druze wishes to
+divorce his wife, he has merely to say, "You had better go back to your
+father," or she, the woman, wishes to leave her husband, she says, "I
+wish to go back to my father," and if her husband says, "Very well, go,"
+the divorce in either case holds good, and the separation is
+irrevocable. Both parties are free to re-marry. Childlessness is a
+common cause of divorce.
+
+The birth of a son is the occasion of great rejoicing and presents to
+the family. But the birth of a daughter is considered a misfortune, and
+of course not the slightest notice is taken of so inauspicious an event.
+This holds true among all the sects and peoples of Syria, and nothing
+but a Christian training and the inculcation of the pure principles of
+gospel morality can remove this deeply seated prejudice. The people say
+the reason of their dislike of daughters is that while a son builds up
+the house, and brings in a wife from without and _perpetuates the family
+name_, the daughter pulls down the house, loses her name, and is lost to
+the family.
+
+The wealthier and more aristocratic Druze sitts or ladies are taught to
+read by the Fakih or teacher, but the masses of the women are in brutish
+ignorance. You enter a Druze house. The woman waits upon you and brings
+coffee, but you see only _one eye_, the rest of the head and face being
+closely veiled. In an aristocratic house, you would never be allowed to
+see the lady, and if she goes abroad, it is only at night, and with
+attendants on every side to keep off the profane gaze of strangers. If a
+physician is called to attend a sick Druze woman, he cannot see her
+face nor her tongue, unless she choose to thrust it through a hole in
+her veil. In many cases they suffer a woman to die sooner than have her
+face seen by a physician.
+
+The Druzes marry but one wife at a time, and yet divorce is so common
+and so heartlessly practiced by the men, that the poor women live in
+constant fear of being driven from their homes.
+
+In Abeih, we were startled one evening by the cry "Rouse ye men of self
+respect! Come and help us!" It was a dark, rainy night, and the earthen
+roof of a Druze house had fallen in, burying a young man, his wife and
+his mother, under the mass of earth, stones and timber. They all escaped
+death, but were seriously injured, the poor young wife suffering the
+most of all, having fallen with her left arm in a bed of burning coals,
+and having been compelled to lie there half an hour, so that when dug
+out, her hand was burned to a cinder! For several days the husband
+refused to send for a doctor, but at length his wife Hala was sent to
+the College Hospital (of the Prussian Knights of St. John) in Beirūt
+where Dr. Post amputated the hand below the elbow.
+
+One would naturally suppose that such a calamity, in which both so
+narrowly escaped death, would bind husband and wife together in the
+strongest bonds of affection and sympathy. But not so in this case. The
+poor young wife is now threatened with divorce, because she is no longer
+of any use to her husband, and her two little children are to be taken
+from her! She lies on her bed in the Hospital, the very picture of
+stoical resignation. Not a groan or complaint escapes her.
+
+She said one day, "Oh how glad I am that this happened, for it has taken
+away all my sins, and I shall never have to suffer again in this world
+or the next!" This is the doctrine of the Druzes, and, cold and false as
+it is, she has made it her support and her stay.
+
+Dr. Post and Mrs. Bliss have pointed her to the Lamb of God "who bore
+our sins in His own body on the tree," and she seems interested to hear
+and learn more.
+
+Her younger sister is in the Beirūt Seminary. May this poor sufferer
+find peace where alone it can be found, in trusting in the Lord Jesus
+Christ, whose blood cleanseth from all sin!
+
+The cruelty of her husband, sanctioned as it is by the religious code of
+the Druzes, may be the means of opening her eyes to the falsity of that
+heartless Christless system, and lead her to the foot of the Cross!
+
+Christians, who read these lines, pray for Hala of Abeih!
+
+
+SITT ABLA.
+
+More than twenty years ago in the little Druze village of Aitath, in
+Lebanon, about seven miles from Beirūt, lived a family of Druze Sheikhs
+of the tribe of Telhūk. This tribe was divided into the great Sheikhs
+and the little Sheikhs, and among the latter was the Sheikh Khottar. The
+proximity of this village to Beirūt, its elevated position, cool air,
+and fine fountain of water, made it a favorite summer retreat for the
+missionaries from the withering heats of the plain. Sheikh Khottar and
+his wife the Sitt, having both died, their orphan son Selim and daughter
+Abla, called the Sitt (or lady) Abla, were placed under the care of
+other members of the family of Telhūk. The missionaries opened a school
+for boys and Selim attended it. Dr. and Mrs. Van Dyck were living in
+Aitath at the time, and the young Druze maiden Abla, who was betrothed
+to a Druze Sheikh, became greatly attached to Mrs. Van Dyck, and came
+almost constantly to visit her. The light of a better faith and the
+truth of a pure gospel gradually dawned upon her mind, until her love
+for Mrs. Van Dyck grew into love for the Saviour of sinners. The Sheikh
+to whom she was betrothed was greatly enraged at her course in visiting
+a Christian lady, and meeting her one day when returning to her home,
+attacked her in the most brutal manner, and gave her a severe beating.
+She fled and took refuge in the house of Mrs. Van Dyck, who had taught
+her to read and given her a Bible. A short time after, several of her
+cousins seized her and scourged her most cruelly, and a violent
+persecution was excited against her and her brother Selim. She was in
+daily and hourly expectation of being killed by her male relatives, as
+it had never been heard of in the Druze nation that a young girl should
+dare to become a Christian, and Mr. Whiting, missionary in Abeih, sent
+over a courageous Protestant youth named Saleh, who took the Sitt Abla
+by night over the rough mountain road to Abeih in safety. But even here
+she was not safe. The Druzes of Lebanon at that time were at the height
+of their feudal power. Girls and women were killed among them without
+the least notice on the part of the mountain government. Abla was like a
+prisoner in the missionary's house, not venturing to go outside the
+door, and in order to be at peace, she went down with her brother to
+Beirūt, where she has since resided. Selim united with the Church, but
+was afterwards suspended from communion for improper conduct, and joined
+himself to the Jesuits, so that Abla has had to endure a two-fold
+persecution from her Druze relatives and her Jesuit brother. On her
+removal to Beirūt she was disinherited and deprived of her little
+portion of her father's estate, and her life has been a constant
+struggle with persecution, poverty and want. Yet amid all, she has stood
+firm as a rock, never swerving from the truth, or showing any
+disposition to go back to her old friends. At times she has suffered
+from extreme privation, and the missionaries and native Protestants
+would only hear of it through others who happened to meet her. Since
+uniting with the Church in 1849 she has lived a Christian life. In a
+recent conversation she said, "I count all things but loss for the
+excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, _for whom I have
+suffered the loss of all things_ ... and I still continue, by the grace
+of Him Exalted, and by the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, awaiting
+a happy death, and everlasting rest."
+
+
+KHOZMA.
+
+Her Christian experience is like that of Khozma Ata. She is the only
+female member of the Protestant church in Syria from among the Druzes,
+except Sitt Abla. She was born, in Beirūt of the Druze family of Witwat,
+and when quite a child was taken by Dr. Beadle, then by Miss Tilden,
+living at one time in Aleppo, then in Jerusalem, and finally settled in
+the family of Dr. De Forest, where she continued until his departure for
+America in 1854. For several years she has been an invalid, and is not
+often able to leave her house, even to go to church. Two of her little
+girls are in the Female Seminary. In 1861 she taught a day school for
+girls in Beirūt, and assisted Dr. De Forest in his work in the Beirūt
+Seminary. I called upon her a few days since, and she handed me a roll
+of Arabic manuscript, which she said she had been translating from the
+English. It is a series of stories for children which she has prepared
+to be printed in our monthly journal for Syrian children. The name of
+the journal is "koukab es Subah," or "Morning Star." She has been
+confined to her bed a part of the summer, and when she gave me the
+manuscript, she apologized for the handwriting, on the ground that she
+had written the most of it sitting or lying on her bed. She has not
+forgotten the example and instructions of Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and
+speaks of them with enthusiastic interest. Her husband failed in
+business some years ago, and she is in a constant struggle with want,
+but her old friends and loving sisters, Raheel and Lulu, who are among
+her nearest neighbors, are unremitting in their kind attentions to her.
+
+What a difference between the faithful Christian nurture her little
+children are receiving at home, and the worse than no training received
+by the children of her Druze relatives at Ras Beirūt, who are still
+under the shadow of their old superstitions. She never curses her
+children nor invokes the wrath of God upon them. She is never beaten and
+spit upon and tortured and threatened with death by her husband. It is
+worth much to have rescued a Khozma and an Abla from the degradation of
+Druze superstition! These two good women, with Abdullah in Beirūt, and
+Hassan, Hassein, Asaad and Ali, in Lebanon, are among the living
+witnesses to the preciousness of the love of Christ, who have come forth
+from the Druze community. They have been persecuted, and may be again,
+but they stand firm in Christ. Not a few Druze girls are gathered in our
+schools in Beirūt, Lebanon, and the vicinity of Hermon, as well as in
+other schools in Damascus, Hasbeiya and elsewhere, and some of their
+young men are receiving a Christian education.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+NUSAIRIYEH.
+
+
+To the North of Mount Lebanon, and along the low range of mountains
+extending from Antioch to Tripoli, and from the Mediterranean on the
+West to Hums on the East, live a strange, wild, blood-thirsty race
+called the Nusairīyeh numbering about 200,000 souls, and now for the
+first time in their history coming within the range of Missionary
+effort.
+
+The Druzes admit women to the Akkal or initiated class, but not so the
+Nusairīyeh. The great secret of the Sacrament is administered in a
+secluded place, the women being shut up in a house, or kept away from
+the mysteries. In these assemblies the Sheikh reads prayers, and then
+all join in cursing Abubekr, Omar, Othman, Sheikh et-Turkoman and the
+Christians and others. Then he gives a spoonful of wine, first to the
+Sheikhs present, and then to all the rest. They then eat fruit, offer
+other prayers, and the assembly breaks up. The rites of initiation are
+frightful in the extreme, attended by threats, imprecations and
+blasphemous oaths, declaring their lives forfeited if they expose the
+secrets of the order.
+
+They use given signs and questions, by which they salute each other, and
+ascertain whether a stranger is one of them or not. In their books they
+employ the double interlacing triangle or seal of Solomon. They call
+each other brethren, and enjoin love and truthfulness, but _only to the
+brethren_. In this they are like the Druzes. So little do they regard
+all outside their own sect, that they _pray to God to take out of the
+hearts of all others than themselves, what little light of knowledge and
+certainty they may possess_! The effect of this secret, exclusive, and
+selfish system is shown in the conduct of the Nusairīyeh in robbing and
+murdering Moslems and Christians without compunction.
+
+As it has been said, the Nusairīyeh women are entirely excluded from all
+participation in religious ceremonies and prayers, and from all
+religious teaching. The reason given, is two-fold; the first being that
+women cannot be trusted to keep a secret, and the second because they
+are considered by the Nusairīyeh as something unclean. They believe that
+the soul of a wicked man may pass at death into a brute, or he may be
+punished for his sins in this life by being born in a woman's form in
+the next generation. And so, if a woman live in virtue and obedience,
+there is hope of her again being born into the world _as a man_, and
+becoming one of the illuminati and possessors of the secret. It is a
+long time for the poor things to wait, but it is a convenient reward for
+their husbands to hold out before them.
+
+Yet the women are so religiously inclined by nature that they will have
+some object of worship, and while their husbands, fathers and sons are
+talking and praying about the celestial hierarchies, and the
+unfathomable mysteries, the wives, mothers and daughters will throng the
+"zeyarehs," or holy visiting shrines, on the hill tops, and among the
+groves of green trees, to propitiate the favor of the reputed saints of
+ancient days. These shrines are supposed to have miraculous powers, but
+Friday is the day when the prophets are more especially "at home," to
+receive visitors. On other days they may be "on a journey," or asleep.
+Whenever a Nuisairiyeh woman is in sorrow or trouble or fear, she goes
+to the zeyareh and cries in a piteous tone, "zeyareh, hear me!"
+
+Their women do not veil themselves, and consequently there is more of
+freedom among them than among Moslems and Druzes, and in their great
+festivals, men and women all dance together.
+
+When a young man sees a girl who pleases him, he bargains with her
+father, agreeing to pay from twenty dollars to two hundred, according to
+the dignity of her family; of which sum she receives but four dollars,
+unless her father should choose to give her a red bridal box and bedding
+for her outfit. She rides in great state to the bridegroom's house amid
+the firing of guns and shouts of the women, and on dismounting, the
+bridegroom gives her a present of from one to three dollars, called the
+"dismounting money."
+
+Divorce needs only the will of the man, and polygamy is common. Lane
+says in speaking of Egypt, "The depraving effects of this freedom of
+divorce upon both sexes, may be easily imagined. There are many men in
+this country who, in the course of ten years, have married as many as
+twenty, thirty or more wives; and women, not far advanced in age, who
+have been wives to a dozen or more men successively."
+
+The Nusairīyeh women smoke, swear, and use the most vile and unclean
+language, and even go beyond the men in these respects. Swearing and
+lying are universal not only among the Nusairīyeh, but among the most of
+the Syrian people. You never receive a direct reply from a Nusaīry. He
+will answer your question by asking another, in order, if possible, to
+ascertain your object in asking it and to conceal the true state of the
+case. Their Moslem and nominal Christian neighbors are not much better.
+They all lie, and swear, and deceive. Mr. Lyde illustrates the ignorance
+of the Greek clergy in Latakiah by the following incident. A ploughman
+who had learned something of the Bible, heard a Greek priest cursing the
+father of a little child. He said, "My father, is it right to curse?"
+"Oh," said he, "it was only from my lips." "But does not the psalmist
+say, Keep the door of my lips?" "That," replied the priest, "is only in
+the English Bible."
+
+Walpole says of the Nusairīyeh women, "when young, they are handsome,
+often fair, with light hair and jet-black eyes; or the rarer beauty of
+fair eyes and coal-black hair or eyebrows."
+
+When a fight takes place between the tribes, the women, like the women
+of the Druzes, enter into the spirit of it with demoniacal fury. During
+the battle they bring jars of water, shout, sing, and encourage the
+men, and at the close carry off the booty, such as pots, pans, chickens,
+quilts, wooden doors, trays, etc. In the Druze war of 1860, I saw the
+Druze women running with the men through Aitath, on their way to the
+scene of hostilities in the Metn. The Bedawin women likewise aid their
+husbands in the commissariat of their nomad warfare.
+
+The Rev. Mr. Lyde was the first to undertake direct missionary labors
+among the Nusairīyeh, and his work has been carried on by the Reformed
+Presbyterian Mission in Latakiah. The Rev. J. Beattie sends me the
+following facts with regard to the work now going on among the women and
+girls.
+
+The first convert under the labors of Mr. Lyde was Hammūd, of the
+village of Merj, a young man of fine mind and most lovely character, who
+gave promise of great usefulness. After he became a Christian, his
+mother, finding that no Nusaīry girl would marry a Christian, determined
+to secure a young girl and have her educated for Hammūd. So she paid
+four Turkish pounds for a little Nusaīry girl named Zahara or Venus,
+whose widowed mother had removed to her village. This payment was in
+accordance with Nusaīry customs, and constituted the girl's dowry. After
+the betrothal in 1863, Hammūd sent her to Latakiah, where she was taken
+into the family of the late Dr. Dodds for instruction and training. She
+gladly received the truth, and Hammūd labored earnestly for her
+enlightenment. Everything seemed bright and promising, until suddenly
+all their earthly hopes were dashed by the early death of Hammūd in
+December, 1864. He died in the triumphs of the Christian faith, and from
+that time she gave herself to the Lord. In August, 1865, she with
+several others was baptized and received into the communion of the
+Church. At her own request, she was baptized as Miriam.
+
+In 1866 she was married to Yusef Jedid, and lived with him in several of
+the villages among the Nusairīyeh, where he was engaged in teaching. Her
+husband at length removed to Bahlulīyeh in 1870, and a wide door of
+usefulness was opened to them. Her little daughters Lulu and Helany were
+with her, and there was every prospect that she would be able to do much
+for Christ among her benighted sisters. But the same disease,
+consumption, which prostrated Hammūd, now laid her aside. It was
+probably brought on by a careless exposure of her health while lying
+down on the damp ground and falling asleep uncovered, as the natives of
+the mountain villages are in the habit of doing. The missionaries from
+Latakiah constantly visited her, and Dr. Metheny gave her the benefit of
+his medical skill, but all in vain. She loved to converse on heavenly
+things, and hear the Scriptures and prayer. But when the missionaries
+returned to the city, she was overwhelmed by the rebukes and merciless
+upbraidings of the fellaheen, who have no sympathy for the sick, the
+disabled and the dying. Her ears were filled with the sound of cursing
+and bitterness, and no wonder that she entreated the missionaries not
+to leave her. She told Mr. Beattie that she did not fear to die, for her
+trust was in Jesus Christ, but it was hard to be left among such coarse
+and unsympathizing people. At length she was brought into Latakiah,
+where she seemed to feel more at home. At times she passed through
+severe spiritual conflicts, and said she was struggling with the
+adversary, who had tried to make her blaspheme. At one time she was in
+great excitement, but when the 34th Psalm was read she became entirely
+composed and calm, and in turn, began chanting the 23rd Psalm to the
+end. She sent for all of her friends and begged their forgiveness,
+commended her children to the care of Miss Crawford, and asked Mr.
+Beattie to pray with her again. Her bodily sufferings now increased,
+when suddenly she called out, "The Lord be glorified! To God give the
+glory!" Soon after, she gently fell "asleep in Jesus." Thus died the
+first woman, as far as we know, ever truly converted from among the
+Pagan Nusairīyeh. Her conversion opened the way for that work of moral,
+religious and intellectual elevation among the Nusaīry females which has
+since been carried on in Latakiah and vicinity.
+
+The first Christian woman to undertake the direct task of educating and
+elevating the Nusairīyeh females was Miss Crawford. She commenced her
+work in 1869. The Mission had found that the Boarding School for boys
+was training a class of young men, who could not find, among the tens of
+thousands of families in their native mountains, a single girl fitted
+to be one's companion for life. The females were everywhere neglected,
+and Miss Crawford came to Syria just at the time of the greatest need.
+Under the care and direction of the Mission, she commenced a Boarding
+School for girls in Latakiah in the fall of 1869. At first, but few
+pupils could be persuaded to come. Only two attended during the first
+year. Their names were Sada and Naiuf, the sister of Zahara. The next
+year Sada left, and ten new ones entered the school: Marie, Howa,
+Naiseh, Shehla, Thaljeh, (snow,) Tumra, (fruit,) Ghazella, Husna,
+Bureib'han, and Harba. They were all from twelve to fourteen in age, and
+remained through the winter, but at the beginning of wheat harvest,
+their friends forced them to return to their homes for the summer. They
+made marked progress both in study and deportment, and before leaving
+for their homes passed a creditable examination both in their studies
+and in needlework. The fact was thus established to the astonishment of
+the citizens of Latakiah, that the Nusairīyeh girls were equal in
+intellect and skill in needlework to the brightest of the city girls. In
+the autumn of 1871 it was feared that the Pagan parents of the girls
+would prevent their return to the school, but, greatly to the
+gratification of the missionaries, all of the ten returned, bringing
+with them nine others; Hamameh, (dove,) Henireh, Elmaza, (diamond,)
+Deebeh,(she-wolf,) Alexandra, Zeinab, Lulu, (pearl,) Howwa, (Eve,) and
+Naameh, (grace).
+
+During the year the pupils brought new joy to the hearts of their
+teachers. Not only were their numbers greatly increased, but the older
+girls seemed all to be under the influence of deep religious impressions
+on their return to the school. Although they had spent the summer among
+the wild fellaheen and been compelled to listen to blasphemy, impurity
+and cursing on every side, they had been able by the aid of God's Spirit
+to discriminate between good and evil, and to contrast the lawless
+wickedness of the fellaheen with the holy precepts of the Bible. Finding
+themselves unable to meet the requirements of God's pure and holy law,
+they returned under serious distress of mind, asking what they should do
+to be saved? Such of them as could do so, had been in the habit of
+meeting together during the summer for prayer, and of repeating the ten
+commandments and other portions of Scripture with which they were
+familiar. They had been threatened and beaten by their friends on
+account of their religious views, but they remained unmoved. The
+child-like simple faith of some of them was remarkable. Marie was
+punished on one occasion by her father for attending the missionary
+service at B'hamra on the Sabbath. He forbade her to eat for a whole
+day, and she prayed that God would give her bread. Soon after, on her
+way to the village fountain, she found part of a merkūk, loaf of bread,
+by the wayside, which she picked up and ate most gratefully, regarding
+it as a direct answer to her prayer. Another Ghuzaleh, was brutally
+beaten because she would not swear and blaspheme, and all were
+threatened and insulted because they would not work on Sunday.
+
+In November, 1871, seven of these girls, on their own application, were
+received into the membership of the Church. It was an interesting sight
+to see that group of Nusairīyeh heathen girls standing to receive the
+ordinance of Christian baptism. In the spring of 1872, another was added
+to the list. These little ones of Christ have all thus far shown
+themselves faithful. They were sent back to their homes in the summer,
+and several, if not the most, of them may be forbidden to return again
+to the school. Some may say, why allow them to go home? The policy of
+encouraging children to run away from their parents and connect
+themselves with foreign missionaries and missionary institutions, will
+lead the heathen to hate the very name of Christianity, and to charge it
+with being a foe to all social and family order, and on the broad ground
+of missionary usefulness, the girls can do far more good in their own
+homes than elsewhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CHRONICLE OF WOMEN'S WORK FROM 1820 TO 1872.
+
+
+It must not be inferred from what has been said on a preceding page with
+regard to the favorable position occupied by the women of the nominal
+Christian sects of Syria as compared with the Mohammedan women, that the
+first missionaries found the Greek and Maronite women and girls who
+speak the Arabic language eager or even willing to receive instruction.
+Far from it. The effects of the Mohammedan domination of twelve hundred
+years have been to degrade and depress all the sects and nationalities
+who are subject to Islam. Not only were there not women and girls found
+to learn to read, but the great mass of the men of the Christian sects
+could neither read nor write. Many of the prominent Arab merchants in
+Beirūt to-day can neither read nor write. I say Arab merchants, and yet
+very few of the Arabs of the Greek Church have more than a mere tinge of
+Arab blood in their veins. To call them Syrians, would be to confound
+them with the "Syrian" or "Jacobite" sect, who are found only in the
+vicinity of Hums, Hamath and Mardin. So with the Maronites. They are
+chiefly of a darker complexion than the Arab Greeks, and are supposed to
+have had their origin in Mesopotamia. Yet all these sects and races
+speak the common Arabic language, and hence it will be convenient to
+call them Arabs, although I am aware, that while many of the modern
+Syrians glory in the name "Oulad el Arab," many others regard it with
+dislike.
+
+The Syrian Christianity, moreover, so often alluded to in the history of
+the Syrian Mission, is the lowest type of the religion of the Greek and
+Roman churches. Saint-worship and picture-worship are universal. An
+ignorant priesthood, and a superstitious people, no Bibles, and no
+readers to read them, no schools and no teachers capable of conducting
+them, prayers in unknown tongues, and a bitter feeling of party spirit
+in all the sects, universal belief in the efficacy of fasts and vows,
+pilgrimages and offerings to the shrines of reputed saints, churches
+without a preached gospel, and prayers performed as a duty without the
+worship of the heart, universal Mariolatry, a Sabbath desecrated by
+priests and people alike, God's name everywhere profaned by men, women
+and children, and truthfulness of lip almost absolutely unknown; the
+women and girls degraded and oppressed and left to the tender mercies of
+a corrupt clergy through the infamies of the confessional; all these
+practices and many others which space forbids us to mention, combined
+with the social bondage entailed upon woman by the gross code of Islam,
+rendered the women of the nominal Christian sects of Syria almost as
+hopeless subjects of missionary labor as were their less favored Druze
+and Moslem sisters.
+
+In order to present the leading facts in the history of Mission Work for
+Syrian women, I propose to give a brief review of the salient points, in
+the order of time, as I have been able to glean them from the missionary
+documents within my reach.
+
+The first Protestant missionary to Syria since the days of the Apostles,
+was the Rev. Levi Parsons, who reached Jerusalem January 16, 1821, and
+died in Alexandria February 10, 1822. In 1823, Rev. Pliny Fisk, and Dr.
+Jonas King reached Jerusalem to take his place, and on the 10th of July
+came to Beirūt. Dr. King spent the summer in Deir el Kamr, and Mr. Fisk
+in a building now occupied by the Jesuit College in Aintūra.
+
+On the 16th of November, 1823, Messrs. Goodell and Bird reached Beirūt,
+and on the 6th of December, 1824, they wrote as follows: "Mr. King's
+Arabic instructor laughs heartily that the ladies of our company are
+served first at table. He said that if any person should come to his
+house and speak to his wife _first_, he should be offended. He said the
+English ladies have some understanding, the Arab women have none. It is
+the custom of this country that a woman must never be seen eating or
+walking, or in company with her husband. When she walks abroad, she must
+wrap herself in a large white sheet, and look like a ghost, and at home
+she must be treated more like a slave than a partner. Indeed, women are
+considered of so little consequence that to ask a man after the health
+of his wife, is a question which is said never to find a place in the
+social intercourse of this country."
+
+Jan. 24, 1825, Dr. Goodell wrote, "Some adult females come occasionally
+to be taught by Mrs. Bird or Mrs. Goodell, and although their attendance
+is very irregular, and their _disadvantages very great_, being _without
+Arabic books_, and their friends deriding their efforts, yet they make
+some improvement. One of them, who a fortnight ago did not know a single
+letter of the alphabet, can now read one verse in the Bible."
+
+July 1, 1825, Messrs. Goodell and Bird speak of the first girls taught
+to read in Syria in mission schools. "Our school contains between eighty
+and ninety scholars, who are all boys _except two_. One is the teacher's
+wife, who is perhaps fifteen years of age, and the other a little girl
+about ten." That teacher was Tannūs el Haddad, who died a few years ago,
+venerated and beloved by all sects and classes of the people, having
+been for many years deacon of the Beirūt Church, and his wife, Im
+Beshara, still lives, with an interesting family.
+
+On the 21st of Dec, 1825, Dr. King wrote as follows: "I spent about a
+month in Tyre, and made some efforts to establish a school for Tyrian
+females, and was very near succeeding, when one of the principal priests
+rose up and said, 'It is by no means expedient to teach women to read
+the word of God. It is better for them to remain in ignorance than to
+know how to read and write. They are quite bad enough with what little
+they now know. Teach them to read and write, and _there would be no
+living with them_!'" That Tyrian priest of fifty years ago, was a fair
+sample of his black-frocked brethren throughout Syria from that time to
+this. There have been a few worthy exceptions, but the Syrian priesthood
+of all sects, taken as a class, are the avowed enemies of the education
+and elevation of their people. Some of the exceptions to this rule will
+be mentioned in the subsequent pages of this volume.
+
+In 1826, there were three hundred children in the Mission schools in the
+vicinity of Beirūt.
+
+In 1827, there were 600 pupils in 13 schools, of whom _one hundred and
+twenty were girls_! In view of the political, social and religious
+condition of Syria at that time, that statement is more remarkable than
+almost any fact in the history of the Syrian Mission. It shows that Mrs.
+Bird and Mrs. Goodell must have labored to good purpose in persuading
+their benighted Syrian sisters to send their daughters to school, and to
+these two Christian women is due the credit of having commenced Woman's
+Work for Women in modern times in Syria. In that same year, the wives of
+Bishop Dionysius Carabet and Gregory Wortabet were received to the
+communion of the Church in Beirūt, being the first spiritual fruits of
+Women's Work for Women in modern Syria.
+
+During 1828 and 1829 the Missionaries temporarily withdrew to Malta. In
+1833, Dr. Thomson and Dr. Dodge arrived in Beirūt. The Mission now
+consisted of Messrs. Bird, Whiting, Eli Smith, Drs. Thomson and Dodge.
+In a letter written at that time by Messrs. Bird, Smith and Thomson, it
+is said, "Of the females, none can either read or write, or the
+exceptions are so very few as not to deserve consideration. Female
+education is not merely neglected, but discouraged and opposed." They
+also stated, that "the whole number of native children in the Mission
+Schools from the beginning had been 650; 500 before the interruption in
+1828, and 150 since." "Female education as such is yet nearly untried."
+
+During that year Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. Dodge commenced a school for
+girls in Beirūt. Dr. Eli Smith speaks of this school as follows, in the
+Memoir of Mrs. S.L. Smith: "A few girls were previously found in some of
+the public schools supported by the Mission, and a few had lived in the
+Mission families. But these ladies wished to bring them more directly
+under missionary influence, and to confer upon them the benefit of a
+system of instruction adapted to females. A commencement was accordingly
+made, by giving lessons to such little girls as could be irregularly
+assembled for an hour or two a day at the Mission-house; such an
+informal beginning being not only all that the ladies had time to
+attempt, but being also considered desirable as less likely to excite
+jealousy and opposition. For the project was entered upon with much
+trembling and apprehension. Not merely indifference to female education
+had to be encountered, but strong prejudice against it existing in the
+public mind from time immemorial. The Oriental prejudice against
+innovations from any quarter, and especially from foreigners, threatened
+resistance. The seclusion of females within their own immediate circle
+of relationship, originally Oriental, but strengthened by Mohammedan
+influence, stood in the way. And more than all, religious jealousy,
+looking upon the missionaries as dangerous heretics, and their influence
+as contamination, seemed to give unequivocal warning that the attempt
+might be fruitless. But the missionaries were not aware of the hold they
+had gained upon the public confidence. The event proved in this, as in
+many other missionary attempts, that strong faith is a better principle
+to act upon in the propagation of the gospel, than cautious calculation.
+Even down to the present time (1840) it is not known that a word of
+opposition has been uttered against the school which was then commenced.
+
+"On the arrival of Mrs. S.L. Smith in Beirūt in January, 1834, she found
+some six or eight girls assembled every afternoon in Mrs. Thomson's room
+at the Mission house, receiving instruction in sewing and reading. One
+was far enough advanced to aid in teaching, and the widow of Gregory
+Wortabet occasionally assisted. On the removal of Mrs. Thomson and Mrs.
+Dodge to Jerusalem, the entire charge of the school devolved upon Mrs.
+Smith, aided by Mrs. Wortabet. Especial attention was given to reading,
+sewing, knitting and good behavior. In November, 1835, Miss Rebecca
+Williams arrived in Beirūt as an assistant to Mrs. Smith. The school
+then increased, and in the spring of 1836 an examination was held, at
+which the mothers of the children and some other female friends were
+present. The scholars together amounted to upwards of forty; the room
+was well-filled, "presenting a scene that would have delighted the heart
+of many a friend of missions. Classes were examined in reading,
+spelling, geography, first lessons in arithmetic, Scripture questions,
+the English language, and sacred music, and the whole was closed by a
+brief address from Mrs. Dodge. The mothers then came forward of their
+own accord, and in a gratifying manner expressed their thanks to the
+ladies for what they had done for their daughters." Of the pupils of
+this school, the greater part were Arabs of the Greek Church; two were
+Jewesses; and some were Druzes; and at times there were eight or ten
+Moslems.
+
+A Sabbath School, with five teachers and thirty pupils, was established
+at the same time, the majority of the scholars being girls. A native
+female prayer-meeting was also commenced at this time, conducted by
+three missionary ladies and two native Protestant women. At times, as
+many as twenty were present, and this first female prayer-meeting in
+Syria in modern times, was attended with manifest tokens of the Divine
+blessing.
+
+As has been already stated, the seclusion of Oriental females renders
+it almost impossible for a male missionary to visit among them or hold
+religious meetings exclusively for women. This must be done, if at all,
+by the missionary's wife or by Christian women devoted especially to
+this work. It was true in 1834, and it is almost equally true in 1873.
+The Arabs have a proverb, "The tree is not cut down, but by a branch of
+itself;" _i.e._ the axe handle is of wood. So none can reach the women
+of Syria but women. The Church of Rome understands this, and is sending
+French, Italian and Spanish nuns in multitudes to work upon the girls
+and women of Syria, and the women of the Syria Mission, married and
+unmarried, have done a noble work in the past in the elevation and
+education of their Syrian sisters. And in this connection it should be
+observed, that a _sine qua non_ of efficient usefulness among the women
+of Syria, is that the Christian women who labor for them should know the
+Arabic language. Ignorance of the language is regarded by the people as
+indicating a want of sympathy with them, and is an almost insuperable
+barrier to a true spiritual influence. The great work to be done for the
+women of the world in the future, is to be done in their own
+mother-tongue, and it would be well that all the Female Seminaries in
+foreign lands should be so thoroughly supplied with teachers, that those
+most familiar with the native language could be free to devote a portion
+of their time to labors among the native women in their homes.
+
+In 1834 and 1835 Mrs. Dodge conducted a school for Druze girls in
+Aaleih, in Lebanon. This School in Aaleih, a village about 2300 feet
+above the level of the sea, was once suddenly broken up. Not a girl
+appeared at the morning session. A rumor had spread through the village,
+that the English fleet had come up Mount Lebanon from Beirūt, and was
+approaching Aaleih to carry off all the girls to England! The panic
+however subsided, and the girls returned to school. In 1836 Mrs. Hebard
+and Mrs. Dodge carried on the work which Mrs. Smith had so much loved,
+and which was only temporarily interrupted by her death.
+
+In 1837, Mrs. Whiting and Miss Tilden had an interesting school of
+Mohammedan girls in Jerusalem, and Mrs. Whiting had several native girls
+in her own family.
+
+In reply to certain inquiries contained in a note I addressed to Miss T.
+she writes: "I arrived in Beirūt, June 16, 1835. Mr. and Mrs. Whiting in
+Jerusalem were desirous that I should take a small school that Mrs.
+Whiting had gathered, of Mohammedan girls. She had in her family two
+girls from Beirūt, Salome, (Mrs. Prof. Wortabet,) and Hanne, (Mrs.
+Reichardt.) There were in school from 12 to 20 or more scholars, all
+Moslems. Only one Christian girl could be persuaded to attend. I think
+that the inducement they had to send their daughters was the instruction
+given in sewing and knitting, free of expense to them. Mrs. Whiting
+taught the same scholars on the Sabbath. The Scripture used in their
+instruction, both week days and on the Sabbath, was the Psalms. After a
+year and a half I went to Beirūt and assisted in the girl's school,
+which was somewhat larger and more promising. Miss Williams had become
+Mrs. Hebard, and Miss Badger from Malta was teaching at the time. Mrs.
+Smith's boarding scholar Raheel, was with Mrs. Hebard. I suppose that
+female education in the family was commenced in Syria by Mr. Bird, who
+taught the girl that married Demetrius. (Miss T. probably meant to say
+Dr. Thomson, as Mariya, daughter of Yakob Agha, was first placed in his
+family by her father in 1834.) The girls taught in the different
+missionaries' families were Raheel, Salome, Hanne, Khozma, Lulu, Kefa,
+and Susan Haddad. Schools were taught in the mountains, and instruction
+given to the women, and meetings held with them as the ladies had
+strength and opportunity, at their different summer residences. The day
+scholars were taught in Arabic, and the boarding scholars in Arabic and
+English. I taught them Colburn's Arithmetic. I taught also written
+arithmetic, reading, etc., in the boys' school."
+
+In 1841, war broke out between the Druzes and Maronites, and the nine
+schools of the Mission, including the Male Seminary of 31 pupils, the
+Girls' School of 25 pupils, and the Druze High School in Deir el Kamr,
+were broken up.
+
+In 1842, the schools were resumed. In twelve schools were 279 pupils, of
+whom 52 were girls, and twelve young girls were living as boarders in
+mission families.
+
+In 1843, there were thirteen schools with 438 pupils, and eleven young
+girls in mission families.
+
+During the year 1844, 186 persons were publicly recognized as
+Protestants in Hasbeiya. Fifteen women attended a daily afternoon
+prayer-meeting, and expressed great surprise and delight at the thought
+that religion was a thing in which _women_ had a share! A fiery
+persecution was commenced against the Protestants, who all fled to Abeih
+in Lebanon. On their return they were attacked and stoned in the
+streets, and Deacon Fuaz was severely wounded.
+
+In 1845, Lebanon was again desolated with civil war, the schools were
+suspended, and the instruction of 182 girls and 424 boys interrupted for
+a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MRS. WHITING'S SCHOOL.
+
+
+In 1846, Mrs. Whiting commenced a girls' day-school in her family at
+Abeih, and in Beirūt there were four schools for boys and girls
+together, and one school for girls alone. In 18 Mission schools there
+were 144 girls and 384 boys. This girls' school in Abeih in 1846 was
+taught by Salome (Mrs. Wortabet) and Hanne, (Mrs. Reichardt,) the two
+oldest girls in Mr. Whiting's family. It was impossible to begin the
+school before August 1st, as the houses of the village which had been
+burned in the war of the preceding year had not been rebuilt, and
+suitable accommodations could not readily be found. During the summer
+there were twelve pupils, and in the fall twenty-five, from the Druze,
+Maronite, Greek Catholic and Greek sects, and the greatest freedom was
+used in giving instruction in the Bible and the Assembly's and Watts'
+Catechisms. A portion of every day was spent in giving especial
+religious instruction, and on the Sabbath a part of the pupils were
+gathered into the Sabbath School. During the fall a room was erected on
+the Mission premises for the girls' school, at an expense of 100
+dollars.
+
+The following letter from Mrs. Whiting needs no introduction. It bears a
+melancholy interest from the fact that the beloved writer died shortly
+afterwards, at Newark, N.J., May 18th, 1873.
+
+"My first introduction to the women of Syria was by Mrs. Bird, mother of
+Rev. Wm. Bird and Mrs. Van Lennep. She was then in the midst of her
+little family of four children. I daily found her in her nursery,
+surrounded by native women who came to her in great numbers, often with
+their sick children. They were always received with the greatest
+kindness and ministered to. She might be seen giving a warm bath to a
+sick child, or waiting and watching the effect of other remedies.
+Mothers from the neighboring villages of Lebanon were allowed to bring
+their sick children and remain for days in her house until relief was
+obtained. She was soon known throughout Beirūt and these villages as the
+friend of the suffering, and I have ever thought that by these Christian
+self-denying labors, she did much towards gaining the confidence of the
+people. And who shall say that while good Father Bird was in his study
+library among the 'Popes and Fathers,' preparing his controversial work
+'The Thirteen Letters,' this dear sister, by her efforts, was not making
+a way to the hearts of these people for the reception of gospel truth,
+which has since been preached so successfully in the neighboring
+villages of Lebanon?
+
+"In the autumn of 1834, Mr. Whiting was removed to the Jerusalem
+station. I found the women accessible and ready to visit me, and invite
+me to their houses, but unwilling to place their girls under my
+instruction. All my efforts for some time were fruitless. Under date of
+Aug. 22, I find this entry in Mr. Whiting's journal: "During the past
+week, three little Moslem girls have been placed under Mrs. Whiting's
+instruction for the purpose of learning to read and sew. They seem much
+pleased with their new employment, and their parents, who are
+respectable Moslems, express great satisfaction in the prospect of their
+learning. They say, in the Oriental style that the children are no
+longer theirs, but ours, and that they shall remain with us and learn
+everything we think proper to teach them. This event excited much talk
+in the city, particularly among the Moslem mothers. The number of
+scholars, chiefly Moslem girls, increased to twenty-five and thirty."
+
+At a later date, Jan., 1836, "one of the girls in Mrs. Whiting's school,
+came with a complaint against a Jew who had been attempting to frighten
+her away from the school by telling her and her uncle (her guardian)
+that her teacher certainly had some evil design, and no doubt intended
+to select the finest of the girls, and send them away to the Pasha, and
+that it was even written so in the books which she was teaching the
+children to read. Whether the Jew has been set up by others to tell the
+people this absurd nonsense, I cannot say, but certainly it is a new
+thing for Jews to make any opposition, or to show any hostility to us.
+And this looks very much like the evil influence which has been
+attempted in another quarter."
+
+"March 7. Yesterday Mrs. W. commenced a Sunday school for the pupils of
+her day school. They were much delighted. They began to learn the
+Sermon on the Mount."
+
+"Sept. 7. Had a visit from two Sheikhs of the Mosque of David. One of
+them inquired particularly respecting Mrs. Whiting's school for Moslem
+girls, and wished to know what she taught them to read. I showed him the
+little spelling-book which we use, with which he was much pleased and
+begged me to lend it to him. I gave him one, with a copy of the Psalms,
+which he wished to compare with the Psalms of David as the Moslems have
+them. He invited me strongly to come and visit him, and to bring Mrs.
+Whiting to see his family."
+
+The school continued with little interruption until October 3d, when
+Miss Tilden arrived and had the charge of the school for nearly two
+years. I left in feeble health, with Mr. Whiting, for the United States,
+where we spent more than one year. Miss Tilden during our absence was
+engaged in teaching in the boys' school in Beirūt. On my return the
+Moslem school was not resumed, and soon after Mr. Whiting was again
+transferred to the Abeih station.
+
+My work in the family school began in October, 1835, when Salome Carabet
+and Hanne Wortabet were placed by their parents in our family school. We
+afterwards added to the number Melita Carabet, and the two orphan girls
+Sada and Rufka Gregory. These two were brought to us in a very
+providential way. They were the children of Yakob Gregory, a respectable
+Armenian well known in Beirūt.
+
+He had two children, and when these were quite young, he left his wife,
+and nothing was heard of him afterwards. The mother died soon after and
+left the children in the care of the American Mission and the Armenian
+Bishop. The old grandmother, who was in Aleppo, on hearing of her death,
+soon returned to Beirūt to look after the children. She was allowed to
+visit them in the Bishop's family, where they were cared for, and one
+day, in a stealthy way, she took Sada into the city, placed her in the
+hands of a Jew, on board of a native boat bound for Jaffa. I suppose
+Sada was then about six years old. They set sail. The child cried
+bitterly on finding her grandmother was not on board as she had
+promised. There was on board the boat an Armenian, well acquainted with
+her father, who inquired of her the cause. On hearing her story he
+remonstrated, with the Jew, who said she had been placed in his hands by
+her grandmother to be sent to Jerusalem. On their arriving at Jaffa, the
+affair was made known to Mr. Murad, the American Consul. He sent for the
+Jew, took the child from his hands, and dismissed him, and wrote to Mr.
+Whiting in Jerusalem an account of the affair, and was directed by him
+to send the child to us. Not long after, her grandmother came to
+Jerusalem bringing Rufka. She tried to interest the Armenian Convent in
+her behalf. Here I find an extract from Mr. Whiting's journal, which
+will give you all of interest on this point. "After being out much of
+the morning, I returned and found the grandmother of little Sada, who
+had brought her little sister Rufka to leave her with us. She had a
+quarrel with the convent, and fled for refuge to us. We cannot but be
+thankful that both these little orphans are at length quietly placed
+under our care and instruction."
+
+The parents of three of the girls in our family, being Protestants,
+always gave their sanction to our mode of instructing and training them.
+Bishop Carabet likewise aided us in every way in his power, and ever
+seemed most grateful for what I was doing for his daughters. In his last
+sickness, when enfeebled by age, I often visited him. Once on going into
+his room, he was seated as usual on his Turkish rug. One of the family
+rose to offer me a chair, I said, "let me sit near you on your rug, that
+I may talk to you." With much emotion he replied, "_Inshullah tukodee
+jenb il Messiah fe melakoot is sema!_" "God grant that you may sit by
+the side of Christ in the kingdom of Heaven!"
+
+We were from time to time encouraged by tokens of a work of God's Spirit
+in their hearts. Melita Carabet was the first to indulge a hope in
+Christ, and united with the Church in Abeih. Salome united in Beirūt;
+Hanne in Hasbeiya, where her brother, Rev. John Wortabet, was pastor.
+Sada was received by Mr. Calhoun at Abeih, soon after Mr. Whiting's
+death, and Rufka in later years united with the United Presbyterian
+Church in Alexandria, Egypt. I have ever thought these girls were under
+great obligations to the American Churches and the American Mission, who
+for so many years supported and instructed them, and I have ever tried
+to impress upon them a sense of their obligation to impart to others of
+their countrywomen what they had received. I believe as early as 1836,
+they began assisting me in the Moslem school for girls in Jerusalem, in
+which they continued to assist Miss Tilden until the school was given
+up.
+
+Soon after our removal to Abeih, October, 1844, we established a
+day-school for girls in the village on the Mission premises, of which
+Salome and Hanne had the entire charge under my superintendence. When
+the Station at Mosul was established, Salome was appointed by the
+Mission to assist Mrs. Williams in her work among the women, in which
+work she continued until her marriage with Rev. John Wortabet. Melita
+was afterwards appointed by the Mission to the Aleppo Station to assist
+Mrs. Eddy and Mrs. Ford in the work, and so they were employed at
+various stations in the work of teaching, until I left the Mission. I
+have kept up a continual correspondence with them, and have learned from
+others to my joy, that they were doing the work for which I had trained
+them."
+
+The above deeply interesting letter from Mrs. Whiting is enough in
+itself to show what an amount of patient Christian labor was expended
+through a course of many years, in the education of the five young
+Syrian maidens who were entrusted in the providence of God to her care.
+I have been personally acquainted with four of them for seventeen years,
+and can testify, as can many others, of the good use they have made of
+their high opportunities. The amount of good they have accomplished as
+teachers, in Abeih, Jerusalem, Deir el Komr, Hasbeiya, Tripoli, Aleppo,
+Mosul, Alexandria, Cairo, Melbourne, (Australia,) and in the Mission
+Female Seminary and the Prussian Deaconesses' Institute in Beirūt, will
+never be known until all things are revealed. I have received letters
+from several of them, which I will give in their own language, as they
+are written in English. The first is from Salome, now the wife of the
+Rev. Prof. John Wortabet, M.D., of the Syrian Protestant College in
+Beirūt.
+
+"I do not consider my history worth recording, and it is only out of
+consideration of what is due to Mrs. Whiting for the labor she bestowed
+upon us, that I am induced to take up my pen to comply with your
+request. I was taken by Mrs. Whiting when only six years old, together
+with Hannie Wortabet, who was five years old, to be brought up in her
+family, she having no children of her own. Owing partly to the nature of
+the religious instruction we received, and partly to my own timid
+sensitive nature, I was, from time to time for many years, under deep
+spiritual terrors, without any saving result. When I was about sixteen,
+a revival of religion took place, under whose influence I was also
+brought. Mr. Calhoun was my spiritual adviser, and although my mind
+groped in darkness, and bordered on despair for many weeks, I hope I was
+then led to put my trust in Jesus, and if ever I am saved, my only hope
+now is, and ever shall be, in the merits of Jesus' blood and His
+promises."
+
+The next letter is from Melita Carabet, daughter of the Armenian Bishop
+Dionysius Carabet, who became a Protestant in 1823. She writes as
+follows:
+
+"Nothing could give me more pleasure than to comply with your request,
+and thereby recall some of the happy days and incidents of my childhood
+and youth, spent under the roof of my godly teachers, Mr. and Mrs.
+Whiting. I ought to remember them as far back as at the baptismal font,
+for I heard afterwards that they were both present on the occasion,
+which took place in Malta, where I was born. But as my memory does not
+carry me back so far, I must date my recollections from the time I was
+five years of age, when I came to live in their family. I can distinctly
+recollect the first texts of Scripture and verses of hymns that dear
+Mrs. Whiting taught my young lips to repeat, and my little prayer which
+I used to say at her knees on going to bed, I still repeat to this day,
+"Now I lay me," etc. One incident which happened about a year later, was
+so deeply impressed on my memory, and had such an effect upon me at the
+time, that I must mention it. It was this. Mrs. Whiting had given us
+girls (we were five in number, my sister Salome, and Hannie, Dr.
+Wortabet's sister, and Sada and Rufka Gregory) some raisins to pick over
+preparatory to making cake. I stole an opportunity after a while, to
+slip about a dozen of these raisins into my pocket. No one saw me do it
+but from the moment I had done it, I began to feel very unhappy, and
+repented the deed. My companions went out to play, but I could not join
+in their sports. My heart was too heavy. I sat mourning over my sin, and
+could eat no supper, and had no rest until I had made a full confession
+to Mrs. Whiting at bed-time. She prayed and wept over me, and somehow I
+was comforted and went to my little bed much happier.
+
+"I remember nothing more until a much later period, when I was about the
+age of twelve. About this time, there was a great awakening among the
+young girls in some of the Mission families. Mr. Calhoun's prayers and
+advice were very much solicited and sought, in guiding and praying with
+the young inquirers. One Sunday as I was reading the little tract "The
+Blacksmith's wife," (which I have kept to this day,) I felt a great
+weight and sense of sin. I trace my conversion to the reading of this
+tract. It was not long before I found peace. I have often since longed
+for those days and hours of sweet communion with my Saviour. I joined
+the Church a very short time after this, and at this early age was given
+charge of a Bible class in Abeih.
+
+"Now I must pass over a few more years, when I went to Hasbeiya, to
+spend a little time with my sister Salome, now wife of Dr. John
+Wortabet, who was appointed pastor of the little Protestant Church
+there. I spent one year of my life here, during which time I took charge
+of a little day school for girls in my sister's house. Dr. Wortabet's
+sister Hannie had opened this school some years before I came. I do not
+remember the number of pupils, but there were five little Moslem
+princesses, grandchildren of the great Emir "Saad-ed-Deen," who was
+called some years later to Constantinople to be punished for having
+spoken disrespectfully of Queen Victoria. These little princesses were
+regular attendants at the school, and learned to read in the New
+Testament, and studied Watts' Catechism with the rest of the Christian
+children. I had also charge of a Bible class for women, who used to meet
+once a week in the Protestant Church. This was before the massacre of
+1860. The rest of my life has been spent in teaching in Beirūt. Since
+the massacres, I have been teaching the orphans in the Prussian School,
+where I at present reside. Indeed it has been my home ever since I
+undertook this work which I love dearly, and which I hope to continue so
+long as the Lord sees fit, and gives me strength to work for Him."
+
+I am permitted to make the following extract from a letter written by
+Melita to Mrs. Whiting, in February, 1868. I give the exact language, as
+the letter is written in English:
+
+                                         Prussian Institution, Beirūt,
+                                                  _February 23, 1868_.
+
+     My Dear Mrs. Whiting--
+
+     It is so cold this morning that I can with difficulty hold my pen.
+     It has been a very cold and stormy month, and there seems no
+     prospect of fair weather yet. The snow on the mountains is as low
+     as the lowest hills, and I pity the poor creatures who must be
+     suffering in consequence. J. enjoys the weather very much; indeed
+     he seems so exhilarated and invigorated by it that one could almost
+     wish it to last on his account, but I must say that I wish it was
+     over, and the warm sunbeams shedding their genial rays again upon
+     the cold frozen earth.
+
+     Trouble and grief are such a common complaint at present that you
+     will not be surprised to hear me relate my share of them. I have
+     indeed had my full share, and you would say so too had you seen how
+     I was occupied during my holidays last summer, in taking care of my
+     ill and suffering brother. And aside from my fatigue, for I was
+     always on my feet until two or three hours after midnight, quite
+     alone with him--merely to witness such indescribable suffering as
+     he went through, was more than is generally allotted to human
+     beings on earth. He had been unwell for some time previous, and had
+     been advised by the Doctor to go up to the mountains, so Mr.
+     Calhoun kindly offered him a place in the Seminary, where he could
+     stop until his health was recruited, and in the meantime give a
+     couple of English lessons during the day to the boys in the
+     Seminary. He lodged with the Theological students in a little room
+     above the school, but he had not been up there more than a week,
+     when his whole body became suddenly covered with a burning eruption
+     that was always spreading and increasing in size. He could neither
+     lie nor sit in any possible position, and was racked with pains
+     that seemed at times well nigh driving him mad. I trembled for his
+     reason, and was so awed and terrified by the sight, that I was in
+     danger of losing mine as well. No one would come near him, and Mrs.
+     Calhoun had kindly asked me to come and spend the holidays with
+     them, so it fell to my lot to nurse and take care of him. I used to
+     go to him in the morning as soon as I got up, and sit (or stand) up
+     with him until two or three o'clock at night, dressing his sores;
+     running down only occasionally for my meals, and with my little
+     lantern coming down in the dead of night, all alone, to lay my
+     weary head and aching heart and limbs on my bed for a little rest.
+     But not to sleep, for whenever I closed my eyes, I had that eternal
+     picture and scene of suffering before me. I could find no one who
+     was willing for love or for money to help me or relieve me for one
+     night or day. The disease was so offensive as well as frightful,
+     that no one could stop in the room. One of the Prussian "Sisters"
+     who went up with me, kindly assisted me sometimes until she came
+     down. In this state did J. find me on his return from England. His
+     family was up in Aaleih, and he used to ride over occasionally to
+     see P. and prescribe some new medicine for him, but his skill was
+     baffled with this terrifying disease, and poor P. remained in this
+     agonizing state of suffering for five whole months without leaving
+     his bed. He was carried down on a litter to Beirūt, where he has
+     been since. He took a little room by himself, and gives lessons in
+     English until something more prosperous turns up for him. Twenty
+     years' experience seemed to be added to my life in those three
+     months of anxiety I went through last summer; and what a picture of
+     suffering and grief was I, after this, myself. No wonder if I feel
+     entirely used up this winter, and feel it a great effort to live.
+
+     There is not the slightest prospect of my ever getting back my lost
+     property from that man--as he has long since left the country, and
+     is said to be a great scoundrel and a very dishonorable man. If he
+     were not, he would never have risked the earnings of a poor orphan
+     girl by asking for it on the eve of his bankruptcy. Had I my
+     property I might perhaps have given up teaching for a while, and
+     gone away for a little change and rest, but God has willed it
+     otherwise, no doubt for some wise purpose, and to some wise end,
+     although so difficult and incomprehensible at present. It is all
+     doubtless for the trial of my faith and trust in Him. Let me then
+     trust in Him! Yea, though He slay me, let me yet trust in Him! Has
+     He ever yet failed me? Has He not proved Himself in all ages to be
+     the Father and the God of the orphan and the widow? He must see
+     that I need these troubles and sorrows, or He would not send them,
+     for my Father's hand would never cause his child a needless tear. A
+     bruised reed He will not break, but will temper the storm to the
+     shorn lamb; I will then no longer be dejected and cast down, but
+     look upward and trust in my Heavenly Father, feeling sure that He
+     will make all right in the end.
+
+     My letter is so sad and melancholy that I cannot let it go without
+     something more cheerful, so I will add a line to brighten and cheer
+     it up a little. For life, with all the bitterness it contains, has
+     also much that is agreeable and affords much enjoyment; for there
+     is a wonderful elasticity in the human mind which enables it, when
+     sanctified by divine grace, to bear up under present ills. So with
+     all my griefs and ills, I have been able to enjoy myself too
+     sometimes this winter. I have lately attended two Concerts, one
+     here, given by the Prussian Sisters, for the benefit of the new
+     Orphanage, "Talitha Kumi," at Jerusalem, lately erected by the
+     Prussian Sisters there--and one given by the "Sisters of Charity,"
+     for the benefit of the orphans and poor of this town. Daood Pasha
+     most generously gave up the large hall in his mansion for the
+     occasion, as well as honoring it by his attendance. The Concert in
+     our Institution was entirely musical, vocal and instrumental. All
+     the Missionaries came. We had nearly three hundred tickets sold at
+     five francs apiece, so that there was a nice little sum added to
+     the Orphan's Fund at Jerusalem.
+
+                    Ever your affectionate
+
+                                                  Melita.
+
+Saada Gregory was engaged in teaching at different times in Tripoli,
+Aleppo, Hasbeiya and Egypt. Her school in Tripoli was eminently
+successful, and her labors in Alexandria were characterized by great
+energy and perseverance. She kept up a large school even when suffering
+from great bodily pain. She is now in the United States in enfeebled
+health.
+
+                                  American Mission House, Alexandria,
+                                                  _November 8, 1867_.
+
+     My Dear Mrs. Whiting,
+
+     I know you will be expecting a letter from me soon, partly in
+     answer to yours sent by Mrs. Van Dyck, and especially because it is
+     the day on which you expect all your children to remember you. I
+     never do forget this day, but this time there are special reasons
+     for my remembering it. Whenever the day has come around, I have
+     felt more forcibly than at others, how utterly alone I have been,
+     for since dear Mr. Whiting was taken away from us, it has seemed as
+     though we were made doubly orphans, but this time it has not been
+     so. I think I have been made to realize that I have a loving Father
+     in heaven who loves and watches over and cares for me more than
+     ever you or Mr. Whiting did. I do really feel now that God has
+     given me friends, so this day has not been so sad a one to me as it
+     usually is. Another source of thankfulness to-day is, that I have
+     been raised up from a bed of pain and suffering from which neither
+     I nor any of my friends thought I ever would rise. Weary days and
+     nights of pain, when it was torture to move and almost impossible
+     to lie still, and when it seemed at times that death would be only
+     a relief, and yet here I am still living to praise Him for many,
+     many mercies. Mr. Pinkerton waited on me day and night, often
+     depriving himself of sleep and rest in order to do it, and when
+     convalescence set in, and with the restlessness of a sick person, I
+     used to fancy I would be more comfortable up stairs, he used to
+     carry me up and down and gratify all my whims. For five weeks I was
+     in bed, and many more confined to my room and the house. But the
+     greatest reason for thankfulness is, that God has in His great
+     mercy brought me to a knowledge of Himself, and of my own lost
+     state as a guilty sinner. It was while lying those long weary days
+     on the bed that I was made to see that for ten long years I had
+     been deceiving myself. Instead of being a Christian and being
+     prepared to die, I was still in the gall of bitterness and the
+     bonds of iniquity, and if God had taken me away during that
+     sickness, it would have been with a lie in my right hand. Now when
+     I look back on those long years spent in sin and in self-deception,
+     I wonder at God's loving kindness and patience in sparing me still
+     to show forth in me His goodness and forbearance. Truly it is of
+     His mercies that I was not consumed. How often I taught others and
+     talked to them of the love of Christ, and yet I had not that love
+     myself. How many times I sat down to His table with his children,
+     and yet I had no portion nor lot in the matter. Sometimes when I
+     think how near destruction I was, with literally but a step between
+     me and death, eternal death, and yet God raised me up and brought
+     me to Christ and made me love Him, and how ever since He has been
+     watching over me giving me the measure of comfort and peace that I
+     enjoy and giving me the desire to know and love Him more, I wonder
+     at my own coldness, at the frequency with which I forget Him. How
+     strong sin still is over me, how prone I am to wander away from
+     Christ and to forget His love, to allow sin to come between me and
+     Him, and yet He still follows me with His love, still He brings me
+     back to Him, the good Shepherd. Oh! if I could live nearer Christ,
+     if I could realize and rejoice in His love. Now when I think how
+     near I may be to the eternal world, that at any moment a severe
+     attack of pain may come on which will carry me off, it is good to
+     know that my Saviour will be with me; that He is mine and I am His.
+     It is not easy to look death calmly in the face and know that my
+     days are numbered, yet can I not participate in the promise that He
+     Himself will come and take me to be with Him where He is. I would
+     like to be allowed to live longer and be permitted to bring souls
+     to Christ, but I feel assured that He will do what is best, and
+     that He will not call me away as long as He has any work for me to
+     do here I have a feeling that this will be my last letter to you,
+     and I now take the opportunity of thanking you for all you have
+     done for me, for all the care you bestowed on me, the prayers you
+     have offered for me, and the kind thoughtfulness you still manifest
+     for my welfare. It would be a comfort to me if I could see and talk
+     with you once more, but I fear that will never be in this world,
+     but shall we not meet in our Saviour's presence, purified,
+     justified and sanctified through His blood? With truest love and
+     gratitude
+
+                    I remain yours,
+
+                                                  Saada.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+DR. DE FOREST'S WORK IN BEIRUT.
+
+
+In 1847, Dr. and Mrs. De Forest commenced their work of female
+education, receiving two young women into their family. In 13 Mission
+schools there were 163 girls and 462 boys. During the year 1847, six
+schools were in operation in connection with the Beirūt Station. One in
+the Mesaitebe with 32 pupils, of whom 10 were girls. This school was
+promising and 15 of the pupils could read in the Bible. Another was in
+the Ashrafiyeh, with 50 pupils, of whom 12 were girls. Nineteen in this
+school could read in the Bible. Another was on the Mission premises with
+seventy pupils. Another school, south of the Mission premises, had 60
+pupils, of whom 15 were girls. In addition to these was the Female
+School with thirty girls, taught by Raheel.
+
+In 1848, on the organization of the first Evangelical Church, nineteen
+members were received, of whom four were women. Dr. De Forest had seven
+native girls in his family, and there were fifty-five girls in other
+schools.
+
+In 1849, Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. De Forest visited Hasbeiya to labor among
+the women, by whom they were received with great cordiality. The girls'
+school of that time was regularly maintained and well attended. Dr. De
+Forest had thirteen native girls boarders in his family in Beirūt, and
+Mr. Whiting had five.
+
+In the Annual Report of the Beirūt Station for 1850, it is stated that
+"a more prayerful spirit prevails among the brethren and sisters. One
+pleasing evidence of this is the recent establishment of a weekly female
+prayer-meeting, which is attended by all the female members of the
+Church. Yet it is somewhat remarkable that in our little Church there is
+so small a proportion of females. Unhappily, only one of our native
+brethren is blessed with a pious wife. Some of them are surrounded with
+relatives and friends whose influence is such as to hinder rather than
+help them in their Christian course, and in the religious training of
+their children."
+
+This difficulty still exists in all parts of the Protestant community,
+not only in Syria, but throughout the Turkish Empire, and probably
+throughout the missionary world. The young men of the Protestant
+Churches at the present time endeavor to avoid this source of trial and
+embarrassment by marrying only within the Protestant community, and the
+rapid growth of female education in these days gives promise that the
+time is near when the mothers in Syria will be in no respect behind the
+fathers in either virtue or intelligence. The Beirūt Church now numbers
+107 members, of whom 57 are men and 50 are women.
+
+In 1851, Miss Anna L. Whittlesey arrived in Beirūt as an assistant to
+Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and died in a year less one day after her
+arrival, beloved and lamented by all. In July of that year five of the
+women in Hasbeiya united with the Church.
+
+In 1852 and 1853 the Female Seminary in Beirūt reached a high degree of
+prosperity, and the girls' schools in different parts of the land were
+well attended. Miss Cheney arrived from America to supply Miss
+Whittlesey's place.
+
+In 1854, Dr. De Forest was obliged from failing health, to relinquish
+his work and return to the United States. A nobler man never lived. As a
+physician he was widely known and universally beloved, and as a teacher
+and preacher he exerted a lasting influence. The good wrought by that
+saintly man in Syria will never be fully known in this world. The lovely
+Christian families in Syria, whose mothers were trained by him and his
+wife, will be his monuments for generations to come. It is a common
+remark in Syria, that the great majority of all Dr. De Forest's pupils
+have turned out well.
+
+I have not been able to find the official reports with regard to the
+Female Seminary of Dr. De Forest in Beirūt for the years 1847, 1848, and
+1849, but from the Reports made by Dr. De Forest himself for the years
+1850, 1852 and 1853, I make the following extracts:
+
+In 1850, the Doctor writes: "The Seminary now has seventeen pupils
+including two, Khozma and Lulu, who act as teachers. The older class
+have continued to study the Sacred Scriptures as a daily lesson, and
+have nearly finished the Old Testament. They have studied a brief
+Compend of History in Arabic, and have continued Arithmetic and English.
+Compositions have been required of them weekly in Arabic until last
+autumn, when they began to write alternately in English and Arabic. A
+brief course of Astronomy was commenced, illustrated by Mattison's maps,
+given by Fisher Howe, Esq., of Brooklyn, N.Y.
+
+"Recently the pupils have been invited to spend every second Sabbath
+evening with the other members of the family in conversation respecting
+some missionary field which has been designated previously. The large
+missionary map is hung in the sitting-room, and all are asked in turn to
+give some fact respecting the field in question. Even the youngest, who
+have not yet learned to read with facility in their own language,
+furnish their mite of information.
+
+"The instruction in this school has been given by Dr. and Mrs. De
+Forest, aided by Mrs. De Forest's parents and the two elder pupils who
+have rendered such efficient aid heretofore. The pupils of all the
+classes have made good progress in their various studies, and their
+deportment has been satisfactory. They are gaining mental discipline and
+intellectual furniture, and have acquired much evangelical knowledge.
+Deep seriousness has been observed on the part of some of the elder
+pupils at different times, and they give marked and earnest attention to
+the preached word.
+
+"In our labors for the reconstruction of society here, we feel more and
+more the absolute need of a sanctified and enlightened female influence;
+such an influence as is felt so extensively in America, and whose
+beneficent action is seen in the proper training of children, and in the
+expulsion of a thousand superstitions from the land. Christian schools
+seem the most evident means of securing such an end. Commerce and
+intercourse with foreigners, and many other causes are co-operating with
+missionary effort to enlighten the _men_ of Beirūt and its vicinity, but
+the women, far more isolated than in America, are scarcely affected by
+any of these causes, and they hinder materially the moral elevation of
+the other sex. Often the man who seems full of intelligence and
+enterprise and mental enlargement when abroad, is found when at home to
+be a mere superstitious child; the prophecy that his mother taught him
+being still the religion of his home, and the heathenish maxims and
+narrow prejudices into which he was early indoctrinated still ruling the
+house. The inquirer after truth is seduced back to error by the many
+snares of unsanctified and ignorant companionship, and the convert who
+did run well is hindered by the benighted stubbornness to which he is
+unequally yoked.
+
+"While exerting this deleterious influence over their husbands and
+children, the females of the land have but little opportunity for
+personal improvement, and are not very promising subjects of missionary
+labor. His faith must be strong who can labor with hope for the
+conversion of women, with whom the customs of society prohibit freedom
+of intercourse, and who have not learning enough to read a book, or
+vocabulary enough to understand a sermon, or mental discipline enough to
+follow continuous discourse."
+
+In the Report for 1852, Dr. De Forest writes: "At the date of our last
+Annual Report, Miss Whittlesey was in good health, was rapidly acquiring
+the Arabic, and was zealously pressing on in her chosen work, with
+well-trained intellect, steady purpose and lively hope. But God soon
+called her away, and she departed in "hope of eternal life which God
+that cannot lie promised before the world began." The Female Boarding
+School has suffered much from the loss of its Principal, but the same
+course of study has been pursued as before, though necessarily with less
+efficiency. One of the assistant pupils, (Lulu,) who has been relied
+upon for much of the teaching, and superintendence of the scholars, was
+married last autumn to the senior tutor of the Abeih Seminary. The
+number of pupils now in the school is fifteen. The communication of
+Biblical and religious knowledge has been a main object of this school.
+All the pupils, as a daily lesson, study the Assembly's Shorter
+Catechism, first in Arabic with proof-texts, and afterwards in English
+with Baker's Explanatory Questions and Scripture proofs, and they are
+taught a brief Historical Catechism of the Old and New Testaments. The
+first of proper school hours every day is occupied with the Scriptures
+by all the school. The Epistles to the Hebrews and the Romans formed
+the subject of these lessons until the autumn, when Mr. Calhoun's
+revised edition of the "Companion to the Bible" was adopted as a
+text-book, and the Old Testament has been studied in connection with
+that work. The pupils all attend the service at the Mission Chapel, and
+have lessons appropriate to the Sabbath in the intervals of worship.
+
+"The evening family worship is in Arabic, and is a familiar Bible Class.
+All the pupils are present, and not unfrequently some of their relatives
+and other strangers. In addition to this religious instruction, the
+several classes have studied the Arabic and English languages, some of
+them writing in both, geography and history, arithmetic mental and
+higher, astronomy, and some of the simple works on natural philosophy
+and physiology. Compositions have been required in Arabic and English.
+The lessons in drawing, commenced by Miss Whittlesey, have been
+continued under the instruction of Mrs. Smith, and plain and fancy
+needle-work have been taught as heretofore.
+
+"To those who have watched the growth of intellect, and in some
+instances, we hope, the growth of grace in these few pupils, and in the
+other female boarding scholars in some of the mission families, who have
+seen the pleasing contrast afforded by Syrian females when adorned after
+the Apostolic recommendation by good works and a "meek and quiet
+spirit," with those who cover empty heads with pearls and enrobe untidy
+persons in costly array,--who have rejoiced to see one and another
+family altar set up, where both heads of the family and the hearts of
+both unite in acknowledging God,--this branch of our labors need offer
+no further arguments to justify its efficient prosecution.
+
+"The library of the Seminary consists of 220 school books, and 148
+volumes of miscellaneous books, chiefly for the young. The school has 6
+large fine maps, and 5 of Mr. Bidwell's Missionary maps, and 16 of
+Mattison's astronomical maps. These maps were the gifts of Mrs. Dr.
+Burgess and of Fisher Howe, Esq. The school has a pair of globes, one
+Season's machine, one orrery, a pair of gasometers, a spirit-lamp and
+retort stand, a centre of gravity apparatus, a capillary attraction
+apparatus, a galvanic trough, a circular battery, an electromagnet, a
+horse shoe magnet, a revolving magnet, a wire coil and hemispheric
+helices, and an electric shocking machine."
+
+The report of the Female Seminary for 1853 is written in the handwriting
+of Mrs. De Forest, owing to the increasing infirmity of Dr. De Forest's
+health, and this report has a sad interest from its being the last one
+ever dictated by Dr. De Forest.
+
+"A small day-school for girls has been taught by one of the pupils in
+Mrs. Whiting's family during the winter, and it is contemplated to
+continue the school hereafter in the Girl's School house on the Mission
+premises, under the instruction of a graduate of the Female Seminary.
+The demand for such instruction for girls is steadily increasing.
+
+"The teaching force of the Seminary was increased last spring by the
+arrival of Miss Cheney, who entered at once upon the duties of her
+position, devoting a portion of her time to the acquisition of Arabic,
+and a part to the instruction of some classes in English. Still, on
+account of the repeated illnesses of Dr. De Forest, it was not deemed
+advisable to receive a new class last autumn. The only girls admitted
+during the year were one of Mrs. Whiting's pupils who was transferred to
+the Seminary for one year, one of the class who graduated two years
+since, and who desired to return for another year, and Sara, the
+daughter of Mr. Butrus Bistany. These three were received into existing
+classes, while it was not deemed advisable under the circumstances to
+make up another class composed of new pupils.
+
+"The course of instruction, Biblical and other, has been much the same
+as that hitherto pursued. Miss Cheney commenced "Watts on the Mind,"
+with some of the older pupils, in English. All the pupils have had
+familiar lessons on Church History in Arabic, and some of them have
+begun an abridged work on Moral Philosophy. Much effort has been
+bestowed upon the cultivation of a taste for the reading of profitable
+books, and a number of the girls have read the whole of "D'Aubigné's
+History of the Reformation," and other history with Mrs. De Forest in
+the evening class, the atlas being always open before them. Mrs. Smith
+has given some instruction in the rudiments of drawing to a part of the
+pupils, and Mrs. Bird and Mrs. Calhoun have given lessons in vocal
+music, for which some of the pupils have considerable taste.
+
+"After completing the 'Companion to the Bible' in Arabic, the whole
+school were engaged daily in a Harmony of the Gospels, and other
+Biblical and religious instruction has been continued as heretofore. We
+have ever kept in mind the necessity of not denationalizing these Arab
+children, and we believe that this desired result has been attained. The
+long vacation of six weeks in the spring, and the same in the autumn,
+the commencement of all instruction in Arabic, and the preponderance of
+Arabic study in the school, have contributed to this result. The older
+pupils have attained to a considerable knowledge of English, giving them
+access to books suitable for girls to read, and yet Arabic is the
+language of the school, and the pupils are Syrians still in dress and
+manners. The advantages of the school are more and more appreciated in
+the city, and the adjacent mountains. Many were exceedingly earnest in
+offering their daughters last autumn, both Protestant and other, and
+some when repulsed at the Seminary, besought the mission families to
+receive their children."
+
+During the next year, the school was placed in the family of Mr. and
+Mrs. Wilson, under the charge of Miss Cheney. A class of eight
+graduated, and the pupils contributed to benevolent objects of the
+fruits of their industry, over 1200 piastres, or about fifty dollars.
+
+In a report on Education, prepared by the Syria Mission in 1855, it was
+stated, that "without entering into details in regard to the course of
+study pursued, we are happy to say that the results of Dr. De Forest's
+Seminary were very gratifying, and proved, if proof were needed, that
+there is the same capacity in the native female mind of the country that
+there is in the male, and that under proper instruction, and by the
+blessing of God, there will be brought forward a class of intelligent,
+pious and efficient female helpers in the great work of evangelizing
+this community."
+
+The hope implied in the above sentence with regard to the raising up of
+"a class of intelligent, pious and efficient female helpers," has been
+abundantly realized. The list of Dr. De Forest's pupils is to a great
+extent the list of the leading female teachers and helpers in all the
+various departments of evangelic work in Syria.
+
+Not having access to the records of the Seminary as they have been lost,
+I have obtained from several of the former pupils a list of the members
+of the various classes from 1848 to 1852. The whole number of pupils
+during that period was twenty-three. Of these two died in faith, giving
+good evidence of piety. Of the twenty-one who survive, twelve are
+members of the Evangelical Church, and nine are now or were recently
+engaged in _teaching_, although nearly twenty years have elapsed since
+they graduated. Twenty-one are at the head of families, esteemed and
+honored in the communities where they reside. The names of the whole
+class are as follows:
+
+    Ferha Jimmal, now Kowwar of Nazareth.
+    Sara Haddad, now Myers of Beirūt.
+    Sada Sabunjy, now Barakat of Beirūt.
+    Sada Haleby, of Beirūt.
+    Miriam Tabet, now Tabet of Beirūt.
+    Khushfeh Mejdelany, now Musully of Beirūt.
+    Khurma Mejdelany, now Ashy of Hasbeiya.
+    Mirta Tabet, now Suleeby of B'hamdūn.
+    Feifun Malūf, of Aramoon.
+    Katrin Roza, of Kefr Shima.
+    Mirta Suleeby, now Trabulsy of Beirūt.
+    Sara Suleeby, of Beirūt.
+    Esteer Nasif, now Aieed of Suk el Ghurb.
+    Hada Suleeby, now Shidoody of Beirūt.
+    Helloon Zazūah, now Zuraiuk of Beirūt.
+    Khushfeh Towīleh, now Mutr of Beirūt.
+    Fetneh Suleeby, now Shibly of Suk el Ghurb.
+    Akabir Barakat, now Ghubrīn of Beirūt.
+    Hamdeh Barakat, now Bū Rehan of Hasbeiya.
+    Eliza Hashem, now Khūri of Beirūt.
+    Rufka Haddad, (deceased).
+    Sara Bistany, (deceased).
+    Durra Schemail, of Kefr Shima.
+
+Two of the most successful of those engaged in teaching, are now
+connected with the British Syrian Schools. They are Sada Barakat and
+Sada el Haleby. The former has written me a letter in English in regard
+to her own history and religious experience, which I take the liberty
+to transcribe here verbatim in her own language. She was one of the
+_least_ religious of all the pupils in the school, when she was first
+received but the work of conviction and conversion was a thorough one,
+and she has been enabled by the grace of God to offer constant and most
+efficient testimony to the reality of Christian experience, in the
+responsible position she has been called upon to fill in the late Mrs.
+Thompson's institution.
+
+                                            Suk el Ghurb, Mt. Lebanon,
+                                                  _September 3, 1872_.
+
+     Dear Sir--I am thankful to say, in reply to your inquiry,
+     that I was not persecuted when I became a Protestant, like my other
+     native sisters were when they became Protestants, because I was
+     very young. I was about four years old when my father died, and a
+     year after, my mother married a Protestant man. I came to live with
+     my mother in her new home, with my two brothers. It was very hard
+     to lose a dear loving father who loved his children so much as my
+     mother tells me he did. But the Lord does everything right, because
+     if the Lord had not taken my father away from us I should not have
+     known the true religion. I lived in my step-father's house till I
+     was twelve years old. I was then placed in Dr. De Forest's school,
+     in the year 1848. I stayed there four years. I was not clever at my
+     studies, and especially the English language was very difficult for
+     me. Even until now I remember a lesson in English which was so hard
+     for me that I was punished twice for it, and I could not learn it.
+     Now it will make me laugh to think of these few words, which I
+     could not translate into Arabic: "The hen is in the yard." My mind
+     was more at play than at learning. I was very clever at housework,
+     and at dressing dolls, and was always the leader in all games. From
+     that you can see that I was not a very good girl at school. After
+     the two first years I began to think how nice it would be to become
+     a real Christian like my dear teacher Dr. De Forest. Then I used to
+     pray, and read, especially the "Pilgrim's Progress," and my mind
+     was so busy at it that I used sometimes to leave my lesson and go
+     and sit alone in my room. Nobody knew what was the matter with me,
+     but Dr. De Forest used to ask me why I did not go to school? I
+     told him that I was very troubled, and he told me to pray to God
+     very earnestly to give me a new heart. I did pray, but I did not
+     have an answer then. Three or four times during my school time I
+     began to wish to become a Christian. I prayed and was very
+     troubled. I wept and would not play, and as I got no immediate
+     answer, I left off reading and sometimes praying entirely.
+     Everybody noticed that I did not much care to read, and especially
+     a religious book. I felt that my heart had grown harder than before
+     I had wished to become a Christian. The greatest trial was that I
+     had no faith, and for that reason I used not to believe in prayer,
+     but still I longed to become a real Christian. I left school in the
+     year 1852, and went to live at home with my mother. I was taken
+     ill, and when I was ill I was very much afraid of death, for I felt
+     that God was very angry with me.
+
+     Till about two years after I left school, I had no religion at all.
+     One evening a young man from Abeih came to our house. His name is
+     Giurgius el Haddad, who is now Mr. Calhoun's cook. After a little
+     while he began to talk about religion, and to read the book,
+     "Little Henry and his Bearer." I felt very much ashamed that others
+     who did not have the opportunity to learn about religion had
+     religion, and I, who had learned so much, had none. That was the
+     blessed evening on which I began to inquire earnestly about my
+     salvation. I was three months praying and found no answer to my
+     prayers. Christian friends tried to lead me to Christ, but I could
+     not take hold of Him, till He Himself appeared to my soul in all
+     His beauty and excellency. Before I found peace Dr. Eli Smith and
+     Mr. Whiting wanted me to teach a day school for them. That was
+     about three years after I left off learning. "Oh," thought I, "how
+     can I teach others about Christ when I do not know Him myself?"
+     However I began the school by opening and closing it with prayer,
+     without any faith at all. So I began by reading from the first of
+     Matthew, till I came to the 16th chapter. When I came to that
+     chapter I read as usual, with blinded eyes; but when I came to the
+     (13th) thirteen verse, and from there to the seventeenth, where it
+     says, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath
+     not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," I
+     felt that this had been said to me, and were these words sounded
+     from heaven I would not have felt happier. How true it is that no
+     flesh could reveal unto me what God had revealed, because many
+     Christian friends tried to make me believe, but I could not, I
+     felt as if everything had become new and beautiful, because my
+     Heavenly Father had made them all. I was sometimes with faith and
+     sometimes doubting, and by these changes my faith was strengthened.
+     After a short time, I asked Mr. Whiting to let me join the Church.
+     He asked me if I saw any change in myself, and I said, "One thing I
+     know, that I used to dislike Christian people, and now they are my
+     best friends." After a short time I was permitted to join the
+     Church. Then I left off teaching the day school, and was asked to
+     teach in a Boarding school with Miss Cheney, in the same Seminary
+     where I was brought up. We taught in that school only six months.
+     Miss Cheney married, and I was engaged to be married. While I was
+     engaged, I went to Mr. Bird's school for girls in Deir el Kamr, and
+     taught there for more than a year. I was married by Mr. Bird in his
+     own house to M. Yusef Barakat, and then we went to Hasbeiya. I
+     stayed there seven months and then went to Beirūt, and thence to
+     Damascus with my husband, because he had to teach there. I had
+     nothing to do there but to look after my house, my little boy, and
+     my husband.
+
+     After some time, the massacre broke out in Damascus, (July 9,
+     1860,) so we came back as refugees to Beirūt. Soon after my husband
+     was taken ill and then died. In that same year 1860, dear Mrs.
+     Bowen Thompson came to Beirūt. She felt for the widows and orphans,
+     being herself a widow. She asked me if I would come and teach a
+     school for the widows and orphans, which I accepted thankfully. We
+     opened the school with five children and seven women, and the work,
+     by God's help has prospered, so that now, instead of one school,
+     there are twenty-two schools. Until now I continue teaching in the
+     Institution, and had I known that nearly all my life would be spent
+     in teaching, I should have tried to gain more when I was a child. I
+     can forget father and mother, but can never forget those who taught
+     me, especially about religion. Although some of them are dead, yet
+     still they live by their Christian example, which they have left
+     behind. My whole life will be full of gratitude to those dear
+     Christian friends, and I pray that God himself may reward them a
+     hundred fold.
+
+                    Yours respectfully,
+
+                                                  Sada Barakat.
+
+In the year 1851 the Missionary Sewing Society of the Beirūt Female
+Seminary heard of the interesting state of things in Aintab, and that
+the women there were anxious to learn to read. The missionaries in
+Aintab hired an old man to go around from house to house to teach the
+women to read in their homes, but the women were so eager to learn that
+the old man was unable to meet the demand. So children were employed to
+assist. The plan worked admirably, and in 1851, eighty women received
+instruction and became able to read God's Word. The Arab girls in Mrs.
+De Forest's school were called together, and it was proposed that they
+sew and embroider and send the proceeds of their work to pay the little
+girl teachers in Aintab. There were present, Ferha, (joy,) Sara, Saada
+Sabunjy, Miriam, Khushfeh, Khurma, Mirta, (Martha) Feifun, Katrina,
+Hada, Sada el Haleby, Esteer, Helloon, Fetny, Akabir, Hamdy, and Liza.
+The needles were briskly plied, and in due time, two hundred and fifty
+piastres were collected and forwarded to Aintab. Mrs. Schneider wrote
+back thanking the "dear Arab girls." The habits of benevolence thus
+acquired have continued with the most of these girls until now. The
+greater part of them are now church-members and the heads of families.
+
+The following letter written by Mrs. De Forest in Feb. 1852, gives some
+account of Lulu Araman.
+
+                                        Beirūt, Syria, _February, 1852_.
+
+     My Dear young friends in Thetford:
+
+     The quilt you sent came safely, and I thank you much for all the
+     care and trouble you have taken to make and quilt it for me. I at
+     first thought of keeping it for myself, but then it occurred to me
+     that perhaps it might please you better and interest you more if I
+     gave it to Lulu, one of my girls, who is to be married some time
+     this year to Mr. Michaiel Araman, one of the teachers in the Abeih
+     Seminary. You will thus have the pleasure of feeling that you have
+     in one sense done something for the school, as she is an assistant
+     pupil, or pupil teacher. She has been with me now for about eight
+     years, and seems almost like my own daughter. Perhaps you will be
+     interested in knowing something of her.
+
+     She was born in a pleasant valley, Wady Shehrūr, near Beirūt,
+     celebrated for its fine oranges, and indeed for almost all kind of
+     fine fruits. She lost both her parents early in life. Her brothers
+     (contrary to the usual custom here where girls are not much
+     regarded or cared for) were very kind to her, and as she was a
+     delicate child, they took great care of her, and often used to make
+     vows to some saint in her behalf. At one time, when she was very
+     ill, they vowed to Mar Giurgis (for they are members of the Greek
+     Church, and St. George is one of the favorite saints of the Greeks,
+     and indeed of all the Christian sects here, and they still show the
+     spot where he is said to have killed the dragon) that if she
+     recovered, she should carry to one of his shrines two wax candles
+     as tall as herself and of a prescribed weight. While she was still
+     feeble they provided the candles, and as she was too weak to walk,
+     they carried her and the candles also, to the holy place and
+     presented them.
+
+     When she was eight years old, they were persuaded by an
+     acquaintance to place her in one of the Mission families. Here she
+     was instructed in her own language, and especially in the Holy
+     Scriptures. She was allowed, however, to keep her feasts and fasts,
+     and to attend her own church, until she became convinced that these
+     things would not save her and she wished to give them up. One feast
+     day the lady with whom she lived gave her some sewing and told her
+     to seat herself and do her task. She refused, saying it was a feast
+     day, and it was unlawful work. A little while after she asked
+     permission to go and visit her brother's family; but the lady told
+     her, "No, if it is unlawful to work, it is unlawful to visit. I
+     have no objection to your keeping your feast days, but if you do
+     you must keep them as holy time." So she gave her a portion of
+     Scripture to learn, and she was kept very quiet all day, as though
+     it was the Sabbath, and without the day being made agreeable to her
+     like the Sabbath by going to Church and Sabbath School. She did
+     not at all like keeping a feast in this manner, which is very
+     different from the manner in which such a day or even the Sabbath,
+     is kept in this land, and was ever after ready to work when told to
+     do so. When her brothers saw that she was beginning to give up
+     their vain ceremonies, they became anxious to get her away, lest
+     she should become a Protestant; and at one time, when she went home
+     to attend the wedding of one of her relatives, they refused to
+     allow her to return, and it was only through the good management of
+     the native friend who was sent for her, and her own determination
+     to come, that she was permitted to come back.
+
+     We hope that she became truly pious six years ago, in 1846, as her
+     life evinces that she is striving to live according to the precepts
+     of the gospel. She has never dared to go home again, although it
+     has been a great trial for her to stay away, because she knew that
+     she should be obliged to remain there, and to conform to the
+     idolatrous rites of the Greek Church. She has assisted us in the
+     School for nearly five years, besides teaching a day school at
+     various times, before the Boarding School was commenced, and we
+     shall feel very sorry to part with her. Still we hope that she will
+     yet be useful to her countrywomen, and furnish them an example of a
+     happy Christian home, of which there are so few at present in this
+     country.
+
+     Our school has now nineteen pupils, most of whom are promising.
+     Some we hope are true Christians. The girls opened their box the
+     other day, and found that they had a little more than last year
+     from their earnings. Some friends added a little, and they have now
+     forty dollars. One half they send to China, and the other half give
+     to the Church here.
+
+The hope expressed by Mrs. De Forest in 1852, with regard to the future
+usefulness of Lulu, has not been disappointed. Her family is a model
+Christian family, the home of piety and affection, the centre of a pure
+and hallowed influence. Her eldest daughter Katie, named from Mrs. De
+Forest, is now a teacher in the Beirūt Female Seminary in which her
+father has been the principal instructor in the Bible and in the higher
+Arabic branches for ten years. For years this institution was carried
+on in Lulu's house, and she was the Matron while Rufka was the
+Preceptress, and its very existence is owing to the patient and faithful
+labors of those two Christian Syrian women. If any one who reads these
+lines should doubt the utility of labors for the girls and women of the
+Arab race, let him visit first the squalid, disorderly, cheerless and
+Christless homes of the mass of the Arab villagers of Syria, and then
+enter the cheerful, tidy, well ordered home of Mr. and Mrs. Araman, when
+the family are at morning prayers, listen to the voice of prayer and
+praise and the reading of God's word. Instead of the father sitting
+gloomily alone at his morning meal, and the mother and children waiting
+till their lord is through and then eating by themselves in the usual
+Arab way, he would see the whole family seated together in a Christian,
+homelike manner, the Divine blessing asked, and the meal conducted with
+propriety and decorum. After breakfast the father and Katie go to the
+Seminary to give their morning lessons, Henry (named for Dr. De Forest)
+sets out for the College, in which he is a Sophomore, and the younger
+children go to their various schools. Lulu's place at church is rarely
+vacant, and since that "relic of barbarism" the _curtain_ which
+separated the men from the women has been removed from the building, the
+whole family, father, mother, and children sit together and join in the
+worship of God. Her brother and relatives from "Wady" are on the most
+affectionate terms with her, and her elder sister is in the domestic
+department of the Beirūt Female Seminary.
+
+This change is very largely due to the efforts of Mrs. De Forest, whose
+name with that of her sainted husband is embalmed in the memory of the
+Christian families of Syria, and will be held in everlasting
+remembrance. The _second generation_ of Christian teachers is now
+growing up in Syria. Three of Mrs. De Forest's pupils have daughters now
+engaged in teaching. Khushfeh, Lulu, and Sada el Haleby; and Miriam
+Tabet has a daughter married to Mr. S. Hallock, of the American Press in
+Beirūt.
+
+
+FRUITS OF DR. DE FOREST'S GIRL'S SCHOOL.
+
+In the autumn of 1852, there was a school of thirty girls in B'hamdūn, a
+village high up in Mt. Lebanon. Fifteen months before the teacher was
+the only female in the village who could read, and she had been taught
+by the native girls in Dr. De Forest's school. Quite a number of the
+girls of the village had there learned to read, and they all came to the
+school clean and neatly dressed. They committed to memory verses of
+Scripture, and it was surprising to see how correctly they recited them
+at the Sabbath School. At meeting they were quiet and attentive like the
+best behaved children in Christian lands. It would be difficult to sum
+up the results of that little school for girls twenty years ago in
+B'hamdūn. That village is full of gospel light. A Protestant church
+edifice is in process of erection, a native pastor, Rev. Sulleba
+Jerawan, preaches to the people, and the mass of the people have at
+least an intellectual acquaintance with the truth.
+
+The picturesque village of B'hamdūn, where Dr. De Forest's school is
+established, is on the side of a lofty mountain. It is nearly 4000 feet
+above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. The village is compact as a
+little city, the streets narrow, rocky and crooked, the houses
+flat-roofed, and the floors of mud. One of the Protestants, the father
+of Miriam Tabet, has built a fine large house with glass windows and
+paved floors, which is one of the best houses in that part of Lebanon.
+The village is surrounded by vineyards, and the grapes are regarded as
+the finest in Mt. Lebanon. The people say that they never have to dig
+for the foundation of a house, but only to sweep off the dust with a
+broom. There is not a shade tree in the village. One day Dr. De Forest
+asked, "Why don't you plant a tree?" "We shall not live till it has
+grown," was the reply. "But your children will," said the Doctor. "Let
+them plant it then," was the satisfactory answer.
+
+My first visit to B'hamdūn was made in February, 1856, a few days after
+my first arrival in Syria. On Sabbath morning I attended the Sabbath
+School with Mr. Benton, at that time a missionary of the A.B.C.F.M. One
+little girl named Katrina Subra, then nine years of age, repeated the
+Arabic Hymn "Kūmū wa Rettelū," "Awake and sing the song of Moses and the
+Lamb." She was a bright-eyed child of fair complexion and of unusual
+intelligence. At that time there was no children's hymn book in Arabic,
+and I asked Mr. B. to promise the children that when I had learned the
+Arabic, I would translate a collection of children's hymns into Arabic,
+which promise was fulfilled first in the printing of the "Douzan el
+Kethar," "The tuning of the Harp," in 1861. Katrina was the daughter of
+Elias Subra, one of the wealthiest men in the village, who had just then
+become a Protestant. She had been interested in the truth for some time,
+and though at the time only eight years old, was accustomed during the
+preceding summer to tell the Arab children that she was a Protestant,
+though they answered her with insults and cursing. At first she could
+not bear to be abused, and answered them in language more forcible than
+proper, but by the time of my visit she had become softened and subdued
+in her manner, and was never heard to speak an unkind word to any one.
+She undertook, even at that age, to teach the Greek servant girl in the
+family how to read. One day the old Greek Priest met her in the street
+and asked her why she did not go to confession as the other Greek
+children do. She replied that she could go to Christ and confess. The
+priest then said that her father and the rest of the Protestants go to
+the missionary and write out their sins on papers which he puts into rat
+holes in the wall! Katrina knew this to be a foolish falsehood and told
+the priest so. He then asked her how the Protestants confess. She
+replied that they confess as the Lord Jesus tells them to, quoting to
+him the language of Scripture, (Matt. 6:6.) "But thou when thou
+prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray
+to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret
+shall reward thee openly." The priest was confounded by the ready
+truthful answer of the child, and turned away.
+
+Three years later Katrina was a member of the Mission Female Seminary in
+Suk el Ghurb, a village three hours distant from Beirūt, under the
+instruction of Miss Temple and Miss Johnson, and continued there until
+the Seminary was broken up by the massacres of May and June, 1860. I
+remember well the day when that procession of girls and teachers rode
+and walked down from Suk el Ghurb to Beirūt. All Southern Lebanon was in
+a blaze. Twenty-five villages were burning. Druze and Maronite were in
+deadly strife. Baabda and Hadeth which we passed on our way to Beirūt,
+were a smoking ruin. Armed bodies of Druzes passed and saluted us, but
+no one offered to insult one of the girls by word or gesture. Dr. and
+Mrs. Bliss gave us lunch at their home in the Suk as we came from Abeih,
+and then followed a few days later to Beirūt. Miss Temple tried to
+re-open the school in Beirūt, but the constant tide of refugees coming
+in from the mountains, and the daily rumors of an attack by Druzes and
+Moslems on Beirūt, threw the city into a panic, and it was found
+impossible to carry on the work of instruction. The girls were sent to
+their parents where this was practicable, and the Seminary as such
+ceased for a time to exist. Katrina, was married in 1864 to M. Ghurzūzy,
+a Protestant merchant of Beirūt, who is now secular agent or Wakil of
+the Syrian Protestant College. In 1866, she united with the Evangelical
+Church in Beirūt. She has had repeated attacks of illness, in which she
+has manifested the most entire submission to the Divine will, and a calm
+and sweet trust in her Lord and Saviour. Her home is a Christian home,
+and her children are being trained in "the nurture and admonition of the
+Lord."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT.
+
+
+In 1856 Miss Cheney re-opened the Female Seminary with eight pupils, in
+Beirūt, and in the 34 schools of the Mission there were 1068 pupils, of
+whom 266 were girls.
+
+In 1857, there were 277 girls in the various schools.
+
+In 1858, Miss Temple and Miss Johnson arrived from America, and the
+Female Seminary was opened in Suk el Ghurb in the family of Rev. Dr.
+Bliss. Miss Johnson and Miss Cheney having returned to the United
+States, Miss Mason came to aid Miss Temple in February, 1860. The girl's
+school in Beirūt under the care of Rufka Gregory, had about 60 pupils.
+The civil war in Lebanon, followed by the massacres in Jezzin, Deir el
+Komr, Hasbeiya, Rasheiya and Damascus, beginning in May, and continuing
+until the middle of July, broke up all our schools and seminaries, and
+filled the land with sorrow and desolation.
+
+Miss Temple and Miss Mason remained for a season in Beirūt, studying the
+Arabic language, and in 1862 Miss Temple having returned to the U.S.A.,
+Miss Mason opened a Boarding School for girls in Sidon.
+
+It was decided that none but Protestant girls should be received into
+this school, that no English should be taught, and that the style of
+eating, sleeping and dress should be conformed as much as possible to
+the standard of native customs in the country villages, in order that
+the girls might the more readily return to their homes as teachers,
+without acquiring European tastes and habits. Miss Mason carried on this
+school until 1865, when she returned to the U.S.A., and it was decided
+if possible to carry it on with native instructors under the supervision
+of Mrs. Eddy.
+
+In the winter of 1867 it was under the kind charge of Mrs. Watson of
+Shemlan and her adopted daughter, Miss Handumeh Watson, and is now
+conducted by two English young ladies, Miss Jacombs and Miss Stanton,
+who are supported by the London "Society for the Promotion of Female
+Education in the East." On the removal of the girls' Boarding School to
+Sidon, it was evident that the Female Seminary must be re-opened in
+Beirūt. Owing to the depressed state of Missionary finances in America,
+arising from the civil war, it was deemed advisable to reorganize the
+Beirūt Seminary on a new basis, with only native teachers. The
+Providence of God had prepared teachers admirably fitted for this work,
+who undertook it with cheerful hope and patient industry. It was decided
+to make a paying Boarding School of a higher order than any existing
+institution in Syria, and to resume instruction in the English language,
+giving lessons also in French and Music to those who were willing to
+pay for these branches.
+
+Mr. Michaiel Araman, for many years a teacher in the Abeih Seminary with
+Mr. Calhoun, and for some time a native preacher in Beirūt, was
+appointed instructor in the Biblical History and the Higher Arabic
+branches; his wife Lulu, the Matron, and Miss Rufka Gregory, the
+Preceptress. Rufka was an orphan, as already stated, and was trained
+with her sister Sada in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Whiting for many
+years. As a teacher and a disciplinarian she had not an equal among the
+women of Syria, and under the joint management of this corps of
+teachers, aided by competent assistants in the various branches, the
+Seminary rose in public esteem, until it became one of the most
+attractive and prosperous institutions in Syria.
+
+In March, 1862, Rufka's day school of seventy girls held a public
+examination in the Chapel. The girls were examined in Arabic reading,
+geography, grammar, catechism, arithmetic, Scripture lessons and
+English, with an exhibition of specimens of their needle work. In the
+fall it was commenced as a Boarding School, with two paying pupils and
+four charity pupils. The funds for commencing the boarding department
+were furnished by Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Henry Farnum, Col.
+Frazer, H.B.M. Commissioner to Syria, and others. The Seminary not being
+under the direction of the Mission as such, nor in connection with the
+American Board, was placed under the care of a local Board of Managers,
+consisting of Dr. Thomson, Dr. Van Dyck, Consul J.A. Johnson, and Rev.
+H.H. Jessup. Dr. Thomson was indefatigable in his efforts to place it on
+a firm and permanent foundation, as a purely Native Protestant
+institution, and the fact that such a school could be carried on for a
+year without a single foreign instructor, was one of the most
+encouraging features in the history of the Syria Mission. It was the
+first purely native Female Seminary in Western Asia, and we hope it will
+not be the last.
+
+It will continue to be the aim of the Mission, and of the present able
+faculty of the institution, to train up Native teachers qualified to
+carry on the work in the future.
+
+At the same time in the fall of 1862, a school for Damascene girls was
+opened in an upper room of my house, under the care of one of Dr. De
+Forest's pupils, Sada el Haleby, who carried it on successfully with
+seventy girls until August, 1864, when, on my departure for the U.S.A.
+the school was taken up by the late Mrs. Bowen Thompson, whose Society
+has maintained it until this day.
+
+In 1863, the number of paying boarders in the Seminary had increased to
+twenty, and in 1866 the pupils numbered eighty, and the income from
+native paying pupils was about fifteen hundred dollars in gold!
+
+The Annual Examination was held in the latter part of June, in the
+Mission Chapel, and continued three days, thronged by a multitude of
+interested spectators. The Turkish official Arabic Journal of Beirūt,
+the "Hadikat el Akhbar," published a lengthy report of the Examination,
+pronouncing it the most satisfactory examination of girls that ever took
+place in Syria. An English clergyman who was present refused to believe
+that they were Syrian girls, insisting that they must be English. The
+girls recited in Bible History, giving all the important dates from Adam
+to Christ, with an account of the rites, sacrifices and prophecies which
+refer to Christ, giving also the names of all the patriarchs, judges,
+kings and prophets in their order. Twenty-two different classes were
+examined, and many of the girls read original compositions.
+
+On the Sabbath, July 1st, two of the assistant teachers, Asīn Haddad and
+Sara Sarkis were received to the communion of the Beirūt Church. They
+traced their religious awakening to the dying testimony of Sara Bistany,
+which is described in a subsequent chapter. Several of the younger
+pupils were much interested in the subject of religion at the time, and
+one little girl about seven years old said to her teacher, "I gave the
+Lord my heart, and He took it." Asīn died in Latakiah in 1869,
+triumphing in Christ. The women of the neighborhood came to the house of
+her brother to hear her joyous expressions of trust in Jesus, and her
+assurance that she should soon be with Him in glory. She was the second
+daughter of that young bride of fifteen years of age, who learned to
+read in 1825, in the school taught by her own husband, Tannus el
+Haddad.
+
+In 1867, the health of Rufka having become seriously impaired, she
+removed to Egypt, where after a period of rest, she opened on her own
+account a school for girls in Cairo, which she maintained with her
+wonted energy, until her marriage with the Rev. Mr. Muir, a Scotch
+clergyman, whom she accompanied to Melbourne, Australia, in 1869. Since
+the death of her husband she has returned to her favorite employment of
+teaching, with marked success, among the British population of
+Melbourne.
+
+While in Cairo, she passed through a deep and agonizing religious
+experience, which she described in the following letter to Mrs. Whiting,
+and the result of which was a new life in Christ.
+
+     Cairo, Egypt, _July 9, 1868_.
+
+     "I think I shall always remember my stay in Cairo with much
+     pleasure, but the greatest advantage of this year is the
+     opportunity I had of stopping to think of the interests of a never
+     dying soul, of a neglected Saviour, an offended God. Yes, I have
+     reflected, struggled, oh, how hard, and thanks to an ever merciful
+     God, I trust I have been led by the Holy Spirit to see and feel my
+     great sin, and casting myself at the feet of Jesus, stayed there
+     with my sinful heart till a loving Saviour just came and took it
+     up. Oh, how grieved was His tender heart when He saw how defiled it
+     was with sin and wickedness, but He said, fear not, my blood will
+     cleanse it and make it pure; then how He pleaded my case before His
+     Father, setting forth His boundless love and infinite righteousness
+     as a reason why He wished to be accepted. Yes, dear Mrs. Whiting, I
+     hope I can now say, Thy God is my God, and the blessed Saviour you
+     have loved so long is now very precious to me. The past winter has
+     been a solemn time with me. Many hard struggles have I had, much
+     fear that I might have forever grieved God's Holy Spirit, and for
+     a long time it all seemed so dark, there seemed no hope for me who
+     had been so long living away from the Saviour, but in great fear
+     and despair I just rushed and cast myself at His feet, and asked
+     Him to let me perish there if I must perish; there was nothing else
+     for me to do, and I felt such happiness in just leaving myself in
+     His care. How wonderful is His love! But what a life of constant
+     prayer and watching is that of a Christian! in the first place to
+     aim at close walking with God, leaving Him to order our steps for
+     us, and trusting Him so to order our way as to best enable us to
+     walk closely with Him. It has been a most comforting thought when I
+     find it difficult to live right and feel my utter weakness, that
+     Jesus is each day saying to His Father for me, "I pray not she
+     should be taken out of the world, but that she should be _kept from
+     the evil_," and to live up to our privileges and to walk worthy of
+     our high calling.
+
+     My precious teacher, I know you will rejoice and thank God with me
+     for His great goodness to me in bringing me to the feet of Jesus.
+     Oh, how precious He is to my poor soul! He is Heaven. How He
+     blesses me every moment! His boundless love to _me_ who am most
+     unworthy of the least of His mercies. If ever any one had reason to
+     boast of the loving kindness of the Lord, it surely must be myself.
+     In His great mercy I have had the privilege of openly confessing my
+     faith in Him, and publicly professing my determination to be the
+     Lord's at the last communion in the Church here in May. I put it
+     off till then hoping to do it in Beirūt in the Church dear Mr.
+     Whiting had preached in for so many years, and among the girls I
+     had taught, and all the young friends there, but as that was not
+     allowed me, I joined the Church here."
+
+Her devoted friend and loving assistant teacher Lucīyah, was deeply
+affected by what she learned from Rufka of her new spiritual life, and
+she too turned her thoughts to divine things, and soon after the arrival
+of Miss Everett and Miss Carruth in 1868, to take charge of the
+Seminary, she came out openly on the Lord's side, and in the midst of a
+fire of domestic persecution, publicly professed her faith in Jesus as
+her only Saviour.
+
+Miss Carruth, after staying just long enough in the Seminary to win the
+hearts of teachers and pupils, was obliged to return to her native land,
+where she is still an efficient laborer in the New England Woman's
+Boards of Missions.
+
+The year following the departure of Rufka to Egypt was a critical time
+in the history of the Seminary. Lulu continued in charge of the domestic
+department, and Mr. Araman managed the business of the school, while
+Mrs. Salt (a sister of Melita and Salome) aided in several of the
+classes. But the institution owed its great success during that year, if
+not its very existence, to the untiring energy and efficient services of
+Mrs. Dr. Bliss and Miss Emilia Thomson, daughter of the Rev. Dr.
+Thomson. They each gave several hours every day to instruction in the
+English language, the Scriptures and music, and the high standard of
+excellence already attained in the Seminary was maintained if not
+surpassed.
+
+Their perfect familiarity with the Arabic language gave them a great
+advantage in the management and instruction of the pupils, and their
+efforts on behalf of the Institution, in maintaining it in full and
+successful operation during the year previous to the arrival of Miss
+Everett and Miss Carruth, deserve grateful recognition.
+
+In the winter of 1870 and 1871 Miss Sophia Loring, and Miss Ellen
+Jackson arrived from America as colleagues of Miss Everett, and under
+their efficient management aided by Mr. Araman, Lucīyah and other native
+teachers, the Seminary is enjoying a high degree of prosperity.
+
+In March, 1864, the Mission had issued an appeal for funds to erect a
+permanent home for this Seminary, and in 1866 the present commodious and
+substantial edifice was erected, a lasting monument of the liberality of
+Christian men and women in America and England.
+
+Its cost was about eleven thousand dollars, and the raising of this sum
+was largely due to the liberality and personal services of Mr. Wm. A.
+Booth, of New York, who also kindly acted as treasurer of the building
+fund. The lumber used in its construction was brought from the state of
+Maine. The doors and windows were made under the direction of Dr. Hamlin
+of Constantinople, in Lowell, Mass., the tiles came from Marseilles, the
+stone from the sandstone quarries of Ras Beirūt, the stone pavement
+partly from Italy and partly from Mt. Lebanon, and the eighty iron
+bedsteads from Birmingham, England. The cistern, which holds about
+20,000 gallons, was built at the expense of a Massachusetts lady, and
+the portico by a lady of New York. The melodeon was given by ladies in
+Georgetown, D.C., and the organ is the gift of a benevolent lady in
+Newport, R.I.
+
+Time would fail me to recount the generous offerings of Christian men
+and women who have aided in the support of this school during the ten
+years of its history. Receiving no pecuniary aid from the American
+Board, the entire responsibility of its support fell upon a few members
+of the Syria Mission. Travellers who passed through the Holy Land,
+sometimes assumed the support of charity pupils, or interested their
+Sabbath Schools in raising scholarships, on their return home, and a few
+noble friends in the United States have sent on their gifts from time to
+time unsolicited, to defray the general expenses of the Institution. Its
+support has been to some of us a work of _faith_, as well as a labor of
+love. Not unfrequently has the end of the month come upon us, without
+one piastre in the treasury for paying the teachers' salaries or buying
+bread for the children, when suddenly, in some unknown and unexpected
+way, funds would be received, sufficient for all our wants. About two
+years since the funds were entirely exhausted. More than a hundred
+dollars would be owing to the teachers and servants on the following
+day. The accounts were examined, and all possible means of relief
+proposed, but without avail. At length one of the members of the
+Executive Committee asked leave to look over the accounts. He did so,
+and said he could not find any mention of a sum of about thirty
+Napoleons, which he was sure he had paid into the treasury several
+months before, as a donation from Mr. Booth of New York, whose son had
+died in Beirūt. The money had _not_ been paid into the school treasury.
+The vouchers were all produced, and there was left no resort but prayer.
+There was earnest supplication that night that the Lord would relieve
+us from our embarrassment, and provide for the necessities of the
+school. The next morning the good brother, above mentioned, recalled to
+mind his having given that money to Dr. Van Dyck in the Mission Library
+for the School. Dr. Van Dyck was consulted, and at once replied,
+"Certainly I received the money. It is securely locked up in the safe
+where it has been for months awaiting orders." The safe was opened, and
+the money found to be almost to a piastre the amount needed for
+obligations of the School.
+
+Since the transfer of the Syria Mission to the board of Missions of the
+Presbyterian Church, the pecuniary status of the Seminary has been
+somewhat modified. The Women's Boards of Missions of New York and
+Philadelphia have assumed the responsibility of raising scholarships for
+its support among the Auxiliary Societies and Sabbath Schools; the
+salaries of the teachers are provided for by individuals and churches,
+and several of the old friends of the school retain their interest in
+it, while the danger of a deficit is guarded against, by the guarantees
+of the good Christian women who are doing so grand and noble a work in
+this age for the world's evangelization. The annual cost of supporting a
+pupil now is about sixty dollars gold. The number of paying pupils is
+increasing, and the prospect for the future is encouraging.
+
+In the year 1864, a letter was received from certain Christian women in
+America, addressed to the girls of the School, and some of the older
+girls prepared a reply in Arabic, a translation of which was sent to
+America. It was as follows:
+
+"From the girls of the Beirūt School in Syria, to the sisters beloved in
+the Lord Jesus, in a land very far away. We have been honored in reading
+the lines which reached us from you, O sisters, distant in body but near
+in spirit, and we have given glory to God the Creator of all, who has
+caused in your hearts true love to us, and spiritual sympathies which
+have prompted you, dear sisters in the Lord, to write to us. Yes, it is
+the Lord Jesus who has brought about between us and between you (Arabic
+idiom) a spiritual intercourse, without the intercourse of bodily
+presence. For we have never in our lives seen you, nor your country, nor
+have we spoken to you face to face, and so you likewise have not seen
+us. Had neither of us the Word of God, the Holy and Only Book which is
+from one Father and a God unchangeable, to tell us that we have one
+nature, and have all fallen into one transgression, and are saved in one
+way, which is the Lord Jesus, we could not, as we now can, call you in
+one union, our sisters. The Lord Jesus calls those who love Him His
+brethren, and since He is the only bond and link, are we not His
+sisters, and thus sisters to each other? Truly, O dear sisters, we are
+thirsting to see you, and we all unite in offering prayers and praises
+to God, through His Son Immanuel, the possessor of the glorious Name,
+praying that we may see you; but we cannot in this world, for we are in
+the East, and you are in the West, far, very far. But, O dear friends,
+as we hope for the resurrection from the dead, so after our period in
+this world is ended, we shall meet by the blessing of God in those
+bright courts which are illumined by the light of the Saviour, which
+need not sun nor moon to give them light,--that holy place which is
+filled with throngs of angels who never cease to offer glory to God.
+There we may meet and unite with all the saved in praising the Saviour.
+There we may meet our friends who have passed on before us "as waiting
+they watch us approaching the shore," as we sing in the hymn. There
+around the throne of the glorious Saviour, there in the heavenly
+Jerusalem, our songs will not be mingled with tears and grief, for the
+Lord Jesus Himself will wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will
+not enter sin nor its likeness into our hearts sanctified by the Holy
+Spirit. There this body which shall rise incorruptible, will not return
+to the state in which it was in this world. In those courts we shall be
+happy always, and the reason is that we shall always be with the Great
+Shepherd, as it is said in the Book of Revelation, 'He shall shepherd
+them and lead them to fountains of living waters and wipe all tears from
+their eyes.' Our sisters, were it not for the Holy Bible which the Lord
+has given to His people, we should have no comfort to console us with
+regard to our friends whom we have lost by means of death. We beg you to
+help us by offering prayers to the living and true God that He will make
+us faithful even unto death,--that He will bless us while on the sea of
+this life, until we reach the shore of peace without fear or trouble,
+that we may be ready to stand before the seat of the Lord Jesus the
+Judge of all, clothed in the robes of His perfect righteousness, which
+he wove for us on the Cross, and is now ready to give to those who ask
+Him. Let us then all ask of God that this our only treasure may be
+placed where no thief can break in and steal, and no moth shall corrupt.
+And may the Lord preserve you!
+
+We love to sing this hymn,
+
+    'Holy Bible, Book Divine,
+    Precious treasure, thou art mine!'
+
+and we entreat you that when you sing it, you will let it be a
+remembrancer from us to you."
+
+In March, 1865, a little girl was brought to the school under somewhat
+peculiar circumstances. Years ago, in the days of Mr. Whiting, a
+Maronite monk named Nejm, became enlightened, left the monastery and was
+married to a Maronite woman named Zarifeh, by Mr. Whiting. For years the
+poor man passed through the fires of persecution and trial. Even his
+wife, in her ignorance, though not openly opposing him, trembled with
+fear every time he read the Scriptures aloud. At the time mentioned
+above, their little daughter Resha was about five years of age. The
+Papal Maronite Bishop of Beirūt made a visit to Nejm's village, Baabda,
+to dispense indulgences, in accordance with the Pope's Encyclical
+letter. Nejm was called upon to pay his portion of the sum assessed upon
+the people, but having been a Protestant fifteen years, he refused to
+pay it. At the instigation of the priests, his wife was then taken from
+him, and his little Resha, his only child, was carried off by one of the
+priests to Beirūt, and thrust inside the gates of the convent of the
+French Sisters of Charity. The poor father came to me, well-nigh
+broken-hearted, pleading for assistance. I laid the case before His
+Excellency Daūd Pasha, Governor of Lebanon, who was then in Beirūt, and
+drew up a petition to the Pasha of Beirūt also, on the subject. Nejm
+went about weeping and wringing his hands, and my feelings became deeply
+enlisted in his behalf. Three weeks afterwards, after a series of
+petitions and visits to the Pasha of Beirūt, the girl Resha was removed
+from the convent and taken by Nejm's enemies to a house near Nahr
+Beirūt, about two miles distant, and just over the border line of the
+Mountain Pashalic. I then addressed another letter to Daūd Pasha, and he
+promptly ordered her to be restored to her father. The manner in which
+Nejm, the father, finally secured the child was not a little amusing. He
+had been searching for his child for several weeks, waiting and
+watching, until his patience was about exhausted, when he heard that
+Resha was again in the hands of the priests in Baabda. The mother
+followed the child, and the priests threatened to kill her, if she
+informed her husband where the girl was secreted. Daūd Pasha was then at
+his winter palace in Baabda, and Nejm took my letter to him. While
+awaiting a reply at the door, some one informed him that his daughter
+was at the fountain. Without waiting further for official aid, he ran to
+the fountain, took up his daughter, put her on his back, and ran for
+Beirūt, a distance of about four miles, where he brought her to my
+house, and placed her in my room, with loud ejaculations of thanks to
+God. "Neshkar Allah; El mejd lismoo." Thanks to God! Glory to His name!
+The mother soon followed, and the girl was sent as a day scholar to the
+Seminary. They are now living in Baabda. The mother, Zarify, united with
+the Evangelical Church of Beirūt, July 21, 1872, giving the best
+evidence of a true spiritual experience. The little girl is anxious to
+teach, and it was proposed to employ her as an assistant in the girls'
+school in Baabda, but the tyrannical oppressions of the priesthood upon
+the family who had offered their house for the school, and the refusal
+of the Pasha of Lebanon to grant protection to the persecuted, have
+obliged the brethren there to postpone their request for a school for
+the present.
+
+Alas for the poor women of Syria! Even when they seek to obtain the
+consolations of the Gospel by learning to read the Word of life, they
+are surrounded by priests and Sheikhs who watch their chance to destroy
+the "Bread of Life!" In March, 1865, a Maronite woman called at the
+Press to buy a book of poems, to teach her boy to read. "Why not buy a
+Testament?" asked the bookseller. "I did buy an Engeel Mushekkel," (a
+voweled Testament.) "Be careful of it then," said Khalil, "for the
+edition is exhausted, and you cannot get another for months." "It is too
+late to be careful now, for the book _has been burned_." "Burned? by
+whom?" "By the Jesuits, who gathered a large pile and burned them." God
+grant that as Tyndale's English New Testament, first printed in 1527 was
+only spread the more widely for the attempts of the Papal Bishop of
+London to burn it, so the Arabic Bible may receive a new impulse from
+the similarly inspired efforts of the Bishop's successors!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+LUCIYA SHEKKUR.
+
+
+The work done for Christ and for Syrian girls in the families of
+Missionaries in Syria, may well compare with that done in the
+established institutions of learning. Mrs. Whiting was not alone in the
+work of training native Arab girls in her own home. The same work had
+been done by other Missionaries before her, and has been carried on with
+no little success by Mrs. Bird, Mrs. Calhoun and others, up to the
+present time.
+
+It is an interesting sight to see the Thursday afternoon Women's meeting
+in the house of Mrs. Calhoun in Abeih, and to know that a large part of
+that company of bright, intelligent and tidily dressed young native
+women, who listen so intently to the Bible lesson, and join so heartily
+in singing the sweet songs of Zion, were trained up either in her own
+family, or under her own especial influence. By means of her own example
+in the training of her children, she has taught the women of Abeih, and
+through them multitudes of women in other villages, the true Christian
+modes of family government and discipline, and introduced to their
+notice and practice many of those little conveniences and habits in the
+training of children, whose influence will be felt for many
+generations.
+
+When Mr. and Mrs. Bird removed to Deir el Komr in 1855, they not only
+opened a large school for the education of girls, with Sada Haleby, one
+of Dr. De Forest's pupils, as teacher, but received into their own
+family three young girls, named Lucīya, Sikkar and Zihry, all of whom
+entered upon spheres of usefulness. Zihry became a teacher, in Deir el
+Komr, and has continued to teach until the present time. She was at one
+time connected with the Beirūt Female Seminary, and is now teaching in
+the Institution of Mrs. Shrimpton, under the auspices of the British
+Syrian Schools.
+
+Luciya taught in Deir el Komr until the school was overwhelmed in the
+fires and blood of the Massacre year, 1860.
+
+In 1862 she taught in the Sidon School, and afterwards married the Rev.
+Sulleba Jerwan, the first native pastor in Hums. In that great city, and
+amid the growing interest of the young Protestant community, she found a
+wide and attractive field of labor. She was a young woman of great
+gentleness and delicacy of nature, and of strong religious feeling, and
+entered upon the work of laboring among the women and girls of Hums,
+with exemplary zeal and discretion. She became greatly beloved, and her
+Godly example and gentle spirit will never be forgotten.
+
+But at length her labors were abruptly cut short. Consumption, a disease
+little known in Syria, but which afterwards cut down her brother and
+only sister Sikkar, fastened upon her, and she was obliged, in great
+suffering, to leave the raw and windy climate of Hums, for the milder
+air of Beirūt. Her two brothers being in the employ of Miss Whately in
+Cairo, she went, on their invitation, to Egypt, where after a painful
+illness, she fell asleep in Jesus. Amid all her sufferings, she
+maintained that same gentle and lovely temper of mind, which made her so
+greatly beloved by all who knew her.
+
+She has rested from her labors, and her works do follow her. Not long
+after her sister Sikkar, who had also been trained in Mrs. Bird's
+family, died in her native village Ain Zehalteh.
+
+Her last end also, was peace, and although no concourse of Druze Sheikhs
+came barefoot over the snow to her funeral, as they did on the death of
+the Sitt Selma, in the same village, no doubt a concourse of higher and
+holier beings attended her spirit to glory.
+
+When Luciya was in Beirūt before her departure to Egypt, I used to see
+her frequently, and I shall never forget the calm composure with which
+she spoke of her anticipated release from the pains and sufferings of
+life. Christ was her portion, and she lived in communion with him,
+certain that ere long she should depart and be with him forever.
+
+The poor Moslem women in the houses adjoining her room used to come in,
+and with half-veiled faces look upon her calm and patient face with
+wonder. Would that they too might find her Saviour precious to them, in
+their hours of sickness, suffering and death!
+
+Truly, there is no religion but that of Jesus Christ, that can soften
+the pillow of suffering, and take away the sting and dread of death.
+
+One of the most serious difficulties in the way of the higher female
+education in Syria, is the early age at which girls are married. One
+young girl attended the Beirūt Seminary for two years, from eight to
+ten, and the teachers were becoming interested in her progress, when
+suddenly her parents took her out of the school, and gave her to a man
+in marriage. After the festivities of the marriage week were over at her
+husband's house, she went home to visit her mother, _taking her dolls
+with her_ to amuse herself!
+
+The Arabic journal "the Jenneh" of Beirūt, contained a letter in June,
+1872, from its Damascus correspondent, praising the fecundity of Syria,
+and stating that a young woman who was married at nine and a half,
+became a grandmother at twenty! Such instances are not uncommon in
+Damascus and Hums, where the chief and almost the only concern of
+parents is to marry off their daughters as early as nature will allow,
+without education, experience or any other qualification for the
+responsible duties of married life. When the above mentioned letter from
+Damascus was published, Dr. Van Dyck took occasion to write an article
+in the "Neshra," the Missionary Weekly, of which he is the editor,
+exposing the folly and criminality of such early marriages, and
+demonstrating their disastrous effects on society at large.
+
+Since the establishment of schools and seminaries of a high grade for
+girls, this tendency is being decidedly checked in the vicinity of
+Beirūt, and girls are not given up as incorrigibly old, even if they
+reach the age of seventeen.
+
+Dr. Meshakah of Damascus, who has long been distinguished for his
+learned and eloquent works on the Papacy, is a venerable white-bearded
+patriarch and his wife looks as if she were his daughter. I once asked
+him how old she was when married, and he said _eleven_. I asked him why
+he married her so young? He said that in his day, young girls received
+no training at home, and young men who wished properly trained wives,
+had to marry them young, so as to educate them to suit themselves!
+
+Education is rapidly obviating that necessity, and young men are more
+than willing that girls to whom they are betrothed, should complete
+their education, lest they be eclipsed by others who remain longer at
+school. I once called on a wealthy native merchant in Beirūt, who
+remarked that "the Europeans have a thing in their country which we have
+not. They call it ed-oo-cashion, and I am anxious to have it introduced
+into Syria." This "ed-oo-cashion" is already settling many a question in
+Syria which nothing else could settle, and the natives are also learning
+that something more than mere book-knowledge is needed, to elevate and
+refine the family. One of the most direct results of female education
+thus far in Syria has been the abolition from certain classes of
+society of some of those superstitious fears which harass and torment
+the ignorant masses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+RAHEEL.
+
+
+No sketch of Woman's Work for Syrian women would be complete which did
+not give some account of the life and labors of that pioneer in work for
+Syrian women, Mrs. Sarah L.H. Smith, wife of Dr. Eli Smith. She reached
+Beirūt, January 28, 1834, full of high and holy resolves to devote her
+life to the benefit of her Syrian sisters. From the first to the very
+last of her life in Syria, this was the one great object of her toils
+and prayers. As soon as April 2, she writes, "Our school continues to
+prosper, and I love the children exceedingly. Do pray that God will
+bless this incipient step to enlighten the women of this country. You
+cannot conceive of their deplorable ignorance. I feel it more and more
+every day. Their energies are expended in outward adorning of plaiting
+the hair and gold and pearls and costly array, literally so. I close
+with one request, _that you will pray for a revival of religion in
+Beirūt_." Again she writes, June 30, 1834, "I feel somewhat thoughtful,
+this afternoon, in consequence of having heard of the ready consent of
+the friends of a little girl, that I should take her as I proposed, and
+educate her. I am anxious to do it, and yet my experience and
+observation in reference to such a course, and my knowledge of the
+sinful heart of a child, lead me to think I am undertaking a great
+thing. I feel, too, that my example and my instruction will control her
+eternal destiny." This girl was Raheel Ata. Again, August 16: "It is a
+great favor that so many of the men and boys can read. Alas, our poor
+sisters! the curse rests emphatically upon them. Among the Druze
+princesses, some, perhaps the majority, furnish an exception and can
+read. Their sect is favorable to learning. Not so with the Maronites. I
+have one scholar from these last, but when I have asked the others who
+have been here if they wished to read, they have replied most absolutely
+in the negative, saying that it was for boys, and not for them. I have
+heard several women acknowledge that they knew no more than the
+donkeys."
+
+August 23. A Maronite priest compelled two little girls to leave her
+school, but the Greek priest sent "his own daughter, a pretty,
+rosy-cheeked girl" to be taught by Mrs. Smith. On the 22d of September,
+1834, she wrote from B'hamdūn, a village five hours from Beirūt, on
+Lebanon, "Could the females of Syria be educated and regenerated, the
+whole face of the country would change; even, as I said to an Arab a few
+days since, to the appearance of the houses and the roads. One of our
+little girls, whom I taught before going to the mountains, came to see
+me a day or two since, and talked incessantly about her love for the
+school, and the errors of the people here, saying that they 'cared not
+for Jesus Christ, but only for the Virgin Mary.'"
+
+October 8. She says, "A servant woman of Mrs. Whiting, who has now
+lived long enough with her to love her and appreciate her principles,
+about a year and a half since remarked to some of the Arabs, that the
+people with whom she lived did 'not lie, nor steal, nor quarrel, nor do
+any such things; but poor creatures,' said she, 'they have no
+religion.'"
+
+On the 22d of October, she wrote again, "Yesterday I went up to Mr.
+Bird's to consult about the plan of a _school-house now commenced for
+females_. I can hardly believe that such a project is actually in
+progress, and I hail it as the dawn of a happy change in Syria. Two
+hundred dollars have been subscribed by friends in this vicinity, and I
+told Mr. B. that if necessary he might expend fifty more upon the
+building, as our Sabbath School in Norwich had pledged one hundred a
+year for female education in Syria."
+
+The principal contributor to this fund was Mrs. Alexander Tod, formerly
+Miss Gliddon, daughter of the U.S. Consul in Alexandria.
+
+The building stood near where the present Church in Beirūt stands, and
+was removed, and the stones used in the extension of the old Chapel. In
+the year 1866 Mr. Tod revisited Beirūt and contributed £100 towards the
+erection of the new Female Seminary, saying that as Mrs. Tod aided in
+the first Female Seminary building in Beirūt, he wished to aid in the
+second. The school-house was a plain structure, and was afterwards used
+as a boy's school, and the artist who photographed the designs printed
+in this volume received his education there under the instruction of the
+late Shahīn Sarkis, husband of Azizy.
+
+In the latter part of October, 1834, Mrs. Smith writes, "Yesterday I
+commenced the female school with four scholars, which were increased to
+ten to-day, and the number will probably continue to augment as before
+from week to week. As I walked home about sunset this evening, I
+thought, 'Can it be that I am a schoolmistress, and the only one in all
+Syria?' and I tripped along with a quick step amid Egyptians, Turks and
+Arabs, Moslems and Jews, to my quiet and pleasant home."
+
+November 9. "I sometimes indulge the thought that God has sent me to the
+females of Syria--to the little girls, of whom I have a favorite
+school--for their good."
+
+January 5, 1835. "On Friday I distributed rewards to twenty-three little
+girls belonging to my school, which, as they are all poor, consisted of
+clothing. Our Sabbath School also increases. Eighteen were present last
+Sabbath."
+
+On the 11th of January Dr. Thomson wrote, "Mrs. Smith's female school
+prospers wonderfully, but it is the altar of her own health; and I fear
+that in the flame that goeth up toward heaven from off that altar, she
+will soon ascend as did Manoah's angel. We can hardly spare her; she is
+our only hope for a female school in Beirūt at present."
+
+The state of society in Syria at that time is well pictured in the
+following language, used by Mrs. Smith in a letter dated February 12,
+1835: "Excepting the three or four native converts, we know not one
+pious religious teacher, one judicious parent, one family circle
+regulated by the fear of God; no, _not even one_!"
+
+"I wish I had strength to do more, but my school and my studies draw
+upon my energies continually." Even at that early day Moslem girls came
+to be taught by Mrs. Smith. She writes June 2, "A few days since, one of
+my little Moslem scholars, whose father was once an extensive merchant
+here, came and invited me to make a call upon her mother. I took Raheel
+and accompanied her to their house which is in our neighborhood. I found
+it a charming spot and very neatly kept. Hospitality is regarded here as
+a religious act, I think, and a reputation for it is greatly prized."
+
+In July she wrote of what has not ceased to be a trial to all
+missionaries in Beirūt for the past forty years, the necessity of
+removing to the mountains during the hot summer months. The climate of
+the plain is debilitating to foreigners, and missionary families are
+obliged to spend three months of the hot season in the Lebanon villages.
+"My school interests me more and more every day, and I do not love to
+think of suspending it even for a few weeks during the hot season. Day
+before yesterday a wealthy Jewish lady came with her two daughters to
+the school, and begged me to take the youngest as a scholar."
+
+July 19. "At our Sabbath School to-day were _twenty-eight_ scholars,
+twenty-one girls and seven boys."
+
+July 31. "To-day I closed my school for the month of August by the
+distribution of rewards to _thirty little girls_. The American and
+English Consuls and a few Arab friends were present, and expressed much
+pleasure at the sight of so many young natives in their clean dress. A
+few of the more educated scholars read a little in the New Testament."
+
+August 8. "On Saturday I closed my school for the month of August. It
+was increasing every day in numbers and I would gladly have continued
+it. Last Sabbath we had at the Sabbath School forty-six scholars, a
+_fourth of whom were Moslems_."
+
+September 29. "Yesterday I commenced my school again with twenty
+scholars; which, for the first day, was a good number. Mrs. Whiting has
+ten little Moslem girls in Jerusalem, and the promise of more."
+
+December 14. "On Saturday, our native female prayer-meeting consisted of
+twenty, besides two children. Fourteen were Arabs, more than were ever
+present before. We met in the girls' school room, where we intend in
+future to assemble. We sung part of a psalm, as we have begun to teach
+music in our school. We find the children quite as capable of forming
+musical sounds as those in our own country; but alas, _we have no psalms
+or hymns adapted to their capacities_. The Arabic cannot be simplified
+like the English, without doing violence to Arab taste; at least such
+is the opinion now. What changes may be wrought in the language, we
+cannot tell. Of this obstacle in the instruction of the young here, you
+have not perhaps thought. It is a painful thought to us, that
+_children's literature_, if I may so term it, is _incompatible with the
+genius of this language_: of course, infant school lessons must be
+bereft of many of their attractions."
+
+It may be interesting to know whether present missionary experience
+differs from that of Mrs. Smith and her husband in 1835, with regard to
+children's literature in the Arabic language.
+
+In 1858, Mr. Ford prepared, with the aid of Mr. Bistany, (the husband of
+"Raheel," Mrs. Smith's adopted child,) a series of children's Scripture
+Tracts in simple and yet perfectly correct Arabic, so that the youngest
+child can understand them. In 1862, we printed the first Children's
+Hymn-book, partly at the expense of the girls in Rufka's school. We have
+now in Arabic about eighty children's hymns, and a large number of
+tracts and story books designed for children. We also publish an
+Illustrated Children's Monthly, called the "Koukab es Subah," "The
+Morning Star," and the children read it with the greatest eagerness.
+
+The Koran, which is the standard of classic Arabic, cannot be changed,
+and hence can never be a book for children. It cannot be a family book,
+or a women's book. It cannot attract the minds of the young, with that
+charm which hangs around the exquisitely simple and beautiful narratives
+of the Old and New Testament. It is a gem of Arabic poetry, but like a
+gem, crystalline and unchanging. It has taken a mighty hold upon the
+Eastern world, because of its Oriental style and its eloquent assertion
+of the Divine Unity. It is reverenced, but not loved, and will stand
+where it is while the world moves on. Every reform in government,
+toleration and material improvement in the Turkish Empire, Persia and
+Egypt, is made in spite of the Koran and contrary to its spirit. The
+printing of the Koran is unlawful, but it is being printed. All pictures
+of living objects are unlawful, but the Sultan is photographed, Abd el
+Kader is photographed, the "Sheikh ul Islam" is photographed. European
+shoes are unlawful because sewed with a swine's bristle, but Moslem
+Muftis strut about the streets in French gaiters, and the women of their
+harems tottle about in the most absurd of Parisian high-heeled slippers.
+
+The Arabic Bible translated by Drs. Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck, is
+voweled with the grammatical accuracy and beauty of the Koran with the
+aid of a learned Mohammedan Mufti, and yet has all the elegant
+simplicity of the original and is intelligible to every Arab, old and
+young, who is capable of reading at all. The stories of Joseph, Moses,
+and David, of Esther, Daniel and Jonah are as well adapted to the
+comprehension of children in the Arabic as in the English.
+
+Not a few of the hymns in the Children's Hymn book are original, written
+by M. Ibrahim Sarkis, husband of Miriam of Aleppo, and M. Asaad
+Shidoody, husband of Hada. This Hymn book was published in 1862, with
+Plates presented by Dr. Robinson's Sabbath School of the First
+Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn.
+
+This digression seemed necessary, in order to show the great progress
+that has been made since 1836, in preparing a religious literature. It
+is no longer true as in Mrs. Smith's day, "that we have no psalms or
+hymns adapted to the capacities of children." Nor is it longer true that
+"_children's literature is incompatible with the genius of the Arabic
+language_."
+
+In a letter addressed to the young women in the "Female Academy at
+Norwich," February, 1836, Mrs. Smith gives a vivid description of the
+"average woman" of Syria in her time, and the description holds true of
+nine-tenths of the women at the present day. There are now native
+Christian homes, not the least attractive of which is the home of her
+own little protegé Raheel, but the great mass continue as they were
+forty years ago. She says, "My dear friends, will you send your thoughts
+to this, which is not a heathen, but an unevangelized country. I will
+not invite you to look at our little female school of twenty or thirty,
+because these form but a drop among the thousands and thousands of youth
+throughout Syria; although I might draw a contrast even from this not a
+little in your favor. But we will speak of the young Syrian females at
+large, moving in one unbroken line to the land of darkness and sorrow.
+Among them you will find many a fine form and beautiful face; but alas!
+the perfect workmanship of their Creator is rendered tame and insipid,
+for want of that mental and moral culture which gives a peculiar charm
+to the human countenance. It is impossible for me to bring the females
+of this country before you in so vivid a manner that you can form a
+correct idea of them. But select from among your acquaintances a lady
+who is excessively weak, vain and trifling; who has no relish for any
+intellectual or moral improvement; whose conversation is altogether
+confined to dress, parties, balls, admiration, marriage; whose temper
+and faults have never been corrected by her parents, but who is
+following, unchecked, all the propensities of a fallen, corrupt nature.
+Perhaps you will not be able to find any such, though I have
+occasionally met with them in America. If you succeed, however, in
+bringing a person of this character to your mind, then place the
+thousands of girls, and the women, too, of this land, once the land of
+patriarchs, prophets and apostles, in her class." "These weak-minded
+Syrian females are not attentive to personal cleanliness; neither have
+they a neat and tasteful style of dress. Their apparel is precisely such
+as the Apostle recommended that Christian females should avoid; while
+the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is thrown wholly out of the
+account. They have no books, and no means of moral or intellectual
+improvement. It is considered a disgrace for a female to know how to
+read and write, and a serious obstacle to her marriage, which is the
+principal object of the parent's heart. This abhorrence of learning in
+females, exists most strongly in the higher classes. Nearly every pupil
+in our school is very indigent. Of God's word they understand nothing,
+for a girl is taken to church perhaps but once a year, where nothing is
+seen among the women but talking and trifling; of course she attaches no
+solemnity to the worship of God. No sweet domestic circle of father,
+brother, mother and sister, all capable of promoting mutual cheerfulness
+and improvement, greets her in her own house. I do not mean to imply
+that there exists no family affection among them, for this tie is often
+very strong; but it has no foundation in respect, and is not employed to
+promote elevation of character. The men sit and smoke their pipes in one
+apartment, while in another the women cluster upon the floor, and with
+loud and vociferous voices gossip with their neighbors. The very
+language of the females is of a lower order than that of the men, which
+renders it almost impossible for them to comprehend spiritual and
+abstract subjects, when first presented to their minds. I know not how
+often, when I have attempted to converse with them, they have
+acknowledged that they did not understand me, or have interrupted me by
+alluding to some mode or article of dress, or something quite as
+foolish." "Thus you see, my young friends, how unhappy is the condition
+of the females of Syria, and how many laborers are wanted to cultivate
+this wide field. On the great day of final account, the young females of
+Syria, of India, of every inhabited portion of the globe, who are upon
+the stage of life with you, will rise up, either to call you blessed,
+or to enhance your condemnation." "God is furnishing American females
+their high privileges, with the intention of calling them forth into the
+wide fields of ignorance and error, which the world exhibits. I look
+over my country and think of the hundreds and thousands of young ladies,
+intelligent, amiable and capable, who are assembled in schools and
+academies there; and then turn my eye to Jerusalem, Hebron, Nazareth,
+Sychar, Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, Jaffa, and to the numerous villages of
+Mount Lebanon, and think, 'Why this inequality of condition and
+privileges? Why can there not be stationed at every one of those morally
+desolate places, at least one missionary family, and one single female
+as a teacher? Does not Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, require it of
+His youthful friends in America, that from love to Him, gratitude for
+their own distinguished mercies, compassion for perishing souls, and the
+expectation of perfect rest and happiness in heaven, they should spread
+themselves over the wide world, and feed the sheep and the lambs
+scattered without a shepherd upon the mountains?' Yes, He requires it,
+and angels will yet behold it; but shall we not see it in our day?"
+
+Great changes have come over Syria since the above words were written.
+Not less than twelve high schools for girls have been established since
+then in Syria and Palestine, and not far from forty common schools,
+exclusively for girls, under the auspices of the different Missionary
+Societies.
+
+In February, 1836, Mrs. Smith also undertook the work of _systematic
+visiting among the mothers of her pupils_. She says, "Perhaps it will be
+a very long time before we shall see any fruit. Indeed those who enter
+into our labors may gather it in our stead; yet I am anxious that we
+should persevere until we die, though no apparent effect be produced."
+
+In April, 1836, she wrote, "My mind is much upon a female boarding
+school; and if I can get the promise of ten girls, we shall, God
+willing, remove the press from our house, and commence one in the fall."
+
+In May she commenced a new term of her day school with twenty-six
+scholars. She says, "The wife of a persecuted Druze is very anxious to
+learn to read, and she comes to our house every day to get instruction
+from Raheel." She also says, "We feel the want of books exceedingly. The
+little girl whom I took more than a year since, and who advances
+steadily in intelligence and knowledge, has no book but the Bible to
+read, not one." Then again, "Should our press get into successful
+operation, I despair in doing anything in the way of infant schools,
+because the Arabic language cannot be simplified, at least under
+existing prejudices. If every hymn and little story must be dressed up
+in the august habiliments of the Koran, what child of three and six
+years old will be wiser and better for them! How complete is the
+dominion of the Great Adversary over this people! All the links of the
+chain must be separated, one by one. And what a long, I had almost
+said, tedious process! But I forget that to each one will be assigned a
+few only of these links. We are doing a little, perhaps, in this work;
+if faithful, we shall rest in heaven, and others will come and take our
+places and our work."
+
+On the eleventh of June, Mrs. Smith's health had become so impaired from
+the dampness of the floor and walls of her school building, that her
+physician advised a sea voyage for her. After suffering shipwreck on the
+coast of Asia Minor, and enduring great hardships, she reached Smyrna,
+where she died on the 30th of September, in the triumphs of the Gospel.
+Her Memoir is a book worthy of being read by every Christian woman
+engaged in the Master's service.
+
+In a letter written from Smyrna, July 28, she says, "I had set my heart
+much upon taking Raheel with me. Parents, however, in Syria, have an
+especial aversion to parting with their children for foreign countries.
+One of my last acts therefore was to make a formal committal of her into
+the hands of my kind friend Miss Williams. I had become so strongly
+attached to the little girl, and felt myself so much rewarded for all my
+efforts with her, that the circumstances of this separation were perhaps
+more trying than any associated with our departure."
+
+Mrs. Smith had from the first a desire to take a little Arab girl to be
+brought up in her family, and at length selected Raheel, one of the most
+promising scholars in her school, when about eight years of age, and
+with the consent of her parents adopted her. In her care, attentions
+and affections, she took almost the rank of a daughter. She was trained
+to habits of industry, truth and studiousness, and although Mrs. S. had
+been but nine months in the country when she adopted her, she commenced
+praying with her in Arabic from the very first.
+
+Dr. Eli Smith says, "In a word, the expectations Mrs. Smith had formed
+in taking her, were fully answered; and she was often heard to say, that
+she had every day been amply repaid for the pains bestowed upon her. It
+will not be wondered at, that her affections became entwined very
+closely around so promising a pupil, and that the attachment assumed
+much of the character of parental kindness. Mrs. Smith's sharpest trial,
+perhaps, at her departure from Beirūt, arose from leaving her behind."
+
+After the departure of Mrs. Smith, her fellow-laborer, Miss Williams,
+afterwards Mrs. Hebard, took charge of Raheel, who remained with her
+five years. She then lived successively with Mrs. Lanneau and Mrs.
+Beadle, and lastly with Dr. and Mrs. De Forest.
+
+When in the family of Dr. De Forest, she became engaged to be married to
+Mr. Butrus Bistany, a learned native of the Protestant Church, who was
+employed by the Mission as a teacher. Her mother and friends were
+opposed to the engagement, as they wished to marry her to a man of their
+own selection. On Carnival evening, February 20, in the year 1843, her
+mother invited her to come and spend the feast with the family. She
+hesitated, but finally consented to go with Dr. De Forest and call upon
+her family friends and return before night. After sitting several hours,
+the Doctor arose to go and she prepared to follow him. Her mother
+protested, saying that they would not allow her to return to her home
+with the missionary. Finding that the mother and brother-in-law were
+preparing to resist her departure by violence, Dr. De Forest retired,
+sending a native friend to stay in the house until his return. He
+repaired to the Pasha and laid the case before him. The Pasha declared
+her free to choose her own home, as she was legally of age, and sent a
+janizary with Dr. De Forest to examine the case and insure her liberty
+of action. On entering the house, the janizary called for Raheel and
+asked her whether she wished to go home or stay with her mother? She
+replied, "I wish to go home to Mrs. De Forest." The janizary then wrote
+down her request, and told her to go. She arose to go, but could not
+find her shoes. There was some delay, when her brother-in-law seized her
+arm and attempted to drag her to an inner room. The Pasha's officer
+seized the other arm and the poor girl was in danger of having her
+shoulders dislocated. At length the officer prevailed and she escaped.
+Her mother and the women who had assembled from the neighborhood, then
+set up a terrific shriek, like a funeral wail, "She's lost! she's dead!
+wo is me!" It was all pre-arranged. The brother-in-law had been around
+to the square to a rendezvous of soldiers, and told them that an attempt
+would be made to abduct his sister by force, and if they heard a shriek
+from the women, to hasten to his house. The rabble of soldiers wanted no
+better pastime than such a melée among the infidels, and promised to
+come. When they heard the noise they started on a run. Raheel, having
+suspected something of the kind, induced Dr. De Forest to take another
+road, and as they turned the corner to enter the mission premises, they
+saw the rabble running in hot haste towards her mother's house, only to
+find that the bird had flown.
+
+In the following summer she was married to Mr. Bistany, who was for
+eight years assistant of Dr. Eli Smith in the work of Bible translation,
+and for twenty years Dragoman of the American Consulate. He is now
+Principal of a private Boarding School for boys, called the "Medriset el
+Wutaniyet" or "Native School," which has about 150 pupils of all sects.
+He and his son Selim Effendi are the editors and proprietors also of
+three Arabic journals; the _Jenan_, a Monthly Literary Magazine,
+illustrated by wood-cuts made by a native artist, and having a
+circulation of about 1500; the _Jenneh_, a semi-weekly newspaper
+published Tuesday and Friday; and the _Jeneineh_, published Monday,
+Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. There is not a more industrious man in
+Syria than Mr. Bistany, and he is doing a great work in the
+enlightenment of his countrymen.
+
+Raheel's home is one of affection, decorum, and Christian refinement,
+and she has fulfilled the highest hopes and prayers of her devoted
+foster mother, in discharging the duties of mother, neighbor, church
+member, and friend. May every missionary woman be rewarded in seeing
+such fruits of her labors!
+
+In January, 1866, Sarah, one of Raheel's daughters, named after Mrs.
+Sarah L. Smith, was attacked by typhoid pneumonia. From the first she
+was deeply impressed on the subject of religion, and in deep concern
+about her soul. She sent for me, and I found her in a very hopeful state
+of mind. Day after day I called and conversed and prayed with her, and
+her views of her need of Christ were most clear and comforting, and she
+wished her testimony to His love to be known among all her young
+companions. Her friends from the school gathered at her request to see
+her, and she urged them to come to Christ, and several who have since
+united with the Church traced their first awakening to her words on her
+death-bed.
+
+One day Sarah said to me, "How thankful I am for this sickness! It has
+been the voice of God to my soul! I have given myself to Jesus forever!
+I have been a great sinner, and I have been thinking about my sins, and
+my need of a Saviour, and I am resolved to live for Him hereafter." On
+her father's coming into the room, she said in English, "Papa, I am so
+happy that the Lord sent this sickness upon me. You cannot tell how I
+thank him for it."
+
+After a season spent in prayer, I urged her, on leaving, to cast herself
+entirely on the Saviour of sinners, before another hour should pass. The
+next day as I entered the room, she said, "I am at peace now. I _did_
+cast myself on Jesus and He received me. I know His blood has washed my
+sins away." She had expressed some fear that she might not be able to
+live a consistent Christian life should she recover, "but," said she, "I
+could trust in Christ to sustain me." After a few words of counsel and
+prayer, and reading a portion of Scripture, she exclaimed, "It is all
+one now, whether I die or live. I am ready to go or stay. The Lord knows
+best."
+
+At the last interview between her and her father, she expressed her
+determination to make the Bible henceforth her study and guide, and
+requested him to read the 14th chapter of John, which seemed to give her
+great comfort. Soon after that she ceased to recognize her friends, and
+on Monday night, January 5, she gently fell asleep. I was summoned to
+the house at 2 A.M. by a young man who said, "She is much
+worse, hasten." On reaching the house I met Rufka, teacher of the
+Seminary, who exclaimed, "She is gone, she is gone." Entering the mukod
+room, I found all the family assembled. There were no shrieks and
+screams and loud wailings, as is the universal custom in this land. All
+were seated, and the father, Abū Selim, was reading that chapter which
+Sarah had asked him to read. I then led the family in prayer, and all
+were much comforted. She had lived a blameless life, beloved by all who
+knew her, and had been a faithful and exemplary daughter and sister, but
+her only trust at the last was in her Saviour. She saw in her past life
+only sin, and hoped for salvation in the blood of Christ alone. The
+funeral was attended by a great concourse of people of all sects, and
+the Protestant chapel was crowded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+HUMS.
+
+
+The city of Hums, the ancient Emessa, is situated about one mile east of
+the river Orontes, and about half way between Aleppo and Damascus. It is
+in the midst of a vast and fertile plain, extending to Palmyra on the
+east, and to the Orontes on the west. With the exception of a few
+mud-built villages along the east and near the city, there is no settled
+population between Hums and Palmyra. The wild roving Bedawin sweep the
+vast plains in every direction, and only a few years ago, the great
+gates of Hums were frequently closed at midday to prevent the incursion
+of these rough robbers of the desert. On the west of the city are
+beautiful gardens and orchards of cherry, walnut, apricot, plum, apple,
+peach, olive, pomegranate, fig and pear trees, and rich vineyards cover
+the fields on the south. It is a clean and compact town of about 25,000
+inhabitants, of whom 7000 are Greek Christians, 3000 Jacobites, and the
+rest Mohammedans. The houses are built of sun-dried bricks and black
+basaltic rock, and the streets are beautifully paved with small square
+blocks of the same rock, giving it a neat and clean appearance. There
+are few windows on the street; the houses are one story high, with
+diminutive doors, not more than four feet high; and the low dull walls
+stretching along the streets, give the city a dismal and monotonous
+appearance. The reason of building the doors so _low_, is to prevent the
+quartering of Turkish government horsemen on their families, as well as
+to prevent the Bedawin Arabs from plundering them. On the southwest
+corner of the city stands an ancient castle in ruins, built on an
+artificial mound of earth of colossal size, which was once faced with
+square blocks of black trap rock, but this facing has been all stripped
+off to build the modern city.
+
+The people are simple and country-like in dress and manners, and the
+most of them have a cow-yard within the courts of their houses, thus
+combining the pastoral with the citizen life. The majority of the Greeks
+are silk-weavers and shoemakers, weaving girdles, scarfs and robes for
+different parts of Syria and Egypt, and supplying the Bedawin and the
+Nusairy villagers with coarse red-leather boots and shoes.
+
+Hums early became the seat of a Christian Church, and in the reign of
+Diocletian, its bishop, Silvanus, suffered martyrdom. In 636
+A.D., it was captured by the Saracens, (or "Sherakīyeen,"
+"Easterns," as the Arab Moslems were called,) and although occupied for
+a time by the Crusaders, it has continued a Moslem city, under
+Mohammedan rule. The Greek population have been oppressed and ground to
+the very dust by their Moslem neighbors and rulers, and their women have
+been driven for protection into a seclusion and degradation similar to
+that of the Moslem hareems.
+
+The Rev. D.M. Wilson, a missionary of the A.B.C.F.M., took up his
+residence in Hums in October 1855, and remained until obliged to leave
+by the civil war which raged in the country in 1860. Mr. and Mrs. Aiken
+went to Hums in April, 1856, but Mrs. Aiken died June 20, after having
+given promise of rare usefulness among the women of Syria.
+
+After Mr. Wilson left Hums, a faithful native helper, Sulleba Jerwan,
+was sent to preach in Hums. His wife, Luciya Shekkoor, had been trained
+in the family of Rev. W. Bird in Deir el Komr, and was a devoted and
+excellent laborer on behalf of the women of Hums. In October, 1862, one
+of the more enlightened men among the Greeks was taken ill, and sent for
+Pastor Sulleba to come and make him a religious visit. He went, and
+found quite a company of relatives and friends present. The sick man
+asked him to read from the Word of God, and among the passages selected,
+was that containing the Ten Commandments. While he was reading the
+_Second_ Commandment, the _wife_ of the sick man exclaimed, "Is that the
+Word of God? If it is, read it again." He did so, when she arose and
+tore down a wooden painted picture of a saint, which had been hung at
+the head of the bed, declaring that henceforth there should be no idol
+worship in that house. Then taking a knife, she scraped the paint from
+the picture, and took it to the kitchen to serve as the cover to a
+saucepan! This was done with the approbation of all present. The case
+was the more remarkable, as it was one of the first cases in Syria in
+which a woman has taken such a decided stand against picture-worship and
+saint-worship, in advance of the rest of the family.
+
+In the year 1863, before the ordination of Pastor Sulleba, there being
+no Protestant properly qualified to perform the marriage ceremony in
+Hums, I went to that city to marry two of the Protestant young men. It
+was the first time a Protestant marriage had ever taken place in Hums,
+and great interest was felt in the ceremony. It is the custom among the
+other sects to _pronounce_ the bride and groom husband and wife, neither
+giving an opportunity to spectators to object, nor asking the girl if
+she is willing to marry the man. The girl is oftentimes not consulted,
+but simply told she is to marry such a man. If it pleases her, well and
+good. If not, there is no remedy. The Greek Church gives no liberty in
+this respect, although the priest takes it for granted that the friends
+have satisfied both bride and groom with regard to the desirableness of
+the match. If they are not satisfied, the form of the ceremony gives
+neither of them the right of refusal.
+
+The two young men, Ibrahim and Yunis, called upon me soon after my
+arrival, to make arrangements for the marriage. I read them the form of
+the marriage ceremony and they expressed their approval, but said it
+would be necessary to give the brides very careful instructions as to
+how and when to answer, lest they say yes when they should say _no_, and
+_no_ when they wished to say _yes_! I asked them to accompany me to the
+houses of the girls, that I might give them the necessary directions.
+They at once protested that this would not be allowed. They had never
+called at the brides' houses when the girls were present, and it would
+be a grievous breach of decorum for them to go even with me. So certain
+of the male relatives of the girls were sent for to accompany me, and I
+went to their houses. On entering the house of the first one, it was
+only after long and elaborate argument and diplomatic management, that
+we could induce the bride to come in from the other room and meet me. At
+length she came, with her face partially veiled, and attended by several
+married women, her relatives.
+
+They soon began to ply me with questions. "Do you have the communion
+before the ceremony?" "No." "Do you use the "Ikleel" or crown, in the
+service?" "No, we sometimes use the ring." Said one, "I hear that you
+ask the girl if she is willing to take this man to be her husband."
+"Certainly we do." "Well, if that rule had been followed in my day, I
+know of _one_ woman who would have said _no_; but they do not give us
+Greek women the chance."
+
+I then explained to them that the bride must stand beside the
+bridegroom, and when I asked her if she knew of any lawful reason why
+she should _not_ marry this man, Ibrahīm, she should say _No_,--and when
+I asked her if she took him to be her lawful and wedded husband, she
+must answer _Yes_. Some of the women were under great apprehension that
+she might answer No in the wrong place; so I repeated it over and over
+again until the girl was sure she should not make a mistake. The woman
+above alluded to now said, "I would have said No in the _right_ place,
+if I had been allowed to do it!" I then went to the house of the other
+bride and gave her similar instructions. The surprise of the women who
+came in from the neighborhood, that the girl should have the right to
+say yes or no, was most amusing and suggestive. That one thing seemed to
+give them new ideas of the dignity and honor of woman under the Gospel.
+Marriage in the East is so generally a matter of bargain and sale, or of
+parental convenience and profit, or of absolute compulsion, that young
+women have little idea of exercising their own taste or judgment in the
+choice of a husband.
+
+This was new doctrine for the city of Heliogabalus, and, as was to be
+expected, the news soon spread through the town that the next evening a
+marriage ceremony was to be performed by the Protestant minister, in
+which the bride was to have the privilege of refusing the man if she
+wished. And, what was even more outrageous to Hums ideas of propriety,
+it was rumored that the brides were to walk home from the Church _in
+company with their husbands_! This was too much, and certain of the
+young Humsites, who feared the effect of conferring such unheard-of
+rights and privileges on women, leagued together to mob the brides and
+grooms if such a course were attempted. We heard of the threat and made
+ample preparations to protect Protestant women's rights.
+
+The evening came, and with it such a crowd of men, women and children,
+as had never assembled in that house before. The houses of Hums are
+built around a square area into which all the rooms open, and the open
+space or court of the mission-house was very large. Before the brides
+arrived, the entire court, the church and the schoolroom, were packed
+with a noisy and almost riotous throng. Men, women and children were
+laughing and talking, shouting and screaming to one another, and
+discussing the extraordinary innovation on Hums customs about to be
+enacted. Soon the brides arrived, accompanied by a veiled and sheeted
+crowd of women, all carrying candles and singing as they entered the
+house. We took them into the study of the native preacher Sulleba, and
+after a reasonable delay, we forced a way for them through the crowd
+into the large square room, then used as a church. My brother and myself
+finally succeeded in placing them in a proper position in front of the
+pulpit, and then we waited until Asaad and Michaiel and Yusef and Nasif
+had enforced a tolerable stillness. It should be said that silence and
+good order are almost unknown in the Oriental churches. Men are walking
+about and talking, and even laughing, while the priests are "performing"
+the service, and they are much impressed by the quiet and decorum of
+Protestant worship.
+
+The two brides were closely veiled so that I could not distinguish the
+one from the other. Ibrahim was slender and tall, at least six feet
+three, and Yunis was short and corpulent. So likewise, one of the brides
+was very tall, and the other even shorter than Yunis. As we could not
+see the brides' faces, we arranged them according to symmetry and
+apparent propriety, placing the tall bride by the tall groom, and the
+two short ones together. After the introductory prayer, I proceeded to
+deliver a somewhat full and practical address on the nature of marriage,
+and the duties and relations of husband and wife, as is our custom in
+Syria, not only for the instruction of the newly married pair, but for
+the good of the community. No Methodist exhorter ever evoked more hearty
+responses, than did this address, from the Hums populace. "That is
+true." "That is news in _this_ city." "Praise to God." _Mashallah!_ A
+woman exclaimed on hearing of the duties of husband to wife, "Praise to
+God, women are something after all!" I then turned to the two pairs, and
+commenced asking Ibrahim the usual question, "Do you" (etc., etc.,) when
+a woman screamed out, "Stop, stop, Khowadji, you have got the wrong
+bride by that man. He is to marry the short girl!" Then followed an
+explosion of laughter, and during the confusion we adjusted the matter
+satisfactorily. A Moslem Effendi who was present remarked after
+listening to the service throughout, "that is the most sensible way of
+getting married that I ever heard of."
+
+After the ceremony, we sent the newly married pairs to the study to
+await the dispersion of the multitude, before going into the street. But
+human curiosity was too great. None would leave until they saw the
+extraordinary sight of a bride and groom walking home together. So we
+prepared our lanterns and huge canes, and taking several of the native
+brethren, my brother and myself walked home first with Ibrahim and wife,
+and then with Yunis and his wife. We walked on either side of them, and
+the riotous rabble, seeing that they could not reach the bride and
+groom, without first demolishing two tall Khowadjis with heavy canes,
+contented themselves with coarse jokes and contemptuous laughter.
+
+This was nine years ago, and on a recent visit to Hums, the two brides
+and their husbands met me at the door of the church on Sunday, to show
+me their children. Since that time numerous Protestant weddings have
+taken place in Hums, and a new order of things is beginning to dawn upon
+that people.
+
+The present native pastor, the Rev. Yusef Bedr, was installed in June,
+1872. His wife Leila, is a graduate of the Beirūt Female Seminary, and
+has been for several years a teacher. Her father died in January, 1871,
+in the hospital of the Beirūt College, and her widowed mother, Im
+Mishrik, has gone to labor in Hums as a Bible Woman. When her father was
+dying, I went to see him. Noticing his emaciated appearance, I said,
+"Are you very ill, Abū Mishrik?" "No my friend, _I_ am not ill. My body
+is ill; and wasting away but _I_ am well. I am happy. I cannot describe
+my joy. I have no desire to return to health again. If you would fill my
+hands with bags of gold, and send me back to Abeih in perfect health, to
+meet my family again, I would not accept the offer, in the place of what
+I _know_ is before me. I am going to see Christ! I see Him now. I know
+He has borne my sins, and I have nothing now to fear. It would comfort
+me to see some of my friends again, and especially Mr. Calhoun, whom I
+love; but what are my friends compared with Christ, whom I am going so
+soon to see?" After prayer, I bade him good bye, and a few hours after,
+he passed peacefully away.
+
+The teacher of the Girls' School in Hums, is Belinda, also a former
+pupil of the Beirūt Seminary. Her brother-in-law, Ishoc, is the faithful
+colporteur, who has labored so earnestly for many years in the work of
+the Gospel in Syria. His grandfather was a highway robber, who was
+arrested by the Pasha, after having committed more than twenty murders.
+When led out to the gallows, the Pasha offered him office as district
+governor, if he would turn Moslem. The old murderer refused, saying that
+he had not much religion, but he would not give up the Greek Church! So
+he was hung, and the Greeks regarded him as a martyr to the faith!
+Ishoc's father was as bad as the grandfather, and trained Ishoc to the
+society of dancing girls and strolling minstrels. When Ishoc became a
+Protestant, the father took down his sword to cut off his head, but his
+mother interceded and saved his life. Afterwards his father one day
+asked him if it was possible that a murderer, son of a murderer, could
+be saved. He read the gospel to him, prayed with him, and at length the
+wicked father was melted to contrition and tears. He died a true
+Christian, and the widowed mother is now living with Ishoc in Beirūt.
+Belinda has a good school, and the wealthiest families of the Greeks
+have placed their daughters under her care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+MIRIAM THE ALEPPINE.
+
+
+The city of Aleppo was occupied as a Station of the Syria Mission for
+many years, until finally in 1855 it was left to the Turkish-speaking
+missionaries of the Central Turkey Mission. It is one of the most
+difficult fields of labor in Turkey, but has not been unfruitful of
+genuine instances of saving faith in Christ. Among them is the case of
+Miriam Nahass, (or Mary Coppersmith,) now Miriam Sarkees of Beirūt.
+
+From a letter published in the Youth's Dayspring at the time, I have
+gathered the following facts:
+
+In 1853 and 1854 the Missionaries in Aleppo, Messrs. Ford and Eddy,
+opened a small private school for girls, the teacher of which was Miriam
+Nahass. When the Missionaries first came to Aleppo, her father professed
+to be a Protestant, and on this account suffered not a little
+persecution from the Greek Catholic priests. At times he was on the
+point of starvation, as the people were forbidden to buy of him or sell
+to him. One day he brought his little daughter Miriam to the
+missionaries, and asked them to take her and instruct her in all that is
+good, which they gladly undertook, and her gentle pleasant ways soon won
+their love.
+
+Her mother was a superstitious woman, who hated the missionaries, and
+could not bear to have her daughter stay with them. She used for a long
+time to come almost daily to their house and bitterly complain against
+them and against her husband for robbing her of her daughter. She would
+rave at times in the wildest passion, and sometimes she would weep as if
+broken-hearted; not because she loved her child so much, but because she
+did not like to have her neighbors say to her, "Ah! You have let your
+child become a Protestant!"
+
+It may well be supposed that this was very annoying to the missionary
+who had her in special charge, and so it was; but he found some profit
+in it. He was just then learning to speak the language, and this woman
+by her daily talk, taught him a kind of Arabic, and a use of it, not to
+be obtained from grammars and dictionaries. He traced much of his ready
+command of the language to having been compelled to listen so often to
+the wearisome harangues of Miriam's mother. Sometimes the father would
+be overcome by the mother's entreaties and would take away the girl, but
+after awhile he would bring her back again, to the great joy of those
+who feared they had lost her altogether. This state of things continued
+two or three years, while Miriam's mind was daily improving and her
+character unfolding, and hopes were often entertained that the Spirit of
+God was carrying on a work of grace in her soul.
+
+One day her father came to the missionary, and asked him to loan him
+several thousand piastres (a thousand piastres is $40,) with which he
+might set up business. This was of course refused, when he went away
+greatly enraged. He soon returned and took away his daughter, saying
+that Protestantism did not pay what it cost. It had cost him the loss of
+property and reputation; it had cost him the peace of his household and
+the presence of his little girl, and it did not bring in to him in
+return even the loan of a few piastres, and he would try it no longer.
+Prayer continued to be offered without ceasing for Miriam, thus taken
+back to an irreligious home; and though the missionaries heard of her
+return and her father's return to the corrupt Greek Catholic Church, and
+of the exultation of the mother over the attainment of her wishes, yet
+they did not cease to hope that God would one day bring her back and
+make her a lamb of His fold.
+
+An Arab young woman, Melita, trained in the family of Mrs. Whiting in
+Beirūt, was sent to Aleppo about this time to open a girls' school
+there. The Greek Catholic priests then thought to establish a similar
+school of their own sect to prevent their children from attending that
+of the Protestants. They secured Miriam as their teacher. As she went
+from her home to the school and back again, she used sometimes to run
+into the missionary's house by stealth, and assure him that her heart
+was still with him, and her faith unchanged. The school continued a few
+weeks, but the priests having failed to pay anything towards its
+support, her father would let her teach no more. Perhaps two years
+passed thus, with but little being seen of Miriam, but she was not
+forgotten at the throne of grace.
+
+The teacher from Beirūt having returned to her home, it was proposed to
+Miriam's father that she should teach in the Protestant school. Quite
+unexpectedly he consented, with the understanding that she was to spend
+every evening at home. At first, little was said to her on the subject
+of religion; soon she sought religious conversation herself, and brought
+questions and different passages of Scripture to be explained. After
+about a month, having previously conversed with the missionary about her
+duty, when her father came for her at night, she told him that she did
+not want to go home with him, but to stay where she was. She ought to
+obey God rather than her parents. They had made her act the part of a
+hypocrite long enough; to pretend to be a Catholic when she was a
+Protestant at heart, and they knew that she was. Her father promised
+that everything should be according to her wishes, and then she returned
+with him.
+
+Two or three days passed away and nothing was seen or heard of Miriam. A
+servant was then sent to her father's house to inquire if she was sick,
+and he was rudely thrust away from the door. The missionary felt
+constrained to interfere, that Miriam might at least have the
+opportunity of declaring openly her preference. According to the laws of
+the Turkish government, the father had no right to keep her at her age,
+against her will, and it was necessary that she have an opportunity to
+choose with whom she wished to live. The matter was represented to the
+American Consul, who requested the father to appear before him with his
+daughter. When the officer came to his house, he found that the father
+had locked the door and gone away with the key. From an upper window,
+however, Miriam saw him and told him that she was shut up there a
+prisoner, not knowing what might be done with her, and she begged for
+assistance. She had prepared a little note for the missionary, telling
+of her attachment to Christ's cause, and closing with the last two
+verses of the eighth chapter of Romans, "For I am persuaded, that
+neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
+things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other
+creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
+Christ Jesus our Lord." The janizary proposed to her to try if she could
+not get out upon the roof of the next house, and descend through it to
+the street, which she successfully accomplished, and was soon joyfully
+on her way to a place of protection in the Consulate.
+
+Miriam, after staying three days at the Consul's house, returned to that
+of the missionary. Her parents tried every means to induce her to
+return. They promised and threatened and wept, but though greatly moved
+at times in her feelings, she remained firm to her purpose. They tried
+to induce her to go home for a single night only, but she knew them too
+well to trust herself in their hands. Her mother had artfully arranged
+to meet her at the house of a friend; but her brother came, a little
+before the time, to warn her that a plan was laid to meet her at this
+house with a company of priests who were all ready to marry her forcibly
+to a man whom she knew nothing about, as is often done in this country.
+Miriam thus gave up father and mother, brothers and sisters, for the
+sake of Christ and his gospel.
+
+In the year 1855 Mr. Ford removed to Beirūt, and Miriam accompanied him.
+She made a public profession of her faith in Christ in 1856, and was
+married in 1858 to Mr. Ibrahim Sarkees, foreman and principal proof
+reader of the American Mission Press. Her father has since removed to
+Beirūt, and all of the family have become entirely reconciled to her
+being a Protestant. Her brother Habibs is a frequent attendant on Divine
+service, and regards himself as a Protestant.
+
+Miriam is now deeply interested in Christian work, and the weekly
+meetings of the Native Women's Missionary Society are held at her house.
+The Protestant women agree either to attend this Sewing Society, or pay
+a piastre a week in case of their absence.
+
+I close this chapter with the mention of Werdeh, [Rose,] daughter of the
+celebrated Arabic poet Nasif el Yazijy, who aided Dr. Eli Smith in the
+translation of the Bible into Arabic. She is now a member of the
+Evangelical Church in Beirūt. She herself has written several poems of
+rare merit; one an elegy upon the death of Dr. Smith; another expressing
+grateful thanks to Dr. Van Dyck for attending her sick brother. Only
+this can be introduced here, a poem lamenting the death of Sarah
+Huntington Bistany, daughter of Raheel, who died in January, 1866.
+Sarah's father and her own father, Sheikh Nasif, had been for years on
+the most intimate terms, and the daughters were like sisters. The
+account of Sarah's death will be found in another part of this volume.
+
+    Oh sad separation! Have you left among mortals,
+    An eye without tears, hot and burning with sorrow?
+    Have you left on this earth a heart without anguish,
+    Or a soul unharrowed with grief and emotion?
+    Thou hast plucked off a flower from our beautiful garden,
+    Which shall shine like the stars in the gardens celestial.
+    Wo is me! I have lost a fair branch of the willow
+    Broken ruthlessly off. And what heart is _not_ broken?
+        Thou hast gone, but from me thou wilt never be absent.
+        Thy person will live to my sight and my hearing.
+    Tears of blood will be shed by fair maids thy companions,
+    Thy grave will be watered by tears thickly falling.
+    Thou wert the fair jewel of Syrian maidens,
+    Far purer and fairer than pearls of the ocean.
+    Where now is thy knowledge of language and science?
+    This sad separation has left to us nothing.
+        Ah, wo to the heart of fond father and mother,
+        No sleep,--naught but anguish and watching in sorrow
+        Thou art clad in white robes in the gardens of glory.
+        We are clad in the black robe of sorrow and mourning
+    Oh grave, yield thy honors to our pure lovely maiden,
+    Who now to thy gloomy abode is descending!
+        Our Sarah departed, with no word of farewell,
+        Will she ever return with a fond word of greeting?
+    Oh deep sleep of death, that knows no awaking!
+    Oh absence that knows no thought of returning!
+        If she never comes back to us here in our sorrow,
+        We shall go to her soon. 'Twill be but to-morrow
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+MODERN SYRIAN VIEWS WITH REGARD TO FEMALE EDUCATION.
+
+
+In the year 1847, a Literary Society was formed in Beirūt, through the
+influence of Drs. Thomson, Eli Smith, Van Dyck, De Forest and Mr.
+Whiting, which continued in operation for about six years, and numbered
+among its members the leading men of all the various native communities.
+Important papers were read on various scientific and social subjects.
+The missionaries had been laboring for years to create an enlightened
+public sentiment on the subject of female education, contending against
+social prejudices, profound ignorance, ecclesiastical tyranny and
+selfish opposition, and at length the fruit of their labors began to
+appear. In the following articles may be seen something of the views of
+the better class of Syrians. The first was read before the Beirūt
+Literary Society, Dec. 14, 1849, by Mr. Butrus Bistany, who, as stated
+above, married Raheel, and is now the head of a flourishing Academy in
+Beirūt, and editor of three Arabic journals. I have translated only the
+salient points of this long and able paper:--
+
+We have already spoken of woman in barbarous lands. The Syrian women,
+although better off in some respects than the women of barbarous
+nations, are still in the deepest need of education and elevation,
+since they stand in a position midway between the barbarous and the
+civilized. How few of the hundreds of thousands of women in Syria know
+how to read! How few are the schools ever established here for teaching
+women! Any one who denies the degradation and ignorance of Syrian women,
+would deny the existence of the noonday sun. Do not men shun even an
+allusion to women, and if obliged to speak of them, do they not
+accompany the remark with "a jellak Allah," as if they were speaking of
+a brute beast, or some filthy object? Are they not treated among us very
+much as among the barbarians? To what do they pay the most attention? Is
+it not to ornament and dress, and refining about styles of tatooing with
+the "henna" and "kohl?" What do they know about the training of
+children, domestic economy and neatness of person, and the care of the
+sick? How many abominable superstitions do they follow, although
+forbidden by their own religions? Are not the journals and diaries of
+travellers full of descriptions of the state of our women? Does not
+every one, familiar with the state of society and the family among us,
+know all these things, and mourn over them, and demand a reform? Would
+that I might awaken among the women the desire to learn, that thus they
+might be worthy of higher honor and esteem!
+
+"Woman should be instructed in _religion_. This is one of her highest
+rights and privileges and her bounden duty.
+
+"She should be taught in her own vernacular tongue, so as to be able to
+express herself correctly, and use pure language. Woman should learn to
+_write_.
+
+"She should be taught to _read_. How is it possible for woman to
+remember all her duties, religious and secular, through mere oral
+instruction? But a written book, is a teacher always with her, and in
+every place and circumstance. It addresses her without a voice, rebukes
+her without fear or shame, answers without sullenness and complaint. She
+consults it when she wishes, without anxiety and embarrassment, and
+banishes it if not faithful or satisfactory, or even burns it without
+crime!
+
+"Why forbid woman the use of the only means she can have of sending her
+views and feelings where the voice cannot reach? _Now_ when a woman
+wishes to write a letter, she must go, closely veiled to the street, and
+hire a professional scribe to write for her, a letter which she cannot
+read, and which may utterly misrepresent her!
+
+"Woman should also have instruction in the _training of children_. The
+right training of children is not a natural instinct. It is an art, and
+a lost art among us. It must be learned from the experience and
+observation of those who have lived before us; and where do we now find
+the woman who knows how to give proper care to the bodies and souls of
+her children?"
+
+Mr. Bistany then speaks of the importance of teaching woman domestic
+economy, sewing, cooking, and the care of the sick, as well as
+geography, arithmetic, and history, giving as reasons for the foregoing
+remarks, that the education of woman will benefit herself, her husband,
+her children and her country.
+
+"How can she be an intelligent wife, a kind companion, a wise
+counsellor, a faithful spouse, aiding her husband, lightening his
+sufferings, training his children, and caring for his home, without
+education? Without education, her taste is corrupt. She will seek only
+outward ornament, and dress, and painting, as if unsatisfied with her
+Creator's work; becoming a mere doll to be gazed at, or a trap to catch
+the men. She will believe in countless superstitions, such as the Evil
+Eye, the howling of dogs, the crying of foxes, etc., which are too well
+known to need mention here. He who would examine this subject, should
+consult that huge unwritten book, that famous volume called "Ketab en
+Nissa," the "Book of the Women," a work which has no existence among
+civilized women; or ask the old wives who have read it, and taught it in
+their schools of superstition.
+
+"Let him who would know the evils of neglecting to educate woman, look
+at the ignorant, untaught woman in her language and dress, her conduct
+at home and abroad; her notions, thoughts, and caprices on religion and
+the world; her morals, inclinations and tastes; her house, her husband,
+her children and acquaintances, when she rejoices or mourns, when sick
+or well; and he will agree with us that an uneducated woman is a great
+evil in the world, not to say the greatest evil possible to be imagined.
+
+"In the reformation of a nation, then, the first step in the ladder is
+the education of the women from their childhood. And those who neglect
+the women and girls, and expect the elevation of the people by the mere
+training of men and boys, are like one walking with one foot on the
+earth, and the other in the clouds! They fail in accomplishing their
+purpose and are barely able, by the utmost energy, to repair that which
+woman has corrupted and destroyed. They build a wall, and woman tears
+down a castle. They elevate boys one degree, and women depress them many
+degrees.
+
+"Perhaps I have now said enough on a subject never before written upon
+by any of our ancestors of the sons of the Arabs. My object has been to
+prove the importance of the education of woman, based on the maxim,
+that, 'she who rocks the cradle with her right hand, moves the world
+with her arm.'"
+
+The next article I have translated from Mr. Bistany's Semi-monthly
+Magazine, called the "Jenan," for July, 1870. It was written by an Arab
+_woman_ of Aleppo, the Sitt Mariana Merrash. She writes with great power
+and eloquence in the Arabic; and her brother, Francis Effendi, is one of
+the most powerful writers of modern Syria. The paper of the Sitt Mariana
+is long, and the introduction is most ornate and flowery. She writes on
+the condition of woman among the Arabs, and refutes an ancient Arab
+slander against women that they are cowardly and avaricious, because
+they will not fight, and carefully hoard the household stores. She then
+proceeds:--
+
+"Wo to us Syrian women, if we do not know enough to distinguish and seek
+after those qualities which will elevate and refine our minds, and give
+breadth to our thoughts, and enable us to take a proper position in
+society! We ought to attract sensible persons to us by the charm of our
+cultivation and refinement, not by the mere phantom of beauty and
+personal ornament. Into what gulfs of stupidity have we plunged! Do we
+not know that the reign of beauty is short, and not enough of itself to
+be worthy of regard? And even supposing that it were enough of itself,
+in the public estimation, to make us attractive and desirable, do we not
+know assuredly that after beauty has faded, we should fall at once into
+a panic of anxiety and grief, since none would then look at us save with
+the eye of contempt and ridicule, to say nothing of the vain attempts at
+producing artificial beauty which certain foolish women make, as if they
+were deaf to the insults and abuse heaped upon them? Shall we settle
+down in indolence, and never once think of what is our highest advantage
+and our chiefest good? Shall we forever run after gay attire and
+ornament? Let us arise and run the race of mental culture and literary
+adornment, and not listen for a moment to those who insult us by denying
+the appropriateness of learning to women, and the capacity of women for
+learning!
+
+"Were we not made of the same clay as men? Even if we are of weaker
+texture, we have the same susceptibility which they have to receive
+impressions from what is taught to us. If it is good, we receive good as
+readily as they; and if evil, then evil. Of what use is a crown of gold
+on the brow of ignorance, and what loveliness is there in a jewelled
+star on the neck of coarseness and brutality, or in a diamond necklace
+over a heart of stupidity and ignorance? The great poet Mutanebbi has
+given us an apothegm of great power on this very subject. He says:
+
+    'Fukr el jehūl bela okl ila adab,
+     Fukr el hamar bela ras ila resen,'
+
+     'A senseless fool's need of instruction is like a headless donkey's
+     need of a halter.'
+
+"Let us then gird ourselves with wisdom and understanding, and robe
+ourselves with true politeness and meekness, and be crowned with the
+flowers of the 'jenan' (gardens) of knowledge (a pun on the name of the
+magazine) now opened to us. Let us pluck the fruits of wisdom, lifting
+up our heads in gratulation and true pride, and remain no longer in that
+cowardice and avarice which were imputed to the women of the Arabs
+before us!"
+
+The next article I shall translate, is a paper on the Training of
+Children in the East, by an Arab woman of Alexandria, Egypt, the Sitt
+Wustina Mesirra, wife of Selim Effendi el Hamawy. It was printed in the
+"Jenan" for Jan., 1871. After a long and eloquent poetical introduction,
+this lady says:--
+
+"Let us put off the robes of sloth and inertness, and put on the dress
+of zeal and earnestness. We belong to the nineteenth century, which
+exceeds all the ages of mankind in light and knowledge. Why shall we not
+show to men the need of giving us the highest education, that we may at
+the least contribute to _their_ happiness and advantage, and rightly
+train our children and babes, not to say that we may pluck the fruits of
+science, and the best knowledge for ourselves? Let them say to us, you
+are weak and lacking in knowledge. I reply, by perseverance and
+patience, we shall attain our object.
+
+"Inasmuch as every one who reaches mature years, must pass by the road
+of childhood and youth, everything pertaining to the period of childhood
+becomes interesting and important, and I beg permission to say a word on
+the training of children.
+
+"When it pleased God to give us our first child, I determined to train
+it according to the old approved modes which I had learned from my
+family relatives and fellow-countrywomen. So I took the baby boy soon
+after his birth, and put him in a narrow cradle provided with a tin tube
+running down through a perforation in the little bed, binding and tying
+him down, and wrapping and girding him about from his shoulders to his
+heels, so that he was stiff and unmovable, excepting his head, which
+rolled and wriggled about from right to left, with the rocking of the
+cradle, this rocking being deemed necessary for the purpose of inducing
+sleep and silence in the child. My lord and husband protested against
+this treatment, proving to me the evil effects of this wrapping and
+rocking, by many and weighty reasons, and even said that it would injure
+the little ones for life, even if they survived the outrageous abuse
+they were subjected to. I was astonished, and said, how can this be? We
+were all trained and treated in this manner, and yet lived and grew up
+in the best possible style. All our countrymen have been brought up in
+this way, and none of them that I know of have ever been injured in the
+way you suggest. He gave it up, and allowed me to go on in the old way,
+until something happened which suddenly checked the babe in his progress
+in health and happiness. He began to throw up his milk after nursing,
+and to grow ill, giving signs of brain disease, and then my lord said,
+you must now give up these customs and take my counsel. So, on the spur
+of the moment, I accepted his advice and gave up the cradle. I unrolled
+the bindings and wrappings and gave up myself to putting things in due
+order. I clothed my child with garments adapted to his age and
+circumstances, and to the time and place, and regulated the times of his
+eating and play by day, and kept him awake as much as might be, so that
+he and his parents could sleep at night. I soon saw a wonderful change
+in his health and vigor, though I experienced no little trouble from my
+efforts to wean him from the rocking of the cradle to which he was
+accustomed. My favorable experience in this matter, led me to use my
+influence to induce the daughters of my race, and my own family
+relatives, to give up practices which are alike profitless, laborious
+and injurious to health. My husband also aided me in getting books on
+the training of children, and I studied the true system of training,
+learning much of what is profitable to the mothers and fathers of my
+country in preserving the health of their children in mind and body. The
+binding and wrapping of babes in the cradle prevents their free and
+natural movements, and the natural growth of the body, and injures their
+health."
+
+The next paper is from the pen of Khalil Effendi, editor of the Turkish
+official journal of Beirūt. It appeared in the columns of the "Hadikat
+el Akhbar" of January, 1867. It represents the leading views of a large
+class of the more enlightened Syrians with regard to education, and by
+way of preface to the Effendi's remarks, I will make a brief historical
+statement.
+
+The Arab race were in ancient times celebrated for their schools of
+learning, and although the arts and sciences taught in the great
+University under the Khalifs of Baghdad, were chiefly drawn from Greece,
+yet in poetry, logic and law the old Arab writers long held a proud
+preėminence. But since the foundation of the present Ottoman Empire, the
+Arabs have been under a foreign yoke, subject to every form of
+oppression and wrong, and for generations hardly a poet worth the name
+has appeared excepting Sheikh Nasif el Yazijy. Schools have been
+discouraged, and learning, which migrated with the Arabs into Spain, has
+never returned to its Eastern home. There are in every Moslem town and
+city common schools, for every Moslem boy must be taught to read the
+Koran; but with the exception of the Egyptian school of the Jamea el
+Azhar in Cairo, there had not been up to 1867 for years even a high
+school under native auspices, in the Arabic-speaking world. But what the
+Turks have discouraged and the Arab Moslems have failed to do, is now
+being done among the nominal Christian sects, and chiefly by foreign
+educators. During the past thirty years a great work in educating the
+Arab race in Syria has been done by the American Missionaries. Their
+Seminary in Abeih, on Mount Lebanon, has trained multitudes of young
+men, who are now scattered all over Syria and the East, and are making
+their influence felt. Other schools have sprung up, and the result is,
+that the young men and women of Syria are now talking about the "Asur el
+Jedid," or "New Age of Syria," by which they mean an age of education
+and light and advancement. The Arabic journal, above referred to, is
+owned by the Turkish government, or rather subsidized by it, and its
+editor is a talented young Greek of considerable poetic ability. It is
+not often that he ventures to speak out boldly on such a theme as
+education, but the pressure from the people upon the Governor-General
+was so great at the time, that he gave permission to the editor to utter
+his mind. I translate what he wrote, quite literally.
+
+"There can be no doubt that the strength of every people and the source
+of their happiness, rest upon the diffusion of knowledge among them.
+Science has been in every age the foundation of wealth and national
+progress, and since science and the arts are the forerunners of popular
+civilization, and the good of the masses and their elevation in the
+scale of intellectual and physical growth, therefore primary education
+is the necessary preparation for all scientific progress. And in view of
+this, the providence of our most exalted government has been turned to
+the accomplishment of what has been done successfully in other lands, in
+the multiplication of schools and colleges. And none can be ignorant of
+the great progress of science and education, under His August Imperial
+Excellency the Sultan, in Syria, where schools and printing presses have
+multiplied, especially in the city of Beirūt and its vicinity. For in
+Beirūt and Mount Lebanon, there are nearly two thousand male pupils,
+large and small, in Boarding Schools, learning the Arabic branches and
+foreign languages, and especially the French language, which is more
+widely spread than any other. The most noted of these schools are the
+French Lazarist School at Ain Tura in Lebanon, the American Seminary in
+Abeih, the Jesuit School at Ghuzir, and the Greek School at Suk el
+Ghurb, the most of the pupils being from the cities of Syria. Then there
+are in Beirūt the Greek School, the school of the Greek Catholic
+Patriarch, the Native National College of Mr. Betrus el Bistany, and
+there are also nearly a thousand _girls_ in the French Lazarist School,
+the Prussian Protestant Deaconesses, the American Female Seminary and
+Mrs. Thompson's British Syrian School, and other female schools. And
+here we must mention that all of these schools, (excepting the Druze
+Seminary,) are in the hands of _Christians_, and the Mohammedans of
+Beirūt have not a single school other than a common school, although in
+Damascus and Tripoli they have High Schools which are most successful,
+and many of their children in Beirūt, are learning in Christian schools,
+a fact which we take as a proof of their anxiety to attain useful
+knowledge, although they have not as yet done aught to found schools of
+their own. And though the placing of their children in Christian schools
+is a proof of the love and fellowship between these two sects in this
+glorious Imperial Age, we cannot but say that it would be far more
+befitting to the honor and dignity of the Mussulmen to open schools for
+their own children as the other sects are doing. And lately the Imperial
+Governor of Syria has been urging them to this step, and they are now
+planning the opening of such a school, which will be a means of great
+benefit and glory to Islam."
+
+The editor then states that the great want of Syria is a school where a
+high _practical_ education can be given, and says:--
+
+"We now publish the glad tidings to the sons of Syria that such a
+College has just been opened in Syria, in the city of Beirūt, by the
+liberality of good men in America and England, and called the "Syria
+Protestant College." It is to accommodate eventually one thousand
+pupils, will have a large library and scientific apparatus, including a
+telescope for viewing the stars, besides cabinets of Natural History,
+Botany, Geology and Mineralogy. It will teach all Science and Art, Law
+and Medicine, and we doubt not will meet the great want of our native
+land."
+
+Five years have passed since the above was written. Since that time the
+number of pupils in the various schools in Beirūt has trebled, and new
+educational edifices of stately proportions are being built or are
+already finished, in every part of the city. It may be safely said that
+the finest structures in Beirūt are those built for educational
+purposes. The Latins have the Sisters of Charity building of immense
+proportions, the Jesuit establishment, the Maronite schools, and the
+French Sisters of Nazareth Seminary, which is to be one of the most
+commanding edifices of the East. The Greeks have their large High
+School, and the Papal-Greeks, or Greek-Catholics their lofty College.
+The Moslems have built with funds drawn from the treasury of the
+municipality, a magnificent building for their Reshidiyeh, while the
+Protestants have the imposing edifices occupied by the American Female
+Seminary, the British Syrian Schools, the Prussian Deaconesses
+Institute, and most extensive and impressive of all, the new edifices of
+the Syrian Protestant College at Ras Beirūt.
+
+As another illustration of public sentiment in Syria with regard to
+evangelical work, I will translate another paragraph from this official
+newspaper:
+
+"We have been writing of the progress of the Press in Syria, and of
+Arabic literature in Europe, but we have another fact to mention which
+will no doubt fill the sons of our country with astonishment. You know
+well the efforts which were put forth some time since in the printing of
+the Old and New Testaments in various editions in the Arabic language,
+in the Press of the American Mission in Beirūt. This work is under the
+direction of the distinguished scholar Dr. Van Dyck, who labored
+assiduously in the completion of the translation of the Bible from the
+Hebrew and Greek languages, which was commenced by the compassionated of
+God, Dr. Eli Smith. They had printed from time to time large editions of
+this Bible with great labor and expense, and sold them out, and then
+were obliged to set up the types again for a new edition. But Dr. Van
+Dyck thought it best, in order to find relief from the vast expenditure
+of time and money necessary to reset the types, to prepare for every
+page of the Bible a plate of copper, on whose face the letters should be
+engraved. He therefore proceeded to New York, and undertook in
+co-operation, with certain men skilled in the electrotyping art, to make
+plates exactly corresponding to the pages of the Holy Book, and he has
+sent to us a specimen page taken from the first plate of the vowelled
+Testament, and on comparison with the page printed here, we find it an
+exact copy of the Beirūt edition which is printed in the same type with
+our journal. We regard it as far clearer and better than the sheets
+printed from movable types, and we congratulate Dr. Van Dyck, and wish
+him all success in this enterprise."
+
+Such statements as these derive their value from the fact that they
+appear in the official paper of a Mohammedan government, and are a
+testimony to the value of the Word of God.
+
+The next article is a literal translation of an address delivered in
+June, 1867, at the Annual Examination of the Beirūt Female Seminary.
+This Seminary was the first school in Syria for girls, which was
+established on the paying principle, and in the year 1867 its income
+from Syrian girls who paid their own board and tuition was about fifteen
+hundred dollars in gold. It commenced with six pupils, and now has fifty
+boarders. A crowded assembly attended the examination in the year above
+mentioned, and at its close, several native gentlemen made addresses in
+Arabic. The most remarkable address was made by a Greek Priest, Ghubrin
+Jebara, the Archimandrite and agent of the Patriarch. When it is
+remembered that in the days of Bird, Goodell and Fisk, the Greek clergy
+were among the most bitter enemies of the missionaries, it will be seen
+that this address indicates a great change in Syria. Turning to the
+great congregation of three or four hundred people who were assembled in
+the American Chapel, Greeks, Maronites, Mohammedans, Catholics and
+Protestants, he said:
+
+"You know my friends, into what a sad state our land and people had
+fallen, morally, socially and intellectually. We had no schools, no
+books, no means of instruction, when God in His Providence awakened the
+zeal of good men far across two seas in distant America, of which many
+of us had never heard, to leave home and friends and country to spend
+their lives among us, yes even among such as I am. In the name of my
+countrymen in Syria, I would this day thank these men, and those who
+sent them. They have given us the Arabic Bible, numerous good books,
+founded schools and seminaries, and trained our children and youth. But
+for the American Missionaries the Word of God would have well nigh died
+out of the Arabic language. But now through the labors of the lamented
+Eli Smith and Dr. Van Dyck, they have given us a translation so pure, so
+exact, so clear and so classical as to be acceptable to all classes and
+all sects. But for their labors, education would still be where it was
+centuries ago, and our children would still have continued to grow up
+like wild beasts. Is there any one among us so bigoted, so ungrateful,
+as not to appreciate these benevolent labors; so blind as not to see
+their fruits? True, other European Missionaries have come here from
+France and Italy, and we will not deny their good intentions. But what
+have they brought us? And what have they taught? A little French. They
+tell us how far Lyons is from Paris, and where Napoleon first lived,
+and then they forbid the Word of God, and scatter broadcast the writings
+of the accursed infidel Voltaire. But these Americans have come
+thousands of miles, from a land than which there is no happier on earth,
+to dwell among such as we are, yes, I repeat it, such as I am, to
+translate God's word, to give us schools and good books, and a goodly
+example, and I thank them for it. I thank them and all who are laboring
+for us. I would thank Mr. Mikhaiel Araman, the Principal of this Female
+Seminary, who is a son of our land, and Miss Rufka Gregory, the
+Preceptress, who is a daughter of our own people, for the wonderful
+progress we have witnessed during these three days among the daughters
+of our own city and country, in the best kind of knowledge. Allah grant
+prosperity to this Seminary, and all its teachers and pupils, peace and
+happiness to all here present to-day and long life to our Sultan Abdul
+Aziz."
+
+As my object in giving these extracts from Arab writers and orators of
+the present day, is to give some idea of the change going on in Syrian
+public sentiment with regard to education, the dignity of woman, and the
+abolition of superstitious social usages, I cannot do better than to
+translate from the official journal of Daūd Pasha, late governor of Mt.
+Lebanon, an article on the customs of the Lebanon population. This paper
+was styled "Le Liban," and printed both in Arabic and French in July,
+1867. It gives us a glimpse of the civilizing and Christianizing
+influences which are at work in Syria.
+
+"In Mount Lebanon there exist certain customs, which had their origin
+in kindly feeling and sympathy, but have now passed beyond the limits of
+propriety, and lost their original meaning. For example, when one falls
+sick, his relatives and friends at once begin to pour in upon him. The
+whole population of the town will come crowding into the house, each one
+speaking to the sick a word of comfort and encouragement, and then
+sitting down in the sick room. The poor invalid must respond to all
+these salutations, and even be expected to rise in bed and bow to his
+loving friends. Then the whole company must speak a word to the family,
+to the wife and children, assuring them that the disease is but slight,
+and the sick man will speedily recover. Then they crowd into the sick
+room (and _such_ a crowd it is!) and the family and servants are kept
+running to supply them with cigars and narghīlehs, by means of which
+they fill the room with a dense and suffocating smoke. Meantime, they
+talk all at once and in a loud voice, and the air soon becomes impure
+and suffocating, and all these things as a matter of course injure the
+sick man, and he becomes worse. Then the childish doctors of the town
+are summoned, and in they come with grave faces, and a great show of
+wisdom, and each one begins to recount the names of all the medicines he
+has heard of, and describes their effects in working miraculous cures.
+Then they enter into ignorant disputes on learned subjects, and talk of
+the art of medicine of which they know nothing save what they have
+learned by hearsay. One will insist that this medicine is the best,
+because his father used it with great benefit just before he died, and
+another will urge the claims of another medicine, of a directly opposite
+character, and opinions will clash, and all in the presence of the sick
+man, who thus becomes agitated and alarmed. He takes first one medicine
+and then its opposite, and then he summons other doctors and consults
+his relatives. Then all the old women of the neighborhood take him in
+hand and set at naught all that the doctors have advised, give him
+medicines of whose properties they are wholly ignorant, and thus they
+hasten the final departure of their friend on his long last journey. And
+if he should die, the whole population of the town assembles at once at
+the house and the relatives, friends, and people from other villages
+come thronging in. They fill the house with their screams and wails of
+mourning. They recount the virtues of the departed with groans and
+shrieks, and lamentations in measured stanzas. This all resembles the
+customs of the old Greeks and Romans who hired male and female mourners
+to do their weeping for them. After this, they proceed at once to bear
+the corpse to the grave, without one thought as to proving whether there
+be yet life remaining or not, not leaving it even twelve hours, and
+never twenty-four hours. It is well known that this custom is most
+brutal and perilous, for they may suppose a living man to be dead, and
+bury him alive, as has, no doubt, often been done. Immediately after the
+burial, the crowd return to the house of the deceased, where a sumptuous
+table awaits them, and all the relatives, friends, and strangers eat
+their fill. After eight days, the wailing, assembling, crowding, and
+eating are repeated, for the consolation of the distracted relatives.
+And these crowds and turbulent proceedings occur, not simply at Syrian
+funerals, but also at marriages and births, in case the child born is a
+_boy_, for the Syrians are fond of exhibiting their joy and sorrow. But
+it should be remembered, that just as in civilized lands, all these
+demonstrations of joy and sorrow are tempered by moderation and wisdom,
+and subdued by silent acquiescence in the Divine will, so in uncivilized
+lands, they are the occasion for giving the loose rein to passion and
+tumult and violent emotion. How much in conformity with true faith in
+God, and religious principle, is the quiet, well-ordered and moderate
+course of procedure among civilized nations!
+
+"So in former times, the man was everywhere the absolute tyrant of the
+family. The wife was the slave, never to be seen by others. And if, in
+conversation, it became necessary to mention her name, it would be by
+saying this was done by my wife 'ajellak Allah.' But now, there is a
+change, and woman is no longer so generally regarded as worthy of
+contempt and abuse, and the progress being made in the emancipation and
+elevation of woman, is one of the noblest and best proofs of the real
+progress of Lebanon in the paths of morality and civilization."
+
+This is the language of the official paper of the Lebanon government.
+Yet how difficult to root out superstitious and injurious customs by
+official utterances! At the very time that article was written, these
+customs continued in full force. A woman in Abeih, whose husband died in
+1866, refused to allow her house or her clothes to be washed for more
+than a whole year afterward, just as though untidiness and personal
+uncleanliness would honor her deceased husband!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+BEDAWIN ARABS.
+
+
+There is one class of the Arab race, of which little or nothing has been
+said in the preceding pages, for the simple reason that there is little
+to be said of missionary work or progress among them. We refer to the
+Bedawin Arabs. The true sons of Ishmael, boasting of their descent from
+him, living a wild, free and independent life, rough, untutored and
+warlike, plundering, robbing and murdering one another as a business;
+roaming over the vast plains which extend from Aleppo to Baghdad, and
+from Baghdad to Central Arabia, and bordering the outskirts of the more
+settled parts of Syria and Palestine; ignorant of reading and writing,
+and yet transacting extensive business in wool and live-stock with the
+border towns and cities; nominally Mohammedans, and yet disobeying every
+precept of Moslem faith and practice; subjects of the Ottoman Sultan,
+and yet living in perpetual rebellion or coaxed by heavy bribes into
+nominal submission; suffering untold hardships from their life of
+constant exposure to winter storms and summer heats; without proper
+food, clothing or shelter, and utterly destitute of medical aid and
+relief, and yet despising the refinements of civilized life, and
+regarding with contempt the man who will sleep under a roof; they
+constitute a most ancient, attractive class of men, interesting to every
+lover of his race, and especially to the Missionary of the Cross.
+
+European missionaries can do little among them. To say nothing of the
+rough, nomadic, unsettled and perilous life they lead, any European
+would find himself so much an object of curiosity and suspicion among
+them, and the peculiar Bedawin pronunciation of the Arabic so different
+from the correct pronunciation, that he would be constantly embarrassed.
+Native missionaries, on the other hand, can go among them freely, and if
+provided with a supply of vaccine virus and simple medicines, can have
+the most unrestrained access to them. During the last ten years, several
+native colporteurs have been sent among the Bedawin, and lately the
+Native Missionary Society in Beirūt has sent out one of its teachers as
+a missionary to the Arabs. There is little use in taking books among
+them, as very few can make use of them. Mr. Arthington of Leeds,
+England, has been making earnest efforts to induce the Bedawin to send
+their children to schools in the towns, or allow schools to be opened
+among their own camps. We have tried every means to induce their leading
+Sheikhs to send their sons and daughters to Beirūt for instruction, but
+the Arabs all dread sending their children to any point within the
+jurisdiction of the Turks, lest they be suddenly seized by the Turks as
+hostages for the good behavior of their parents. The latter course,
+_i.e._, sending teachers to live among them, to migrate with them and
+teach their children as it were "on the wing," seems to be the one most
+practicable, as soon as teachers can be trained. Until the Turkish
+government shall compel the Bedawin to settle down in villages and till
+the soil, there can be little done in the way of instructing them. And
+when that step is taken, it is quite doubtful whether the Moslem
+government will not send its Khoteebs or religious teachers, and compel
+them all to embrace the religion of Islam. If that should be done,
+Christian teachers will have but little opportunity of opening schools
+among them.
+
+One of the leading tribes of the Bedawin is the Anazy, who are more
+numerous, powerful and wealthy than any other Kobileh of the Arabs.
+Their principal Sheikh on the Damascus border is Mohammed ed Dūkhy, the
+warlike and successful leader of ten thousand Arab horsemen, of the
+Weled Ali. He is now an officer of the Turkish government, with a salary
+of ten thousand dollars a year, employed to protect the great Haj or
+Pilgrim Caravan, which goes annually from Damascus to Mecca. He
+furnishes camels for the Haj, and a powerful escort of horsemen, and is
+under bonds to keep the Arabs quiet.
+
+In February, 1871, he came to Beirūt on business, and was the guest of a
+Maronite merchant, who brought him at our invitation to visit the Female
+Seminary, the College and the Printing Press. After looking through the
+Seminary, examining the various departments, and inquiring into the
+course of study he turned to the pupils and said, "Our Bedawin girls
+would learn as much in six months as you learn in two years." I told him
+we should like to see the experiment tried, and that if he would send on
+a dozen Bedawin girls, we would see that they had every opportunity for
+improvement. He said, "Allah only knows the future. Who knows but it may
+yet come to pass?" The Sheikh himself can neither read nor write, but
+his wife, the Sitt Harba, or Lady Spear, who came from the vicinity of
+Hamath, can read and write well, and she is said to be the only
+Bedawīyeh woman who can write a letter. With this in view we prepared an
+elegant copy of the Arabic Bible, enclosed in a waterproof case made by
+the girls of the Seminary, and presented it to him at the Press. He
+expressed great interest in it, and asked what the book contained. We
+explained the contents, and he remarked, "I will have the Sitt Harba
+read to me of Ibrahim, Khalil Allah, (the Friend of God), and Ismaeel,
+the father of the Arabs, and Neby (prophet) Moosa, and Soleiman the
+king, and Aieesa, (Jesus,) the son of Mary." The electrotype apparatus
+deeply interested him, but when Mr. Hallock showed him the steam
+cylinder press, rolling off the sheets with so great rapidity and
+exactness, he stood back and remarked in the most deliberate manner,
+"the man who made that press can conquer anything but death!" It seemed
+some satisfaction to him that in the matter of _death_ the Bedawin was
+on a level with the European.
+
+From the Press, the Sheikh went to the Church, and after gazing around
+on the pure white walls, remarked, "There is the Book, but I see no
+pictures nor images. You worship only God here!" He was anxious to see
+the _Tower Clock_, and although he had lost one arm, and the other was
+nearly paralyzed by a musket shot in a recent fight in the desert, he
+insisted on climbing up the long ladders to see the clock whose striking
+he had heard at the other end of the city, and he gazed long and
+admiringly at this beautiful piece of mechanism. On leaving us, he
+renewedly thanked us for _The Book_, and the next day he left by
+diligence coach for Damascus.
+
+In the summer we sent, at Mr. Arthington's expense, a young man from the
+Beirūt Medical College, named Ali, as missionary to itinerate among the
+Bedawin, with special instructions to persuade the Arabs if possible to
+send their children to school. He remained a month or two among them, by
+day and by night, sleeping by night outside the tents with his horse's
+halter tied to his arms to prevent its being stolen, and spending the
+evenings reading to the assembled crowd from the New Testament. He was
+present as a spectator at a fight between Mohammed's men and the Ruella
+Arabs east of the Sea of Galilee, in which the Ruella were defeated, but
+Mohammed's son Faūr was wounded, and Ali attended him. The Sitt Harba
+told Ali that a papist named Shwiry, in Damascus, had taken the Arabic
+Bible from them! So Ali gave them another. This Bible-hating spirit of
+the Papacy is the same the world over. How contemptible the spirit of a
+man _professing_ the name of Christian, and yet willing to rob the only
+woman among the Bedawin who can read, of the word of everlasting life!
+The whole family of the Sheikh were interested in reading an illustrated
+book for children of folio size, styled "Lilies of the Field," which we
+printed in Beirūt last year. When Ali set out on this journey, I gave
+him a letter to the Sheikh, reminding him of his visit to Beirūt, and
+urging again upon him the sending of his children to school. The Sheikh
+sent me the following reply, written by his wife, the Sitt Harba, and
+sealed with his own signet ring. I value the letter highly as being
+written by the only Bedawin woman able to write:
+
+     To his excellency the most honored and esteemed, our revered
+     Khowadja Henry Jessup, may his continuance be prolonged! Amen.
+
+     After offering you the pearls of salutation, and the ornaments of
+     pure odoriferous greeting, we would beg to inform you that your
+     epistle reached us in the hand of Ali Effendi, and we perused it
+     rejoicing in the information it contained about your health and
+     prosperity. You remind us of the importance of sending our sons and
+     daughters to be educated in your schools. Ali Effendi has urged us
+     very strongly to this course; and has spent several weeks with us
+     among the Arabs. He has read to the children from The Book, and
+     tried to interest them in learning to read. He has also gone from
+     tent to tent among our Bedawin, talking with them and urging upon
+     them this great subject. He constantly read to them that which
+     engaged their attention, and we aided him in urging it upon them.
+     Inshullah (God grant) that there may soon be a school among the
+     Arabs themselves. We Bedawin do not understand the language nor the
+     ways of Europeans, and we should like to have one like Ali Effendi,
+     who knows our way of talking and living, come to teach us and our
+     children. We would also inform you that the book with pictures,
+     which you sent to the Sitt Harba, has reached her, and she has
+     read it with great pleasure, and asks of God to increase your good.
+     She sends salams to you and to the Sitt, and all your family.
+
+                    And may you live forever! Salam
+
+                                                  MOHAMMED DUKHY.
+
+     29 Jemady Akhar
+     1289 of the Hegira
+
+     "Postscript.--There has been a battle between us and the Ruella
+     tribe, and the Ruellas ate a defeat, Ali Effendi was present and
+     will give you the particulars."
+
+At the date of this writing, Ali has been again to Mohammed's camp,
+taking books and medicines, and has done his utmost to prepare the way
+for opening schools among the Bedawin in their own camps. Ali has
+brought another letter from Sitt Harba, in which she gives her views
+with regard to the education of the Bedawin. I sent several written
+questions to her in Arabic, to which she cheerfully gave replies. The
+following is the substance of her answers:
+
+I. The Bedawin Arabs ought to learn to read and write, in order to learn
+religion, to increase in understanding, and to become acquainted with
+the Koran. They profess to be Moslems, but in reality have no religion.
+
+II. The reason why so few of the Bedawin know how to read, is because it
+is out of their line of business. They prefer fighting, plundering, and
+feeding flocks and herds. Reading and books are strange and unknown to
+them.
+
+III. If they wished to learn to read, the true time and place would be
+in the winter, when they migrate to the East in the Jowf, where they
+are quiet and uninterrupted by government tax-gatherers.
+
+IV. I learned to read in the vicinity of Hums. My father brought for my
+instruction a Khoteeb or Moslem teacher, who taught me reading. His name
+was Sheikh Abdullah. The Sheikh Mohammed taught me writing.
+
+V. The Bedawin esteem a boy better than a girl, because the boy may rise
+to honor, but the girl has nothing to expect from her husband, and his
+parents and relatives, but cursing and abuse.
+
+VI. A man may marry four wives. If one of them ceases bearing children,
+and she be of his family, he makes a covenant of fraternity with her,
+and he supports her in his own camp, but she is regarded simply as a
+sister. If she be of another family, he sends her home, and pays her
+what her friends demand.
+
+VII. The girls and women have no more religion than the boys and men.
+They never pray nor fast, nor make the pilgrimage to Mecca. But the old
+women repeat certain prayers, and visit the ziyaras, mazars, and welys,
+and other holy places.
+
+VIII. If teachers would come among us, who can live as we do, and dwell
+in our camps, and travel with us to the desert, they could teach the
+great part of our children to read, especially if they understood the
+art of medicine.
+
+Ali spent several weeks among them, sleeping in the camp, and attending
+upon their sick. The camp was on the mountains east of the Sea of
+Galilee. Fevers prevailed through the entire district from Tiberias to
+Damascus, and Ali devoted himself faithfully to the care of the sick.
+The Sheikh himself was ill with fever and ague, as were several members
+of his family. One day Ali prepared an effervescing draught for him, and
+when the acid and the alkali united, and the mixture effervesced, the
+Bedawin seated in the great tent screamed and ran from the tent as if
+the Ruellas were down upon them! What, said they, is this? He pours
+water into water, and out come fire and smoke! The Sheikh himself was
+afraid to drink it, so Ali took it himself, and finally, after
+explaining the principle of the chemical process, he induced both the
+Sheikh and the Sit Harba to drink the draught. On leaving the
+encampment, the Sheikh gave Ali a guard, and three Turkish pounds (about
+$14,) to pay for his medicines and medical services, saying, that as his
+Bedawin were growing poor since they were forbidden to make raids on
+other tribes, they could not pay for his services, and he would pay for
+all. He offered to give him a goat skin bottle of semin (Arab butter)
+and several sheep, but Ali was unable to carry either, and declined the
+offer. Ali brought a specimen of Bedawin bread. It is black, coarse, and
+mixed with ashes and sand. The Bedawin pound their wheat, and knead the
+coarse gritty flour without sifting, and bake it on the heated earthen
+ovens.
+
+The Bedawin swarm with vermin. Their garments, their persons, their
+tents and their mats are literally alive with the third plague of Egypt,
+_lice_! Ali soon found himself completely overrun with them, and was
+almost driven wild. The Sitt Harba urged him to try the Bedawin remedy
+for cleansing his head. On inquiring what it was, he declared he would
+rather have the disease than the remedy! After his return to his village
+in Lebanon, he spent several days in ablutions and purifications before
+venturing to bring me his report. The Sitt Harba gave him a collection
+of the nursery rhymes which she and the Bedawin women sing to their
+little brown babies, and some of them will be found in the "Children's
+Chapter" of this volume. The Sheikh Mohammed, who can neither read nor
+write, repeated to Ali the following Kosīdeh or Song, which he composed
+in Arabic poetry, after his victory over Feisal, of the Ruella tribe, in
+1866. The Ruellas had previously driven Mohammed's tribe from one of the
+finest pasture regions in Howian, and Ed Dukhy regained it after a
+desperate struggle.
+
+    Oh fair and beautiful plain, oh rich green Bedawin pasture.
+    We had left you, too often stained, with the blood of violent
+        battle;
+    Ah, dark disastrous day, when brother abandoned his brother,
+    Though riding the fleetest of mares, and safe from pursuit of the
+        foeman,
+    He never once turned to inquire, though we tasted the cup of
+        destruction.
+    Oh fair and beautiful plain, we yesterday fought and regained thee!
+    I praise and honor His name, who only the victory giveth!
+    O, Feisal, we've meted to you your deserts in royal measure;
+    With our spears so burning and sharp, we cut off the necks of your
+        Arabs,
+    O, Shepherd of Obaid, you fled deserting your pastures,
+    Biting your finger in pain and regret for your sad disasters--
+    Savage hyena, come forth, from your lair in the land of Jedaileh,
+    Howl to your fellow-beasts, in the distant land of Butīna;
+    Come and eat your fill of the dead in the Plain of Fada,
+    O, fair and beautiful plain, you belong to the tribe of the victor;
+    But Feisal is racked with pain, when he hears the battle story,
+    Our right-handed spearmen have palsied his arm is its strength and
+        power;
+    A blow fell hard on his breast, from the hand of our Anazy warriors;
+    Come now, ye who wish for peace, we are ready in honor to meet you!
+    _Our_ wrongs are all avenged, and our arms are weary of battle.
+
+The Arabic original of these lines breathes the true spirit of poetry,
+and shows that the old poetic fire still burns in the desert. Feisal now
+lives in the region adjacent to Mohammed Dūkhy, and they leave a space
+of several miles between their camps to prevent trespass, and the danger
+of re-opening the old blood-feud.
+
+I would commend the Arabs of the Desert to the prayerful remembrance of
+the Women of America. How the gospel is to reach them, is one of the
+great problems of our day. Their women are sunken to the lowest depths
+of physical and moral degradation. The extent of their religion is in
+being able to swear Mohammedan oaths. "Their mouths are full of cursing
+and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and
+misery are in their ways, and the _way of peace_ have they not known."
+Although their hand is against every man, and every man's hand against
+them, let them feel that there is one class of men who love them and
+care for them with a disinterested love, and who seek their everlasting
+welfare!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+"WOMAN BETWEEN BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION."
+
+
+This is the title of an Arabic article in the "Jenan" for Sept. 1, 1872,
+written by Frances Effendi Merrash, brother of the Sitt Mariana, whose
+paper we have translated on a preceding page. It is evident that the
+Effendi writes from the atmosphere of Aleppo. The more "polite" society
+of that city is largely made up of that mongrel population, half French
+and half Arab, which is styled "Levantine" and too often combines the
+vices of both, with the virtues of neither. It will be seen that the
+able author is combatting the worst form of French flippant
+civilization, which has already found its way into many of the towns and
+cities of the Orient. He says:--
+
+"Inasmuch as woman constitutes a large portion of human kind, and an
+essential element in society, as well as the leading member of the race
+in respect to its perpetuation, it becomes necessary both to consider
+and speak of her character and position although there are not wanting
+those who are coarse enough and rude enough to declare woman a worthless
+part of the creation.
+
+"Woman possesses a nature remarkably impressible and susceptible to
+influence, owing to the delicacy of her organization and the
+peculiarities of her structure. Her proper culture therefore calls for
+the greatest possible skill and care to protect her from those
+corrupting influences to which she is by nature especially susceptible.
+We should therefore neither leave her locked in the fetters of the
+ancient barbarism and rudeness, nor leave her free to the uncontrollable
+liberty of this modern civilization, for both these extremes bring her
+into one common evil estate and both have one effect upon her.
+
+"Have you not observed how the customs of ancient rude barbarism
+corrupted the manners of woman and obliterated all those virtues and
+excellencies for which she is especially designed by nature? It was
+deemed most opprobrious for woman to learn to read and write, to say
+nothing of other arts. It was thought indispensable to bind upon her
+mouth the fetters of profound silence so that none ever heard her voice
+but her own coarse husband, and the walls of the enclosure in which she
+was kept imprisoned. She had no liberty of thought or action. Every
+woman's thoughts were limited by the thoughts of her husband, and her
+character was cast in the mould of his, whether that were good or bad.
+And in addition to this, she always suffered from whatever of rudeness
+there might be in her rough companion, who availed himself of his
+superior brute physical strength as a weapon to overcome her moral
+power. He scourged and cursed and despised her in every possible way,
+when she was innocent of crime or error. As a result of this course,
+her own self respect, and the feeling that she was abused and insulted
+by her companion or partner, led her oftentimes to cast off all shame
+and modesty, whenever a suitable opportunity presented itself. This grew
+out of the fact that she no longer regarded herself as the companion of
+her husband and the sharer of all his natural and moral rights, his joys
+and sorrows, but she rather imagined herself his captive and bond slave.
+She thus sank to the position of a slave-woman who is never allowed
+peace or rest, and cares nothing for the training of her children or the
+ordering of her house, since she looks upon herself as a stranger in a
+home not her own, and we all know how difficult it is for a slave to
+perform the duties of the free!
+
+"On the other hand, have you not observed how the influence of modern
+civilization is corrupting the nature of woman and making havoc with her
+morals?
+
+"There is nothing strange in this, for her delicate nature, when it had
+escaped from the chains and imprisonment of the mildest barbarism, into
+the open free arena of civilization, lost its reckoning, and wandered
+hither and thither in bewilderment according to its own unrestrained
+passions. Woman thus became like a feather, 'Borne on the tempest
+wherever it blows, and driven about where no one knows.'
+
+"Now since evil images and objects are far more numerous in this world
+than those which are good, it becomes evident that the influence of evil
+upon the mind of woman is stronger and more abiding than the influence
+of the good, owing to this intense delicacy of texture in her mental
+constitution. Let us suppose that one man and one woman were placed in a
+position where they should only see evil deeds, or only good deeds: the
+woman would leave that place either vastly worse than the man, or vastly
+better. Now the moral misconduct of woman is far more detrimental to the
+propagation of the race, than is the misconduct of man. It is therefore
+better for the woman not to go to the extremes of the modern
+civilization, whose evils are equal to, yes, and far surpass, its
+benefits. Have you not noticed that the leaders of modern civilization
+in our age, have imitated, if not surpassed, all the excesses of riot,
+and lust and rapine, ever practiced under the barbarism of the ages of
+antiquity? Do not the women of this age go lower in shamelessness than
+the women of ancient times? Here we see them veiling their faces with
+the flimsy gauze of artifice, and befouling the pure waters of life with
+the turbulent stream of their own vanity. They pollute the purity of
+real beauty by the foul arts of beautifying, and cry out in loud rude
+voices in every assembly and gathering. They strut about in
+vain-glorious conceit, and flaunt their gaudy apparel in indecent
+boldness. They claim what does not belong to them and meddle with what
+does not concern them. They do not blush to cloud the precious jewel of
+modesty with the selfish airs of passion. Nothing is said which they do
+not hear, nothing occurs which they do not see. They become bold,
+unblushing and unwomanly.
+
+"Such being the state of things, there can be no doubt that an excess of
+this kind of civilization for woman amounts to about the same thing as
+the excess of her rude barbarism in ancient times. The two extremes
+meet. The dividing line between them then, that is, the middle course,
+is the proper one for woman to take. To this middle course there must be
+some natural and legitimate guide. This guide is a sound education, and
+on this subject we propose at some future time to write, inasmuch as the
+education of woman is one of the most important of subjects. Woman is
+the one fountain from which is derived the life of man in its earliest
+periods. She is the source of all training, and the root of character.
+Have you not heard that she who rocks the cradle, moves the world?"
+
+It is evident that the author of this paper has not been so happy as to
+see the noblest type of a sanctified Christian civilization, such as can
+be seen in the Christian homes of America and England, or even in the
+truly Christian homes of Syria. Let us hope that the day is not far
+distant, when even in Aleppo, a pure Christianity shall have taken the
+place of that semi-barbaric system styled the papacy, which enthralls
+the intellects and hearts of so many of the _nominal_ Christians of the
+Orient, and when the enslaved inmates of the Moslem hareems shall be set
+free, not to indulge in the license of a Parisian libertinism, but with
+that liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free!
+
+
+THE VALUE SET ON WOMAN'S LIFE IN SYRIA.
+
+The free license allowed to men by the Koran in the beating of their
+wives, has led the entire population of the East to set a low estimate
+upon the life of woman. Until recently in Syria women were poisoned,
+thrown down wells, beaten to death, or cast into the sea, and the
+government made no inquisition into the matter. According to Mohammedan
+law, a prosecution for murder must always be commenced by the friends of
+the victim, and if they do not enter complaint, or furnish witnesses,
+the murderer is not even arrested. And if he be convicted of the crime,
+he is released on paying to the relatives of the victim the price of
+blood, which is fixed at 13,000 piastres, or $520! A man may well "count
+the cost" before committing murder. This constant compounding of
+punishment has degraded the popular views of the value of human life, so
+that formerly the murder of a woman was never punished. In March, 1856,
+a Druze girl near B'hamdūn married a man of her own choice, instead of
+marrying the man assigned to her by her family. She was waylaid by her
+own brother and the rejected suitor, murdered and thrown into a well.
+
+About a year after the massacres of 1860, while the European
+Commissioners were still in Syria, and Lebanon was beginning to attain
+something of its wonted quiet, several Turkish soldiers made an assault
+upon a young Maronite girl from the village of Ain Kesūr, who was
+carrying a jar of water to the workmen on the Deir el Komr road. Mr.
+Calhoun was requested by the Relief Committee in Beirūt to devote the
+charity funds distributed in this part of Lebanon, to giving employment
+to the needy in road-building. This girl was employed to supply the men
+with water. The brutal soldiers attempted to gag her with a
+handkerchief, in order to accomplish their design, but she was too
+strong for them. The struggle was long and violent, but she finally
+effected her escape, leaving on the road the fragments of the broken
+jar, her shoes and shreds of calico which they had torn from her
+clothing. Just at that moment Giurgius el Haddad, Mr. Calhoun's cook,
+came up, and seeing the broken jar and the clothing, guessed what had
+happened, and after finding the girl, and hearing her story, started in
+pursuit of the soldiers to Ainab, whither they had gone, and where a
+Turkish officer was stationed. He stated the case to the officer, and
+received in reply a blow on his arm from a heavy cane. The case was
+reported to the Turkish Colonel in Abeih, who summoned all parties and
+ordered each of the soldiers to be beaten with forty lashes on the bare
+back. But word had reached Col. Frazier, the British Commissioner, and
+he came at once to Abeih in company with Omar Pasha, with order from
+Evad, Pasha, to examine the case _de novo_. The result was that two of
+the soldiers were condemned by military law to be shot, and were shot at
+sunset June 5th, in front of the old palace just below Mr. Calhoun's
+house. The event produced a profound impression, and Druzes and Moslems
+began to feel that a woman's life and honor were after all of some
+value.
+
+In April, 1862, when Daūd Pasha was governor of Mt. Lebanon, a Druze,
+named Hassan, murdered a Druze girl of his own village, supposing that
+Daūd Pasha would not interfere with the time-honored custom of killing
+girls! Much to his surprise, however, he was arrested, convicted and
+hung, and the poor women of all sects in the mountain began to feel that
+after all they had an equal right to life with the other sex.
+
+In most parts of Syria to-day, the murder of women and girls is an act
+so insignificant as hardly to deserve notice. Mt. Lebanon and vicinity
+constitute an exception perhaps, but woman's right to life is one of
+those rights which have not yet been fully guaranteed in the Turkish
+Empire.
+
+In October, 1862, the Arabic official newspaper in Beirūt, contained a
+letter from Hums which illustrates this fact. A fanatical wretch from
+Hamath, one of the infamous Moslem saints, set up the claim that he had
+received the power to cast out devils by divine inspiration. He found
+credulous followers among the more ignorant, and went to Hums to
+practice his diabolical trade. A poor woman had lost her reason through
+excessive grief at the death of her son. The husband and others of her
+relatives went to consult the new prophet. He refused to go and see her,
+stating that he would not condescend to go to the devils, but the
+devils must come to him. The poor woman was accordingly brought to him,
+and left to await the opportune moment, when he could cast out the
+devils, which he declared to be raving within her. After a few days, her
+father called to inquire about her, and found her growing constantly
+worse. The Hamathite told him that he must bring a gallon of liquid
+pitch, to be used as a medicine, and the next day the devils would leave
+her. The pitch was brought, and after the father had gone, the lying
+prophet tied a cord around her feet, and drew her up to the ceiling, and
+while she was thus suspended, thrust a red hot iron rod into one of her
+eyes, and cauterized her body almost from head to foot! He then placed
+the pitch on the floor under her head, and set it on fire until the body
+was "burned to charcoal!" The next day the friends called, expecting to
+find her restored to her right mind, when the wretch pointed them to the
+blackened cinder. They exclaimed with horror and asked him the reason of
+this bloody crime? He replied that on applying the test of burning
+pitch, one of the devils had gone out of her, tearing out her right eye,
+and when he forbade the rest from destroying the other eye, they fell
+upon her and killed her! The body was buried, but the government took
+not the slightest notice of the fact. The official journal in Beirūt
+simply warned the public against patronizing such a bloody impostor!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+OPINIONS OF PROTESTANT SYRIANS WITH REGARD TO THE WORK OF AMERICAN WOMEN
+IN SYRIA.
+
+
+The following letters have been addressed to me by prominent native
+Syrian gentlemen, whose wives have been trained in the American Mission
+Seminaries and families. They all write in English, and I give their own
+language.
+
+Mr. Butrus el Bistany, the husband of Raheel, writes me as follows:--
+
+
+     Beirūt, Oct. 23, 1872.
+
+     "It would be superfluous to speak of the efforts of American
+     Missionary ladies in training the females of Syria, and the good
+     done by them.
+
+     "The sainted Sarah L. Smith, who was one of the first among them,
+     established the first Female School in Beirūt.
+
+     "Mrs. Whiting, also, who had no children of her own, trained five
+     girls in her family, all of whom are still living.
+
+     "Mrs. De Forest had a very interesting female school in her family,
+     and the girls educated in that school are of the best of those
+     educated by American ladies in Syria.
+
+     "The obstacles in those times were very great, and the people
+     believed that education is injurious to females. But these ladies
+     obtained a few girls to educate gratuitously, and thus made a good
+     impression on the minds of the people, and wrought a change in
+     public opinion, so that year by year the people began to appreciate
+     female education. And as we are now building on the foundation laid
+     by those good ladies and reaping the fruit of their labors, we
+     should pray to be imbued with the same spirit, and try as much as
+     we can to follow their example, and carry on the work with the same
+     spirit, zeal and wisdom as they did."
+
+Mr. Naame Tabet, the husband of Miriam, who was educated by Dr. and Mrs.
+De Forest, writes as follows:--
+
+
+     Beirūt, Oct. 21, 1872.
+
+     "It affords me unfeigned gratification that you give me an
+     opportunity of recording my impressions in regard to the advantages
+     of female education in this country under the guidance of the light
+     of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, such as is exemplified by
+     the American Mission, whose labors in diffusing and disseminating
+     the Scriptures are so conspicuously manifest.
+
+     "That example chiefly has had the effect, in this neighborhood, to
+     stir up gigantic efforts to fill the want of female education. The
+     same feeling is extending itself throughout Syria, so that future
+     prospects for the promotion of pure Christian knowledge and true
+     civilization are brilliant and ought surely to encourage the
+     benevolent in persevering in their action."
+
+The Rev. John Wortabet, M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the Syrian
+Protestant College, and husband of Salome, writes as follows:--
+
+     Beirūt, Oct. 20, 1872.
+
+     "Though I was very young when Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Whiting, and Mrs. De
+     Forest began their labors in the cause of Female Education in
+     Syria, I can distinctly recollect that they were the first to
+     initiate that movement which has grown to so vast an extent at the
+     present time. To them belongs the honor of having been the
+     determined and brave pioneers in the important work of raising
+     woman from her degraded position, brought on by ignorance and
+     Mohammedan influence, to one of considerable respect, in a social,
+     intellectual and moral point of view. I do not mean that they
+     achieved then this great and worthy object, but they were first to
+     begin the work, which is still going on, and destined apparently to
+     grow much farther. And it is but just that their names and primary
+     labors be embalmed in the memories of the past.
+
+     "Aside from the intrinsic good which they accomplished, and the
+     direct fruits of their labors, and you are as well acquainted with
+     them as I am--they gave the first and best _teachers_ for the
+     schools which have sprung up so abundantly since their time. Of the
+     importance of giving well-trained female teachers for female
+     schools, in the peculiar social system of the East, nothing need be
+     said.
+
+     "I believe, however, that the main value of these earlier labors
+     was the _impulse_ which they gave to the course of Female Education
+     in Syria. Prejudices and barriers, which had become hoary by the
+     lapse of time, have been completely broken down, at least among the
+     Christian Churches of the East."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+OTHER LABORS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THIS FIELD.
+
+
+The following statements have been chiefly made out from documents
+furnished to me by those in charge of the various Institutions. I give
+them in order according to the date of their establishment.
+
+
+THE IRISH AND AMERICAN UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MISSION IN DAMASCUS.
+
+I have not received official statistics with regard to the work of this
+Mission in behalf of women, but they have maintained schools for girls
+and personal labors for the women through a long series of years. Mrs.
+Crawford, who is thoroughly familiar with the Arabic language, has
+labored in a quiet and persevering manner among the women of Damascus
+and Tebrūd, and the fruits of these labors will be seen in years to
+come. Miss Dales, now Mrs. Dr. Lansing, of Cairo, conducted a school for
+Jewish girls in Damascus some fifteen years ago, which was well
+attended.
+
+Mrs. E. Watson, an English lady of great energy and zeal in the cause of
+female education, after years of labor in North and South America,
+Greece and Asia Minor, came to Syria in 1858, and commenced a girls'
+school in her own hired house. She afterwards removed to Shemlan, in
+Mount Lebanon, where she erected a building at her own expense for a
+girls' boarding school, and afterwards gave it to the Society for the
+Promotion of Female Education in the East. She has since, with untiring
+energy, erected another building for a Seminary for Druze and Christian
+girls, the former Institution continuing as it has been for many years
+under the efficient management of Miss Hicks, assisted by Miss Dobbie.
+She has also recently erected a neat and substantial church edifice in
+Shemlan.
+
+In Miss Hicks' absence, Mrs. Watson has addressed me the following
+letter:
+
+     Shemlan, August 28, 1872.
+
+     "Our first school for native girls was commenced in Beirūt in 1858.
+     The teachers have been Miss Hicks, Miss Hiscock, Mrs. Walker, Miss
+     Dillon, Miss Jacombs, (now in Sidon,) Miss Stainton, (now in
+     Sidon,) and Miss Dobbie. No native female teachers have been
+     employed except pupils of the school under Miss Hicks' care.
+     Masters Riskullah in Beirūt, and Murad, Reshīd and Daūd, in
+     Shemlan, have been connected with the school as teachers of the
+     higher Arabic branches.
+
+     "The whole number of boarders under our care up to the present
+     time, is above one hundred. The only teachers in my second boarding
+     school are, my adopted daughter Handūmeh, and Zarifeh Twiney, a
+     pupil of the Prussian Deaconesses. Seventeen or eighteen of our
+     pupils have been, or are now teachers, and ten are married.
+
+     "The school directed by Miss Hicks was given over to the Ladies'
+     Society in England, some six or seven years ago, and has been
+     supported by them since. The new school in the upper house is under
+     no society and is not regularly aided by any. There are from
+     twenty-six to twenty-eight boarders under the care of my daughter,
+     Miss Watson, I aiding as I can. Several girls have been supported
+     for the last two years by friends in America and England. We have
+     had ten Druze girls in our school in the upper house. Miss Hicks
+     has had three or four, and a number in her day school. We had also
+     a number in our day school at Aitath, four of whom are married to
+     Druze Sheikhs."
+
+Mr. Elias Suleeby, aided by friends in Scotland, has for a considerable
+period conducted common schools in a part of Mount Lebanon and the
+Bukaa, and now the enterprise has been adopted by the Free Church of
+Scotland, who have sent the Rev. Mr. Rae to be their Superintendent.
+
+Their schools are chiefly for boys, though in all the village schools it
+is usual for a few of the smaller girls to attend the boys' school. In
+Suk el Ghurb, however, they have a boarding school containing some
+twenty-five girls.
+
+
+THE PRUSSIAN DEACONESSES INSTITUTE IN BEIRUT
+
+The Orphan House, Boarding School and Hospital with which the Prussian
+Deaconesses are connected, were established in 1860. The two former are
+supported by the Kaiserswerth Institution in Germany, and the latter by
+the Knights of St. John.
+
+In the Orphan House are one hundred and thirty orphan girls, all native
+Syrians, who are clothed, fed and instructed for four or five years, and
+often transformed from wild, untutored semi-barbarians to tidy, well
+behaved and useful young women. They have ordinarily about fifty
+applicants waiting for a vacancy in order to enter.
+
+The Boarding School is for the education of the children of European
+residents, Germans, French, Italians, Greeks, Maltese, English, Scotch,
+Irish, Hungarians, Dutch, Swiss, Danish, Americans and others. The
+medium of instruction is the French language.
+
+Since the Orphan School began, many of the girls have married, thirty
+have become teachers, and about twenty of them are living as servants in
+families.
+
+In August of the year 1861, the Deaconesses had received about 110
+orphans. The children entering are received for three years, and the
+surviving parent or guardian is required to sign a bond, agreeing to
+leave the child for that period, or if the child is withdrawn before
+that time, to pay to the Deaconesses all that has been expended upon
+her.
+
+In the summer of 1861, several of the parents came and tried to remove
+their children, though they had no means of supporting them, but the
+contract stood in the way, and they had no money to pay. The Jesuits
+then came forward and furnished the parents with French gold in
+Napoleons, and withdrew in one day fifty orphan girls from the
+institution, sending them, not to an institution of their own, but
+turning them back upon their wretched parents and friends to be trained
+in poverty and ignorance. A few days later, thirty more of the girls
+were removed in the same way, leaving only thirty. The parents had a
+legal right to remove the children on the payment of the money, but what
+shall be said of the cruelty of the Jesuits who turned back these
+wretched children to the destitution and misery of a Syrian orphan? The
+Jesuits are the same everywhere, unscrupulous and intriguing, counting
+all means as right, which promote their own end.
+
+
+THE BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS.
+
+These Schools, so numerous and widely extended, have grown up since the
+massacre year 1860. I remember well the first arrival of Mrs. Bowen
+Thompson in Beirūt, and her persevering energy in forming her little
+school for the widows and orphans of Hasbeiya, Deir el Komr and
+Damascus.
+
+From that little beginning in 1860, the school increased the following
+year, until finally other branch schools were organized in Beirūt and
+Lebanon, and then in Damascus and Tyre, until now, the following
+schedule, furnished to me by the officers of the Institution, will show
+to what proportions the enterprise has grown. The Memoir of Mrs.
+Thompson, entitled "The Daughters of Syria," gives so full a history of
+these schools, that I need only refer the reader to that volume for all
+the information desired. Since the lamented death of Mrs. Thompson, the
+direction of the schools has been entrusted to her sister, Mrs. Mentor
+Mott. The Central Training School in Beirūt was under the care of Mrs.
+Shrimpton, who labored with great earnestness and wisdom in that
+important institution until the spring of 1873, when she resigned her
+position and became connected with the work of Female education under
+the American mission in Syria. She was aided by English and native
+teachers. The schools in Zahleh, Damascus, Hasbeiya and Tyre are under
+the care of English and Scotch ladies, who have certainly evinced the
+most admirable courage and resolution in entering, in several of these
+places, upon outpost duty, without European society, and isolated for
+months together from persons speaking their own language. I believe that
+such instances as these have demonstrated anew the fact that where woman
+is to be reached, woman can go, and Christian women from Christian
+lands, even if beyond the age generally fixed as the best adapted to the
+easy acquisition of a foreign language, may yet do a great work in
+maintaining centres of influence at the outposts, and superintending the
+labors of native teachers. These young native teachers trained in
+Shemlan, Sidon, Suk el Ghurb and Beirūt, cannot go to distant places as
+teachers, and _ought not to go_, without a home and proper protection
+provided for them. Such protection _is given_ by a European or American
+woman, who has the independence and the resolution to go where no
+missionary family resides, and carry on the work of female education.
+Even at the risk of offending the modesty of the persons concerned, I
+cannot refrain from putting on record my admiration of the course of
+Miss Wilson in Zahleh, Miss Gibbon in Hasbeiya, and Miss Williams in
+Tyre, in making homes for themselves, and carrying on their work far
+from European society and intercourse.
+
+The British Syrian Schools are doing a good work in promoting Bible
+education. Many of the native teachers, male and female, have been
+trained in our Mission Seminaries, and not a few of them are members of
+our evangelical churches. It has always been my aim, from the time when
+Mrs. Bowen Thompson first landed in Syria to the present time, to do all
+in my power to "help those women which labored with me in the gospel."
+
+We are engaged in a common work, surrounded by thousands of needy
+perishing souls, Mohammedan, Pagan and Nominal Christian. The work is
+pressing, and the Lord's husbandmen ought to work together, forgetting
+and ignoring all diversities of nationality, denomination and social
+customs. There should be no such word as American, English, Scotch or
+German, attached to any enterprise that belongs to the common Master.
+The common foe is united in opposition. Let us be united in every
+practicable way. Let our name be _Christian_, our work one of united
+sympathy, prayer and coöperation, and let not Christ be divided in His
+members. I write these words in connection with the subject of the
+British Syrian Schools, because I can speak from experience of the
+value of such coöperation in the past. As Acting Pastor of the Native
+Evangelical Church in Beirūt, to the communion of which I have received
+so many young teachers and pupils from the various Seminaries and
+schools, I feel the great importance of this hearty coöperation and
+unity of action among those who are at the head of the various
+Protestant Educational Institutions in Syria.
+
+The Emissaries of Rome are laboring with sleepless vigilance to win
+Syria to the Papacy. Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Nazareth, Jesuits,
+Lazarists, Capuchins, Dominicans, and Franciscans, monks, nuns and papal
+legates, are swarming throughout the land. Though notoriously jealous of
+each other's progress, they are always united in their common opposition
+to the Evangelical faith, and an open Bible. We have thus not only the
+old colossal fortresses of Syrian error to demolish, but the new
+structures of Jesuitical craft to overturn, before Syria comes to
+Christ.
+
+It has been stated on a preceding page that in 1835, the American wife
+of an English merchant, Mrs. Alexander Tod, gave a large part of the
+funds to build the first school-house for girls ever built in Syria.
+That substantial union has been happily reproduced in the cordial
+coöperation of the Anglo-American and German communities in Beirūt, both
+in the Church, public charities and educational institutions, up to the
+present time.
+
+Let us all live in Christ, work for Christ, keep our eye fixed on
+Christ, and we shall be with Christ, and Christ with us!
+
+
+_BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS_, 1872.
+
+BEIRUT.
+
+No.  Established.              Name.               Scholars.  Teachers.
+
+ 1       1860           Training Institution,          92         16
+ 2       1863           Musaitebeh,                    85          3
+ 3       1868           Blind School, men & boys,      16          2
+ 4       1868           Blind girls' School,           11          1
+ 5       1860           Boys' School,                  85          5
+ 6       1861           East Coombe,                  120          4
+ 7       1860           Elementary,                    30          2
+ 8       1872           Es-Saifeh,                    100          4
+ 9       1860           Infant School,                125          3
+10       1860           Moslem,                        50          4
+11       1860           Night School,                ----          5
+12       1863           Olive Branch,                  85          4
+
+DAMASCUS.
+
+13       1867           St. Paul's,                   170          6
+14       1869           Blind School,                  15          1
+15       1870           Medan,                         80          2
+16       1867           Night School,                  30          1
+
+LEBANON.
+
+17       1863          _Ashrafiyeh_,                   53          3
+18       1868          _Ain Zehalteh_,                 50          2
+19       1869          _Aramoon_,                      40          2
+20       1863          _Hasbeiya_,                    160          3
+21       1867          _Mokhtara_,                   ----       ----
+22       1868          _Zahleh_,                       75          4
+
+TYRE.
+
+23       1869           Girls' School,                 50          2
+                                                     ----       ----
+          Totals,                                    1522         79
+          Bible Women,                                  7
+
+MISS TAYLOR'S SCHOOL FOR MOSLEM GIRLS.
+
+This worthy Christian lady from Scotland is doing a quiet yet most
+effective work in Beirūt, with which few are acquainted, yet it is
+carried on in faith from year to year, and the fruits will no doubt
+appear one day, in a vast reformation in the order, morality and general
+improvement of the Moslem families of Beirūt.
+
+Ever since the days of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith, and Mrs. Dr. Dodge, Moslem
+girls have been more or less in attendance upon the schools of the Syria
+Mission, but the purely Moslem schools of Miss Taylor and of the British
+Syrian Schools are making a special effort to extend education into
+every Moslem household.
+
+This school was opened in February, 1868, for the poorest of the poor.
+It received the name of "The Original Ragged school for Moslem Girls."
+No one is considered as enrolled, who has not been at least three weeks
+in regular attendance. The number already received has reached very near
+five hundred, all Mohammedans, except five Jewish and fifteen Druze
+girls. Native teachers are also employed, and the pupils are taught
+reading, writing, geography, and arithmetic. The principal lesson-book
+is the Bible. The early history of this institution is replete with
+interest; but it has attracted little public notice hitherto. It has
+always been a prudential question whether it would not be wiser to
+proceed with its work in a quiet unobtrusive way, so as not to awake
+fanatical opposition. But steady and appreciative friends have stood by
+it from the beginning, and those who know the school best have commended
+it most earnestly.
+
+
+CHURCH OF SCOTLAND SCHOOL FOR JEWISH GIRLS IN BEIRUT.
+
+This school has been in operation since 1865. Although established
+originally for Jewish girls alone, of whom it frequently had fifty in
+regular attendance, it has also had under instruction, Greek and Moslem
+girls.
+
+Three European teachers and two native teachers have been connected with
+it, under the supervision of the Rev. James Robertson, Pastor of the
+Anglo-American congregation in Beirūt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE AMOUNT OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCTION GIVEN IN MISSION SCHOOLS.
+
+
+There has been great difference of opinion with regard to the proper
+position of Education in the Foreign Missionary work. While some have
+given it the first rank as a missionary agency, others have kept it in
+the background as being a non-missionary work, and hence to be left to
+the natives themselves to conduct, after their evangelization by the
+simple and pure preaching of the gospel. The Syria Mission have been
+led, by the experience of long and laborious years of labor in this
+peculiar field, to regard education as one of the most important
+auxiliaries in bringing the Gospel in contact with the people. Society
+and sects are so organized and constituted, that while the people of a
+given village would not receive a missionary as simply a preacher of the
+Gospel, they will gladly accept a school from his hands, and welcome him
+on every visit to the school as a benefactor. They will not only receive
+the daily lessons and instructions of the school-teacher in religious
+things, but even ask the missionary to preach to them the Word of life.
+Schools in Syria are entering wedges for Gospel truth.
+
+Our schools are of two classes, the High schools or Seminaries for
+young men and young women, and the common schools for children of both
+sexes. In the former, Biblical instruction is the great thing, the chief
+design of the High schools being to train the young to a correct and
+thorough acquaintance with Divine truth. The course of Bible instruction
+conducted by Mr. Calhoun in Abeih Seminary, is, I doubt not, more
+thorough and constant, than in any College or High School in the United
+States. While the sciences are taught systematically, the Bible is made
+the principal text-book, and several hours each day are given to its
+study. In our common schools, likewise, Bible reading and instruction
+hold a prominent place. Owing to the paucity of books in the Arabic
+language proper to be used as reading books, a reading book was prepared
+by the Mission, consisting almost exclusively of extracts from the
+Scriptures. In addition to this book, the Psalms of David and the New
+Testament are used as regular reading books in all the schools. There
+are daily exercises in reading the Bible and reciting the Catechism. It
+will be observed from what I have stated, that the amount of spiritual
+knowledge acquired by the children, in the very process of learning to
+read, is not small. Being obliged to commit to memory texts, paragraphs,
+and whole chapters, from year to year, their minds become stored with
+the precious words of the Sacred Book. Very much depends upon the
+teacher. When we can obtain pious, praying teachers, the Scripture
+lessons can be given with much more profit and success, and it is our
+aim to employ only pious teachers where we can get them. And the example
+of the teacher receives a new auxiliary, as it were, in impressing these
+lessons on the mind, where the pupils can attend a preaching service on
+the Sabbath. Sometimes a pressing call comes from a village, where it
+seems important for strategic reasons, to respond at once. A pious
+teacher cannot be found, and we send a young man of well-known moral
+character. But only necessity would oblige us to do this, and a change
+for the better is always made as soon as practicable.
+
+Bible schools are a mighty means of usefulness. I think nothing strikes
+a new missionary with more grateful surprise on entering the Syrian
+Mission-field, than to witness the great prominence given to Biblical
+instruction, from the humblest village school of little Arab boys and
+girls, to the highest Seminaries. The examinations in the Scriptures
+passed by the young men in Abeih, and the girls in the Beirūt and Sidon
+Seminaries, would do credit to the young people in any American
+community. Bible schools are not merely useful as an entering wedge to
+give the missionary a position and an influence among the people; they
+are intrinsically useful in introducing a vast amount of useful Bible
+knowledge into the minds of the children, and through them to their
+parents. In countries where the people as a mass are ignorant of
+reading, they are an absolute necessity, and in any community they are a
+blessing. Had all Mission Schools been conducted on the same thorough
+Biblical basis as those in Syria, there would have been less objection
+to schools as a part of the missionary work.
+
+
+THE SPHERE AND MODES OF WOMAN'S WORK IN FOREIGN LANDS.
+
+In this age, when Christian women in many lands are engaging in the
+Foreign Mission work with so much zeal, it is important to know who
+should enter personally upon this work, and what are the modes and
+departments of labor in which they can engage when on the ground.
+
+No woman should go to the Foreign field who has not sound health,
+thorough education, and a reasonable prospect of being able to learn a
+foreign language. The languages of different nations differ as to
+comparative ease of acquisition, but it is well for any one who has the
+_Arabic_ language to learn, to begin as early in life as practicable. It
+should be borne in mind that the work in foreign lands is a self-denying
+work, and I know of no persons who are called to undergo greater
+self-denial than unmarried women engaged in religious work abroad. They
+are doing a noble work, a necessary work, and a work of lasting
+usefulness. Deprived in many instances of the social enjoyments and
+protection of a _home_, they _make_ a home in their schools, and throw
+themselves into a peculiar sympathy with their pupils, and the families
+with which they are brought into contact. Where several are associated
+together, as they always should be, the institution in which they live
+becomes a model of the Christian order, sympathy and mutual help, which
+is characteristic of the home in Christian lands. Christian women,
+married and unmarried, can reach a class in every Arabic community from
+which men are sedulously excluded. They should enter upon the foreign
+work as a life-work, devote themselves first of all to the mastery of
+the language of the people, open their eyes to all that is pleasant and
+attractive among the natives, and close them to all that is unlovable
+and repulsive, resolved to love the people, and what pertains to them,
+for Christ's sake who died for them, and to identify themselves with the
+people in every practicable way. Persons who are incapable of loving or
+admiring anything that is not American or English had better remain in
+America or England; and on the other hand, there is no surer passport to
+the affections of any people, than the disposition to overlook their
+faults, and to treat them as our brethren and sisters for whom a common
+Saviour died. Let no missionary of either sex who goes to a foreign
+land, think that there is nothing to be learned from Syrians or Hindoos,
+Chinese or Japanese. The good is not all confined to any land or people.
+
+Among the departments of woman's work in foreign lands are the
+following:--
+
+I. Teaching in established institutions, Female Seminaries, Orphan
+Houses and High Schools.
+
+II. Acting as Nurses in Hospitals, as is done by the Prussian
+Protestant Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, who are scattered over the East
+and doing a work of peculiar value.
+
+III. Visiting from house to house, for the express purpose of holding
+religious conversation with the people _in their own language_. This can
+only be done in Syria by one versed in the Arabic, and able to speak
+_without an interpreter_.
+
+Ignorance of the language of the people, is a barrier which no skill of
+an interpreter can break down, and every woman who would labor with
+acceptance and success among the women of Syria, must be able to speak
+to them familiarly in their own mother tongue. Interpreters may be
+honest and conscientious, but not one person in a thousand can translate
+accurately from one language to another without previous preparation.
+And besides, interpreters are not always reliable. There is still
+living, in the city of Tripoli, an old man named Abdullah Yanni, who
+acted as interpreter for a Jewish Missionary some forty years ago. He
+tells many a story of the extraordinary shape which that unsuspecting
+missionary's discourses assumed in passing through his lips. One day
+they went through the principal street to preach to the Moslems. A great
+crowd assembled, and Abdullah trembled, for in those days of darkness
+Moslems oppressed and insulted Christians with perfect impunity. Said
+the missionary, "Tell the Moslems that unless they all repent and
+believe in Christ, they will perish forever." Abdullah translated, and
+the Moslems gave loud and earnest expression to their delight. They
+declared, "That is so, that is so, welcome to the Khowadja!" Abdullah
+had told them that "the Khowadja says, that he loves you very much, and
+the Engliz and the Moslems are 'sowa sowa,' _i.e._ together as one."
+
+Abdullah soon found it necessary to tell his confiding friend and
+employer, that it would not do to preach in that bold manner, for if he
+should translate it literally, the Moslems would kill both of them on
+the spot. The missionary replied, "Let them kill us then." Abdullah
+said, "it may do very well for you, but I am not prepared to die, and
+would prefer to wait." The very first requisite for usefulness in a
+foreign land is the language. It might be well, as previously intimated
+in this volume, that in each of the Female Seminaries, the number of the
+teachers should be large enough to allow the most experienced in the
+language to give themselves for a portion of each week to these friendly
+religious visits. The Arab race are eminently a sociable, visiting
+people, and a foreign lady is always welcome among the women of every
+grade of society, from the highest to the lowest.
+
+IV. Holding special Women's Meetings of the Female Church members from
+week to week in the homes of the different families. The neighboring
+women will come in, and the native women, who would never take part in a
+women's prayer-meeting, in the presence of a missionary, will gladly do
+it with the example and encouragement of one of their own sex. Such
+meetings have been conducted in Hums and Tripoli, in Beirūt, Abeih,
+Deir el Komr and Sidon, and in Suk el Ghurb, B'hamdūn, Hasbeiya, and
+Deir Mimas for many years. Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Isaac Bird, Mrs. Thomson,
+Mrs. Van Dyck, Mrs. Whiting, Mrs. Goodell, Mrs. Dr. Dodge, Miss
+Williams, Miss Tilden, Mrs. De Forest, Mrs. Calhoun, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs.
+Ford, Mrs. Foot, Mrs. Eddy, and Mrs. W. Bird, Mrs. Lyons and Mrs.
+Cheney, Mrs. Bliss, Miss Temple, Miss Mason, Mrs. S. Jessup are among
+the American Christian women who have labored or are still laboring for
+the welfare of their sisters in Syria, and younger laborers more
+recently entered into the work, are preparing to prosecute the work with
+greater energy than ever. There are other names connected with Woman's
+Work in Syria as prosecuted by the American Mission, but the list is too
+long to be enumerated in full. Many of them have rested from their
+labors, and their works do follow them.
+
+
+THE BEIRUT FEMALE SEMINARY.
+
+The last Annual Report of the Board of Missions of the Presbyterian
+Church of the United States, speaks of these two Female Seminaries as
+follows:
+
+"The Beirūt Seminary is conducted by Miss Everett, Miss Jackson and Miss
+Loring, containing forty boarding and sixty day scholars, where the
+object is to give an education suited to the wants of the higher classes
+of the people, to gain a control over the minds of those females who
+will be most influential in forming society and moulding opinion. This
+hold the Papal Sisters of Charity have striven earnestly to gain, and
+its vantage ground was not to be abandoned to them. The institution is
+rising in public esteem and confidence, as the number and the class of
+pupils in attendance testify. The Seminary is close to the Sanctuary,
+not less in sympathy than in position, and its whole influence is given
+to make its pupils followers of Christ."
+
+In addition to this brief notice, it should be said that there are in
+the Beirūt Seminary thirty charity boarders, who are selected chiefly
+from Protestant, Greek and Druze families, to be trained for teachers of
+a high order in the various girls' schools in the land. A special Normal
+course of training is conducted every year, and it is believed that
+eventually young women trained in other schools will enter this Normal
+Department to receive especial preparation for the work of teaching.
+
+The charity boarders are supported by the contributions of Sabbath
+Schools and individuals in the United States, with especial reference to
+their being trained for future usefulness.
+
+After an experience of nearly ten years in conducting the greater part
+of the correspondence with the patrons of this school, and maintaining
+their interest in the pupils and teachers whom they were supporting by
+their contributions, I would venture to make a few suggestions to the
+Christian Mission Bands, Societies, Bible Classes, Sabbath Schools and
+individuals who are doing so much for the education of children in
+foreign lands.
+
+I. Let all contributions for Women's Work and the education of girls,
+be sent through the Women's Boards of Missions, or if that is not
+convenient, in the form of a banker's draft on London, payable to the
+Principal of the Seminary with whom you have correspondence.
+
+II. If possible, allow your donation to be used for the general purposes
+of the Seminary, without insisting that a special pupil or teacher be
+assigned to you. But if it be not possible to maintain the interest of
+your children and youth in a work so distant without some special
+object, then by all means,--
+
+III. Do not demand too much from your over-taxed sisters in the foreign
+field in the way of letters and reports. The labors of a teacher are
+arduous everywhere. But when instruction is given in a foreign language,
+in a foreign climate, and to children of a foreign nation, these labors
+are greatly increased. Add then to this toil correspondence with the
+Board of Missions, the daily study of the language, the work of visiting
+among the people, and receiving their visits, and you can understand how
+the keeping up of correspondence with twenty or thirty Sabbath Schools
+and Societies is a burden which no woman should be called on to bear.
+
+IV. Do not expect sensational letters from your friends abroad. Do not
+take for granted that the child of ten years of age you are supporting,
+will develop into a distinguished teacher or Bible woman before the
+arrival of the next mail. Do not be discouraged if you have to wait and
+pray for years before you hear good tidings. Should any of the native
+children ever send you a letter, (and they have about as clear an idea
+of who you are and where you are, as they have of the satellites of
+Jupiter,) do not expect from their youthful productions the elegance of
+Addison or the eloquence of Burke.
+
+V. Pray earnestly for the conversion of the pupils in Mission Schools.
+This I regard as the great advantage of the system of having pupils
+supported by Christians in the home churches, and known to them by name.
+They are made the subjects of special prayer. This is the precious
+golden bond which brings the home field near to us, and the foreign
+field near to you. Our chief hope for these multitudes of children now
+receiving instruction, is, that they will be prayed for by Christians at
+home.
+
+
+THE SIDON FEMALE SEMINARY.
+
+The Annual Report above mentioned, speaks thus of the Sidon Seminary:
+"It is conducted by Miss Jacombs and Miss Stainton, and has numbered
+about twenty boarders and six day scholars. The boarders are exclusively
+from Protestant families, selected from the common schools in all parts
+of the field, and are in training for the Mission service, as teachers
+and Bible readers. Four of the graduates of last year are already so
+employed. One difficulty in the way of reaching with the truth the minds
+of the women in the numerous villages of the land, will be obviated in
+part, as the results of this work are farther developed.
+
+"There has been considerable seriousness and some hopeful conversions,
+in both these seminaries during the past year.
+
+"The work is worthy of the interest taken in it by the Women's Boards of
+Missions, and by societies and individuals in the church who have
+co-operated in it."
+
+The Sidon Seminary, as stated on a previous page, was begun in 1862, and
+has had four European and six native teachers. Of the latter, one was
+trained in Mrs. Bird's family, one in Shemlan Seminary, three in the
+Sidon school, and one by Mrs. Watson.
+
+Ten of its graduates have been employed as teachers, and eight are still
+so engaged.
+
+I annex a list of Girls' Schools now or formerly connected with the
+Syria Mission.
+
+                          No. of  No. of   When begun
+  Location.               Pupils. Teach'rs
+
+Beirūt,       Day School,   50       2       1834
+  "           Seminary,     50      10       1848
+Sidon,        Seminary,     20       3       1862
+  "           Day School,    6       1       1862
+Abeih,            "         60       1       1853
+Deir el Komr,     "         50       2       1855  To be resumed soon.
+Ghorify,          "         40       1       1863  All Druzes.
+El Hadeth,        "         40       1       1870
+Shwifat,          "         70       2       1871
+Dibbiyeh,         "         20       1       1868
+B'Hamdūn,         "         30       1       1853  Discontinued.
+Meshgara,         "         30       1       1869  Boys and girls,
+Ain Anūb,         "         20       1       1870    and 60 boys.
+Kefr Shima,       "         40       1       1856  Boys and girls.
+Rasheiya el
+  Fokhar,         "         30       1       1869
+Jedaideh,         "         40       1       1870
+El Khiyam,        "         25       1       1868
+Ibl,              "         30       1       1868
+Deir Mimas,       "         15       1       1865
+Kana,             "         35       1       1869
+Hums,             "         40       1       1865
+Safita,           "         30       1       1869
+Hamath,           "         30       1       1872
+-------------             -----------------
+Totals    23               801      36
+
+This gives a total of twenty-three girls' schools besides the
+twenty-four boys' schools under the care of the Mission, and three
+schools where there are both boys and girls. I have kept the name of
+B'hamdūn in the list, for its historical associations, but the thirty
+pupils credited to it, will be more than made good in the girl's school
+about to be resumed in Tripoli under the care of Miss Kip.
+
+The total number of girls is about 800, and the number of teachers 36.
+The total cost of these twenty-three schools, including the two
+Seminaries in Beirūt and Sidon, is about eight thousand dollars per
+annum, including rents, salaries of five American and English ladies,
+and thirty-one native teachers.
+
+The average cost of the common schools in the Sidon field is sixty
+dollars per annum, and in the Lebanon field it varies from this sum to
+about twice that amount, owing to the fact that the Deir el Komr and
+other schools are virtually High Schools.
+
+The teacher in the Sidon field, and in Abeih, and Safita, are graduates
+of the Sidon Seminary.
+
+It is probable that a High School or Seminary for girls will be opened
+by Miss Kip in Tripoli during the coming year.
+
+The preceding schedule can give but a faint idea of the struggles and
+toil, the patient labors, disappointments and trials of faith through
+which the women of the American Mission have passed during the last
+forty years, in beginning and maintaining so many of these schools for
+girls in Syria.
+
+Did I speak of _trials_? The Missionary work has its trials, but I
+believe that its joys are far greater. The saddest scenes I have
+witnessed during a residence of seventeen years in Syria, have been when
+Missionaries have been obliged to _leave the work_ and return to their
+native land. There are trials growing out of the hardness of the human
+heart, our own want of faith, the seeming slow progress of the gospel,
+and the heart-crushing disappointments arising from broken hopes, when
+individuals and communities who have promised well, turn back to their
+old errors "like the dog to his vomit" again. But of joys it is much
+easier to speak, the joy of preaching Christ to the perishing,--of
+laboring where others will not labor,--of laying foundations for the
+future,--of feeling that you are doing what you can to fulfil the
+Saviour's last command,--of seeing the word of God translated into a new
+language,--a christian literature beginning to grow,--children and youth
+gathered into Schools and Seminaries of learning, and even sects which
+hate the Bible obliged to teach their children to read it,--of seeing
+christian families growing up, loving the Sabbath and the Bible, the
+sanctuary and the family altar.--Then there is the joy of seeing souls
+born into the kingdom of our dear Redeemer, and churches planted in a
+land where pure Christianity had ceased to exist,--and of witnessing
+unflinching steadfastness in the midst of persecution and danger, and
+the triumphs of faith in the solemn hour of death.
+
+These are a few of the joys which are strewn so thickly along the path
+of the Christian Missionary, that he has hardly time to think of
+sorrow, trial and discouragement. Those who have read Dr. Anderson's
+"History of Missions to the Oriental Churches," and Rev. Isaac Bird's
+"History of the Syria Mission," or "Bible Work in Bible Lands," will see
+that the work of the Syria Mission from 1820 to 1872 has been one of
+conflict with principalities and powers, and with spiritual wickedness
+in high and low places, but that at length the hoary fortresses are
+beginning to totter and fall, and there is a call for a general advance
+in every department of the work, and in every part of the land.
+
+Other agencies have come upon the ground since the great foundation work
+was laid, and the first great victories won, and in their success it
+becomes all of God's people to rejoice; but the veterans who fought the
+first battles, and overcame the great national prejudice of the Syrian
+people against female education, should ever be remembered with
+gratitude.
+
+It has been my aim in this little volume to recount the history of
+Woman's Work in the past. Who can foretell what the future of Christian
+work for Syrian Women will be?
+
+May it ever be a work founded on the Word of God, aiming at the
+elevation of woman through the doctrines and the practice of a pure
+Christianity, striving to plant in Syria, not the flippant culture of
+modern fashionable society, but the God-fearing, Sabbath-loving, and
+Bible-reading culture of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors!
+
+A few years ago, a Greek priest named Job, from one of the distant
+villages high up in the range of Lebanon, called on me in Beirūt. I had
+spent several summers in his village, and he had sometimes borrowed our
+Arabic sermons to read in the Greek Church, and now, he said, he had
+come down to see what we were doing in Beirūt. I took him through the
+Female Seminary and the Church, and then to the Library and the Printing
+Press. He examined the presses, the steam engine, the type-setting, and
+type-casting, the folding, sewing, and binding of books, and looked
+through the huge cases filled with Arabic books and Scriptures, saw all
+the editions of the Bible and the Testament, and then turned in silence
+to take his departure. I went with him to the outer gate. He took my
+hand, and said, "By your leave I am going. The Lord bless your work.
+Sir, I have a thought; we are all going to be swept away, priests and
+bishops, Greeks and Maronites, Moslems and Druzes, and there will be
+nothing left, nothing but the Word of God and those who follow it. That
+is my thought. Farewell."
+
+May that thought be speedily realized! May the coarseness, brutality and
+contempt for woman which characterize the Moslem hareem, give way to the
+refinement, intelligence, and mutual affection which belong to the
+Christian family!
+
+May the God of prophecy and promise, hasten the time when Nusairy
+barbarism, Druze hypocrisy, Moslem fanaticism, Jewish bigotry and
+nominal Christian superstition shall fade away under the glorious beams
+of the rising Sun of Righteousness!
+
+May the "glory of Lebanon" be given to the Lord, in the regeneration
+and sanctification of the families of Lebanon!
+
+Too long has it been true, in the degradation of woman, that the "flower
+of Lebanon languisheth."
+
+Soon may we say in the truly Oriental imagery of the Song of
+Songs,--"Come with me from Lebanon, look from the top of Amana, from the
+top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of
+the leopards,"--and behold, in the culture of woman, in society
+regenerated, in home affection, in the Christian family, what is in a
+peculiar sense, "a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and
+streams from Lebanon!"
+
+"Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a
+fruitful field?" When "the reproach of the daughters of Syria," shall be
+taken away, and when amid the zearas of the Nusairīyeh, the kholwehs of
+the Druzes, the mosques of the Moslems and the tents of the Bedawin, may
+be heard the voice of Christ, saying to the poor women of the Arab race,
+weary and fainting under the burdens of life:
+
+    "Daughter be of good comfort,
+    Thy faith hath made thee whole,
+            Go in peace!"
+
+
+
+
+THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+                              _Abeih, Mount Lebanon_, Sept., 1872.
+
+My Dear Son Willie:--
+
+It is now eight years since you left Syria, and you were then so young,
+that you must have forgotten all about the country and the people. I
+have often promised to tell you more about the Syrian boys and girls,
+what they eat and wear, and how they study and play and sleep, and the
+songs their mothers sing to them, and many other things. And now I will
+try and fulfil my promise.
+
+Here is a little boy at the door. His name is Asaad Mishrik, or "happy
+sunrise," and his name is well given, for he comes every morning at
+sunrise with a basket of fresh ripe figs, sweet and cold, and covered
+with the sparkling dew. This morning when he came, your brother Harry
+stood by the door looking at the figs with wistful eyes, and I gave him
+a large one, which disappeared very suddenly. Asaad is a bright-eyed
+boy, and helps his mother every day.
+
+When he comes in, he says, Subah koom bil khire, "Your morning in
+goodness." Then Assaf, the cook, answers him, "Yusaid Subahak," "May God
+make happy your morning." If I come out when he is here, he runs up to
+kiss my hand, as the Arab children are trained to be respectful to their
+superiors. When a little Arab boy comes into a room full of older
+people, he goes around and kisses the hand of each one and then places
+it on his forehead. Asaad wears a red tarboosh or cap on his head, a
+loose jacket, and trowsers which are like a blue bag gathered around the
+waist, with two small holes for his feet to go through. They are drawn
+up nearly to his knees, and his legs are bare, as he wears no stockings.
+He wears red shoes pointed and turned up at the toes. When he comes in
+at the door, he leaves his shoes outside, but keeps his cap on his head.
+
+The people never take off their caps or turbans when entering a house,
+or visiting a friend, but always leave their shoes at the door. The
+reason is, that their floors are covered with clean mats and rugs, and
+in the Moslem houses, the man kneels on his rug to pray, and presses his
+forehead to the floor, so that it would not be decent or respectful to
+walk in with dirty shoes and soil his sijjady on which he kneels to
+pray. They have no foot-mats or scrapers, and it is much cheaper and
+simpler to leave the shoes, dirt and all at the door. Sometimes we are
+much embarrassed in calling on the old style Syrians as they look with
+horror on our muddy feet, and we find it not quite so easy to remove
+our European shoes. But it must be done, and it is better to take a
+little extra trouble, and regard their feelings and customs, than to
+appear coarse and rude.
+
+It is very curious to go to the Syrian school-houses, and see the piles
+of shoes at the door. There are new bright red shoes, and old tattered
+shoes, and kob kobs, and black shoes, and sometimes yellow shoes. The
+kob kobs are wooden clogs made to raise the feet out of the mud and
+water, having a little strap over the toe to keep it on the foot. You
+will often see little boys and girls running down steps and paved
+streets on these dangerous kob kobs. Sometimes they slip and then down
+they go on their noses, and the kob kobs fly off and go rattling over
+the stones, and little Ali or Yusef, or whatever his name is, begins to
+shout, Ya Imme! Ya Imme! "Oh, my mother!" and cries just like little
+children in other countries.
+
+But the funniest part of it is to see the boys when they come out of
+school and try to find their shoes. There will be fifty boys, and of
+course a hundred shoes, all mixed together in one pile. When school is
+out, the boys make a rush for the door. Then comes the tug of war. A
+dozen boys are standing and shuffling on the pile of shoes, looking
+down, kicking away the other shoes, running their toes into their own,
+stumbling over the kob kobs, and then making a dash to get out of the
+crowd. Sometimes shins will be kicked, and hair pulled, and tarbooshes
+thrown off, and a great screaming and cursing follow, which will only
+cease when the Mūallim comes with his "Asa" or stick, and quells the
+riot. That pile of shoes will have to answer for a good many schoolboy
+fights and bruised noses and hard feelings in Syria. You would wonder
+how they can tell their own shoes. So do I. And the boys often wear off
+each other's shoes by mistake or on purpose, and then you will see Selim
+running with one shoe on, and one of Ibrahim's in his hand, shouting and
+cursing Ibrahim's father and grandfather, until he gets back his lost
+property. Sometimes when men leave their shoes outside the door of a
+house where they are calling, some one will steal them, and then they
+are in a sorry plight. Shoes are regarded as very unclean, and when you
+are talking in polite society, it will never do to speak of them,
+without asking pardon. You would say, "the other day some one stole my
+new shoes, ajellak Allah," _i.e._, May God exalt you above such a vile
+subject! You would use the same words if you were talking with a Moslem,
+and spoke of a dog, a hog, a donkey, a girl or a woman.
+
+They do not think much of girls in Syria. The most of the people are
+very sorry when a daughter is born. They think it is dreadful, and the
+poor mother will cry as if her heart would break. And the neighbors come
+in and tell her how sorry they are, and condole with her, just as if
+they had come to a funeral. In Kesrawan, a district of Mount Lebanon
+near Beirūt, the Arab women have a proverb, "The threshold weeps forty
+days when a girl is born."
+
+There is a great change going on now in Syria in the feelings of the
+people in regard to girls, but in the interior towns and villages where
+the light of the Gospel has not shone as yet, and there are no schools,
+they have the ancient ideas about them up to this very hour.
+
+I knew an old Syrian grandmother in Tripoli who would not kiss her
+granddaughter for six months after she was born, because she was born a
+girl! But I know another family in that city of Tripoli that do not
+treat girls in that style. The father is Mr. Antonius Yanni, a good
+Christian man, and a member of the Mission Church. He is American Vice
+Consul, and on the top of his house is a tall flag-staff, on which
+floats the stars and stripes, on Fourth of July, and the Sultan's
+birthday, Queen Victoria's birthday, and other great feast days. One day
+when the Tripoli women heard that "Sitt Karīmeh, Yanni's wife, had
+another "_bint_," (girl) they came in crowds to comfort her in her great
+affliction! When Yanni heard of it, he could not restrain himself. He
+loved his older daughter Theodora very dearly, and was thankful to God
+for another sweet baby girl, so he told the women that he would have
+none of this heathenish mourning in his house. He then shouted to his
+janizary or Cawass, a white bearded old Moslem named Amr, "Amr, haul up
+the Bandaira el Americanīyeh, (American flag) to show the world how glad
+I am that I have another daughter." "On my head, on my head, sir," said
+Amr, and away he went and hauled up the stars and stripes. Now the
+Pasha's palace is not far away, and soon the Turkish guards saw the
+flag, and hastened to the Pasha with the news that the American Consul
+had some great feast day, as his flag was raised. The Pasha, supposing
+it to be some important national feast day of the American Government
+which he was so stupid as not to know about, sent his Chief Secretary at
+once to Mr. Yanni to ask what feast it might be? Yanni received him
+politely and ordered a narghileh and coffee and sherbet, and after
+saying "good-morning," and "may you live forever," and "God prolong your
+days!" over and over and over again, and wishing that Doulet America
+might ever flourish, the Secretary asked which of the great American
+festivals he was celebrating that day. Yanni laughed and said,
+"Effendum, you know how many of the ignorant in Syria are so foolish as
+to mourn and lament when God sends them a daughter, but I believe that
+all God's gifts are good, and that daughters are to be valued as much as
+sons, and to rebuke this foolish notion among the people, I put up my
+flag as a token of joy and gratitude." "Sebhan Allah! you have done
+right, sir," ... was the Secretary's reply, and away he went to the
+Pasha. What the Pasha said, I do not know, but there was probably more
+cursing than usual that day in the grand palace of Tripoli, for the
+Mohammedans think the birth of a daughter a special judgment from God.
+
+When a boy is born, there is great rejoicing. Presents are sent to him,
+and the people call to congratulate the father, and the whole house is
+gay and joyous. After a few days a dainty dish called "Mughly" is made
+and sent around as a present to all of the relatives. It is made of
+pounded rice, and flavored with rich spices and sugar and put into
+little bowls, and almonds and other nuts sprinkled over the top. One of
+these little bowls is sent to each of the friends. But when a girl is
+born, there is no rejoicing, no giving of presents, and no making of the
+delicious "mughly."
+
+Here come two little girls bringing earthen pots of milk. They are poor
+girls, daughters of two of our neighbors who are fellaheen or farmers.
+One has no shoes, and neither have stockings. They wear plain blue
+gowns, made of coarse cotton cloth, dyed with indigo, and rusty looking
+tarbooshes on their heads, and a little piece of dirty white muslin
+thrown over their heads as a veil to cover their faces with, when men
+come in sight. One is named Lebeeby and the other Lokunda, which means
+_Hotel_. They behave very well when they come here, as they have the
+fear of the big Khowadja before their eyes, but when they are at home
+running about, they often use dreadful language. Little boys and girls
+in Syria have some awful oaths which they constantly use. I suppose the
+poor things do not know the meaning of half the bad words they use. One
+of the most common is "Yilan Abook," "curse your father!" It is used
+everywhere and on every side by bad people, and the children use it
+constantly in their play. When the little girls come into our Schools
+and Seminaries, it is a long time before they will give up "abook"-ing.
+One of our friends in America is educating a nice little girl in the
+Beirūt Seminary, and we asked the teacher about her a few days ago. The
+answer was, "She still lies and swears dreadfully, but she has greatly
+improved during the past two years, and we are encouraged about her."
+
+Sometimes a boy will say to another Yilan abook, "Curse your father,"
+and another will answer, Wa jiddak, "and your grandfather," and then
+they will call back and forth like cats and dogs. I saw a Moslem boy
+near my house standing by the corner to shield himself from the stones
+another boy was throwing, and shouting wa jid, jid, jid, jid, jidak,
+"and your great-great-great-great-grandfather," and away went the other
+boy, shouting as he ran, "and your great-great-great-great gr-e-at," and
+I heard no more. And then there are a great many very naughty and vile
+words which the children use, which I cannot write, and yet we hear them
+every day. It is very hard to keep our children from learning them, as
+they talk Arabic better than we do, and often learn expressions which
+they do not know the meaning of. One of the most common habits is using
+the name of God in vain. The name of God is Allah, and "O God,"
+_Yullah_. Then there is _Wullah_ and _Bismillah_, "In the name of God,"
+_Hamdlillah_, "Praise to God," _Inshullah_, "If God will." The most
+awful oaths are Wullah and Billah. The people use _Yullah_ at all times
+and on all occasions. The donkey-drivers and muleteers say _Yullah_
+when they drive their animals. Some years ago a good man from America,
+who fears God and would not take his name in vain was travelling in the
+Holy Land, and came on to Beirūt. When he reached there, some one asked
+him if he had learned any Arabic during his journey. He said yes, he had
+learned _Bakhshish_ for "a present," and _Yullah_ for "go ahead." His
+friend asked him if he had used the latter word much on the way. He said
+certainly, he had used it all the way. His friend answered, Professor,
+you have been swearing all the way through the Holy Land. Of course he
+did not know it and meant no wrong. But it shows that such words are
+used so commonly in Syria that strangers do not think them bad language,
+and it also shows that travellers ought to be careful in using the words
+they learn of muleteers and sailors in Arab land.
+
+In some parts of the country the little boys and girls swear so
+dreadfully that you can hardly bear to be with them. Especially among
+the Nusairīyeh, they think that nothing will be believed unless they add
+an oath. Dr. Post once rebuked an old Sheikh for using the word "Wullah"
+so often, and argued so earnestly about it that the man promised never
+to use it again. The old man a moment after repeated it. The doctor
+said, "will you now pledge me that you will not say 'Wullah' again?" He
+replied, "Wullah, I will."
+
+Sometimes a donkey-driver will get out of patience with his long-eared
+beast. The donkey will lie down with his load in a deep mud-hole, or
+among the sharp rocks. For a time the man will kick and strike him and
+throw stones at him, and finally when nothing else succeeds he will
+stand back, with his eyes glaring and his fist raised in the air, and
+scream out, "May Allah curse the beard of your grandfather!" I believe
+that the donkey always gets up after that,--that is, if the muleteer
+first takes off his load and then helps him, by pulling stoutly at his
+tail.
+
+I told you that one of the girls who bring us milk, is named
+"_Lokunda_," or _Hotel_. She is a small specimen of a hotel, but
+provides us purer and sweeter cow's milk than many a six-storied hotel
+on Broadway would do. You will say that is a queer name for a girl, but
+if you stop and think about many of our English names you would think
+them queer too. Here in Syria, we have the house of Wolf, the house of
+"Stuffed Cabbage," Khowadji Leopard, the lady "Wolves," and one of our
+fellow villagers in Abeih where we spend the summer is Eman ed Deen
+"faith-of-religion," although he has neither faith nor religion.
+
+Among the boys' names are Selim, Ibrahim, Moosa, Yakob, Ishoc, Mustafa,
+Hanna, Yusef, Ali, Saieed, Assaf, Giurgius, Faoor, and Abbas. I once met
+a boy at the Cedars of Lebanon, who was named Jidry, or "Small-Pox,"
+because that disease was raging in the village when he was born. It is
+very common to name babies from what is happening in the world when they
+are born. A friend of mine in Tripoli had a daughter born when an
+American ship was in the harbor, so he called her America. When another
+daughter was born there was a Russian ship in port, so he called her
+Russia. There is a young woman in Sūk el Ghurb named Fetneh or Civil
+War, and her sister is Hada, or Peace. An old lady lately died in Beirūt
+named Feinūs or Lantern. In the Beirūt school are and have been girls
+named Pearl, Diamond, Morning Dawn, Dew, Rose, Only one, and Mary Flea.
+That girl America's full name was America Wolves, a curious name for a
+Syrian lamb!
+
+Sometimes children are named, and if after a few years they are sick,
+the parents change their names and give them new ones, thinking that the
+first name did not agree with them. A Druze told me that he named his
+son in infancy _Asaad_ (or happier) but he was sickly, so they changed
+his name to _Ahmed_ (Praised) and after that he grew better! He has now
+become a Christian, and has resumed his first name Asaad.
+
+I once visited a man in the village of Brummana who had six daughters,
+whom he named _Sun_, _Morning_, _Zephyr breeze_, _Jewelry_, _Agate_, and
+_Emerald_. I know girls named Star, Beauty, Sugar, One Eyed, and
+Christian Barbarian. Some of the names are beautiful, as Leila, Zarifeh,
+Lūlū, Selma, Lucīya, Miriam and Fereedy.
+
+All of the men are called Aboo-somebody; _i.e._ the father of somebody
+or something. Old Sheikh Hassein, whose house I am living in, is called
+Aboo Abbas, _i.e._ the father of Abbas, because his eldest son's name is
+Abbas. A young lad in the village, who is just about entering the
+Freshman class in the Beirūt College, has been for years called Aboo
+Habeeb, or the father of Habeeb, when he has no children at all. Elias,
+the deacon of the church in Beirūt was called Aboo Nasif for more than
+fifty years, and finally in his old age he married and had a son, whom
+he named Nasif, so that he got his name right after all. They often give
+young men such names, and if they have no children they call them by the
+name of the son they might have had. But they will not call a man Aboo
+Lūlū or Aboo Leila. If a man has a dozen daughters he will never be
+called from them. They are "nothing but girls." A queer old man in
+Ghurzūz once tried to name himself from his daughter Seleemeh, but
+whenever any one called him Aboo Seleemeh, all the fellaheen would laugh
+as if they would explode, and the boys would shout at him "there goes
+old Aboo Seleemeh," as if it were a grand joke.
+
+The Moslems and Druzes generally give their children the old unmixed
+Arabic names, but the Maronites, the Greeks, and the Protestants often
+use European names. A young lady named Miss Mason was once a teacher in
+the Sidon Seminary, and spent the summer in the mountain village of Deir
+Mimas. One of the women of the village liked her name, and named her
+daughter "Miss Mason," and if you should go there you would hear the
+little urchins of Deir Mimas shouting Miss Mason! to a little
+blue-gowned and tarbooshed Arab girl.
+
+What noise is that we hear down in the village, under the great jowz
+(walnut) trees by the fountain? It rolls and gurgles and growls and
+bellows enough to frighten a whole village full of children. But the
+little Arab boys and girls are playing around, and the women are filling
+their jars at the fountain just as if nothing had happened. But it is a
+frightful noise for all that. It is the bellowing of the camels as their
+heavy loads are being put on. They are kneeling on the ground, with
+their long necks swaying and stretching around like boa constrictors.
+These camels are very useful animals, but I always like to see them at a
+distance, especially in the month of February, for at that time they get
+to be as "mad as a March hare." They are what the Arabs call "taish,"
+and often bite men severely. In Hums one bit the whole top of a man's
+head off, and in Tripoli another bit a man's hand off. I once saw a
+camel "taish" in Beirūt, and he was driving the whole town before him.
+Wherever he came, with his tongue hanging down and a foaming froth
+pouring from his mouth as he growled and bellowed through the streets,
+the people would leave their shops and stools and run in dismay. It was
+a frightful sight. I was riding down town, and on seeing the crowd, and
+the camel coming towards me, I put spurs to my horse and rode home.
+
+When camels are tied together in a long caravan with a little
+mouse-colored donkey leading the van, ridden by a long-legged Bedawy,
+who sits half-asleep smoking his pipe, you would think them the tamest
+and most innocent creatures in the world, but when they fall into a
+panic, they are beyond all control. A few years ago a drove of camels
+was passing through the city of Damascus. The Arabs drive camels like
+sheep, hundreds and sometimes thousands in a flock, and they look
+awkward enough. When this drove entered the city, something frightened
+them, and they began to run. Just imagine a camel running! What a sight
+it must have been! Hundreds of them went through the narrow streets,
+knocking over men and women and donkeys, upsetting the shopkeepers, and
+spilling out their wares on the ground, and many persons were badly
+bruised. At length a carpenter saw them coming and put a timber across
+the street, which dammed up the infuriated tide of camels, and they
+dashed against one another until they were all wedged together, and thus
+their owners secured them.
+
+In August, 1862, a famous Bedawin Chief, named Mohammed ed Dukhy, in
+Houran, east of the Jordan, rebelled against the Turkish Government. The
+Druzes joined him, and the Turks sent a small army against them.
+Mohammed had in his camp several thousand of the finest Arabian camels,
+and they were placed in a row behind his thousands of Arab and Druze
+horsemen. Behind the camels were the women, children, sheep, cattle and
+goats. When the Turkish army first opened fire with musketry, the camels
+made little disturbance, as they were used to hearing small arms, but
+when the Turkish Colonel gave orders to fire with cannon, "the ships of
+the desert" began to tremble. The artillery thundered, and the poor
+camels could stand it no longer. They were driven quite crazy with
+fright, and fled over the country in every direction in more than a Bull
+Run panic. Some went down towards the Sea of Galilee, others towards the
+swamps of Merom, and hundreds towards Banias, the ancient Cęsarea
+Philippi, and onwards to the West as far as Deir Mimas. Nothing could
+stop them. Their tongues were projecting, their eyes glaring, and on
+they went. The fellaheen along the roads caught them as they could, and
+sold them to their neighbors. Fine camels worth eighty dollars, were
+sold for four or five dollars a head, and in some villages the fat
+animals were butchered and sold for beef. Some of them came to Deir
+Mimas, where two of the missionaries lived. The Protestants said to the
+missionaries, "here are noble camels selling for five and ten dollars,
+shall we buy? Others are buying." "By no means," they told them. "They
+are stolen or strayed property, and you will repent it if you touch
+them." Others bought and feasted on camel steaks, and camel soup, and
+camel kibby, but the Protestants would not touch them. In a day or two,
+the cavalry of the Turks came scouring the country for the camels, as
+they were the spoils of war. Then the poor fellaheen were sorry enough
+that they had bought and eaten the camels, for the Turks made them pay
+back double the price of the beasts, and the Protestants found that
+"honesty was the best policy."
+
+The camel is very sure footed, but cannot travel on muddy and slippery
+roads. The Arabs say "the camel never falls, but if he falls, he never
+gets up again." They carry long timbers over Lebanon, on the steep and
+rocky roads, the timber being balanced on the pack saddle, one end
+extending out on front, and the other behind. Sometimes the timber
+begins to swing about, and down the camel goes over the precipice and is
+dashed to pieces.
+
+The Arabs say that a man once asked a camel, "What made your _neck_ so
+crooked?" The camel answered, "My neck? Why did you ask about my neck?
+Is there anything else straight about me, that led you to notice my
+neck?" This has a meaning, which is, that when a man's habits are all
+bad, there is no use in talking about _one_ of them.
+
+Perhaps you will ask, did you ever eat camel's flesh? Certainly. We do
+not get it in Beirūt, as camels are too expensive along the sea-coast to
+be used as food, but in the interior towns, like Hums and Hamath, which
+border on the desert or rather the great plains occupied by the ten
+thousands of the Bedawin, camel's meat is a common article in the
+market. They butcher fat camels, and young camel colts that have broken
+their legs, and sometimes their meat is as delicious as beefsteak. But
+when they kill an old lean worn-out camel, that has been besmeared with
+pitch and tar for many years, and has been journeying under heavy loads
+from Aleppo to Damascus until he is what the Arabs call a "basket of
+bones," and then kill him to save his life, or rather his beef, the meat
+is not very delicate.
+
+The Arab name for a camel is "Jemel" which means _beauty_! They call
+him so perhaps because there is no beauty in him. You will read in
+books, that the camel is the "ship of the desert." He is very much like
+a ship, as he carries a heavy cargo over the ocean-like plains and
+"buraries" or wilds of the Syrian and Arabian deserts. He is also like a
+ship in making people sea-sick who ride on his back, and because he has
+a strong odor of tar and pitch like the hold of a ship, which sometimes
+you can perceive at a long distance.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+
+Perhaps you would like to take a ride with me some day, and visit some
+of the missionary stations in Syria. What will you ride? The horses are
+gentle, but you would feel safer on a donkey. Mules are sometimes good
+for riding, but I prefer to let them alone. I never rode a mule but
+once. I was at Hasbeiya, and wished to visit the bitumen wells. My horse
+was not in a condition to be ridden, so I took Monsūr's mule. It had
+only a jillal or pack saddle, and Monsūr made stirrups of rope for me.
+My companions had gone on in advance, and when I started, the mule was
+eager to overtake them. All went well until we approached the little
+stream which afterwards becomes the River Jordan. The ground was
+descending, and the road covered with loose stones. The rest of our
+party were crossing the stream and the mule thought he would trot and
+come up with them. I tried to hold him in with the rope halter, but he
+shook his head and dashed on. About the middle of the descent he
+stumbled and fell flat upon his nose. I went over his head upon my
+hands, but my feet were fast in the rope stirrups. Seeing that he was
+trying to get up, I tried to work myself back into the saddle, but I had
+only reached his head, when he sprang up. I was now in a curious and not
+very safe situation. The mule was trotting on and I was sitting on his
+head holding on to his ears, with my feet fast in the rope stirrups. A
+little Arab boy was passing with a tray of bread upon his head and I
+shouted to him for help. He was so amused to see a Khowadja with a hat,
+riding at that rate on a mule's head, that he began to roar with
+laughter and down went his tray on the ground and the Arab bread went
+rolling among the stones. It was a great mercy that I did not fall under
+the brute's feet, but I held on until he got the other side of the
+Jordan, when a man ran out from the mill and stopped him. Monsūr now led
+him by the halter and I reached the bitumen wells in safety.
+
+You can mount your donkey and Harry will ride another, and I will ride
+my horse, and we will try a Syrian journey. As we cannot spare the time
+to go from Beirūt to Tripoli by land, I have sent Ibrahim to take the
+animals along the shore, and we will go up by the French steamer, a fine
+large vessel called the "Ganges." We go down to the Kumruk or Custom
+House, and there a little Arab boat takes us out to the steamer. In
+rough weather it is very dangerous going out to the steamers, and
+sometimes little boats are capsized, but to-night there is no danger.
+You are now on the deck of the steamer. What a charming view of Beirūt
+and Mount Lebanon. Far out on the point of the cape are the new
+buildings of the Syrian College, and next is the Prussian Hospital and
+then the Protestant Prussian Deaconesses Institution with 130 orphans
+and 80 paying pupils. There is the house of Dr. Thomson and Dr. Van Dyck
+and Dr. Post, and the Turkish Barracks, and Mrs. Mott's school, and our
+beautiful Church, with its clock tower, and you can hear the clock
+strike six. Then next to the Church is the Female Seminary with its 100
+pupils, and the Steam Printing Press, where are printed so many books
+and Scriptures every year in the Arabic language. Those tall cypress
+trees are in the Mission Cemetery where Pliny Fisk, and Eli Smith, and
+Mr. Whiting, and a good many little children are buried. Near by are the
+houses of Dr. Bliss and Dr. Lewis and our house, and you can see mosques
+and minarets and domes and red-tiled roofs, and beautiful arched
+corridors and green trees in every direction. Do you see the beautiful
+purple tints on the Lebanon Mountains as the sun goes down? Is it not
+worth a long journey to see that lofty peak gilded and tinted with
+purple and pink and yellow as the sun sinks into the sea?
+
+What a noise these boatmen make! I doubt whether you have ever heard
+such a screaming before.
+
+Now you can imagine yourself going to sleep in the state-room of this
+great steamer, and away we go. The anchor comes up clank, clank, as the
+great chain cable is wound up by the donkey engine, and now we move off
+silently and smoothly. In about five hours we have made the fifty miles,
+and down goes the anchor again in Tripoli harbor. At sunrise the Tripoli
+boatmen come around the steamer. We are two miles off from the shore and
+a rough north wind is blowing. Let us hurry up and get ashore before the
+wind increases to a gale, as these North winds are very fierce on the
+Syrian coast. Here comes Mustafa, an old boatman, and begs us to take
+his felūca. We look over the side of the steamer and see that his boat
+is large and clean and agree to take it for twelve piastres or fifty
+cents for all of us and our baggage. Then the other boatmen rush up and
+scream and curse and try to get us to take their boats, but we say
+nothing and push through them and climb down the steps to the boat. The
+white caps are rolling and the boat dances finely. Mustafa puts up a
+large three-cornered sail, Ali sits at the rudder, and with a stroke or
+two of the oars we turn around into the wind and away we dash towards
+the shore. The Meena (port) is before us, that white row of houses on
+the point; and back among the gardens is the city of Tripoli. In less
+than half an hour we reach the shore, but the surf is so high that we
+cannot go near the pier, so they make for the sand beach, and before we
+reach it, the boat strikes on a little bar and we stop. Out jump the
+boatmen, and porters come running half naked from the shore and each
+shouts to us to ride ashore on his shoulders. They can carry you and
+Harry with ease, but I am always careful how I sit on the shoulders of
+these rough fellows. There is Ibrahim on the shore with our animals, and
+two mules for the baggage. We shall take beds and bedsteads and cooking
+apparatus and provisions and a tent. Ibrahim has bought bread and
+potatoes and rice and semin (Arab butter) and smead (farina) and
+candles, and a little sugar and salt, and other necessaries. We will
+accept Aunt Annie's invitation to breakfast, and then everything will be
+ready for a start.
+
+What is the matter with those boys in that dark room? Are they on
+rockers? They keep swinging back and forth and screaming at the top of
+their voices all at once, and an old blind man sits on one side holding
+a long stick. They all sit on the floor and hold books or tin cards in
+their hands. This is a Moslem school, and the boys are learning to read
+and write. They all study aloud, and the old blind Sheikh knows their
+voices so well that when one stops studying, he perceives it, and
+reaches his long stick over that way until the boy begins again. When a
+boy comes up to him to recite, he has to shout louder than the rest, so
+that the Sheikh can distinguish his voice. There, two boys are fighting.
+The Sheikh cannot and will not have fighting in his school, and he calls
+them up to him. They begin to scream and kick and call for their
+mothers, but it is of no use. Sheikh Mohammed will have order. Lie down
+there you Mahmoud! Mahmoud lies down, and the Sheikh takes a stick like
+a bow with a cord to it, and winds the cord around his ankles. After
+twisting the cord as tight as possible, he takes his rod and beats
+Mahmoud on the soles of his feet, until the poor boy is almost black in
+the face with screaming and pain. Then he serves Saleh in the same way.
+This is the _bastinado_ of which you have heard and read. When the
+Missionaries started common schools in Syria, the teachers used the
+bastinado without their knowledge, though we never allow anything of the
+kind. But the boys behave so badly and use such bad language to each
+other, that the teacher's patience is often quite exhausted. I heard of
+one school where the teacher invited a visitor to hear the boys recite,
+and then offered to whip the school all around from the biggest boy to
+the smallest, in order to show how well he governed the school! They do
+not use the alphabet in the Moslem schools. The boys begin with the
+Koran and learn the _words by sight_, without knowing the letters of
+which they are composed.
+
+Here come two young men to meet us. Fine lads they are too. One is named
+Giurgius, and the other Leopold. When they were small boys, they once
+amused me very much. Mr. Yanni, who drew up his flag on the birth of
+Barbara, sent Giurgius his son, and Leopold his nephew to the school of
+an old man named Hanna Tooma. This old man always slept in the
+afternoon, and the boys did not study very well when he was asleep. I
+was once at Yanni's house when the boys came home from school. They
+were in high glee. One of them said to his father, our teacher slept all
+the afternoon, and we appointed a committee of boys to fan him and keep
+the flies off while the rest went down into the court to play, and when
+he moved we all hushed up until he was sound asleep again. But when he
+_did_ wake up, he took the big "Asa" and struck out right and left, and
+gave every boy in the school a flogging. The father asked, but why did
+he flog them all? Because he said he knew some of us had done wrong and
+he was determined to hit the right one, so he flogged us all!
+
+See the piles of fruit in the streets! Grapes and figs, watermelons and
+pomegranates, peaches, pears, lemons and bananas. At other seasons of
+the year you have oranges, _sweet lemons_, plums, and apricots. There is
+fresh fruit on the trees here every week in the year. Now we are passing
+a lemonade stand, where iced lemonade is sold for a cent a glass, cooled
+with snow from the summit of Mount Lebanon 9000 feet high. Grapes are
+about a cent a pound and figs the same, and in March you can buy five
+oranges or ten sweet lemons for a cent. Huge watermelons are about eight
+or ten cents a piece. We buy so many pounds of milk and oil and potatoes
+and charcoal. The prickly pear, or subire, is a delicious fruit,
+although covered with sharp barbed spines and thorns. It is full of hard
+large woody seeds, but the people are very fond of the fruit. Sheikh
+Nasif el Yazijy was a famous Arab poet and scholar, and a young man once
+brought him a poem to be corrected. He told him to call in a few days
+and get it. He came again and the Sheikh said to him. "Your poem is like
+the Missionary's prickly pear!" "The Missionary's prickly pear?" said
+the young poet. "What do you mean?" "Why," said the Sheikh, "Dr. ---- a
+missionary, when he first came to Syria, had a dish of prickly pears set
+before him to eat. Not liking to eat the seeds, he began to pick them
+out, and when he had picked out all the seeds, there was nothing left!
+So your poem. You asked me to remove the errors, and I found that when I
+had taken out all the errors, there was nothing left."
+
+It is about time for us to start. We will ride through the orange
+gardens and see the rich fruit bending the trees almost down to the
+ground. Steer your way carefully through the crowd of mules, pack
+horses, camels and asses loaded with boxes of fruit hastening down to
+the Meena for the steamer which goes North to-night.
+
+Here is Yanni, with his happy smiling face coming out to meet us. We
+will dismount and greet him. He will kiss us on both cheeks and insist
+on our calling at his house. The children are glad to see you, and the
+Sitt Karīmeh asks, how are "the preserved of God?" that is, the
+_children_. Then the little tots come up to kiss my hand, and Im
+Antonius, the old grandmother, comes and greets us most kindly. It was
+not always so. She was once very hostile to the Missionaries. She
+thought that her son had done a dreadful deed when he became a
+Protestant. Although she once loved him, she hated him and hated us.
+She used to fast, and make vows, and pray to the Virgin and the saints,
+and beat her breast in agony over her son. She had a brother and another
+son, who were like her, and they all persecuted Yanni. But he bore it
+patiently without an unkind word in return for all their abuse. At
+length the brother Ishoc was taken ill. Im Antonius brought the pictures
+and put them over his head and called the priests. He said, "Mother,
+take away these idols. Send away these priests. Tell my brother Antonius
+to come here, I want to ask his forgiveness." Yanni came. Ishoc said to
+him, "Brother, your kindness and patience have broken me down. You are
+right and I am wrong. I am going to die. Will you forgive me?" "Yes, and
+may God forgive and bless you too." "Then bring your Bible and read to
+me. Read about some _great_ sinner who was saved." Yanni read about the
+dying thief on the cross. "Read it again! Ah, that is my case! I am the
+chief of sinners." Every day he kept Yanni reading and praying with him.
+He loved to talk about Jesus and at length died trusting in the Saviour!
+The uncle Michaiel, was also taken ill, and on his death-bed would have
+neither priest nor pictures, and declared to all the people that he
+trusted only in the Saviour whom Yanni had loved and served so well.
+After that Im Antonius was softened and now she loves to hear Yanni read
+the Bible and pray.
+
+The servant is coming with sherbet and sweetmeats and Arabic coffee in
+little cups as large as an egg-shell. Did you notice how the marble
+floors shine! They are scrubbed and polished, and kept clean by the
+industrious women whom you see so gorgeously dressed now. These good
+ladies belong to the Akabir, or aristocracy of Tripoli, but they work
+most faithfully in their housekeeping duties. But alas, they can neither
+read nor write! And there is hardly a woman in this whole city of 16,000
+people that can read or write! I once attended a company of invited
+guests at one of the wealthy houses in Tripoli, and there were thirty
+Tripolitan ladies in the large room, dressed in the most elegant style.
+I think you never saw such magnificence. They were dressed in silks and
+satins and velvets, embroidered with gold thread and pearls, and their
+arms and necks were loaded with gold bracelets and necklaces set with
+precious stones, and on their heads were wreaths of gold and silver work
+sparkling with diamonds, and fragrant with fresh orange blossoms and
+jessamine. Many of them were beautiful. But not one of them could read.
+The little boys and girls too are dressed in the same rich style among
+the wealthier classes, and they are now beginning to learn. Many of the
+little girls who were taught in Sadi's school here thirteen years ago,
+are now heads of families, and know how to read the gospel.
+
+Ibrahim comes in to say that we must hurry off if we would reach Halba
+to sleep to-night. So we bid Yanni's family good-bye. We tell them "Be
+Khaterkum." "By your pleasure," and they say "Ma es Salameh," "with
+peace."--Then they say "God smooth your way," and we answer, "Peace to
+your lives." Saieed the muleteer now says "Dih, Ooah," to his mules, and
+away we ride over the stony pavements and under the dark arches of the
+city, towards the East. We cross the bridge over the River Kadisha, go
+through the wheat and barley market, and out of the gate Tibbaneh, among
+the Moslems, Maronites, Bedawin, Nusairīyeh, Gypsies, and Greeks, who
+are buying and selling among the Hamath and Hums caravans.
+
+Do you see those boys playing by the stone wall? They are catching
+scorpions. They put a little wax on a stick and thrust it into the holes
+in the wall, and the scorpions run their claws into the wax when they
+are easily drawn out, and the boys like to play with them. The sting of
+the scorpion is not deadly, but it is very painful, something like being
+stung by half a dozen hornets.
+
+Here come a company of Greek priests, with the Greek bishop of Akkar.
+The priests are all Syrians but the bishop is from Greece, and knows but
+little Arabic. The priests are very ignorant, for they are generally
+chosen from among the lowest of the people.
+
+When the former Greek Bishop died in Tripoli, in 1858, his dead body was
+dressed in cloth of gold, with a golden crown on his head, and then the
+corpse was set up in a chair in the midst of the Greek Church, with the
+face and hands uncovered so that all the people could see him. The
+fingers were all black and bloated, but the men, women and children
+crowded up to kiss them. When the body was taken from the city to Deir
+Keftin, three miles distant the Greek mountaineers came down in a rabble
+to get the blessing from the corpse. And how do you think they got the
+blessing? They attacked the bearers and knocked off pieces of the
+coffin, and then carried off the pall and tore it in pieces, fighting
+for it like hungry wolves. A number of people were wounded. After the
+burial they dug up the earth for some distance around the tomb, and
+carried it off to be used as medicine. A little girl brought a piece of
+the bishop's handkerchief to my house, hearing that some one was ill,
+saying that if we would burn it and drink the ashes in water, we would
+be instantly cured.
+
+The Syrians have a good many stories about their priests, which they
+laugh about, and yet they obey them, no matter how ignorant they are.
+Abū Selim in the Meena used to tell me this story: Once there was a
+priest who did not know how to count. This was a great trial to him, as
+the Greeks have so many fasts and feasts that it is necessary to count
+all the time or get into trouble. They have a long fast called _Soum el
+kebīr_, and it is sometimes nearly sixty days long. One year the fast
+commenced, and the priest had blundered so often that he went to the
+bishop and asked him to teach him some way to count the days to the
+Easter feast. The bishop told him it would be forty days, and gave him
+forty kernels of "hummus," or peas, telling him to put them into his
+pocket and throw one out every day, and when they were all gone, to
+proclaim the feast! This was a happy plan for the poor priest, and he
+went on faithfully throwing away one pea every day, until one day he
+went to a neighboring village. In crossing the stream he fell from his
+donkey into the mud, and his black robe was grievously soiled. The good
+woman of the house where he slept, told him to take off his robe and she
+would clean it in the night. So after he was asleep she arose and washed
+it clean, but found to her sorrow that she had destroyed the peas in the
+priest's pocket. Poor priest, said she, he has lost all his peas which
+he had for lunch on the road! But I will make it up to him. So she went
+to her earthen jar and took a big double handful of hummus and put them
+into the priest's pocket, and said no more. He went on his way and threw
+out a pea every morning for weeks and weeks. At length, some of his
+fellaheen heard that the feast had begun in another village, and told
+the Priest. Impossible, said he. My pocket is half full yet. Others came
+and said, will you keep us fasting all the year? He only replied, look
+into my pocket. Are you wiser than the Bishop? At length some one went
+and told the Bishop that the priest was keeping his people fasting for
+twenty days after the time. And then the story leaked out, and the poor
+woman told how she had filled up the pocket, and the bishop saw that
+there was no use in trying to teach the man to count.
+
+See the reapers in the field, and the women gleaning after them, just
+as Ruth did so many thousand years ago! On this side is a "lodge in a
+garden of cucumbers."
+
+Now we come down upon the sea-shore again, and on our right is the great
+plain of Akkar, level as a floor, and covered with fields of Indian corn
+and cotton. Flocks and herds and Arab camps of black tents are scattered
+over it. Here is a shepherd-boy playing on his "zimmara" or pipe, made
+of two reeds tied together and perforated. He plays on it hour after
+hour and day after day, as he leads his sheep and goats or cattle along
+the plain or over the mountains. You do not like it much, any more than
+he would like a melodeon or a piano. When King David was a shepherd-boy
+he played on such a pipe as this as he wandered over the mountains of
+Judea.
+
+Now we turn away from the sea and go eastward to Halba. Before long we
+cross the river Arka on a narrow stone bridge, and pass a high hill
+called "Tel Arka." Here the Arkites lived, who are mentioned in Genesis
+x:17. That was four thousand two hundred years ago. What a chain of
+villages skirt this plain! The people build their villages on the hills
+for protection and health, but go down to plough and sow and feed their
+flocks to the rich level plain. Now we cross a little stream of water,
+and look up the ravine, and there is Ishoc's house perched on the side
+of the hill opposite Halba. Ishoc and his wife Im Hanna, come out to
+meet us, and he helps us pitch the tent by the great fig tree near his
+house. We unroll the tent, splice the tent pole, open the bag of tent
+pins, get the mallet, and although the wind is blowing hard, we will
+drive the pegs so deep that there will be no danger of its blowing over.
+
+Abū Hanna, or Ishoc, is a noble Christian man, one of the best men in
+Syria. He has suffered very much for Christ's sake. The Greeks in the
+village on the hill have tried to poison him. They hired Nusairy
+Mughlajees to shoot him. They cut down his trees at night, and pulled up
+his plantations of vegetables. They came at night and tore up the roof
+of his house, and shot through at him but did not hit him. But the
+Mohammedan Begs over there always help him, because he is an honest man,
+and aids them in their business and accounts. When the Greeks began to
+persecute him, they told him to fire a gun whenever they came about his
+house, and they would come over and fight for him. They even offered to
+go up and burn the Greek village and put an end to these persecutions.
+But Ishoc would not let them. He said, "Mohammed Beg, you know I am a
+Christian, not like these Greeks who lie and steal and kill, but I
+follow the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, 'Love your
+enemies,' and I do not wish to injure one of them." The Begs were
+astonished at this, and went away, urging him if there were any more
+trouble at night to fire his gun and they would come over from Halba at
+once.
+
+I love this good man Ishoc. His pure life, his patience and gentleness
+have preached to these wild people in Akkar, more than all the sermons
+of the missionaries.
+
+Would you like to see Im Hanna make bread for our supper? That hole in
+the ground, lined with plaster, is the oven, and the flames are pouring
+out. They heat it with thorns and thistles. She sits by the oven with a
+flat stone at her side, patting the lumps of dough into thin cakes like
+wafers as large as the brim of your straw hat. Now the fire is burning
+out and the coals are left at the bottom of the oven, as if they were in
+the bottom of a barrel. She takes one thin wafer on her hand and sticks
+it on the smooth side of the oven, and as it bakes it curls up, but
+before it drops off into the coals, she pulls it out quickly and puts
+another in its place. How sweet and fresh the bread is! It is made of
+Indian corn. She calls it "khubs dura." Abū Hanna says that we must eat
+supper with them to-night. They are plain fellaheen, and have neither
+tables, chairs, knives nor forks. They have a few wooden spoons, and a
+few plates. But hungry travellers and warm-hearted friendship will make
+the plainest food sweet and pleasant.
+
+Supper is ready now, and we will go around to Abū Hanna's house for he
+has come to tell us that "all things are ready." The house is one low
+room, about sixteen by twenty feet. The ceiling you see is of logs
+smoked black and shining as if they had been varnished. Above the logs
+are flat stones and thorns, on which earth is piled a foot deep. In the
+winter this earth is rolled down with a heavy stone roller to keep out
+the rain. In many of the houses the family, cattle, sheep, calves and
+horses sleep in the same room. The family sleep in the elevated part of
+the room along the edge of which is a trough into which they put the
+barley for the animals. This is the "medhwad" or manger, such as the
+infant Jesus was laid in. We will now accept Im Hanna's kind invitation
+to supper. The plates are all on a small tray on a mat in the middle of
+the floor, and there are four piles of bread around the edge. There is
+one cup of water for us all to drink from, and each one has a wooden
+spoon. But Abū Hanna, you will see, prefers to eat without a spoon.
+After the blessing is asked in Arabic, Abū Hanna says, "tefudduloo,"
+which means help yourselves. Here is kibby, and camel stew, and Esau's
+pottage, and olives, and rice, and figs cooked in dibbs, and chicken
+boiled to pieces, and white fresh cheese, and curdled milk, and fried
+eggs.
+
+Kibby is the Arab plum pudding and mince pie and roast beef all in one.
+It is made by pounding meat in a mortar with wheat, until both are mixed
+into a soft pulp and then dressed with nuts and onions and butter, and
+baked or roasted in cakes over the fire. Dr. Thomson thinks that this
+dish is alluded to in Prov. 27:22, "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in
+a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart
+from him." That is, put the fool into Im Hanna's stone mortar with wheat
+and pound him into kibby, and he would still remain a fool! It takes
+something besides pounding to get the folly out of foolish men.
+
+You see there are no separate plates for us. We all help ourselves from
+the various dishes as we prefer. Abū Hanna wants you to try the
+"mejeddara," made of "oddis." It is like thick pea soup, but with a
+peculiar flavor. This is what Jacob made the pottage of, when he tempted
+Esau and bought his birthright. I hope you will like it, but I do not.
+After seventeen years of trying, I am not able to enjoy it, but Harry
+will eat all he can get, and the little Arab children revel in it. You
+make poor work with that huge wooden spoon. You had better try Abū
+Hanna's way of eating. Many better men than any of us have eaten in that
+way, and I suppose our Saviour and his disciples ate as Abū Hanna eats.
+He tears off a small piece of the thin wafer-like bread, doubles it into
+a kind of three cornered spoon, dips it into the rice, or picks up a
+piece of kibby with it, and then eats it down, spoon and all! Im Hanna
+says I am afraid those little boys do not like our food, so she makes a
+spoon and dips up a nice morsel of the chicken, and comes to you and
+says "minshan khatri," for my sake, eat this, and you open your mouth
+and she puts it in. That is the way our Saviour dipped the "sop" and put
+it into the mouth of Judas Iscariot to show the disciples which one it
+was. Giving the sop was a common act, and I have no doubt Jesus had
+often given it to John and Peter and the other disciples, as a kindly
+act, when they were eating together.
+
+Im Hanna is fixing the lamp. It is a little earthen saucer having a lip
+on one side, with the wick hanging over. The wick just began to smoke
+and she poured in more olive oil, and it burns brightly again. Do you
+remember what the prophet Isaiah (42:3) said, "a bruised reed shall he
+not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench." This is quoted in
+Matt. 12 of our Lord Jesus. The word flax means _wick_. It is "fetileh"
+in Arabic, and this is just what Im Hanna has been doing. She saw the
+wick smoking and flickering, and instead of blowing it out and quenching
+it, she brought the oil flask, and gently poured in the clear olive oil
+and you saw how quickly the flame revived. So our Lord would have us
+learn from Him. When the flame of our faith and love is almost dead and
+nothing remains but the smoking flickering wick, He does not quench it,
+and deal harshly with us, but he comes in all gentleness and love and
+pours in the oil of His grace, and then our faith revives and we live
+again.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+
+Here come some little Bedawin gypsy children. One is laughing at my hat.
+He never saw one before and he calls me "Abū Suttle," the "father of a
+Pail," and wonders why I carry a pail on my head. The people love to use
+the word Abū, [father] or Im, [mother]. They call a musquito Abū Fas,
+the father of an axe. The centipede is "Im Arba wa Arb-ain; "The
+mother of forty-four legs." The Arabic poet Hariri calls a _table_ the
+"father of assembling;" _bread_, the "father of pleasantness;" a _pie_,
+"the mother of joyfulness," _salt_, "the father of help," _soap_ the
+"father of softness;" Death is called by the Arab poets, "Father of the
+Living," because all the living are subject to him.
+
+After breakfast we will start for Safīta. You see that snow-white dome
+on the hill-top! and another on the next hill under that huge oak tree,
+and then another and another. These are called Nebi or Ziarat or Wely.
+Each one contains one or more tombs of Nusairy saints or sheikhs, and
+the poor women visit them and burn lamps and make vows to the saints who
+they think live in them. They know nothing of Christ, and when they feel
+sad and troubled and want comfort they enter the little room under the
+white dome, and there they call, "O Jafar et Tīyyar hear me! O Sheikh
+Hassan hear me!"
+
+This is just as the old Canaanite women used to go up and worship on
+every high hill, and under every green tree, thousands of years ago, and
+these poor Nusairīyeh are thought to be the descendants of the old
+Canaanites.
+
+Here come men on horseback to visit that "ziyara." Up they go to the
+little room with the white dome, and all dismount. The old sheikh who
+has charge, comes out to meet them. They are pilgrims and have to make
+vows and bring offerings. One had a sick son and he once vowed that if
+his son got well he would bring a sheep and a bushel of wheat as an
+offering to this shrine. So there is the sheep on one of the horses, and
+that mule is bringing the wheat. If the old sheikh has many such
+visitors he will grow rich. Some of them do. And yet the people laugh at
+these holy places, and tell some strange stories about them. One of the
+stories is as follows:--
+
+Once upon a time there was a great Sheikh Ali, a holy man, who kept a
+holy tomb of an ancient prophet. The tomb was on a hill under a big oak
+tree, and the white dome could be seen for miles around. Lamps were kept
+burning day and night in the tomb, and if any one extinguished them,
+they were miraculously lighted again. Men with sore eyes came to visit
+it and were cured. The earth around the tomb was carried off to be used
+as medicine. Women came and tied old rags on the limbs of the tree, as
+vows to the wonderful prophet. Nobody knew the name of the prophet, but
+the tomb was called "Kobr en Nebi," or "tomb of the prophet." A green
+cloth was spread over the tomb under the dome, and incense was sold by
+the sheikh to those who wished to heal their sick, or drive out evil
+spirits from their houses. Pilgrims came from afar to visit the holy
+place, and its fame extended over all the land. Sheikh Ali was becoming
+a rich man, and all the pilgrims kissed his hand and begged his
+blessing. Now Sheikh Ali had a faithful servant named Mohammed, who had
+served him long and well. But Mohammed was weary of living in one place,
+and asked permission to go and seek his fortune in distant parts. So
+Sheikh Ali gave him his blessing and presented him with a donkey, which
+he had for many years, that he might ride when tired of walking. Then
+Mohammed set out on his journey. He went through cities and towns and
+villages, and at last came out on the mountains east of the Jordan in a
+desert place. No village or house was in sight and night came on. Tired,
+hungry and discouraged poor Mohammed lay down by his donkey on a great
+pile of stones and fell asleep. In the morning he awoke, and alas his
+donkey was dead. He was in despair, but his kindly nature would not let
+the poor brute lie there to be devoured by jackals and vultures, so he
+piled a mound of stones over its body and sat down to weep.
+
+While he was weeping, a wealthy Hajji or pilgrim came along, on his
+return from Mecca. He was surprised to see a man alone in this
+wilderness, and asked him why he was weeping? Mohammed replied, O Hajji,
+I have found the tomb of a holy prophet, and I have vowed to be its
+keeper, but I am in great need. The Hajji thanked him for the news, and
+dismounted to visit the holy place, and gave Mohammed a rich present.
+After he had gone Mohammed hastened to the nearest village and bought
+provisions and then returned to his holy prophet's tomb. The Hajji
+spread the news, and pilgrims thronged to the spot with rich presents
+and offerings. As money came in Mohammed brought masons and built a
+costly tomb with a tall white dome that could be seen across the Jordan.
+He lived in a little room by the tomb, and soon the miraculous lights
+began to appear in the tomb at night, which Mohammed had kindled when no
+one was near. He increased in fame and wealth, and the Prophet's tomb
+became one of the great shrines of the land.
+
+At length Sheikh Ali heard of the fame of the new holy place in the
+desert, and as his own visitors began to fall off, decided to go himself
+and gain the merit of a visit to the tomb of that famous prophet. When
+he arrived there with his rich presents of green cloth, incense and
+money, he bowed in silence to pray towards Mecca, when suddenly he
+recognized in the holy keeper of the tomb, his old servant Mohammed.
+"Salam alaykoom" said Sheikh Ali. "Alaykoom es Salam," replied Mohammed.
+When he asked him how he came here, and how he found this tomb, Mohammed
+replied, this "tomb is a great "sirr" or mystery, and I am forbidden to
+utter the secret." "But you _must_ tell _me_," said Sheikh Ali, "for I
+am a father to you." Mohammed refused and Ali insisted, until at length
+Mohammed said, "my honored Sheikh, you remember having given me a
+donkey. It was a faithful donkey, and when it died I buried it. This is
+the tomb of that donkey!" "Mashallah! Mashallah!" said Sheikh Ali. The
+will of Allah be done! Then they ate and drank together, and renewed the
+memory of their former life, and then Sheikh Mohammed said to Sheikh
+Ali, "My master, as I have told you the 'sirr' of my prophet's tomb, I
+wish to know the secret of yours." "Impossible," said Ali, "for that is
+one of the ancient mysteries, too sacred to be mentioned by mortal
+lips." "But you _must_ tell me, even as I have told you." At length the
+old Sheikh Ali stroked his snowy beard, adjusted his white turban, and
+whispered to Mohammed, "and my holy place is the _tomb of that donkey's
+father_!" "Mashallah," said Mohammed, "may Allah bless the beard of the
+holy donkeys!"
+
+The people tell this story, which shows, that they ridicule and despise
+their holy places, and yet are too superstitious to give them up. The
+great thing with the sheiks who keep them is _the piastres_ they make
+from the visitors.
+
+As we go up the hill to Safita, you see the tall, beautiful Burj, or
+Crusader's tower, built as were many of the castles and towers whose
+ruins you see on the hills about here, by the French and English eight
+hundred years ago, to keep down the wild and rebellious people. The
+Protestant Church is at the east. These are two watch towers. One was
+built for warriors who fought with sword and spear, and the other for
+the simple warfare of the gospel. You may depend upon it, we shall have
+a welcome here. It is nearly sunset, and the people are coming in from
+their fields and pastures and vineyards. Daūd and Nicola, and Michaiel,
+Soleyman, Ibrahim, and Yusef, Miriam, Raheel and Nejmy and crowds of
+others with a throng of little ragged boys and girls, come running to
+greet us. "Praise God we have seen you in peace!" "Ehelan wa Sehelan,"
+"Welcome and Welcome!" "Be preferred!" "Honor us with your presence!"
+"How is your state?" "Inshullah you are all well!" "How are those you
+left behind?" "How are the preserved of God?" "I hope you are not
+wearied with the long ride, this hot day?" "From whence have you come,
+in peace?" "What happy day is this to Safita!" and we answer as fast as
+we can, and dismount and pitch the tent in front of the church door, in
+the little plot of ground next to the houses of some of the brethren.
+The church is built of cream colored limestone, the same color as the
+great Burj, and contrasts strongly with the houses of the people. Did
+you ever see such houses? They are hardly high enough to stand up in,
+and are built of roundish boulders of black trap-rock, without lime, and
+look as if the least jar would tumble them all down. Each house has but
+one room, and here the cattle, goats and donkeys all sleep in the same
+room. The people are poorer than any fellaheen (peasants) you ever saw.
+There is not a chair or table in the village, unless the Beshoor family
+have them. They are the only wealthy people here, and in years past they
+have oppressed the Protestants in the most cruel manner. Beshoor had a
+lawsuit with the people about the land of the village. It belonged to
+them, and he wanted it. So he brought Government horsemen and drove them
+off their lands and took the crops himself. They thought they would try
+a new way to get justice. The Government officials were all bribed, so
+there was no hope there. So they decided to turn Protestants and get aid
+in that way. They did not know what the Protestant religion was, but
+had some idea that it would help them. Down they went to Tripoli to the
+missionaries with a list of three hundred persons who wanted to become
+Angliz or Protestants. The people sometimes call us Angliz, or English,
+others call us "Boostrant" or "Brostant," but the common name is
+"Injiliyeen" or people of the Enjeel, or Evangel, that is, the
+Evangelicals.
+
+Dr. Post and your Uncle Samuel came up to Safita to look into the
+matter. They found the people grossly ignorant and living like cattle,
+calling themselves Protestants and knowing nothing of the gospel. So
+they sent a teacher and began to teach them. When the people found that
+the missionaries did not come to distribute money, some of them went
+back to the Greeks. But others said no; this new religion is more than
+we expected. The more we hear, the more we like it. We shall live and
+die Protestants. Then Beit Beshoor became alarmed. They said, if this
+people get a school, have a teacher, and read the Bible, we cannot
+oppress them. They must be kept down in ignorance. So they began in
+earnest. The Protestants were arrested and dragged off to Duraikish to
+prison. Women and children were beaten. Brutal horsemen were quartered
+on their houses. That means, that a rough fellow, armed with pistols and
+a sword came to the house of Abū Asaad, and stayed two weeks. He made
+them cook chickens, and bring eggs and bread and everything he wanted
+every day, and bring barley for his horse. The poor man had no barley
+and had to buy, and the Greeks would make him pay double price for it.
+When he could get no more he was beaten and his wife insulted, and so it
+was in almost every Protestant house. They began to love the Gospel, and
+the men who knew how to read, would meet to read and pray together. One
+evening, all the Protestants met together in one of the houses. Their
+sufferings were very great. Their winter stores had been plundered,
+their olives gathered by Beit Beshoor, and they talked and prayed over
+their trouble. It was a dark, cold, rainy night, and the wind blew a
+gale. While they were talking together, a man came rushing in crying,
+run for your lives! the horsemen are here! Before they could get out, a
+squad of wild looking wretches were at the door. The men fled, carrying
+the larger children and the women carrying the babies, and off they went
+into the wilderness in the storm and darkness. Some women were seized
+and tied by ropes around their waists, to the horsemen, and marched off
+for miles to prison. The men who were caught were put in chains. Some
+time later they got back home again. But they would not give up the
+Gospel. Beshoor sent men who told them they could have peace if they
+would only go back to the Greek Church. But he offered peace quite too
+late. They had now learned to love the Gospel, and it was worth more to
+them than all the world beside. One night they were assembled in a
+little low black house, when some men came to the door and threw in
+burning bundles of straw and then shut the door, so that they were
+almost stifled with the smoke. They sent a messenger to Beirūt. The
+case was laid before the Pasha, and he telegraphed to have the
+Protestants let alone. But Beshoor cared for nothing. A Nusairy was
+hired to shoot Abū Asaad, the leading Protestant. His house was visited
+in the daytime, and the man saw where Abū Asaad's bed was placed. In the
+night he came stealthily upon the roof, dug a hole through, and fired
+three bullets at the spot. But see how God protects his people! That
+evening Abū Asaad said to his wife; the floor is getting damp in the
+corner, let us remove the bed and mat to the other side. They did so,
+and when the man fired, the bullets went into the ground just where Abū
+Asaad had slept the night before! He ran out and saw the assassins and
+recognized one of them as the servant of Beshoor's son. The next day he
+complained to the Government and they refused to hear him because he did
+not bring witnesses!
+
+But the poor people would not give up. Every day they went to their
+fields, carrying their Testaments in their girdles and at noontime would
+read and find comfort. Their children were half naked and half starved.
+When word reached Beirūt, the native Protestant women met together and
+collected several hundred piastres (a piastre is four cents) for the
+women and girls of Safita. They made up a bale of clothing, and sent
+with it a very touching and kind letter, telling their poor persecuted
+sisters to bear their trials in patience, and put all their trust in the
+Lord Jesus. That aid, together with the contributions made by the
+missionaries and others in Beirūt, gave them some relief, and the kind
+words of sympathy strengthened their hearts. The school was kept up amid
+all these troubles. One of the boys was taught in Abeih Seminary, and
+two of the girls were sent to the Beirūt Female Seminary.
+
+You would have been amused to see those girls when they first reached
+Beirūt. They walked barefoot from Safita down to Tripoli, about forty
+miles, and then Uncle S. took them on to Beirūt. He bought shoes for
+them, and hired two little donkeys for them to ride, but they preferred
+to walk a part of the way, and would carry their shoes in their hands
+and run along the sandy beach in the surf, far ahead of the animals. I
+rode out to meet them, and they were a sorry sight to see. Uncle S. rode
+a forlorn-looking horse, and two ragged men from Safita walked by his
+side, followed by two ragged fat-faced girls riding on little donkeys.
+The girls were almost bewildered at the city sights and scenes. Soon we
+met a carriage, and they were so frightened that they turned pale, and
+their donkeys were almost paralyzed with fear. One of the little girls,
+when asked if she knew what that was, said it was a mill walking.
+
+The first few days in school they were so homesick for Safita that they
+ran away several times. They could not bear to be washed and combed and
+sent to the Turkish bath, but wanted to come back here among the goats
+and calves and donkeys. One night they went to their room and cried
+aloud. Rufka, the teacher, asked them what they wanted? They said,
+pointing to the white beds, "We don't like these white things to sleep
+on. We don't want to stay here. There are no calves and donkeys, and the
+room is so light and cold!" The people here in Safita think that the
+cattle help to keep the room warm. In the daytime they complained of
+being tired of sitting on the seats to study, and wished to _stand up
+and rest_. One was 11 and the other 12 years old, and that was in 1865.
+
+One of them, Raheel, fell sick after a time, and was much troubled about
+her sins. Her teacher Sara, who slept near her, overheard her praying
+and saying, "Oh Lord Jesus, do give me a new heart! I am a poor sinner.
+Do you suppose that because I am from Safita, you cannot give me a new
+heart? O Lord, I _know_ you can. Do have mercy on me!"
+
+Who are those clean and well dressed persons coming out of the church?
+Our dear brother Yusef Ahtiyeh, the native preacher, and his wife Hadla,
+and Miriam, the teacher of the girls' school. Yusef is one of the most
+refined and lovely young men in Syria. What a clear eye he has, and what
+a pleasant face! He too has borne much for his Master. In 1865, when he
+left the Greek Church, he was living with his brother in Beirūt. His
+brother turned him out of the house at night, with neither bed nor
+clothing. He came to my house and staid with me some time. He said it
+was hard to be driven out by his brother and mother, but he could bear
+anything for Christ's sake. Said he, "I can bear cursing and beating and
+the loss of property. But my mother is weeping and wailing over me. She
+thinks I am a heretic and am lost forever. Oh, it is hard to bear, the
+'persecution of tears!'" But the Lord gave him grace to bear it, and he
+is now the happy spiritual guide of this large Protestant community, and
+the Nusairy Sheikhs look up to him with respect, while that persecuting
+brother of his is poverty-stricken and sick, and can hardly get bread
+for his children.
+
+Miriam, the teacher, is a heroine. Her parents were Greeks, but sent her
+to school to learn to read. She learned in a short time to read the New
+Testament, and to love it, and to keep the Sabbath day holy. The keeping
+of the Sabbath was something new in Safita. The Nusairīyeh have no holy
+day at all, and the Greeks have so many that they keep none of them.
+They work and buy and sell and travel on the Sabbath as on other days,
+and think far more of certain saint's days than of the Sabbath. When
+Miriam was only seven years old, her father said to her one Sabbath
+morning, "go with me to the hursh (forest) to get a donkey load of
+wood." She replied, "my father, I cannot go, it is not right, for it is
+God's day." The father went without her, and while cutting wood, his
+donkey strayed away, and he had to search through the mountains for
+hours, so that he did not reach home until twelve o'clock at night, and
+then without any wood. He said he should not go for wood on Sunday any
+more.
+
+But a few Sundays after, it was the olive season, and Miriam's mother
+told her to go out with the women and girls to gather olives. They had
+been at work during the week, and the mother thought Miriam ought to go
+on Sunday with the rest. But Miriam said, "don't you remember father's
+losing the donkey, and what he said about it? I cannot go." "Then," said
+her mother, "if you will not work, you shall not eat." "Very well, ya
+imme, I will not eat. If I keep the Lord's day, He will keep me." Away
+went the mother to the olive orchard, and Miriam went to the preaching
+and the Sunday School. At evening, when the family all came home, Miriam
+read in her New Testament and went to bed without her supper. The next
+morning she said, "Mother, now I am ready to gather olives. Didn't I
+tell you the Lord would keep me?"
+
+After this Miriam's father became a Protestant, and allowed the
+missionaries to send her to the Seminary in Sidon, where she was the
+best girl in the school. When she went home in the vacation in 1869, new
+persecutions were stirred up against the Protestants. The Greek Bishop,
+with a crowd of priests and a body of armed horsemen, came to the
+village, to compel all the Protestants to turn back to the old religion.
+The armed men went to the Protestant houses and seized men and women and
+dragged them to the great Burj, in which is the Greek church. Miriam's
+father and mother were greatly terrified and went back with them to the
+Greeks. They then called for Miriam. "Never," said she to the Bishop, "I
+will never worship pictures and pray to saints again. You may cut me in
+pieces, but I will not stir one step with them." The old Bishop turned
+back, and left her to herself. Near by was a man named Abū Isbir, who
+was so frightened that he said, "yes, I will go back, don't strike me!"
+But his wife, Im Isbir, was not willing to give up. She rebuked her
+husband and took hold of his arm, and actually dragged him back to his
+house, to save him the shame of having denied the Gospel. He stood firm,
+and afterwards united with the Church.
+
+Here comes Im Isbir. Poor woman, she is a widow now. Her husband died
+and left her with these little children, and last night her valuable cow
+died, and she is in great distress. Yusef, the preacher, says she is the
+most needy person in Safita. You would think so from the ragged
+appearance of the children. They are like the children in Eastern
+Turkey, whom Mr. Williams of Mardin used to describe, whose garments
+were so ragged and tattered that there was hardly cloth enough to _make
+borders for the holes_! They dig up roots in the fields for food, and
+now and then the neighbors give them a little of their coarse corn
+bread. The Greeks tell her to turn back to them and they will help her,
+but she says, "when one has found the light, can she turn back into the
+darkness again?" Yusef wishes us to walk in and sit down, as the people
+are anxious to see us. He lives in the church from necessity. He cannot
+get a house in the village, excepting these dark cavern-like rooms with
+damp floors, and so the missionaries told him to occupy one half of the
+church room. A curtain divides it into two rooms and on Sunday the
+curtain is drawn, his things are piled up on one side, and the women and
+girls sit in that part, while the men and boys sit on the other side.
+All sit on mats on the floor. Is that cradle hanging from the ring in
+the arch between the two rooms, kept there on Sunday? Yes, and when I
+preached here last June, Yusef's baby was swinging there during the
+whole service. One of the women kept it swinging gently, by pulling a
+cord, which hung down from it. It did not disturb the meeting at all. No
+one noticed it. They have calves and cows, donkeys and goats in their
+own houses at night, and sleep sweetly enough, so that the swinging of a
+hanging cradle in the inside of the church is not thought to be at all
+improper.
+
+Do you see that shelf on the wall? It reminds me of a little girl named
+Miriam who once came to your Aunt Annie in Deir Mimas to ask about the
+Sidon school, whither she was going in a few weeks. She told Miriam that
+she would have to be thoroughly washed and combed every day, and would
+sleep on a _bedstead_. Then Miriam asked permission to see a bedstead,
+as she did not know what it could be. The next night, about midnight,
+Miriam's mother heard something drop heavily on the floor, and then a
+child crying. She went across the room, and there was Miriam sitting on
+the mat. "What is the matter, Miriam?" she asked. Miriam said, "mother,
+the Sit told me I was to sleep on a bedstead in Sidon school, and I
+thought I would practice beforehand, so I tried to sleep on the shelf,
+and tumbled off in my sleep!"
+
+Abū Asaad says the Nusairy Sheikh who was arrested some months ago has
+been poisoned. Poisoning used to be very common in Syria. If we should
+call at the house of a Nusairy, and he brought coffee for us to drink,
+he would take a sip himself out of the cup before giving it to us, to
+show that it was not poisoned. Once Uncle S. and Aunt A. were invited
+out to dine in Hums at the house of the deacon of the church. His mother
+is an ignorant woman, and had often threatened to kill him. When they
+had eaten, they suddenly were taken ill, and suffered much from the
+effects of it. It was found that the mother had put poison into the
+food, intending to kill her son, the missionaries, and the other invited
+guests, but through the mercy of God none of them were seriously
+injured.
+
+Michaiel says that they have only half a crop of corn this year, as the
+_locusts_ devoured the other half in the spring. You remember I sent you
+some locusts' wings once, in a letter. When they appear in the land, the
+Pashas and Mudirs and Kaimakams give orders to the people to go out and
+gather the eggs of the locusts as soon as they begin to settle down to
+bury themselves in the earth. The body of the female locust is like the
+spawn of a fish, filled with one mass of eggs. Each man is obliged to
+bring so many ounces of these eggs to the Pasha and have them weighed
+and then burned. A tailor of Beirūt brought a bag of them, and as it was
+late, put them in his shop for the night and went home. He was unwell
+for a few days and when he went to his shop again, opened the door, and
+thousands of little black hopping creatures, like imps, came like a
+cloud into his face. They had hatched out in his absence.
+
+This is a fearful land for lying; in these mountains around us, you
+cannot depend on a word you hear. The people say that in the beginning
+of the world, Satan came down to the earth with seven bags of lies,
+which he intended to distribute in the seven kingdoms of the earth. The
+first night after he reached the earth he slept in Syria, and opened one
+of the bags, letting the lies loose in the land. But while he was
+asleep, some one came and opened all the other bags! so that Syria got
+more than her share!
+
+An old man in Beirūt once said, "Sir, you must be careful what you
+believe, and whom you trust in this country. If there are twenty-four
+inches of hypocrisy in the world, twenty-three are in Syria." This man
+was a native of great experience. I think he was rather severe on his
+countrymen. Yet the people have had a hard training. The Nusairīyeh all
+lie. They do not even pretend to tell the truth. The Druze religion
+teaches the people that it is right to lie to all except Druzes. The
+Moslems are better than either of these two classes, but they lie
+without a blush, and you must be very careful how you believe them.
+
+Among the Maronite and Greek sects, their priests tell the people that
+they can forgive sins. When a man lies or steals or does anything else
+that is wicked, he pays a few piastres to the priest, who gives him what
+they call absolution or forgiveness. So the people can do what they
+please without fear, as the priest is ready to forgive them for money.
+These sects call themselves Christian, but there is very little of
+Christianity among them. A Greek in Tripoli once told me that there was
+not a man in the Greek church in Tripoli who would not lie, excepting
+_one_ of the priests.
+
+Leaving Safita, we will go back on a different road, crossing directly
+to the sea-shore, and then along the coast to Tripoli. Here is a little
+abject village, and the people look as abject as the village. Their
+neighbors laugh at them for their stupidity, and tell the following
+story: They have no wells in the village, and the little fountain is not
+sufficient for their cattle, so they water them from the Ramet or pool,
+which is filled by the rains and lasts nearly all summer. One year the
+water in the Ramet began to fail, and there was a quarrel between the
+two quarters of the village, as to which part should have the first
+right to the water. Finally they decided to divide the pool into two
+parts, by making a fence of poles across the middle of it. This worked
+very well. One part watered their cattle on one side and the other part
+on the other side. But one night there was a great riot in the village.
+Some of the men from the north side saw a south-sider dipping up water
+from the north side and pouring it over the fence into the other part
+of the pool. Of course this made no difference, as the fence was nothing
+but open lattice work, but the people were too stupid to see that, so
+they fought and bruised one another for a long time.
+
+In another village, _Aaleih_, near Beirūt, the people were formerly so
+stupid that the Arabs say that once when the clouds came up the
+mountains and settled like a bank of fog under the cliff on which their
+village is built, they thought it was the sea, and went to fish in the
+clouds!
+
+So you see the Syrians are as fond of humorous stories as other people.
+
+
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+
+But here we are coming upon a gypsy camp. The Arabs call them Nowar, and
+you will find that the Arab women of the villages are careful to keep an
+eye on their little children when the gypsies are around. They often
+steal children in the towns and cities, when they can find them straying
+away from home at dusk, and then sell them as servants in Moslem
+families. Last year we were all greatly interested in a story of this
+kind, which I know you will be glad to hear.
+
+After the terrible massacre in Damascus in 1860, thousands of the Greek
+and Greek Catholic families migrated to Beirūt, and among them was a man
+named Khalil Ferah, who escaped the fire and sword with his wife and
+his little daughter Zahidy. I remember well how we were startled one
+evening in 1862, by hearing a crier going through the streets, "child
+lost! girl lost!" The next day he came around again, "child lost!" There
+was great excitement about it. The poor father and mother went almost
+frantic. Little Zahidy, who was then about six years old, was coming
+home from school with other girls in the afternoon, and they said a man
+came along with a sack on his back, and told Zahidy that her mother had
+sent him to buy her some sugar plums and then take her home, and she
+went away with him. It is supposed that he decoyed her away to some
+by-road and then put her into the great sack, and carried her off to the
+Arabs or the gypsies.
+
+The poor father left no means untried to find her. He wrote to Damascus,
+Alexandria, and Aleppo, describing the child and begged his friends
+everywhere to watch for her, and send him word if they found her. There
+was one mark on the child, which, he said, would be certain to
+distinguish her. When she was a baby, and nursing at her mother's
+breast, her mother upset a little cup of scalding hot coffee upon the
+child's breast, which burned it to a blister, leaving a scar which could
+not be removed. This sign the father described, and his friends aided
+him in trying to find the little girl. They went to the encampments of
+the gypsies and looked at all the children, but all in vain. The father
+journeyed by land and by sea. Hearing of a little girl in Aleppo who
+could not give an account of herself, he went there, but it was not his
+child. Then he went to Damascus and Alexandria, and at length hearing
+that a French Countess in Marseilles had a little Syrian orphan girl
+whose parents were not known, he sent to Marseilles and examined the
+girl, but she was _not his child_. Months and years passed on, but the
+father never ceased to speak and think of that little lost girl. The
+mother too was almost distracted.
+
+At length light came. Nine years had passed away, and the Beirūt people
+had almost forgotten the story of the lost Damascene girl. Your uncle S.
+and your Aunt A. were sitting in their house one day, in Tripoli, when
+Tannoos, the boy, brought word that a man and woman from Beirūt wished
+to see them. They came in and introduced themselves. They were Khalil,
+the father of the little lost girl, and his sister, who had heard that
+Zahidy was in Tripoli, and had come to search for her. The mother was
+not able to leave home.
+
+It seems that a native physician in Tripoli, named Sheikh Aiub el
+Hashim, was an old friend of the father and had known the family and all
+the circumstances of the little girl's disappearance, and for years he
+had been looking for her. At length he was called one day to attend a
+sick servant girl in the family of a Moslem named Syed Abdullah. The
+poor girl was ill from having been beaten in a cruel manner by the
+Moslem. Her face and arms were tattooed in the Bedawin style, and she
+told him that she was a Bedawin girl, and had been living here for some
+years, and her name was Khodra. While examining the bruises on her body,
+he observed a peculiar scar on her breast. He was startled. He looked
+again. It was precisely the scar that his friend had so often described
+to him. From her age, her features, her complexion and all, he felt sure
+that she was the lost child. He said nothing, but went home and wrote
+all about it to the father in Beirūt. He hastened to Tripoli bringing
+his sister, as he being a man, could not be admitted to a Moslem hareem.
+Then the question arose, how should the sister see the girl! They came
+and talked with your uncle, and went to Yanni and the other Vice
+Consuls, and at length they found out that the women of that Moslem
+family were skillful in making silk and gold embroidery which they sold.
+So his sister determined to go and order some embroidered work, and see
+the girl. She talked with the Moslem women, and with their Bedawy
+servant girl, and made errands for the women to bring her specimens of
+their work, improving the opportunity to talk with the servant. She saw
+the scar, and satisfied herself from the striking resemblance of the
+girl to her mother, that she was the long-lost Zahidy.
+
+The father now took measures to secure his daughter. The American,
+Prussian, English and French Vice Consuls sent a united demand to the
+Turkish Pasha, that the girl be brought to court to meet her father, and
+that the case be tried in the Mejlis, or City Council. The Moslems were
+now greatly excited. They knew that there were not less than twenty
+girls in their families who had been stolen in this way, and if one
+could be reclaimed, perhaps the rest might, so they resolved to resist.
+They brought Bedawin Arabs to be present at the trial, and hired them to
+swear falsely. When the girl was brought in, the father was quite
+overcome. He could see the features of his dear child, but she was so
+disfigured with the Bedawin tattooing and the brutal treatment of the
+Moslems, that his heart sank within him. Yet he examined her, and took
+his oath that this was his daughter, and demanded that she be given up
+to him. The Bedawin men and women were now brought in. One swore that he
+was the father of the girl, and a woman swore that she was her mother.
+Then several swore that they were her uncles, but it was proved that
+they were in no way related to the one who said he was her father. Other
+witnesses were called, but they contradicted one another. Then they
+asked the girl. Poor thing, she had been so long neglected and abused,
+that she _had forgotten her father_, and the Moslem women had threatened
+to kill her if she said she was his daughter, so she declared she was
+born among the Bedawin, and was a Moslem in religion. Money had been
+given to certain of the Mejlis, and they finally decided that the girl
+should go to the Moslem house of Derwish Effendi to await the final
+decision.
+
+The poor father now went to the Consuls. They made out a statement of
+the case and sent it to the Consuls General in Beirūt, who sent a joint
+dispatch to the Waly of all Syria, who lives in Damascus, demanding
+that as the case could not be fairly tried in Tripoli, the girl be
+brought to Beirūt to be examined by a Special Commission. The Waly
+telegraphed at once to Tripoli, to have the girl sent on by the first
+steamer to Beirūt. The Moslem women now told the girl that orders had
+come to have her killed, and that she was to be taken on a steamer as if
+to go to Beirūt, but that really they were going to throw her into the
+sea, and that if she reached Beirūt alive they would cut her up and burn
+her! So the poor child went on the steamer in perfect terror, and she
+reached Beirūt in a state of exhaustion. When she was rested, a
+Commission was formed consisting of the Moslem Kadi of Beirūt who was
+acting Governor, the political Agent, Delenda Effendi, the Greek
+Catholic Bishop Agabius, the Maronite Priest Yusef, and the agent of the
+Greek Bishop, together with all the members of the Executive Council.
+
+Her father, mother and aunt were now brought in and sat near her. She
+refused to recognize them, and was in constant fear of being injured.
+The Kadi then turned to her and said, "do not fear, my child. You are
+among friends. Do not be afraid of people who have threatened you. No
+one shall harm you." The Moslem Kadi, the Greek Catholic priests, and
+others having thus spoken kindly to her, the father and mother stated
+the history of how the little girl was lost nine years ago, and that she
+had a scar on her breast. The scar was examined, and all began to feel
+that she was really their own daughter. The girl began to feel more
+calm, and the Kadi told her that her own mother wanted to ask her a few
+questions.
+
+Her mother now went up to her and said, "My child, don't you remember
+me?" She said "no I do not." "Don't you remember that _your name was
+once Zahidy_, and I used to call you, and you lived in a house with a
+little yard, and flowers before the door, and that you went with the
+little girls to school, and came home at night, and that one day a man
+came and offered you sugar plums and led you away and carried you off to
+the Arabs? Don't you know _me_, my _own daughter_?" The poor girl
+trembled; her lips quivered, and she said, "Yes, I _did_ have another
+name. I _was_ Zahidy. I did go with little girls. Oh, ya imme! My
+mother! you _are_ my mother," and she sprang into her arms and wept, and
+the mother wept and laughed, and the Moslem Kadi and the Mufti, and the
+priests and the Bishops and the Effendis and the great crowd of
+spectators wiped their eyes, and bowed their heads, and there was a
+great silence.
+
+After a little the Kadi said, "it is enough. This girl _is_ the daughter
+of Kahlil Ferah. Sir, take your child, and Allah be with you!"
+
+The father wiped away the tears and said, "Your Excellency, you see this
+poor girl all tattooed and disfigured. You see how ignorant and feeble
+she is. If she were not my child, there is nothing about her to make me
+wish to take her. But she is my own darling child, and with all her
+faults and infirmities, I love her." The whole Council then arose and
+congratulated the father and mother, and a great crowd accompanied them
+home. Throngs of people came to see her and congratulate the family, and
+after a little the girl was sent to a boarding school.
+
+I can hardly think over this story even now without tears, for I think
+how glad I should have been to get back again a child of mine if it had
+been lost. And I have another thought too about that little lost girl.
+If that father loved his daughter so as to search and seek for her, and
+expend money, and travel by land and sea for years, in trying to find
+her, and when at length he found her, so forlorn and wretched and
+degraded, yet loved her still because she was _his daughter_, do you not
+think that Jesus loves us even more? We were lost and wretched and
+forlorn. A worse being than Bedawin gypsies has put his mark on our
+hearts and our natures. We have wandered far, far away. We have served
+the world, and forgotten our dear Heavenly Father. We have even refused
+to receive Him when he has come near us. Yet Jesus came to seek and to
+save us. And when he found us so degraded and sinful and disfigured, He
+loved us still, because we are His own children. Don't you think that
+the little lost Damascene girl was thankful when she reached her home,
+and was loved and kindly treated by father and mother and relatives and
+friends? And ought we not to be very thankful when Jesus brings us
+home, and calls us "dear children" and opens the gate of heaven to us?
+
+This story of the lost Damascene child calls to my mind a little song
+which the Maronite women in Lebanon sing to their babies as a lullaby.
+The story is that a Prince's daughter was stolen by the Bedawin Arabs,
+and carried to their camp. She grew up and was married to a Bedawin
+Sheikh and had a little son. One day a party of muleteers came to the
+camp selling grapes, and she recognized them as from her own village.
+She did not dare speak to them, so she began to sing a lullaby to her
+baby, and motioned to the grape-sellers to come near, and when the
+Bedawin were not listening, she would sing them her story in the same
+tone as the lullaby.
+
+
+THE LULLABY.
+
+                 Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mild,
+                 Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!
+_Aside to the  }     Once I was a happy girl,
+grape-sellers_ }     The Prince Abdullah's daughter.
+                     Playing with the village maids,
+                     Bringing wood and water.
+                     Suddenly the Bedawin
+                     Carried me away;
+                     Clothed me in the Aba robe
+                     And here they make me stay.
+                 Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mild,
+                 Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!
+_Aside_              Ye sellers of grapes hear what I say.
+                     I had dressed in satin rich and gay.
+                     They took my costly robes away,
+                     And dressed me in Aba coarse and grey.
+                     I had lived on viands costly and rare,
+                     And now raw camel's flesh is my fare.
+                 Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mild,
+                 Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!
+_Aside_              Oh seller of grapes, I beg you hear,
+                     Go tell my mother and father dear,
+                     That you have seen me here to-day.
+                     Just by the Church my parents live,
+                     The Bedawin stole me on Thursday eve.
+                     Let the people come and their sister save,
+                     Let them come with warriors bold and brave,
+                     Lest I die of grief and go to my grave.
+
+The grape-sellers then go home, and the warriors come and rescue her,
+and take her home.
+
+We will stop here a moment and make a pencil sketch of this Arab camp,
+but we must be very careful not to let them see us writing. They have a
+great fear of the art of writing, a superstitious idea that a person who
+writes or sketches in their camp, is writing some charm or incantation
+to bring mischief upon them. I once heard of a missionary who went to an
+Arab village to spend the night. The people were all Maronites, and
+grossly ignorant. He pitched his tent and sat down to rest. Presently a
+crowd of rough young men came in and began to insult him. They demanded
+bakhshish, and handled his bedding and cooking utensils in a very brutal
+manner, and asked him if he had any weapons. He bethought himself of one
+weapon and began to use it. He took out a pencil and paper, and began to
+make a sketch of the ringleader. He looked him steadily in the eye, and
+then wrote rapidly with his pencil. The man began to tremble and slowly
+retreated and finally shouted to his companions, and off they all went.
+Shortly after, they sent a man to beg Mr. L. not to cut off their heads!
+Their priests teach them that the Protestants have the power of working
+magic, and that they draw a man's portrait and take it with them, and if
+the man does anything to displease them, they cut off the head of the
+picture and the man's head drops off! Mr. L. sent them word that they
+had better be very careful how they behaved. They did not molest him
+again.
+
+Here we are near Tripoli, at the Convent of the _Sacred Fish_. What a
+beautiful spot! This large high building with its snow-white dome, and
+the great sycamore tree standing by this circular pool of crystal water,
+make a beautiful scene. What a crowd of Moslem boys! They have come all
+the way from Tripoli, about two miles, to feed the Sacred Fish. They are
+a gay looking company, with their red, green, blue, yellow, white and
+purple clothes, and their bright red caps and shoes, and some of them
+with white turbans. They come out on feast days and holidays to play on
+this green lawn and feed the fish. The old sheikh who keeps this holy
+place, has great faith in these fish. He says they are all good Moslems,
+and are inhabited by the souls of Moslem saints, and there is one black
+fish, the Sheikh of the saints, who does not often show himself to
+spectators. There are hundreds if not thousands of fish, resembling the
+dace or chubs of America. He says that during the Crimean war, many of
+the older ones went off under the sea to Sevastopol and fought the
+Russian infidels, and some of them came back wounded. The people think
+that if any one eats these fish he will die immediately. That I _know_
+to be false, for I have tried it. When the American Consul was here in
+1856, his Moslem Kawasses caught several of the fish, and brought them
+to Mr. Lyons' house. We had them cooked and ate them, but found them
+coarse and unpalatable. That was sixteen years ago and we have not felt
+the evil effects yet.
+
+This poor woman has a sick child, and has come to get the Sheikh to read
+the Koran over it and cure it. The most of the Syrian doctors are
+ignorant quacks, and the people have so many superstitions that they
+prefer going to saints' tombs rather than call a good physician. There
+is a Medical College in Beirūt now, and before long Syria will have some
+skilful doctors. I knew an old Egyptian doctor in Duma named Haj
+Ibrahim, who was a conceited fellow. He used to bleed for every kind of
+disease. An old man eighty years of age was dying of consumption, and
+the Haj opened a vein and let him bleed to death. When the man died, he
+said if he had only taken a little more blood, the old man would have
+recovered. I was surprised by his coming to me one day and asking for
+some American newspapers. I supposed he wished them to wrap medicines in
+and gave him several New York Tribunes. A few days after he invited us
+to eat figs and grapes in his vineyard and we stopped at his house. He
+said he was very thankful for the papers. They had been very useful. I
+wondered what he meant, and asked him. He showed me a jar in the corner
+in which he had dissolved the papers into a pulp in oil and water, and
+had given the pulp as medicine to the people! He said it was a powerful
+medicine. He supposed that the English printed letters would have some
+magic influence on diseases.
+
+One of the Moslem lads carries a short iron spear as a sign that he is
+going to be a derwish. Dr. De Forest once found himself surrounded in a
+Moslem village by a troop of little Moslems, each of them with an
+iron-headed spear in his hand. A Moorish Sheikh, or Chief, had been for
+some two years teaching the Moslems of the place the customs of their
+holy devotees, and in consequence all the boys had become derwishes, or
+Moslem monks. He was a shrewd old Sheikh. He knew that the true way to
+perpetuate his religion was to _teach the children_. He had taught them
+the Moslem prayers and prostrations, and to keep certain moral precepts.
+How glad we should be if these boys would come and sit down by us while
+we talk to them of Jesus! There they come. See how their eyes sparkle,
+as I speak to them. They have never heard about the gospel before. But I
+must speak in a low tone, as the old Sheikh is coming and he looks down
+upon us as infidel dogs! Perhaps some of them will think of these words
+some day, and put their trust in our Divine Saviour.
+
+Many of the people seem to think that the missionary's house is like the
+Cave of Adullam, where David lived, (1 Sam. xxii:2) when "every one that
+was in distress, and every one that was in debt and every one that was
+discontented, gathered themselves unto him." It makes it very hard to
+deal with the people, to have so many of them come to us with improper
+motives. They come and say they love the gospel and want instruction,
+and have endured persecution, when suddenly you find that they want
+money, or to be protected from punishment, or to get office, or to get
+married to some improper person, or something else that is wrong.
+
+Once a sheikh from Dunnīyeh in Lebanon came to Tripoli, and declared
+himself a Protestant. He was very zealous, and wanted us to feel that he
+was too good a man to be turned away, as he was wealthy and of a high
+family. He was armed with a small arsenal of weapons. He had a servant
+to carry his gun and pipe, and came day after day to read books, and
+talk on religion. He said that all he needed was the protection of the
+American Consul, and then he would make his whole village Protestants.
+We told him we could have nothing to do with politics. If he wanted to
+become a Christian, he must take up his cross and follow Christ. He said
+that was just what he wanted to do, only he wished to benefit the cause
+by bringing others to follow Him. He seemed very earnest, but there was
+something dark and mysterious in his ways, and we were afraid of him.
+Now the Arabs have a proverb, "No tree is cut down but by _one of its
+own limbs_," _i.e._ the axe handle, and we thought a native only could
+understand a native, so we took the famous convert around to see Yanni.
+He went into Yanni's office, and Mr. L. and myself sat out in the
+garden under the orange trees. After a few minutes Yanni called out,
+"Come in, be preferred, your excellencies! I have found it all out. I
+understand the case." We went in and climbed up upon the platform, next
+the desk in the office. The Maronite candidate for the church sat
+smiling, as if he thought he would now be received at once. Yanni went
+on, "I understand the case exactly. This man is a son of a Sheikh in
+Dunnīyeh. He is in a deadly quarrel with his father and brothers about
+the property, and says that if we will give him the protection of the
+American Consulate, he will go home, kill his father and brothers, seize
+all the property, and then come down and join the church, and live in
+Tripoli!" We were astounded, but the brutal fellow turned to us and
+said, "yes, and I will then make all the village Protestants, and if I
+fail, then cut my head off!" We told him that if he did anything of that
+kind, we would try to get him hung, and the American Consulate would
+have nothing to do with him. "Very well," said he, "I have made you a
+_fair offer_, and if you don't accept it, I have nothing more to say."
+We rebuked him sharply, and gave him a sermon which he did not relish,
+for he said he was in haste, and bade us a most polite good morning. He
+was what I should call an Adullamite.
+
+A Greek priest in the village of Barbara once took me aside, to a
+retired place behind his house, and told me that he had a profound
+secret to tell me. He wished to become a Protestant and make the whole
+village Protestant, but on one condition, that I would get him a hat, a
+coat, and pantaloons, put a flag-staff on his house, and have him
+appointed American Consul. I told him the matter of the hat, coat and
+pantaloons he could attend to at but slight expense, but I had no right
+to make Consuls and erect flagstaffs. Then he said he could not become
+Protestant.
+
+In 1866, a man named Yusef Keram rebelled against the Government of
+Lebanon and was captured and exiled. The day he was brought into Beirūt,
+a tall rough looking mountaineer called at my house. He was armed with a
+musket and sword, besides pistols and dirks. After taking a seat, he
+said, "I wish to become Angliz and American." "What for," said I. "Only
+that I would be honored with the honorable religion." "Do you know
+anything about it?" "Of course not. How should I know?" "Don't you know
+better than to follow a religion you know nothing about?" "But I can
+learn." "How do you know but what we worship the devil?" "No matter.
+Whatever you worship, I will worship." I then asked him what he came
+for. He said he was in the rebel army, was captured, escaped and fought
+again, and now feared he should be shot, so he wanted to become Angliz
+and American. I told him he need have no fear, as the Pasha had granted
+pardon to all. "Is that so?" "Yes, it is." On hearing this he said he
+had business to look after, and bade me good evening.
+
+But you will be tired of hearing about the Adullamites. If those who
+came to David were like the discontented and debtors who come to us, he
+must have been tired too. So many suspicious characters come to us, that
+we frequently ask men, when they come professing great zeal for the
+gospel, whether they have killed anybody, or stolen, or quarrelled with
+any one? And it is not always easy to find out the truth. If fifty men
+turn Protestants in a village, perhaps five or ten will stand firm, and
+the rest go back, and frequently all go back.
+
+But the rain is coming down and we will hasten to the Meena to Uncle
+S.'s house, where we can rest after this wearisome and hasty journey
+from Safita. For your sake I am glad that we took comfortable bedding
+and bedsteads with us. It costs a few piastres more to hire a baggage
+animal, but it is cheaper in the end. At one time I was going on a hard
+journey, and I thought I would be economical, so I took only my horse
+and a few articles in my khurj or saddle bags, with a little boy to show
+me the road and take care of my horse. When I reached the village, I
+stopped at the house of a man said to be a Protestant. He lived in the
+most abject style, and I soon found by his bad language towards his
+family and his neighbors that he needed all the preaching I could give
+him that evening. There was only one room in the house, and that was
+small. By nine o'clock the mother and the children had lain down on a
+mat to sleep, and the neighbors who came in were beginning to doze. I
+was very weary with a long ride on a hot August day, and asked mine host
+where I should lie down to sleep. He led me to a little elevated
+platform on the back side of the room, where a bed was spread for me.
+The dim oil lamp showed me that the bed and covering were neither of
+them clean, but I was too weary to spend much time in examining them,
+and after spreading my linen handkerchief over the pillow, I tried to
+sleep. But this could not be done. Creeping things, great and small,
+were crawling over me from head to foot. There was a hole in the wall
+near my head, and the bright moonlight showed what was going on. Fleas,
+bugs, ants, (attracted by the bread in my khurj,) and more horrible
+still, swarms of lice covered the bed, and my clothing. I could stand it
+no longer. Gathering up my things, and walking carefully across the
+floor to keep from stepping on the sleeping family, I reached the door.
+But it was fastened with an Arab lock and a huge wooden key, and could
+only be opened by a violent shaking and rattling. This, with the
+creaking of the hinges, woke up my host, who sprung up to see what was
+the matter. I told him I had decided to journey on by moonlight. It was
+then one o'clock in the morning, and on I rode, so weary, that when I
+reached Jebaa at ten o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I did not
+recover from the onset of the vermin for weeks.
+
+I have known missionaries to travel without beds, tents or bedsteads,
+and to spend weary days and sleepless nights, so as to be quite unfitted
+for their great work of preaching to the people. If you ever grow up to
+become a missionary, I hope you will live as simply as you can, but be
+careful of your health and try to live as long as you can, for the sake
+of the people you are working for, and the Lord who sends you forth. It
+is not good economy for a missionary to become a martyr to studying
+Arabic, or to poor food, or to exhausting modes of travelling. One can
+kill himself in a short time, if he wishes, on missionary ground, but he
+could have done that at home without the great expense of coming here to
+do it, and besides, that is not what a missionary goes out for. He ought
+to live as long as he can. He should have a dry house, in a healthy
+location, good food, and proper conveniences for safe travelling.
+
+How pleasant it is to hear that sweet toned bell! Let us climb up to the
+roof and read the inscription on it. "From little Sabbath School
+Children in America to the Mission Church in Tripoli, Syria." It was
+sent in 1862 by the children in Fourth Avenue Church, New York, and in
+Newark, Syracuse, Owego, Montrose and other places.
+
+The Moslems abhor bells. They say bells draw together evil spirits. We
+are not able yet to have a bell in Hums, on account of the Moslem
+opposition. They do not use bells, but have men called Muezzins
+stationed on the little balconies around the top of the tall minarets,
+to call out five times a day to the people to come to prayer. They
+select men and boys with high clear voices, and at times their voices
+sound very sweetly in the still evening. They say, "There is no God but
+God." That is true. Then they add, "and Mohammed is the Apostle of God,"
+and that is not true. As the great historian Gibbon said; these words
+contain an "eternal truth and an eternal lie."
+
+The Moslems are obliged to pray five times every day, wherever they may
+be. At home, in their shops, in the street, or on a journey, whenever
+the appointed time arrives, they fall on their knees, and go through
+with the whole routine of prayers and bodily prostrations. One day
+several Moslems called on us in Tripoli, at the eighth hour of the day
+(about 2 o'clock P.M.), and after they had been sitting some
+time engaged in conversation, one of them arose and said to his
+companions, "I must pray.". They all asked, "Why? It is not the hour of
+prayer." "Because," said he, "when I went to the mosque at noon to pray,
+I had an ink-spot on my finger nail, and did not perceive it until after
+I came out, and hence my prayer was of no account. I have just now
+scraped it off, and must repeat my noon prayer." So saying, he spread
+his cloak upon the floor, and then kneeling upon it with his face
+towards Mecca, commenced his prayers, while his companions amused
+themselves by talking about his ceremonial strictness. One of them said
+to me, "He thinks he is holy, but if you could see the _inside_ of him,
+you would find it black as pitch!" He kept his head turned to hear what
+was being said, and after he had finished, disputed a remark one of them
+had made while he was praying. Such people worship God with their lips,
+while their hearts are far from him.
+
+Moslems have a great horror of swine. They think us barbarians to eat
+ham or pork. In February, 1866, the Moslems of Beirūt were keeping the
+Fast of Ramadan. For a whole month of each year they can eat and drink
+nothing between sunrise and sunset, and they become very cross and
+irritable. In Hums, some Moslems saw a dog eating a bone in Ramadan, and
+killed him because he would not keep the fast. They fast all day, and
+feast all night. Ramadan is really a great nocturnal feast, but it is
+hard for the working people to wait until night before beginning the
+feast. During that fast of 1866, a Maronite fellah came into Beirūt
+driving a herd of swine to the market. Now of all sights in the world,
+the sight of swine is to an orthodox Moslem the most intolerable, and
+especially in the holy month of Ramadan. Even in ordinary times, when
+swine enter the city, the Moslems gather up their robes, turn their
+backs and shout, "hub hub," "hub hub," and if the hogs do not hasten
+along, the "hub hub," is very apt to become a hubbub. On the 28th of
+that holy month, a large herd entered Beirūt on the Damascus road. The
+Moslems saw them, and forthwith a crowd of Moslem young men and boys
+hastened to the fray. A few days before, the Maronite Yusef Keram had
+entered the city amid the rejoicings of the Maronites. These swine, whom
+the Moslems called "Christian Khanzir," should meet a different
+reception. Their wrath overcame their prejudice. The Maronite
+swine-drivers were dispersed and the whole herd were driven on the run
+up the Assur with shouts of derision, and pelted with stones and clubs.
+"You khanzir, you Maronite, you Keram, out with you!" and the air rang
+with shouts mingled with squeals and grunts. I saw the crowd coming. It
+gathered strength as it approached Bab Yakoob, where the white turbaned
+faithful rose from their shops and stables to join in the persecution of
+the stampeding porkers. "May Allah cut off their days! Curses on their
+grandfather's beard! Curses on the father of their owner! Hub hub! Allah
+deliver us from their contamination!" were the cries of the crowd as
+they rushed along. The little boys were laughing and having a good time,
+and the men were breathing out wrath and tobacco smoke. Alas, for the
+poor swine! What became of them I could not tell, but the last I saw,
+was the infuriated crowd driving them into the Khan of Muhayeddin near
+by, where one knows not what may have happened to them. I hope they did
+not steal the pork and eat it "on the sly," as the Bedawin did at Mt.
+Sinai, who threw away the hams the travellers were carrying for
+provisions, and declared that their camels should not be defiled with
+the unclean beast! The travellers were _very_ indignant at such a loss,
+but thought it was too bad to injure the feelings of the devout Moslems,
+and said no more. What was their horror and wrath to hear the next night
+that the Bedawin were seen cooking and eating their hams at midnight,
+when they thought no one would see them!
+
+Do the Syrian people all smoke? Almost all of them. They speak of it as
+"drinking a pipe, drinking a cigar," and you would think that they look
+upon tobacco as being as necessary to them as water. Old and young men,
+women and even children smoke, smoke while they work or rest, while at
+home or journeying, and measure distances by their pipes. I was
+travelling, and asked a man how far it was to the next village. He said
+about two pipes of tobacco distant! I found it to be nearly an hour, or
+three miles. The Orientals spend so much time in smoking, that some one
+has said "the Moslems came into power with the Koran in one hand, and
+the sword in the other, but will go out with the Koran in one hand and
+the pipe in the other!"
+
+Here we are on the sandy beach. What myriads of sea shells, and what
+beautiful colors they have. And here are sponges without number, but
+they are worthless. There on the sea are the little sloops of the sponge
+fishers. They are there through the whole summer and the fishers dive
+down into the sea where the water is from 100 to 200 feet deep, and walk
+around on the bottom holding their breath, and when they can bear it no
+longer pull the cord which is tied around the waist, and then their
+companions draw them up. They do not live long, as it is very hard and
+unnatural labor. Sometimes they are killed by sharks or other sea
+monsters. One of them told me that he was once on the bottom, and just
+about to pick up a beautiful white sponge, when he saw a great monster
+with huge claws and arms and enormous eyes coming towards him, and he
+barely escaped being devoured. At another time, the men in the boat felt
+a sudden jerk on the rope and pulled in, when they found only the man's
+head, arms and chest on it, the rest of his body having been devoured by
+some great fish or sea animal. The sponges grow on rocks, pebbles or
+shells, and some of them are of great value. It is difficult to get the
+best ones here, as the company who hire the divers export all the good
+ones to Europe.
+
+
+
+
+PART V.
+
+
+Word has come that there is cholera in Odessa, so that all the Russian
+steamers going to Beirūt will be in quarantine. It will not be pleasant
+to spend a week in the Beirūt quarantine, so we will keep our baggage
+animals and go down by land. It is two long days of nine hours each, and
+you will be weary enough. Bidding good-bye to our dear friends here and
+wishing them God's blessing in their difficult work among such people,
+away we go! Yanni and Uncle S. and some of the teachers will accompany
+us a little way, according to the Eastern custom, and then we dismount
+and kiss them all on both cheeks, and pursue our monotonous way along
+the coast, sometimes riding over rocky capes and promontories and then
+on the sand and pebbles close to the roaring surf.
+
+See how many monasteries there are on the sides of Lebanon! Between
+Tripoli and Beirūt there are about a hundred. The men who live in them
+are called monks, who make a vow never to marry, and spend their lives
+eating and drinking the fruits of other men's labors. They own almost
+all the valuable land in this range of mountains for fifty miles, and
+the fellaheen live as "tenants at will" on their estates. When a man is
+lazy or unfortunate, if he is not married, his first thought is to
+become a monk. They are the most corrupt and worthless vagabonds in the
+land, and the day must come before long, when the monasteries and
+convents will be abolished and their property be given back to the
+people to whom it justly belongs.
+
+We are now riding along by the telegraph wires. It seems strange to see
+Morse's telegraph on this old Phenician coast, and it will seem stranger
+still when we reach Beirūt, to receive a daily morning paper printed in
+Arabic, with telegrams from all parts of the world!
+
+In July, a woman came to the telegraph office in Beirūt, asking, "Where
+is the telegraph?" The Clerk, Yusef Effendi, asked her, "Whom do you
+want, the Director, the Operator, or the Kawass?" She said, "I want
+Telegraph himself, for my husband has sent me word that he is in prison
+in Zahleh and wants me to come with haste, and I heard that Telegraph
+takes people quicker than any one else. Please tell me the fare, and
+send me as soon as possible!" The Effendi looked at her, and took her
+measure, and then said, "You are too tall to go by telegraph, so you
+will have to go on a mule." The poor ignorant woman went away greatly
+disappointed.
+
+Another old woman, whose son was drafted into the Turkish army, wished
+to send him a pair of new shoes, so she hung them on the telegraph wire.
+A way-worn foot traveller coming along soon after took down the new
+shoes and put them on, and hung his old ones in their place. The next
+day the old lady returned and finding the old shoes, said, "Mashallah,
+Mohammed has received his new shoes and sent back his old ones to be
+repaired."
+
+The telegraph has taught all the world useful lessons, and the Syrians
+have learned one lesson from it which is of great value. When they write
+letters they use long titles, and flowery salutations, so that a whole
+page will be taken up with these empty formalities, leaving only a few
+lines at the end, or in a postscript, for the important business. But
+when they send a telegram and have to pay for every word, they leave out
+the flowery salutations and send only what is necessary.
+
+The following is a very common way of beginning an Arabic letter:
+
+"To the presence of the affectionate and the most distinguished, the
+honorable and most ingenuous Khowadja, the honored, may his continuance
+be prolonged!"
+
+"After presenting the precious pearls of affection, the aromatic
+blossoms of love, and the increase of excessive longing, after the
+intimate presence of the light of your rising in prosperity, we would
+say that in a most blessed and propitious hour your precious letter
+honored us," etc.
+
+That would cost too much to be sent by telegraph. Precious pearls and
+aromatic blossoms would become expensive luxuries at two cents a word.
+So they have to be reserved for letters, if any one has time to write
+them.
+
+Here we come to the famous Dog River. You will read in books about this
+river and its old inscriptions. If you have not forgotten your Latin,
+you can read a lesson in Latin which was written here nearly two
+thousand years ago. There you can see the words.
+
+       Imp. Caes. M. Aurelius
+   Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus
+  Par. Max. Brit. Max. Germ. Maximus
+          Pontifex Maximus
+         Montibus Imminentibus
+             etc. etc.
+
+This Emperor Marcus Aurelius, must have cut this road through the rocks
+about the year 173 A.D. But there is another inscription higher up, with
+arrow-headed characters and several other tablets. They are Assyrian and
+Egyptian. One of the Assyrian tablets was cut by Sennacherib 2500 years
+ago, and one of the Egyptian by Sesostris, king of Egypt, 3100 years
+ago. Don't you feel very young and small in looking at such ancient
+monuments? All of those men brought their armies here, and found the
+path so bad along the high precipice overhanging the sea, that they cut
+a road for their horses and chariots in the solid limestone rock. Just
+think of standing where Sennacherib and Alexander the Great passed
+along with their armies!
+
+What a steep and narrow road! We will dismount and walk over this
+dangerous pass. It is not pleasant to meet camels and loaded mules on
+such a dizzy precipice, with the high cliff above, and the roaring waves
+of the sea far below! It is well we dismounted. Our horses are afraid of
+those camels carrying long timbers balanced on their backs. Let us turn
+aside and wait until they pass.
+
+Seeing these camels reminds me of what I saw here in 1857. I was coming
+down the coast from Tripoli and reached the top of this pass, in the
+narrowest part, just as a caravan of camels were coming from the
+opposite direction. I turned back a little, and stood close under the
+edge of the cliff to let the camels go by. They were loaded with huge
+canvas sacks of tibn, or cut straw, which hung down on both sides,
+making it impossible to pass them without stooping very low. Just then I
+heard a voice behind me, and looking around, saw a shepherd coming up
+the pass with his flock of sheep. He was walking ahead, and they all
+followed on. I called to him to go back, as the camels were coming over
+the pass. He said, "Ma ahlaik," or "don't trouble yourself," and on he
+came. When he met the camels, they were in the narrowest part, where a
+low stone wall runs along the edge of the precipice. He stooped down and
+stepped upon the narrow wall, calling all the time to his sheep, who
+followed close upon his heels, walking in single file. He said "tahl,
+tahl," "come, come," and then made a shrill whirring call, which could
+be heard above the roaring of the waves on the rocks below. It was
+wonderful to see how closely they followed the shepherd. They did not
+seem to notice the camels on the one side, or the abyss on the other
+side. Had they left the narrow track, they would either have been
+trodden down by the heavily laden camels, or have fallen off into the
+dark waters below. But they were intent on following their shepherd.
+They heard his voice, and that was enough. The cameleers were shouting
+and screaming to their camels to keep them from slipping on these smooth
+rocks, but the sheep paid no attention to them. They knew the shepherd's
+voice. They had followed him before, through rivers and thickets, among
+rocks and sands, and he had always led them safely. The waves were
+dashing and roaring on the rocks below, but they did not fear, for the
+shepherd was going on before. Had one of those sheep turned aside, he
+would have lost his footing and been destroyed and thrown the whole
+flock into confusion.
+
+You know why I have told you this story. You know that Jesus is the Good
+Shepherd. He said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they
+follow me." Wherever Jesus leads it is safe for us to go. How many boys
+and girls there are who think they know a better path than the one Jesus
+calls them to follow. There are "stranger" voices calling on every side,
+and many a child leaves the path of the Good Shepherd, and turns aside
+to hear what they would say. If they were truly lambs of Jesus' fold,
+they would love Him, and follow Him in calm and storm, and never heed
+the voice of strangers.
+
+I was once travelling from Dūma to Akūra, high up on the range of
+Lebanon. It was a hot summer's day, and at noon I stopped to rest by a
+fountain. The waste water of the fountain ran into a square stone birkeh
+or pool, and around the pool were several shepherds resting with their
+flocks of sheep and goats. The shepherds came and talked with me, and
+sat smoking for nearly an hour, when suddenly one of them arose and
+walked away calling to his flock to follow him. The flocks were all
+mixed together, but when he called, his sheep and goats began to raise
+their heads and start along together behind him. He kept walking along
+and calling, until all his flock had gone. The rest of the sheep and
+goats remained quietly as though nothing had happened. Then another
+"Rai," or shepherd, started up in another direction, calling out in a
+shrill voice, and _his sheep_ followed him. They knew their shepherd's
+voice. Our muleteers were talking all the time, but the sheep paid no
+attention to them. They knew one voice, and would follow no other.
+
+We will now hasten on to Beirūt. You will wish to see the Female
+Seminary, and the Sabbath School and the Steam Printing Press, and many
+of the Beirūt Schools, before we start to Abeih again.
+
+Here is the Female Seminary. There are a hundred girls here, studying
+Arabic reading and writing geography, arithmetic, grammar, botany,
+physiology and astronomy, and a few study English, French and music. But
+the great study is the _Bible_. I am afraid that very few schools in
+America have as much instruction in the Bible, as the girls in this
+Seminary and the Sidon Seminary receive. You would be surprised to hear
+the girls recite correctly the names of all the patriarchs; kings and
+prophets of the Old Testament, with the year when they lived, and the
+date of all the important events of the Old and New Testament History,
+and the Life of Christ, and the travels of the Apostle Paul, and the
+prophecies about Christ in the Old Testament, and then recite the whole
+Westminster Assembly's Catechism in Arabic! I have given out _one
+hundred and twenty_ Bibles and Hymn Books as rewards to children in the
+schools in Beirūt, who have learned the Shorter Catechism perfectly in
+Arabic.
+
+Five years ago there was a girl in the school who was once very rude and
+self-willed, and very hard to control. She had a poor bed-ridden brother
+who had been a cripple for years, and was a great care to the family.
+They used to carry him out in the garden in fine weather and lay him on
+a seat under the trees, and sometimes his sister would come home from
+the school and read to him from the Bible, to which he listened with
+great delight. Not long after this he died, and his sister was sent for
+to come home to the funeral. On reaching home she found a large crowd of
+women assembled from all that quarter of the city, shrieking and wailing
+over his death, according to the Oriental custom. When A. the little
+girl came in, one of the women from an aristocratic Greek family was
+talking in a loud voice and saying that it was wrong for any person to
+go from the house of mourning to another house before first going home,
+because one going from a house of mourning would carry an _evil
+influence_ with her. A. listened and then spoke out boldly before the
+seventy women, "How long will you hold on to these foolish
+superstitions? Beirūt is a place of light and civilization. Where can
+you find any such teaching as this in the gospel? It is time for us to
+give up such superstitions." The old woman asked, "Where did that girl
+learn these things? Truly she is right. These things _are_
+superstitions, but they will not die until _we old women die_." It
+required a great deal of courage in A. to speak out so boldly, when her
+own brother had died, but all felt that she spoke the truth, and no one
+rebuked her.
+
+Near by the house of A. is another beautiful house surrounded by
+gardens, and ornamented in the most expensive manner. A little girl from
+this family was attending the school in 1867. Her name was Fereedy. She
+was a boarder and the best behaved girl in the school. One day during
+vacation, her mother came to Rufka and said, "What have you done to my
+little daughter Fereedy? She came home last Saturday with her sister,
+and at once took the whole care of the little children, so that I had no
+trouble with them. And when night came she put her little sisters to bed
+and prayed with them all, and then in the morning she prayed with them
+again. I never saw such a child. She is like a little angel." The mother
+is of the Greek sect, and the little girl was only twelve years old.
+
+And here is a story about another of the superstitions of the fellaheen,
+and what a little girl taught the people about them. This little girl
+named L. went with her father to spend the summer in a mountain village,
+where the people had a strange superstition about an oak tree. One day
+she went out to walk and came to the great oak tree which stood alone on
+the mountain side. You know that the Canaanites used to have idols under
+the green trees in ancient times. When L. reached the tree, she found
+the ground covered with dead branches which had fallen from the tree.
+Now, wood is very scarce and costly in Syria, and the people are very
+poor, so that she wondered to see the wood left to rot on the ground,
+and asked the people why they did not use it for fuel. They said they
+dared not, as the tree belonged to Moses the Prophet, and he protected
+the tree, and if any one took the wood, they would _fall dead_. She
+said, "Moses is in heaven, and does not live in oak trees, and if he
+did, he is a good man, and would not hurt me for burning up old dry
+sticks." So she asked them if she might have the wood? They said, "yes,
+if you _dare_ to take it, for we are afraid to touch it." So she went to
+the tree and gathered up as much as she could carry, and took it home.
+The people screamed when they saw her, and told her to drop it or it
+would kill her, but on she went, and afterwards went back and brought
+the rest. She then talked with the ignorant women, and her father told
+them about the folly of their superstitions, and read to them in the
+Bible about Moses, and they listened with great attention. I have often
+thought I should like to go to that village, and see whether the people
+now leave the dead branches under Moses' oak, or use them for fuel
+during the heavy snow storms of winter.
+
+
+
+
+PART VI.
+
+
+Here we are, home again at Abeih. Here are Asaad and Khalil, and several
+others. I asked Khalil one day to write out for me a list of all the
+games the boys play in Abeih, and he brought me a list of _twenty-eight_
+different ones, and said there were many more.
+
+I. The first is called Khatim or the Ring. A boy puts a ring on the back
+of his hand, tosses it and catches it on the back of his fingers. If it
+falls on the middle finger, he shakes it to the forefinger, and then he
+is Sultan, and appoints a Vizier, whom he commands to beat the other
+boys. Then the boys all sing,
+
+    Ding, dong, turn the wheel,
+    Wind the purple thread:
+    Spin the white and spin the red,
+    Wind it on the reel:
+    Silk and linen as well as you can,
+    Weave a robe for the Great Sultan.
+
+II. Killeh. Like the game of shooting marbles.
+
+III. Owal Howa. The same as leap frog.
+
+IV. Biz Zowaia. Cat in the corner.
+
+V. Taia ya Taia. All the boys stand in a row, and one in front facing
+them, who calls out Taia ya Taia. They all then run after him and hit
+him. He then hops on one foot as if lame, and catches one of them, who
+takes his place.
+
+VI. El Manya. Hig tig.
+
+VII. Bil Kobbeh. A circle of boys stand with their heads bowed. Another
+circle stand outside, and on a given signal try to mount on the backs of
+the inner circle of boys. If they succeed they remain standing in this
+way; if not, the boy who failed must take the inside place.
+
+VIII. Ghummaida. Blind-man's-buff.
+
+IX. Tabeh. Base ball and drop ball.
+
+X. Kurd Murboot or Tied Monkey. A rope is tied to a peg in the ground,
+and one boy holds it fast. The others tie knots in their handkerchiefs
+and beat him. If he catches them without letting go his hold on the
+rope, they take his place.
+
+XI. Shooha or Hawk. Make a swing on the limb of a tree. A boy leans on
+the swing and runs around among the boys, until he catches one to take
+his place.
+
+XII. Joora. Shooting marbles into a joora or hole in the ground.
+
+XIII. Khubby Mukhzinak. "Pebble pebble." One boy goes around and hides a
+pebble in the hand of one of the circle and asks "pebble, pebble, who's
+got the pebble." This is like "Button, button."
+
+Then there are other games like chequers and "Morris," chess, and games
+which are used in gambling, which you will not care to hear about.
+
+Sometimes when playing, they sing a song which I have translated:
+
+    I found a black crow,
+    With a cake in his maw,
+    I asked him to feed me,
+    He cried caw, caw.
+
+    A chicken I found
+    With a loaf of bread--
+    I asked him to feed me.
+    He cried, enough said.
+
+    And an eagle black
+    With a beam on his back
+    Said from Egypt I come
+    And he cried clack, clack.
+
+So you see the Arab boys are as fond of plays and songs as American
+boys. They have scores of songs about gazelles, and pearls, and Sultans,
+and Bedawin, and Ghouls, and the "Ghuz," and the Evil Eye, and Arab
+mares and Pashas.
+
+A few days ago a Druze, named Sheikh Ali, called upon me and recited to
+me a strange song, which reminded me of the story of "Who killed Cock
+Robin," and "The House that Jack built." In some of the Arab villages
+where fleas abound, the people go at times to the tennūr or oven, (which
+is like a great earthen jar sunken in the ground,) to shake off the
+fleas into the fire. The story which I have translated goes thus: A
+brilliant bug and a noble flea once went to the oven to shake off the
+ignoble fleas from their garments into the fire. But alas, alas, the
+noble flea lost his footing, fell into the fire and was consumed. Then
+the brilliant bug began to weep and mourn, saying,
+
+            Alas! Ah me!
+            The Noble Flea!
+    While he was thus weeping,
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+    A glossy raven overhead,
+    Flew swiftly down and gently said,
+    Oh my friend, oh brilliant bug,
+    Why are you weeping on the rug?
+    The bug replied, O glossy raven,
+    With your head all shorn and shaven,
+    I am now weeping,
+    And sad watch keeping,
+            Over, Ah me!
+            The Noble Flea.
+      The raven he,
+    Wept over the flea,
+    And flew to a green palm tree--
+    And in grief, _dropped a feather_,
+    Like snow in winter weather.
+    The palm tree said my glossy raven,
+    Why do you look so craven,
+    Why did you drop a feather,
+    Like snow in winter weather?
+    The raven said,
+    The flea is dead!
+    I saw the brilliant bug weeping
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+            Alas, Alas, Ah me!
+            Over the Noble Flea.
+    Then the green Palm tree,
+    Wept over the noble flea.
+    Said he, The flea is dead!
+    And _all his branches shed_!
+    The Shaggy Wolf he strayed,
+    To rest in the Palm tree's shade
+    He saw the branches broken,
+    Of deepest grief the token,
+    And said, Oh Palm tree green,
+    What sorrow have you seen?
+    What noble one is dead,
+    That you your branches shed?
+    He said, O Wolf so shaggy,
+    Living in rocks so craggy,
+    I saw the glossy raven,
+    Looking forlorn and craven,
+    Dropping down a feather,
+    Like snow in winter weather.
+    He saw the brilliant bug weeping
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+            Alas, Alas, Ah me!
+            Over the Noble Flea!
+    Then the Wolf in despair
+    _Shed his shaggy hair_.
+    Then the River clear and shining,
+    Saw the wolf in sorrow pining,
+    Asked him why in sad despair,
+    He had shed his shaggy hair?
+    Said the Wolf, Oh River shining,
+    I in sorrow deep am pining,
+    For the Palm tree I have seen,
+    Shedding all his branches green,
+    And he saw the glossy raven,
+    Looking so forlorn and craven,
+    As he dropped a downy feather,
+    Like the snow in winter weather.
+    He saw the brilliant bug weeping,
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+            Alas, Alas, Ah me,
+            Over the Noble Flea!
+    Sadly then the shining River,
+    _Dried its waters up forever_.
+    Then the Shepherd with his sheep
+    Asked the River once so deep,
+    What great grief, oh shining river,
+    Dried your waters up forever?
+    Said the River once so shining,
+    I in sorrow deep am pining,
+    Since I saw the wolf's despair,
+    When he shed his shaggy hair,
+    For the Palm tree he had seen,
+    Shedding all his branches green,
+    And he saw the glossy raven,
+    Looking so forlorn and craven,
+    As he dropped a downy feather,
+    Like the snow in winter weather,
+    He saw the brilliant bug weeping,
+    And his sad watch keeping.
+            Alas, Alas, Ah me!
+            Over the Noble Flea!
+    Then the Shepherd in sorrow deep,
+    _Tore the horns from all his sheep_,
+    Sadly bound them on his head,
+    Since he heard the flea was dead.
+    Then the Shepherd's mother dear,
+    Asked him why in desert drear,
+    He had torn in sorrow deep,
+    All the horns from all his sheep,
+    Sadly bound them on his head,
+    Just as though a friend was dead?
+    Said he, 'tis because the River,
+    Dried his waters up forever,
+    Since he saw the Wolf's despair,
+    When he shed his shaggy hair.
+    For the Palm tree he had seen,
+    Shedding all his branches green,
+    For he saw the glossy raven,
+    Looking so forlorn and craven,
+    As he dropped a downy feather,
+    Like the snow in winter weather.
+    He saw the brilliant bug weeping,
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+    Alas, Alas, Ah me!
+            Over the Noble Flea!
+    Mother sad began to cry,
+    Thrust her needle in her eye;
+    Could no longer see her thread,
+    Since she heard the flea was dead.
+    Then the Father grave and bland,
+    Hearing this, _cut off his hand_;
+    And the daughter, when she hears,
+    In despair, _cuts off her ears_;
+    And through the town deep grief is spread,
+    Because they heard the flea was dead.
+
+
+THE NURSERY RHYMES OF THE ARABS.
+
+Who is that singing in such a sweet plaintive voice in the room beneath
+our porch? It is the Sit Leila, wife of Sheikh Abbas, saying a lullaby
+to her little baby boy, Sheikh Fereed. We will sit on the porch in this
+bright moonlight, and listen while she sings:
+
+    Whoever loves you not,
+    My little baby boy;
+    May she be driven from her house,
+    And never know a joy!
+    May the "Ghuz" eat up her husband,
+    And the mouse her oil destroy!
+
+This is not very sweet language for a gentle lady to use to a little
+infant boy, but the Druze and Moslem women use this kind of imprecation
+in many of their nursery songs. Katrina says that many of the Greek and
+Maronite women sing them too. This young woman Laia, who sits here, has
+repeated for me not less than a hundred and twenty of these nursery
+rhymes, songs for weddings, funeral wails, etc. Some of the imprecations
+are dreadful.
+
+They seem to think that the best way to show their love to their babies,
+is to hate those who do not love them.
+
+Im Faris says she has heard this one in Hasbeiya, her birthplace:
+
+        O sleep to God, my child, my eyes,
+        Your heart no ill shall know;
+        Who loves you not as much as I,
+        May God her house o'erthrow!
+    May the mosque and the minaret, dome and all,
+    On her wicked head in anger fall!
+    May the Arabs rob her threshing floor,
+    And not one kernel remain in her store.
+
+The servant girl Nideh, who attends the Sit Leila, thinks that her turn
+has come, and she is singing,
+
+    We've the white and the red in our baby's cheeks,
+    In pounds and tons to spare;
+    But the black and the rust,
+    And the mould and the must,
+    For our neighbor's children are!
+
+I hope she does not refer to _us_ for we are her nearest neighbors. But
+in reality I do not suppose that they actually mean what they sing in
+these Ishmaelitic songs. Perhaps they do when they are angry, but they
+probably sing them ordinarily without thinking of their meaning at all.
+
+Sometimes snakes come down from the ceilings of these earth-roofed
+houses, and terrify the people. At other times government horsemen come
+and drag them off to prison, as they did in Safita. These things are
+referred to in this next song which Nideh is singing:
+
+    If she love you not, my boy,
+    May the Lord her life destroy!
+    Seven mules tread her down,
+    Drag her body through the town!
+    Snakes that from the ceiling hang,
+    Sting her dead with poison fang!
+    Soldiers from Damascus city,
+    Drag her off and shew no pity!
+    Nor release her for a day,
+    Though a thousand pounds she pay!
+
+That is about enough of imprecations, and it will be pleasanter to
+listen to Katrina, for she will sing us some of the sweetest of the
+Syrian Nursery Songs.
+
+    Sleep, my moon, my baby sleep!
+    The Pleiades bright their watches keep.
+    The Libra shines so fair and clear,
+    The stars are shining, hush my dear!
+
+There is not much music in the tunes they sing to these words. The airs
+generally are plaintive and monotonous, and have a sad and weary sound.
+
+Here is another:
+
+    My boy, my moon, I bid you good morrow!
+    Who wishes you peace shall know no sorrow!
+    Whom you salute, his earth is like heaven,
+    His care relieved, his sin forgiven!
+
+She says that last line is extravagant, and I think as much. The next
+one is a Moslem lullaby.
+
+    O Lord of the heavens, Knowing and Wise,
+    Preserve my Ali, the light of my eyes!
+    Lord of high heaven, Compassionate!
+    Keep my dear boy in every state!
+
+This one is used by the women of all the sects, but in all of the songs
+the name is changed to suit the name of the baby to whom the mother is
+singing,
+
+    Ali, your eyes are sleeping,
+    But God's eyes never sleep:
+    Their hours of lonely weeping
+    None can forever keep.
+    How sweet is the night of health,
+    When Ali sleeps in peace!
+    Oh may such nights continue,
+    Nor ever, ever cease!
+
+Among all the scores of nursery songs, I have heard only a very few
+addressed to _girls_, but some of these are beautiful. Hear Katrina sing
+this one:
+
+    Lūlū dear the house is bright,
+    With your forehead's sunny light;
+    Men your father honor now
+    When they see your lovely brow.
+    If father comes home sad and weary,
+    Sight of you will make him cheery.
+
+The "fuller's soap" mentioned in Malachi 3:2, is the plant called in
+Arabic "Ashnan or Shenan," and the Arabs sometimes use it in the place
+of soap. The following is another song addressed to a baby girl:
+
+    Come Cameleer, as quick as you can,
+    And make us soap from the green "Shenan,"
+    To bathe our Lūlū dear;
+    We'll wash her and dress her,
+    And then we'll caress her,
+    She'll sleep in her little sereer. (cradle)
+
+This song is sung by the Druze women to their baby girls:
+
+    Your eye is jet black, and dark are its lashes,
+    Between the arched brows, like a crescent it flashes;
+    When painted with "kohl" 'tis brighter by far,
+    Than the full-orbed moon or the morning star.
+
+The following is supposed to be addressed by a Druze woman to her
+neighbor who has a daughter of marriageable age, when she is obliged to
+veil her face:
+
+    Hide your daughter, veil her face,
+    Neighbor, do not tarry:
+    For my Hanna is of age,
+    Says he wants to marry.
+    When I asked about his choice,
+    Said he was not needy:
+    But that if he ever wed,
+    He thought he'd like Fereedy.
+
+The next one is also Druze and purely Oriental:
+
+    Two healths, one health,
+    Four healths more:
+    Four sacks of sesamé seed,
+    Scattered on the floor;
+    Pick and count them one by one.
+    Reckon up their number;
+    For every seed wish Hassan's health.
+    Sweetly may he slumber!
+
+The Druze women delight in nothing so much as to have their sons ride
+fine horses:
+
+    My Yusef, my cup of sherbet sweet,
+    My broadcloth red hung over the street,
+    When you ride the blood mare with sword and pistol,
+    Your saddle is gold and your stirrups crystal.
+
+Katrina says that this little song is the morning salutation to baby
+boys:
+
+      Good morning now to you, Little boy!
+      Your face is like the dew, Little boy!
+    There never was a child, so merry and so mild,
+      So good morning once again, Little boy!
+
+This song is sung by the Druze women to their babes:
+
+    O Sparrow of Paradise,
+    Hush him to sleep?
+    Your feathers are "henna."
+    Watch him and keep!
+    Bring sleep soft and sweet
+    Upon your white wings!
+    For Hassan the pet
+    And his mother who sings!
+
+The apples of Damascus are noted throughout Syria, though we should
+regard them as very poor fruit:
+
+    What's he like? If any ask us,
+    Flowers and apples of Damascus;
+    Apples fragrant on the tray,
+    Roses sweet with scent of May.
+
+Laia says that the next one is sung by the Druze women to their baby
+boys:
+
+        I love you, I prize you, and for you I wish,
+        A hundred oak trees in the valley;
+        A hundred blood mares all tied in the court,
+        And ready for foray or sally.
+    Mount your horse, fly away, with your scarf flowing free,
+    The chiefs of the tribe will assemble;
+    Damascus, Aleppo, and Ghutah beside,
+    At the sound of your coming will tremble.
+
+Nejmeh says that the Bedawin women who come to Safita, her native place,
+often sing the following song:
+
+    Come little Bedawy, sit on my lap,
+    Pretty pearls shine in your little white cap,
+    Rings are in your ears,
+    Rings are in your nose,
+    Rings upon your fingers,
+    And "henna" on your toes.
+
+They use the "henna" to dye their hands, feet and finger nails, when a
+wedding or festive occasion occurs in the family.
+
+Katrina recalls another little song which she used to sing to Harry:
+
+    Welcome now, my baby dear,
+    Whence did you come?
+    Your voice is sweet,
+    What little feet!
+    Make yourself at home!
+
+Nideh, the Druze girl down stairs is ready with another song. She is
+rocking little Sheikh Fereed in his cradle, and says:
+
+    In your cradle sleep my boy,
+    Rest from all your labor;
+    May El Hakim, heaven's God,
+    Ever be your neighbor!
+
+It makes me feel sad to hear a poor woman praying to a man. This El
+Hakim was a man, and a bad man too, who lived many hundred years ago,
+and now the Druzes regard him as their God. But what difference is there
+between worshipping Hakim as the Druzes do, and worshipping Mary and
+Joseph as the Greeks and Maronites do. Laia says the Maronites down in
+the lower part of this village sing the following song:
+
+    Hillū, Hillū, Hallelujah!
+    Come my wild gazelles!
+    He who into trouble falls
+    On the Virgin Mother calls;
+    To Damascus she's departing,
+    All the mountain monks are starting.
+    Come my priest and come my deacon,
+    Bring the censer and the beacon,
+    We will celebrate the Mass,
+    In the Church of Mar Elias;
+    Mar Elias, my neighbor dear,
+    You must be deaf if you did not hear.
+
+Sit Leila sings:
+
+    I love you my boy, and this is the proof,
+    I wish that you had all the wealth of the "Shoof,"
+    Hundreds of costly silken bales,
+    Hundreds of ships with lofty sails.
+    Hundreds of towns to obey your word,
+    And thousands of thousands to call you lord!
+
+Katrina is ready to sing again:
+
+    I will sing to you,
+    God will bring to you,
+    All you need, my dear:
+    He's here and there,
+    He is everywhere,
+    And to you He's ever near.
+
+People say that every baby that is born into the world is thought by its
+mother to be better than any other ever born. The Arab women think so
+too, and this is the way they sing it:
+
+    One like you was never born,
+    One like you was never brought;
+    All the Arabs might grow old,
+    Fighting ne'er so brave and bold,
+    Yet with all their battles fought
+    One like you they never caught.
+
+Im Faris asks if we would not like to hear some of the rhymes the Arab
+women sing when playing with their children. Here are some of them. The
+first one you will think is like what you have already seen in "Mother
+Goose."
+
+    Blacksmith, blacksmith, shoe the mare,
+    Shoe the colt with greatest care;
+    Hold the shoe and drive the nail,
+    Else your labor all will fail;
+    Shoe a donkey for Seleem,
+    And a colt for Ibraheem.
+
+Sugar cane grows luxuriantly in Syria, and it was first taken from
+Tripoli, Syria, to Spain, and thence to the West Indies and America. But
+all they do with it now in Syria, is to suck it. It is cut up in pieces
+and sold to the people, old and young, who peel it and suck it. So the
+Arab women sing to their children:
+
+    Pluck it and suck it, the green sugar cane,
+    Whatever is sweet is costly and vain;
+    He'll cut you a joint as long as a span,
+    And charge two piastres. Now buy if you can!
+
+Wered says she will sing us two or three which they use in teaching the
+little Arab babies to "pat" their hands:
+
+    Patty cake, baby! Make him dance!
+    May his age increase and his years advance!
+    May his life like the rock, long years endure,
+    Overgrown with lilies, so sweet and pure!
+
+And now the Sit Leila is singing again one of the Druze lullabys:
+
+    Tish for two, Tish for two!
+    A linen shirt with a border blue!
+    With cloth that the little pedler sells,
+    For the father of eyes like the little gazelles!
+    Your mother will weave and spin and twine,
+    To clothe you so nicely O little Hassein!
+
+Do you hear the jackals crying as they come up out of the valley? Their
+cry is like the voice of the cat and dog mingled together, and Im Faris
+knows some of the ditties which they sing to their children about the
+jackals and their fondness for chickens:
+
+    You cunning rogues beware!
+    You jackals with the long hair!
+    You ate up the chickens of old Katrin,
+    And ran away singing like wild Bedawin.
+
+It is not pleasant to have so many fleas annoying us all the time, but
+we must not be more anxious to keep the fleas out than to get the people
+in, and as the fellaheen come to see us, they will be likely to _flea_
+us too. Safita is famous for fleas, so no wonder that Nejmeh knows the
+following song of the boys about fleas:
+
+    I caught and killed a hopping flea,
+    His sister's children came to me:
+    One with drum my ears did pierce,
+    One was fluting loud and fierce,
+    Then they danced me, made me sing,
+    Like a monkey in a ring.
+    Come O Deeby, come I pray,
+    Bring the Doctor right away!
+    Peace on your heart feel no alarm,
+    You have not had the slightest harm.
+
+Laia is never at a loss for something new, and I am amazed at her
+memory. She will give us some rhyming riddles in Arabic, and we will put
+them into English as best we may. The first is about the _Ant_:
+
+    'Tis black as night,
+    But it is not night:
+    Like a bird it has wings,
+    But it never sings:
+    It digs through the house,
+    But it is not a mouse:
+    It eats barley and grass,
+    But it is not an ass.
+
+Riddle about a _gun_:
+
+    A featherless bird flew over the sea,
+    A bird without feathers, how can that be?
+    A beautiful bird which I admire,
+    With wooden feet and a head of fire!
+
+Riddle on _salt_:
+
+    O Arab tribes, so bold and gay,
+    What little grain have you to-day?
+    It never on the trees is seen,
+    Nor on the flowers and wheat so green.
+    Its source is pure, 'tis pleasant to eat,
+    From water it comes that is not sweet,
+    Though from water it comes, and there's water in it,
+    You put it in water, it dies in a minute.
+
+The door has opened down stairs, and some of Sit Leila's friends have
+come to see her. The moment they saw the little baby Fereed, they all
+began to call out, "Ism Allah alayhee," "The name of Allah upon him."
+They use this expression to keep off the Evil Eye. This superstition is
+universal throughout Western Asia, Northern Africa, and exists also in
+Italy and Spain. Dr. Meshaka of Damascus says that those who believe in
+the Evil Eye, "think that certain people have the power of killing
+others by a glance of the eye. Others inflict injury by the eye. Others
+pick grapes by merely looking at them. This power may rest in _one_ eye,
+and one man who thought he had this power, _veiled one eye_, out of
+compassion for others! The Moslem Sheikhs and others profess to cure the
+evil eye, and prevent its evil effects by writing mystic talismanic
+words on papers, which are to be worn. Others write the words on an egg,
+and then strike the forehead of the evil eyed with the egg."
+
+Whenever a new house is built, the workmen hang up an egg shell or a
+piece of alum, or an old root, or a donkey's skull, in the front door,
+to keep off the evil eye. Moslem women leave their children ragged and
+dirty to keep people from admiring them, and thus smiting them with the
+evil eye. They think that blue eyes are especially dangerous.
+
+They think that the name of God or Allah is a charm against evil, and
+when they repeat it, they have no idea of reverence for that Holy Name.
+
+Here is a terrible imprecation against a woman who smites with the Evil
+Eye:
+
+    May her hand be thrust in her mouth,
+    And her eyes be burned in the fire!
+    The blessings of Mighty God,
+    Preserve you from her ire!
+
+Nideh sings
+
+    Upon you the name of Allah,
+    Around you Allah's eye!
+    May the Evil Eye be blinded,
+    And never harm my boy!
+
+It is ten o'clock at night, and Katrina, Laia, Wered, and Handūmeh say
+it is time to go. Handumeh insists that we come to her wedding
+to-morrow. Amīn will go with them to drive away the dogs, and see that
+no wolves, hyenas, or leopards attack them by the way.
+
+
+
+
+PART VII.
+
+
+The boys of Abeih are early risers. What a merry laugh they have! What
+new song is that they are singing now?
+
+There has been a shower in the night and Yusef and Khalil are singing
+about the rain. We say in English "_it_ rains" but the Arabs tell us
+what "it" refers to. They say "The world rains," "The world snows," "The
+world is coming down," "The world thunders and lightens." So you will be
+able to tell your teacher, when he asks you to parse "it rains," that
+"_it_" is a pronoun referring to "world." Hear them sing:
+
+    Rain, O world, all day and night,
+    We will wash our clothing white.
+    Rain, O world, your waters shed,
+    On my dear grandmother's head.
+
+The sun shines out now, and Khalil says the "world has got well" again,
+so he sings:
+
+    Shines the sun with brightest beam
+    On the roof of Im Seleem;
+    Now the bear will dance a reel,
+    On the roof of Im Khaleel.
+
+The roofs of the houses are low and flat, and on the hill-sides you can
+walk from the street above upon the roof of the houses below. I once
+lived in a house in Duma in which the cattle, donkeys, and sheep used to
+walk on our roof every evening as they came in from pasture. It was not
+very pleasant to be awakened at midnight by a cow-fight on the roof, and
+have the stones and dirt rattling down into our faces, but we could get
+no other house, and had to make the best of it. You can understand then
+Khalil's song:
+
+    The sun is rising all so bright
+    Upon the Pasha's daughter:
+    See her toss the tassels blue,
+    As her mother taught her.
+    Turn the oxen on the roof
+    Of the village priest;
+    He will kill them one and all,
+    And give the poor a feast.
+
+The boys seem to be in high glee. They all know Handūmeh and her
+betrothed Shaheen Ma'ttar, so they are swinging and singing in honor of
+her wedding.
+
+But the time has come for the wedding, and we will go over to Ain Kesūr,
+about a mile away, and join in the bridal procession. As we come near
+the house we hear the women inside singing. They have been dressing the
+bride, and after she is dressed they lead her around and try to make her
+dance. Perhaps they will let us see how she is dressed. Her head is
+covered with a head-dress of pink gauze, embroidered with gold thread
+and purple chenille, and ornamented with pearl beads and artificial
+flowers, and over all a long white gauze veil trimmed with lace. Her
+ear-rings are gold filigree work with pendant pearls, and around her
+neck is a string of pure amber beads and a gold necklace. She wears a
+jacket of black velvet, and a gilt belt embroidered with blue, and
+fastened with a silver gilt filigree buckle in the form of a bow knot
+with pendants. On her finger is a gold ring set with sapphire, and
+others with turquoises and amethysts. Her dress is of brown satin, and
+on her arms are solid gold bracelets which cost 1400 piastres or
+fifty-six dollars. You know Handūmeh is not a rich girl, and her
+betrothed is a hard working muleteer, and he has had to work very hard
+to get the money to buy all these things, for it is the custom for the
+bridegroom to pay for the bride's outfit. The people always lay out
+their money in jewelry because it is easily carried, and easily buried
+in time of civil wars and troubles in the land. Shaheen's brothers and
+relatives have come to take her to Abeih, but he is nowhere to be seen.
+It would not be proper for him to come to her house. For weeks she has
+not been over to Abeih, except to invite us to her wedding, and when
+Anna asked her on what day she was to be married, she professed not to
+know anything about it. They think it is not modest for a bride to care
+anything about the wedding, and she will try to appear unwilling to go
+when they are ready to start. The women are singing now:
+
+    Dance, our bride so fair,
+    Dance and never care;
+    Your bracelets sing, your anklets ring,
+    Your shining beauty would dazzle a king!
+    To Damascus your father a journey has made,
+    And your bridegroom's name is Abū Zeid.
+
+And now the young men outside are dancing and fencing, and they all join
+in singing:
+
+    Dance, my dancer, early and late,
+    Would I had like you seven or eight;
+    Two uncles like you, blithe and gay,
+    To stand at my back in the judgment day!
+
+And now the young men, relatives of the bridegroom, address the brother
+of the bride, as her father is not living, and they all sing:
+
+    O brother of the bride, on a charger you should ride;
+    A Councillor of State you should be;
+    Whene'er you lift your voice,
+    The judgment halls rejoice,
+    And the earth quakes with fear
+    From Acre to Ghuzeer.
+
+And now the warlike Druzes, who are old friends of Shaheen and his
+father, wish to show their good will by singing a wedding song, which
+they have borrowed from the old wild inhabitants of this land of
+Canaan:
+
+    O brother of the bride, your mare has gnawed her bridle,
+    Run for the blacksmith, do not be idle.
+    She has run to the grave where are buried your foes,
+    And pawed out their hearts with her iron shoes!
+
+But the time has come for the procession to move, and we go along slowly
+enough. The bride rides a mare, led by one of Shaheen's brothers, and as
+we pass the fountain, the people pour water under the mare's feet as a
+libation, and Handūmeh throws down a few little copper coins to the
+children. The women in the company set up the zilagheet, a high piercing
+trill of the voice, and all goes merry as a marriage bell. When we reach
+the house of Shaheen, he keeps out of sight, not even offering to help
+his bride dismount from her horse. That would never do. He will stay
+among the men, and she in a separate room among the women, until the
+hour of the ceremony arrives.
+
+But the women are singing again, and this time the song is really
+beautiful in Arabic, but I fear I have made lame work of it in the
+translation:
+
+    Allah, belaly, belaly,
+    Allah, belaly, belaly,
+    May God spare the life of your sire,
+    Our lovely gazelle of the valley!
+        May Allah his riches increase
+        He has brought you so costly a dowry;
+        The moonlight has gone from his house,
+        The rose from his gardens so flow'ry.
+        Run away, rude men, turn aside,
+        Give place to our beautiful bride:
+        From her sweet perfumes I am sighing,
+        From the odor of musk I am dying.
+    Come and join us fair maid, they have brought you your dress,
+    Leave your peacocks and doves, give our bride a caress;
+    Red silk! crimson silk! the weaver cries as he goes:
+    But our bride's cheeks are redder blushing bright as the rose.
+    Dark silk! black silk! hear him now as he sings:
+    But our bride's hair is black, like the raven's dark wings;
+    With the light of our eyes with our Handūmeh sweet
+    No maid of the Druzes can ever compete.
+    She is worth all the wealth of the Lebanon domain,
+    All the vineyards and olives, the silk worms and grain.
+    And no maids of the Christians can with her compare
+    Tho' shining with pearls and with jewels so rare.
+
+The house is now crowded full, the men being all in one room with
+Shaheen, and the women in the other room, and the court with the bride
+Handūmeh. One of Shaheen's brothers comes around with a kumkum, and
+sprinkles orange flower water in all our faces, and Khalil asks us if we
+wish the ceremony to take place now? We tell him that he must ask the
+bride and groom. So Abū Shaheen comes into the court with the old priest
+Eklemandus, as Shaheen's family belong to the Greek Catholic sect.
+Handūmeh is really a Protestant, and Shaheen has nothing to do with the
+priests, but the "old folks" had their way about it. A white curtain
+hangs across the court, and the bride stands on one side, with her
+bridesmaid, and all the women and girls, and on the other side is the
+priest with Shaheen, and all of the men and boys. Then candles were
+distributed, and lighted, and the old priest adjusted his robes and
+began to read the marriage service. An assistant stood by his side
+looking over his shoulder, and responding Amen in a loud and long drawn
+voice. At length the priest called out to him, "A little shorter there
+on those Amens. We don't want long Amens at a wedding!" This set the
+whole crowd laughing, and on he went reading passages of Scripture,
+prayers and advice to the bride and bridegroom in the most hasty and
+trifling manner, intoning it through his nose, so that no one could
+understand what he was saying. While he was reading from the gospel
+about the marriage at Cana of Galilee, a small boy, holding a lighted
+candle, came very near burning off the old man's beard, and he called
+out to him, "Put out your candle! You have tormented my life out of me
+with that candle." This raised another laugh, and on he read. Then he
+took two rings, and drawing aside the curtain, placed one on the bride's
+head, and the other on the bridegroom's head, pronouncing them man and
+wife, and then gave them each a sip of wine and the ceremony was
+concluded, all the men kissing Shaheen, and the women Handūmeh.
+Refreshments were then served to the guests from the village, and a
+dinner to those from other villages. In the evening there assembled a
+great company in Shaheen's house, and the hour was given up to story
+telling. Saleh, whose brother married Shaheen's sister, will begin with
+the _Story of the Goats and the Ghoul_.
+
+Once there was a Nanny Goat, strong and powerful, with long and strong
+horns, and once upon a time she brought forth twin kids, fair and
+beautiful. One was named _Sunaisil_, and the other Rabab. Now the Nanny
+Goat went out every morning to the pasture, leaving her twin kids in the
+cave. She shut the door carefully, and they locked it on the inside
+through fear of the Ghoul, for her neighbor in the next house was a
+Ghoul who swallowed little children alive. Then at evening when she came
+home, she would stand outside the door, and sing to her twin kids this
+little song:
+
+    Hearken now Sunaisil,
+    Come Rabab my dear:
+    Open to your mother,
+    Never, never fear.
+    She has sweet milk in her udder.
+    Tufts of grass upon her horn;
+    She'll give you both your supper,
+    And breakfast in the morn.
+
+The little twin kids would know her voice, open the door in gladness,
+and eat a hearty supper, and after hearing a nice story from the
+Anzīyeh, (for so their mother was called), drop off to sweet sleep.
+
+Now all things went on well for some time, until one day the Ghoul
+neighbor being very hungry for a supper of twin kids, came to the door
+of the cave and tried to push it open. But it was too strong for her, so
+she went away in perplexity. At length she thought she would sing to
+them the very song, which the Nanny Goat sang to them every evening on
+her return, so she sang it:
+
+    Hearken now Sunaisil,
+    Come Rabab, my dear, etc., etc.
+
+and when they heard this song, they opened the door with gladness to eat
+their supper, when suddenly the Ghoul sprang upon them with her huge
+mouth open, and swallowed them both down at once. She then shut the door
+and fastened it as it was before, and went on her way. At evening the
+Nanny Goat came home with milk and grass for her twin kids' supper, and
+knocked at the door and sang:
+
+    Hearken now Sunaisil,
+    Come Rabab my dear, etc., etc.,
+
+as usual, but no one opened the door. Then she knocked and sang again,
+and at length she gave up all hope of their opening the door, and butted
+against the door with her horns and broke it open. She then entered the
+cave but there were no twin kids there. All was still. Then she knew
+that the Ghoul had eaten them. So she hastened to the house of the
+Ghoul, and went upon the top of the house, and began to stamp and pound
+upon the roof. The Ghoul, hearing the stamping upon the roof, called
+out, whosoever stamps on my roof, may Allah stamp on his roof! The Nanny
+Goat replied, I am on your roof; I, whose children you have eaten. Come
+out now, and we will fight it out by butting our heads together. Very
+well, said the Ghoul, only wait a little until I can make me a pair of
+horns like you. So the goat waited, and away went the Ghoul to make her
+horns. She made two horns of dough and dried them in the sun until they
+were hard, and then came to "butt" with the goat. At the first shock,
+when the goat butted her with her horns, the horns of dough broke all to
+pieces; then the goat butted her again in her bowels and broke her in
+twain, and out jumped Sunaisil and Rabab, frisking and leaping and
+calling out "ya imme," oh, my mother, Oh, my mother! The Ghoul being
+dead they had no more fear, and lived long and happy lives with their
+mother the Anazīyeh.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Did you notice how the little boys listened to Saleh's story of the
+Goats and the Ghoul? This story is told by the mothers to their little
+children, all over Syria, in the tents of the Bedawīn and in the houses
+of the citizens. One of the women, named Noor, (_i.e._ Light), a sister
+of the bridegroom, says she will tell the children the story of the
+Hamam, the Butta, the Wez, and the Hamar, that is, of the Dove, the
+Duck, the Goose, and the Donkey, if all will sit still on the floor. So
+all the little boys and girls curl their feet under them and fold their
+arms, and Noor begins:
+
+Once the Dove, the Duck, the Goose, and the Donkey joined company and
+agreed to live together. Then they took counsel about their means of
+living, and said, how long shall we continue in such distress for our
+necessary food? Come let us plough a piece of ground, and plant each one
+such seeds as are suited to his taste. So they ploughed a piece of
+ground and sowed the seed. The Goose planted rice, the Duck planted
+wheat, the Dove planted pulse, and the Donkey planted barley, and they
+stationed the Donkey on guard to watch the growing crop. Now when the
+seeds began to grow and flourish, and the Donkey looked upon it green
+and bright and waving in the wind, he arose and ate it all, and then
+went and threw himself into a ditch near by. Then came the Dove, the
+Goose, and the Duck to survey the growing crop, and lo and behold, it
+was all eaten up, and the ground was red and barren. Then said they,
+where is the Donkey whom we set on guard over our crop? They searched
+near and far, and at length they found him standing in the ditch, and
+they asked him where are the crops we so carefully planted and set you
+to watch? Then said the Donkey, the Bedawīn came with their flocks of
+sheep and pastured them on our crops, and when I tried to resist, they
+threw me into this ditch. Then they replied, it is false, you have eaten
+it yourself. He said, I did not. They said, yes, you did, for you are
+sleek and fat, and the contest waxed hot between them, until at length
+they all agreed to make each one swear an oath "by the life of the
+Lake," which was near at hand, and whoever swore the oath, and sprang
+into the Lake without falling, should be declared innocent. So the Dove
+went down first and said:
+
+    Ham, Ham, Ham, I am the Dove Hamam,
+    Ham, Ham, Ham, My food is the plain Kotan, (pulse),
+    Ham, Ham, Ham, If I ate the growing crop,
+                 May I suddenly throw it up!
+                 May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
+                 And none any news of me ever take!
+
+Then the Dove leaped into the Lake, and flew to the limb of a tree on
+the shore, and was proved innocent.
+
+Then the Duck went down and said:
+
+    But But, But, I am the Butta Duck,
+    But, But, But, My food is wheat and muck;
+    But, But, But, If I ate the growing crop,
+                 May I suddenly throw it up!
+                 May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
+                 And none any news of me ever take!
+
+So the Duck leaped into the Lake, and then flew to the limb of a tree on
+the shore and was proved innocent.
+
+Then the Goose went down and said:
+
+    Wez, Wez, Wez, I am the Goose and the Wez,
+    Wez, Wez, Wez, I eat Egyptian riz, (rice),
+    Wez, Wez, Wez, If I ate the growing crop,
+                 May I suddenly throw it up!
+                 May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
+                 And none any news of me ever take!
+
+So the Goose leaped into the Lake and then flew to the limb of a tree on
+the shore and was proved innocent.
+
+Then the Donkey went down and said:
+
+    Hak, Hak, Hak, I am the Donkey Jack,
+    Hak, Hak, Hak, I barley eat by the sack:
+    Hak, Hak, Hak, If I ate the growing crop,
+                 May I suddenly throw it up!
+                 May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
+                 And none any news of me ever take!
+
+Then the Donkey leaped boldly into the Lake, and down he fell, and his
+feet stuck fast in the mud and mire. Then his three companions, seeing
+him proved guilty of the crime, flew away and left him to his fate. Then
+the Donkey began to "bray" for mercy, and called at the top of his
+voice:
+
+                  Whoever will help me out of this plight,
+                  May eat my tail at a single bite!
+    The Bear heard the braying,
+    And without long delaying,
+    He answered by saying:
+                Long eared Donkey will you pay,
+                Every word of what you say?
+                If I save you by my might,
+                Will you stand still while I bite?
+    The lying Ass lay still,
+    And answered, "Yes, I will."
+                The Bear then gave a fearful roar,
+                And dragged the Donkey to the shore,
+                And said, I saved you from your plight,
+                Now stand still, Donkey, while I bite!
+    He said: Wait Bruin till I rest,
+    And "smell the air" from East to West,
+    And then I'll run with all my might,
+    And turn my tail for you to bite!
+                Then Bruin took him at his word
+                Away he went swift as a bird,
+                And called out, now Bruin, I will rest,
+                I'll smell the air from East to West,
+                I'm running now with all my might,
+                I've "turned my tail" for you to bite!
+    The Bear resolved in grief and pain,
+    He'd never help an Ass again.
+
+Abū Habeeb, who is just about to enter the college, has a story which
+all the Arabs know, and love to hear. It is called:
+
+The Lion and Ibn Adam, that is, the Lion and Man, the son of Adam.
+
+Once there was a Lion who had a son, and he always charged him, saying,
+my son, beware of Ibn Adam. But at length the old Lion died, and the
+young lion resolved that he would search through the world and see that
+wonderful animal called Ibn Adam, of whom his father had so often warned
+him. So out he went from his cave, and walked to and fro in the
+wilderness. At length he saw a huge animal coming towards him, with long
+crooked legs and neck, and running at the top of his speed. It was a
+Camel. But when the Lion saw his enormous size and rapid pace, he said,
+surely, this must be Ibn Adam himself. So he ran towards him and roared
+a fearful roar. Stop where you are! The Camel stopped, trembling with
+fear of the Lion. Said the Lion, are you Ibn Adam? No, said the Camel, I
+am a Camel fleeing from Ibn Adam. Said the Lion, and what did Ibn Adam
+do to you that you should flee from him? The Camel said, he loaded me
+with heavy burdens, and beat me cruelly, and when I found a fit chance,
+I fled from him to this wilderness. Said the Lion, is Ibn Adam stronger
+than you are? Yes indeed, many times stronger. Then the Lion was filled
+with terror, lest he too should fall into the hands of Ibn Adam, and he
+left the Camel to go his way in peace. After a little while, an Ox
+passed by, and the Lion said, _this_ must be Ibn Adam. But he found that
+he too was fleeing from the yoke and the goad of Ibn Adam. Then he met a
+Horse running fleet as the wind, and he said, this swift animal must be
+the famous Ibn Adam, but the Horse too was running away from the halter,
+the bridle the spur or the harness of the terrible Ibn Adam. Then he met
+a mule, a donkey, a buffalo and an elephant, and all were running in
+terror of Ibn Adam. The Lion thought what terrible monster must he be to
+have struck terror into all these monstrous animals! And on he went
+trembling, until hunger drove him to a forest to seek for prey to eat.
+While he was searching through the forest, lo and behold, a Carpenter
+was at work cutting wood. The Lion wondered at his curious form, and
+said, who knows but this may be Ibn Adam? So he came near and asked him
+saying, Are you Ibn Adam? He replied, I am. Then the Lion roared a
+fearful roar, and said, prepare for battle with the Lion, the king of
+beasts! Then Ibn Adam said: What do you want of me? Said the Lion, I
+want to devour you. Very well, said the Carpenter, wait until I can get
+my claws ready. I will go and take this wood yonder, and then I will
+return and fight you. If you kill me, eat me, and if I conquer you I
+will let you go, for we the sons of Adam do not eat the flesh of wild
+beasts, nor do we kill them, but we let them go. The Lion was deceived
+by those artful words, for he had seen the Camel and his companions
+running away, and he thought within himself, now, if Ibn Adam did really
+eat the flesh of beasts, he would not have let the Camel and the Horse,
+the Buffalo and the Mule escape into the desert. So he said to the
+Carpenter very well, I will wait for you to take the wood, and return
+with your claws. Not so, said the Carpenter, I am afraid that you will
+not wait for me. You are a stranger, and I do not trust your word. I
+fear you will run away before I return. Said the Lion, it is impossible
+that the Lion should run away from any one. Said the Carpenter, I cannot
+admit what you say, unless you will grant me one thing. And what is
+that, said the Lion. The Carpenter said, I have here a little rope. Come
+let me tie you to this tree until I return, and then I shall know where
+to find you. The Lion agreed to this plan, and the Carpenter bound him
+with ropes to the tree until he and the tree were one compact bundle.
+Then the Carpenter went away to his shop, and brought his glue pot, and
+filling it with glue and pitch boiled it over the fire. Then he returned
+and besmeared the Lion with the boiling mixture from his head to the end
+of his tail, and applied a torch until he was all in a flame from head
+to tail, and in this plight the Carpenter left him. Then the Lion roared
+in agony until the whole forest echoed the savage roar, and all the
+animals and wild beasts came running together to see what had happened.
+And when they saw him in this sad plight, they rushed to him and loosed
+his bonds, and he sprang to the river and extinguished the flames, but
+came out singed and scarred, with neither hair nor mane. Now when all
+the beasts saw this pitiable sight, they made a covenant together to
+kill Ibn Adam. So they watched and waited day and night, until at length
+they found him in the forest. As soon as he saw them, he ran to a lofty
+tree, and climbed to its very top, taking only his adze with him, and
+there awaited his fate. The whole company of beasts now gathered around
+the foot of the tree, and tried in vain to climb it, and after they
+walked around and around, at length they agreed that one should stand at
+the foot of the tree, and another on his back, and so on, until the
+upper one should reach Ibn Adam, and throw him down to the ground. Now
+the Lion whose back was burned and blistered, from his great fear of man
+demanded that he should stand at the bottom of the tree. To this all
+agreed. Then the Camel mounted upon the Lion's back, the Horse upon the
+Camel, the Buffalo upon the Horse, the Bear upon the Buffalo, the Wolf
+upon the bear, and the Donkey upon the Wolf, and so on in order, until
+the topmost animal was almost within reach of the Carpenter, Ibn Adam.
+Now, when he saw the animals coming nearer and nearer, and almost ready
+to seize him, he shouted at the top of his voice. Bring the glue pot of
+boiling pitch to the Lion! Hasten! Hasten! Now when the Lion heard of
+the boiling pitch, he was terrified beyond measure and leaped one side
+with all his might and fled. Down came the pile of beasts, tumbling in
+confusion, the one upon the other, and all lay groaning bruised and
+bleeding, some with broken legs, some with broken ribs, and some with
+broken heads. But as soon as the clamor of their first agony was over,
+they all called out to the Lion, why did you leap out and bring all
+this misery upon us! The Lion replied:
+
+    The story's point he never knew,
+    Who never felt the burning glue!
+
+Monsoor, who has just been to Damascus, says that if he can have another
+pipe, and a cup of Arab coffee, he will tell the story of the famous Jew
+Rufaiel of Damascus. So he begins:
+
+The story of Rufaiel, the rich Jew of Damascus, and the Moslem Dervish.
+
+Once there lived in Damascus a rich Jew named Rufaiel. He had great
+wealth in marble palaces and rich silk robes, and well stored bazaars,
+and his wife and daughters were clad in velvets and satins, in gold and
+precious stones. He had also great wit and cunning, and often helped his
+fellow Jews out of their troubles. Now the Pasha of Damascus was a
+Mohammedan, who had a superstitious fear of the holy Moslem Dervishes,
+and they could persuade him to tax and oppress the Jews in the most
+cruel manner. In those days there came to Damascus a holy Dervish who
+had long, uncombed black hair, and although he was a vile and wicked
+man, he made the people believe that he was a holy saint, and could
+perform wonderful miracles. The Pasha held him in great reverence, and
+invited him often to dinner, and when he came in, he would stoop and
+kiss the Dervish's feet! And what was most wonderful of all, the Dervish
+left Damascus every Thursday night after bidding the Pasha farewell, and
+journeyed to Mecca and returned in the morning and told the Pasha all
+the Mecca news and what he had seen and heard. This he did every week,
+though all wise men laughed at him, and said he only went out of the
+City Gate and slept in the gardens of Damascus!
+
+Now the Dervish was a great enemy of the Jews. He hated them, cursed
+them, spat upon them, and called them infidel dogs, and he persuaded the
+Pasha to increase their taxes fourfold. Their sufferings now became very
+great. They had to sell their houses and furniture to pay the heavy
+taxes, and many were beaten and thrust into prison. So the leading Jews
+in their distress came to Rufaiel, and begged him to go to the Pasha and
+obtain relief for them and their families. He said he would think about
+the matter. So after they had gone, he called the chief jeweller and
+pipe maker of the city, and ordered them to make a long pipe of
+exquisite workmanship, with a stem of rosewood carved and inlaid with
+pearls, a bowl of pure gold set with diamonds, and a mouth-piece of gold
+and amber. Then he went one day to call on the Pasha, and made him a
+present of this elegant pipe, the like of which had never been seen in
+Damascus. The Pasha was greatly pleased and ordered all in his presence
+to retire that he might enjoy the society of Rufaiel, the munificent
+Jew. Then Rufaiel turned to the Pasha and said, "may your Excellency
+live forever! I have brought you this pipe as a faint token of my high
+esteem and affection, but I am filled with deepest sorrow that it is not
+perfect." "Not perfect?" said the Pasha. "In what respect could it be
+more perfect than what it is?" Said Rufaiel, "you will notice that
+between the amber and the gold of the mouth-piece a little ring is
+wanting. This ring was the very gem and excellence of the pipe. It was
+cut from the Black Stone of the Kaaba in Mecca, and has miraculous
+properties. But when the pipe was brought from Mecca, the ring was left
+with Mustafa, the jeweller, who is ready to send it by the first fit
+opportunity." "Alas," said the Pasha, "but how can we send for it now?
+The Pilgrim caravan has gone, and there will be none again for a year."
+"Oh," said Rufaiel, "this is easily arranged. To-day is Thursday, and
+to-night the holy Dervish will go to Mecca and return to-morrow morning.
+Your Excellency need only command him to bring the black ring, and
+before this time to-morrow the pipe will be complete in its beauty and
+excellency." "El Hamdū Lillah! Praise to Allah! It shall be done!" So
+when Rufaiel had gone, the Pasha summoned the Dervish, and told him of
+this wonderful pipe which had come to him from Mecca, and that it only
+needed the black ring to make it absolutely perfect, and that he was
+hereby commanded on pain of death to bring the ring from Mecca before
+Friday at the hour of noon prayer. The Dervish bowed most obeisantly and
+retired black in the face with rage and despair. But it occurred to him
+at once that none in Damascus but Rufaiel could have purchased such a
+pipe. So he left the City Gate, called the Bab Allah, or Gate of God, at
+sunset, bidding his friends farewell, and walked away in the gardens
+until night came on. Then, at the sixth hour of the night he returned
+by another gate, and crept along to the door of the mansion of Rufaiel.
+The door was opened, and Rufaiel received him with great politeness. The
+Dervish fell on the floor and kissed his feet and begged for his life.
+Said he, "give me that black ring which belongs to the Pasha's pipe, and
+we will be friends forever! Ask what you will and it shall be done to
+you. Only give me this ring." Said Rufaiel, "you have ruined my people
+with oppression, and now do you ask a favor?" "Yes," said the Dervish,
+"and you shall have any favor you ask." So Rufaiel thought to himself a
+moment, and then said, "I ask one thing. Do you obtain from the Pasha an
+order on all the tax collectors of Damascus, that when any Jew shall
+say, _I am one of the Seventy_, the collector shall pass him by, and no
+tax ever be demanded of him." "Done," said the Dervish, and embracing
+Rufaiel, he bade him good-night. Then in the morning he hastened in at
+Bab Allah, and presented the ring to the Pasha, who was so delighted
+that he granted his request, and orders were given that no tax should
+ever be collected from any Jew who should say "I am one of the Seventy."
+Then Rufaiel assembled all the Jews of Damascus, and bade them say to
+the tax-gatherers whenever they came, "_I am one of the Seventy_." So
+the Jews had rest from taxation, all the days of Rufaiel.
+
+Saleh Bū Nusr, one of the best men in Mount Lebanon, and the father of
+Khalil, who brought us the list of Arab boys' games, has already told us
+the story of the Goats and the Ghoul, and he says that the savory odor
+of the egg plant being cooked for the wedding guests, reminds him of the
+story of the Badinjan or Egg Plant.
+
+Once there was a great Emir or Prince who had a very abject and
+obsequious servant named Deeb (Wolf). One day Deeb brought to the Emir
+for his dinner a dish of stewed badinjan, which pleased the Emir so much
+that he complimented Deeb, and told him that it was the best dinner he
+had eaten for months. Deeb bowed to the earth and kissed the feet of the
+Emir, and said, "may God prolong the life of your excellency! Your
+excellency knows what is good. There is nothing like the badinjan. It is
+the best of vegetables. Its fruit is good, its leaf is good, its stalk
+is good, and its root is good. It is good roasted, stewed, boiled,
+fried, and even raw. It is good for old and young. Your excellency,
+there is nothing like the badinjan." Now the Emir was unusually hungry,
+and ate so bountifully of the badinjan that he was made very ill. So he
+sent for Deeb, and rebuked him sharply, saying, "you rascal, you Deeb,
+your name is Wolf, and you are rightly named. This badinjan which you
+praised so highly has almost killed me." "Exactly so," said Deeb, "may
+your excellency live forever! The badinjan is the vilest of plants. It
+is never eaten without injury. Its fruit is injurious, its leaf is
+injurious, its stalk is noxious, and its root is the vilest of all. It
+is not fit 'ajell shanak Allah,' for the pigs to eat, whether raw,
+roasted, stewed, boiled or fried. It is injurious to the young and
+dangerous to the old. Your excellency, there is nothing so bad as the
+badinjan! Never touch the badinjan!"--"Out with you, you worthless
+fellow, you Deeb! What do you mean by praising the badinjan when I
+praise it, and abusing it when it injures me?" "Ah, your excellency,"
+said Deeb, "am I the servant of the badinjan, or the servant of your
+excellency? I must say what pleases you, but it makes no difference
+whether I please the badinjan or not."
+
+The wedding party is now over, and the guests are departing. Each one on
+leaving says, "by your pleasure, good evening!" The host answers, "go in
+peace, you have honored us." The guests reply, "we have been honored,
+Allah give the newly married ones an arees," (a bridegroom). They would
+not dare wish that Shaheen and Handūmeh might some day have a little
+baby _girl_. That would be thought an insult.
+
+We will walk up the hill to our mountain home, passing the fountain and
+the great walnut trees. Here comes a horseman. It is Ali, who has been
+spending a month among the Bedawin Arabs. He will come up and stay with
+us, and tell us of his adventures. He says that the Sit Harba, the wife
+of the great Arab Sheikh ed Dukhy, taught him a number of the Bedawin
+Nursery Songs, and although he is weary with his journey, he will repeat
+some of them in Arabic.
+
+They are all about camels and spears and fighting and similar subjects,
+and no wonder, as they see nothing else, and think of nothing else.
+
+    To-morrow is the feast day,
+    We've no "henna" on our hands;
+    Our camels went to bring it,
+    From far off distant lands;
+    We'll rise by night and listen,
+    The camel bells will ring;
+    And say a thousand welcomes
+    To those who "henna" bring.
+
+And here is a song which shows that the Bedawin have the same habit of
+cursing their enemies, which we noticed in the Druze lullabys:
+
+    On the rose and sweetest myrtle,
+    May you sleep, my eyes, my boy;
+    But may sharpest thorns and briars,
+    All your enemies destroy!
+
+Ali says that one of the most mournful songs he heard in the desert was
+the following:
+
+    I am like a wounded camel,
+    I grind my teeth in pain;
+    My load is great and heavy,
+    I am tottering again.
+    My back is torn and bleeding,
+    My wound is past relief,
+    And what is harder still to bear,
+    None other knows my grief!
+
+The next is a song which the people sung in the villages on the borders
+of the desert. By "the sea" they mean the Sea of Galilee:
+
+    My companions three,
+    Were fishing by the sea;
+    The Arabs captured one,
+    The Koords took his brother,
+    In one land was I,
+    My friends were in another.
+
+    I was left to moan,
+    In sorrow deep and sad,
+    Like a camel all alone,
+    Departing to Baghdad;
+    My soul I beg you tell me whether,
+    Once parted friends e'er met together?
+
+The Bedawin have as low an idea of girls as the Bedawin in the cities,
+and are very glad when a boy is born. Sometimes when the Abeih girls are
+playing together, you will hear a little girl call out, "it is very
+small indeed. Why it is a little wee thing, as small as was the
+rejoicing the day I was born!" But hear what the Bedawin women sing when
+a boy is born:
+
+    Mashallah, a boy, a _boy_!
+    May Allah's eye defend him!
+    May she who sees and says not _the Name_,
+    Be smitten with blindness and die in shame!
+
+How would you like to live among the Bedawin, and have a dusky Arab
+woman, clad in coarse garments, covered with vermin and odorous of
+garlic and oil, to sing you to sleep on a mat on the ground?
+
+    Hasten my cameleer, where are you going?
+    It is eventide, and the camels are lowing:
+    My house in a bundle I bear on my back,
+    Whenever night comes, I my bundle unpack.
+
+The next is a song of the pastoral Arabs:
+
+    Hasten my guide and lead us away,
+    For we have fought and lost the day;
+    To the well we went all thirsty and worn,
+    The well was dry! and we slept forlorn.
+
+    The Bedawin came in battle array,
+    Attacked us all famished at break of day
+    And took all our camels and tents away!
+
+Death enters the Bedawin tents as well as the palaces of kings and the
+comfortable homes of the people in Christian lands. But what desolation
+it leaves behind in those dark sorrowing hearts, who know nothing of the
+love of Jesus and the consolations of the gospel. This is a funeral song
+the poor Bedawin women sing over the death of a child:
+
+    Oh hasten my camel, begone, begone,
+    Oh haste where your loved ones stay:
+    There weep and lament. There my "spirit" is gone,
+    Is gone to a night without day:
+    Oh Star of the Morning, thou Star of the day,
+    And Star of the Evening, both hasten away,
+    And bring me a balm for my wounded heart,
+    For I from my child, my "spirit" must part.
+
+Soon may the "day dawn, and the day star arise" in their dark hearts,
+and Jesus the "Bright and Morning Star" be their portion forever!
+
+The next song is about the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Thousands of Greeks,
+Armenians and Catholics go to Jerusalem every year to visit the "Holy
+Places," and get a certificate of the pardon of all their sins. The
+Greek Patriarch performs a lying imposture called the Holy Fire every
+year at Greek Easter, by lighting a candle with a match inside a dark
+room, and declaring that it is miraculously lighted by fire which comes
+forth from the tomb of Christ! So the poor Greek woman sings to her
+child:
+
+    Oh take me on a pilgrimage,
+    Jerusalem to see:
+    The Tomb of Christ and Holy fire,
+    And Hill of Calvary:
+    And then I'll to the Convent go,
+    Ask pardon for my sin:
+    And say, my Lady, now forgive,
+    And comfort me again.
+
+The next is really beautiful, and is good enough for any mother to sing
+to her child. It is a morning song:
+
+    Praise to Him who brings the light,
+    And keeps the birds in darkest night.
+    God is merciful to all,
+    Rise ye men and on Him call!
+    Allah praise in every lot,
+    He keeps you and you know it not.
+
+And this one too, about the little worms, is curious enough:
+
+    Praise to Him who feeds the worms,
+    In the silent vale!
+    Provides their portion every day,
+    Protects them in the dangerous way.
+    No doubt they praise Him too, and pray,
+    In the silent vale!
+
+When our good friend Yusef, whom we saw in Safita, asked the Nusairīyeh
+women to repeat to him their nursery rhymes, they denied that they had
+any. They were afraid to recite them, lest he write them down and use
+them as a magic spell or charm against them. When a child is born among
+them, no one is allowed to take a coal or spark of fire from the house
+for a week, lest the child be injured. They always hang a little coin
+around the child's neck to keep off eruptions and diseases from its
+body.
+
+You must be weary by this time, after Handumeh's wedding and the story
+telling and the Bedawin songs. Let us retire to rest for the night,
+thankful for the precious Bible, and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. You
+are safe indeed in the hands of God, and need not fear the Ghoul nor the
+Bah'oo. Good night.
+
+Such is life. Yesterday a wedding, and to-day a funeral. Do you hear
+that terrific wail, those shrieks and bitter cries of anguish? Young
+Sheikh Milham has died. The Druze and Christian women are gathered in
+the house, and wailing together in the most piteous manner. It is
+dreadful to think what sufferings the poor women must endure. They do
+everything possible to excite one another. They not only call out,
+"Milham, my pride, my bridegroom, star of my life, you have set, my
+flower, you have faded," but they remind each other of all the deaths
+that have occurred in their various families for years, and thus open
+old wounds of sorrow which time had healed. Yet they have regular
+funeral songs, and we will listen while they sing in a mournful strain:
+
+    Milham Beg my warrior,
+    Your spear is burnished gold;
+    Your costly robes and trappings,
+    Will in the street be sold.
+    "Where is the Beg who bore me?"
+    I hear the armor crying--
+    Where is the lord who wore me?
+    I hear the garments sighing.
+
+Now Im Hassein from Ainab bursts out in a loud song, addressing the
+dead body, around which they are all seated on the ground:
+
+    Rise up my lord, gird on your sword,
+    Of heavy Baalbec steel;
+    Why leave it hanging on the nail?
+    Let foes its temper feel!
+    Would that the Pasha's son had died,
+    Not our Barmakeh's son and pride!
+
+Then Lemis answers in another song in which they all join:
+
+    Ten thousands are thronging together,
+    The Beg has a feast to-day;
+    We thought he had gone on a visit,
+    But alas, he has gone to stay.
+
+Then they all scream, and tear their hair and beat their breasts. Alas,
+they have no light beyond the grave. Who could expect them to do
+otherwise? The Apostle Paul urges the Christians "not to sorrow even as
+others which have no hope!" This is sorrow without hope. The grave is
+all dark to them. How we should thank our Saviour for having cast light
+on the darkness of the tomb, and given us great consolation in our
+sorrows! Here comes a procession of women from Kefr Metta. Hear them
+chanting:
+
+    I saw the mourners thronging round,
+    I saw the beds thrown on the ground;
+    The marble columns leaning,
+    The wooden beams careening,
+    My lord and Sheikh with flowing tears,
+    I asked what was its meaning?
+    He sadly beckoned me aside,
+    And said, To-day _my son_ has died!
+
+Then an old woman, a widow, who has been reminded of the death of her
+husband, calls out to him:
+
+    Oh, Sheikh, have you gone to the land?
+    Then give my salams to my boy,
+    He has gone on a long, long journey,
+    And took neither clothing nor toy.
+    Ah, what will he wear on the feast days,
+    When the people their festal enjoy?
+
+Now one of the women addresses the corpse:
+
+    Lord of the wide domain,
+    All praise of you is true.
+    The women of your hareem,
+    Are dressed in mourning blue.
+
+Then one sings the mother's wail:
+
+    My tears are consuming my heart,
+    How can I from him bear to part.
+    Oh raven of death, tell me why,
+    You betrayed me and left him to die?
+    Oh raven of death begone!
+    You falsely betrayed my son!
+    Oh Milham, I beg you to tell,
+    Why you've gone to the valley to dwell?
+    From far, far away I have come,
+    Who will come now to take me back home?
+
+Then rises such a wail as you never heard before. A hundred women all
+screaming together and then men are coming to take it away. The women
+hug and kiss the corpse, and try to pull it back, while the men drive
+them off, and carry it out to the bier. Some of the women faint away,
+and a piercing shriek arises. Then you hear the mother's wail again.
+
+Then one sings the call of the dead man for help:
+
+    Oh ransom me, buy me, my friends to-day,
+    'Tis a costly ransom you'll have to pay,
+    Oh ransom me, father, whate'er they demand,
+    Though they take all your money and houses and land.
+
+And another sings his address to the grave-diggers:
+
+    Oh cease, grave-diggers, my feelings you shock,
+    I forbade you to dig, you have dug to the rock;
+    I bade you dig little, you have dug so deep!
+    When his father's not here, will you lay him to sleep?
+
+Then a poor woman who has lately buried a young daughter begins to sing:
+
+    Oh bride! on the roofs of heaven,
+    Come now and look over the wall:
+    Oh let your sad mother but see you,
+    Oh let her not vainly call!
+    Hasten, her heart is breaking,
+    Let her your smile behold;
+    The mother is sadly weeping,
+    The maiden is still and cold.
+
+The Druzes believe that millions of Druzes live in China and that China
+is a kind of heaven. So another woman sings:
+
+    Yullah, now my lady, happy is your state!
+    Happy China's people, when you reached the gate!
+    Lady, you are passing,
+    To the palace bright,
+    All the stars surpassing,
+    On the brow of night!
+
+And now the body is taken to be buried, and the women return to the
+house, where the wailing is kept up for days and weeks. They have many
+other funeral songs, of which I will give two in conclusion:
+
+    Ye Druzes, gird on your swords,
+    A great one is dead to-day;
+    The Arabs came down upon us,
+    They thought us in battle array,
+    But they wept when they found us mourning,
+    For our leader has gone away!
+
+The next is the lament of the mother over her dead son:
+
+    The sun is set, the tents are rolled,
+    Happy the mother whose lambs are in fold;
+    But one who death's dark sorrow knew,
+    Let her go to the Nile of indigo blue,
+    And dye her robes a mourning hue!
+
+And now, my dear boy, our Syrian journey is ended. You have seen and
+heard many strange things. Whatever is good among the Arabs, try to
+imitate; whatever is evil, avoid. Perhaps you will write to me some day,
+and tell me what you think of Syria and the Syrians. Many little boys
+and girls will read this long letter, but it is your letter, and I have
+written it for your instruction and amusement.
+
+May the good Shepherd, who gave His life for the sheep, lead you beside
+the still waters of life, and at last when He shall appear, may He give
+you a crown of glory which fadeth not away!
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Arabs of the Jahiliyeh, 1
+
+Arabs of Kinaneh, 2
+
+Arabic Proverbs, 3
+
+Araman, Michaiel, 19, 99
+
+Asīn Haddad, 101
+
+Abu Selim, 138, 260
+
+Abu Mishrik, 148
+
+Aleppo, 151
+
+Asur el Jedid, 168
+
+American Seminary Abeih, 169
+
+Anazy, 182
+
+Arthington, Mr., 181, 184
+
+Ali, 184, 359
+
+Amount of Instruction, 57, 78, 81, 316
+
+Abdullah Yanni, 220
+
+Aintab, 88
+
+Abu Asaad, 274, 276, 283
+
+Abu Isbir, 281
+
+Arab Camp, 295
+
+Abdullamites, 298
+
+Arkites, 262
+
+Abu Hanna, 263
+
+Asaad Mishrik, 233
+
+
+Burying Alive, 1
+
+Birth of Daughter, 28, 236
+
+B'hamdūn, 93, 121
+
+Bliss, Mrs. Dr., 104
+
+Booth, Wm. A., 105, 106
+
+Bird, Rev., 47, 48, 50, 58, 115
+
+Bistany, Mr., 126, 134, 158, 200
+
+Bedr, Rev. Yusef, 148
+
+Belinda, 149
+
+Bedawin Arabs, 180
+
+British Syrian Schools, 84
+
+Beattie, Rev., 41
+
+Bird, Mrs., 50
+
+Beit Beshoor, 274
+
+Bells, 304
+
+Bedawin Songs, 360
+
+
+Carabet Melita, 62, 65, 67, 153
+
+Cheney, Miss, 74, 81, 97
+
+Carruth, Miss, 104
+
+Calhoun, Mrs., 79, 114, 197
+
+Crawford, Mrs., 204
+
+Church of Scotland Schools for Jewish Girls, 214
+
+Carabet, Bishop Dionysius, 49
+
+Convent of the Sacred Fish, 296
+
+Camels, 245
+
+
+Divorce, 14, 17, 29, 37
+
+Druze, 20
+
+Dodds, Dr., 39
+
+De Forrest, Dr., 23, 33, 73, 75, 134, 298
+
+Dales, Miss, 204
+
+Department of Women's Work, 219
+
+Dodge, Dr., 50
+
+Dodge, Mrs., 50, 52, 53
+
+Dog River, 312
+
+
+El Khunsa, the poetess, 4
+
+Education of Girls, 18, 19
+
+Everett, Miss, 103
+
+Early Age of Marriage, 117
+
+Eddy, Mr., 151
+
+El Hakem, 331, 22
+
+Evil Eye, 336
+
+
+Female Prayer-Meeting, 56, 74
+
+Ford, Mr., 126, 151, 156
+
+French Lazarist School, 169
+
+Francis Effendi Merrash, 91
+
+Fast of Ramadan, 306
+
+Feller's Soap, 328
+
+Funerals, 316, 364
+
+Female Seminary, Beirūt, 222, 315
+
+Fruits, 255
+
+Fisk, Rev. Pliny, 47
+
+
+Greek School Suk el Ghurb, 169
+
+Ghubrin Jebara, 173
+
+Goodell, Mrs., 50
+
+Games, 319
+
+Greek Priests, 259
+
+Goodell, Dr., 47, 48
+
+
+Houris, 10
+
+Hamzé, 20
+
+Hala of Abeih, 29
+
+Hammūd, 39
+
+Hums, 140
+
+Hassan, 198
+
+Hicks, Miss, 206
+
+Howe, Fisher, 76, 80
+
+Haj Ibraham, 297
+
+
+Ishoc, 149, 263
+
+Irish-American United Presbyterian Mission in Damascus, 204
+
+Ishmaelitic Songs, 326
+
+Imprecations, 326
+
+
+Johnson, Miss, 97
+
+Jacombs, Miss, 98, 225
+
+Jackson, Miss Ellen, 104
+
+Jenan, 136, 162, 165, 191
+
+Jenneh, 136
+
+Jeneineh, 136
+
+Jesuit School Ghuzir, 169
+
+Job, 229
+
+
+Khozma Ata, 33, 75
+
+Katrina Subra, 93, 95
+
+Koukab es Subah, 33, 126
+
+Koran, 1, 2, 11, 126, 297
+
+Khalil Effendi, 167
+
+Khalil Ferah, 286
+
+King, Dr. Jonas, 47, 48
+
+
+Latakiah Boarding School, 42
+
+Loring, Miss Sophia, 104
+
+Luciya, Shekkur, 114
+
+Lyde, Mr., 38, 39
+
+Lying, 284
+
+Lullaby, 294
+
+Letters, 311
+
+Lokunda, 242
+
+
+Moslem Paradise for Women, 10
+
+Moslem Idea of Women, 12, 17
+
+Moulah Hakem, 22, 331
+
+Massacres of 1860, 24, 95, 196, 286
+
+Marriage Ceremony of Druzes, 25
+
+Marie, 43
+
+Maronites, 45
+
+Mason, Miss, 97
+
+Meshakah, Dr., 118
+
+Miriam the Aleppine, 15
+
+Modern Syrian Views, 158
+
+Moslem Schools, 168, 253
+
+Miss Taylor's School Moslem Girls, 213
+
+Methak en Nissa, 21
+
+Metheny, Dr., 40
+
+Manger, 265
+
+Missionary Stations, 249
+
+Miriam, 279, 282
+
+Monasteries, 309
+
+Marriage, 338, 117, 143
+
+Mohammed ed Dukhy, 182, 189, 246
+
+
+Naman, King of Hira, 3
+
+Nusairīyeh, 35
+
+Nusairīyeh Women, 38
+
+Nejm, 110
+
+Naame Tabet, 201
+
+Nowar, 286
+
+Nursery Songs, 325
+
+Names, 242, 244
+
+
+Othman, 2
+
+Okkal, 24
+
+Oulad el Arab, 46
+
+
+Poetesses of Arabs, 6
+
+Position of Woman in Mohammedan World, 7
+
+Prussian Deaconess' Institute Beirūt, 206
+
+Post, Dr., 29
+
+Praying, 305
+
+Parsons, Rev. Levi, 47
+
+
+Qualifications for Missionaries, 53
+
+
+Rakāsh, the Poetess, 6
+
+Rufka, Gregory, 60, 97, 99, 102, 138, 175, 277
+
+Resha, 110
+
+Raheel, 120
+
+Ruella Arabs, 184
+
+
+Sa Saah, 3
+
+Schwire, 10
+
+Sheikh Owad, 16
+
+Sheikh Said el Ghur, 19
+
+Sheikh Khottar, 31
+
+Sheikh Mohammed ed Dukhy, 182, 189, 246
+
+Sheikh Aiub el Hashem, 288
+
+Sitt Abla, 30
+
+Syrian Christianity, 46
+
+Stale of Mission in 1828, 49,
+  --1834, 51, 53,
+  --1841, 55,
+  --1846, 57
+  --1852, 75,
+  --1864, 101
+
+Seclusion of Oriental Females, 52
+
+Sada Gregory, 18, 61, 70
+
+Superstitions, 77, 317, 318, 336
+
+Sada Barakat, 84
+
+Stanton, Miss, 98
+
+Sada el Haleby, 84, 100, 115
+
+Sara Bistany, 101, 136
+
+Smith, Dr., 50, 127
+
+Sarkis, Mr. Ibraham, 127
+
+Sulleba Jerwan, 142
+
+Sara Huntington Bistany, 157
+
+Sitt Mariana Merrash, 162
+
+Sitt Wustina Mesirra, 165
+
+Schools of Syria, 169, 171
+
+Sitt Harba, 183, 185, 359
+
+Safita, 277, 285, 302, 334
+
+Seven Arbitrary Pillars of the Law, 22
+
+Suggestions to Friends of Missions, 224
+
+Sidon Female Seminary, 225
+
+Saad-ed-Deen, 67
+
+Sphere and Mode of Woman's Work, 218
+
+Syed Abdullah, 288
+
+Swine, 306
+
+Story of the Goats and the Ghoul, 343
+
+Story of the Hamam, Butta, etc., 346
+
+Story of the Lion and Ibn Adam, 350
+
+Story of the Jew Rufaiel, 354
+
+Story of the Badinjan, 358
+
+Shepherds, 313
+
+Swearing, 240
+
+Soum el Kebir, 260
+
+Smith, Mrs., 27, 50, 120
+
+Syrian School-Houses, 235
+
+
+Tribe of Temīm, 3
+
+Triangle of Solomon, 36
+
+Temple, Miss, 97
+
+Thomson, Dr., 48, 100, 123
+
+Thomson, Miss Emilia, 104
+
+Tod, Mrs. Alexander, 122
+
+Thompson, Mrs. Bowen, 208
+
+Thomson, Mrs., 50
+
+Telegraph, 310
+
+Tilden, 33, 54, 60
+
+
+Van Dyck, 31, 107, 117, 127, 172
+
+Value Set on Woman's Life, 196
+
+
+Wahidy, 19
+
+Women's Work, 1820 to 1872, 45
+
+Wortabet, Salome, 49, 64
+
+Whittlesey, Mrs. A.L., 74, 78
+
+Watson, Mrs., 98, 204
+
+Women's Boards of Missions, 104
+
+Whiting, Mrs., 31, 57, 63, 125
+
+Wilson, Rev. D.M., 83, 142
+
+Werdeh, 156
+
+Wortabet, Rev. John, 202
+
+Whiting, Rev., 50, 58, 61
+
+Waly, 291
+
+Wortabet, Gregory, 49, 51
+
+Williams, Miss Rebecca, 52, 55
+
+
+Yusef Jedid, 40
+
+Yusef Ahtiyeh, 278, 281
+
+Yanni, 237, 254, 256, 289, 300, 309
+
+Yusef Keram, 301
+
+
+Zarifeh, the Poetess, 6
+
+Zeyarehs, 37, 268
+
+Zahara, 39
+
+Zarify, 110
+
+Zahidy, 287
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Replaced "Beirut" with "Beirūt" for consistency throughout the book.
+Replaced "Nusairiyeh" with "Nusairīyeh" for consistency throughout the
+  book.
+Page 147: Added opening parenthesis before "etc., etc."
+Page 206: Changed Aitah to Aitath.
+Page 273: Changed Inshallah to Inshullah.
+Page 311: Changed Mushullah to Mashallah.
+Page 370: Changed Abdulla Yanni to Abdullah Yanni.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Women of the Arabs, by Henry Harris Jessup
+
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Women of the Arabs, by Henry Harris Jessup.
+    </title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Women of the Arabs, by Henry Harris Jessup
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Women of the Arabs
+
+Author: Henry Harris Jessup
+
+Editor: C.S. Robinson and Isaac Riley
+
+Release Date: December 11, 2005 [EBook #17278]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Stacy Brown Thellend,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of
+public domain works from the University of Michigan Digital
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1 style="margin-bottom: 3em;">THE WOMEN</h1>
+
+<h4>OF</h4>
+
+<h1 class="padtop">THE ARABS.</h1>
+
+<h3 class="padtop"><i>WITH A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN.</i></h3>
+
+<h4 class="padtop">BY</h4>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Rev.</span> HENRY HARRIS JESSUP, D.D.,</h2>
+
+<h4><i>Seventeen years American Missionary in Syria.</i></h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" class="padtop smush-bot" />
+<h5>
+EDITED BY<br />
+<span class="smcap">Rev.</span> C.&nbsp;S. ROBINSON, D.D., &amp; <span class="smcap">Rev.</span> ISAAC RILEY.</h5>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" class="padtop smush-top" />
+
+<h5 class="padtop smush-bot" style="margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 30%;">
+"The threshold weeps forty days when a girl is born."</h5>
+<h5 class="smush-top right" style="margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 30%;">&mdash;<i>Mt. Lebanon Proverb.</i></h5>
+
+
+<h3 style="font-weight: normal;">
+NEW YORK:<br />
+DODD &amp; MEAD, PUBLISHERS.<br />
+</h3>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" class="padtop smush-bot" />
+<p class="center">
+Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873, by<br />
+DODD &amp; MEAD,<br />
+in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.<br />
+</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" class="smush-top" />
+
+
+
+
+
+<h4 class="padtop"><i>THIS BOOK</i></h4>
+
+<h3>IS DEDICATED TO THE</h3>
+
+<h3>CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF AMERICA.</h3>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Beir&ucirc;t, Syria</span>, <i>July</i>, 1873.</p>
+
+<p><i>Owing to the impossibility of my attending personally to the editing of
+this volume, I requested my old friends</i>, <span class="smcap">Rev. C.&nbsp;S. Robinson</span>,
+D.D., <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Rev. Isaac Riley</span>, <i>of New York, to superintend the
+work, and would gratefully acknowledge their kind and disinterested aid,
+cheerfully proffered at no little sacrifice of time.</i></p>
+
+<p class="right">H.&nbsp;H. JESSUP.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v"></a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>The</b></span> Orient is the birthplace of prophecy. Before the advent of our Lord,
+the very air of the East was resounding with the "unconscious prophecies
+of heathenism." Men were in expectation of great changes in the earth.
+When Mohammed arose, he not only claimed to be the deliverer of a
+message inspired of Allah, but to foretell the events of futurity. He
+declared that the approach of the latter day could be distinguished by
+unmistakable signs, among which were two of the most notable character.</p>
+
+<p>Before the latter day, the <i>sun shall rise in the West</i>, and God will
+send forth a cold odoriferous wind blowing from <i>Syria Damascena</i>, which
+shall <i>sweep away</i> the souls of all the faithful, and <i>the Koran
+itself</i>. What the world of Islam takes in its literal sense, we may take
+in a deeper spiritual meaning. Is it not true, that far in the West, the
+gospel sun began to rise and shed its beams on Syria, many years ago,
+and that in our day that cold odoriferous wind of truth and life,
+fragrant with the love of Jesus and the love of man, is beginning to
+blow from Syria Damascena, over all the Eastern world! The church and
+the school, the printing press and the translated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a></span> Bible, the periodical
+and the ponderous volume, the testimony of living witnesses for the
+truth, and of martyrs who have died in its defence, all combine to sweep
+away the systems of error, whether styled Christian, Moslem or Pagan.</p>
+
+<p>The remarkable uprising of christian women in Christian lands to a new
+interest in the welfare of woman in heathen and Mohammedan countries, is
+one of the great events of the present century. This book is meant to be
+a memorial of the early laborers in Syria, nearly all of whom have
+passed away. It is intended also as a record of the work done for women
+and girls of the Arab race; to show some of the great results which have
+been reached and to stimulate to new zeal and effort in their behalf.</p>
+
+<p>In tracing the history of this work, it seemed necessary to describe the
+condition of woman in Syria when the missionaries first arrived, and to
+examine the different religious systems, which affect her position.</p>
+
+<p>In preparing the chapter on the Pre-Islamic Arabs, I have found valuable
+materials in Chenery's Hariri, Sales and Rodwell's Koran, and Freytag's
+Arabic Proverbs.</p>
+
+<p>For the facts about the Druze religion, I have consulted Col.
+Churchill's Works, Mount Lebanon, and several Arabic manuscripts in the
+mission library in Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+<p>Rev. S. Lyde's interesting book called the "Asian Mystery," has given me
+the principal items with regard to the Nusair&icirc;yeh religion. This
+confirms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii"></a></span> the statements of Suleiman Effendi, whose tract, revealing the
+secrets of the Nusair&icirc;yeh faith, was printed years ago at the Mission
+Press in Beir&ucirc;t, and translated by that ripe Arabic Scholar Prof. E.
+Salisbury of New Haven. The bloody Nusair&icirc;yeh never forgave Suleiman for
+revealing their mysteries; and having invited him to a feast in a
+village near Adana, 1871, brutally buried him alive in a dunghill!</p>
+
+<p>For the historical statements of this volume, I am indebted to the files
+of the Missionary Herald, the Annual Reports of the Syria Mission, the
+archives of the mission in Beir&ucirc;t, the memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith,
+and private letters from Mrs. Whiting, Mrs. De Forest, and various
+missionary and native friends.</p>
+
+<p>Information on the general work of the Syrian Mission may be found in
+Dr. Anderson's "Missions to the Oriental churches," Rev. Isaac Bird's
+"Bible Work in Bible Lands," and the pamphlet sketches of Rev. T. Laurie
+and Rev. James S. Dennis.</p>
+
+<p>The specimens of poetry from ancient Arabic poetesses, have been
+gathered from printed and manuscript volumes, and from the lips of the
+people.</p>
+
+<p>Some accounts of child life in Syria and specimens of Oriental stories
+and nursery rhymes have been gathered into a "Children's Chapter." They
+have a value higher than that which is given by mere entertainment as
+they exhibit many phases of Arab home life. The illustrations of the
+volume consist of drawings from photographs by Bergheim of Jerusalem and
+Bonfils of Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii"></a></span></p><p>The pages of Arabic were electrotyped in Beir&ucirc;t by Mr. Samuel Hallock,
+the skilful superintendent of the American Press.</p>
+
+<p>I send out this record of the work carried on in Syria with deep
+gratitude for all that the Lord has done, and with an ardent desire that
+it may be the means of bringing this great field more vividly before the
+minds of Christian people, of wakening warmer devotion to the missionary
+cause, and so of hastening the time when every Arab woman shall enjoy
+the honor, and be worthy of the elevation which come with faith in Him
+who was first foretold as the seed of the woman.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+HENRY HARRIS JESSUP.</p>
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Beir&ucirc;t</span>, Syria, Nov. 28, 1872.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix"></a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<table class="center" summary="toc" style="margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 25%;">
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER I.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>State of Women among the Arabs of the Jahiliyeh,
+or the "Times of the Ignorance."</i></td>      <td class="right bottom" style="width: 12%;"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER II.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>State of Women in the Mohammedan World.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER III.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>The Druze Religion and Druze Women.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER IV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Nusair&icirc;yeh.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER V.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Chronicle of Women's Work from 1820 to 1872.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER VI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Mrs. Whiting's School.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER VII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Dr. De Forest's Work in Beir&ucirc;t.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER VIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Re-opening of the School in Beir&ucirc;t.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER IX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Luciya Shekkur.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER X.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Raheel.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER XI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Hums.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER XII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Miriam the Aleppine.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER XIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Modern Syrian Views with regard to Female Education.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER XIV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Bedawin Arabs.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER XV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Woman between Barbarism and Civilization.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER XVI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Opinions of Protestant Syrians with regard to the Work of American Women in Syria.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER XVII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>Other Labors for Women and Girls in this Field.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER XVIII.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>The Amount of Biblical Instruction given in Mission Schools.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2" class="center tabpad">CHAPTER XIX.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>The Children's Chapter.</i></td> <td class="right bottom"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p>
+<h3>THE</h3>
+
+<h1><span class="smcap">Women of the Arabs</span>.</h1>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">STATE OF WOMEN AMONG THE ARABS OF THE JAHILIYEH, OR THE "TIMES OF THE IGNORANCE."</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>In</b></span> that eloquent Sura of the Koran, called Ettekwir, (lxxxi.) it is
+said, "When the <i>girl buried alive</i> shall be asked for what sin she was
+slain." The passage no doubt refers to the cruel practice which still in
+Mohammed's time lingered among the tribe of Tem&icirc;m, and which was
+afterwards eradicated by the influence of Islam. The origin of this
+practice has been ascribed to the superstitious rite of sacrificing
+children, common in remote times to all the Semites, and observed by the
+Jews up to the age of the Captivity, as we learn from the denunciations
+of Jeremiah. But in later times daughters were buried alive as a matter
+of household economy, owing to the poverty of many of the tribes, and to
+their fear of dishonor, since women were often <span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span>carried off by their
+enemies in forays, and made slaves and concubines to strangers.</p>
+
+<p>So that at a wedding, the wish expressed in the gratulations to the
+newly-married pair was, "with concord and sons," or "with concord and
+permanence; with sons and no daughters." This same salutation is
+universal in Syria now. The chief wish expressed by women to a bride is,
+"may God give you an arees," <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> a bridegroom son.</p>
+
+<p>In the Koran, Sura xiv, Mohammed argues against the Arabs of Kinaneh,
+who said that the angels were the daughters of God. "They
+(blasphemously) attribute daughters to God; yet they <i>wish them not for
+themselves</i>. When a female child is announced to one of them, his face
+grows dark, and he is as though he would choke."</p>
+
+<p>The older Arab Proverbs show that the burying alive of female children
+was deemed praiseworthy.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"To send women before to the other world, is a benefit."</p>
+
+<p>"The best son-in-law is the grave."</p></div>
+
+<p>The Koran also says, that certain men when hearing of the birth of a
+daughter hide themselves "from the people because of the ill-tidings;
+shall he keep it with disgrace, or bury it in the dust." (Sura xvi.)</p>
+
+<p>It is said that the only occasion on which Othman ever shed a tear, was
+when his little daughter, whom he was burying alive, wiped the dust of
+the grave-earth from his beard!</p>
+
+<p>Before the Seventh Century this practice seems <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span>to have been gradually
+abandoned, but was retained the longest in the tribe of Tem&icirc;m. Naman,
+king of Hira, carried off among his prisoners in a foray, the daughter
+of Kais, chief of Tem&icirc;m, who fell in love with one of her captors and
+refused to return to her tribe, whereupon her father swore to bury alive
+all his future female children, which he did, to the number of ten.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequent to this, rich men would buy the lives of girls devoted to
+inhumation, and Sa Saah thus rescued many, in one case giving two milch
+camels to buy the life of a new-born girl, and he was styled "the
+Reviver of the Maidens buried alive."</p>
+
+<p>The following Arabic Proverbs having reference to women and girls <i>will
+illustrate</i> the ancient Arab ideas with regard to their character and
+position, better than volumes of historic discourse:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Obedience to women will have to be repented of."</p>
+
+<p>"A man can bear anything but the mention of his women."</p>
+
+<p>"The heart of woman is given to folly."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave not a girl nor a green pasture unguarded."</p>
+
+<p>"What has a girl to do with the councils of a nation?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you would marry a beauty, pay her dowry."</p>
+
+<p>"Fear not to praise the man whose wives are true to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Woman fattens on what she hears." (flattery)</p>
+
+<p>"Women are the whips of Satan."</p>
+
+<p>"If you would marry a girl, inquire about the traits of her
+mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust neither a king, a horse, nor a woman. For the king is
+fastidious, the horse prone to run away, and the woman is
+perfidious."</p>
+
+<p>"My father does the fighting, and my mother the talking about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Our mother forbids us to err and runs into error."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas for the people who are ruled by a woman!"</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span></p><p>The position of woman among the Arabs before the times of Mohammed can
+be easily inferred from what has preceded. But there is another side to
+the picture. Although despised and abused, woman often asserted her
+dignity and maintained her rights, not only by physical force, but by
+intellectual superiority as well. The poetesses of the Arabs are
+numerous, and some of them hold a high rank. Their poetry was impromptu,
+impassioned, and chiefly of the elegiac and erotic type. The faculty of
+improvisation was cultivated even by the most barbarous tribes, and
+although such of their poetry as has been preserved is mostly a kind of
+rhymed prose, it often contains striking and beautiful thoughts. They
+called improvised poetry "the daughter of the hour."</p>
+
+<p>The queen of Arabic poetesses is El Khunsa, who flourished in the days
+of Mohammed. Elegies on her two warrior brothers Sakhr and Mu'awiyeh are
+among the gems of ancient Arabic poetry. She was not what would be
+called in modern times a refined or delicate lady, being regarded as
+proud and masculine in temper even by the Arabs of her own age. In the
+eighth year of the Hegira, her son Abbas brought a thousand warriors to
+join the forces of the Prophet. She came with him and recited her poetry
+to Mohammed. She lamented her brother for years. She sang of Sakhr:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"His goodness is known by his brotherly face,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thrice blessed such sign of a heavenly grace:<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span><span class="i0">You would think from his aspect of meekness and shame,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That his anger was stirred at the thought of his fame.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh rare virtue and beautiful, natural trait,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which never will change by the change of estate!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When clad in his armor and prepared for the fray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The army rejoiceth and winneth the day!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Again, she lamented him as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Each glorious rising sun brings Sakhr to my mind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I think anew of him when sets the orb of day;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And had I not beheld the grief and sorrow blind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of many mourning ones o'er brothers snatched away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I should have slain myself, from deep and dark despair."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The poet Nabighah erected for her a red leather tent at the fair of
+Okaz, in token of honor, and in the contest of poetry gave her the
+highest place above all but Maym&ucirc;n, saying to her, "If I had not heard
+him, I would say that thou didst surpass every one in poetry. I confess
+that you surpass all women." To which she haughtily replied, "Not the
+less do I surpass all men."</p>
+
+<p>The following are among the famous lines of El Khunsa, which gave her
+the title of princess of Arab poetesses. The translation I have made
+quite literal.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ah time has its wonders; its changes amaze,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It leaves us the tail while the head it slays;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It leaves us the low while the highest decays;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It leaves the obscure, the despised, and the slave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But of honored and loved ones, the true and the brave<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It leaves us to mourn o'er the untimely grave.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The two new creations, the day and the night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though ceaselessly changing, are pure as the light:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But man changes to error, corruption and blight."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span></p><p>The most ancient Arab poetess, Zar&icirc;feh, is supposed to have lived as
+long ago as the Second Century, in the time of the bursting of the
+famous dyke of Mareb, which devastated the land of Saba. Another
+poetess, Rak&acirc;sh, sister of the king of Hira, was given in marriage, by
+the king when intoxicated, to a man named Adi.</p>
+
+<p>Alas, in these days the Moslem Arabs do not wait until blinded by wine,
+to give their daughters in marriage to strangers. I once overheard two
+Moslem young men converging in a shop, one of whom was about to be
+married. His companion said to him, "have you heard anything about the
+looks of your betrothed?" "Not much," said he, "only I am assured that
+she is <i>white</i>."</p>
+
+<p>In a book written by Mirai ibn Yusef el Hanbali, are the names of twenty
+Arab women who improvised poetry. Among them are Leila, Leila el
+Akhyal&icirc;yeh, Lubna, Zeinab, Afra, Hind, May, Jen&ucirc;b, Hubaish, Zarifeh,
+Jem&icirc;leh, Remleh, Lotifeh, and others. Most of the verses ascribed to
+them are erotic poetry of an amatory character, full of the most
+extravagant expressions of devotion of which language is capable, and
+yet the greater part of it hardly bearing translation. It reminds one
+strikingly of Solomon's Song, full of passionate eloquence. And yet in
+the poetry of El Khunsa and others, which is of an elegiac character,
+there are passages full of sententious apothegms and proverbial wisdom.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">STATE OF WOMEN IN THE MOHAMMADAN WORLD.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>Our</b></span> knowledge of the position of women among the Mohammedans is derived
+from the Koran, Moslem tradition, and Moslem practice.</p>
+
+<p>I. In the first place, the Koran does not teach that women have no
+souls. Not only was Mohammed too deeply indebted to his rich wife
+Khadijah, to venture such an assertion, but he actually teaches in the
+Koran the immortality and moral responsibility of women. One of his
+wives having complained to him that God often praised the men, but not
+the women who had fled the country for the faith, he immediately
+produced the following revelation:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I will not suffer the work of him among you who worketh to be
+lost, whether he be male or female." (Sura iii.)</p></div>
+
+<p>In Sura iv. it is said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Whoso doeth good works, and is a true believer, whether male or
+female, shall be admitted into Paradise."</p></div>
+
+<p>In Sura xxxiii:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Truly, the Muslemen and the Muslimate, (fem.)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The believing men and the believing women,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The devout men and the devout women,<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The men of truth and the women of truth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The patient men and the patient women,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The humble men and the humble women,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The charitable men and the charitable women,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The fasting men and the fasting women,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The chaste men and the chaste women,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the men and women who oft remember God;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For them hath God prepared<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forgiveness and a rich recompense."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>II. Thus Mohammedans cannot and do not deny that women have souls, but
+their brutal treatment of women has naturally led to this view. The
+Caliph Omar said that "women are worthless creatures and soil men's
+reputations." In Sura iv. it is written:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Men are superior to women, on account of the qualities<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With which God has gifted the one above the other,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And on account of the outlay they make, from their substance for them.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Virtuous women are obedient....<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But chide those for whose refractoriness<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ye have cause to fear ... <i>and scourge them</i>."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The interpretation of this last injunction being left to the individual
+believer, it is carried out with terrible severity. The scourging and
+beating of wives is one of the worst features of Moslem domestic life.
+It is a degraded and degrading practice, and having the sanction of the
+Koran, will be indulged in without rebuke as long as Islamism as a
+system and a faith prevails in the world. Happily for the poor women,
+the husbands do not generally beat them so as to imperil their lives, in
+case their own relatives reside in the vicinity, lest the excru<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span>ciating
+screams of the suffering should reach the ears of her parents and bring
+the husband into disgrace. But where there is no fear of interference or
+of discovery, the blows and kicks are applied in the most merciless and
+barbarous manner. Women are killed in this way, and no outsider knows
+the cause. One of my Moslem neighbors once beat one of his wives to
+death. I heard her screams day after day, and finally, one night, when
+all was still, I heard a dreadful shriek, and blow after blow falling
+upon her back and head. I could hear the brute cursing her as he beat
+her. The police would not interfere, and I could not enter the house.
+The next day there was a funeral from that house, and she was carried
+off and buried in the most hasty and unfeeling manner. Sometimes it
+happens that the woman is strong enough to defend herself, and conquers
+a peace; but ordinarily when you hear a scream in the Moslem quarter of
+the city and ask the reason, it will be said to you with an indifferent
+shrug of the shoulder, "that is only some man beating his wife."</p>
+
+<p>That thirty-eighth verse of Sura iv. is one of the many proofs that the
+Koran is not the book of God, because it violates the law of love.
+"Husbands love your wives," is a precept of the Gospel and not of the
+Koran. Yet it is a sad fact that the nominal Christians of this dark
+land are not much better in this respect than their Moslem neighbors.
+The Greeks, Maronites and Papal Greeks beat their wives on the slightest
+provocation. In the more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span>enlightened towns and cities this custom is
+"going out of fashion," though still often resorted to in fits of
+passion. Sometimes the male relatives of the wife retaliate in case a
+husband beats her. In the village of Schwire, in Lebanon, a man beat his
+wife in a brutal manner and she fled to the house of her brother. The
+brother watched his opportunity; waylaid the offending husband, and
+avenged his sister's injuries by giving him a severe flogging. In
+Eastern Turkey, a missionary in one of the towns noticed that not one
+woman attended church on Sunday. He expostulated with the Protestants,
+and urged them to persuade their wives to accompany them. The next
+Sunday the women were all present, as meek and quiet as could be wished.
+The missionary was delighted, and asked one of the men how they
+persuaded them to come? He replied, "We all beat our wives soundly until
+they consented to come!" This wife-beating custom has evidently been
+borrowed by the Christian sects from their Moslem rulers and oppressors,
+and nothing but a pure Christianity can induce them to abandon it.</p>
+
+<p>III. Some have supposed that there will be no place in the Moslem
+Paradise for women, as their place will be taken by the seventy-two
+bright-eyed Houris or damsels of Paradise. Mohammed once said that when
+he took a view of Paradise he saw the majority of its inhabitants to be
+the poor, and when he looked down into hell, he saw the <i>greater part</i>
+of the wretches confined there to be <i>women</i>! Yet he positively promised
+his followers that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span>very meanest in Paradise will have eighty
+thousand servants, seventy-two wives of the Houris, <i>besides the wives
+he had in this world</i>. The promises of the Houris are almost exclusively
+to be found in Suras, written at a time when Mohammed had only a single
+wife of sixty years of age, and in all the ten years subsequent to the
+Hegira, women are only twice mentioned as the reward of the faithful.
+And this, while in four Suras, the proper wives of the faithful are
+spoken of as accompanying their husbands into the gardens of bliss.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"They and their wives on that day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall rest in shady groves." (Sura 36.)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Enter ye and your wives into Paradise delighted." (Sura 43.)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Gardens of Eden into which they shall enter<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Together with the just of their fathers, and their wives." (Sura 13.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>An old woman once desired Mohammed to intercede with God that she might
+be admitted to Paradise, and he told her that no old woman would enter
+that place. She burst into loud weeping, when he explained himself by
+saying that God would then make her young again.</p>
+
+<p>I was once a fellow-passenger in the Damascus diligence, with a
+Mohammedan pilgrim going to Mecca by way of Beir&ucirc;t and Egypt, in company
+with his wife. I asked him whether his wife would have any place in
+Paradise when he received his quota of seventy-two Houris. "Yes," said
+he, looking towards his wife, whose veil prevented our seeing her,
+although she could see us, "if she obeys me in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span>all respects, and is a
+faithful wife, and goes to Mecca, she will be made more beautiful than
+all the Houris of Paradise." Paradise is thus held up to the women as
+the reward of obedience to their husbands, and this is about the sum and
+substance of what the majority of Moslem women know about religion.</p>
+
+<p>Women are never admitted to pray with men in public, being obliged to
+perform their devotions at home, or if they visit the Mosques, it must
+be at a time when the men are not there, for the Moslems are of opinion
+that the presence of women inspires a different kind of devotion from
+that which is desirable in a place set apart for the worship of God.</p>
+
+<p>The Moslem idea of woman is vile and degraded. A Moslem absent from home
+never addresses a letter to his wife, but to his son or brother, or some
+male relative. It is considered a grievous insult to ask a Moslem about
+the health of his wife. If obliged to allude to a woman in conversation,
+you must use the word "ajellak Allah," "May God elevate you" above the
+contamination of this subject! You would be expected to use the same
+expression in referring to a donkey, a dog, a shoe, a swine or anything
+vile. It is somewhat like the Irish expression, "Saving your presence,
+sir," when alluding to an unpleasant subject.</p>
+
+<p>A Greek christian (?) in Tripoli came to an American Missionary
+physician and said, "there is a woman, 'ajell shanak Allah' here who is
+ill. I beg your pardon for mentioning so vile a subject to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span>your
+excellency." Said the doctor, "and who may it be?" "Ajellak, it is my
+wife!"</p>
+
+<p>I remember once meeting the Mohammedan Mufti of Beir&ucirc;t in Dr. Van Dyck's
+study at the printing press. The Mufti's wife, (at least <i>one</i> of them,)
+was ill, and he wished medical advice, but could not insult the Doctor
+by alluding to a woman in his presence. So he commenced, after
+innumerable salutations, repeating good-morning, and may your day be
+happy, until he could decently proceed to business. "Your excellency
+must be aware that I have a sick man at my house. May God grant you
+health! Indeed, peace to your head. Inshullah, it is only a slight
+attack!" "He has pain in his back, headache, and he will not eat." "Has
+he any fever?" "A little." "I will come and see <i>her</i> this afternoon."
+"May God increase your good. Good morning, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>The Mohammedan laws with regard to polygamy, inheritance and divorce,
+are a decided advance on the Pagan Arabs of "the Ignorance."</p>
+
+<p>The Pagan Arabs allowed any number of wives. The Koran allows <i>only
+four</i> to any believer, the prophet himself having peculiar privileges in
+this respect. The modern practice of Mohammedans in taking a score or
+more of wives is directly contrary to the Koran. The Pagan Arabs
+suffered no woman to have any part of the husband's or father's
+inheritance, on the ground that none should inherit who could not go to
+war, and the widows were disposed of as a part of their husband's
+possessions. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> Koran says, (Sura iv.) "Women ought to have a part of
+what their parents leave." A male shall have twice as much as a female.
+But a man's parents, and also his brothers and sisters are to have equal
+shares, without reference to sex. "God commandeth you to give the male
+the portion of two females. If she be an only daughter, she shall have
+the half. Your wives shall have a fourth part of what ye leave, if ye
+have no issue."</p>
+
+<p>Among the Pagan Arabs, divorce was a mere matter of caprice. The Koran
+says, (Sura ii.) "You may divorce your wives twice (and take them back
+again). But if the husband divorce her a third time, it is not lawful
+for him to take her again, until she shall have been actually married to
+another husband, and then divorced by him." I have known cases where the
+husband in a fit of passion has divorced his wife the third time, and,
+in order to get her back again, has <i>hired another man</i> to marry her and
+then divorce her. A rich Effendi had divorced his wife the third time,
+and wishing to re-marry her, hired a poor man to marry her for a
+consideration of seven hundred piastres. He took the wife and the money,
+and the next day refused to give her up for less than five thousand
+piastres, which the Effendi was obliged to pay, as the woman had become
+the lawful and wedded wife of the poor man.</p>
+
+<p>No Mohammedan ever walks with his wife in the street, and in Moslem
+cities, very few if any of men of other sects are willing to be seen in
+public in company with a woman. The women are closely veiled, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span>and if a
+man and his wife have occasion to go anywhere together, he walks in
+advance and she walks a long distance behind him. Nofel Effendi, one of
+the most learned and intelligent Protestants in Syria, once gave me the
+explanation of this aversion to walking in public with women, in a more
+satisfactory manner than I had ever heard it before. Said he, "You
+Franks can walk with your wives in public, because their faces are
+unveiled, and it is <i>known that they are your wives</i>, but our women are
+so closely veiled that if I should walk with my wife in the street, no
+one would know whether I was walking with my own wife or another man's!
+You cannot expect a respectable man to put himself into such an
+embarrassing position!" No Moslem woman or girl would dare go into the
+street without a veil, for fear of personal chastisement from the
+husband and father, and the Greek, Maronite and other nominal Christian
+women in Syria shrink from exposing their faces, through fear of insult
+from the Mohammedans.</p>
+
+<p>When European women, either residents or travellers, pass through the
+Moslem quarter of these cities of Syria and Palestine, with faces
+unveiled, they are made the theme of the most outrageous and insulting
+comments by the Moslem populace. Well is it for the feelings of the most
+of these worthy Christian women, that they do not understand the Arabic
+language. The Turkish governor of Tripoli was obliged to suppress the
+insulting epithets of the Moslems towards European ladies when they
+first <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span>began to reside there, by the infliction of the bastinado.</p>
+
+<p>In 1857, the Rev. Mr. Lyons in Tripoli, hired Sheikh Owad, a Moslem
+bigot, to teach him the Arabic grammar. He was a conceited boor; well
+versed in Arabic grammar, but more ignorant of geography, arithmetic and
+good breeding than a child. One day Mrs. Lyons passed through the room
+where he was teaching Mr. L. and he turned his head away from her and
+spat towards her with a look of unutterable contempt. It was the last
+time he did it, and he has now become so civilized that he can say good
+morning to the wife of a missionary, and even consent to teach the
+sacred, pure and undefiled Arabic to a woman! I believe that he has not
+yet given his assent to the fact that the earth revolves on its axis,
+but he has learned that there are women in the world who know more than
+Sheikh Owad.</p>
+
+<p>In ancient times Moslem women were occasionally taught to read the
+Koran, and among the wealthier and more aristocratic classes, married
+women are now sometimes taught to read, but the mass of the Moslem men
+are bitterly opposed to the instruction of women. When a man decides to
+have his wife taught to read, the usual plan is to hire a blind
+Mohammedan Sheikh, who knows the Koran by heart. He sits at one side of
+the room, and she at the other, some elderly woman, either her mother or
+her mother-in-law, being present. The blind Sheikhs have remarkable
+memories and sharp ears, and can <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span>detect the slightest error in
+pronunciation or rendering, so they are employed in the most of the
+Moslem-schools. The mass of the Mohammedans are nervously afraid of
+entrusting the knowledge of reading and writing to their wives and
+daughters, lest they abuse it by writing clandestine letters to improper
+persons. "Teach a <i>girl</i> to read and write!" said a Mohammedan Mufti in
+Tripoli to me, "Why, she will <i>write letters</i>, sir,&mdash;yes, <i>actually
+write letters</i>! the thing is not to be thought of for a moment." I
+replied, "Effendum, you put your foot on the women's necks and then
+blame them for not rising. Educate your girls and train them to
+intelligence and virtue, and then their pens will write only what ought
+to be written. Train the hand to hold a pen, without training the mind
+to direct it, and only mischief can result." "<i>Saheah, saheah</i>," "very
+true, very true," said he, "But how can this be done?"</p>
+
+<p>It has begun to be done in Syria. From the days of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith
+to the present time, Moslem girls have been taught to read and write and
+sew, and there are many now learning in the various American, British
+and Prussian schools. But it will be long before any true idea of the
+dignity of woman enters the debased minds of Arab Mohammedans. The
+simple fact is that there is no moral purity or elevation among the men,
+and how can it be expected among the women. The Moslem idea of woman is
+infinitely lower than the old Jewish idea. Woman in the time of Christ
+was highly honored. Believing women followed Christ throughout Galilee
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span>and Judea, and although enemies stood watching with hateful gaze on
+every side, not one word of insinuation was ever lisped against them. It
+is a most sadly impressive fact to one living in Syria at the present
+day, that the liberty and respect allowed to woman in the days of our
+Saviour would now be absolutely impossible. In purely Greek or Maronite
+or Armenian villages, the women enjoy far greater liberty than where
+there is a Moslem element in the population. And it is worthy of remark
+and grateful recognition, that although Christianity in the East has
+sunk almost to a level, in outward morality, with the Islamic and
+semi-Pagan sects, there is a striking difference between the lowest
+nominal Christian community and the highest Mohammedan, in the respect
+paid to woman. Ignorant and oppressed as the Greek and Maronite women
+may be, you feel on entering their houses, that the degrading yoke of
+Moslem brutality is not on their necks. Their husbands may be coarse,
+ignorant and brutal, beating their wives and despising their daughters,
+mourning at the birth of a daughter, and marrying her without her
+consent, and yet there are lower depths of coarseness and brutality, of
+cruelty and bestiality, which are only found among Mohammedans. I once
+suggested to a Tripoli Moslem, that he send his daughters to our Girls'
+School, then taught by Miss Sada Gregory, a native teacher trained in
+the family of Mrs. Whiting, and he looked at me with an expression of
+mingled pity and contempt, saying, "Educate a <i>girl</i>! You might as well
+attempt to educate <i>a cat</i>!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span></p><p>Not two months since, I was conversing with several of the aristocratic
+Mohammedans of Beir&ucirc;t, who were in attendance at the commencement of the
+Beir&ucirc;t Protestant Medical College. The subject of the education of girls
+was introduced, and one of them said, "we are beginning to have our
+girls instructed in your Protestant schools, and would you believe it, I
+heard one of them read the other day, (probably his own daughter,) and
+she actually asked a question about the construction of a noun preceded
+by a preposition! I never heard the like of it. The things do
+distinguish and understand what they read, after all!" The others
+replied, "<i>Mashallah! Mashallah!</i>" "The will of God be done!"</p>
+
+<p>Some ten years ago, an influential Moslem Sheikh in Beir&ucirc;t, who was a
+personal friend of Mr. Araman, the husband of Lulu, brought his daughter
+Wahidy (only one) to the Seminary to be instructed, on condition that no
+man should ever see her face. As Mr. Araman himself was one of the
+teachers, and I was accustomed to make constant visits to the school,
+she was obliged to wear a light veil, which she drew adroitly over her
+face whenever the door was opened. This went on for months and years,
+until at length in recitation she would draw the veil aside. Then she
+used to listen to public addresses in the school without her veil, and
+finally, in June, 1867, she read a composition on the stage at the
+Public Examination, on, "The value of education to the women and girls
+of Syria," her father, Sheikh Said el Ghur, being present, with a number
+of his Moslem friends.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">THE DRUZE RELIGION AND DRUZE WOMEN.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>The</b></span> great expounder and defender of the Druze religion is Hamz&eacute;, the
+"Universal Intelligence," the only Mediator between God and man, and the
+medium of the creation of all things. This Hamz&eacute; was a shrewd, able and
+unprincipled man. In his writings he not only defends the abominations
+of Hakem, but lays down the complete code of Druze doctrine and duty.</p>
+
+<p>It is the belief of many, and said to be the orthodox view among the
+Druzes that their system as such is to last exactly 900 lunar years. The
+date of the Druze era is 408 Hegira, or 1020 <span class="smcap">a.&nbsp;d.</span> The present year,
+1872, corresponds to the year 1289 Anno Hegira, so that <i>in nineteen
+lunar years</i> the system will begin to come to an end according to its
+own reckoning, and after 1000 years it will cease to exist. Others have
+fixed this present year as the year of the great cataclysm, but the
+interpreters are so secret and reserved in their statements, that it is
+only by casual remarks that we can arrive at any idea of their real
+belief. Lying to infidels is such a meritorious act, that you cannot
+depend on one word they say of themselves or their doctrines.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> Their
+secret books, which were found in the civil wars of 1841 and 1845, have
+been translated and published by De Sacy, and we have a number of them
+in the original Arabic manuscripts in the Mission Library in Beir&ucirc;t.
+From a chapter in one of these, entitled "Methak en Nissa," or the
+"Engagements of Women," I have translated the following passages, to
+show the religious position of women, as bearing upon my object in
+describing the condition of Syrian females.</p>
+
+<p>"Believers are both male and female. By instruction women pass from
+ignorance to knowledge, and become angels like the Five Ministers who
+bear the Throne: <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, the Doctrine of the Unity. All male and female
+believers ought to be free from all impurity and disgrace and dishonor.
+Believing women should shun lying (to the brethren) and infidelity and
+concupiscence, and the appearance of evil, and show the excellency of
+their work above all Trinitarian women, avoiding all suspicion and taint
+which might bring ill upon their brethren, and avoiding giving attention
+to what is contrary to the Divine Unity.</p>
+
+<p>"We have written this epistle to be read to all believing women who hold
+to the Unity of Hakem, who knows His Eternity and obey their husbands.
+But let no Dai or Maz&ucirc;n read it to a woman until he is well assured of
+her faith and her religion, and she shall have made a written profession
+of her faith. He shall not read it to one woman alone, nor in a house
+where there is but one woman, even though <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span>he be worthy of all
+confidence, lest suspicion be awakened and the tongue of slander be
+loosed. Let there be assembled together at least three women, and let
+them sit behind a curtain or screen, so as not to be seen. Each woman
+must be accompanied by her husband, or her father, or brother or son, if
+he be a Unitarian. The Dai in reading must keep his eyes fixed on his
+book, neither turning towards the place where the women are, nor casting
+a glance towards it, nor listening to them. The woman, moreover, must
+not speak a word during the reading, and whether she is affected by a
+transport of joy, or moved by an impression of respect and fear, she
+must carefully abstain from showing her feelings either by smiles or
+tears. For the smiles, the tears, and the words of a woman may excite
+man's passions. Let her give her whole attention to the reading, receive
+it in her heart, and apply all the faculties of her mind to understand
+its meaning, in order clearly to conceive the true signification of what
+she is listening to. If she finds any passage obscure, let her ask the
+Dai, (the preacher,) and he shall answer, if he can, and if not, promise
+to ask those who are more learned, and when he has obtained the solution
+he must inform her, if she be deemed worthy.</p>
+
+<p>"The highest duty of Unitarian women is to know our Moulah Hakem and the
+Kaim Hamz&eacute;. If they follow Him, let them know that He has released them
+entirely from the observance of the Seven Arbitrary Pillars of the Law
+(of Islam) which are (1) Prayer, (2) Fasting, (3) Pilgrimage, (4)
+Assert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span>ing, There is no God but God and Mohammed is the Prophet of God,
+(5) Giving tithes, (6) War on infidels, (7) Submission to authority. But
+on the other hand, all believing women must perform the Seven Religious
+Duties: The First and greatest is Truth in your words: (<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> to the
+brethren and sisters); the Second is, To watch reciprocally over the
+safety of the brethren; the Third is, to renounce wholly and entirely
+whatever religion you may have previously professed; the Fourth is, To
+keep yourselves apart, clear and distinct from all who are in error; the
+Fifth is, To recognize the existence of the Unity of our Lord in all
+ages, times and epochs; the Sixth is, To be satisfied with His will and
+His works, whatever they may be; The Seventh is, To abandon and resign
+yourselves to all His orders whether in prosperity or adversity. You
+must keep these Seven Commandments, and keep them strictly secret from
+all who are of a different religion. If the Druze women do all this and
+fulfil their duties, they are indeed among the good, and shall have
+their reward among the 159 Angels of the Presence and among the Prophets
+who were Apostles, and be saved from the snare of the accursed Ibl&icirc;s
+(Diabolus). Praise then to our Lord Hakim, the praise of the thankful!
+He is my hope and victory!"</p>
+
+<p>What can you expect of the women, if the teachers are thus warped with
+hypocrisy and falsehood. They receive you politely. Dr. De Forest used
+to say, that there is not a boor in the Druze nation. But their very
+politeness confounds you. The old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> Druze women are masters of a pious
+religious phraseology. "We are all sinners." "The Lord's will be done."
+"Praise to His name." "He only can command." "The Lord be merciful to
+us." "He orders all things," and yet they will lie and deceive, and if
+not of the initiated class, they will swear in the most fearful manner.
+The Okkal cannot swear, smoke or drink, but they tell a story of a
+village where the people were all Okkal, and things having reached a
+high pitch of excitement, they sent for a body of Jehal or the
+non-initiated to come over and swear on the subject, that their pure
+minds might be relieved! When they talk in the most affectingly pious
+manner, and really surpass you in religious sentiment, you hardly know
+what to do. Tell them God knows the heart. They reply, "He alone is the
+All-knowing, the Searcher of the hearts of men." You shrink from telling
+them in plain language that they are hypocrites and liars. You <i>can</i>
+tell them of the <i>personal love</i> of a personal Saviour, and this simple
+story will affect and has affected the minds of some of them more than
+all logic and eloquent refutation of their foggy and mysterious
+doctrinal system.</p>
+
+<p>They respect us and treat us politely for political reasons. During the
+massacres of 1860, I rode from Abeih to Beir&ucirc;t in the midst of burning
+villages, and armed bodies of Druzes passed us shouting the war song "Ma
+hala ya ma hala kotal en Nosara," "How sweet, oh how sweet, to kill the
+Christians," and yet as they passed us they stopped and most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span>politely
+paid their salams, saying, "Naharkum Saieed," "May your day be blessed,"
+"Allah yahtikum el afiyeh," "God give you health!"</p>
+
+<p>When a Druze Sheikh wishes to marry, he asks consent of the father
+without having seen the daughter. If the father consents, he informs
+her, and if she consents, the suitor sends his affianced presents of
+clothes and jewelry, which remain in her hands as a pledge of his
+fidelity. She is pictured to him as the paragon of beauty and
+excellence, but he is never allowed to see her, speak to her, or write
+to her, should she know how to write. His mother or aunt may see her or
+bring reports, but he does not see her until the wedding contract is
+signed and the bride is brought to his house.</p>
+
+<p>The following is the marriage ceremony of the Druzes. It is read by the
+Kadi or Sheikh, and in accordance to the Druze doctrine that they must
+outwardly conform to the religion of the governing power, it is a purely
+Mohammedan ordinance.</p>
+
+<p>"Praise to God, the original Creator of all things; the Gracious in all
+His gifts and prohibitions; who has decreed and fixed the ordinance of
+marriage; may Allah pray for (bless) our Prophet Mohammed, and his four
+successors! Now after this, we say that marriage is one of the laws
+given by the prophets, and one of the statutes of the pious to guard
+against vice; a gift from the Lord of the earth and the heaven. Praise
+to Him who by it has brought the far ones near, and made the foreigner a
+relative and friend! We are assembled here to attend to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span>matter
+decreed and fated of Allah, and whose beginning, middle and end he has
+connected with the most happy and auspicious circumstances. This matter
+is the blessed covenant of marriage. Inshullah, may it be completed and
+perfected, and praise to Allah, the Great Completer! Amen!</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. He is my portion
+and sufficiency. May Allah pray for his pure prophet!"</p>
+
+<p>This is the marriage contract between the person named A. son of &mdash;&mdash; of
+the village of &mdash;&mdash; in the district of &mdash;&mdash; in Lebanon, and his
+betrothed named B. the daughter of &mdash;&mdash; of the village of &mdash;&mdash; she being
+a maiden of full and marriageable age, with no legal obstacles to her
+marriage. (May Allah protect her veil, and have mercy on her relatives
+and friends!)</p>
+
+<p>In view of the mercies of Allah and his prophet Mohammed, they pay fifty
+piastres ($2.00) of full and lawful number, weight and measure, of the
+Imperial mint of our Moulah the Sultan, (may the exalted and merciful
+One give him the victory!) and of new white silver. The agent of the
+husband is &mdash;&mdash; and of the wife is &mdash;&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>It is the absolute and bounden duty of the husband to provide clothing
+for the body of his wife and a crown for her head, and of the wife to
+give him his due honor and rights and do his work, and Allah will be
+with those who fear Him, and not suffer those who do well to lose their
+reward.</p>
+
+<table class="center" summary="signed">
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td></td><td>Signed&nbsp;Sheikh&nbsp;&mdash;&mdash;&nbsp;(seal)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td><td>seal</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="width: 40%;">Witnesses</td><td>seal</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td><td>seal</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody></table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span></p><p>A whole week is given up to festivity before her arrival, and the
+retinue of the bride mounted on fine horses escort her amid the firing
+of musketry, the <i>zilagheet</i> shrieks of the women, and general
+rejoicing, to the bridegroom's house. Col. Churchill describes what
+follows: "The bride meantime, after having received the caresses and
+congratulations of her near relatives, is conducted to a chamber apart
+and placed on a divan, with a large tray of sweetmeats and confectionery
+before her, after which all the females withdraw and she is left alone,
+with a massive veil of muslin and gold thrown over her head and covering
+her face, breasts and shoulders down to the waist. What thoughts and
+sensations must crowd upon the maiden's mind in this solitude! not to be
+disturbed but by him who will shortly come to receive in that room his
+first impressions of her charms and attractions! Presently she hears
+footsteps at the door; it opens quietly; silently and unattended her
+lover approaches her, lifts the veil off her face, takes one glance,
+replaces it and withdraws."</p>
+
+<p>He then returns to the grand reception-room, takes his seat at the head
+of the divan amid the throng of Sheikhs and other invited guests. He
+maintains an imperturbable silence, his mind being supposed to be
+absorbed by one engrossing object. It may be delight. It may be bitter
+disappointment. It is generally past midnight when the party breaks up
+and the family retires.</p>
+
+<p>A plurality of wives is absolutely forbidden. If a Druze wishes to
+divorce his wife, he has merely to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span>say, "You had better go back to your
+father," or she, the woman, wishes to leave her husband, she says, "I
+wish to go back to my father," and if her husband says, "Very well, go,"
+the divorce in either case holds good, and the separation is
+irrevocable. Both parties are free to re-marry. Childlessness is a
+common cause of divorce.</p>
+
+<p>The birth of a son is the occasion of great rejoicing and presents to
+the family. But the birth of a daughter is considered a misfortune, and
+of course not the slightest notice is taken of so inauspicious an event.
+This holds true among all the sects and peoples of Syria, and nothing
+but a Christian training and the inculcation of the pure principles of
+gospel morality can remove this deeply seated prejudice. The people say
+the reason of their dislike of daughters is that while a son builds up
+the house, and brings in a wife from without and <i>perpetuates the family
+name</i>, the daughter pulls down the house, loses her name, and is lost to
+the family.</p>
+
+<p>The wealthier and more aristocratic Druze sitts or ladies are taught to
+read by the Fakih or teacher, but the masses of the women are in brutish
+ignorance. You enter a Druze house. The woman waits upon you and brings
+coffee, but you see only <i>one eye</i>, the rest of the head and face being
+closely veiled. In an aristocratic house, you would never be allowed to
+see the lady, and if she goes abroad, it is only at night, and with
+attendants on every side to keep off the profane gaze of strangers. If a
+physician is called to attend a sick Druze woman, he cannot see her
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span>face nor her tongue, unless she choose to thrust it through a hole in
+her veil. In many cases they suffer a woman to die sooner than have her
+face seen by a physician.</p>
+
+<p>The Druzes marry but one wife at a time, and yet divorce is so common
+and so heartlessly practiced by the men, that the poor women live in
+constant fear of being driven from their homes.</p>
+
+<p>In Abeih, we were startled one evening by the cry "Rouse ye men of self
+respect! Come and help us!" It was a dark, rainy night, and the earthen
+roof of a Druze house had fallen in, burying a young man, his wife and
+his mother, under the mass of earth, stones and timber. They all escaped
+death, but were seriously injured, the poor young wife suffering the
+most of all, having fallen with her left arm in a bed of burning coals,
+and having been compelled to lie there half an hour, so that when dug
+out, her hand was burned to a cinder! For several days the husband
+refused to send for a doctor, but at length his wife Hala was sent to
+the College Hospital (of the Prussian Knights of St. John) in Beir&ucirc;t
+where Dr. Post amputated the hand below the elbow.</p>
+
+<p>One would naturally suppose that such a calamity, in which both so
+narrowly escaped death, would bind husband and wife together in the
+strongest bonds of affection and sympathy. But not so in this case. The
+poor young wife is now threatened with divorce, because she is no longer
+of any use to her husband, and her two little children are to be taken
+from her! She lies on her bed in the Hospital, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span>the very picture of
+stoical resignation. Not a groan or complaint escapes her.</p>
+
+<p>She said one day, "Oh how glad I am that this happened, for it has taken
+away all my sins, and I shall never have to suffer again in this world
+or the next!" This is the doctrine of the Druzes, and, cold and false as
+it is, she has made it her support and her stay.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Post and Mrs. Bliss have pointed her to the Lamb of God "who bore
+our sins in His own body on the tree," and she seems interested to hear
+and learn more.</p>
+
+<p>Her younger sister is in the Beir&ucirc;t Seminary. May this poor sufferer
+find peace where alone it can be found, in trusting in the Lord Jesus
+Christ, whose blood cleanseth from all sin!</p>
+
+<p>The cruelty of her husband, sanctioned as it is by the religious code of
+the Druzes, may be the means of opening her eyes to the falsity of that
+heartless Christless system, and lead her to the foot of the Cross!</p>
+
+<p>Christians, who read these lines, pray for Hala of Abeih!</p>
+
+
+<h4 class="padtop" style="font-weight: normal;">SITT ABLA.</h4>
+
+<p>More than twenty years ago in the little Druze village of Aitath, in
+Lebanon, about seven miles from Beir&ucirc;t, lived a family of Druze Sheikhs
+of the tribe of Telh&ucirc;k. This tribe was divided into the great Sheikhs
+and the little Sheikhs, and among the latter was the Sheikh Khottar. The
+proximity of this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span>village to Beir&ucirc;t, its elevated position, cool air,
+and fine fountain of water, made it a favorite summer retreat for the
+missionaries from the withering heats of the plain. Sheikh Khottar and
+his wife the Sitt, having both died, their orphan son Selim and daughter
+Abla, called the Sitt (or lady) Abla, were placed under the care of
+other members of the family of Telh&ucirc;k. The missionaries opened a school
+for boys and Selim attended it. Dr. and Mrs. Van Dyck were living in
+Aitath at the time, and the young Druze maiden Abla, who was betrothed
+to a Druze Sheikh, became greatly attached to Mrs. Van Dyck, and came
+almost constantly to visit her. The light of a better faith and the
+truth of a pure gospel gradually dawned upon her mind, until her love
+for Mrs. Van Dyck grew into love for the Saviour of sinners. The Sheikh
+to whom she was betrothed was greatly enraged at her course in visiting
+a Christian lady, and meeting her one day when returning to her home,
+attacked her in the most brutal manner, and gave her a severe beating.
+She fled and took refuge in the house of Mrs. Van Dyck, who had taught
+her to read and given her a Bible. A short time after, several of her
+cousins seized her and scourged her most cruelly, and a violent
+persecution was excited against her and her brother Selim. She was in
+daily and hourly expectation of being killed by her male relatives, as
+it had never been heard of in the Druze nation that a young girl should
+dare to become a Christian, and Mr. Whiting, missionary in Abeih, sent
+over a cour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span>ageous Protestant youth named Saleh, who took the Sitt Abla
+by night over the rough mountain road to Abeih in safety. But even here
+she was not safe. The Druzes of Lebanon at that time were at the height
+of their feudal power. Girls and women were killed among them without
+the least notice on the part of the mountain government. Abla was like a
+prisoner in the missionary's house, not venturing to go outside the
+door, and in order to be at peace, she went down with her brother to
+Beir&ucirc;t, where she has since resided. Selim united with the Church, but
+was afterwards suspended from communion for improper conduct, and joined
+himself to the Jesuits, so that Abla has had to endure a two-fold
+persecution from her Druze relatives and her Jesuit brother. On her
+removal to Beir&ucirc;t she was disinherited and deprived of her little
+portion of her father's estate, and her life has been a constant
+struggle with persecution, poverty and want. Yet amid all, she has stood
+firm as a rock, never swerving from the truth, or showing any
+disposition to go back to her old friends. At times she has suffered
+from extreme privation, and the missionaries and native Protestants
+would only hear of it through others who happened to meet her. Since
+uniting with the Church in 1849 she has lived a Christian life. In a
+recent conversation she said, "I count all things but loss for the
+excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, <i>for whom I have
+suffered the loss of all things</i> ... and I still continue, by the grace
+of Him Exalted, and by the merits of Jesus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> Christ my Saviour, awaiting
+a happy death, and everlasting rest."</p>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">KHOZMA.</h4>
+
+<p>Her Christian experience is like that of Khozma Ata. She is the only
+female member of the Protestant church in Syria from among the Druzes,
+except Sitt Abla. She was born, in Beir&ucirc;t of the Druze family of Witwat,
+and when quite a child was taken by Dr. Beadle, then by Miss Tilden,
+living at one time in Aleppo, then in Jerusalem, and finally settled in
+the family of Dr. De Forest, where she continued until his departure for
+America in 1854. For several years she has been an invalid, and is not
+often able to leave her house, even to go to church. Two of her little
+girls are in the Female Seminary. In 1861 she taught a day school for
+girls in Beir&ucirc;t, and assisted Dr. De Forest in his work in the Beir&ucirc;t
+Seminary. I called upon her a few days since, and she handed me a roll
+of Arabic manuscript, which she said she had been translating from the
+English. It is a series of stories for children which she has prepared
+to be printed in our monthly journal for Syrian children. The name of
+the journal is "koukab es Subah," or "Morning Star." She has been
+confined to her bed a part of the summer, and when she gave me the
+manuscript, she apologized for the handwriting, on the ground that she
+had written the most of it sitting or lying on her bed. She has not
+forgotten the example and instructions of Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and
+speaks of them with en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span>thusiastic interest. Her husband failed in
+business some years ago, and she is in a constant struggle with want,
+but her old friends and loving sisters, Raheel and Lulu, who are among
+her nearest neighbors, are unremitting in their kind attentions to her.</p>
+
+<p>What a difference between the faithful Christian nurture her little
+children are receiving at home, and the worse than no training received
+by the children of her Druze relatives at Ras Beir&ucirc;t, who are still
+under the shadow of their old superstitions. She never curses her
+children nor invokes the wrath of God upon them. She is never beaten and
+spit upon and tortured and threatened with death by her husband. It is
+worth much to have rescued a Khozma and an Abla from the degradation of
+Druze superstition! These two good women, with Abdullah in Beir&ucirc;t, and
+Hassan, Hassein, Asaad and Ali, in Lebanon, are among the living
+witnesses to the preciousness of the love of Christ, who have come forth
+from the Druze community. They have been persecuted, and may be again,
+but they stand firm in Christ. Not a few Druze girls are gathered in our
+schools in Beir&ucirc;t, Lebanon, and the vicinity of Hermon, as well as in
+other schools in Damascus, Hasbeiya and elsewhere, and some of their
+young men are receiving a Christian education.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">NUSAIRIYEH.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>To</b></span> the North of Mount Lebanon, and along the low range of mountains
+extending from Antioch to Tripoli, and from the Mediterranean on the
+West to Hums on the East, live a strange, wild, blood-thirsty race
+called the Nusair&icirc;yeh numbering about 200,000 souls, and now for the
+first time in their history coming within the range of Missionary
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>The Druzes admit women to the Akkal or initiated class, but not so the
+Nusair&icirc;yeh. The great secret of the Sacrament is administered in a
+secluded place, the women being shut up in a house, or kept away from
+the mysteries. In these assemblies the Sheikh reads prayers, and then
+all join in cursing Abubekr, Omar, Othman, Sheikh et-Turkoman and the
+Christians and others. Then he gives a spoonful of wine, first to the
+Sheikhs present, and then to all the rest. They then eat fruit, offer
+other prayers, and the assembly breaks up. The rites of initiation are
+frightful in the extreme, attended by threats, imprecations and
+blasphemous oaths, declaring their lives forfeited if they expose the
+secrets of the order.</p>
+
+<p>They use given signs and questions, by which they salute each other, and
+ascertain whether a stranger is one of them or not. In their books they
+employ <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span>the double interlacing triangle or seal of Solomon. They call
+each other brethren, and enjoin love and truthfulness, but <i>only to the
+brethren</i>. In this they are like the Druzes. So little do they regard
+all outside their own sect, that they <i>pray to God to take out of the
+hearts of all others than themselves, what little light of knowledge and
+certainty they may possess</i>! The effect of this secret, exclusive, and
+selfish system is shown in the conduct of the Nusair&icirc;yeh in robbing and
+murdering Moslems and Christians without compunction.</p>
+
+<p>As it has been said, the Nusair&icirc;yeh women are entirely excluded from all
+participation in religious ceremonies and prayers, and from all
+religious teaching. The reason given, is two-fold; the first being that
+women cannot be trusted to keep a secret, and the second because they
+are considered by the Nusair&icirc;yeh as something unclean. They believe that
+the soul of a wicked man may pass at death into a brute, or he may be
+punished for his sins in this life by being born in a woman's form in
+the next generation. And so, if a woman live in virtue and obedience,
+there is hope of her again being born into the world <i>as a man</i>, and
+becoming one of the illuminati and possessors of the secret. It is a
+long time for the poor things to wait, but it is a convenient reward for
+their husbands to hold out before them.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the women are so religiously inclined by nature that they will have
+some object of worship, and while their husbands, fathers and sons are
+talking and praying about the celestial hierarchies, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span>the
+unfathomable mysteries, the wives, mothers and daughters will throng the
+"zeyarehs," or holy visiting shrines, on the hill tops, and among the
+groves of green trees, to propitiate the favor of the reputed saints of
+ancient days. These shrines are supposed to have miraculous powers, but
+Friday is the day when the prophets are more especially "at home," to
+receive visitors. On other days they may be "on a journey," or asleep.
+Whenever a Nuisairiyeh woman is in sorrow or trouble or fear, she goes
+to the zeyareh and cries in a piteous tone, "zeyareh, hear me!"</p>
+
+<p>Their women do not veil themselves, and consequently there is more of
+freedom among them than among Moslems and Druzes, and in their great
+festivals, men and women all dance together.</p>
+
+<p>When a young man sees a girl who pleases him, he bargains with her
+father, agreeing to pay from twenty dollars to two hundred, according to
+the dignity of her family; of which sum she receives but four dollars,
+unless her father should choose to give her a red bridal box and bedding
+for her outfit. She rides in great state to the bridegroom's house amid
+the firing of guns and shouts of the women, and on dismounting, the
+bridegroom gives her a present of from one to three dollars, called the
+"dismounting money."</p>
+
+<p>Divorce needs only the will of the man, and polygamy is common. Lane
+says in speaking of Egypt, "The depraving effects of this freedom of
+divorce upon both sexes, may be easily imagined. There are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span>many men in
+this country who, in the course of ten years, have married as many as
+twenty, thirty or more wives; and women, not far advanced in age, who
+have been wives to a dozen or more men successively."</p>
+
+<p>The Nusair&icirc;yeh women smoke, swear, and use the most vile and unclean
+language, and even go beyond the men in these respects. Swearing and
+lying are universal not only among the Nusair&icirc;yeh, but among the most of
+the Syrian people. You never receive a direct reply from a Nusa&icirc;ry. He
+will answer your question by asking another, in order, if possible, to
+ascertain your object in asking it and to conceal the true state of the
+case. Their Moslem and nominal Christian neighbors are not much better.
+They all lie, and swear, and deceive. Mr. Lyde illustrates the ignorance
+of the Greek clergy in Latakiah by the following incident. A ploughman
+who had learned something of the Bible, heard a Greek priest cursing the
+father of a little child. He said, "My father, is it right to curse?"
+"Oh," said he, "it was only from my lips." "But does not the psalmist
+say, Keep the door of my lips?" "That," replied the priest, "is only in
+the English Bible."</p>
+
+<p>Walpole says of the Nusair&icirc;yeh women, "when young, they are handsome,
+often fair, with light hair and jet-black eyes; or the rarer beauty of
+fair eyes and coal-black hair or eyebrows."</p>
+
+<p>When a fight takes place between the tribes, the women, like the women
+of the Druzes, enter into the spirit of it with demoniacal fury. During
+the battle <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span>they bring jars of water, shout, sing, and encourage the
+men, and at the close carry off the booty, such as pots, pans, chickens,
+quilts, wooden doors, trays, etc. In the Druze war of 1860, I saw the
+Druze women running with the men through Aitath, on their way to the
+scene of hostilities in the Metn. The Bedawin women likewise aid their
+husbands in the commissariat of their nomad warfare.</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Mr. Lyde was the first to undertake direct missionary labors
+among the Nusair&icirc;yeh, and his work has been carried on by the Reformed
+Presbyterian Mission in Latakiah. The Rev. J. Beattie sends me the
+following facts with regard to the work now going on among the women and
+girls.</p>
+
+<p>The first convert under the labors of Mr. Lyde was Hamm&ucirc;d, of the
+village of Merj, a young man of fine mind and most lovely character, who
+gave promise of great usefulness. After he became a Christian, his
+mother, finding that no Nusa&icirc;ry girl would marry a Christian, determined
+to secure a young girl and have her educated for Hamm&ucirc;d. So she paid
+four Turkish pounds for a little Nusa&icirc;ry girl named Zahara or Venus,
+whose widowed mother had removed to her village. This payment was in
+accordance with Nusa&icirc;ry customs, and constituted the girl's dowry. After
+the betrothal in 1863, Hamm&ucirc;d sent her to Latakiah, where she was taken
+into the family of the late Dr. Dodds for instruction and training. She
+gladly received the truth, and Hamm&ucirc;d labored earnestly for her
+enlightenment. Everything seemed bright and promising, until suddenly
+all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span>their earthly hopes were dashed by the early death of Hamm&ucirc;d in
+December, 1864. He died in the triumphs of the Christian faith, and from
+that time she gave herself to the Lord. In August, 1865, she with
+several others was baptized and received into the communion of the
+Church. At her own request, she was baptized as Miriam.</p>
+
+<p>In 1866 she was married to Yusef Jedid, and lived with him in several of
+the villages among the Nusair&icirc;yeh, where he was engaged in teaching. Her
+husband at length removed to Bahlul&icirc;yeh in 1870, and a wide door of
+usefulness was opened to them. Her little daughters Lulu and Helany were
+with her, and there was every prospect that she would be able to do much
+for Christ among her benighted sisters. But the same disease,
+consumption, which prostrated Hamm&ucirc;d, now laid her aside. It was
+probably brought on by a careless exposure of her health while lying
+down on the damp ground and falling asleep uncovered, as the natives of
+the mountain villages are in the habit of doing. The missionaries from
+Latakiah constantly visited her, and Dr. Metheny gave her the benefit of
+his medical skill, but all in vain. She loved to converse on heavenly
+things, and hear the Scriptures and prayer. But when the missionaries
+returned to the city, she was overwhelmed by the rebukes and merciless
+upbraidings of the fellaheen, who have no sympathy for the sick, the
+disabled and the dying. Her ears were filled with the sound of cursing
+and bitterness, and no wonder that she entreated the missionaries <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span>not
+to leave her. She told Mr. Beattie that she did not fear to die, for her
+trust was in Jesus Christ, but it was hard to be left among such coarse
+and unsympathizing people. At length she was brought into Latakiah,
+where she seemed to feel more at home. At times she passed through
+severe spiritual conflicts, and said she was struggling with the
+adversary, who had tried to make her blaspheme. At one time she was in
+great excitement, but when the 34th Psalm was read she became entirely
+composed and calm, and in turn, began chanting the 23rd Psalm to the
+end. She sent for all of her friends and begged their forgiveness,
+commended her children to the care of Miss Crawford, and asked Mr.
+Beattie to pray with her again. Her bodily sufferings now increased,
+when suddenly she called out, "The Lord be glorified! To God give the
+glory!" Soon after, she gently fell "asleep in Jesus." Thus died the
+first woman, as far as we know, ever truly converted from among the
+Pagan Nusair&icirc;yeh. Her conversion opened the way for that work of moral,
+religious and intellectual elevation among the Nusa&icirc;ry females which has
+since been carried on in Latakiah and vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>The first Christian woman to undertake the direct task of educating and
+elevating the Nusair&icirc;yeh females was Miss Crawford. She commenced her
+work in 1869. The Mission had found that the Boarding School for boys
+was training a class of young men, who could not find, among the tens of
+thousands of families in their native mountains, a single girl fitted
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span>to be one's companion for life. The females were everywhere neglected,
+and Miss Crawford came to Syria just at the time of the greatest need.
+Under the care and direction of the Mission, she commenced a Boarding
+School for girls in Latakiah in the fall of 1869. At first, but few
+pupils could be persuaded to come. Only two attended during the first
+year. Their names were Sada and Naiuf, the sister of Zahara. The next
+year Sada left, and ten new ones entered the school: Marie, Howa,
+Naiseh, Shehla, Thaljeh, (snow,) Tumra, (fruit,) Ghazella, Husna,
+Bureib'han, and Harba. They were all from twelve to fourteen in age, and
+remained through the winter, but at the beginning of wheat harvest,
+their friends forced them to return to their homes for the summer. They
+made marked progress both in study and deportment, and before leaving
+for their homes passed a creditable examination both in their studies
+and in needlework. The fact was thus established to the astonishment of
+the citizens of Latakiah, that the Nusair&icirc;yeh girls were equal in
+intellect and skill in needlework to the brightest of the city girls. In
+the autumn of 1871 it was feared that the Pagan parents of the girls
+would prevent their return to the school, but, greatly to the
+gratification of the missionaries, all of the ten returned, bringing
+with them nine others; Hamameh, (dove,) Henireh, Elmaza, (diamond,)
+Deebeh,(she-wolf,) Alexandra, Zeinab, Lulu, (pearl,) Howwa, (Eve,) and
+Naameh, (grace).</p>
+
+<p>During the year the pupils brought new joy to the hearts of their
+teachers. Not only were their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span>numbers greatly increased, but the older
+girls seemed all to be under the influence of deep religious impressions
+on their return to the school. Although they had spent the summer among
+the wild fellaheen and been compelled to listen to blasphemy, impurity
+and cursing on every side, they had been able by the aid of God's Spirit
+to discriminate between good and evil, and to contrast the lawless
+wickedness of the fellaheen with the holy precepts of the Bible. Finding
+themselves unable to meet the requirements of God's pure and holy law,
+they returned under serious distress of mind, asking what they should do
+to be saved? Such of them as could do so, had been in the habit of
+meeting together during the summer for prayer, and of repeating the ten
+commandments and other portions of Scripture with which they were
+familiar. They had been threatened and beaten by their friends on
+account of their religious views, but they remained unmoved. The
+child-like simple faith of some of them was remarkable. Marie was
+punished on one occasion by her father for attending the missionary
+service at B'hamra on the Sabbath. He forbade her to eat for a whole
+day, and she prayed that God would give her bread. Soon after, on her
+way to the village fountain, she found part of a merk&ucirc;k, loaf of bread,
+by the wayside, which she picked up and ate most gratefully, regarding
+it as a direct answer to her prayer. Another Ghuzaleh, was brutally
+beaten because she would not swear and blaspheme, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span>all were
+threatened and insulted because they would not work on Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>In November, 1871, seven of these girls, on their own application, were
+received into the membership of the Church. It was an interesting sight
+to see that group of Nusair&icirc;yeh heathen girls standing to receive the
+ordinance of Christian baptism. In the spring of 1872, another was added
+to the list. These little ones of Christ have all thus far shown
+themselves faithful. They were sent back to their homes in the summer,
+and several, if not the most, of them may be forbidden to return again
+to the school. Some may say, why allow them to go home? The policy of
+encouraging children to run away from their parents and connect
+themselves with foreign missionaries and missionary institutions, will
+lead the heathen to hate the very name of Christianity, and to charge it
+with being a foe to all social and family order, and on the broad ground
+of missionary usefulness, the girls can do far more good in their own
+homes than elsewhere.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">CHRONICLE OF WOMEN'S WORK FROM 1820 TO 1872.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>It</b></span> must not be inferred from what has been said on a preceding page with
+regard to the favorable position occupied by the women of the nominal
+Christian sects of Syria as compared with the Mohammedan women, that the
+first missionaries found the Greek and Maronite women and girls who
+speak the Arabic language eager or even willing to receive instruction.
+Far from it. The effects of the Mohammedan domination of twelve hundred
+years have been to degrade and depress all the sects and nationalities
+who are subject to Islam. Not only were there not women and girls found
+to learn to read, but the great mass of the men of the Christian sects
+could neither read nor write. Many of the prominent Arab merchants in
+Beir&ucirc;t to-day can neither read nor write. I say Arab merchants, and yet
+very few of the Arabs of the Greek Church have more than a mere tinge of
+Arab blood in their veins. To call them Syrians, would be to confound
+them with the "Syrian" or "Jacobite" sect, who are found only in the
+vicinity of Hums, Hamath and Mardin. So with the Maronites. They are
+chiefly of a darker complexion than the Arab Greeks, and are supposed to
+<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span>have had their origin in Mesopotamia. Yet all these sects and races
+speak the common Arabic language, and hence it will be convenient to
+call them Arabs, although I am aware, that while many of the modern
+Syrians glory in the name "Oulad el Arab," many others regard it with
+dislike.</p>
+
+<p>The Syrian Christianity, moreover, so often alluded to in the history of
+the Syrian Mission, is the lowest type of the religion of the Greek and
+Roman churches. Saint-worship and picture-worship are universal. An
+ignorant priesthood, and a superstitious people, no Bibles, and no
+readers to read them, no schools and no teachers capable of conducting
+them, prayers in unknown tongues, and a bitter feeling of party spirit
+in all the sects, universal belief in the efficacy of fasts and vows,
+pilgrimages and offerings to the shrines of reputed saints, churches
+without a preached gospel, and prayers performed as a duty without the
+worship of the heart, universal Mariolatry, a Sabbath desecrated by
+priests and people alike, God's name everywhere profaned by men, women
+and children, and truthfulness of lip almost absolutely unknown; the
+women and girls degraded and oppressed and left to the tender mercies of
+a corrupt clergy through the infamies of the confessional; all these
+practices and many others which space forbids us to mention, combined
+with the social bondage entailed upon woman by the gross code of Islam,
+rendered the women of the nominal Christian sects of Syria almost as
+hopeless subjects of mission<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span>ary labor as were their less favored Druze
+and Moslem sisters.</p>
+
+<p>In order to present the leading facts in the history of Mission Work for
+Syrian women, I propose to give a brief review of the salient points, in
+the order of time, as I have been able to glean them from the missionary
+documents within my reach.</p>
+
+<p>The first Protestant missionary to Syria since the days of the Apostles,
+was the Rev. Levi Parsons, who reached Jerusalem January 16, 1821, and
+died in Alexandria February 10, 1822. In 1823, Rev. Pliny Fisk, and Dr.
+Jonas King reached Jerusalem to take his place, and on the 10th of July
+came to Beir&ucirc;t. Dr. King spent the summer in Deir el Kamr, and Mr. Fisk
+in a building now occupied by the Jesuit College in Aint&ucirc;ra.</p>
+
+<p>On the 16th of November, 1823, Messrs. Goodell and Bird reached Beir&ucirc;t,
+and on the 6th of December, 1824, they wrote as follows: "Mr. King's
+Arabic instructor laughs heartily that the ladies of our company are
+served first at table. He said that if any person should come to his
+house and speak to his wife <i>first</i>, he should be offended. He said the
+English ladies have some understanding, the Arab women have none. It is
+the custom of this country that a woman must never be seen eating or
+walking, or in company with her husband. When she walks abroad, she must
+wrap herself in a large white sheet, and look like a ghost, and at home
+she must be treated more like a slave than a partner. Indeed, women are
+considered of so little consequence that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span>to ask a man after the health
+of his wife, is a question which is said never to find a place in the
+social intercourse of this country."</p>
+
+<p>Jan. 24, 1825, Dr. Goodell wrote, "Some adult females come occasionally
+to be taught by Mrs. Bird or Mrs. Goodell, and although their attendance
+is very irregular, and their <i>disadvantages very great</i>, being <i>without
+Arabic books</i>, and their friends deriding their efforts, yet they make
+some improvement. One of them, who a fortnight ago did not know a single
+letter of the alphabet, can now read one verse in the Bible."</p>
+
+<p>July 1, 1825, Messrs. Goodell and Bird speak of the first girls taught
+to read in Syria in mission schools. "Our school contains between eighty
+and ninety scholars, who are all boys <i>except two</i>. One is the teacher's
+wife, who is perhaps fifteen years of age, and the other a little girl
+about ten." That teacher was Tann&ucirc;s el Haddad, who died a few years ago,
+venerated and beloved by all sects and classes of the people, having
+been for many years deacon of the Beir&ucirc;t Church, and his wife, Im
+Beshara, still lives, with an interesting family.</p>
+
+<p>On the 21st of Dec, 1825, Dr. King wrote as follows: "I spent about a
+month in Tyre, and made some efforts to establish a school for Tyrian
+females, and was very near succeeding, when one of the principal priests
+rose up and said, 'It is by no means expedient to teach women to read
+the word of God. It is better for them to remain in ignorance than to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span>know how to read and write. They are quite bad enough with what little
+they now know. Teach them to read and write, and <i>there would be no
+living with them</i>!'" That Tyrian priest of fifty years ago, was a fair
+sample of his black-frocked brethren throughout Syria from that time to
+this. There have been a few worthy exceptions, but the Syrian priesthood
+of all sects, taken as a class, are the avowed enemies of the education
+and elevation of their people. Some of the exceptions to this rule will
+be mentioned in the subsequent pages of this volume.</p>
+
+<p>In 1826, there were three hundred children in the Mission schools in the
+vicinity of Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+<p>In 1827, there were 600 pupils in 13 schools, of whom <i>one hundred and
+twenty were girls</i>! In view of the political, social and religious
+condition of Syria at that time, that statement is more remarkable than
+almost any fact in the history of the Syrian Mission. It shows that Mrs.
+Bird and Mrs. Goodell must have labored to good purpose in persuading
+their benighted Syrian sisters to send their daughters to school, and to
+these two Christian women is due the credit of having commenced Woman's
+Work for Women in modern times in Syria. In that same year, the wives of
+Bishop Dionysius Carabet and Gregory Wortabet were received to the
+communion of the Church in Beir&ucirc;t, being the first spiritual fruits of
+Women's Work for Women in modern Syria.</p>
+
+<p>During 1828 and 1829 the Missionaries temporarily withdrew to Malta. In
+1833, Dr. Thomson <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span>and Dr. Dodge arrived in Beir&ucirc;t. The Mission now
+consisted of Messrs. Bird, Whiting, Eli Smith, Drs. Thomson and Dodge.
+In a letter written at that time by Messrs. Bird, Smith and Thomson, it
+is said, "Of the females, none can either read or write, or the
+exceptions are so very few as not to deserve consideration. Female
+education is not merely neglected, but discouraged and opposed." They
+also stated, that "the whole number of native children in the Mission
+Schools from the beginning had been 650; 500 before the interruption in
+1828, and 150 since." "Female education as such is yet nearly untried."</p>
+
+<p>During that year Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. Dodge commenced a school for
+girls in Beir&ucirc;t. Dr. Eli Smith speaks of this school as follows, in the
+Memoir of Mrs. S.&nbsp;L. Smith: "A few girls were previously found in some of
+the public schools supported by the Mission, and a few had lived in the
+Mission families. But these ladies wished to bring them more directly
+under missionary influence, and to confer upon them the benefit of a
+system of instruction adapted to females. A commencement was accordingly
+made, by giving lessons to such little girls as could be irregularly
+assembled for an hour or two a day at the Mission-house; such an
+informal beginning being not only all that the ladies had time to
+attempt, but being also considered desirable as less likely to excite
+jealousy and opposition. For the project was entered upon with much
+trembling and apprehension. Not merely indifference to female <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span>education
+had to be encountered, but strong prejudice against it existing in the
+public mind from time immemorial. The Oriental prejudice against
+innovations from any quarter, and especially from foreigners, threatened
+resistance. The seclusion of females within their own immediate circle
+of relationship, originally Oriental, but strengthened by Mohammedan
+influence, stood in the way. And more than all, religious jealousy,
+looking upon the missionaries as dangerous heretics, and their influence
+as contamination, seemed to give unequivocal warning that the attempt
+might be fruitless. But the missionaries were not aware of the hold they
+had gained upon the public confidence. The event proved in this, as in
+many other missionary attempts, that strong faith is a better principle
+to act upon in the propagation of the gospel, than cautious calculation.
+Even down to the present time (1840) it is not known that a word of
+opposition has been uttered against the school which was then commenced.</p>
+
+<p>"On the arrival of Mrs. S.&nbsp;L. Smith in Beir&ucirc;t in January, 1834, she found
+some six or eight girls assembled every afternoon in Mrs. Thomson's room
+at the Mission house, receiving instruction in sewing and reading. One
+was far enough advanced to aid in teaching, and the widow of Gregory
+Wortabet occasionally assisted. On the removal of Mrs. Thomson and Mrs.
+Dodge to Jerusalem, the entire charge of the school devolved upon Mrs.
+Smith, aided by Mrs. Wortabet. Especial attention was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span>given to reading,
+sewing, knitting and good behavior. In November, 1835, Miss Rebecca
+Williams arrived in Beir&ucirc;t as an assistant to Mrs. Smith. The school
+then increased, and in the spring of 1836 an examination was held, at
+which the mothers of the children and some other female friends were
+present. The scholars together amounted to upwards of forty; the room
+was well-filled, "presenting a scene that would have delighted the heart
+of many a friend of missions. Classes were examined in reading,
+spelling, geography, first lessons in arithmetic, Scripture questions,
+the English language, and sacred music, and the whole was closed by a
+brief address from Mrs. Dodge. The mothers then came forward of their
+own accord, and in a gratifying manner expressed their thanks to the
+ladies for what they had done for their daughters." Of the pupils of
+this school, the greater part were Arabs of the Greek Church; two were
+Jewesses; and some were Druzes; and at times there were eight or ten
+Moslems.</p>
+
+<p>A Sabbath School, with five teachers and thirty pupils, was established
+at the same time, the majority of the scholars being girls. A native
+female prayer-meeting was also commenced at this time, conducted by
+three missionary ladies and two native Protestant women. At times, as
+many as twenty were present, and this first female prayer-meeting in
+Syria in modern times, was attended with manifest tokens of the Divine
+blessing.</p>
+
+<p>As has been already stated, the seclusion of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> Oriental females renders
+it almost impossible for a male missionary to visit among them or hold
+religious meetings exclusively for women. This must be done, if at all,
+by the missionary's wife or by Christian women devoted especially to
+this work. It was true in 1834, and it is almost equally true in 1873.
+The Arabs have a proverb, "The tree is not cut down, but by a branch of
+itself;" <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> the axe handle is of wood. So none can reach the women
+of Syria but women. The Church of Rome understands this, and is sending
+French, Italian and Spanish nuns in multitudes to work upon the girls
+and women of Syria, and the women of the Syria Mission, married and
+unmarried, have done a noble work in the past in the elevation and
+education of their Syrian sisters. And in this connection it should be
+observed, that a <i>sine qua non</i> of efficient usefulness among the women
+of Syria, is that the Christian women who labor for them should know the
+Arabic language. Ignorance of the language is regarded by the people as
+indicating a want of sympathy with them, and is an almost insuperable
+barrier to a true spiritual influence. The great work to be done for the
+women of the world in the future, is to be done in their own
+mother-tongue, and it would be well that all the Female Seminaries in
+foreign lands should be so thoroughly supplied with teachers, that those
+most familiar with the native language could be free to devote a portion
+of their time to labors among the native women in their homes.</p>
+
+<p>In 1834 and 1835 Mrs. Dodge conducted a school <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span>for Druze girls in
+Aaleih, in Lebanon. This School in Aaleih, a village about 2300 feet
+above the level of the sea, was once suddenly broken up. Not a girl
+appeared at the morning session. A rumor had spread through the village,
+that the English fleet had come up Mount Lebanon from Beir&ucirc;t, and was
+approaching Aaleih to carry off all the girls to England! The panic
+however subsided, and the girls returned to school. In 1836 Mrs. Hebard
+and Mrs. Dodge carried on the work which Mrs. Smith had so much loved,
+and which was only temporarily interrupted by her death.</p>
+
+<p>In 1837, Mrs. Whiting and Miss Tilden had an interesting school of
+Mohammedan girls in Jerusalem, and Mrs. Whiting had several native girls
+in her own family.</p>
+
+<p>In reply to certain inquiries contained in a note I addressed to Miss T.
+she writes: "I arrived in Beir&ucirc;t, June 16, 1835. Mr. and Mrs. Whiting in
+Jerusalem were desirous that I should take a small school that Mrs.
+Whiting had gathered, of Mohammedan girls. She had in her family two
+girls from Beir&ucirc;t, Salome, (Mrs. Prof. Wortabet,) and Hanne, (Mrs.
+Reichardt.) There were in school from 12 to 20 or more scholars, all
+Moslems. Only one Christian girl could be persuaded to attend. I think
+that the inducement they had to send their daughters was the instruction
+given in sewing and knitting, free of expense to them. Mrs. Whiting
+taught the same scholars on the Sabbath. The Scripture used in their
+instruction, both week days and on the Sab<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span>bath, was the Psalms. After a
+year and a half I went to Beir&ucirc;t and assisted in the girl's school,
+which was somewhat larger and more promising. Miss Williams had become
+Mrs. Hebard, and Miss Badger from Malta was teaching at the time. Mrs.
+Smith's boarding scholar Raheel, was with Mrs. Hebard. I suppose that
+female education in the family was commenced in Syria by Mr. Bird, who
+taught the girl that married Demetrius. (Miss T. probably meant to say
+Dr. Thomson, as Mariya, daughter of Yakob Agha, was first placed in his
+family by her father in 1834.) The girls taught in the different
+missionaries' families were Raheel, Salome, Hanne, Khozma, Lulu, Kefa,
+and Susan Haddad. Schools were taught in the mountains, and instruction
+given to the women, and meetings held with them as the ladies had
+strength and opportunity, at their different summer residences. The day
+scholars were taught in Arabic, and the boarding scholars in Arabic and
+English. I taught them Colburn's Arithmetic. I taught also written
+arithmetic, reading, etc., in the boys' school."</p>
+
+<p>In 1841, war broke out between the Druzes and Maronites, and the nine
+schools of the Mission, including the Male Seminary of 31 pupils, the
+Girls' School of 25 pupils, and the Druze High School in Deir el Kamr,
+were broken up.</p>
+
+<p>In 1842, the schools were resumed. In twelve schools were 279 pupils, of
+whom 52 were girls, and twelve young girls were living as boarders in
+mission families.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span></p><p>In 1843, there were thirteen schools with 438 pupils, and eleven young
+girls in mission families.</p>
+
+<p>During the year 1844, 186 persons were publicly recognized as
+Protestants in Hasbeiya. Fifteen women attended a daily afternoon
+prayer-meeting, and expressed great surprise and delight at the thought
+that religion was a thing in which <i>women</i> had a share! A fiery
+persecution was commenced against the Protestants, who all fled to Abeih
+in Lebanon. On their return they were attacked and stoned in the
+streets, and Deacon Fuaz was severely wounded.</p>
+
+<p>In 1845, Lebanon was again desolated with civil war, the schools were
+suspended, and the instruction of 182 girls and 424 boys interrupted for
+a time.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">MRS. WHITING'S SCHOOL.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>In</b></span> 1846, Mrs. Whiting commenced a girls' day-school in her family at
+Abeih, and in Beir&ucirc;t there were four schools for boys and girls
+together, and one school for girls alone. In 18 Mission schools there
+were 144 girls and 384 boys. This girls' school in Abeih in 1846 was
+taught by Salome (Mrs. Wortabet) and Hanne, (Mrs. Reichardt,) the two
+oldest girls in Mr. Whiting's family. It was impossible to begin the
+school before August 1st, as the houses of the village which had been
+burned in the war of the preceding year had not been rebuilt, and
+suitable accommodations could not readily be found. During the summer
+there were twelve pupils, and in the fall twenty-five, from the Druze,
+Maronite, Greek Catholic and Greek sects, and the greatest freedom was
+used in giving instruction in the Bible and the Assembly's and Watts'
+Catechisms. A portion of every day was spent in giving especial
+religious instruction, and on the Sabbath a part of the pupils were
+gathered into the Sabbath School. During the fall a room was erected on
+the Mission premises for the girls' school, at an expense of 100
+dollars.</p>
+
+<p>The following letter from Mrs. Whiting needs no introduction. It bears a
+melancholy interest from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span>the fact that the beloved writer died shortly
+afterwards, at Newark, N.&nbsp;J., May 18th, 1873.</p>
+
+<p>"My first introduction to the women of Syria was by Mrs. Bird, mother of
+Rev. Wm. Bird and Mrs. Van Lennep. She was then in the midst of her
+little family of four children. I daily found her in her nursery,
+surrounded by native women who came to her in great numbers, often with
+their sick children. They were always received with the greatest
+kindness and ministered to. She might be seen giving a warm bath to a
+sick child, or waiting and watching the effect of other remedies.
+Mothers from the neighboring villages of Lebanon were allowed to bring
+their sick children and remain for days in her house until relief was
+obtained. She was soon known throughout Beir&ucirc;t and these villages as the
+friend of the suffering, and I have ever thought that by these Christian
+self-denying labors, she did much towards gaining the confidence of the
+people. And who shall say that while good Father Bird was in his study
+library among the 'Popes and Fathers,' preparing his controversial work
+'The Thirteen Letters,' this dear sister, by her efforts, was not making
+a way to the hearts of these people for the reception of gospel truth,
+which has since been preached so successfully in the neighboring
+villages of Lebanon?</p>
+
+<p>"In the autumn of 1834, Mr. Whiting was removed to the Jerusalem
+station. I found the women accessible and ready to visit me, and invite
+me to their houses, but unwilling to place their girls under my
+instruction. All my efforts for some time were fruit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span>less. Under date of
+Aug. 22, I find this entry in Mr. Whiting's journal: "During the past
+week, three little Moslem girls have been placed under Mrs. Whiting's
+instruction for the purpose of learning to read and sew. They seem much
+pleased with their new employment, and their parents, who are
+respectable Moslems, express great satisfaction in the prospect of their
+learning. They say, in the Oriental style that the children are no
+longer theirs, but ours, and that they shall remain with us and learn
+everything we think proper to teach them. This event excited much talk
+in the city, particularly among the Moslem mothers. The number of
+scholars, chiefly Moslem girls, increased to twenty-five and thirty."</p>
+
+<p>At a later date, Jan., 1836, "one of the girls in Mrs. Whiting's school,
+came with a complaint against a Jew who had been attempting to frighten
+her away from the school by telling her and her uncle (her guardian)
+that her teacher certainly had some evil design, and no doubt intended
+to select the finest of the girls, and send them away to the Pasha, and
+that it was even written so in the books which she was teaching the
+children to read. Whether the Jew has been set up by others to tell the
+people this absurd nonsense, I cannot say, but certainly it is a new
+thing for Jews to make any opposition, or to show any hostility to us.
+And this looks very much like the evil influence which has been
+attempted in another quarter."</p>
+
+<p>"March 7. Yesterday Mrs. W. commenced a Sunday school for the pupils of
+her day school.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> They were much delighted. They began to learn the
+Sermon on the Mount."</p>
+
+<p>"Sept. 7. Had a visit from two Sheikhs of the Mosque of David. One of
+them inquired particularly respecting Mrs. Whiting's school for Moslem
+girls, and wished to know what she taught them to read. I showed him the
+little spelling-book which we use, with which he was much pleased and
+begged me to lend it to him. I gave him one, with a copy of the Psalms,
+which he wished to compare with the Psalms of David as the Moslems have
+them. He invited me strongly to come and visit him, and to bring Mrs.
+Whiting to see his family."</p>
+
+<p>The school continued with little interruption until October 3d, when
+Miss Tilden arrived and had the charge of the school for nearly two
+years. I left in feeble health, with Mr. Whiting, for the United States,
+where we spent more than one year. Miss Tilden during our absence was
+engaged in teaching in the boys' school in Beir&ucirc;t. On my return the
+Moslem school was not resumed, and soon after Mr. Whiting was again
+transferred to the Abeih station.</p>
+
+<p>My work in the family school began in October, 1835, when Salome Carabet
+and Hanne Wortabet were placed by their parents in our family school. We
+afterwards added to the number Melita Carabet, and the two orphan girls
+Sada and Rufka Gregory. These two were brought to us in a very
+providential way. They were the children of Yakob Gregory, a respectable
+Armenian well known in Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+<p>He had two children, and when these were quite <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span>young, he left his wife,
+and nothing was heard of him afterwards. The mother died soon after and
+left the children in the care of the American Mission and the Armenian
+Bishop. The old grandmother, who was in Aleppo, on hearing of her death,
+soon returned to Beir&ucirc;t to look after the children. She was allowed to
+visit them in the Bishop's family, where they were cared for, and one
+day, in a stealthy way, she took Sada into the city, placed her in the
+hands of a Jew, on board of a native boat bound for Jaffa. I suppose
+Sada was then about six years old. They set sail. The child cried
+bitterly on finding her grandmother was not on board as she had
+promised. There was on board the boat an Armenian, well acquainted with
+her father, who inquired of her the cause. On hearing her story he
+remonstrated, with the Jew, who said she had been placed in his hands by
+her grandmother to be sent to Jerusalem. On their arriving at Jaffa, the
+affair was made known to Mr. Murad, the American Consul. He sent for the
+Jew, took the child from his hands, and dismissed him, and wrote to Mr.
+Whiting in Jerusalem an account of the affair, and was directed by him
+to send the child to us. Not long after, her grandmother came to
+Jerusalem bringing Rufka. She tried to interest the Armenian Convent in
+her behalf. Here I find an extract from Mr. Whiting's journal, which
+will give you all of interest on this point. "After being out much of
+the morning, I returned and found the grandmother of little Sada, who
+had brought her little sister Rufka to leave her with us. She had a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span>quarrel with the convent, and fled for refuge to us. We cannot but be
+thankful that both these little orphans are at length quietly placed
+under our care and instruction."</p>
+
+<p>The parents of three of the girls in our family, being Protestants,
+always gave their sanction to our mode of instructing and training them.
+Bishop Carabet likewise aided us in every way in his power, and ever
+seemed most grateful for what I was doing for his daughters. In his last
+sickness, when enfeebled by age, I often visited him. Once on going into
+his room, he was seated as usual on his Turkish rug. One of the family
+rose to offer me a chair, I said, "let me sit near you on your rug, that
+I may talk to you." With much emotion he replied, "<i>Inshullah tukodee
+jenb il Messiah fe melakoot is sema!</i>" "God grant that you may sit by
+the side of Christ in the kingdom of Heaven!"</p>
+
+<p>We were from time to time encouraged by tokens of a work of God's Spirit
+in their hearts. Melita Carabet was the first to indulge a hope in
+Christ, and united with the Church in Abeih. Salome united in Beir&ucirc;t;
+Hanne in Hasbeiya, where her brother, Rev. John Wortabet, was pastor.
+Sada was received by Mr. Calhoun at Abeih, soon after Mr. Whiting's
+death, and Rufka in later years united with the United Presbyterian
+Church in Alexandria, Egypt. I have ever thought these girls were under
+great obligations to the American Churches and the American Mission, who
+for so many years supported and instructed them, and I have ever tried
+to im<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span>press upon them a sense of their obligation to impart to others of
+their countrywomen what they had received. I believe as early as 1836,
+they began assisting me in the Moslem school for girls in Jerusalem, in
+which they continued to assist Miss Tilden until the school was given
+up.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after our removal to Abeih, October, 1844, we established a
+day-school for girls in the village on the Mission premises, of which
+Salome and Hanne had the entire charge under my superintendence. When
+the Station at Mosul was established, Salome was appointed by the
+Mission to assist Mrs. Williams in her work among the women, in which
+work she continued until her marriage with Rev. John Wortabet. Melita
+was afterwards appointed by the Mission to the Aleppo Station to assist
+Mrs. Eddy and Mrs. Ford in the work, and so they were employed at
+various stations in the work of teaching, until I left the Mission. I
+have kept up a continual correspondence with them, and have learned from
+others to my joy, that they were doing the work for which I had trained
+them."</p>
+
+<p>The above deeply interesting letter from Mrs. Whiting is enough in
+itself to show what an amount of patient Christian labor was expended
+through a course of many years, in the education of the five young
+Syrian maidens who were entrusted in the providence of God to her care.
+I have been personally acquainted with four of them for seventeen years,
+and can testify, as can many others, of the good use they have made of
+their high opportunities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> The amount of good they have accomplished as
+teachers, in Abeih, Jerusalem, Deir el Komr, Hasbeiya, Tripoli, Aleppo,
+Mosul, Alexandria, Cairo, Melbourne, (Australia,) and in the Mission
+Female Seminary and the Prussian Deaconesses' Institute in Beir&ucirc;t, will
+never be known until all things are revealed. I have received letters
+from several of them, which I will give in their own language, as they
+are written in English. The first is from Salome, now the wife of the
+Rev. Prof. John Wortabet, M.D., of the Syrian Protestant College in
+Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not consider my history worth recording, and it is only out of
+consideration of what is due to Mrs. Whiting for the labor she bestowed
+upon us, that I am induced to take up my pen to comply with your
+request. I was taken by Mrs. Whiting when only six years old, together
+with Hannie Wortabet, who was five years old, to be brought up in her
+family, she having no children of her own. Owing partly to the nature of
+the religious instruction we received, and partly to my own timid
+sensitive nature, I was, from time to time for many years, under deep
+spiritual terrors, without any saving result. When I was about sixteen,
+a revival of religion took place, under whose influence I was also
+brought. Mr. Calhoun was my spiritual adviser, and although my mind
+groped in darkness, and bordered on despair for many weeks, I hope I was
+then led to put my trust in Jesus, and if ever I am saved, my only hope
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span>now is, and ever shall be, in the merits of Jesus' blood and His
+promises."</p>
+
+<p>The next letter is from Melita Carabet, daughter of the Armenian Bishop
+Dionysius Carabet, who became a Protestant in 1823. She writes as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing could give me more pleasure than to comply with your request,
+and thereby recall some of the happy days and incidents of my childhood
+and youth, spent under the roof of my godly teachers, Mr. and Mrs.
+Whiting. I ought to remember them as far back as at the baptismal font,
+for I heard afterwards that they were both present on the occasion,
+which took place in Malta, where I was born. But as my memory does not
+carry me back so far, I must date my recollections from the time I was
+five years of age, when I came to live in their family. I can distinctly
+recollect the first texts of Scripture and verses of hymns that dear
+Mrs. Whiting taught my young lips to repeat, and my little prayer which
+I used to say at her knees on going to bed, I still repeat to this day,
+"Now I lay me," etc. One incident which happened about a year later, was
+so deeply impressed on my memory, and had such an effect upon me at the
+time, that I must mention it. It was this. Mrs. Whiting had given us
+girls (we were five in number, my sister Salome, and Hannie, Dr.
+Wortabet's sister, and Sada and Rufka Gregory) some raisins to pick over
+preparatory to making cake. I stole an opportunity after a while, to
+slip about a dozen of these raisins into my pocket. No one saw me do it
+but from the moment I had done it, I began to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span>feel very unhappy, and
+repented the deed. My companions went out to play, but I could not join
+in their sports. My heart was too heavy. I sat mourning over my sin, and
+could eat no supper, and had no rest until I had made a full confession
+to Mrs. Whiting at bed-time. She prayed and wept over me, and somehow I
+was comforted and went to my little bed much happier.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember nothing more until a much later period, when I was about the
+age of twelve. About this time, there was a great awakening among the
+young girls in some of the Mission families. Mr. Calhoun's prayers and
+advice were very much solicited and sought, in guiding and praying with
+the young inquirers. One Sunday as I was reading the little tract "The
+Blacksmith's wife," (which I have kept to this day,) I felt a great
+weight and sense of sin. I trace my conversion to the reading of this
+tract. It was not long before I found peace. I have often since longed
+for those days and hours of sweet communion with my Saviour. I joined
+the Church a very short time after this, and at this early age was given
+charge of a Bible class in Abeih.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I must pass over a few more years, when I went to Hasbeiya, to
+spend a little time with my sister Salome, now wife of Dr. John
+Wortabet, who was appointed pastor of the little Protestant Church
+there. I spent one year of my life here, during which time I took charge
+of a little day school for girls in my sister's house. Dr. Wortabet's
+sister Hannie had opened this school some years before I came. I do <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span>not
+remember the number of pupils, but there were five little Moslem
+princesses, grandchildren of the great Emir "Saad-ed-Deen," who was
+called some years later to Constantinople to be punished for having
+spoken disrespectfully of Queen Victoria. These little princesses were
+regular attendants at the school, and learned to read in the New
+Testament, and studied Watts' Catechism with the rest of the Christian
+children. I had also charge of a Bible class for women, who used to meet
+once a week in the Protestant Church. This was before the massacre of
+1860. The rest of my life has been spent in teaching in Beir&ucirc;t. Since
+the massacres, I have been teaching the orphans in the Prussian School,
+where I at present reside. Indeed it has been my home ever since I
+undertook this work which I love dearly, and which I hope to continue so
+long as the Lord sees fit, and gives me strength to work for Him."</p>
+
+<p>I am permitted to make the following extract from a letter written by
+Melita to Mrs. Whiting, in February, 1868. I give the exact language, as
+the letter is written in English:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Prussian Institution, Beir&ucirc;t</span>, <i>February</i> 23, 1868.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Mrs. Whiting</span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>It is so cold this morning that I can with difficulty hold my pen.
+It has been a very cold and stormy month, and there seems no
+prospect of fair weather yet. The snow on the mountains is as low
+as the lowest hills, and I pity the poor creatures who must be
+suffering in consequence. J. enjoys the weather very much; indeed
+he seems so exhilarated and invigorated by it that one could almost
+wish it to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span>last on his account, but I must say that I wish it was
+over, and the warm sunbeams shedding their genial rays again upon
+the cold frozen earth.</p>
+
+<p>Trouble and grief are such a common complaint at present that you
+will not be surprised to hear me relate my share of them. I have
+indeed had my full share, and you would say so too had you seen how
+I was occupied during my holidays last summer, in taking care of my
+ill and suffering brother. And aside from my fatigue, for I was
+always on my feet until two or three hours after midnight, quite
+alone with him&mdash;merely to witness such indescribable suffering as
+he went through, was more than is generally allotted to human
+beings on earth. He had been unwell for some time previous, and had
+been advised by the Doctor to go up to the mountains, so Mr.
+Calhoun kindly offered him a place in the Seminary, where he could
+stop until his health was recruited, and in the meantime give a
+couple of English lessons during the day to the boys in the
+Seminary. He lodged with the Theological students in a little room
+above the school, but he had not been up there more than a week,
+when his whole body became suddenly covered with a burning eruption
+that was always spreading and increasing in size. He could neither
+lie nor sit in any possible position, and was racked with pains
+that seemed at times well nigh driving him mad. I trembled for his
+reason, and was so awed and terrified by the sight, that I was in
+danger of losing mine as well. No one would come near him, and Mrs.
+Calhoun had kindly asked me to come and spend the holidays with
+them, so it fell to my lot to nurse and take care of him. I used to
+go to him in the morning as soon as I got up, and sit (or stand) up
+with him until two or three o'clock at night, dressing his sores;
+running down only occasionally for my meals, and with my little
+lantern coming down in the dead of night, all alone, to lay my
+weary head and aching heart and limbs on my bed for a little rest.
+But not to sleep, for whenever I closed my eyes, I had that eternal
+picture and scene of suffering before me. I could find no one who
+was willing for love or for money to help me or relieve me for one
+night or day. The disease was so offensive as well as frightful,
+that no one could stop in the room. One of the Prussian "Sisters"
+who went up with me, kindly assisted me sometimes until she came
+down. In this state did J. find me on his return from England. His
+family was up in Aaleih, and he used to ride over occasionally to
+see P. and prescribe some new medicine for him, but his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span>skill was
+baffled with this terrifying disease, and poor P. remained in this
+agonizing state of suffering for five whole months without leaving
+his bed. He was carried down on a litter to Beir&ucirc;t, where he has
+been since. He took a little room by himself, and gives lessons in
+English until something more prosperous turns up for him. Twenty
+years' experience seemed to be added to my life in those three
+months of anxiety I went through last summer; and what a picture of
+suffering and grief was I, after this, myself. No wonder if I feel
+entirely used up this winter, and feel it a great effort to live.</p>
+
+<p>There is not the slightest prospect of my ever getting back my lost
+property from that man&mdash;as he has long since left the country, and
+is said to be a great scoundrel and a very dishonorable man. If he
+were not, he would never have risked the earnings of a poor orphan
+girl by asking for it on the eve of his bankruptcy. Had I my
+property I might perhaps have given up teaching for a while, and
+gone away for a little change and rest, but God has willed it
+otherwise, no doubt for some wise purpose, and to some wise end,
+although so difficult and incomprehensible at present. It is all
+doubtless for the trial of my faith and trust in Him. Let me then
+trust in Him! Yea, though He slay me, let me yet trust in Him! Has
+He ever yet failed me? Has He not proved Himself in all ages to be
+the Father and the God of the orphan and the widow? He must see
+that I need these troubles and sorrows, or He would not send them,
+for my Father's hand would never cause his child a needless tear. A
+bruised reed He will not break, but will temper the storm to the
+shorn lamb; I will then no longer be dejected and cast down, but
+look upward and trust in my Heavenly Father, feeling sure that He
+will make all right in the end.</p>
+
+<p>My letter is so sad and melancholy that I cannot let it go without
+something more cheerful, so I will add a line to brighten and cheer
+it up a little. For life, with all the bitterness it contains, has
+also much that is agreeable and affords much enjoyment; for there
+is a wonderful elasticity in the human mind which enables it, when
+sanctified by divine grace, to bear up under present ills. So with
+all my griefs and ills, I have been able to enjoy myself too
+sometimes this winter. I have lately attended two Concerts, one
+here, given by the Prussian Sisters, for the benefit of the new
+Orphanage, "Talitha Kumi," at Jerusalem, lately erected by the
+Prussian Sisters there&mdash;and one given by the "Sisters of Charity,"
+for the benefit of the orphans and poor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span>of this town. Daood Pasha
+most generously gave up the large hall in his mansion for the
+occasion, as well as honoring it by his attendance. The Concert in
+our Institution was entirely musical, vocal and instrumental. All
+the Missionaries came. We had nearly three hundred tickets sold at
+five francs apiece, so that there was a nice little sum added to
+the Orphan's Fund at Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Ever your affectionate</p>
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Melita</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Saada Gregory was engaged in teaching at different times in Tripoli,
+Aleppo, Hasbeiya and Egypt. Her school in Tripoli was eminently
+successful, and her labors in Alexandria were characterized by great
+energy and perseverance. She kept up a large school even when suffering
+from great bodily pain. She is now in the United States in enfeebled
+health.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">American Mission House</span>, <span class="smcap">Alexandria</span>,
+<i>November</i> 8, 1867.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Mrs. Whiting</span>,</p>
+
+<p>I know you will be expecting a letter from me soon, partly in
+answer to yours sent by Mrs. Van Dyck, and especially because it is
+the day on which you expect all your children to remember you. I
+never do forget this day, but this time there are special reasons
+for my remembering it. Whenever the day has come around, I have
+felt more forcibly than at others, how utterly alone I have been,
+for since dear Mr. Whiting was taken away from us, it has seemed as
+though we were made doubly orphans, but this time it has not been
+so. I think I have been made to realize that I have a loving Father
+in heaven who loves and watches over and cares for me more than
+ever you or Mr. Whiting did. I do really feel now that God has
+given me friends, so this day has not been so sad a one to me as it
+usually is. Another source of thankfulness to-day is, that I have
+been raised up from a bed of pain and suffering from which neither
+I nor any of my friends thought I ever would rise. Weary days and
+nights of pain, when it was torture to move and almost impossible
+to lie still, and when it seemed at times that death would be only
+a relief, and yet here I am still living to praise Him for many,
+many mercies. Mr. Pinkerton waited on me day and night, often
+depriving himself of sleep and rest <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span>in order to do it, and when
+convalescence set in, and with the restlessness of a sick person, I
+used to fancy I would be more comfortable up stairs, he used to
+carry me up and down and gratify all my whims. For five weeks I was
+in bed, and many more confined to my room and the house. But the
+greatest reason for thankfulness is, that God has in His great
+mercy brought me to a knowledge of Himself, and of my own lost
+state as a guilty sinner. It was while lying those long weary days
+on the bed that I was made to see that for ten long years I had
+been deceiving myself. Instead of being a Christian and being
+prepared to die, I was still in the gall of bitterness and the
+bonds of iniquity, and if God had taken me away during that
+sickness, it would have been with a lie in my right hand. Now when
+I look back on those long years spent in sin and in self-deception,
+I wonder at God's loving kindness and patience in sparing me still
+to show forth in me His goodness and forbearance. Truly it is of
+His mercies that I was not consumed. How often I taught others and
+talked to them of the love of Christ, and yet I had not that love
+myself. How many times I sat down to His table with his children,
+and yet I had no portion nor lot in the matter. Sometimes when I
+think how near destruction I was, with literally but a step between
+me and death, eternal death, and yet God raised me up and brought
+me to Christ and made me love Him, and how ever since He has been
+watching over me giving me the measure of comfort and peace that I
+enjoy and giving me the desire to know and love Him more, I wonder
+at my own coldness, at the frequency with which I forget Him. How
+strong sin still is over me, how prone I am to wander away from
+Christ and to forget His love, to allow sin to come between me and
+Him, and yet He still follows me with His love, still He brings me
+back to Him, the good Shepherd. Oh! if I could live nearer Christ,
+if I could realize and rejoice in His love. Now when I think how
+near I may be to the eternal world, that at any moment a severe
+attack of pain may come on which will carry me off, it is good to
+know that my Saviour will be with me; that He is mine and I am His.
+It is not easy to look death calmly in the face and know that my
+days are numbered, yet can I not participate in the promise that He
+Himself will come and take me to be with Him where He is. I would
+like to be allowed to live longer and be permitted to bring souls
+to Christ, but I feel assured that He will do what is best, and
+that He will not call me away as long as He has any work for me to
+do here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> I have a feeling that this will be my last letter to you,
+and I now take the opportunity of thanking you for all you have
+done for me, for all the care you bestowed on me, the prayers you
+have offered for me, and the kind thoughtfulness you still manifest
+for my welfare. It would be a comfort to me if I could see and talk
+with you once more, but I fear that will never be in this world,
+but shall we not meet in our Saviour's presence, purified,
+justified and sanctified through His blood? With truest love and
+gratitude</p>
+
+<p class="center">I remain yours,</p>
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Saada</span>.<br />
+</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">DR. DE FOREST'S WORK IN BEIRUT.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>In</b></span> 1847, Dr. and Mrs. De Forest commenced their work of female
+education, receiving two young women into their family. In 13 Mission
+schools there were 163 girls and 462 boys. During the year 1847, six
+schools were in operation in connection with the Beir&ucirc;t Station. One in
+the Mesaitebe with 32 pupils, of whom 10 were girls. This school was
+promising and 15 of the pupils could read in the Bible. Another was in
+the Ashrafiyeh, with 50 pupils, of whom 12 were girls. Nineteen in this
+school could read in the Bible. Another was on the Mission premises with
+seventy pupils. Another school, south of the Mission premises, had 60
+pupils, of whom 15 were girls. In addition to these was the Female
+School with thirty girls, taught by Raheel.</p>
+
+<p>In 1848, on the organization of the first Evangelical Church, nineteen
+members were received, of whom four were women. Dr. De Forest had seven
+native girls in his family, and there were fifty-five girls in other
+schools.</p>
+
+<p>In 1849, Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. De Forest visited Hasbeiya to labor among
+the women, by whom they were received with great cordiality. The girls'
+school of that time was regularly maintained <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span>and well attended. Dr. De
+Forest had thirteen native girls boarders in his family in Beir&ucirc;t, and
+Mr. Whiting had five.</p>
+
+<p>In the Annual Report of the Beir&ucirc;t Station for 1850, it is stated that
+"a more prayerful spirit prevails among the brethren and sisters. One
+pleasing evidence of this is the recent establishment of a weekly female
+prayer-meeting, which is attended by all the female members of the
+Church. Yet it is somewhat remarkable that in our little Church there is
+so small a proportion of females. Unhappily, only one of our native
+brethren is blessed with a pious wife. Some of them are surrounded with
+relatives and friends whose influence is such as to hinder rather than
+help them in their Christian course, and in the religious training of
+their children."</p>
+
+<p>This difficulty still exists in all parts of the Protestant community,
+not only in Syria, but throughout the Turkish Empire, and probably
+throughout the missionary world. The young men of the Protestant
+Churches at the present time endeavor to avoid this source of trial and
+embarrassment by marrying only within the Protestant community, and the
+rapid growth of female education in these days gives promise that the
+time is near when the mothers in Syria will be in no respect behind the
+fathers in either virtue or intelligence. The Beir&ucirc;t Church now numbers
+107 members, of whom 57 are men and 50 are women.</p>
+
+<p>In 1851, Miss Anna L. Whittlesey arrived in Beir&ucirc;t as an assistant to
+Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span>died in a year less one day after her
+arrival, beloved and lamented by all. In July of that year five of the
+women in Hasbeiya united with the Church.</p>
+
+<p>In 1852 and 1853 the Female Seminary in Beir&ucirc;t reached a high degree of
+prosperity, and the girls' schools in different parts of the land were
+well attended. Miss Cheney arrived from America to supply Miss
+Whittlesey's place.</p>
+
+<p>In 1854, Dr. De Forest was obliged from failing health, to relinquish
+his work and return to the United States. A nobler man never lived. As a
+physician he was widely known and universally beloved, and as a teacher
+and preacher he exerted a lasting influence. The good wrought by that
+saintly man in Syria will never be fully known in this world. The lovely
+Christian families in Syria, whose mothers were trained by him and his
+wife, will be his monuments for generations to come. It is a common
+remark in Syria, that the great majority of all Dr. De Forest's pupils
+have turned out well.</p>
+
+<p>I have not been able to find the official reports with regard to the
+Female Seminary of Dr. De Forest in Beir&ucirc;t for the years 1847, 1848, and
+1849, but from the Reports made by Dr. De Forest himself for the years
+1850, 1852 and 1853, I make the following extracts:</p>
+
+<p>In 1850, the Doctor writes: "The Seminary now has seventeen pupils
+including two, Khozma and Lulu, who act as teachers. The older class
+have continued to study the Sacred Scriptures as a daily lesson, and
+have nearly finished the Old Testament.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> They have studied a brief
+Compend of History in Arabic, and have continued Arithmetic and English.
+Compositions have been required of them weekly in Arabic until last
+autumn, when they began to write alternately in English and Arabic. A
+brief course of Astronomy was commenced, illustrated by Mattison's maps,
+given by Fisher Howe, Esq., of Brooklyn, N.&nbsp;Y.</p>
+
+<p>"Recently the pupils have been invited to spend every second Sabbath
+evening with the other members of the family in conversation respecting
+some missionary field which has been designated previously. The large
+missionary map is hung in the sitting-room, and all are asked in turn to
+give some fact respecting the field in question. Even the youngest, who
+have not yet learned to read with facility in their own language,
+furnish their mite of information.</p>
+
+<p>"The instruction in this school has been given by Dr. and Mrs. De
+Forest, aided by Mrs. De Forest's parents and the two elder pupils who
+have rendered such efficient aid heretofore. The pupils of all the
+classes have made good progress in their various studies, and their
+deportment has been satisfactory. They are gaining mental discipline and
+intellectual furniture, and have acquired much evangelical knowledge.
+Deep seriousness has been observed on the part of some of the elder
+pupils at different times, and they give marked and earnest attention to
+the preached word.</p>
+
+<p>"In our labors for the reconstruction of society <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span>here, we feel more and
+more the absolute need of a sanctified and enlightened female influence;
+such an influence as is felt so extensively in America, and whose
+beneficent action is seen in the proper training of children, and in the
+expulsion of a thousand superstitions from the land. Christian schools
+seem the most evident means of securing such an end. Commerce and
+intercourse with foreigners, and many other causes are co-operating with
+missionary effort to enlighten the <i>men</i> of Beir&ucirc;t and its vicinity, but
+the women, far more isolated than in America, are scarcely affected by
+any of these causes, and they hinder materially the moral elevation of
+the other sex. Often the man who seems full of intelligence and
+enterprise and mental enlargement when abroad, is found when at home to
+be a mere superstitious child; the prophecy that his mother taught him
+being still the religion of his home, and the heathenish maxims and
+narrow prejudices into which he was early indoctrinated still ruling the
+house. The inquirer after truth is seduced back to error by the many
+snares of unsanctified and ignorant companionship, and the convert who
+did run well is hindered by the benighted stubbornness to which he is
+unequally yoked.</p>
+
+<p>"While exerting this deleterious influence over their husbands and
+children, the females of the land have but little opportunity for
+personal improvement, and are not very promising subjects of missionary
+labor. His faith must be strong who can labor with hope for the
+conversion of women, with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span>whom the customs of society prohibit freedom
+of intercourse, and who have not learning enough to read a book, or
+vocabulary enough to understand a sermon, or mental discipline enough to
+follow continuous discourse."</p>
+
+<p>In the Report for 1852, Dr. De Forest writes: "At the date of our last
+Annual Report, Miss Whittlesey was in good health, was rapidly acquiring
+the Arabic, and was zealously pressing on in her chosen work, with
+well-trained intellect, steady purpose and lively hope. But God soon
+called her away, and she departed in "hope of eternal life which God
+that cannot lie promised before the world began." The Female Boarding
+School has suffered much from the loss of its Principal, but the same
+course of study has been pursued as before, though necessarily with less
+efficiency. One of the assistant pupils, (Lulu,) who has been relied
+upon for much of the teaching, and superintendence of the scholars, was
+married last autumn to the senior tutor of the Abeih Seminary. The
+number of pupils now in the school is fifteen. The communication of
+Biblical and religious knowledge has been a main object of this school.
+All the pupils, as a daily lesson, study the Assembly's Shorter
+Catechism, first in Arabic with proof-texts, and afterwards in English
+with Baker's Explanatory Questions and Scripture proofs, and they are
+taught a brief Historical Catechism of the Old and New Testaments. The
+first of proper school hours every day is occupied with the Scriptures
+by all the school. The Epistles to the Hebrews <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span>and the Romans formed
+the subject of these lessons until the autumn, when Mr. Calhoun's
+revised edition of the "Companion to the Bible" was adopted as a
+text-book, and the Old Testament has been studied in connection with
+that work. The pupils all attend the service at the Mission Chapel, and
+have lessons appropriate to the Sabbath in the intervals of worship.</p>
+
+<p>"The evening family worship is in Arabic, and is a familiar Bible Class.
+All the pupils are present, and not unfrequently some of their relatives
+and other strangers. In addition to this religious instruction, the
+several classes have studied the Arabic and English languages, some of
+them writing in both, geography and history, arithmetic mental and
+higher, astronomy, and some of the simple works on natural philosophy
+and physiology. Compositions have been required in Arabic and English.
+The lessons in drawing, commenced by Miss Whittlesey, have been
+continued under the instruction of Mrs. Smith, and plain and fancy
+needle-work have been taught as heretofore.</p>
+
+<p>"To those who have watched the growth of intellect, and in some
+instances, we hope, the growth of grace in these few pupils, and in the
+other female boarding scholars in some of the mission families, who have
+seen the pleasing contrast afforded by Syrian females when adorned after
+the Apostolic recommendation by good works and a "meek and quiet
+spirit," with those who cover empty heads with pearls and enrobe untidy
+persons in costly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span>array,&mdash;who have rejoiced to see one and another
+family altar set up, where both heads of the family and the hearts of
+both unite in acknowledging God,&mdash;this branch of our labors need offer
+no further arguments to justify its efficient prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>"The library of the Seminary consists of 220 school books, and 148
+volumes of miscellaneous books, chiefly for the young. The school has 6
+large fine maps, and 5 of Mr. Bidwell's Missionary maps, and 16 of
+Mattison's astronomical maps. These maps were the gifts of Mrs. Dr.
+Burgess and of Fisher Howe, Esq. The school has a pair of globes, one
+Season's machine, one orrery, a pair of gasometers, a spirit-lamp and
+retort stand, a centre of gravity apparatus, a capillary attraction
+apparatus, a galvanic trough, a circular battery, an electromagnet, a
+horse shoe magnet, a revolving magnet, a wire coil and hemispheric
+helices, and an electric shocking machine."</p>
+
+<p>The report of the Female Seminary for 1853 is written in the handwriting
+of Mrs. De Forest, owing to the increasing infirmity of Dr. De Forest's
+health, and this report has a sad interest from its being the last one
+ever dictated by Dr. De Forest.</p>
+
+<p>"A small day-school for girls has been taught by one of the pupils in
+Mrs. Whiting's family during the winter, and it is contemplated to
+continue the school hereafter in the Girl's School house on the Mission
+premises, under the instruction of a graduate of the Female Seminary.
+The demand for such instruction for girls is steadily increasing.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span></p><p>"The teaching force of the Seminary was increased last spring by the
+arrival of Miss Cheney, who entered at once upon the duties of her
+position, devoting a portion of her time to the acquisition of Arabic,
+and a part to the instruction of some classes in English. Still, on
+account of the repeated illnesses of Dr. De Forest, it was not deemed
+advisable to receive a new class last autumn. The only girls admitted
+during the year were one of Mrs. Whiting's pupils who was transferred to
+the Seminary for one year, one of the class who graduated two years
+since, and who desired to return for another year, and Sara, the
+daughter of Mr. Butrus Bistany. These three were received into existing
+classes, while it was not deemed advisable under the circumstances to
+make up another class composed of new pupils.</p>
+
+<p>"The course of instruction, Biblical and other, has been much the same
+as that hitherto pursued. Miss Cheney commenced "Watts on the Mind,"
+with some of the older pupils, in English. All the pupils have had
+familiar lessons on Church History in Arabic, and some of them have
+begun an abridged work on Moral Philosophy. Much effort has been
+bestowed upon the cultivation of a taste for the reading of profitable
+books, and a number of the girls have read the whole of "D'Aubign&eacute;'s
+History of the Reformation," and other history with Mrs. De Forest in
+the evening class, the atlas being always open before them. Mrs. Smith
+has given some instruction in the rudiments of drawing to a part of the
+pupils, and Mrs. Bird and Mrs. Calhoun have given <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span>lessons in vocal
+music, for which some of the pupils have considerable taste.</p>
+
+<p>"After completing the 'Companion to the Bible' in Arabic, the whole
+school were engaged daily in a Harmony of the Gospels, and other
+Biblical and religious instruction has been continued as heretofore. We
+have ever kept in mind the necessity of not denationalizing these Arab
+children, and we believe that this desired result has been attained. The
+long vacation of six weeks in the spring, and the same in the autumn,
+the commencement of all instruction in Arabic, and the preponderance of
+Arabic study in the school, have contributed to this result. The older
+pupils have attained to a considerable knowledge of English, giving them
+access to books suitable for girls to read, and yet Arabic is the
+language of the school, and the pupils are Syrians still in dress and
+manners. The advantages of the school are more and more appreciated in
+the city, and the adjacent mountains. Many were exceedingly earnest in
+offering their daughters last autumn, both Protestant and other, and
+some when repulsed at the Seminary, besought the mission families to
+receive their children."</p>
+
+<p>During the next year, the school was placed in the family of Mr. and
+Mrs. Wilson, under the charge of Miss Cheney. A class of eight
+graduated, and the pupils contributed to benevolent objects of the
+fruits of their industry, over 1200 piastres, or about fifty dollars.</p>
+
+<p>In a report on Education, prepared by the Syria<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> Mission in 1855, it was
+stated, that "without entering into details in regard to the course of
+study pursued, we are happy to say that the results of Dr. De Forest's
+Seminary were very gratifying, and proved, if proof were needed, that
+there is the same capacity in the native female mind of the country that
+there is in the male, and that under proper instruction, and by the
+blessing of God, there will be brought forward a class of intelligent,
+pious and efficient female helpers in the great work of evangelizing
+this community."</p>
+
+<p>The hope implied in the above sentence with regard to the raising up of
+"a class of intelligent, pious and efficient female helpers," has been
+abundantly realized. The list of Dr. De Forest's pupils is to a great
+extent the list of the leading female teachers and helpers in all the
+various departments of evangelic work in Syria.</p>
+
+<p>Not having access to the records of the Seminary as they have been lost,
+I have obtained from several of the former pupils a list of the members
+of the various classes from 1848 to 1852. The whole number of pupils
+during that period was twenty-three. Of these two died in faith, giving
+good evidence of piety. Of the twenty-one who survive, twelve are
+members of the Evangelical Church, and nine are now or were recently
+engaged in <i>teaching</i>, although nearly twenty years have elapsed since
+they graduated. Twenty-one are at the head of families, esteemed and
+honored in the communi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span>ties where they reside. The names of the whole
+class are as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="noindent">
+Ferha Jimmal, now Kowwar of Nazareth.<br />
+Sara Haddad, now Myers of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Sada Sabunjy, now Barakat of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Sada Haleby, of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Miriam Tabet, now Tabet of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Khushfeh Mejdelany, now Musully of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Khurma Mejdelany, now Ashy of Hasbeiya.<br />
+Mirta Tabet, now Suleeby of B'hamd&ucirc;n.<br />
+Feifun Mal&ucirc;f, of Aramoon.<br />
+Katrin Roza, of Kefr Shima.<br />
+Mirta Suleeby, now Trabulsy of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Sara Suleeby, of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Esteer Nasif, now Aieed of Suk el Ghurb.<br />
+Hada Suleeby, now Shidoody of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Helloon Zaz&ucirc;ah, now Zuraiuk of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Khushfeh Tow&icirc;leh, now Mutr of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Fetneh Suleeby, now Shibly of Suk el Ghurb.<br />
+Akabir Barakat, now Ghubr&icirc;n of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Hamdeh Barakat, now B&ucirc; Rehan of Hasbeiya.<br />
+Eliza Hashem, now Kh&ucirc;ri of Beir&ucirc;t.<br />
+Rufka Haddad, (deceased).<br />
+Sara Bistany, (deceased).<br />
+Durra Schemail, of Kefr Shima.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Two of the most successful of those engaged in teaching, are now
+connected with the British Syrian Schools. They are Sada Barakat and
+Sada el Haleby. The former has written me a letter in English in regard
+to her own history and religious experience, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> I take the liberty
+to transcribe here verbatim in her own language. She was one of the
+<i>least</i> religious of all the pupils in the school, when she was first
+received but the work of conviction and conversion was a thorough one,
+and she has been enabled by the grace of God to offer constant and most
+efficient testimony to the reality of Christian experience, in the
+responsible position she has been called upon to fill in the late Mrs.
+Thompson's institution.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Suk el Ghurb, Mt. Lebanon</span>, <i>Septembe</i>r 3, 1872.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>&mdash;I am thankful to say, in reply to your inquiry,
+that I was not persecuted when I became a Protestant, like my other
+native sisters were when they became Protestants, because I was
+very young. I was about four years old when my father died, and a
+year after, my mother married a Protestant man. I came to live with
+my mother in her new home, with my two brothers. It was very hard
+to lose a dear loving father who loved his children so much as my
+mother tells me he did. But the Lord does everything right, because
+if the Lord had not taken my father away from us I should not have
+known the true religion. I lived in my step-father's house till I
+was twelve years old. I was then placed in Dr. De Forest's school,
+in the year 1848. I stayed there four years. I was not clever at my
+studies, and especially the English language was very difficult for
+me. Even until now I remember a lesson in English which was so hard
+for me that I was punished twice for it, and I could not learn it.
+Now it will make me laugh to think of these few words, which I
+could not translate into Arabic: "The hen is in the yard." My mind
+was more at play than at learning. I was very clever at housework,
+and at dressing dolls, and was always the leader in all games. From
+that you can see that I was not a very good girl at school. After
+the two first years I began to think how nice it would be to become
+a real Christian like my dear teacher Dr. De Forest. Then I used to
+pray, and read, especially the "Pilgrim's Progress," and my mind
+was so busy at it that I used sometimes to leave my lesson and go
+and sit alone in my room. Nobody knew what was the matter with me,
+but Dr. De Forest used to ask me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span>why I did not go to school? I
+told him that I was very troubled, and he told me to pray to God
+very earnestly to give me a new heart. I did pray, but I did not
+have an answer then. Three or four times during my school time I
+began to wish to become a Christian. I prayed and was very
+troubled. I wept and would not play, and as I got no immediate
+answer, I left off reading and sometimes praying entirely.
+Everybody noticed that I did not much care to read, and especially
+a religious book. I felt that my heart had grown harder than before
+I had wished to become a Christian. The greatest trial was that I
+had no faith, and for that reason I used not to believe in prayer,
+but still I longed to become a real Christian. I left school in the
+year 1852, and went to live at home with my mother. I was taken
+ill, and when I was ill I was very much afraid of death, for I felt
+that God was very angry with me.</p>
+
+<p>Till about two years after I left school, I had no religion at all.
+One evening a young man from Abeih came to our house. His name is
+Giurgius el Haddad, who is now Mr. Calhoun's cook. After a little
+while he began to talk about religion, and to read the book,
+"Little Henry and his Bearer." I felt very much ashamed that others
+who did not have the opportunity to learn about religion had
+religion, and I, who had learned so much, had none. That was the
+blessed evening on which I began to inquire earnestly about my
+salvation. I was three months praying and found no answer to my
+prayers. Christian friends tried to lead me to Christ, but I could
+not take hold of Him, till He Himself appeared to my soul in all
+His beauty and excellency. Before I found peace Dr. Eli Smith and
+Mr. Whiting wanted me to teach a day school for them. That was
+about three years after I left off learning. "Oh," thought I, "how
+can I teach others about Christ when I do not know Him myself?"
+However I began the school by opening and closing it with prayer,
+without any faith at all. So I began by reading from the first of
+Matthew, till I came to the 16th chapter. When I came to that
+chapter I read as usual, with blinded eyes; but when I came to the
+(13th) thirteen verse, and from there to the seventeenth, where it
+says, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath
+not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," I
+felt that this had been said to me, and were these words sounded
+from heaven I would not have felt happier. How true it is that no
+flesh could reveal unto me what God had revealed, because many
+Christian friends tried to make me believe, but I could <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span>not, I
+felt as if everything had become new and beautiful, because my
+Heavenly Father had made them all. I was sometimes with faith and
+sometimes doubting, and by these changes my faith was strengthened.
+After a short time, I asked Mr. Whiting to let me join the Church.
+He asked me if I saw any change in myself, and I said, "One thing I
+know, that I used to dislike Christian people, and now they are my
+best friends." After a short time I was permitted to join the
+Church. Then I left off teaching the day school, and was asked to
+teach in a Boarding school with Miss Cheney, in the same Seminary
+where I was brought up. We taught in that school only six months.
+Miss Cheney married, and I was engaged to be married. While I was
+engaged, I went to Mr. Bird's school for girls in Deir el Kamr, and
+taught there for more than a year. I was married by Mr. Bird in his
+own house to M. Yusef Barakat, and then we went to Hasbeiya. I
+stayed there seven months and then went to Beir&ucirc;t, and thence to
+Damascus with my husband, because he had to teach there. I had
+nothing to do there but to look after my house, my little boy, and
+my husband.</p>
+
+<p>After some time, the massacre broke out in Damascus, (July 9,
+1860,) so we came back as refugees to Beir&ucirc;t. Soon after my husband
+was taken ill and then died. In that same year 1860, dear Mrs.
+Bowen Thompson came to Beir&ucirc;t. She felt for the widows and orphans,
+being herself a widow. She asked me if I would come and teach a
+school for the widows and orphans, which I accepted thankfully. We
+opened the school with five children and seven women, and the work,
+by God's help has prospered, so that now, instead of one school,
+there are twenty-two schools. Until now I continue teaching in the
+Institution, and had I known that nearly all my life would be spent
+in teaching, I should have tried to gain more when I was a child. I
+can forget father and mother, but can never forget those who taught
+me, especially about religion. Although some of them are dead, yet
+still they live by their Christian example, which they have left
+behind. My whole life will be full of gratitude to those dear
+Christian friends, and I pray that God himself may reward them a
+hundred fold.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours respectfully,</p>
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Sada Barakat</span>.<br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p>In the year 1851 the Missionary Sewing Society <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span>of the Beir&ucirc;t Female
+Seminary heard of the interesting state of things in Aintab, and that
+the women there were anxious to learn to read. The missionaries in
+Aintab hired an old man to go around from house to house to teach the
+women to read in their homes, but the women were so eager to learn that
+the old man was unable to meet the demand. So children were employed to
+assist. The plan worked admirably, and in 1851, eighty women received
+instruction and became able to read God's Word. The Arab girls in Mrs.
+De Forest's school were called together, and it was proposed that they
+sew and embroider and send the proceeds of their work to pay the little
+girl teachers in Aintab. There were present, Ferha, (joy,) Sara, Saada
+Sabunjy, Miriam, Khushfeh, Khurma, Mirta, (Martha) Feifun, Katrina,
+Hada, Sada el Haleby, Esteer, Helloon, Fetny, Akabir, Hamdy, and Liza.
+The needles were briskly plied, and in due time, two hundred and fifty
+piastres were collected and forwarded to Aintab. Mrs. Schneider wrote
+back thanking the "dear Arab girls." The habits of benevolence thus
+acquired have continued with the most of these girls until now. The
+greater part of them are now church-members and the heads of families.</p>
+
+<p>The following letter written by Mrs. De Forest in Feb. 1852, gives some
+account of Lulu Araman.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="right"><span class="smcap">Beir&ucirc;t, Syria</span>, <i>February</i>, 1852.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear young friends in Thetford</span>:</p>
+
+<p>The quilt you sent came safely, and I thank you much for all the
+care and trouble you have taken to make and quilt it for me. I at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span>first thought of keeping it for myself, but then it occurred to me
+that perhaps it might please you better and interest you more if I
+gave it to Lulu, one of my girls, who is to be married some time
+this year to Mr. Michaiel Araman, one of the teachers in the Abeih
+Seminary. You will thus have the pleasure of feeling that you have
+in one sense done something for the school, as she is an assistant
+pupil, or pupil teacher. She has been with me now for about eight
+years, and seems almost like my own daughter. Perhaps you will be
+interested in knowing something of her.</p>
+
+<p>She was born in a pleasant valley, Wady Shehr&ucirc;r, near Beir&ucirc;t,
+celebrated for its fine oranges, and indeed for almost all kind of
+fine fruits. She lost both her parents early in life. Her brothers
+(contrary to the usual custom here where girls are not much
+regarded or cared for) were very kind to her, and as she was a
+delicate child, they took great care of her, and often used to make
+vows to some saint in her behalf. At one time, when she was very
+ill, they vowed to Mar Giurgis (for they are members of the Greek
+Church, and St. George is one of the favorite saints of the Greeks,
+and indeed of all the Christian sects here, and they still show the
+spot where he is said to have killed the dragon) that if she
+recovered, she should carry to one of his shrines two wax candles
+as tall as herself and of a prescribed weight. While she was still
+feeble they provided the candles, and as she was too weak to walk,
+they carried her and the candles also, to the holy place and
+presented them.</p>
+
+<p>When she was eight years old, they were persuaded by an
+acquaintance to place her in one of the Mission families. Here she
+was instructed in her own language, and especially in the Holy
+Scriptures. She was allowed, however, to keep her feasts and fasts,
+and to attend her own church, until she became convinced that these
+things would not save her and she wished to give them up. One feast
+day the lady with whom she lived gave her some sewing and told her
+to seat herself and do her task. She refused, saying it was a feast
+day, and it was unlawful work. A little while after she asked
+permission to go and visit her brother's family; but the lady told
+her, "No, if it is unlawful to work, it is unlawful to visit. I
+have no objection to your keeping your feast days, but if you do
+you must keep them as holy time." So she gave her a portion of
+Scripture to learn, and she was kept very quiet all day, as though
+it was the Sabbath, and without the day being made agreeable to her
+like the Sabbath by going to Church <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span>and Sabbath School. She did
+not at all like keeping a feast in this manner, which is very
+different from the manner in which such a day or even the Sabbath,
+is kept in this land, and was ever after ready to work when told to
+do so. When her brothers saw that she was beginning to give up
+their vain ceremonies, they became anxious to get her away, lest
+she should become a Protestant; and at one time, when she went home
+to attend the wedding of one of her relatives, they refused to
+allow her to return, and it was only through the good management of
+the native friend who was sent for her, and her own determination
+to come, that she was permitted to come back.</p>
+
+<p>We hope that she became truly pious six years ago, in 1846, as her
+life evinces that she is striving to live according to the precepts
+of the gospel. She has never dared to go home again, although it
+has been a great trial for her to stay away, because she knew that
+she should be obliged to remain there, and to conform to the
+idolatrous rites of the Greek Church. She has assisted us in the
+School for nearly five years, besides teaching a day school at
+various times, before the Boarding School was commenced, and we
+shall feel very sorry to part with her. Still we hope that she will
+yet be useful to her countrywomen, and furnish them an example of a
+happy Christian home, of which there are so few at present in this
+country.</p>
+
+<p>Our school has now nineteen pupils, most of whom are promising.
+Some we hope are true Christians. The girls opened their box the
+other day, and found that they had a little more than last year
+from their earnings. Some friends added a little, and they have now
+forty dollars. One half they send to China, and the other half give
+to the Church here.</p></div>
+
+<p>The hope expressed by Mrs. De Forest in 1852, with regard to the future
+usefulness of Lulu, has not been disappointed. Her family is a model
+Christian family, the home of piety and affection, the centre of a pure
+and hallowed influence. Her eldest daughter Katie, named from Mrs. De
+Forest, is now a teacher in the Beir&ucirc;t Female Seminary in which her
+father has been the principal instructor in the Bible and in the higher
+Arabic branches for ten <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span>years. For years this institution was carried
+on in Lulu's house, and she was the Matron while Rufka was the
+Preceptress, and its very existence is owing to the patient and faithful
+labors of those two Christian Syrian women. If any one who reads these
+lines should doubt the utility of labors for the girls and women of the
+Arab race, let him visit first the squalid, disorderly, cheerless and
+Christless homes of the mass of the Arab villagers of Syria, and then
+enter the cheerful, tidy, well ordered home of Mr. and Mrs. Araman, when
+the family are at morning prayers, listen to the voice of prayer and
+praise and the reading of God's word. Instead of the father sitting
+gloomily alone at his morning meal, and the mother and children waiting
+till their lord is through and then eating by themselves in the usual
+Arab way, he would see the whole family seated together in a Christian,
+homelike manner, the Divine blessing asked, and the meal conducted with
+propriety and decorum. After breakfast the father and Katie go to the
+Seminary to give their morning lessons, Henry (named for Dr. De Forest)
+sets out for the College, in which he is a Sophomore, and the younger
+children go to their various schools. Lulu's place at church is rarely
+vacant, and since that "relic of barbarism" the <i>curtain</i> which
+separated the men from the women has been removed from the building, the
+whole family, father, mother, and children sit together and join in the
+worship of God. Her brother and relatives from "Wady" are on the most
+affectionate terms with her, and her elder <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>sister is in the domestic
+department of the Beir&ucirc;t Female Seminary.</p>
+
+<p>This change is very largely due to the efforts of Mrs. De Forest, whose
+name with that of her sainted husband is embalmed in the memory of the
+Christian families of Syria, and will be held in everlasting
+remembrance. The <i>second generation</i> of Christian teachers is now
+growing up in Syria. Three of Mrs. De Forest's pupils have daughters now
+engaged in teaching. Khushfeh, Lulu, and Sada el Haleby; and Miriam
+Tabet has a daughter married to Mr. S. Hallock, of the American Press in
+Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">FRUITS OF DR. DE FOREST'S GIRL'S SCHOOL.</h4>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1852, there was a school of thirty girls in B'hamd&ucirc;n, a
+village high up in Mt. Lebanon. Fifteen months before the teacher was
+the only female in the village who could read, and she had been taught
+by the native girls in Dr. De Forest's school. Quite a number of the
+girls of the village had there learned to read, and they all came to the
+school clean and neatly dressed. They committed to memory verses of
+Scripture, and it was surprising to see how correctly they recited them
+at the Sabbath School. At meeting they were quiet and attentive like the
+best behaved children in Christian lands. It would be difficult to sum
+up the results of that little school for girls twenty years ago in
+B'hamd&ucirc;n. That village is full of gospel light. A Protestant church
+edifice is in process of erection, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span>a native pastor, Rev. Sulleba
+Jerawan, preaches to the people, and the mass of the people have at
+least an intellectual acquaintance with the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The picturesque village of B'hamd&ucirc;n, where Dr. De Forest's school is
+established, is on the side of a lofty mountain. It is nearly 4000 feet
+above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. The village is compact as a
+little city, the streets narrow, rocky and crooked, the houses
+flat-roofed, and the floors of mud. One of the Protestants, the father
+of Miriam Tabet, has built a fine large house with glass windows and
+paved floors, which is one of the best houses in that part of Lebanon.
+The village is surrounded by vineyards, and the grapes are regarded as
+the finest in Mt. Lebanon. The people say that they never have to dig
+for the foundation of a house, but only to sweep off the dust with a
+broom. There is not a shade tree in the village. One day Dr. De Forest
+asked, "Why don't you plant a tree?" "We shall not live till it has
+grown," was the reply. "But your children will," said the Doctor. "Let
+them plant it then," was the satisfactory answer.</p>
+
+<p>My first visit to B'hamd&ucirc;n was made in February, 1856, a few days after
+my first arrival in Syria. On Sabbath morning I attended the Sabbath
+School with Mr. Benton, at that time a missionary of the A.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;C.&nbsp;F.&nbsp;M. One
+little girl named Katrina Subra, then nine years of age, repeated the
+Arabic Hymn "K&ucirc;m&ucirc; wa Rettel&ucirc;," "Awake and sing the song of Moses and the
+Lamb." She was a bright-eyed child of fair complexion and of unusual
+intelli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span>gence. At that time there was no children's hymn book in Arabic,
+and I asked Mr. B. to promise the children that when I had learned the
+Arabic, I would translate a collection of children's hymns into Arabic,
+which promise was fulfilled first in the printing of the "Douzan el
+Kethar," "The tuning of the Harp," in 1861. Katrina was the daughter of
+Elias Subra, one of the wealthiest men in the village, who had just then
+become a Protestant. She had been interested in the truth for some time,
+and though at the time only eight years old, was accustomed during the
+preceding summer to tell the Arab children that she was a Protestant,
+though they answered her with insults and cursing. At first she could
+not bear to be abused, and answered them in language more forcible than
+proper, but by the time of my visit she had become softened and subdued
+in her manner, and was never heard to speak an unkind word to any one.
+She undertook, even at that age, to teach the Greek servant girl in the
+family how to read. One day the old Greek Priest met her in the street
+and asked her why she did not go to confession as the other Greek
+children do. She replied that she could go to Christ and confess. The
+priest then said that her father and the rest of the Protestants go to
+the missionary and write out their sins on papers which he puts into rat
+holes in the wall! Katrina knew this to be a foolish falsehood and told
+the priest so. He then asked her how the Protestants confess. She
+replied that they confess as the Lord Jesus tells them to, quoting to
+him the lan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span>guage of Scripture, (Matt. 6:6.) "But thou when thou
+prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray
+to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret
+shall reward thee openly." The priest was confounded by the ready
+truthful answer of the child, and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>Three years later Katrina was a member of the Mission Female Seminary in
+Suk el Ghurb, a village three hours distant from Beir&ucirc;t, under the
+instruction of Miss Temple and Miss Johnson, and continued there until
+the Seminary was broken up by the massacres of May and June, 1860. I
+remember well the day when that procession of girls and teachers rode
+and walked down from Suk el Ghurb to Beir&ucirc;t. All Southern Lebanon was in
+a blaze. Twenty-five villages were burning. Druze and Maronite were in
+deadly strife. Baabda and Hadeth which we passed on our way to Beir&ucirc;t,
+were a smoking ruin. Armed bodies of Druzes passed and saluted us, but
+no one offered to insult one of the girls by word or gesture. Dr. and
+Mrs. Bliss gave us lunch at their home in the Suk as we came from Abeih,
+and then followed a few days later to Beir&ucirc;t. Miss Temple tried to
+re-open the school in Beir&ucirc;t, but the constant tide of refugees coming
+in from the mountains, and the daily rumors of an attack by Druzes and
+Moslems on Beir&ucirc;t, threw the city into a panic, and it was found
+impossible to carry on the work of instruction. The girls were sent to
+their parents where this was practicable, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> Seminary as such
+ceased for a time to exist. Katrina, was married in 1864 to M. Ghurz&ucirc;zy,
+a Protestant merchant of Beir&ucirc;t, who is now secular agent or Wakil of
+the Syrian Protestant College. In 1866, she united with the Evangelical
+Church in Beir&ucirc;t. She has had repeated attacks of illness, in which she
+has manifested the most entire submission to the Divine will, and a calm
+and sweet trust in her Lord and Saviour. Her home is a Christian home,
+and her children are being trained in "the nurture and admonition of the
+Lord."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>In</b></span> 1856 Miss Cheney re-opened the Female Seminary with eight pupils, in
+Beir&ucirc;t, and in the 34 schools of the Mission there were 1068 pupils, of
+whom 266 were girls.</p>
+
+<p>In 1857, there were 277 girls in the various schools.</p>
+
+<p>In 1858, Miss Temple and Miss Johnson arrived from America, and the
+Female Seminary was opened in Suk el Ghurb in the family of Rev. Dr.
+Bliss. Miss Johnson and Miss Cheney having returned to the United
+States, Miss Mason came to aid Miss Temple in February, 1860. The girl's
+school in Beir&ucirc;t under the care of Rufka Gregory, had about 60 pupils.
+The civil war in Lebanon, followed by the massacres in Jezzin, Deir el
+Komr, Hasbeiya, Rasheiya and Damascus, beginning in May, and continuing
+until the middle of July, broke up all our schools and seminaries, and
+filled the land with sorrow and desolation.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Temple and Miss Mason remained for a season in Beir&ucirc;t, studying the
+Arabic language, and in 1862 Miss Temple having returned to the U.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;A.,
+Miss Mason opened a Boarding School for girls in Sidon.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span></p><p>It was decided that none but Protestant girls should be received into
+this school, that no English should be taught, and that the style of
+eating, sleeping and dress should be conformed as much as possible to
+the standard of native customs in the country villages, in order that
+the girls might the more readily return to their homes as teachers,
+without acquiring European tastes and habits. Miss Mason carried on this
+school until 1865, when she returned to the U.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;A., and it was decided
+if possible to carry it on with native instructors under the supervision
+of Mrs. Eddy.</p>
+
+<p>In the winter of 1867 it was under the kind charge of Mrs. Watson of
+Shemlan and her adopted daughter, Miss Handumeh Watson, and is now
+conducted by two English young ladies, Miss Jacombs and Miss Stanton,
+who are supported by the London "Society for the Promotion of Female
+Education in the East." On the removal of the girls' Boarding School to
+Sidon, it was evident that the Female Seminary must be re-opened in
+Beir&ucirc;t. Owing to the depressed state of Missionary finances in America,
+arising from the civil war, it was deemed advisable to reorganize the
+Beir&ucirc;t Seminary on a new basis, with only native teachers. The
+Providence of God had prepared teachers admirably fitted for this work,
+who undertook it with cheerful hope and patient industry. It was decided
+to make a paying Boarding School of a higher order than any existing
+institution in Syria, and to resume instruction in the English language,
+giving lessons also in French and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> Music to those who were willing to
+pay for these branches.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Michaiel Araman, for many years a teacher in the Abeih Seminary with
+Mr. Calhoun, and for some time a native preacher in Beir&ucirc;t, was
+appointed instructor in the Biblical History and the Higher Arabic
+branches; his wife Lulu, the Matron, and Miss Rufka Gregory, the
+Preceptress. Rufka was an orphan, as already stated, and was trained
+with her sister Sada in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Whiting for many
+years. As a teacher and a disciplinarian she had not an equal among the
+women of Syria, and under the joint management of this corps of
+teachers, aided by competent assistants in the various branches, the
+Seminary rose in public esteem, until it became one of the most
+attractive and prosperous institutions in Syria.</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1862, Rufka's day school of seventy girls held a public
+examination in the Chapel. The girls were examined in Arabic reading,
+geography, grammar, catechism, arithmetic, Scripture lessons and
+English, with an exhibition of specimens of their needle work. In the
+fall it was commenced as a Boarding School, with two paying pupils and
+four charity pupils. The funds for commencing the boarding department
+were furnished by Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Henry Farnum, Col.
+Frazer, H.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;M. Commissioner to Syria, and others. The Seminary not being
+under the direction of the Mission as such, nor in connection with the
+American Board, was placed under the care of a local<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> Board of Managers,
+consisting of Dr. Thomson, Dr. Van Dyck, Consul J.&nbsp;A. Johnson, and Rev.
+H.&nbsp;H. Jessup. Dr. Thomson was indefatigable in his efforts to place it on
+a firm and permanent foundation, as a purely Native Protestant
+institution, and the fact that such a school could be carried on for a
+year without a single foreign instructor, was one of the most
+encouraging features in the history of the Syria Mission. It was the
+first purely native Female Seminary in Western Asia, and we hope it will
+not be the last.</p>
+
+<p>It will continue to be the aim of the Mission, and of the present able
+faculty of the institution, to train up Native teachers qualified to
+carry on the work in the future.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time in the fall of 1862, a school for Damascene girls was
+opened in an upper room of my house, under the care of one of Dr. De
+Forest's pupils, Sada el Haleby, who carried it on successfully with
+seventy girls until August, 1864, when, on my departure for the U.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;A.
+the school was taken up by the late Mrs. Bowen Thompson, whose Society
+has maintained it until this day.</p>
+
+<p>In 1863, the number of paying boarders in the Seminary had increased to
+twenty, and in 1866 the pupils numbered eighty, and the income from
+native paying pupils was about fifteen hundred dollars in gold!</p>
+
+<p>The Annual Examination was held in the latter part of June, in the
+Mission Chapel, and continued three days, thronged by a multitude of
+interested <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span>spectators. The Turkish official Arabic Journal of Beir&ucirc;t,
+the "Hadikat el Akhbar," published a lengthy report of the Examination,
+pronouncing it the most satisfactory examination of girls that ever took
+place in Syria. An English clergyman who was present refused to believe
+that they were Syrian girls, insisting that they must be English. The
+girls recited in Bible History, giving all the important dates from Adam
+to Christ, with an account of the rites, sacrifices and prophecies which
+refer to Christ, giving also the names of all the patriarchs, judges,
+kings and prophets in their order. Twenty-two different classes were
+examined, and many of the girls read original compositions.</p>
+
+<p>On the Sabbath, July 1st, two of the assistant teachers, As&icirc;n Haddad and
+Sara Sarkis were received to the communion of the Beir&ucirc;t Church. They
+traced their religious awakening to the dying testimony of Sara Bistany,
+which is described in a subsequent chapter. Several of the younger
+pupils were much interested in the subject of religion at the time, and
+one little girl about seven years old said to her teacher, "I gave the
+Lord my heart, and He took it." As&icirc;n died in Latakiah in 1869,
+triumphing in Christ. The women of the neighborhood came to the house of
+her brother to hear her joyous expressions of trust in Jesus, and her
+assurance that she should soon be with Him in glory. She was the second
+daughter of that young bride of fifteen years of age, who learned to
+read in 1825, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span>in the school taught by her own husband, Tannus el
+Haddad.</p>
+
+<p>In 1867, the health of Rufka having become seriously impaired, she
+removed to Egypt, where after a period of rest, she opened on her own
+account a school for girls in Cairo, which she maintained with her
+wonted energy, until her marriage with the Rev. Mr. Muir, a Scotch
+clergyman, whom she accompanied to Melbourne, Australia, in 1869. Since
+the death of her husband she has returned to her favorite employment of
+teaching, with marked success, among the British population of
+Melbourne.</p>
+
+<p>While in Cairo, she passed through a deep and agonizing religious
+experience, which she described in the following letter to Mrs. Whiting,
+and the result of which was a new life in Christ.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="right"><span class="smcap">Cairo, Egypt</span>, <i>July</i> 9, 1868.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I shall always remember my stay in Cairo with much
+pleasure, but the greatest advantage of this year is the
+opportunity I had of stopping to think of the interests of a never
+dying soul, of a neglected Saviour, an offended God. Yes, I have
+reflected, struggled, oh, how hard, and thanks to an ever merciful
+God, I trust I have been led by the Holy Spirit to see and feel my
+great sin, and casting myself at the feet of Jesus, stayed there
+with my sinful heart till a loving Saviour just came and took it
+up. Oh, how grieved was His tender heart when He saw how defiled it
+was with sin and wickedness, but He said, fear not, my blood will
+cleanse it and make it pure; then how He pleaded my case before His
+Father, setting forth His boundless love and infinite righteousness
+as a reason why He wished to be accepted. Yes, dear Mrs. Whiting, I
+hope I can now say, Thy God is my God, and the blessed Saviour you
+have loved so long is now very precious to me. The past winter has
+been a solemn time with me. Many hard struggles have I had, much
+fear that I might <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span>have forever grieved God's Holy Spirit, and for
+a long time it all seemed so dark, there seemed no hope for me who
+had been so long living away from the Saviour, but in great fear
+and despair I just rushed and cast myself at His feet, and asked
+Him to let me perish there if I must perish; there was nothing else
+for me to do, and I felt such happiness in just leaving myself in
+His care. How wonderful is His love! But what a life of constant
+prayer and watching is that of a Christian! in the first place to
+aim at close walking with God, leaving Him to order our steps for
+us, and trusting Him so to order our way as to best enable us to
+walk closely with Him. It has been a most comforting thought when I
+find it difficult to live right and feel my utter weakness, that
+Jesus is each day saying to His Father for me, "I pray not she
+should be taken out of the world, but that she should be <i>kept from
+the evil</i>," and to live up to our privileges and to walk worthy of
+our high calling.</p>
+
+<p>My precious teacher, I know you will rejoice and thank God with me
+for His great goodness to me in bringing me to the feet of Jesus.
+Oh, how precious He is to my poor soul! He is Heaven. How He
+blesses me every moment! His boundless love to <i>me</i> who am most
+unworthy of the least of His mercies. If ever any one had reason to
+boast of the loving kindness of the Lord, it surely must be myself.
+In His great mercy I have had the privilege of openly confessing my
+faith in Him, and publicly professing my determination to be the
+Lord's at the last communion in the Church here in May. I put it
+off till then hoping to do it in Beir&ucirc;t in the Church dear Mr.
+Whiting had preached in for so many years, and among the girls I
+had taught, and all the young friends there, but as that was not
+allowed me, I joined the Church here."</p></div>
+
+<p>Her devoted friend and loving assistant teacher Luc&icirc;yah, was deeply
+affected by what she learned from Rufka of her new spiritual life, and
+she too turned her thoughts to divine things, and soon after the arrival
+of Miss Everett and Miss Carruth in 1868, to take charge of the
+Seminary, she came out openly on the Lord's side, and in the midst of a
+fire of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span>domestic persecution, publicly professed her faith in Jesus as
+her only Saviour.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Carruth, after staying just long enough in the Seminary to win the
+hearts of teachers and pupils, was obliged to return to her native land,
+where she is still an efficient laborer in the New England Woman's
+Boards of Missions.</p>
+
+<p>The year following the departure of Rufka to Egypt was a critical time
+in the history of the Seminary. Lulu continued in charge of the domestic
+department, and Mr. Araman managed the business of the school, while
+Mrs. Salt (a sister of Melita and Salome) aided in several of the
+classes. But the institution owed its great success during that year, if
+not its very existence, to the untiring energy and efficient services of
+Mrs. Dr. Bliss and Miss Emilia Thomson, daughter of the Rev. Dr.
+Thomson. They each gave several hours every day to instruction in the
+English language, the Scriptures and music, and the high standard of
+excellence already attained in the Seminary was maintained if not
+surpassed.</p>
+
+<p>Their perfect familiarity with the Arabic language gave them a great
+advantage in the management and instruction of the pupils, and their
+efforts on behalf of the Institution, in maintaining it in full and
+successful operation during the year previous to the arrival of Miss
+Everett and Miss Carruth, deserve grateful recognition.</p>
+
+<p>In the winter of 1870 and 1871 Miss Sophia Loring, and Miss Ellen
+Jackson arrived from Amer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span>ica as colleagues of Miss Everett, and under
+their efficient management aided by Mr. Araman, Luc&icirc;yah and other native
+teachers, the Seminary is enjoying a high degree of prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1864, the Mission had issued an appeal for funds to erect a
+permanent home for this Seminary, and in 1866 the present commodious and
+substantial edifice was erected, a lasting monument of the liberality of
+Christian men and women in America and England.</p>
+
+<p>Its cost was about eleven thousand dollars, and the raising of this sum
+was largely due to the liberality and personal services of Mr. Wm. A.
+Booth, of New York, who also kindly acted as treasurer of the building
+fund. The lumber used in its construction was brought from the state of
+Maine. The doors and windows were made under the direction of Dr. Hamlin
+of Constantinople, in Lowell, Mass., the tiles came from Marseilles, the
+stone from the sandstone quarries of Ras Beir&ucirc;t, the stone pavement
+partly from Italy and partly from Mt. Lebanon, and the eighty iron
+bedsteads from Birmingham, England. The cistern, which holds about
+20,000 gallons, was built at the expense of a Massachusetts lady, and
+the portico by a lady of New York. The melodeon was given by ladies in
+Georgetown, D.&nbsp;C., and the organ is the gift of a benevolent lady in
+Newport, R.&nbsp;I.</p>
+
+<p>Time would fail me to recount the generous offerings of Christian men
+and women who have aided in the support of this school during the ten
+years of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span>its history. Receiving no pecuniary aid from the American
+Board, the entire responsibility of its support fell upon a few members
+of the Syria Mission. Travellers who passed through the Holy Land,
+sometimes assumed the support of charity pupils, or interested their
+Sabbath Schools in raising scholarships, on their return home, and a few
+noble friends in the United States have sent on their gifts from time to
+time unsolicited, to defray the general expenses of the Institution. Its
+support has been to some of us a work of <i>faith</i>, as well as a labor of
+love. Not unfrequently has the end of the month come upon us, without
+one piastre in the treasury for paying the teachers' salaries or buying
+bread for the children, when suddenly, in some unknown and unexpected
+way, funds would be received, sufficient for all our wants. About two
+years since the funds were entirely exhausted. More than a hundred
+dollars would be owing to the teachers and servants on the following
+day. The accounts were examined, and all possible means of relief
+proposed, but without avail. At length one of the members of the
+Executive Committee asked leave to look over the accounts. He did so,
+and said he could not find any mention of a sum of about thirty
+Napoleons, which he was sure he had paid into the treasury several
+months before, as a donation from Mr. Booth of New York, whose son had
+died in Beir&ucirc;t. The money had <i>not</i> been paid into the school treasury.
+The vouchers were all produced, and there was left no resort but prayer.
+There was earnest supplication that night <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span>that the Lord would relieve
+us from our embarrassment, and provide for the necessities of the
+school. The next morning the good brother, above mentioned, recalled to
+mind his having given that money to Dr. Van Dyck in the Mission Library
+for the School. Dr. Van Dyck was consulted, and at once replied,
+"Certainly I received the money. It is securely locked up in the safe
+where it has been for months awaiting orders." The safe was opened, and
+the money found to be almost to a piastre the amount needed for
+obligations of the School.</p>
+
+<p>Since the transfer of the Syria Mission to the board of Missions of the
+Presbyterian Church, the pecuniary status of the Seminary has been
+somewhat modified. The Women's Boards of Missions of New York and
+Philadelphia have assumed the responsibility of raising scholarships for
+its support among the Auxiliary Societies and Sabbath Schools; the
+salaries of the teachers are provided for by individuals and churches,
+and several of the old friends of the school retain their interest in
+it, while the danger of a deficit is guarded against, by the guarantees
+of the good Christian women who are doing so grand and noble a work in
+this age for the world's evangelization. The annual cost of supporting a
+pupil now is about sixty dollars gold. The number of paying pupils is
+increasing, and the prospect for the future is encouraging.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1864, a letter was received from certain Christian women in
+America, addressed to the girls of the School, and some of the older
+girls pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span>pared a reply in Arabic, a translation of which was sent to
+America. It was as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"From the girls of the Beir&ucirc;t School in Syria, to the sisters beloved in
+the Lord Jesus, in a land very far away. We have been honored in reading
+the lines which reached us from you, O sisters, distant in body but near
+in spirit, and we have given glory to God the Creator of all, who has
+caused in your hearts true love to us, and spiritual sympathies which
+have prompted you, dear sisters in the Lord, to write to us. Yes, it is
+the Lord Jesus who has brought about between us and between you (Arabic
+idiom) a spiritual intercourse, without the intercourse of bodily
+presence. For we have never in our lives seen you, nor your country, nor
+have we spoken to you face to face, and so you likewise have not seen
+us. Had neither of us the Word of God, the Holy and Only Book which is
+from one Father and a God unchangeable, to tell us that we have one
+nature, and have all fallen into one transgression, and are saved in one
+way, which is the Lord Jesus, we could not, as we now can, call you in
+one union, our sisters. The Lord Jesus calls those who love Him His
+brethren, and since He is the only bond and link, are we not His
+sisters, and thus sisters to each other? Truly, O dear sisters, we are
+thirsting to see you, and we all unite in offering prayers and praises
+to God, through His Son Immanuel, the possessor of the glorious Name,
+praying that we may see you; but we cannot in this world, for we are in
+the East, and you are in the West, far, very far. But, O dear <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span>friends,
+as we hope for the resurrection from the dead, so after our period in
+this world is ended, we shall meet by the blessing of God in those
+bright courts which are illumined by the light of the Saviour, which
+need not sun nor moon to give them light,&mdash;that holy place which is
+filled with throngs of angels who never cease to offer glory to God.
+There we may meet and unite with all the saved in praising the Saviour.
+There we may meet our friends who have passed on before us "as waiting
+they watch us approaching the shore," as we sing in the hymn. There
+around the throne of the glorious Saviour, there in the heavenly
+Jerusalem, our songs will not be mingled with tears and grief, for the
+Lord Jesus Himself will wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will
+not enter sin nor its likeness into our hearts sanctified by the Holy
+Spirit. There this body which shall rise incorruptible, will not return
+to the state in which it was in this world. In those courts we shall be
+happy always, and the reason is that we shall always be with the Great
+Shepherd, as it is said in the Book of Revelation, 'He shall shepherd
+them and lead them to fountains of living waters and wipe all tears from
+their eyes.' Our sisters, were it not for the Holy Bible which the Lord
+has given to His people, we should have no comfort to console us with
+regard to our friends whom we have lost by means of death. We beg you to
+help us by offering prayers to the living and true God that He will make
+us faithful even unto death,&mdash;that He will bless us while on the sea of
+this life, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span>until we reach the shore of peace without fear or trouble,
+that we may be ready to stand before the seat of the Lord Jesus the
+Judge of all, clothed in the robes of His perfect righteousness, which
+he wove for us on the Cross, and is now ready to give to those who ask
+Him. Let us then all ask of God that this our only treasure may be
+placed where no thief can break in and steal, and no moth shall corrupt.
+And may the Lord preserve you!</p>
+
+<p>We love to sing this hymn,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Holy Bible, Book Divine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Precious treasure, thou art mine!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and we entreat you that when you sing it, you will let it be a
+remembrancer from us to you."</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1865, a little girl was brought to the school under somewhat
+peculiar circumstances. Years ago, in the days of Mr. Whiting, a
+Maronite monk named Nejm, became enlightened, left the monastery and was
+married to a Maronite woman named Zarifeh, by Mr. Whiting. For years the
+poor man passed through the fires of persecution and trial. Even his
+wife, in her ignorance, though not openly opposing him, trembled with
+fear every time he read the Scriptures aloud. At the time mentioned
+above, their little daughter Resha was about five years of age. The
+Papal Maronite Bishop of Beir&ucirc;t made a visit to Nejm's village, Baabda,
+to dispense indulgences, in accordance with the Pope's Encyclical
+letter. Nejm was called upon to pay his portion of the sum assessed upon
+the people, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span>having been a Protestant fifteen years, he refused to
+pay it. At the instigation of the priests, his wife was then taken from
+him, and his little Resha, his only child, was carried off by one of the
+priests to Beir&ucirc;t, and thrust inside the gates of the convent of the
+French Sisters of Charity. The poor father came to me, well-nigh
+broken-hearted, pleading for assistance. I laid the case before His
+Excellency Da&ucirc;d Pasha, Governor of Lebanon, who was then in Beir&ucirc;t, and
+drew up a petition to the Pasha of Beir&ucirc;t also, on the subject. Nejm
+went about weeping and wringing his hands, and my feelings became deeply
+enlisted in his behalf. Three weeks afterwards, after a series of
+petitions and visits to the Pasha of Beir&ucirc;t, the girl Resha was removed
+from the convent and taken by Nejm's enemies to a house near Nahr
+Beir&ucirc;t, about two miles distant, and just over the border line of the
+Mountain Pashalic. I then addressed another letter to Da&ucirc;d Pasha, and he
+promptly ordered her to be restored to her father. The manner in which
+Nejm, the father, finally secured the child was not a little amusing. He
+had been searching for his child for several weeks, waiting and
+watching, until his patience was about exhausted, when he heard that
+Resha was again in the hands of the priests in Baabda. The mother
+followed the child, and the priests threatened to kill her, if she
+informed her husband where the girl was secreted. Da&ucirc;d Pasha was then at
+his winter palace in Baabda, and Nejm took my letter to him. While
+awaiting a reply at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span>the door, some one informed him that his daughter
+was at the fountain. Without waiting further for official aid, he ran to
+the fountain, took up his daughter, put her on his back, and ran for
+Beir&ucirc;t, a distance of about four miles, where he brought her to my
+house, and placed her in my room, with loud ejaculations of thanks to
+God. "Neshkar Allah; El mejd lismoo." Thanks to God! Glory to His name!
+The mother soon followed, and the girl was sent as a day scholar to the
+Seminary. They are now living in Baabda. The mother, Zarify, united with
+the Evangelical Church of Beir&ucirc;t, July 21, 1872, giving the best
+evidence of a true spiritual experience. The little girl is anxious to
+teach, and it was proposed to employ her as an assistant in the girls'
+school in Baabda, but the tyrannical oppressions of the priesthood upon
+the family who had offered their house for the school, and the refusal
+of the Pasha of Lebanon to grant protection to the persecuted, have
+obliged the brethren there to postpone their request for a school for
+the present.</p>
+
+<p>Alas for the poor women of Syria! Even when they seek to obtain the
+consolations of the Gospel by learning to read the Word of life, they
+are surrounded by priests and Sheikhs who watch their chance to destroy
+the "Bread of Life!" In March, 1865, a Maronite woman called at the
+Press to buy a book of poems, to teach her boy to read. "Why not buy a
+Testament?" asked the bookseller. "I did buy an Engeel Mushekkel," (a
+voweled Testament.) "Be careful of it then," said Khalil, "for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span>the
+edition is exhausted, and you cannot get another for months." "It is too
+late to be careful now, for the book <i>has been burned</i>." "Burned? by
+whom?" "By the Jesuits, who gathered a large pile and burned them." God
+grant that as Tyndale's English New Testament, first printed in 1527 was
+only spread the more widely for the attempts of the Papal Bishop of
+London to burn it, so the Arabic Bible may receive a new impulse from
+the similarly inspired efforts of the Bishop's successors!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">LUCIYA SHEKKUR.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>The</b></span> work done for Christ and for Syrian girls in the families of
+Missionaries in Syria, may well compare with that done in the
+established institutions of learning. Mrs. Whiting was not alone in the
+work of training native Arab girls in her own home. The same work had
+been done by other Missionaries before her, and has been carried on with
+no little success by Mrs. Bird, Mrs. Calhoun and others, up to the
+present time.</p>
+
+<p>It is an interesting sight to see the Thursday afternoon Women's meeting
+in the house of Mrs. Calhoun in Abeih, and to know that a large part of
+that company of bright, intelligent and tidily dressed young native
+women, who listen so intently to the Bible lesson, and join so heartily
+in singing the sweet songs of Zion, were trained up either in her own
+family, or under her own especial influence. By means of her own example
+in the training of her children, she has taught the women of Abeih, and
+through them multitudes of women in other villages, the true Christian
+modes of family government and discipline, and introduced to their
+notice and practice many of those little conveniences and habits in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span>training of children, whose influence will be felt for many
+generations.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. and Mrs. Bird removed to Deir el Komr in 1855, they not only
+opened a large school for the education of girls, with Sada Haleby, one
+of Dr. De Forest's pupils, as teacher, but received into their own
+family three young girls, named Luc&icirc;ya, Sikkar and Zihry, all of whom
+entered upon spheres of usefulness. Zihry became a teacher, in Deir el
+Komr, and has continued to teach until the present time. She was at one
+time connected with the Beir&ucirc;t Female Seminary, and is now teaching in
+the Institution of Mrs. Shrimpton, under the auspices of the British
+Syrian Schools.</p>
+
+<p>Luciya taught in Deir el Komr until the school was overwhelmed in the
+fires and blood of the Massacre year, 1860.</p>
+
+<p>In 1862 she taught in the Sidon School, and afterwards married the Rev.
+Sulleba Jerwan, the first native pastor in Hums. In that great city, and
+amid the growing interest of the young Protestant community, she found a
+wide and attractive field of labor. She was a young woman of great
+gentleness and delicacy of nature, and of strong religious feeling, and
+entered upon the work of laboring among the women and girls of Hums,
+with exemplary zeal and discretion. She became greatly beloved, and her
+Godly example and gentle spirit will never be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>But at length her labors were abruptly cut short. Consumption, a disease
+little known in Syria, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span>which afterwards cut down her brother and
+only sister Sikkar, fastened upon her, and she was obliged, in great
+suffering, to leave the raw and windy climate of Hums, for the milder
+air of Beir&ucirc;t. Her two brothers being in the employ of Miss Whately in
+Cairo, she went, on their invitation, to Egypt, where after a painful
+illness, she fell asleep in Jesus. Amid all her sufferings, she
+maintained that same gentle and lovely temper of mind, which made her so
+greatly beloved by all who knew her.</p>
+
+<p>She has rested from her labors, and her works do follow her. Not long
+after her sister Sikkar, who had also been trained in Mrs. Bird's
+family, died in her native village Ain Zehalteh.</p>
+
+<p>Her last end also, was peace, and although no concourse of Druze Sheikhs
+came barefoot over the snow to her funeral, as they did on the death of
+the Sitt Selma, in the same village, no doubt a concourse of higher and
+holier beings attended her spirit to glory.</p>
+
+<p>When Luciya was in Beir&ucirc;t before her departure to Egypt, I used to see
+her frequently, and I shall never forget the calm composure with which
+she spoke of her anticipated release from the pains and sufferings of
+life. Christ was her portion, and she lived in communion with him,
+certain that ere long she should depart and be with him forever.</p>
+
+<p>The poor Moslem women in the houses adjoining her room used to come in,
+and with half-veiled faces look upon her calm and patient face with
+wonder. Would that they too might find her Saviour precious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span>to them, in
+their hours of sickness, suffering and death!</p>
+
+<p>Truly, there is no religion but that of Jesus Christ, that can soften
+the pillow of suffering, and take away the sting and dread of death.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most serious difficulties in the way of the higher female
+education in Syria, is the early age at which girls are married. One
+young girl attended the Beir&ucirc;t Seminary for two years, from eight to
+ten, and the teachers were becoming interested in her progress, when
+suddenly her parents took her out of the school, and gave her to a man
+in marriage. After the festivities of the marriage week were over at her
+husband's house, she went home to visit her mother, <i>taking her dolls
+with her</i> to amuse herself!</p>
+
+<p>The Arabic journal "the Jenneh" of Beir&ucirc;t, contained a letter in June,
+1872, from its Damascus correspondent, praising the fecundity of Syria,
+and stating that a young woman who was married at nine and a half,
+became a grandmother at twenty! Such instances are not uncommon in
+Damascus and Hums, where the chief and almost the only concern of
+parents is to marry off their daughters as early as nature will allow,
+without education, experience or any other qualification for the
+responsible duties of married life. When the above mentioned letter from
+Damascus was published, Dr. Van Dyck took occasion to write an article
+in the "Neshra," the Missionary Weekly, of which he is the editor,
+exposing the folly and criminality of such early mar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span>riages, and
+demonstrating their disastrous effects on society at large.</p>
+
+<p>Since the establishment of schools and seminaries of a high grade for
+girls, this tendency is being decidedly checked in the vicinity of
+Beir&ucirc;t, and girls are not given up as incorrigibly old, even if they
+reach the age of seventeen.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Meshakah of Damascus, who has long been distinguished for his
+learned and eloquent works on the Papacy, is a venerable white-bearded
+patriarch and his wife looks as if she were his daughter. I once asked
+him how old she was when married, and he said <i>eleven</i>. I asked him why
+he married her so young? He said that in his day, young girls received
+no training at home, and young men who wished properly trained wives,
+had to marry them young, so as to educate them to suit themselves!</p>
+
+<p>Education is rapidly obviating that necessity, and young men are more
+than willing that girls to whom they are betrothed, should complete
+their education, lest they be eclipsed by others who remain longer at
+school. I once called on a wealthy native merchant in Beir&ucirc;t, who
+remarked that "the Europeans have a thing in their country which we have
+not. They call it ed-oo-cashion, and I am anxious to have it introduced
+into Syria." This "ed-oo-cashion" is already settling many a question in
+Syria which nothing else could settle, and the natives are also learning
+that something more than mere book-knowledge is needed, to elevate and
+refine the family. One of the most direct results of female education
+thus far <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span>in Syria has been the abolition from certain classes of
+society of some of those superstitious fears which harass and torment
+the ignorant masses.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">RAHEEL.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>No</b></span> sketch of Woman's Work for Syrian women would be complete which did
+not give some account of the life and labors of that pioneer in work for
+Syrian women, Mrs. Sarah L.&nbsp;H. Smith, wife of Dr. Eli Smith. She reached
+Beir&ucirc;t, January 28, 1834, full of high and holy resolves to devote her
+life to the benefit of her Syrian sisters. From the first to the very
+last of her life in Syria, this was the one great object of her toils
+and prayers. As soon as April 2, she writes, "Our school continues to
+prosper, and I love the children exceedingly. Do pray that God will
+bless this incipient step to enlighten the women of this country. You
+cannot conceive of their deplorable ignorance. I feel it more and more
+every day. Their energies are expended in outward adorning of plaiting
+the hair and gold and pearls and costly array, literally so. I close
+with one request, <i>that you will pray for a revival of religion in
+Beir&ucirc;t</i>." Again she writes, June 30, 1834, "I feel somewhat thoughtful,
+this afternoon, in consequence of having heard of the ready consent of
+the friends of a little girl, that I should take her as I proposed, and
+educate her. I am anxious to do it, and yet my experience and
+observation in reference to such a course, <span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span>and my knowledge of the
+sinful heart of a child, lead me to think I am undertaking a great
+thing. I feel, too, that my example and my instruction will control her
+eternal destiny." This girl was Raheel Ata. Again, August 16: "It is a
+great favor that so many of the men and boys can read. Alas, our poor
+sisters! the curse rests emphatically upon them. Among the Druze
+princesses, some, perhaps the majority, furnish an exception and can
+read. Their sect is favorable to learning. Not so with the Maronites. I
+have one scholar from these last, but when I have asked the others who
+have been here if they wished to read, they have replied most absolutely
+in the negative, saying that it was for boys, and not for them. I have
+heard several women acknowledge that they knew no more than the
+donkeys."</p>
+
+<p>August 23. A Maronite priest compelled two little girls to leave her
+school, but the Greek priest sent "his own daughter, a pretty,
+rosy-cheeked girl" to be taught by Mrs. Smith. On the 22d of September,
+1834, she wrote from B'hamd&ucirc;n, a village five hours from Beir&ucirc;t, on
+Lebanon, "Could the females of Syria be educated and regenerated, the
+whole face of the country would change; even, as I said to an Arab a few
+days since, to the appearance of the houses and the roads. One of our
+little girls, whom I taught before going to the mountains, came to see
+me a day or two since, and talked incessantly about her love for the
+school, and the errors of the people here, saying that they 'cared not
+for Jesus Christ, but only for the Virgin Mary.'"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span></p><p>October 8. She says, "A servant woman of Mrs. Whiting, who has now
+lived long enough with her to love her and appreciate her principles,
+about a year and a half since remarked to some of the Arabs, that the
+people with whom she lived did 'not lie, nor steal, nor quarrel, nor do
+any such things; but poor creatures,' said she, 'they have no
+religion.'"</p>
+
+<p>On the 22d of October, she wrote again, "Yesterday I went up to Mr.
+Bird's to consult about the plan of a <i>school-house now commenced for
+females</i>. I can hardly believe that such a project is actually in
+progress, and I hail it as the dawn of a happy change in Syria. Two
+hundred dollars have been subscribed by friends in this vicinity, and I
+told Mr. B. that if necessary he might expend fifty more upon the
+building, as our Sabbath School in Norwich had pledged one hundred a
+year for female education in Syria."</p>
+
+<p>The principal contributor to this fund was Mrs. Alexander Tod, formerly
+Miss Gliddon, daughter of the U.&nbsp;S. Consul in Alexandria.</p>
+
+<p>The building stood near where the present Church in Beir&ucirc;t stands, and
+was removed, and the stones used in the extension of the old Chapel. In
+the year 1866 Mr. Tod revisited Beir&ucirc;t and contributed &pound;100 towards the
+erection of the new Female Seminary, saying that as Mrs. Tod aided in
+the first Female Seminary building in Beir&ucirc;t, he wished to aid in the
+second. The school-house was a plain structure, and was afterwards used
+as a boy's school, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span>the artist who photographed the designs printed
+in this volume received his education there under the instruction of the
+late Shah&icirc;n Sarkis, husband of Azizy.</p>
+
+<p>In the latter part of October, 1834, Mrs. Smith writes, "Yesterday I
+commenced the female school with four scholars, which were increased to
+ten to-day, and the number will probably continue to augment as before
+from week to week. As I walked home about sunset this evening, I
+thought, 'Can it be that I am a schoolmistress, and the only one in all
+Syria?' and I tripped along with a quick step amid Egyptians, Turks and
+Arabs, Moslems and Jews, to my quiet and pleasant home."</p>
+
+<p>November 9. "I sometimes indulge the thought that God has sent me to the
+females of Syria&mdash;to the little girls, of whom I have a favorite
+school&mdash;for their good."</p>
+
+<p>January 5, 1835. "On Friday I distributed rewards to twenty-three little
+girls belonging to my school, which, as they are all poor, consisted of
+clothing. Our Sabbath School also increases. Eighteen were present last
+Sabbath."</p>
+
+<p>On the 11th of January Dr. Thomson wrote, "Mrs. Smith's female school
+prospers wonderfully, but it is the altar of her own health; and I fear
+that in the flame that goeth up toward heaven from off that altar, she
+will soon ascend as did Manoah's angel. We can hardly spare her; she is
+our only hope for a female school in Beir&ucirc;t at present."</p>
+
+<p>The state of society in Syria at that time is well <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span>pictured in the
+following language, used by Mrs. Smith in a letter dated February 12,
+1835: "Excepting the three or four native converts, we know not one
+pious religious teacher, one judicious parent, one family circle
+regulated by the fear of God; no, <i>not even one</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had strength to do more, but my school and my studies draw
+upon my energies continually." Even at that early day Moslem girls came
+to be taught by Mrs. Smith. She writes June 2, "A few days since, one of
+my little Moslem scholars, whose father was once an extensive merchant
+here, came and invited me to make a call upon her mother. I took Raheel
+and accompanied her to their house which is in our neighborhood. I found
+it a charming spot and very neatly kept. Hospitality is regarded here as
+a religious act, I think, and a reputation for it is greatly prized."</p>
+
+<p>In July she wrote of what has not ceased to be a trial to all
+missionaries in Beir&ucirc;t for the past forty years, the necessity of
+removing to the mountains during the hot summer months. The climate of
+the plain is debilitating to foreigners, and missionary families are
+obliged to spend three months of the hot season in the Lebanon villages.
+"My school interests me more and more every day, and I do not love to
+think of suspending it even for a few weeks during the hot season. Day
+before yesterday a wealthy Jewish lady came with her two daughters to
+the school, and begged me to take the youngest as a scholar."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span></p><p>July 19. "At our Sabbath School to-day were <i>twenty-eight</i> scholars,
+twenty-one girls and seven boys."</p>
+
+<p>July 31. "To-day I closed my school for the month of August by the
+distribution of rewards to <i>thirty little girls</i>. The American and
+English Consuls and a few Arab friends were present, and expressed much
+pleasure at the sight of so many young natives in their clean dress. A
+few of the more educated scholars read a little in the New Testament."</p>
+
+<p>August 8. "On Saturday I closed my school for the month of August. It
+was increasing every day in numbers and I would gladly have continued
+it. Last Sabbath we had at the Sabbath School forty-six scholars, a
+<i>fourth of whom were Moslems</i>."</p>
+
+<p>September 29. "Yesterday I commenced my school again with twenty
+scholars; which, for the first day, was a good number. Mrs. Whiting has
+ten little Moslem girls in Jerusalem, and the promise of more."</p>
+
+<p>December 14. "On Saturday, our native female prayer-meeting consisted of
+twenty, besides two children. Fourteen were Arabs, more than were ever
+present before. We met in the girls' school room, where we intend in
+future to assemble. We sung part of a psalm, as we have begun to teach
+music in our school. We find the children quite as capable of forming
+musical sounds as those in our own country; but alas, <i>we have no psalms
+or hymns adapted to their capacities</i>. The Arabic cannot be simplified
+like the English, without doing violence to Arab <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span>taste; at least such
+is the opinion now. What changes may be wrought in the language, we
+cannot tell. Of this obstacle in the instruction of the young here, you
+have not perhaps thought. It is a painful thought to us, that
+<i>children's literature</i>, if I may so term it, is <i>incompatible with the
+genius of this language</i>: of course, infant school lessons must be
+bereft of many of their attractions."</p>
+
+<p>It may be interesting to know whether present missionary experience
+differs from that of Mrs. Smith and her husband in 1835, with regard to
+children's literature in the Arabic language.</p>
+
+<p>In 1858, Mr. Ford prepared, with the aid of Mr. Bistany, (the husband of
+"Raheel," Mrs. Smith's adopted child,) a series of children's Scripture
+Tracts in simple and yet perfectly correct Arabic, so that the youngest
+child can understand them. In 1862, we printed the first Children's
+Hymn-book, partly at the expense of the girls in Rufka's school. We have
+now in Arabic about eighty children's hymns, and a large number of
+tracts and story books designed for children. We also publish an
+Illustrated Children's Monthly, called the "Koukab es Subah," "The
+Morning Star," and the children read it with the greatest eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>The Koran, which is the standard of classic Arabic, cannot be changed,
+and hence can never be a book for children. It cannot be a family book,
+or a women's book. It cannot attract the minds of the young, with that
+charm which hangs around the exquisitely simple and beautiful narratives
+of the Old <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span>and New Testament. It is a gem of Arabic poetry, but like a
+gem, crystalline and unchanging. It has taken a mighty hold upon the
+Eastern world, because of its Oriental style and its eloquent assertion
+of the Divine Unity. It is reverenced, but not loved, and will stand
+where it is while the world moves on. Every reform in government,
+toleration and material improvement in the Turkish Empire, Persia and
+Egypt, is made in spite of the Koran and contrary to its spirit. The
+printing of the Koran is unlawful, but it is being printed. All pictures
+of living objects are unlawful, but the Sultan is photographed, Abd el
+Kader is photographed, the "Sheikh ul Islam" is photographed. European
+shoes are unlawful because sewed with a swine's bristle, but Moslem
+Muftis strut about the streets in French gaiters, and the women of their
+harems tottle about in the most absurd of Parisian high-heeled slippers.</p>
+
+<p>The Arabic Bible translated by Drs. Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck, is
+voweled with the grammatical accuracy and beauty of the Koran with the
+aid of a learned Mohammedan Mufti, and yet has all the elegant
+simplicity of the original and is intelligible to every Arab, old and
+young, who is capable of reading at all. The stories of Joseph, Moses,
+and David, of Esther, Daniel and Jonah are as well adapted to the
+comprehension of children in the Arabic as in the English.</p>
+
+<p>Not a few of the hymns in the Children's Hymn book are original, written
+by M. Ibrahim Sarkis, husband of Miriam of Aleppo, and M. Asaad
+Shi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span>doody, husband of Hada. This Hymn book was published in 1862, with
+Plates presented by Dr. Robinson's Sabbath School of the First
+Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn.</p>
+
+<p>This digression seemed necessary, in order to show the great progress
+that has been made since 1836, in preparing a religious literature. It
+is no longer true as in Mrs. Smith's day, "that we have no psalms or
+hymns adapted to the capacities of children." Nor is it longer true that
+"<i>children's literature is incompatible with the genius of the Arabic
+language</i>."</p>
+
+<p>In a letter addressed to the young women in the "Female Academy at
+Norwich," February, 1836, Mrs. Smith gives a vivid description of the
+"average woman" of Syria in her time, and the description holds true of
+nine-tenths of the women at the present day. There are now native
+Christian homes, not the least attractive of which is the home of her
+own little proteg&eacute; Raheel, but the great mass continue as they were
+forty years ago. She says, "My dear friends, will you send your thoughts
+to this, which is not a heathen, but an unevangelized country. I will
+not invite you to look at our little female school of twenty or thirty,
+because these form but a drop among the thousands and thousands of youth
+throughout Syria; although I might draw a contrast even from this not a
+little in your favor. But we will speak of the young Syrian females at
+large, moving in one unbroken line to the land of darkness and sorrow.
+Among them you will find many a fine form and beautiful face; but alas!
+the perfect work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span>manship of their Creator is rendered tame and insipid,
+for want of that mental and moral culture which gives a peculiar charm
+to the human countenance. It is impossible for me to bring the females
+of this country before you in so vivid a manner that you can form a
+correct idea of them. But select from among your acquaintances a lady
+who is excessively weak, vain and trifling; who has no relish for any
+intellectual or moral improvement; whose conversation is altogether
+confined to dress, parties, balls, admiration, marriage; whose temper
+and faults have never been corrected by her parents, but who is
+following, unchecked, all the propensities of a fallen, corrupt nature.
+Perhaps you will not be able to find any such, though I have
+occasionally met with them in America. If you succeed, however, in
+bringing a person of this character to your mind, then place the
+thousands of girls, and the women, too, of this land, once the land of
+patriarchs, prophets and apostles, in her class." "These weak-minded
+Syrian females are not attentive to personal cleanliness; neither have
+they a neat and tasteful style of dress. Their apparel is precisely such
+as the Apostle recommended that Christian females should avoid; while
+the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is thrown wholly out of the
+account. They have no books, and no means of moral or intellectual
+improvement. It is considered a disgrace for a female to know how to
+read and write, and a serious obstacle to her marriage, which is the
+principal object of the parent's heart. This abhorrence of learning in
+females, exists most strongly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span>in the higher classes. Nearly every pupil
+in our school is very indigent. Of God's word they understand nothing,
+for a girl is taken to church perhaps but once a year, where nothing is
+seen among the women but talking and trifling; of course she attaches no
+solemnity to the worship of God. No sweet domestic circle of father,
+brother, mother and sister, all capable of promoting mutual cheerfulness
+and improvement, greets her in her own house. I do not mean to imply
+that there exists no family affection among them, for this tie is often
+very strong; but it has no foundation in respect, and is not employed to
+promote elevation of character. The men sit and smoke their pipes in one
+apartment, while in another the women cluster upon the floor, and with
+loud and vociferous voices gossip with their neighbors. The very
+language of the females is of a lower order than that of the men, which
+renders it almost impossible for them to comprehend spiritual and
+abstract subjects, when first presented to their minds. I know not how
+often, when I have attempted to converse with them, they have
+acknowledged that they did not understand me, or have interrupted me by
+alluding to some mode or article of dress, or something quite as
+foolish." "Thus you see, my young friends, how unhappy is the condition
+of the females of Syria, and how many laborers are wanted to cultivate
+this wide field. On the great day of final account, the young females of
+Syria, of India, of every inhabited portion of the globe, who are upon
+the stage of life with you, will rise up, either <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span>to call you blessed,
+or to enhance your condemnation." "God is furnishing American females
+their high privileges, with the intention of calling them forth into the
+wide fields of ignorance and error, which the world exhibits. I look
+over my country and think of the hundreds and thousands of young ladies,
+intelligent, amiable and capable, who are assembled in schools and
+academies there; and then turn my eye to Jerusalem, Hebron, Nazareth,
+Sychar, Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, Jaffa, and to the numerous villages of
+Mount Lebanon, and think, 'Why this inequality of condition and
+privileges? Why can there not be stationed at every one of those morally
+desolate places, at least one missionary family, and one single female
+as a teacher? Does not Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, require it of
+His youthful friends in America, that from love to Him, gratitude for
+their own distinguished mercies, compassion for perishing souls, and the
+expectation of perfect rest and happiness in heaven, they should spread
+themselves over the wide world, and feed the sheep and the lambs
+scattered without a shepherd upon the mountains?' Yes, He requires it,
+and angels will yet behold it; but shall we not see it in our day?"</p>
+
+<p>Great changes have come over Syria since the above words were written.
+Not less than twelve high schools for girls have been established since
+then in Syria and Palestine, and not far from forty common schools,
+exclusively for girls, under the auspices of the different Missionary
+Societies.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span></p><p>In February, 1836, Mrs. Smith also undertook the work of <i>systematic
+visiting among the mothers of her pupils</i>. She says, "Perhaps it will be
+a very long time before we shall see any fruit. Indeed those who enter
+into our labors may gather it in our stead; yet I am anxious that we
+should persevere until we die, though no apparent effect be produced."</p>
+
+<p>In April, 1836, she wrote, "My mind is much upon a female boarding
+school; and if I can get the promise of ten girls, we shall, God
+willing, remove the press from our house, and commence one in the fall."</p>
+
+<p>In May she commenced a new term of her day school with twenty-six
+scholars. She says, "The wife of a persecuted Druze is very anxious to
+learn to read, and she comes to our house every day to get instruction
+from Raheel." She also says, "We feel the want of books exceedingly. The
+little girl whom I took more than a year since, and who advances
+steadily in intelligence and knowledge, has no book but the Bible to
+read, not one." Then again, "Should our press get into successful
+operation, I despair in doing anything in the way of infant schools,
+because the Arabic language cannot be simplified, at least under
+existing prejudices. If every hymn and little story must be dressed up
+in the august habiliments of the Koran, what child of three and six
+years old will be wiser and better for them! How complete is the
+dominion of the Great Adversary over this people! All the links of the
+chain must be separated, one by one. And what a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span>long, I had almost
+said, tedious process! But I forget that to each one will be assigned a
+few only of these links. We are doing a little, perhaps, in this work;
+if faithful, we shall rest in heaven, and others will come and take our
+places and our work."</p>
+
+<p>On the eleventh of June, Mrs. Smith's health had become so impaired from
+the dampness of the floor and walls of her school building, that her
+physician advised a sea voyage for her. After suffering shipwreck on the
+coast of Asia Minor, and enduring great hardships, she reached Smyrna,
+where she died on the 30th of September, in the triumphs of the Gospel.
+Her Memoir is a book worthy of being read by every Christian woman
+engaged in the Master's service.</p>
+
+<p>In a letter written from Smyrna, July 28, she says, "I had set my heart
+much upon taking Raheel with me. Parents, however, in Syria, have an
+especial aversion to parting with their children for foreign countries.
+One of my last acts therefore was to make a formal committal of her into
+the hands of my kind friend Miss Williams. I had become so strongly
+attached to the little girl, and felt myself so much rewarded for all my
+efforts with her, that the circumstances of this separation were perhaps
+more trying than any associated with our departure."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Smith had from the first a desire to take a little Arab girl to be
+brought up in her family, and at length selected Raheel, one of the most
+promising scholars in her school, when about eight years of age, and
+with the consent of her parents adopted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span>her. In her care, attentions
+and affections, she took almost the rank of a daughter. She was trained
+to habits of industry, truth and studiousness, and although Mrs. S. had
+been but nine months in the country when she adopted her, she commenced
+praying with her in Arabic from the very first.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Eli Smith says, "In a word, the expectations Mrs. Smith had formed
+in taking her, were fully answered; and she was often heard to say, that
+she had every day been amply repaid for the pains bestowed upon her. It
+will not be wondered at, that her affections became entwined very
+closely around so promising a pupil, and that the attachment assumed
+much of the character of parental kindness. Mrs. Smith's sharpest trial,
+perhaps, at her departure from Beir&ucirc;t, arose from leaving her behind."</p>
+
+<p>After the departure of Mrs. Smith, her fellow-laborer, Miss Williams,
+afterwards Mrs. Hebard, took charge of Raheel, who remained with her
+five years. She then lived successively with Mrs. Lanneau and Mrs.
+Beadle, and lastly with Dr. and Mrs. De Forest.</p>
+
+<p>When in the family of Dr. De Forest, she became engaged to be married to
+Mr. Butrus Bistany, a learned native of the Protestant Church, who was
+employed by the Mission as a teacher. Her mother and friends were
+opposed to the engagement, as they wished to marry her to a man of their
+own selection. On Carnival evening, February 20, in the year 1843, her
+mother invited her to come and spend the feast with the family. She
+hesitated, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span>finally consented to go with Dr. De Forest and call upon
+her family friends and return before night. After sitting several hours,
+the Doctor arose to go and she prepared to follow him. Her mother
+protested, saying that they would not allow her to return to her home
+with the missionary. Finding that the mother and brother-in-law were
+preparing to resist her departure by violence, Dr. De Forest retired,
+sending a native friend to stay in the house until his return. He
+repaired to the Pasha and laid the case before him. The Pasha declared
+her free to choose her own home, as she was legally of age, and sent a
+janizary with Dr. De Forest to examine the case and insure her liberty
+of action. On entering the house, the janizary called for Raheel and
+asked her whether she wished to go home or stay with her mother? She
+replied, "I wish to go home to Mrs. De Forest." The janizary then wrote
+down her request, and told her to go. She arose to go, but could not
+find her shoes. There was some delay, when her brother-in-law seized her
+arm and attempted to drag her to an inner room. The Pasha's officer
+seized the other arm and the poor girl was in danger of having her
+shoulders dislocated. At length the officer prevailed and she escaped.
+Her mother and the women who had assembled from the neighborhood, then
+set up a terrific shriek, like a funeral wail, "She's lost! she's dead!
+wo is me!" It was all pre-arranged. The brother-in-law had been around
+to the square to a rendezvous of soldiers, and told them that an attempt
+would be made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span>to abduct his sister by force, and if they heard a shriek
+from the women, to hasten to his house. The rabble of soldiers wanted no
+better pastime than such a mel&eacute;e among the infidels, and promised to
+come. When they heard the noise they started on a run. Raheel, having
+suspected something of the kind, induced Dr. De Forest to take another
+road, and as they turned the corner to enter the mission premises, they
+saw the rabble running in hot haste towards her mother's house, only to
+find that the bird had flown.</p>
+
+<p>In the following summer she was married to Mr. Bistany, who was for
+eight years assistant of Dr. Eli Smith in the work of Bible translation,
+and for twenty years Dragoman of the American Consulate. He is now
+Principal of a private Boarding School for boys, called the "Medriset el
+Wutaniyet" or "Native School," which has about 150 pupils of all sects.
+He and his son Selim Effendi are the editors and proprietors also of
+three Arabic journals; the <i>Jenan</i>, a Monthly Literary Magazine,
+illustrated by wood-cuts made by a native artist, and having a
+circulation of about 1500; the <i>Jenneh</i>, a semi-weekly newspaper
+published Tuesday and Friday; and the <i>Jeneineh</i>, published Monday,
+Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. There is not a more industrious man in
+Syria than Mr. Bistany, and he is doing a great work in the
+enlightenment of his countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>Raheel's home is one of affection, decorum, and Christian refinement,
+and she has fulfilled the highest hopes and prayers of her devoted
+foster mother, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span>in discharging the duties of mother, neighbor, church
+member, and friend. May every missionary woman be rewarded in seeing
+such fruits of her labors!</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1866, Sarah, one of Raheel's daughters, named after Mrs.
+Sarah L. Smith, was attacked by typhoid pneumonia. From the first she
+was deeply impressed on the subject of religion, and in deep concern
+about her soul. She sent for me, and I found her in a very hopeful state
+of mind. Day after day I called and conversed and prayed with her, and
+her views of her need of Christ were most clear and comforting, and she
+wished her testimony to His love to be known among all her young
+companions. Her friends from the school gathered at her request to see
+her, and she urged them to come to Christ, and several who have since
+united with the Church traced their first awakening to her words on her
+death-bed.</p>
+
+<p>One day Sarah said to me, "How thankful I am for this sickness! It has
+been the voice of God to my soul! I have given myself to Jesus forever!
+I have been a great sinner, and I have been thinking about my sins, and
+my need of a Saviour, and I am resolved to live for Him hereafter." On
+her father's coming into the room, she said in English, "Papa, I am so
+happy that the Lord sent this sickness upon me. You cannot tell how I
+thank him for it."</p>
+
+<p>After a season spent in prayer, I urged her, on leaving, to cast herself
+entirely on the Saviour of sinners, before another hour should pass. The
+next day as I entered the room, she said, "I am at peace <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span>now. I <i>did</i>
+cast myself on Jesus and He received me. I know His blood has washed my
+sins away." She had expressed some fear that she might not be able to
+live a consistent Christian life should she recover, "but," said she, "I
+could trust in Christ to sustain me." After a few words of counsel and
+prayer, and reading a portion of Scripture, she exclaimed, "It is all
+one now, whether I die or live. I am ready to go or stay. The Lord knows
+best."</p>
+
+<p>At the last interview between her and her father, she expressed her
+determination to make the Bible henceforth her study and guide, and
+requested him to read the 14th chapter of John, which seemed to give her
+great comfort. Soon after that she ceased to recognize her friends, and
+on Monday night, January 5, she gently fell asleep. I was summoned to
+the house at 2 <span class="smcap">a.&nbsp;m.</span> by a young man who said, "She is much
+worse, hasten." On reaching the house I met Rufka, teacher of the
+Seminary, who exclaimed, "She is gone, she is gone." Entering the mukod
+room, I found all the family assembled. There were no shrieks and
+screams and loud wailings, as is the universal custom in this land. All
+were seated, and the father, Ab&ucirc; Selim, was reading that chapter which
+Sarah had asked him to read. I then led the family in prayer, and all
+were much comforted. She had lived a blameless life, beloved by all who
+knew her, and had been a faithful and exemplary daughter and sister, but
+her only trust at the last was in her Saviour. She saw in her past life
+only sin, and hoped for salvation in the blood of Christ alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> The
+funeral was attended by a great concourse of people of all sects, and
+the Protestant chapel was crowded.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">HUMS.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>The</b></span> city of Hums, the ancient Emessa, is situated about one mile east of
+the river Orontes, and about half way between Aleppo and Damascus. It is
+in the midst of a vast and fertile plain, extending to Palmyra on the
+east, and to the Orontes on the west. With the exception of a few
+mud-built villages along the east and near the city, there is no settled
+population between Hums and Palmyra. The wild roving Bedawin sweep the
+vast plains in every direction, and only a few years ago, the great
+gates of Hums were frequently closed at midday to prevent the incursion
+of these rough robbers of the desert. On the west of the city are
+beautiful gardens and orchards of cherry, walnut, apricot, plum, apple,
+peach, olive, pomegranate, fig and pear trees, and rich vineyards cover
+the fields on the south. It is a clean and compact town of about 25,000
+inhabitants, of whom 7000 are Greek Christians, 3000 Jacobites, and the
+rest Mohammedans. The houses are built of sun-dried bricks and black
+basaltic rock, and the streets are beautifully paved with small square
+blocks of the same rock, giving it a neat and clean appearance. There
+are few windows on the street; <span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span>the houses are one story high, with
+diminutive doors, not more than four feet high; and the low dull walls
+stretching along the streets, give the city a dismal and monotonous
+appearance. The reason of building the doors so <i>low</i>, is to prevent the
+quartering of Turkish government horsemen on their families, as well as
+to prevent the Bedawin Arabs from plundering them. On the southwest
+corner of the city stands an ancient castle in ruins, built on an
+artificial mound of earth of colossal size, which was once faced with
+square blocks of black trap rock, but this facing has been all stripped
+off to build the modern city.</p>
+
+<p>The people are simple and country-like in dress and manners, and the
+most of them have a cow-yard within the courts of their houses, thus
+combining the pastoral with the citizen life. The majority of the Greeks
+are silk-weavers and shoemakers, weaving girdles, scarfs and robes for
+different parts of Syria and Egypt, and supplying the Bedawin and the
+Nusairy villagers with coarse red-leather boots and shoes.</p>
+
+<p>Hums early became the seat of a Christian Church, and in the reign of
+Diocletian, its bishop, Silvanus, suffered martyrdom. In 636
+<span class="smcap">a.&nbsp;d.</span>, it was captured by the Saracens, (or "Sherak&icirc;yeen,"
+"Easterns," as the Arab Moslems were called,) and although occupied for
+a time by the Crusaders, it has continued a Moslem city, under
+Mohammedan rule. The Greek population have been oppressed and ground to
+the very dust by their Moslem neighbors and rulers, and their women have
+been driven <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span>for protection into a seclusion and degradation similar to
+that of the Moslem hareems.</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. D.&nbsp;M. Wilson, a missionary of the A.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;C.&nbsp;F.&nbsp;M., took up his
+residence in Hums in October 1855, and remained until obliged to leave
+by the civil war which raged in the country in 1860. Mr. and Mrs. Aiken
+went to Hums in April, 1856, but Mrs. Aiken died June 20, after having
+given promise of rare usefulness among the women of Syria.</p>
+
+<p>After Mr. Wilson left Hums, a faithful native helper, Sulleba Jerwan,
+was sent to preach in Hums. His wife, Luciya Shekkoor, had been trained
+in the family of Rev. W. Bird in Deir el Komr, and was a devoted and
+excellent laborer on behalf of the women of Hums. In October, 1862, one
+of the more enlightened men among the Greeks was taken ill, and sent for
+Pastor Sulleba to come and make him a religious visit. He went, and
+found quite a company of relatives and friends present. The sick man
+asked him to read from the Word of God, and among the passages selected,
+was that containing the Ten Commandments. While he was reading the
+<i>Second</i> Commandment, the <i>wife</i> of the sick man exclaimed, "Is that the
+Word of God? If it is, read it again." He did so, when she arose and
+tore down a wooden painted picture of a saint, which had been hung at
+the head of the bed, declaring that henceforth there should be no idol
+worship in that house. Then taking a knife, she scraped the paint from
+the picture, and took it to the kitchen to serve as the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span>cover to a
+saucepan! This was done with the approbation of all present. The case
+was the more remarkable, as it was one of the first cases in Syria in
+which a woman has taken such a decided stand against picture-worship and
+saint-worship, in advance of the rest of the family.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1863, before the ordination of Pastor Sulleba, there being
+no Protestant properly qualified to perform the marriage ceremony in
+Hums, I went to that city to marry two of the Protestant young men. It
+was the first time a Protestant marriage had ever taken place in Hums,
+and great interest was felt in the ceremony. It is the custom among the
+other sects to <i>pronounce</i> the bride and groom husband and wife, neither
+giving an opportunity to spectators to object, nor asking the girl if
+she is willing to marry the man. The girl is oftentimes not consulted,
+but simply told she is to marry such a man. If it pleases her, well and
+good. If not, there is no remedy. The Greek Church gives no liberty in
+this respect, although the priest takes it for granted that the friends
+have satisfied both bride and groom with regard to the desirableness of
+the match. If they are not satisfied, the form of the ceremony gives
+neither of them the right of refusal.</p>
+
+<p>The two young men, Ibrahim and Yunis, called upon me soon after my
+arrival, to make arrangements for the marriage. I read them the form of
+the marriage ceremony and they expressed their approval, but said it
+would be necessary to give the brides <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span>very careful instructions as to
+how and when to answer, lest they say yes when they should say <i>no</i>, and
+<i>no</i> when they wished to say <i>yes</i>! I asked them to accompany me to the
+houses of the girls, that I might give them the necessary directions.
+They at once protested that this would not be allowed. They had never
+called at the brides' houses when the girls were present, and it would
+be a grievous breach of decorum for them to go even with me. So certain
+of the male relatives of the girls were sent for to accompany me, and I
+went to their houses. On entering the house of the first one, it was
+only after long and elaborate argument and diplomatic management, that
+we could induce the bride to come in from the other room and meet me. At
+length she came, with her face partially veiled, and attended by several
+married women, her relatives.</p>
+
+<p>They soon began to ply me with questions. "Do you have the communion
+before the ceremony?" "No." "Do you use the "Ikleel" or crown, in the
+service?" "No, we sometimes use the ring." Said one, "I hear that you
+ask the girl if she is willing to take this man to be her husband."
+"Certainly we do." "Well, if that rule had been followed in my day, I
+know of <i>one</i> woman who would have said <i>no</i>; but they do not give us
+Greek women the chance."</p>
+
+<p>I then explained to them that the bride must stand beside the
+bridegroom, and when I asked her if she knew of any lawful reason why
+she should <i>not</i> marry this man, Ibrah&icirc;m, she should say <i>No</i>,&mdash;and when
+I asked her if she took him to be her lawful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span>and wedded husband, she
+must answer <i>Yes</i>. Some of the women were under great apprehension that
+she might answer No in the wrong place; so I repeated it over and over
+again until the girl was sure she should not make a mistake. The woman
+above alluded to now said, "I would have said No in the <i>right</i> place,
+if I had been allowed to do it!" I then went to the house of the other
+bride and gave her similar instructions. The surprise of the women who
+came in from the neighborhood, that the girl should have the right to
+say yes or no, was most amusing and suggestive. That one thing seemed to
+give them new ideas of the dignity and honor of woman under the Gospel.
+Marriage in the East is so generally a matter of bargain and sale, or of
+parental convenience and profit, or of absolute compulsion, that young
+women have little idea of exercising their own taste or judgment in the
+choice of a husband.</p>
+
+<p>This was new doctrine for the city of Heliogabalus, and, as was to be
+expected, the news soon spread through the town that the next evening a
+marriage ceremony was to be performed by the Protestant minister, in
+which the bride was to have the privilege of refusing the man if she
+wished. And, what was even more outrageous to Hums ideas of propriety,
+it was rumored that the brides were to walk home from the Church <i>in
+company with their husbands</i>! This was too much, and certain of the
+young Humsites, who feared the effect of conferring such unheard-of
+rights and privileges on women, leagued together to mob the brides and
+grooms if such a course <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span>were attempted. We heard of the threat and made
+ample preparations to protect Protestant women's rights.</p>
+
+<p>The evening came, and with it such a crowd of men, women and children,
+as had never assembled in that house before. The houses of Hums are
+built around a square area into which all the rooms open, and the open
+space or court of the mission-house was very large. Before the brides
+arrived, the entire court, the church and the schoolroom, were packed
+with a noisy and almost riotous throng. Men, women and children were
+laughing and talking, shouting and screaming to one another, and
+discussing the extraordinary innovation on Hums customs about to be
+enacted. Soon the brides arrived, accompanied by a veiled and sheeted
+crowd of women, all carrying candles and singing as they entered the
+house. We took them into the study of the native preacher Sulleba, and
+after a reasonable delay, we forced a way for them through the crowd
+into the large square room, then used as a church. My brother and myself
+finally succeeded in placing them in a proper position in front of the
+pulpit, and then we waited until Asaad and Michaiel and Yusef and Nasif
+had enforced a tolerable stillness. It should be said that silence and
+good order are almost unknown in the Oriental churches. Men are walking
+about and talking, and even laughing, while the priests are "performing"
+the service, and they are much impressed by the quiet and decorum of
+Protestant worship.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span></p><p>The two brides were closely veiled so that I could not distinguish the
+one from the other. Ibrahim was slender and tall, at least six feet
+three, and Yunis was short and corpulent. So likewise, one of the brides
+was very tall, and the other even shorter than Yunis. As we could not
+see the brides' faces, we arranged them according to symmetry and
+apparent propriety, placing the tall bride by the tall groom, and the
+two short ones together. After the introductory prayer, I proceeded to
+deliver a somewhat full and practical address on the nature of marriage,
+and the duties and relations of husband and wife, as is our custom in
+Syria, not only for the instruction of the newly married pair, but for
+the good of the community. No Methodist exhorter ever evoked more hearty
+responses, than did this address, from the Hums populace. "That is
+true." "That is news in <i>this</i> city." "Praise to God." <i>Mashallah!</i> A
+woman exclaimed on hearing of the duties of husband to wife, "Praise to
+God, women are something after all!" I then turned to the two pairs, and
+commenced asking Ibrahim the usual question, "Do you" (etc., etc.,) when
+a woman screamed out, "Stop, stop, Khowadji, you have got the wrong
+bride by that man. He is to marry the short girl!" Then followed an
+explosion of laughter, and during the confusion we adjusted the matter
+satisfactorily. A Moslem Effendi who was present remarked after
+listening to the service throughout, "that is the most sensible way of
+getting married that I ever heard of."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span></p><p>After the ceremony, we sent the newly married pairs to the study to
+await the dispersion of the multitude, before going into the street. But
+human curiosity was too great. None would leave until they saw the
+extraordinary sight of a bride and groom walking home together. So we
+prepared our lanterns and huge canes, and taking several of the native
+brethren, my brother and myself walked home first with Ibrahim and wife,
+and then with Yunis and his wife. We walked on either side of them, and
+the riotous rabble, seeing that they could not reach the bride and
+groom, without first demolishing two tall Khowadjis with heavy canes,
+contented themselves with coarse jokes and contemptuous laughter.</p>
+
+<p>This was nine years ago, and on a recent visit to Hums, the two brides
+and their husbands met me at the door of the church on Sunday, to show
+me their children. Since that time numerous Protestant weddings have
+taken place in Hums, and a new order of things is beginning to dawn upon
+that people.</p>
+
+<p>The present native pastor, the Rev. Yusef Bedr, was installed in June,
+1872. His wife Leila, is a graduate of the Beir&ucirc;t Female Seminary, and
+has been for several years a teacher. Her father died in January, 1871,
+in the hospital of the Beir&ucirc;t College, and her widowed mother, Im
+Mishrik, has gone to labor in Hums as a Bible Woman. When her father was
+dying, I went to see him. Noticing his emaciated appearance, I said,
+"Are you very ill, Ab&ucirc; Mishrik?" "No my friend, <i>I</i> am not ill. My <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span>body
+is ill; and wasting away but <i>I</i> am well. I am happy. I cannot describe
+my joy. I have no desire to return to health again. If you would fill my
+hands with bags of gold, and send me back to Abeih in perfect health, to
+meet my family again, I would not accept the offer, in the place of what
+I <i>know</i> is before me. I am going to see Christ! I see Him now. I know
+He has borne my sins, and I have nothing now to fear. It would comfort
+me to see some of my friends again, and especially Mr. Calhoun, whom I
+love; but what are my friends compared with Christ, whom I am going so
+soon to see?" After prayer, I bade him good bye, and a few hours after,
+he passed peacefully away.</p>
+
+<p>The teacher of the Girls' School in Hums, is Belinda, also a former
+pupil of the Beir&ucirc;t Seminary. Her brother-in-law, Ishoc, is the faithful
+colporteur, who has labored so earnestly for many years in the work of
+the Gospel in Syria. His grandfather was a highway robber, who was
+arrested by the Pasha, after having committed more than twenty murders.
+When led out to the gallows, the Pasha offered him office as district
+governor, if he would turn Moslem. The old murderer refused, saying that
+he had not much religion, but he would not give up the Greek Church! So
+he was hung, and the Greeks regarded him as a martyr to the faith!
+Ishoc's father was as bad as the grandfather, and trained Ishoc to the
+society of dancing girls and strolling minstrels. When Ishoc became a
+Protestant, the father took down his sword to cut off his head, but his
+mother interceded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span>and saved his life. Afterwards his father one day
+asked him if it was possible that a murderer, son of a murderer, could
+be saved. He read the gospel to him, prayed with him, and at length the
+wicked father was melted to contrition and tears. He died a true
+Christian, and the widowed mother is now living with Ishoc in Beir&ucirc;t.
+Belinda has a good school, and the wealthiest families of the Greeks
+have placed their daughters under her care.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">MIRIAM THE ALEPPINE.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>The</b></span> city of Aleppo was occupied as a Station of the Syria Mission for
+many years, until finally in 1855 it was left to the Turkish-speaking
+missionaries of the Central Turkey Mission. It is one of the most
+difficult fields of labor in Turkey, but has not been unfruitful of
+genuine instances of saving faith in Christ. Among them is the case of
+Miriam Nahass, (or Mary Coppersmith,) now Miriam Sarkees of Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+<p>From a letter published in the Youth's Dayspring at the time, I have
+gathered the following facts:</p>
+
+<p>In 1853 and 1854 the Missionaries in Aleppo, Messrs. Ford and Eddy,
+opened a small private school for girls, the teacher of which was Miriam
+Nahass. When the Missionaries first came to Aleppo, her father professed
+to be a Protestant, and on this account suffered not a little
+persecution from the Greek Catholic priests. At times he was on the
+point of starvation, as the people were forbidden to buy of him or sell
+to him. One day he brought his little daughter Miriam to the
+missionaries, and asked them to take her and instruct her in all that is
+good, which they gladly undertook, and her gentle pleasant ways soon won
+their love.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span></p><p>Her mother was a superstitious woman, who hated the missionaries, and
+could not bear to have her daughter stay with them. She used for a long
+time to come almost daily to their house and bitterly complain against
+them and against her husband for robbing her of her daughter. She would
+rave at times in the wildest passion, and sometimes she would weep as if
+broken-hearted; not because she loved her child so much, but because she
+did not like to have her neighbors say to her, "Ah! You have let your
+child become a Protestant!"</p>
+
+<p>It may well be supposed that this was very annoying to the missionary
+who had her in special charge, and so it was; but he found some profit
+in it. He was just then learning to speak the language, and this woman
+by her daily talk, taught him a kind of Arabic, and a use of it, not to
+be obtained from grammars and dictionaries. He traced much of his ready
+command of the language to having been compelled to listen so often to
+the wearisome harangues of Miriam's mother. Sometimes the father would
+be overcome by the mother's entreaties and would take away the girl, but
+after awhile he would bring her back again, to the great joy of those
+who feared they had lost her altogether. This state of things continued
+two or three years, while Miriam's mind was daily improving and her
+character unfolding, and hopes were often entertained that the Spirit of
+God was carrying on a work of grace in her soul.</p>
+
+<p>One day her father came to the missionary, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span>asked him to loan him
+several thousand piastres (a thousand piastres is $40,) with which he
+might set up business. This was of course refused, when he went away
+greatly enraged. He soon returned and took away his daughter, saying
+that Protestantism did not pay what it cost. It had cost him the loss of
+property and reputation; it had cost him the peace of his household and
+the presence of his little girl, and it did not bring in to him in
+return even the loan of a few piastres, and he would try it no longer.
+Prayer continued to be offered without ceasing for Miriam, thus taken
+back to an irreligious home; and though the missionaries heard of her
+return and her father's return to the corrupt Greek Catholic Church, and
+of the exultation of the mother over the attainment of her wishes, yet
+they did not cease to hope that God would one day bring her back and
+make her a lamb of His fold.</p>
+
+<p>An Arab young woman, Melita, trained in the family of Mrs. Whiting in
+Beir&ucirc;t, was sent to Aleppo about this time to open a girls' school
+there. The Greek Catholic priests then thought to establish a similar
+school of their own sect to prevent their children from attending that
+of the Protestants. They secured Miriam as their teacher. As she went
+from her home to the school and back again, she used sometimes to run
+into the missionary's house by stealth, and assure him that her heart
+was still with him, and her faith unchanged. The school continued a few
+weeks, but the priests having failed to pay anything towards its
+support, her father would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span>let her teach no more. Perhaps two years
+passed thus, with but little being seen of Miriam, but she was not
+forgotten at the throne of grace.</p>
+
+<p>The teacher from Beir&ucirc;t having returned to her home, it was proposed to
+Miriam's father that she should teach in the Protestant school. Quite
+unexpectedly he consented, with the understanding that she was to spend
+every evening at home. At first, little was said to her on the subject
+of religion; soon she sought religious conversation herself, and brought
+questions and different passages of Scripture to be explained. After
+about a month, having previously conversed with the missionary about her
+duty, when her father came for her at night, she told him that she did
+not want to go home with him, but to stay where she was. She ought to
+obey God rather than her parents. They had made her act the part of a
+hypocrite long enough; to pretend to be a Catholic when she was a
+Protestant at heart, and they knew that she was. Her father promised
+that everything should be according to her wishes, and then she returned
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three days passed away and nothing was seen or heard of Miriam. A
+servant was then sent to her father's house to inquire if she was sick,
+and he was rudely thrust away from the door. The missionary felt
+constrained to interfere, that Miriam might at least have the
+opportunity of declaring openly her preference. According to the laws of
+the Turkish government, the father had no right to keep her at her age,
+against her will, and it was neces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span>sary that she have an opportunity to
+choose with whom she wished to live. The matter was represented to the
+American Consul, who requested the father to appear before him with his
+daughter. When the officer came to his house, he found that the father
+had locked the door and gone away with the key. From an upper window,
+however, Miriam saw him and told him that she was shut up there a
+prisoner, not knowing what might be done with her, and she begged for
+assistance. She had prepared a little note for the missionary, telling
+of her attachment to Christ's cause, and closing with the last two
+verses of the eighth chapter of Romans, "For I am persuaded, that
+neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
+things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other
+creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
+Christ Jesus our Lord." The janizary proposed to her to try if she could
+not get out upon the roof of the next house, and descend through it to
+the street, which she successfully accomplished, and was soon joyfully
+on her way to a place of protection in the Consulate.</p>
+
+<p>Miriam, after staying three days at the Consul's house, returned to that
+of the missionary. Her parents tried every means to induce her to
+return. They promised and threatened and wept, but though greatly moved
+at times in her feelings, she remained firm to her purpose. They tried
+to induce her to go home for a single night only, but she knew them too
+well to trust herself in their hands. Her mother had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span>artfully arranged
+to meet her at the house of a friend; but her brother came, a little
+before the time, to warn her that a plan was laid to meet her at this
+house with a company of priests who were all ready to marry her forcibly
+to a man whom she knew nothing about, as is often done in this country.
+Miriam thus gave up father and mother, brothers and sisters, for the
+sake of Christ and his gospel.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1855 Mr. Ford removed to Beir&ucirc;t, and Miriam accompanied him.
+She made a public profession of her faith in Christ in 1856, and was
+married in 1858 to Mr. Ibrahim Sarkees, foreman and principal proof
+reader of the American Mission Press. Her father has since removed to
+Beir&ucirc;t, and all of the family have become entirely reconciled to her
+being a Protestant. Her brother Habibs is a frequent attendant on Divine
+service, and regards himself as a Protestant.</p>
+
+<p>Miriam is now deeply interested in Christian work, and the weekly
+meetings of the Native Women's Missionary Society are held at her house.
+The Protestant women agree either to attend this Sewing Society, or pay
+a piastre a week in case of their absence.</p>
+
+<p>I close this chapter with the mention of Werdeh, [Rose,] daughter of the
+celebrated Arabic poet Nasif el Yazijy, who aided Dr. Eli Smith in the
+translation of the Bible into Arabic. She is now a member of the
+Evangelical Church in Beir&ucirc;t. She herself has written several poems of
+rare merit; one an elegy upon the death of Dr. Smith; another expressing
+grate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span>ful thanks to Dr. Van Dyck for attending her sick brother. Only
+this can be introduced here, a poem lamenting the death of Sarah
+Huntington Bistany, daughter of Raheel, who died in January, 1866.
+Sarah's father and her own father, Sheikh Nasif, had been for years on
+the most intimate terms, and the daughters were like sisters. The
+account of Sarah's death will be found in another part of this volume.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh sad separation! Have you left among mortals,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An eye without tears, hot and burning with sorrow?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Have you left on this earth a heart without anguish,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or a soul unharrowed with grief and emotion?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou hast plucked off a flower from our beautiful garden,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which shall shine like the stars in the gardens celestial.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wo is me! I have lost a fair branch of the willow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Broken ruthlessly off. And what heart is <i>not</i> broken?<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Thou hast gone, but from me thou wilt never be absent.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Thy person will live to my sight and my hearing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tears of blood will be shed by fair maids thy companions,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thy grave will be watered by tears thickly falling.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou wert the fair jewel of Syrian maidens,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Far purer and fairer than pearls of the ocean.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where now is thy knowledge of language and science?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This sad separation has left to us nothing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Ah, wo to the heart of fond father and mother,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">No sleep,&mdash;naught but anguish and watching in sorrow<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Thou art clad in white robes in the gardens of glory.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">We are clad in the black robe of sorrow and mourning<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh grave, yield thy honors to our pure lovely maiden,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who now to thy gloomy abode is descending!<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Our Sarah departed, with no word of farewell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Will she ever return with a fond word of greeting?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh deep sleep of death, that knows no awaking!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh absence that knows no thought of returning!<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">If she never comes back to us here in our sorrow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">We shall go to her soon. 'Twill be but to-morrow<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">MODERN SYRIAN VIEWS WITH REGARD TO FEMALE EDUCATION.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>In</b></span> the year 1847, a Literary Society was formed in Beir&ucirc;t, through the
+influence of Drs. Thomson, Eli Smith, Van Dyck, De Forest and Mr.
+Whiting, which continued in operation for about six years, and numbered
+among its members the leading men of all the various native communities.
+Important papers were read on various scientific and social subjects.
+The missionaries had been laboring for years to create an enlightened
+public sentiment on the subject of female education, contending against
+social prejudices, profound ignorance, ecclesiastical tyranny and
+selfish opposition, and at length the fruit of their labors began to
+appear. In the following articles may be seen something of the views of
+the better class of Syrians. The first was read before the Beir&ucirc;t
+Literary Society, Dec. 14, 1849, by Mr. Butrus Bistany, who, as stated
+above, married Raheel, and is now the head of a flourishing Academy in
+Beir&ucirc;t, and editor of three Arabic journals. I have translated only the
+salient points of this long and able paper:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>We have already spoken of woman in barbarous lands. The Syrian women,
+although better off in some respects than the women of barbarous
+na<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span>tions, are still in the deepest need of education and elevation,
+since they stand in a position midway between the barbarous and the
+civilized. How few of the hundreds of thousands of women in Syria know
+how to read! How few are the schools ever established here for teaching
+women! Any one who denies the degradation and ignorance of Syrian women,
+would deny the existence of the noonday sun. Do not men shun even an
+allusion to women, and if obliged to speak of them, do they not
+accompany the remark with "a jellak Allah," as if they were speaking of
+a brute beast, or some filthy object? Are they not treated among us very
+much as among the barbarians? To what do they pay the most attention? Is
+it not to ornament and dress, and refining about styles of tatooing with
+the "henna" and "kohl?" What do they know about the training of
+children, domestic economy and neatness of person, and the care of the
+sick? How many abominable superstitions do they follow, although
+forbidden by their own religions? Are not the journals and diaries of
+travellers full of descriptions of the state of our women? Does not
+every one, familiar with the state of society and the family among us,
+know all these things, and mourn over them, and demand a reform? Would
+that I might awaken among the women the desire to learn, that thus they
+might be worthy of higher honor and esteem!</p>
+
+<p>"Woman should be instructed in <i>religion</i>. This is one of her highest
+rights and privileges and her bounden duty.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span></p><p>"She should be taught in her own vernacular tongue, so as to be able to
+express herself correctly, and use pure language. Woman should learn to
+<i>write</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"She should be taught to <i>read</i>. How is it possible for woman to
+remember all her duties, religious and secular, through mere oral
+instruction? But a written book, is a teacher always with her, and in
+every place and circumstance. It addresses her without a voice, rebukes
+her without fear or shame, answers without sullenness and complaint. She
+consults it when she wishes, without anxiety and embarrassment, and
+banishes it if not faithful or satisfactory, or even burns it without
+crime!</p>
+
+<p>"Why forbid woman the use of the only means she can have of sending her
+views and feelings where the voice cannot reach? <i>Now</i> when a woman
+wishes to write a letter, she must go, closely veiled to the street, and
+hire a professional scribe to write for her, a letter which she cannot
+read, and which may utterly misrepresent her!</p>
+
+<p>"Woman should also have instruction in the <i>training of children</i>. The
+right training of children is not a natural instinct. It is an art, and
+a lost art among us. It must be learned from the experience and
+observation of those who have lived before us; and where do we now find
+the woman who knows how to give proper care to the bodies and souls of
+her children?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bistany then speaks of the importance of teaching woman domestic
+economy, sewing, cook<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span>ing, and the care of the sick, as well as
+geography, arithmetic, and history, giving as reasons for the foregoing
+remarks, that the education of woman will benefit herself, her husband,
+her children and her country.</p>
+
+<p>"How can she be an intelligent wife, a kind companion, a wise
+counsellor, a faithful spouse, aiding her husband, lightening his
+sufferings, training his children, and caring for his home, without
+education? Without education, her taste is corrupt. She will seek only
+outward ornament, and dress, and painting, as if unsatisfied with her
+Creator's work; becoming a mere doll to be gazed at, or a trap to catch
+the men. She will believe in countless superstitions, such as the Evil
+Eye, the howling of dogs, the crying of foxes, etc., which are too well
+known to need mention here. He who would examine this subject, should
+consult that huge unwritten book, that famous volume called "Ketab en
+Nissa," the "Book of the Women," a work which has no existence among
+civilized women; or ask the old wives who have read it, and taught it in
+their schools of superstition.</p>
+
+<p>"Let him who would know the evils of neglecting to educate woman, look
+at the ignorant, untaught woman in her language and dress, her conduct
+at home and abroad; her notions, thoughts, and caprices on religion and
+the world; her morals, inclinations and tastes; her house, her husband,
+her children and acquaintances, when she rejoices or mourns, when sick
+or well; and he will agree with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span>us that an uneducated woman is a great
+evil in the world, not to say the greatest evil possible to be imagined.</p>
+
+<p>"In the reformation of a nation, then, the first step in the ladder is
+the education of the women from their childhood. And those who neglect
+the women and girls, and expect the elevation of the people by the mere
+training of men and boys, are like one walking with one foot on the
+earth, and the other in the clouds! They fail in accomplishing their
+purpose and are barely able, by the utmost energy, to repair that which
+woman has corrupted and destroyed. They build a wall, and woman tears
+down a castle. They elevate boys one degree, and women depress them many
+degrees.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I have now said enough on a subject never before written upon
+by any of our ancestors of the sons of the Arabs. My object has been to
+prove the importance of the education of woman, based on the maxim,
+that, 'she who rocks the cradle with her right hand, moves the world
+with her arm.'"</p>
+
+<p>The next article I have translated from Mr. Bistany's Semi-monthly
+Magazine, called the "Jenan," for July, 1870. It was written by an Arab
+<i>woman</i> of Aleppo, the Sitt Mariana Merrash. She writes with great power
+and eloquence in the Arabic; and her brother, Francis Effendi, is one of
+the most powerful writers of modern Syria. The paper of the Sitt Mariana
+is long, and the introduction is most ornate and flowery. She writes on
+the condition of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span>woman among the Arabs, and refutes an ancient Arab
+slander against women that they are cowardly and avaricious, because
+they will not fight, and carefully hoard the household stores. She then
+proceeds:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Wo to us Syrian women, if we do not know enough to distinguish and seek
+after those qualities which will elevate and refine our minds, and give
+breadth to our thoughts, and enable us to take a proper position in
+society! We ought to attract sensible persons to us by the charm of our
+cultivation and refinement, not by the mere phantom of beauty and
+personal ornament. Into what gulfs of stupidity have we plunged! Do we
+not know that the reign of beauty is short, and not enough of itself to
+be worthy of regard? And even supposing that it were enough of itself,
+in the public estimation, to make us attractive and desirable, do we not
+know assuredly that after beauty has faded, we should fall at once into
+a panic of anxiety and grief, since none would then look at us save with
+the eye of contempt and ridicule, to say nothing of the vain attempts at
+producing artificial beauty which certain foolish women make, as if they
+were deaf to the insults and abuse heaped upon them? Shall we settle
+down in indolence, and never once think of what is our highest advantage
+and our chiefest good? Shall we forever run after gay attire and
+ornament? Let us arise and run the race of mental culture and literary
+adornment, and not listen for a moment to those who insult us by denying
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span>appropriateness of learning to women, and the capacity of women for
+learning!</p>
+
+<p>"Were we not made of the same clay as men? Even if we are of weaker
+texture, we have the same susceptibility which they have to receive
+impressions from what is taught to us. If it is good, we receive good as
+readily as they; and if evil, then evil. Of what use is a crown of gold
+on the brow of ignorance, and what loveliness is there in a jewelled
+star on the neck of coarseness and brutality, or in a diamond necklace
+over a heart of stupidity and ignorance? The great poet Mutanebbi has
+given us an apothegm of great power on this very subject. He says:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Fukr el jeh&ucirc;l bela okl ila adab,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fukr el hamar bela ras ila resen,'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'A senseless fool's need of instruction is like a headless donkey's
+need of a halter.'</p></div>
+
+<p>"Let us then gird ourselves with wisdom and understanding, and robe
+ourselves with true politeness and meekness, and be crowned with the
+flowers of the 'jenan' (gardens) of knowledge (a pun on the name of the
+magazine) now opened to us. Let us pluck the fruits of wisdom, lifting
+up our heads in gratulation and true pride, and remain no longer in that
+cowardice and avarice which were imputed to the women of the Arabs
+before us!"</p>
+
+<p>The next article I shall translate, is a paper on the Training of
+Children in the East, by an Arab woman of Alexandria, Egypt, the Sitt
+Wustina Mesirra,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> wife of Selim Effendi el Hamawy. It was printed in the
+"Jenan" for Jan., 1871. After a long and eloquent poetical introduction,
+this lady says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Let us put off the robes of sloth and inertness, and put on the dress
+of zeal and earnestness. We belong to the nineteenth century, which
+exceeds all the ages of mankind in light and knowledge. Why shall we not
+show to men the need of giving us the highest education, that we may at
+the least contribute to <i>their</i> happiness and advantage, and rightly
+train our children and babes, not to say that we may pluck the fruits of
+science, and the best knowledge for ourselves? Let them say to us, you
+are weak and lacking in knowledge. I reply, by perseverance and
+patience, we shall attain our object.</p>
+
+<p>"Inasmuch as every one who reaches mature years, must pass by the road
+of childhood and youth, everything pertaining to the period of childhood
+becomes interesting and important, and I beg permission to say a word on
+the training of children.</p>
+
+<p>"When it pleased God to give us our first child, I determined to train
+it according to the old approved modes which I had learned from my
+family relatives and fellow-countrywomen. So I took the baby boy soon
+after his birth, and put him in a narrow cradle provided with a tin tube
+running down through a perforation in the little bed, binding and tying
+him down, and wrapping and girding him about from his shoulders to his
+heels, so that he was stiff and unmovable, excepting his head, which
+rolled and wriggled about from right to left, with the rocking of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span>cradle, this rocking being deemed necessary for the purpose of inducing
+sleep and silence in the child. My lord and husband protested against
+this treatment, proving to me the evil effects of this wrapping and
+rocking, by many and weighty reasons, and even said that it would injure
+the little ones for life, even if they survived the outrageous abuse
+they were subjected to. I was astonished, and said, how can this be? We
+were all trained and treated in this manner, and yet lived and grew up
+in the best possible style. All our countrymen have been brought up in
+this way, and none of them that I know of have ever been injured in the
+way you suggest. He gave it up, and allowed me to go on in the old way,
+until something happened which suddenly checked the babe in his progress
+in health and happiness. He began to throw up his milk after nursing,
+and to grow ill, giving signs of brain disease, and then my lord said,
+you must now give up these customs and take my counsel. So, on the spur
+of the moment, I accepted his advice and gave up the cradle. I unrolled
+the bindings and wrappings and gave up myself to putting things in due
+order. I clothed my child with garments adapted to his age and
+circumstances, and to the time and place, and regulated the times of his
+eating and play by day, and kept him awake as much as might be, so that
+he and his parents could sleep at night. I soon saw a wonderful change
+in his health and vigor, though I experienced no little trouble from my
+efforts to wean him from the rocking of the cradle to which he was
+accustomed. My favor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span>able experience in this matter, led me to use my
+influence to induce the daughters of my race, and my own family
+relatives, to give up practices which are alike profitless, laborious
+and injurious to health. My husband also aided me in getting books on
+the training of children, and I studied the true system of training,
+learning much of what is profitable to the mothers and fathers of my
+country in preserving the health of their children in mind and body. The
+binding and wrapping of babes in the cradle prevents their free and
+natural movements, and the natural growth of the body, and injures their
+health."</p>
+
+<p>The next paper is from the pen of Khalil Effendi, editor of the Turkish
+official journal of Beir&ucirc;t. It appeared in the columns of the "Hadikat
+el Akhbar" of January, 1867. It represents the leading views of a large
+class of the more enlightened Syrians with regard to education, and by
+way of preface to the Effendi's remarks, I will make a brief historical
+statement.</p>
+
+<p>The Arab race were in ancient times celebrated for their schools of
+learning, and although the arts and sciences taught in the great
+University under the Khalifs of Baghdad, were chiefly drawn from Greece,
+yet in poetry, logic and law the old Arab writers long held a proud
+pre&euml;minence. But since the foundation of the present Ottoman Empire, the
+Arabs have been under a foreign yoke, subject to every form of
+oppression and wrong, and for generations hardly a poet worth the name
+has appeared excepting Sheikh Nasif el Yazijy. Schools have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span>been
+discouraged, and learning, which migrated with the Arabs into Spain, has
+never returned to its Eastern home. There are in every Moslem town and
+city common schools, for every Moslem boy must be taught to read the
+Koran; but with the exception of the Egyptian school of the Jamea el
+Azhar in Cairo, there had not been up to 1867 for years even a high
+school under native auspices, in the Arabic-speaking world. But what the
+Turks have discouraged and the Arab Moslems have failed to do, is now
+being done among the nominal Christian sects, and chiefly by foreign
+educators. During the past thirty years a great work in educating the
+Arab race in Syria has been done by the American Missionaries. Their
+Seminary in Abeih, on Mount Lebanon, has trained multitudes of young
+men, who are now scattered all over Syria and the East, and are making
+their influence felt. Other schools have sprung up, and the result is,
+that the young men and women of Syria are now talking about the "Asur el
+Jedid," or "New Age of Syria," by which they mean an age of education
+and light and advancement. The Arabic journal, above referred to, is
+owned by the Turkish government, or rather subsidized by it, and its
+editor is a talented young Greek of considerable poetic ability. It is
+not often that he ventures to speak out boldly on such a theme as
+education, but the pressure from the people upon the Governor-General
+was so great at the time, that he gave permission to the editor to utter
+his mind. I translate what he wrote, quite literally.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span></p><p>"There can be no doubt that the strength of every people and the source
+of their happiness, rest upon the diffusion of knowledge among them.
+Science has been in every age the foundation of wealth and national
+progress, and since science and the arts are the forerunners of popular
+civilization, and the good of the masses and their elevation in the
+scale of intellectual and physical growth, therefore primary education
+is the necessary preparation for all scientific progress. And in view of
+this, the providence of our most exalted government has been turned to
+the accomplishment of what has been done successfully in other lands, in
+the multiplication of schools and colleges. And none can be ignorant of
+the great progress of science and education, under His August Imperial
+Excellency the Sultan, in Syria, where schools and printing presses have
+multiplied, especially in the city of Beir&ucirc;t and its vicinity. For in
+Beir&ucirc;t and Mount Lebanon, there are nearly two thousand male pupils,
+large and small, in Boarding Schools, learning the Arabic branches and
+foreign languages, and especially the French language, which is more
+widely spread than any other. The most noted of these schools are the
+French Lazarist School at Ain Tura in Lebanon, the American Seminary in
+Abeih, the Jesuit School at Ghuzir, and the Greek School at Suk el
+Ghurb, the most of the pupils being from the cities of Syria. Then there
+are in Beir&ucirc;t the Greek School, the school of the Greek Catholic
+Patriarch, the Native National College of Mr. Betrus el Bistany, and
+there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span>are also nearly a thousand <i>girls</i> in the French Lazarist School,
+the Prussian Protestant Deaconesses, the American Female Seminary and
+Mrs. Thompson's British Syrian School, and other female schools. And
+here we must mention that all of these schools, (excepting the Druze
+Seminary,) are in the hands of <i>Christians</i>, and the Mohammedans of
+Beir&ucirc;t have not a single school other than a common school, although in
+Damascus and Tripoli they have High Schools which are most successful,
+and many of their children in Beir&ucirc;t, are learning in Christian schools,
+a fact which we take as a proof of their anxiety to attain useful
+knowledge, although they have not as yet done aught to found schools of
+their own. And though the placing of their children in Christian schools
+is a proof of the love and fellowship between these two sects in this
+glorious Imperial Age, we cannot but say that it would be far more
+befitting to the honor and dignity of the Mussulmen to open schools for
+their own children as the other sects are doing. And lately the Imperial
+Governor of Syria has been urging them to this step, and they are now
+planning the opening of such a school, which will be a means of great
+benefit and glory to Islam."</p>
+
+<p>The editor then states that the great want of Syria is a school where a
+high <i>practical</i> education can be given, and says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We now publish the glad tidings to the sons of Syria that such a
+College has just been opened in Syria, in the city of Beir&ucirc;t, by the
+liberality of good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span>men in America and England, and called the "Syria
+Protestant College." It is to accommodate eventually one thousand
+pupils, will have a large library and scientific apparatus, including a
+telescope for viewing the stars, besides cabinets of Natural History,
+Botany, Geology and Mineralogy. It will teach all Science and Art, Law
+and Medicine, and we doubt not will meet the great want of our native
+land."</p>
+
+<p>Five years have passed since the above was written. Since that time the
+number of pupils in the various schools in Beir&ucirc;t has trebled, and new
+educational edifices of stately proportions are being built or are
+already finished, in every part of the city. It may be safely said that
+the finest structures in Beir&ucirc;t are those built for educational
+purposes. The Latins have the Sisters of Charity building of immense
+proportions, the Jesuit establishment, the Maronite schools, and the
+French Sisters of Nazareth Seminary, which is to be one of the most
+commanding edifices of the East. The Greeks have their large High
+School, and the Papal-Greeks, or Greek-Catholics their lofty College.
+The Moslems have built with funds drawn from the treasury of the
+municipality, a magnificent building for their Reshidiyeh, while the
+Protestants have the imposing edifices occupied by the American Female
+Seminary, the British Syrian Schools, the Prussian Deaconesses
+Institute, and most extensive and impressive of all, the new edifices of
+the Syrian Protestant College at Ras Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span></p><p>As another illustration of public sentiment in Syria with regard to
+evangelical work, I will translate another paragraph from this official
+newspaper:</p>
+
+<p>"We have been writing of the progress of the Press in Syria, and of
+Arabic literature in Europe, but we have another fact to mention which
+will no doubt fill the sons of our country with astonishment. You know
+well the efforts which were put forth some time since in the printing of
+the Old and New Testaments in various editions in the Arabic language,
+in the Press of the American Mission in Beir&ucirc;t. This work is under the
+direction of the distinguished scholar Dr. Van Dyck, who labored
+assiduously in the completion of the translation of the Bible from the
+Hebrew and Greek languages, which was commenced by the compassionated of
+God, Dr. Eli Smith. They had printed from time to time large editions of
+this Bible with great labor and expense, and sold them out, and then
+were obliged to set up the types again for a new edition. But Dr. Van
+Dyck thought it best, in order to find relief from the vast expenditure
+of time and money necessary to reset the types, to prepare for every
+page of the Bible a plate of copper, on whose face the letters should be
+engraved. He therefore proceeded to New York, and undertook in
+co-operation, with certain men skilled in the electrotyping art, to make
+plates exactly corresponding to the pages of the Holy Book, and he has
+sent to us a specimen page taken from the first plate of the vowelled
+Tes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span>tament, and on comparison with the page printed here, we find it an
+exact copy of the Beir&ucirc;t edition which is printed in the same type with
+our journal. We regard it as far clearer and better than the sheets
+printed from movable types, and we congratulate Dr. Van Dyck, and wish
+him all success in this enterprise."</p>
+
+<p>Such statements as these derive their value from the fact that they
+appear in the official paper of a Mohammedan government, and are a
+testimony to the value of the Word of God.</p>
+
+<p>The next article is a literal translation of an address delivered in
+June, 1867, at the Annual Examination of the Beir&ucirc;t Female Seminary.
+This Seminary was the first school in Syria for girls, which was
+established on the paying principle, and in the year 1867 its income
+from Syrian girls who paid their own board and tuition was about fifteen
+hundred dollars in gold. It commenced with six pupils, and now has fifty
+boarders. A crowded assembly attended the examination in the year above
+mentioned, and at its close, several native gentlemen made addresses in
+Arabic. The most remarkable address was made by a Greek Priest, Ghubrin
+Jebara, the Archimandrite and agent of the Patriarch. When it is
+remembered that in the days of Bird, Goodell and Fisk, the Greek clergy
+were among the most bitter enemies of the missionaries, it will be seen
+that this address indicates a great change in Syria. Turning to the
+great congregation of three or four hundred people who were assembled in
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> American Chapel, Greeks, Maronites, Mohammedans, Catholics and
+Protestants, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You know my friends, into what a sad state our land and people had
+fallen, morally, socially and intellectually. We had no schools, no
+books, no means of instruction, when God in His Providence awakened the
+zeal of good men far across two seas in distant America, of which many
+of us had never heard, to leave home and friends and country to spend
+their lives among us, yes even among such as I am. In the name of my
+countrymen in Syria, I would this day thank these men, and those who
+sent them. They have given us the Arabic Bible, numerous good books,
+founded schools and seminaries, and trained our children and youth. But
+for the American Missionaries the Word of God would have well nigh died
+out of the Arabic language. But now through the labors of the lamented
+Eli Smith and Dr. Van Dyck, they have given us a translation so pure, so
+exact, so clear and so classical as to be acceptable to all classes and
+all sects. But for their labors, education would still be where it was
+centuries ago, and our children would still have continued to grow up
+like wild beasts. Is there any one among us so bigoted, so ungrateful,
+as not to appreciate these benevolent labors; so blind as not to see
+their fruits? True, other European Missionaries have come here from
+France and Italy, and we will not deny their good intentions. But what
+have they brought us? And what have they taught? A little French. They
+tell us how far Lyons is from Paris, and where Napoleon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span>first lived,
+and then they forbid the Word of God, and scatter broadcast the writings
+of the accursed infidel Voltaire. But these Americans have come
+thousands of miles, from a land than which there is no happier on earth,
+to dwell among such as we are, yes, I repeat it, such as I am, to
+translate God's word, to give us schools and good books, and a goodly
+example, and I thank them for it. I thank them and all who are laboring
+for us. I would thank Mr. Mikhaiel Araman, the Principal of this Female
+Seminary, who is a son of our land, and Miss Rufka Gregory, the
+Preceptress, who is a daughter of our own people, for the wonderful
+progress we have witnessed during these three days among the daughters
+of our own city and country, in the best kind of knowledge. Allah grant
+prosperity to this Seminary, and all its teachers and pupils, peace and
+happiness to all here present to-day and long life to our Sultan Abdul
+Aziz."</p>
+
+<p>As my object in giving these extracts from Arab writers and orators of
+the present day, is to give some idea of the change going on in Syrian
+public sentiment with regard to education, the dignity of woman, and the
+abolition of superstitious social usages, I cannot do better than to
+translate from the official journal of Da&ucirc;d Pasha, late governor of Mt.
+Lebanon, an article on the customs of the Lebanon population. This paper
+was styled "Le Liban," and printed both in Arabic and French in July,
+1867. It gives us a glimpse of the civilizing and Christianizing
+influences which are at work in Syria.</p>
+
+<p>"In Mount Lebanon there exist certain cus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span>toms, which had their origin
+in kindly feeling and sympathy, but have now passed beyond the limits of
+propriety, and lost their original meaning. For example, when one falls
+sick, his relatives and friends at once begin to pour in upon him. The
+whole population of the town will come crowding into the house, each one
+speaking to the sick a word of comfort and encouragement, and then
+sitting down in the sick room. The poor invalid must respond to all
+these salutations, and even be expected to rise in bed and bow to his
+loving friends. Then the whole company must speak a word to the family,
+to the wife and children, assuring them that the disease is but slight,
+and the sick man will speedily recover. Then they crowd into the sick
+room (and <i>such</i> a crowd it is!) and the family and servants are kept
+running to supply them with cigars and nargh&icirc;lehs, by means of which
+they fill the room with a dense and suffocating smoke. Meantime, they
+talk all at once and in a loud voice, and the air soon becomes impure
+and suffocating, and all these things as a matter of course injure the
+sick man, and he becomes worse. Then the childish doctors of the town
+are summoned, and in they come with grave faces, and a great show of
+wisdom, and each one begins to recount the names of all the medicines he
+has heard of, and describes their effects in working miraculous cures.
+Then they enter into ignorant disputes on learned subjects, and talk of
+the art of medicine of which they know nothing save what they have
+learned by hearsay. One will insist that this medicine is the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span>best,
+because his father used it with great benefit just before he died, and
+another will urge the claims of another medicine, of a directly opposite
+character, and opinions will clash, and all in the presence of the sick
+man, who thus becomes agitated and alarmed. He takes first one medicine
+and then its opposite, and then he summons other doctors and consults
+his relatives. Then all the old women of the neighborhood take him in
+hand and set at naught all that the doctors have advised, give him
+medicines of whose properties they are wholly ignorant, and thus they
+hasten the final departure of their friend on his long last journey. And
+if he should die, the whole population of the town assembles at once at
+the house and the relatives, friends, and people from other villages
+come thronging in. They fill the house with their screams and wails of
+mourning. They recount the virtues of the departed with groans and
+shrieks, and lamentations in measured stanzas. This all resembles the
+customs of the old Greeks and Romans who hired male and female mourners
+to do their weeping for them. After this, they proceed at once to bear
+the corpse to the grave, without one thought as to proving whether there
+be yet life remaining or not, not leaving it even twelve hours, and
+never twenty-four hours. It is well known that this custom is most
+brutal and perilous, for they may suppose a living man to be dead, and
+bury him alive, as has, no doubt, often been done. Immediately after the
+burial, the crowd return to the house of the deceased, where a sumptuous
+table awaits them, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span>all the relatives, friends, and strangers eat
+their fill. After eight days, the wailing, assembling, crowding, and
+eating are repeated, for the consolation of the distracted relatives.
+And these crowds and turbulent proceedings occur, not simply at Syrian
+funerals, but also at marriages and births, in case the child born is a
+<i>boy</i>, for the Syrians are fond of exhibiting their joy and sorrow. But
+it should be remembered, that just as in civilized lands, all these
+demonstrations of joy and sorrow are tempered by moderation and wisdom,
+and subdued by silent acquiescence in the Divine will, so in uncivilized
+lands, they are the occasion for giving the loose rein to passion and
+tumult and violent emotion. How much in conformity with true faith in
+God, and religious principle, is the quiet, well-ordered and moderate
+course of procedure among civilized nations!</p>
+
+<p>"So in former times, the man was everywhere the absolute tyrant of the
+family. The wife was the slave, never to be seen by others. And if, in
+conversation, it became necessary to mention her name, it would be by
+saying this was done by my wife 'ajellak Allah.' But now, there is a
+change, and woman is no longer so generally regarded as worthy of
+contempt and abuse, and the progress being made in the emancipation and
+elevation of woman, is one of the noblest and best proofs of the real
+progress of Lebanon in the paths of morality and civilization."</p>
+
+<p>This is the language of the official paper of the Lebanon government.
+Yet how difficult to root out superstitious and injurious customs by
+official utter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span>ances! At the very time that article was written, these
+customs continued in full force. A woman in Abeih, whose husband died in
+1866, refused to allow her house or her clothes to be washed for more
+than a whole year afterward, just as though untidiness and personal
+uncleanliness would honor her deceased husband!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">BEDAWIN ARABS.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>There</b></span> is one class of the Arab race, of which little or nothing has been
+said in the preceding pages, for the simple reason that there is little
+to be said of missionary work or progress among them. We refer to the
+Bedawin Arabs. The true sons of Ishmael, boasting of their descent from
+him, living a wild, free and independent life, rough, untutored and
+warlike, plundering, robbing and murdering one another as a business;
+roaming over the vast plains which extend from Aleppo to Baghdad, and
+from Baghdad to Central Arabia, and bordering the outskirts of the more
+settled parts of Syria and Palestine; ignorant of reading and writing,
+and yet transacting extensive business in wool and live-stock with the
+border towns and cities; nominally Mohammedans, and yet disobeying every
+precept of Moslem faith and practice; subjects of the Ottoman Sultan,
+and yet living in perpetual rebellion or coaxed by heavy bribes into
+nominal submission; suffering untold hardships from their life of
+constant exposure to winter storms and summer heats; without proper
+food, clothing or shelter, and utterly destitute of medical aid and
+relief, and yet despising the refinements of <span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span>civilized life, and
+regarding with contempt the man who will sleep under a roof; they
+constitute a most ancient, attractive class of men, interesting to every
+lover of his race, and especially to the Missionary of the Cross.</p>
+
+<p>European missionaries can do little among them. To say nothing of the
+rough, nomadic, unsettled and perilous life they lead, any European
+would find himself so much an object of curiosity and suspicion among
+them, and the peculiar Bedawin pronunciation of the Arabic so different
+from the correct pronunciation, that he would be constantly embarrassed.
+Native missionaries, on the other hand, can go among them freely, and if
+provided with a supply of vaccine virus and simple medicines, can have
+the most unrestrained access to them. During the last ten years, several
+native colporteurs have been sent among the Bedawin, and lately the
+Native Missionary Society in Beir&ucirc;t has sent out one of its teachers as
+a missionary to the Arabs. There is little use in taking books among
+them, as very few can make use of them. Mr. Arthington of Leeds,
+England, has been making earnest efforts to induce the Bedawin to send
+their children to schools in the towns, or allow schools to be opened
+among their own camps. We have tried every means to induce their leading
+Sheikhs to send their sons and daughters to Beir&ucirc;t for instruction, but
+the Arabs all dread sending their children to any point within the
+jurisdiction of the Turks, lest they be suddenly seized by the Turks as
+hostages for the good behavior of their parents. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span>latter course,
+<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, sending teachers to live among them, to migrate with them and
+teach their children as it were "on the wing," seems to be the one most
+practicable, as soon as teachers can be trained. Until the Turkish
+government shall compel the Bedawin to settle down in villages and till
+the soil, there can be little done in the way of instructing them. And
+when that step is taken, it is quite doubtful whether the Moslem
+government will not send its Khoteebs or religious teachers, and compel
+them all to embrace the religion of Islam. If that should be done,
+Christian teachers will have but little opportunity of opening schools
+among them.</p>
+
+<p>One of the leading tribes of the Bedawin is the Anazy, who are more
+numerous, powerful and wealthy than any other Kobileh of the Arabs.
+Their principal Sheikh on the Damascus border is Mohammed ed D&ucirc;khy, the
+warlike and successful leader of ten thousand Arab horsemen, of the
+Weled Ali. He is now an officer of the Turkish government, with a salary
+of ten thousand dollars a year, employed to protect the great Haj or
+Pilgrim Caravan, which goes annually from Damascus to Mecca. He
+furnishes camels for the Haj, and a powerful escort of horsemen, and is
+under bonds to keep the Arabs quiet.</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1871, he came to Beir&ucirc;t on business, and was the guest of a
+Maronite merchant, who brought him at our invitation to visit the Female
+Seminary, the College and the Printing Press. After looking through the
+Seminary, examining the various departments, and inquiring into the
+course of study <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span>he turned to the pupils and said, "Our Bedawin girls
+would learn as much in six months as you learn in two years." I told him
+we should like to see the experiment tried, and that if he would send on
+a dozen Bedawin girls, we would see that they had every opportunity for
+improvement. He said, "Allah only knows the future. Who knows but it may
+yet come to pass?" The Sheikh himself can neither read nor write, but
+his wife, the Sitt Harba, or Lady Spear, who came from the vicinity of
+Hamath, can read and write well, and she is said to be the only
+Bedaw&icirc;yeh woman who can write a letter. With this in view we prepared an
+elegant copy of the Arabic Bible, enclosed in a waterproof case made by
+the girls of the Seminary, and presented it to him at the Press. He
+expressed great interest in it, and asked what the book contained. We
+explained the contents, and he remarked, "I will have the Sitt Harba
+read to me of Ibrahim, Khalil Allah, (the Friend of God), and Ismaeel,
+the father of the Arabs, and Neby (prophet) Moosa, and Soleiman the
+king, and Aieesa, (Jesus,) the son of Mary." The electrotype apparatus
+deeply interested him, but when Mr. Hallock showed him the steam
+cylinder press, rolling off the sheets with so great rapidity and
+exactness, he stood back and remarked in the most deliberate manner,
+"the man who made that press can conquer anything but death!" It seemed
+some satisfaction to him that in the matter of <i>death</i> the Bedawin was
+on a level with the European.</p>
+
+<p>From the Press, the Sheikh went to the Church, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span>and after gazing around
+on the pure white walls, remarked, "There is the Book, but I see no
+pictures nor images. You worship only God here!" He was anxious to see
+the <i>Tower Clock</i>, and although he had lost one arm, and the other was
+nearly paralyzed by a musket shot in a recent fight in the desert, he
+insisted on climbing up the long ladders to see the clock whose striking
+he had heard at the other end of the city, and he gazed long and
+admiringly at this beautiful piece of mechanism. On leaving us, he
+renewedly thanked us for <i>The Book</i>, and the next day he left by
+diligence coach for Damascus.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer we sent, at Mr. Arthington's expense, a young man from the
+Beir&ucirc;t Medical College, named Ali, as missionary to itinerate among the
+Bedawin, with special instructions to persuade the Arabs if possible to
+send their children to school. He remained a month or two among them, by
+day and by night, sleeping by night outside the tents with his horse's
+halter tied to his arms to prevent its being stolen, and spending the
+evenings reading to the assembled crowd from the New Testament. He was
+present as a spectator at a fight between Mohammed's men and the Ruella
+Arabs east of the Sea of Galilee, in which the Ruella were defeated, but
+Mohammed's son Fa&ucirc;r was wounded, and Ali attended him. The Sitt Harba
+told Ali that a papist named Shwiry, in Damascus, had taken the Arabic
+Bible from them! So Ali gave them another. This Bible-hating spirit of
+the Papacy is the same the world over. How contemptible the spirit of a
+man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> <i>professing</i> the name of Christian, and yet willing to rob the only
+woman among the Bedawin who can read, of the word of everlasting life!
+The whole family of the Sheikh were interested in reading an illustrated
+book for children of folio size, styled "Lilies of the Field," which we
+printed in Beir&ucirc;t last year. When Ali set out on this journey, I gave
+him a letter to the Sheikh, reminding him of his visit to Beir&ucirc;t, and
+urging again upon him the sending of his children to school. The Sheikh
+sent me the following reply, written by his wife, the Sitt Harba, and
+sealed with his own signet ring. I value the letter highly as being
+written by the only Bedawin woman able to write:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>To his excellency the most honored and esteemed, our revered
+Khowadja Henry Jessup, may his continuance be prolonged! Amen.</p>
+
+<p>After offering you the pearls of salutation, and the ornaments of
+pure odoriferous greeting, we would beg to inform you that your
+epistle reached us in the hand of Ali Effendi, and we perused it
+rejoicing in the information it contained about your health and
+prosperity. You remind us of the importance of sending our sons and
+daughters to be educated in your schools. Ali Effendi has urged us
+very strongly to this course; and has spent several weeks with us
+among the Arabs. He has read to the children from The Book, and
+tried to interest them in learning to read. He has also gone from
+tent to tent among our Bedawin, talking with them and urging upon
+them this great subject. He constantly read to them that which
+engaged their attention, and we aided him in urging it upon them.
+Inshullah (God grant) that there may soon be a school among the
+Arabs themselves. We Bedawin do not understand the language nor the
+ways of Europeans, and we should like to have one like Ali Effendi,
+who knows our way of talking and living, come to teach us and our
+children. We would also inform you that the book with pictures,
+which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span>you sent to the Sitt Harba, has reached her, and she has
+read it with great pleasure, and asks of God to increase your good.
+She sends salams to you and to the Sitt, and all your family.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+And may you live forever! Salam</p>
+<p class="right">MOHAMMED DUKHY.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+29 Jemady Akhar<br />
+1289 of the Hegira<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Postscript.&mdash;There has been a battle between us and the Ruella
+tribe, and the Ruellas ate a defeat, Ali Effendi was present and
+will give you the particulars."</p></div>
+
+<p>At the date of this writing, Ali has been again to Mohammed's camp,
+taking books and medicines, and has done his utmost to prepare the way
+for opening schools among the Bedawin in their own camps. Ali has
+brought another letter from Sitt Harba, in which she gives her views
+with regard to the education of the Bedawin. I sent several written
+questions to her in Arabic, to which she cheerfully gave replies. The
+following is the substance of her answers:</p>
+
+<p>I. The Bedawin Arabs ought to learn to read and write, in order to learn
+religion, to increase in understanding, and to become acquainted with
+the Koran. They profess to be Moslems, but in reality have no religion.</p>
+
+<p>II. The reason why so few of the Bedawin know how to read, is because it
+is out of their line of business. They prefer fighting, plundering, and
+feeding flocks and herds. Reading and books are strange and unknown to
+them.</p>
+
+<p>III. If they wished to learn to read, the true time and place would be
+in the winter, when they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span>migrate to the East in the Jowf, where they
+are quiet and uninterrupted by government tax-gatherers.</p>
+
+<p>IV. I learned to read in the vicinity of Hums. My father brought for my
+instruction a Khoteeb or Moslem teacher, who taught me reading. His name
+was Sheikh Abdullah. The Sheikh Mohammed taught me writing.</p>
+
+<p>V. The Bedawin esteem a boy better than a girl, because the boy may rise
+to honor, but the girl has nothing to expect from her husband, and his
+parents and relatives, but cursing and abuse.</p>
+
+<p>VI. A man may marry four wives. If one of them ceases bearing children,
+and she be of his family, he makes a covenant of fraternity with her,
+and he supports her in his own camp, but she is regarded simply as a
+sister. If she be of another family, he sends her home, and pays her
+what her friends demand.</p>
+
+<p>VII. The girls and women have no more religion than the boys and men.
+They never pray nor fast, nor make the pilgrimage to Mecca. But the old
+women repeat certain prayers, and visit the ziyaras, mazars, and welys,
+and other holy places.</p>
+
+<p>VIII. If teachers would come among us, who can live as we do, and dwell
+in our camps, and travel with us to the desert, they could teach the
+great part of our children to read, especially if they understood the
+art of medicine.</p>
+
+<p>Ali spent several weeks among them, sleeping in the camp, and attending
+upon their sick. The camp was on the mountains east of the Sea of
+Galilee.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> Fevers prevailed through the entire district from Tiberias to
+Damascus, and Ali devoted himself faithfully to the care of the sick.
+The Sheikh himself was ill with fever and ague, as were several members
+of his family. One day Ali prepared an effervescing draught for him, and
+when the acid and the alkali united, and the mixture effervesced, the
+Bedawin seated in the great tent screamed and ran from the tent as if
+the Ruellas were down upon them! What, said they, is this? He pours
+water into water, and out come fire and smoke! The Sheikh himself was
+afraid to drink it, so Ali took it himself, and finally, after
+explaining the principle of the chemical process, he induced both the
+Sheikh and the Sit Harba to drink the draught. On leaving the
+encampment, the Sheikh gave Ali a guard, and three Turkish pounds (about
+$14,) to pay for his medicines and medical services, saying, that as his
+Bedawin were growing poor since they were forbidden to make raids on
+other tribes, they could not pay for his services, and he would pay for
+all. He offered to give him a goat skin bottle of semin (Arab butter)
+and several sheep, but Ali was unable to carry either, and declined the
+offer. Ali brought a specimen of Bedawin bread. It is black, coarse, and
+mixed with ashes and sand. The Bedawin pound their wheat, and knead the
+coarse gritty flour without sifting, and bake it on the heated earthen
+ovens.</p>
+
+<p>The Bedawin swarm with vermin. Their garments, their persons, their
+tents and their mats are literally alive with the third plague of Egypt,
+<i>lice</i>!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> Ali soon found himself completely overrun with them, and was
+almost driven wild. The Sitt Harba urged him to try the Bedawin remedy
+for cleansing his head. On inquiring what it was, he declared he would
+rather have the disease than the remedy! After his return to his village
+in Lebanon, he spent several days in ablutions and purifications before
+venturing to bring me his report. The Sitt Harba gave him a collection
+of the nursery rhymes which she and the Bedawin women sing to their
+little brown babies, and some of them will be found in the "Children's
+Chapter" of this volume. The Sheikh Mohammed, who can neither read nor
+write, repeated to Ali the following Kos&icirc;deh or Song, which he composed
+in Arabic poetry, after his victory over Feisal, of the Ruella tribe, in
+1866. The Ruellas had previously driven Mohammed's tribe from one of the
+finest pasture regions in Howian, and Ed Dukhy regained it after a
+desperate struggle.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh fair and beautiful plain, oh rich green Bedawin pasture.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We had left you, too often stained, with the blood of violent battle;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah, dark disastrous day, when brother abandoned his brother,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though riding the fleetest of mares, and safe from pursuit of the foeman,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He never once turned to inquire, though we tasted the cup of destruction.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh fair and beautiful plain, we yesterday fought and regained thee!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I praise and honor His name, who only the victory giveth!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O, Feisal, we've meted to you your deserts in royal measure;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With our spears so burning and sharp, we cut off the necks of your Arabs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O, Shepherd of Obaid, you fled deserting your pastures,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Biting your finger in pain and regret for your sad disasters&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Savage hyena, come forth, from your lair in the land of Jedaileh,<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Howl to your fellow-beasts, in the distant land of But&icirc;na;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come and eat your fill of the dead in the Plain of Fada,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O, fair and beautiful plain, you belong to the tribe of the victor;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But Feisal is racked with pain, when he hears the battle story,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our right-handed spearmen have palsied his arm is its strength and power;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A blow fell hard on his breast, from the hand of our Anazy warriors;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come now, ye who wish for peace, we are ready in honor to meet you!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Our</i> wrongs are all avenged, and our arms are weary of battle.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The Arabic original of these lines breathes the true spirit of poetry,
+and shows that the old poetic fire still burns in the desert. Feisal now
+lives in the region adjacent to Mohammed D&ucirc;khy, and they leave a space
+of several miles between their camps to prevent trespass, and the danger
+of re-opening the old blood-feud.</p>
+
+<p>I would commend the Arabs of the Desert to the prayerful remembrance of
+the Women of America. How the gospel is to reach them, is one of the
+great problems of our day. Their women are sunken to the lowest depths
+of physical and moral degradation. The extent of their religion is in
+being able to swear Mohammedan oaths. "Their mouths are full of cursing
+and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and
+misery are in their ways, and the <i>way of peace</i> have they not known."
+Although their hand is against every man, and every man's hand against
+them, let them feel that there is one class of men who love them and
+care for them with a disinterested love, and who seek their everlasting
+welfare!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<p class="center">"WOMAN BETWEEN BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION."</p>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>This</b></span> is the title of an Arabic article in the "Jenan" for Sept. 1, 1872,
+written by Frances Effendi Merrash, brother of the Sitt Mariana, whose
+paper we have translated on a preceding page. It is evident that the
+Effendi writes from the atmosphere of Aleppo. The more "polite" society
+of that city is largely made up of that mongrel population, half French
+and half Arab, which is styled "Levantine" and too often combines the
+vices of both, with the virtues of neither. It will be seen that the
+able author is combatting the worst form of French flippant
+civilization, which has already found its way into many of the towns and
+cities of the Orient. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Inasmuch as woman constitutes a large portion of human kind, and an
+essential element in society, as well as the leading member of the race
+in respect to its perpetuation, it becomes necessary both to consider
+and speak of her character and position although there are not wanting
+those who are coarse enough and rude enough to declare woman a worthless
+part of the creation.</p>
+
+<p>"Woman possesses a nature remarkably impressi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span>ble and susceptible to
+influence, owing to the delicacy of her organization and the
+peculiarities of her structure. Her proper culture therefore calls for
+the greatest possible skill and care to protect her from those
+corrupting influences to which she is by nature especially susceptible.
+We should therefore neither leave her locked in the fetters of the
+ancient barbarism and rudeness, nor leave her free to the uncontrollable
+liberty of this modern civilization, for both these extremes bring her
+into one common evil estate and both have one effect upon her.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not observed how the customs of ancient rude barbarism
+corrupted the manners of woman and obliterated all those virtues and
+excellencies for which she is especially designed by nature? It was
+deemed most opprobrious for woman to learn to read and write, to say
+nothing of other arts. It was thought indispensable to bind upon her
+mouth the fetters of profound silence so that none ever heard her voice
+but her own coarse husband, and the walls of the enclosure in which she
+was kept imprisoned. She had no liberty of thought or action. Every
+woman's thoughts were limited by the thoughts of her husband, and her
+character was cast in the mould of his, whether that were good or bad.
+And in addition to this, she always suffered from whatever of rudeness
+there might be in her rough companion, who availed himself of his
+superior brute physical strength as a weapon to overcome her moral
+power. He scourged and cursed and despised her in every possible way,
+when she was innocent of crime or er<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span>ror. As a result of this course,
+her own self respect, and the feeling that she was abused and insulted
+by her companion or partner, led her oftentimes to cast off all shame
+and modesty, whenever a suitable opportunity presented itself. This grew
+out of the fact that she no longer regarded herself as the companion of
+her husband and the sharer of all his natural and moral rights, his joys
+and sorrows, but she rather imagined herself his captive and bond slave.
+She thus sank to the position of a slave-woman who is never allowed
+peace or rest, and cares nothing for the training of her children or the
+ordering of her house, since she looks upon herself as a stranger in a
+home not her own, and we all know how difficult it is for a slave to
+perform the duties of the free!</p>
+
+<p>"On the other hand, have you not observed how the influence of modern
+civilization is corrupting the nature of woman and making havoc with her
+morals?</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing strange in this, for her delicate nature, when it had
+escaped from the chains and imprisonment of the mildest barbarism, into
+the open free arena of civilization, lost its reckoning, and wandered
+hither and thither in bewilderment according to its own unrestrained
+passions. Woman thus became like a feather, 'Borne on the tempest
+wherever it blows, and driven about where no one knows.'</p>
+
+<p>"Now since evil images and objects are far more numerous in this world
+than those which are good, it becomes evident that the influence of evil
+upon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span>the mind of woman is stronger and more abiding than the influence
+of the good, owing to this intense delicacy of texture in her mental
+constitution. Let us suppose that one man and one woman were placed in a
+position where they should only see evil deeds, or only good deeds: the
+woman would leave that place either vastly worse than the man, or vastly
+better. Now the moral misconduct of woman is far more detrimental to the
+propagation of the race, than is the misconduct of man. It is therefore
+better for the woman not to go to the extremes of the modern
+civilization, whose evils are equal to, yes, and far surpass, its
+benefits. Have you not noticed that the leaders of modern civilization
+in our age, have imitated, if not surpassed, all the excesses of riot,
+and lust and rapine, ever practiced under the barbarism of the ages of
+antiquity? Do not the women of this age go lower in shamelessness than
+the women of ancient times? Here we see them veiling their faces with
+the flimsy gauze of artifice, and befouling the pure waters of life with
+the turbulent stream of their own vanity. They pollute the purity of
+real beauty by the foul arts of beautifying, and cry out in loud rude
+voices in every assembly and gathering. They strut about in
+vain-glorious conceit, and flaunt their gaudy apparel in indecent
+boldness. They claim what does not belong to them and meddle with what
+does not concern them. They do not blush to cloud the precious jewel of
+modesty with the selfish airs of passion. Nothing is said which they do
+not hear, nothing occurs which they do not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span>see. They become bold,
+unblushing and unwomanly.</p>
+
+<p>"Such being the state of things, there can be no doubt that an excess of
+this kind of civilization for woman amounts to about the same thing as
+the excess of her rude barbarism in ancient times. The two extremes
+meet. The dividing line between them then, that is, the middle course,
+is the proper one for woman to take. To this middle course there must be
+some natural and legitimate guide. This guide is a sound education, and
+on this subject we propose at some future time to write, inasmuch as the
+education of woman is one of the most important of subjects. Woman is
+the one fountain from which is derived the life of man in its earliest
+periods. She is the source of all training, and the root of character.
+Have you not heard that she who rocks the cradle, moves the world?"</p>
+
+<p>It is evident that the author of this paper has not been so happy as to
+see the noblest type of a sanctified Christian civilization, such as can
+be seen in the Christian homes of America and England, or even in the
+truly Christian homes of Syria. Let us hope that the day is not far
+distant, when even in Aleppo, a pure Christianity shall have taken the
+place of that semi-barbaric system styled the papacy, which enthralls
+the intellects and hearts of so many of the <i>nominal</i> Christians of the
+Orient, and when the enslaved inmates of the Moslem hareems shall be set
+free, not to indulge in the license of a Parisian <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span>libertinism, but with
+that liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free!</p>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">THE VALUE SET ON WOMAN'S LIFE IN SYRIA.</h4>
+
+<p>The free license allowed to men by the Koran in the beating of their
+wives, has led the entire population of the East to set a low estimate
+upon the life of woman. Until recently in Syria women were poisoned,
+thrown down wells, beaten to death, or cast into the sea, and the
+government made no inquisition into the matter. According to Mohammedan
+law, a prosecution for murder must always be commenced by the friends of
+the victim, and if they do not enter complaint, or furnish witnesses,
+the murderer is not even arrested. And if he be convicted of the crime,
+he is released on paying to the relatives of the victim the price of
+blood, which is fixed at 13,000 piastres, or $520! A man may well "count
+the cost" before committing murder. This constant compounding of
+punishment has degraded the popular views of the value of human life, so
+that formerly the murder of a woman was never punished. In March, 1856,
+a Druze girl near B'hamd&ucirc;n married a man of her own choice, instead of
+marrying the man assigned to her by her family. She was waylaid by her
+own brother and the rejected suitor, murdered and thrown into a well.</p>
+
+<p>About a year after the massacres of 1860, while the European
+Commissioners were still in Syria, and Lebanon was beginning to attain
+something of its wonted quiet, several Turkish soldiers made an as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span>sault
+upon a young Maronite girl from the village of Ain Kes&ucirc;r, who was
+carrying a jar of water to the workmen on the Deir el Komr road. Mr.
+Calhoun was requested by the Relief Committee in Beir&ucirc;t to devote the
+charity funds distributed in this part of Lebanon, to giving employment
+to the needy in road-building. This girl was employed to supply the men
+with water. The brutal soldiers attempted to gag her with a
+handkerchief, in order to accomplish their design, but she was too
+strong for them. The struggle was long and violent, but she finally
+effected her escape, leaving on the road the fragments of the broken
+jar, her shoes and shreds of calico which they had torn from her
+clothing. Just at that moment Giurgius el Haddad, Mr. Calhoun's cook,
+came up, and seeing the broken jar and the clothing, guessed what had
+happened, and after finding the girl, and hearing her story, started in
+pursuit of the soldiers to Ainab, whither they had gone, and where a
+Turkish officer was stationed. He stated the case to the officer, and
+received in reply a blow on his arm from a heavy cane. The case was
+reported to the Turkish Colonel in Abeih, who summoned all parties and
+ordered each of the soldiers to be beaten with forty lashes on the bare
+back. But word had reached Col. Frazier, the British Commissioner, and
+he came at once to Abeih in company with Omar Pasha, with order from
+Evad, Pasha, to examine the case <i>de novo</i>. The result was that two of
+the soldiers were condemned by military law to be shot, and were shot at
+sunset June 5th, in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span>front of the old palace just below Mr. Calhoun's
+house. The event produced a profound impression, and Druzes and Moslems
+began to feel that a woman's life and honor were after all of some
+value.</p>
+
+<p>In April, 1862, when Da&ucirc;d Pasha was governor of Mt. Lebanon, a Druze,
+named Hassan, murdered a Druze girl of his own village, supposing that
+Da&ucirc;d Pasha would not interfere with the time-honored custom of killing
+girls! Much to his surprise, however, he was arrested, convicted and
+hung, and the poor women of all sects in the mountain began to feel that
+after all they had an equal right to life with the other sex.</p>
+
+<p>In most parts of Syria to-day, the murder of women and girls is an act
+so insignificant as hardly to deserve notice. Mt. Lebanon and vicinity
+constitute an exception perhaps, but woman's right to life is one of
+those rights which have not yet been fully guaranteed in the Turkish
+Empire.</p>
+
+<p>In October, 1862, the Arabic official newspaper in Beir&ucirc;t, contained a
+letter from Hums which illustrates this fact. A fanatical wretch from
+Hamath, one of the infamous Moslem saints, set up the claim that he had
+received the power to cast out devils by divine inspiration. He found
+credulous followers among the more ignorant, and went to Hums to
+practice his diabolical trade. A poor woman had lost her reason through
+excessive grief at the death of her son. The husband and others of her
+relatives went to consult the new prophet. He refused to go and see her,
+stating that he would not condescend to go to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span>devils, but the
+devils must come to him. The poor woman was accordingly brought to him,
+and left to await the opportune moment, when he could cast out the
+devils, which he declared to be raving within her. After a few days, her
+father called to inquire about her, and found her growing constantly
+worse. The Hamathite told him that he must bring a gallon of liquid
+pitch, to be used as a medicine, and the next day the devils would leave
+her. The pitch was brought, and after the father had gone, the lying
+prophet tied a cord around her feet, and drew her up to the ceiling, and
+while she was thus suspended, thrust a red hot iron rod into one of her
+eyes, and cauterized her body almost from head to foot! He then placed
+the pitch on the floor under her head, and set it on fire until the body
+was "burned to charcoal!" The next day the friends called, expecting to
+find her restored to her right mind, when the wretch pointed them to the
+blackened cinder. They exclaimed with horror and asked him the reason of
+this bloody crime? He replied that on applying the test of burning
+pitch, one of the devils had gone out of her, tearing out her right eye,
+and when he forbade the rest from destroying the other eye, they fell
+upon her and killed her! The body was buried, but the government took
+not the slightest notice of the fact. The official journal in Beir&ucirc;t
+simply warned the public against patronizing such a bloody impostor!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<p class="center">OPINIONS OF PROTESTANT SYRIANS WITH REGARD TO THE WORK OF AMERICAN WOMEN
+IN SYRIA.</p>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>The</b></span> following letters have been addressed to me by prominent native
+Syrian gentlemen, whose wives have been trained in the American Mission
+Seminaries and families. They all write in English, and I give their own
+language.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Butrus el Bistany, the husband of Raheel, writes me as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right">
+<span class="smcap">Beir&ucirc;t</span>, Oct. 23, 1872.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"It would be superfluous to speak of the efforts of American
+Missionary ladies in training the females of Syria, and the good
+done by them.</p>
+
+<p>"The sainted Sarah L. Smith, who was one of the first among them,
+established the first Female School in Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Whiting, also, who had no children of her own, trained five
+girls in her family, all of whom are still living.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. De Forest had a very interesting female school in her family,
+and the girls educated in that school are of the best of those
+educated by American ladies in Syria.</p>
+
+<p>"The obstacles in those times were very great, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span>the people
+believed that education is injurious to females. But these ladies
+obtained a few girls to educate gratuitously, and thus made a good
+impression on the minds of the people, and wrought a change in
+public opinion, so that year by year the people began to appreciate
+female education. And as we are now building on the foundation laid
+by those good ladies and reaping the fruit of their labors, we
+should pray to be imbued with the same spirit, and try as much as
+we can to follow their example, and carry on the work with the same
+spirit, zeal and wisdom as they did."</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Naame Tabet, the husband of Miriam, who was educated by Dr. and Mrs.
+De Forest, writes as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right">
+<span class="smcap">Beir&ucirc;t</span>, Oct. 21, 1872.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"It affords me unfeigned gratification that you give me an
+opportunity of recording my impressions in regard to the advantages
+of female education in this country under the guidance of the light
+of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, such as is exemplified by
+the American Mission, whose labors in diffusing and disseminating
+the Scriptures are so conspicuously manifest.</p>
+
+<p>"That example chiefly has had the effect, in this neighborhood, to
+stir up gigantic efforts to fill the want of female education. The
+same feeling is extending itself throughout Syria, so that future
+prospects for the promotion of pure Christian knowledge and true
+civilization are brilliant and ought surely to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span>encourage the
+benevolent in persevering in their action."</p></div>
+
+<p>The Rev. John Wortabet, M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the Syrian
+Protestant College, and husband of Salome, writes as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="right"><span class="smcap">Beir&ucirc;t</span>, Oct. 20, 1872.</p>
+
+<p>"Though I was very young when Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Whiting, and Mrs. De
+Forest began their labors in the cause of Female Education in
+Syria, I can distinctly recollect that they were the first to
+initiate that movement which has grown to so vast an extent at the
+present time. To them belongs the honor of having been the
+determined and brave pioneers in the important work of raising
+woman from her degraded position, brought on by ignorance and
+Mohammedan influence, to one of considerable respect, in a social,
+intellectual and moral point of view. I do not mean that they
+achieved then this great and worthy object, but they were first to
+begin the work, which is still going on, and destined apparently to
+grow much farther. And it is but just that their names and primary
+labors be embalmed in the memories of the past.</p>
+
+<p>"Aside from the intrinsic good which they accomplished, and the
+direct fruits of their labors, and you are as well acquainted with
+them as I am&mdash;they gave the first and best <i>teachers</i> for the
+schools which have sprung up so abundantly since their time. Of the
+importance of giving well-trained female teachers for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span>female
+schools, in the peculiar social system of the East, nothing need be
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe, however, that the main value of these earlier labors
+was the <i>impulse</i> which they gave to the course of Female Education
+in Syria. Prejudices and barriers, which had become hoary by the
+lapse of time, have been completely broken down, at least among the
+Christian Churches of the East."</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">OTHER LABORS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THIS FIELD.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>The</b></span> following statements have been chiefly made out from documents
+furnished to me by those in charge of the various Institutions. I give
+them in order according to the date of their establishment.</p>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">THE IRISH AND AMERICAN UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MISSION IN DAMASCUS.</h4>
+
+<p>I have not received official statistics with regard to the work of this
+Mission in behalf of women, but they have maintained schools for girls
+and personal labors for the women through a long series of years. Mrs.
+Crawford, who is thoroughly familiar with the Arabic language, has
+labored in a quiet and persevering manner among the women of Damascus
+and Tebr&ucirc;d, and the fruits of these labors will be seen in years to
+come. Miss Dales, now Mrs. Dr. Lansing, of Cairo, conducted a school for
+Jewish girls in Damascus some fifteen years ago, which was well
+attended.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. E. Watson, an English lady of great energy and zeal in the cause of
+female education, after years <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span>of labor in North and South America,
+Greece and Asia Minor, came to Syria in 1858, and commenced a girls'
+school in her own hired house. She afterwards removed to Shemlan, in
+Mount Lebanon, where she erected a building at her own expense for a
+girls' boarding school, and afterwards gave it to the Society for the
+Promotion of Female Education in the East. She has since, with untiring
+energy, erected another building for a Seminary for Druze and Christian
+girls, the former Institution continuing as it has been for many years
+under the efficient management of Miss Hicks, assisted by Miss Dobbie.
+She has also recently erected a neat and substantial church edifice in
+Shemlan.</p>
+
+<p>In Miss Hicks' absence, Mrs. Watson has addressed me the following
+letter:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="right"><span class="smcap">Shemlan</span>, August 28, 1872.</p>
+
+<p>"Our first school for native girls was commenced in Beir&ucirc;t in 1858.
+The teachers have been Miss Hicks, Miss Hiscock, Mrs. Walker, Miss
+Dillon, Miss Jacombs, (now in Sidon,) Miss Stainton, (now in
+Sidon,) and Miss Dobbie. No native female teachers have been
+employed except pupils of the school under Miss Hicks' care.
+Masters Riskullah in Beir&ucirc;t, and Murad, Resh&icirc;d and Da&ucirc;d, in
+Shemlan, have been connected with the school as teachers of the
+higher Arabic branches.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole number of boarders under our care up to the present
+time, is above one hundred. The only teachers in my second boarding
+school are, my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span>adopted daughter Hand&ucirc;meh, and Zarifeh Twiney, a
+pupil of the Prussian Deaconesses. Seventeen or eighteen of our
+pupils have been, or are now teachers, and ten are married.</p>
+
+<p>"The school directed by Miss Hicks was given over to the Ladies'
+Society in England, some six or seven years ago, and has been
+supported by them since. The new school in the upper house is under
+no society and is not regularly aided by any. There are from
+twenty-six to twenty-eight boarders under the care of my daughter,
+Miss Watson, I aiding as I can. Several girls have been supported
+for the last two years by friends in America and England. We have
+had ten Druze girls in our school in the upper house. Miss Hicks
+has had three or four, and a number in her day school. We had also
+a number in our day school at Aitath, four of whom are married to
+Druze Sheikhs."</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Elias Suleeby, aided by friends in Scotland, has for a considerable
+period conducted common schools in a part of Mount Lebanon and the
+Bukaa, and now the enterprise has been adopted by the Free Church of
+Scotland, who have sent the Rev. Mr. Rae to be their Superintendent.</p>
+
+<p>Their schools are chiefly for boys, though in all the village schools it
+is usual for a few of the smaller girls to attend the boys' school. In
+Suk el Ghurb, however, they have a boarding school containing some
+twenty-five girls.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center padtop">THE PRUSSIAN DEACONESSES INSTITUTE IN BEIRUT</p>
+
+<p>The Orphan House, Boarding School and Hos<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span>pital with which the Prussian
+Deaconesses are connected, were established in 1860. The two former are
+supported by the Kaiserswerth Institution in Germany, and the latter by
+the Knights of St. John.</p>
+
+<p>In the Orphan House are one hundred and thirty orphan girls, all native
+Syrians, who are clothed, fed and instructed for four or five years, and
+often transformed from wild, untutored semi-barbarians to tidy, well
+behaved and useful young women. They have ordinarily about fifty
+applicants waiting for a vacancy in order to enter.</p>
+
+<p>The Boarding School is for the education of the children of European
+residents, Germans, French, Italians, Greeks, Maltese, English, Scotch,
+Irish, Hungarians, Dutch, Swiss, Danish, Americans and others. The
+medium of instruction is the French language.</p>
+
+<p>Since the Orphan School began, many of the girls have married, thirty
+have become teachers, and about twenty of them are living as servants in
+families.</p>
+
+<p>In August of the year 1861, the Deaconesses had received about 110
+orphans. The children entering are received for three years, and the
+surviving parent or guardian is required to sign a bond, agreeing to
+leave the child for that period, or if the child is withdrawn before
+that time, to pay to the Deaconesses all that has been expended upon
+her.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1861, several of the parents came and tried to remove
+their children, though they had no means of supporting them, but the
+contract stood in the way, and they had no money to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span>pay. The Jesuits
+then came forward and furnished the parents with French gold in
+Napoleons, and withdrew in one day fifty orphan girls from the
+institution, sending them, not to an institution of their own, but
+turning them back upon their wretched parents and friends to be trained
+in poverty and ignorance. A few days later, thirty more of the girls
+were removed in the same way, leaving only thirty. The parents had a
+legal right to remove the children on the payment of the money, but what
+shall be said of the cruelty of the Jesuits who turned back these
+wretched children to the destitution and misery of a Syrian orphan? The
+Jesuits are the same everywhere, unscrupulous and intriguing, counting
+all means as right, which promote their own end.</p>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">THE BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS.</h4>
+
+<p>These Schools, so numerous and widely extended, have grown up since the
+massacre year 1860. I remember well the first arrival of Mrs. Bowen
+Thompson in Beir&ucirc;t, and her persevering energy in forming her little
+school for the widows and orphans of Hasbeiya, Deir el Komr and
+Damascus.</p>
+
+<p>From that little beginning in 1860, the school increased the following
+year, until finally other branch schools were organized in Beir&ucirc;t and
+Lebanon, and then in Damascus and Tyre, until now, the following
+schedule, furnished to me by the officers of the Institution, will show
+to what proportions the enterprise has grown. The Memoir of Mrs.
+Thompson, entitled "The Daughters of Syria," gives so full a history of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span>these schools, that I need only refer the reader to that volume for all
+the information desired. Since the lamented death of Mrs. Thompson, the
+direction of the schools has been entrusted to her sister, Mrs. Mentor
+Mott. The Central Training School in Beir&ucirc;t was under the care of Mrs.
+Shrimpton, who labored with great earnestness and wisdom in that
+important institution until the spring of 1873, when she resigned her
+position and became connected with the work of Female education under
+the American mission in Syria. She was aided by English and native
+teachers. The schools in Zahleh, Damascus, Hasbeiya and Tyre are under
+the care of English and Scotch ladies, who have certainly evinced the
+most admirable courage and resolution in entering, in several of these
+places, upon outpost duty, without European society, and isolated for
+months together from persons speaking their own language. I believe that
+such instances as these have demonstrated anew the fact that where woman
+is to be reached, woman can go, and Christian women from Christian
+lands, even if beyond the age generally fixed as the best adapted to the
+easy acquisition of a foreign language, may yet do a great work in
+maintaining centres of influence at the outposts, and superintending the
+labors of native teachers. These young native teachers trained in
+Shemlan, Sidon, Suk el Ghurb and Beir&ucirc;t, cannot go to distant places as
+teachers, and <i>ought not to go</i>, without a home and proper protection
+provided for them. Such protection <i>is given</i> by a European or American
+woman, who has the independence and the resolution <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span>to go where no
+missionary family resides, and carry on the work of female education.
+Even at the risk of offending the modesty of the persons concerned, I
+cannot refrain from putting on record my admiration of the course of
+Miss Wilson in Zahleh, Miss Gibbon in Hasbeiya, and Miss Williams in
+Tyre, in making homes for themselves, and carrying on their work far
+from European society and intercourse.</p>
+
+<p>The British Syrian Schools are doing a good work in promoting Bible
+education. Many of the native teachers, male and female, have been
+trained in our Mission Seminaries, and not a few of them are members of
+our evangelical churches. It has always been my aim, from the time when
+Mrs. Bowen Thompson first landed in Syria to the present time, to do all
+in my power to "help those women which labored with me in the gospel."</p>
+
+<p>We are engaged in a common work, surrounded by thousands of needy
+perishing souls, Mohammedan, Pagan and Nominal Christian. The work is
+pressing, and the Lord's husbandmen ought to work together, forgetting
+and ignoring all diversities of nationality, denomination and social
+customs. There should be no such word as American, English, Scotch or
+German, attached to any enterprise that belongs to the common Master.
+The common foe is united in opposition. Let us be united in every
+practicable way. Let our name be <i>Christian</i>, our work one of united
+sympathy, prayer and co&ouml;peration, and let not Christ be divided in His
+members. I write these words in connection with the subject of the
+British Syrian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> Schools, because I can speak from experience of the
+value of such co&ouml;peration in the past. As Acting Pastor of the Native
+Evangelical Church in Beir&ucirc;t, to the communion of which I have received
+so many young teachers and pupils from the various Seminaries and
+schools, I feel the great importance of this hearty co&ouml;peration and
+unity of action among those who are at the head of the various
+Protestant Educational Institutions in Syria.</p>
+
+<p>The Emissaries of Rome are laboring with sleepless vigilance to win
+Syria to the Papacy. Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Nazareth, Jesuits,
+Lazarists, Capuchins, Dominicans, and Franciscans, monks, nuns and papal
+legates, are swarming throughout the land. Though notoriously jealous of
+each other's progress, they are always united in their common opposition
+to the Evangelical faith, and an open Bible. We have thus not only the
+old colossal fortresses of Syrian error to demolish, but the new
+structures of Jesuitical craft to overturn, before Syria comes to
+Christ.</p>
+
+<p>It has been stated on a preceding page that in 1835, the American wife
+of an English merchant, Mrs. Alexander Tod, gave a large part of the
+funds to build the first school-house for girls ever built in Syria.
+That substantial union has been happily reproduced in the cordial
+co&ouml;peration of the Anglo-American and German communities in Beir&ucirc;t, both
+in the Church, public charities and educational institutions, up to the
+present time.</p>
+
+<p>Let us all live in Christ, work for Christ, keep <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span>our eye fixed on
+Christ, and we shall be with Christ, and Christ with us!</p>
+
+
+<h4 class="padtop" style="font-weight: normal;"><i>BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS</i>, 1872.</h4>
+
+<table class="center" summary="schools">
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td class="center" colspan="5">BEIRUT.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">No.</td>  <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;Established.</td>        <td>Name.</td>       <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Scholars.</td>  <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Teachers.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class="right">1</td>     <td>1860</td>     <td class="left">Training Institution,</td>        <td class="right">92</td>         <td class="right">16</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right"> 2</td>     <td>1863</td>     <td class="left">Musaitebeh,</td>                  <td class="right">85</td>          <td class="right">3</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right"> 3</td>     <td>1868</td>     <td class="left">Blind School, men &amp; boys,</td>    <td class="right">16</td>          <td class="right">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right"> 4</td>     <td>1868</td>     <td class="left">Blind girls' School,</td>         <td class="right">11</td>          <td class="right">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right"> 5</td>     <td>1860</td>     <td class="left">Boys' School,</td>                <td class="right">85</td>          <td class="right">5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right"> 6</td>     <td>1861</td>     <td class="left">East Coombe,</td>                <td class="right">120</td>          <td class="right">4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right"> 7</td>     <td>1860</td>     <td class="left">Elementary,</td>                  <td class="right">30</td>          <td class="right">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right"> 8</td>     <td>1872</td>     <td class="left">Es-Saifeh,</td>                  <td class="right">100</td>          <td class="right">4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right"> 9</td>     <td>1860</td>     <td class="left">Infant School,</td>              <td class="right">125</td>          <td class="right">3</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">10</td>     <td>1860</td>     <td class="left">Moslem,</td>                      <td class="right">50</td>          <td class="right">4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">11</td>     <td>1860</td>     <td class="left">Night School,</td>              <td class="right">&mdash;</td>         <td class="right">5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">12</td>     <td>1863</td>     <td class="left">Olive Branch,</td>                <td class="right">85</td>          <td class="right">4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="center" colspan="5" style="padding-top: 1.5em;">DAMASCUS.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">13</td>     <td>1867</td>     <td class="left">St. Paul's,</td>                <td class="right">170</td>          <td class="right">6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">14</td>     <td>1869</td>     <td class="left">Blind School,</td>                <td class="right">15</td>          <td class="right">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">15</td>     <td>1870</td>     <td class="left">Medan,</td>                       <td class="right">80</td>          <td class="right">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">16</td>     <td>1867</td>     <td class="left">Night School,</td>                <td class="right">30</td>         <td class="right">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="center" colspan="5" style="padding-top: 1.5em;">LEBANON.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">17</td>     <td>1863</td>    <td class="left">_Ashrafiyeh_,</td>                 <td class="right">53</td>          <td class="right">3</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">18</td>     <td>1868</td>    <td class="left">_Ain Zehalteh_,</td>               <td class="right">50</td>          <td class="right">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">19</td>     <td>1869</td>    <td class="left">_Aramoon_,</td>                    <td class="right">40</td>          <td class="right">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">20</td>     <td>1863</td>    <td class="left">_Hasbeiya_,</td>                  <td class="right">160</td>          <td class="right">3</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">21</td>     <td>1867</td>    <td class="left">_Mokhtara_,</td>                 <td class="right">&mdash;</td>       <td class="right">&mdash;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">22</td>     <td>1868</td>    <td class="left">_Zahleh_,</td>                     <td class="right">75</td>          <td class="right">4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="center" colspan="5" style="padding-top: 1.5em;">TYRE.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">23</td>     <td>1869</td>         <td class="left">Girls' School,</td>              <td class="right">50</td>          <td class="right">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+     <td></td>     <td class="left">Totals, </td>        <td></td>                           <td class="right" style="border-top: 1px solid black;">1522</td>         <td class="right" style="border-top: 1px solid black;">79</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+      <td></td>    <td class="left">Bible Women,</td>    <td></td>                              <td class="right">7</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+<p class="padtop"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span></p>
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">MISS TAYLOR'S SCHOOL FOR MOSLEM GIRLS.</h4>
+
+<p>This worthy Christian lady from Scotland is doing a quiet yet most
+effective work in Beir&ucirc;t, with which few are acquainted, yet it is
+carried on in faith from year to year, and the fruits will no doubt
+appear one day, in a vast reformation in the order, morality and general
+improvement of the Moslem families of Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since the days of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith, and Mrs. Dr. Dodge, Moslem
+girls have been more or less in attendance upon the schools of the Syria
+Mission, but the purely Moslem schools of Miss Taylor and of the British
+Syrian Schools are making a special effort to extend education into
+every Moslem household.</p>
+
+<p>This school was opened in February, 1868, for the poorest of the poor.
+It received the name of "The Original Ragged school for Moslem Girls."
+No one is considered as enrolled, who has not been at least three weeks
+in regular attendance. The number already received has reached very near
+five hundred, all Mohammedans, except five Jewish and fifteen Druze
+girls. Native teachers are also employed, and the pupils are taught
+reading, writing, geography, and arithmetic. The principal lesson-book
+is the Bible. The early history of this institution is replete with
+interest; but it has attracted little public notice hitherto. It has
+always been a prudential question whether it would not be wiser to
+proceed with its work in a quiet unobtrusive way, so as not to awake
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span>fanatical opposition. But steady and appreciative friends have stood by
+it from the beginning, and those who know the school best have commended
+it most earnestly.</p>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">CHURCH OF SCOTLAND SCHOOL FOR JEWISH GIRLS IN BEIRUT.</h4>
+
+<p>This school has been in operation since 1865. Although established
+originally for Jewish girls alone, of whom it frequently had fifty in
+regular attendance, it has also had under instruction, Greek and Moslem
+girls.</p>
+
+<p>Three European teachers and two native teachers have been connected with
+it, under the supervision of the Rev. James Robertson, Pastor of the
+Anglo-American congregation in Beir&ucirc;t.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;">THE AMOUNT OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCTION GIVEN IN MISSION SCHOOLS.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="smcap"><b>There</b></span> has been great difference of opinion with regard to the proper
+position of Education in the Foreign Missionary work. While some have
+given it the first rank as a missionary agency, others have kept it in
+the background as being a non-missionary work, and hence to be left to
+the natives themselves to conduct, after their evangelization by the
+simple and pure preaching of the gospel. The Syria Mission have been
+led, by the experience of long and laborious years of labor in this
+peculiar field, to regard education as one of the most important
+auxiliaries in bringing the Gospel in contact with the people. Society
+and sects are so organized and constituted, that while the people of a
+given village would not receive a missionary as simply a preacher of the
+Gospel, they will gladly accept a school from his hands, and welcome him
+on every visit to the school as a benefactor. They will not only receive
+the daily lessons and instructions of the school-teacher in religious
+things, but even ask the missionary to preach to them the Word of life.
+Schools in Syria are entering wedges for Gospel truth.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span></p><p>Our schools are of two classes, the High schools or Seminaries for
+young men and young women, and the common schools for children of both
+sexes. In the former, Biblical instruction is the great thing, the chief
+design of the High schools being to train the young to a correct and
+thorough acquaintance with Divine truth. The course of Bible instruction
+conducted by Mr. Calhoun in Abeih Seminary, is, I doubt not, more
+thorough and constant, than in any College or High School in the United
+States. While the sciences are taught systematically, the Bible is made
+the principal text-book, and several hours each day are given to its
+study. In our common schools, likewise, Bible reading and instruction
+hold a prominent place. Owing to the paucity of books in the Arabic
+language proper to be used as reading books, a reading book was prepared
+by the Mission, consisting almost exclusively of extracts from the
+Scriptures. In addition to this book, the Psalms of David and the New
+Testament are used as regular reading books in all the schools. There
+are daily exercises in reading the Bible and reciting the Catechism. It
+will be observed from what I have stated, that the amount of spiritual
+knowledge acquired by the children, in the very process of learning to
+read, is not small. Being obliged to commit to memory texts, paragraphs,
+and whole chapters, from year to year, their minds become stored with
+the precious words of the Sacred Book. Very much depends upon the
+teacher. When we can obtain pious, praying teachers, the Scripture
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span>lessons can be given with much more profit and success, and it is our
+aim to employ only pious teachers where we can get them. And the example
+of the teacher receives a new auxiliary, as it were, in impressing these
+lessons on the mind, where the pupils can attend a preaching service on
+the Sabbath. Sometimes a pressing call comes from a village, where it
+seems important for strategic reasons, to respond at once. A pious
+teacher cannot be found, and we send a young man of well-known moral
+character. But only necessity would oblige us to do this, and a change
+for the better is always made as soon as practicable.</p>
+
+<p>Bible schools are a mighty means of usefulness. I think nothing strikes
+a new missionary with more grateful surprise on entering the Syrian
+Mission-field, than to witness the great prominence given to Biblical
+instruction, from the humblest village school of little Arab boys and
+girls, to the highest Seminaries. The examinations in the Scriptures
+passed by the young men in Abeih, and the girls in the Beir&ucirc;t and Sidon
+Seminaries, would do credit to the young people in any American
+community. Bible schools are not merely useful as an entering wedge to
+give the missionary a position and an influence among the people; they
+are intrinsically useful in introducing a vast amount of useful Bible
+knowledge into the minds of the children, and through them to their
+parents. In countries where the people as a mass are ignorant of
+reading, they are an absolute necessity, and in any community they are a
+blessing. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span>Had all Mission Schools been conducted on the same thorough
+Biblical basis as those in Syria, there would have been less objection
+to schools as a part of the missionary work.</p>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">THE SPHERE AND MODES OF WOMAN'S WORK IN FOREIGN LANDS.</h4>
+
+<p>In this age, when Christian women in many lands are engaging in the
+Foreign Mission work with so much zeal, it is important to know who
+should enter personally upon this work, and what are the modes and
+departments of labor in which they can engage when on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>No woman should go to the Foreign field who has not sound health,
+thorough education, and a reasonable prospect of being able to learn a
+foreign language. The languages of different nations differ as to
+comparative ease of acquisition, but it is well for any one who has the
+<i>Arabic</i> language to learn, to begin as early in life as practicable. It
+should be borne in mind that the work in foreign lands is a self-denying
+work, and I know of no persons who are called to undergo greater
+self-denial than unmarried women engaged in religious work abroad. They
+are doing a noble work, a necessary work, and a work of lasting
+usefulness. Deprived in many instances of the social enjoyments and
+protection of a <i>home</i>, they <i>make</i> a home in their schools, and throw
+themselves into a peculiar sympathy with their pupils, and the families
+with which they are brought into contact. Where sev<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span>eral are associated
+together, as they always should be, the institution in which they live
+becomes a model of the Christian order, sympathy and mutual help, which
+is characteristic of the home in Christian lands. Christian women,
+married and unmarried, can reach a class in every Arabic community from
+which men are sedulously excluded. They should enter upon the foreign
+work as a life-work, devote themselves first of all to the mastery of
+the language of the people, open their eyes to all that is pleasant and
+attractive among the natives, and close them to all that is unlovable
+and repulsive, resolved to love the people, and what pertains to them,
+for Christ's sake who died for them, and to identify themselves with the
+people in every practicable way. Persons who are incapable of loving or
+admiring anything that is not American or English had better remain in
+America or England; and on the other hand, there is no surer passport to
+the affections of any people, than the disposition to overlook their
+faults, and to treat them as our brethren and sisters for whom a common
+Saviour died. Let no missionary of either sex who goes to a foreign
+land, think that there is nothing to be learned from Syrians or Hindoos,
+Chinese or Japanese. The good is not all confined to any land or people.</p>
+
+<p>Among the departments of woman's work in foreign lands are the
+following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I. Teaching in established institutions, Female Seminaries, Orphan
+Houses and High Schools.</p>
+
+<p>II. Acting as Nurses in Hospitals, as is done by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span>the Prussian
+Protestant Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, who are scattered over the East
+and doing a work of peculiar value.</p>
+
+<p>III. Visiting from house to house, for the express purpose of holding
+religious conversation with the people <i>in their own language</i>. This can
+only be done in Syria by one versed in the Arabic, and able to speak
+<i>without an interpreter</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Ignorance of the language of the people, is a barrier which no skill of
+an interpreter can break down, and every woman who would labor with
+acceptance and success among the women of Syria, must be able to speak
+to them familiarly in their own mother tongue. Interpreters may be
+honest and conscientious, but not one person in a thousand can translate
+accurately from one language to another without previous preparation.
+And besides, interpreters are not always reliable. There is still
+living, in the city of Tripoli, an old man named Abdullah Yanni, who
+acted as interpreter for a Jewish Missionary some forty years ago. He
+tells many a story of the extraordinary shape which that unsuspecting
+missionary's discourses assumed in passing through his lips. One day
+they went through the principal street to preach to the Moslems. A great
+crowd assembled, and Abdullah trembled, for in those days of darkness
+Moslems oppressed and insulted Christians with perfect impunity. Said
+the missionary, "Tell the Moslems that unless they all repent and
+believe in Christ, they will perish forever." Abdullah translated, and
+the Moslems gave loud and earnest expression to their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span>delight. They
+declared, "That is so, that is so, welcome to the Khowadja!" Abdullah
+had told them that "the Khowadja says, that he loves you very much, and
+the Engliz and the Moslems are 'sowa sowa,' <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> together as one."</p>
+
+<p>Abdullah soon found it necessary to tell his confiding friend and
+employer, that it would not do to preach in that bold manner, for if he
+should translate it literally, the Moslems would kill both of them on
+the spot. The missionary replied, "Let them kill us then." Abdullah
+said, "it may do very well for you, but I am not prepared to die, and
+would prefer to wait." The very first requisite for usefulness in a
+foreign land is the language. It might be well, as previously intimated
+in this volume, that in each of the Female Seminaries, the number of the
+teachers should be large enough to allow the most experienced in the
+language to give themselves for a portion of each week to these friendly
+religious visits. The Arab race are eminently a sociable, visiting
+people, and a foreign lady is always welcome among the women of every
+grade of society, from the highest to the lowest.</p>
+
+<p>IV. Holding special Women's Meetings of the Female Church members from
+week to week in the homes of the different families. The neighboring
+women will come in, and the native women, who would never take part in a
+women's prayer-meeting, in the presence of a missionary, will gladly do
+it with the example and encouragement of one of their own sex. Such
+meetings have been conducted in Hums <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span>and Tripoli, in Beir&ucirc;t, Abeih,
+Deir el Komr and Sidon, and in Suk el Ghurb, B'hamd&ucirc;n, Hasbeiya, and
+Deir Mimas for many years. Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Isaac Bird, Mrs. Thomson,
+Mrs. Van Dyck, Mrs. Whiting, Mrs. Goodell, Mrs. Dr. Dodge, Miss
+Williams, Miss Tilden, Mrs. De Forest, Mrs. Calhoun, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs.
+Ford, Mrs. Foot, Mrs. Eddy, and Mrs. W. Bird, Mrs. Lyons and Mrs.
+Cheney, Mrs. Bliss, Miss Temple, Miss Mason, Mrs. S. Jessup are among
+the American Christian women who have labored or are still laboring for
+the welfare of their sisters in Syria, and younger laborers more
+recently entered into the work, are preparing to prosecute the work with
+greater energy than ever. There are other names connected with Woman's
+Work in Syria as prosecuted by the American Mission, but the list is too
+long to be enumerated in full. Many of them have rested from their
+labors, and their works do follow them.</p>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">THE BEIRUT FEMALE SEMINARY.</h4>
+
+<p>The last Annual Report of the Board of Missions of the Presbyterian
+Church of the United States, speaks of these two Female Seminaries as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>"The Beir&ucirc;t Seminary is conducted by Miss Everett, Miss Jackson and Miss
+Loring, containing forty boarding and sixty day scholars, where the
+object is to give an education suited to the wants of the higher classes
+of the people, to gain a control over the minds of those females who
+will be most influential in forming society and moulding opinion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> This
+hold the Papal Sisters of Charity have striven earnestly to gain, and
+its vantage ground was not to be abandoned to them. The institution is
+rising in public esteem and confidence, as the number and the class of
+pupils in attendance testify. The Seminary is close to the Sanctuary,
+not less in sympathy than in position, and its whole influence is given
+to make its pupils followers of Christ."</p>
+
+<p>In addition to this brief notice, it should be said that there are in
+the Beir&ucirc;t Seminary thirty charity boarders, who are selected chiefly
+from Protestant, Greek and Druze families, to be trained for teachers of
+a high order in the various girls' schools in the land. A special Normal
+course of training is conducted every year, and it is believed that
+eventually young women trained in other schools will enter this Normal
+Department to receive especial preparation for the work of teaching.</p>
+
+<p>The charity boarders are supported by the contributions of Sabbath
+Schools and individuals in the United States, with especial reference to
+their being trained for future usefulness.</p>
+
+<p>After an experience of nearly ten years in conducting the greater part
+of the correspondence with the patrons of this school, and maintaining
+their interest in the pupils and teachers whom they were supporting by
+their contributions, I would venture to make a few suggestions to the
+Christian Mission Bands, Societies, Bible Classes, Sabbath Schools and
+individuals who are doing so much for the education of children in
+foreign lands.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span></p><p>I. Let all contributions for Women's Work and the education of girls,
+be sent through the Women's Boards of Missions, or if that is not
+convenient, in the form of a banker's draft on London, payable to the
+Principal of the Seminary with whom you have correspondence.</p>
+
+<p>II. If possible, allow your donation to be used for the general purposes
+of the Seminary, without insisting that a special pupil or teacher be
+assigned to you. But if it be not possible to maintain the interest of
+your children and youth in a work so distant without some special
+object, then by all means,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>III. Do not demand too much from your over-taxed sisters in the foreign
+field in the way of letters and reports. The labors of a teacher are
+arduous everywhere. But when instruction is given in a foreign language,
+in a foreign climate, and to children of a foreign nation, these labors
+are greatly increased. Add then to this toil correspondence with the
+Board of Missions, the daily study of the language, the work of visiting
+among the people, and receiving their visits, and you can understand how
+the keeping up of correspondence with twenty or thirty Sabbath Schools
+and Societies is a burden which no woman should be called on to bear.</p>
+
+<p>IV. Do not expect sensational letters from your friends abroad. Do not
+take for granted that the child of ten years of age you are supporting,
+will develop into a distinguished teacher or Bible woman before the
+arrival of the next mail. Do not be discouraged if you have to wait and
+pray for years <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span>before you hear good tidings. Should any of the native
+children ever send you a letter, (and they have about as clear an idea
+of who you are and where you are, as they have of the satellites of
+Jupiter,) do not expect from their youthful productions the elegance of
+Addison or the eloquence of Burke.</p>
+
+<p>V. Pray earnestly for the conversion of the pupils in Mission Schools.
+This I regard as the great advantage of the system of having pupils
+supported by Christians in the home churches, and known to them by name.
+They are made the subjects of special prayer. This is the precious
+golden bond which brings the home field near to us, and the foreign
+field near to you. Our chief hope for these multitudes of children now
+receiving instruction, is, that they will be prayed for by Christians at
+home.</p>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">THE SIDON FEMALE SEMINARY.</h4>
+
+<p>The Annual Report above mentioned, speaks thus of the Sidon Seminary:
+"It is conducted by Miss Jacombs and Miss Stainton, and has numbered
+about twenty boarders and six day scholars. The boarders are exclusively
+from Protestant families, selected from the common schools in all parts
+of the field, and are in training for the Mission service, as teachers
+and Bible readers. Four of the graduates of last year are already so
+employed. One difficulty in the way of reaching with the truth the minds
+of the women in the numerous villages of the land, will be obviated in
+part, as the results of this work are farther developed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span></p><p>"There has been considerable seriousness and some hopeful conversions,
+in both these seminaries during the past year.</p>
+
+<p>"The work is worthy of the interest taken in it by the Women's Boards of
+Missions, and by societies and individuals in the church who have
+co-operated in it."</p>
+
+<p>The Sidon Seminary, as stated on a previous page, was begun in 1862, and
+has had four European and six native teachers. Of the latter, one was
+trained in Mrs. Bird's family, one in Shemlan Seminary, three in the
+Sidon school, and one by Mrs. Watson.</p>
+
+<p>Ten of its graduates have been employed as teachers, and eight are still
+so engaged.</p>
+
+<p>I annex a list of Girls' Schools now or formerly connected with the
+Syria Mission.</p>
+
+<table class="center" summary="Teachers">
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+
+<td class="left">Location.</td> <td></td>   <td>No. of<br />Pupils&nbsp;&nbsp;</td> <td>No. of<br />Teach'rs&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>  <td>When begun</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Beirūt,</td>       <td>Day School,</td>   <td>50</td>     <td>2</td>       <td>1834</td>  <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="left">"</td>           <td>Seminary,</td>     <td>50</td>      <td>10</td>       <td>1848</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Sidon,</td>        <td>Seminary,</td>    <td>20</td>       <td>3</td>       <td>1862</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="left">"</td>           <td>Day School,</td>    <td>6</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1862</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Abeih,</td>            <td>"</td>         <td>60</td>       <td>1</td>       <td>1853</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Deir el Komr,</td>     <td>"</td>       <td>50</td>       <td>2</td>       <td>1855</td>  <td class="left">To be resumed soon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Ghorify,</td>          <td>"</td>       <td>40</td>       <td>1</td>       <td>1863</td>  <td class="left">All Druzes.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">El Hadeth,</td>        <td>"</td>       <td>40</td>       <td>1</td>       <td>1870</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Shwifat,</td>          <td>"</td>       <td>70</td>       <td>2</td>       <td>1871</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Dibbiyeh,</td>         <td>"</td>       <td>20</td>       <td>1</td>       <td>1868</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">B'Hamdūn,</td>         <td>"</td>       <td>30</td>       <td>1</td>       <td>1853</td>   <td class="left">Discontinued.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Meshgara,</td>         <td>"</td>       <td>30</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1869</td>     <td class="left">Boys and girls,</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Ain Anūb,</td>         <td>"</td>       <td>20</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1870</td>     <td class="left">and 60 boys.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Kefr Shima,</td>       <td>"</td>       <td>40</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1856</td>     <td class="left">Boys and girls.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Rasheiya el Fokhar,</td>         <td>"</td>       <td>30</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1869</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Jedaideh,</td>         <td>"</td>       <td>40</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1870</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">El Khiyam,</td>        <td>"</td>       <td>25</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1868</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Ibl,</td>              <td>"</td>       <td>30</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1868</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Deir Mimas,</td>       <td>"</td>       <td>15</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1865</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Kana,</td>             <td>"</td>       <td>35</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1869</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Hums,</td>             <td>"</td>       <td>40</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1865</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Safita,</td>           <td>"</td>       <td>30</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1869</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left">Hamath,</td>           <td>"</td>      <td>30</td>       <td>1</td>     <td>1872</td><td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left" style="border-top: 1px solid black;">Totals</td>    <td style="border-top: 1px solid black;">23</td>               <td style="border-top: 1px solid black;">801</td>    <td style="border-top: 1px solid black;">36</td><td></td><td></td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span></p><p>This gives a total of twenty-three girls' schools besides the
+twenty-four boys' schools under the care of the Mission, and three
+schools where there are both boys and girls. I have kept the name of
+B'hamd&ucirc;n in the list, for its historical associations, but the thirty
+pupils credited to it, will be more than made good in the girl's school
+about to be resumed in Tripoli under the care of Miss Kip.</p>
+
+<p>The total number of girls is about 800, and the number of teachers 36.
+The total cost of these twenty-three schools, including the two
+Seminaries in Beir&ucirc;t and Sidon, is about eight thousand dollars per
+annum, including rents, salaries of five American and English ladies,
+and thirty-one native teachers.</p>
+
+<p>The average cost of the common schools in the Sidon field is sixty
+dollars per annum, and in the Lebanon field it varies from this sum to
+about twice that amount, owing to the fact that the Deir el Komr and
+other schools are virtually High Schools.</p>
+
+<p>The teacher in the Sidon field, and in Abeih, and Safita, are graduates
+of the Sidon Seminary.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that a High School or Seminary for girls will be opened
+by Miss Kip in Tripoli during the coming year.</p>
+
+<p>The preceding schedule can give but a faint idea of the struggles and
+toil, the patient labors, disappointments and trials of faith through
+which the women of the American Mission have passed during the last
+forty years, in beginning and maintaining so many of these schools for
+girls in Syria.</p>
+
+<p>Did I speak of <i>trials</i>? The Missionary work has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span>its trials, but I
+believe that its joys are far greater. The saddest scenes I have
+witnessed during a residence of seventeen years in Syria, have been when
+Missionaries have been obliged to <i>leave the work</i> and return to their
+native land. There are trials growing out of the hardness of the human
+heart, our own want of faith, the seeming slow progress of the gospel,
+and the heart-crushing disappointments arising from broken hopes, when
+individuals and communities who have promised well, turn back to their
+old errors "like the dog to his vomit" again. But of joys it is much
+easier to speak, the joy of preaching Christ to the perishing,&mdash;of
+laboring where others will not labor,&mdash;of laying foundations for the
+future,&mdash;of feeling that you are doing what you can to fulfil the
+Saviour's last command,&mdash;of seeing the word of God translated into a new
+language,&mdash;a christian literature beginning to grow,&mdash;children and youth
+gathered into Schools and Seminaries of learning, and even sects which
+hate the Bible obliged to teach their children to read it,&mdash;of seeing
+christian families growing up, loving the Sabbath and the Bible, the
+sanctuary and the family altar.&mdash;Then there is the joy of seeing souls
+born into the kingdom of our dear Redeemer, and churches planted in a
+land where pure Christianity had ceased to exist,&mdash;and of witnessing
+unflinching steadfastness in the midst of persecution and danger, and
+the triumphs of faith in the solemn hour of death.</p>
+
+<p>These are a few of the joys which are strewn so thickly along the path
+of the Christian Missionary, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span>that he has hardly time to think of
+sorrow, trial and discouragement. Those who have read Dr. Anderson's
+"History of Missions to the Oriental Churches," and Rev. Isaac Bird's
+"History of the Syria Mission," or "Bible Work in Bible Lands," will see
+that the work of the Syria Mission from 1820 to 1872 has been one of
+conflict with principalities and powers, and with spiritual wickedness
+in high and low places, but that at length the hoary fortresses are
+beginning to totter and fall, and there is a call for a general advance
+in every department of the work, and in every part of the land.</p>
+
+<p>Other agencies have come upon the ground since the great foundation work
+was laid, and the first great victories won, and in their success it
+becomes all of God's people to rejoice; but the veterans who fought the
+first battles, and overcame the great national prejudice of the Syrian
+people against female education, should ever be remembered with
+gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>It has been my aim in this little volume to recount the history of
+Woman's Work in the past. Who can foretell what the future of Christian
+work for Syrian Women will be?</p>
+
+<p>May it ever be a work founded on the Word of God, aiming at the
+elevation of woman through the doctrines and the practice of a pure
+Christianity, striving to plant in Syria, not the flippant culture of
+modern fashionable society, but the God-fearing, Sabbath-loving, and
+Bible-reading culture of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors!</p>
+
+<p>A few years ago, a Greek priest named Job, from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span>one of the distant
+villages high up in the range of Lebanon, called on me in Beir&ucirc;t. I had
+spent several summers in his village, and he had sometimes borrowed our
+Arabic sermons to read in the Greek Church, and now, he said, he had
+come down to see what we were doing in Beir&ucirc;t. I took him through the
+Female Seminary and the Church, and then to the Library and the Printing
+Press. He examined the presses, the steam engine, the type-setting, and
+type-casting, the folding, sewing, and binding of books, and looked
+through the huge cases filled with Arabic books and Scriptures, saw all
+the editions of the Bible and the Testament, and then turned in silence
+to take his departure. I went with him to the outer gate. He took my
+hand, and said, "By your leave I am going. The Lord bless your work.
+Sir, I have a thought; we are all going to be swept away, priests and
+bishops, Greeks and Maronites, Moslems and Druzes, and there will be
+nothing left, nothing but the Word of God and those who follow it. That
+is my thought. Farewell."</p>
+
+<p>May that thought be speedily realized! May the coarseness, brutality and
+contempt for woman which characterize the Moslem hareem, give way to the
+refinement, intelligence, and mutual affection which belong to the
+Christian family!</p>
+
+<p>May the God of prophecy and promise, hasten the time when Nusairy
+barbarism, Druze hypocrisy, Moslem fanaticism, Jewish bigotry and
+nominal Christian superstition shall fade away under the glorious beams
+of the rising Sun of Righteousness!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span></p><p>May the "glory of Lebanon" be given to the Lord, in the regeneration
+and sanctification of the families of Lebanon!</p>
+
+<p>Too long has it been true, in the degradation of woman, that the "flower
+of Lebanon languisheth."</p>
+
+<p>Soon may we say in the truly Oriental imagery of the Song of
+Songs,&mdash;"Come with me from Lebanon, look from the top of Amana, from the
+top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of
+the leopards,"&mdash;and behold, in the culture of woman, in society
+regenerated, in home affection, in the Christian family, what is in a
+peculiar sense, "a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and
+streams from Lebanon!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a
+fruitful field?" When "the reproach of the daughters of Syria," shall be
+taken away, and when amid the zearas of the Nusair&icirc;yeh, the kholwehs of
+the Druzes, the mosques of the Moslems and the tents of the Bedawin, may
+be heard the voice of Christ, saying to the poor women of the Arab race,
+weary and fainting under the burdens of life:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Daughter be of good comfort,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thy faith hath made thee whole,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Go in peace!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="THE_CHILDRENS_CHAPTER" id="THE_CHILDRENS_CHAPTER"></a>THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.</h2>
+
+<h4>PART I.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="right"><i>Abeih, Mount Lebanon</i>, Sept., 1872.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Son Willie</span>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>It is now eight years since you left Syria, and you were then so young,
+that you must have forgotten all about the country and the people. I
+have often promised to tell you more about the Syrian boys and girls,
+what they eat and wear, and how they study and play and sleep, and the
+songs their mothers sing to them, and many other things. And now I will
+try and fulfil my promise.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a little boy at the door. His name is Asaad Mishrik, or "happy
+sunrise," and his name is well given, for he comes every morning at
+sunrise with a basket of fresh ripe figs, sweet and cold, and covered
+with the sparkling dew. This morning when he came, your brother Harry
+stood by the door looking at the figs with wistful eyes, and I gave him
+a large one, which disappeared very suddenly. Asaad is a bright-eyed
+boy, and helps his mother every day.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span></p><p>When he comes in, he says, Subah koom bil khire, "Your morning in
+goodness." Then Assaf, the cook, answers him, "Yusaid Subahak," "May God
+make happy your morning." If I come out when he is here, he runs up to
+kiss my hand, as the Arab children are trained to be respectful to their
+superiors. When a little Arab boy comes into a room full of older
+people, he goes around and kisses the hand of each one and then places
+it on his forehead. Asaad wears a red tarboosh or cap on his head, a
+loose jacket, and trowsers which are like a blue bag gathered around the
+waist, with two small holes for his feet to go through. They are drawn
+up nearly to his knees, and his legs are bare, as he wears no stockings.
+He wears red shoes pointed and turned up at the toes. When he comes in
+at the door, he leaves his shoes outside, but keeps his cap on his head.</p>
+
+<p>The people never take off their caps or turbans when entering a house,
+or visiting a friend, but always leave their shoes at the door. The
+reason is, that their floors are covered with clean mats and rugs, and
+in the Moslem houses, the man kneels on his rug to pray, and presses his
+forehead to the floor, so that it would not be decent or respectful to
+walk in with dirty shoes and soil his sijjady on which he kneels to
+pray. They have no foot-mats or scrapers, and it is much cheaper and
+simpler to leave the shoes, dirt and all at the door. Sometimes we are
+much embarrassed in calling on the old style Syrians as they look with
+horror on our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span>muddy feet, and we find it not quite so easy to remove
+our European shoes. But it must be done, and it is better to take a
+little extra trouble, and regard their feelings and customs, than to
+appear coarse and rude.</p>
+
+<p>It is very curious to go to the Syrian school-houses, and see the piles
+of shoes at the door. There are new bright red shoes, and old tattered
+shoes, and kob kobs, and black shoes, and sometimes yellow shoes. The
+kob kobs are wooden clogs made to raise the feet out of the mud and
+water, having a little strap over the toe to keep it on the foot. You
+will often see little boys and girls running down steps and paved
+streets on these dangerous kob kobs. Sometimes they slip and then down
+they go on their noses, and the kob kobs fly off and go rattling over
+the stones, and little Ali or Yusef, or whatever his name is, begins to
+shout, Ya Imme! Ya Imme! "Oh, my mother!" and cries just like little
+children in other countries.</p>
+
+<p>But the funniest part of it is to see the boys when they come out of
+school and try to find their shoes. There will be fifty boys, and of
+course a hundred shoes, all mixed together in one pile. When school is
+out, the boys make a rush for the door. Then comes the tug of war. A
+dozen boys are standing and shuffling on the pile of shoes, looking
+down, kicking away the other shoes, running their toes into their own,
+stumbling over the kob kobs, and then making a dash to get out of the
+crowd. Sometimes shins will be kicked, and hair <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span>pulled, and tarbooshes
+thrown off, and a great screaming and cursing follow, which will only
+cease when the M&ucirc;allim comes with his "Asa" or stick, and quells the
+riot. That pile of shoes will have to answer for a good many schoolboy
+fights and bruised noses and hard feelings in Syria. You would wonder
+how they can tell their own shoes. So do I. And the boys often wear off
+each other's shoes by mistake or on purpose, and then you will see Selim
+running with one shoe on, and one of Ibrahim's in his hand, shouting and
+cursing Ibrahim's father and grandfather, until he gets back his lost
+property. Sometimes when men leave their shoes outside the door of a
+house where they are calling, some one will steal them, and then they
+are in a sorry plight. Shoes are regarded as very unclean, and when you
+are talking in polite society, it will never do to speak of them,
+without asking pardon. You would say, "the other day some one stole my
+new shoes, ajellak Allah," <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i>, May God exalt you above such a vile
+subject! You would use the same words if you were talking with a Moslem,
+and spoke of a dog, a hog, a donkey, a girl or a woman.</p>
+
+<p>They do not think much of girls in Syria. The most of the people are
+very sorry when a daughter is born. They think it is dreadful, and the
+poor mother will cry as if her heart would break. And the neighbors come
+in and tell her how sorry they are, and condole with her, just as if
+they had come to a funeral. In Kesrawan, a district of Mount Lebanon
+near Beir&ucirc;t, the Arab women <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span>have a proverb, "The threshold weeps forty
+days when a girl is born."</p>
+
+<p>There is a great change going on now in Syria in the feelings of the
+people in regard to girls, but in the interior towns and villages where
+the light of the Gospel has not shone as yet, and there are no schools,
+they have the ancient ideas about them up to this very hour.</p>
+
+<p>I knew an old Syrian grandmother in Tripoli who would not kiss her
+granddaughter for six months after she was born, because she was born a
+girl! But I know another family in that city of Tripoli that do not
+treat girls in that style. The father is Mr. Antonius Yanni, a good
+Christian man, and a member of the Mission Church. He is American Vice
+Consul, and on the top of his house is a tall flag-staff, on which
+floats the stars and stripes, on Fourth of July, and the Sultan's
+birthday, Queen Victoria's birthday, and other great feast days. One day
+when the Tripoli women heard that "Sitt Kar&icirc;meh, Yanni's wife, had
+another "<i>bint</i>," (girl) they came in crowds to comfort her in her great
+affliction! When Yanni heard of it, he could not restrain himself. He
+loved his older daughter Theodora very dearly, and was thankful to God
+for another sweet baby girl, so he told the women that he would have
+none of this heathenish mourning in his house. He then shouted to his
+janizary or Cawass, a white bearded old Moslem named Amr, "Amr, haul up
+the Bandaira el American&icirc;yeh, (American flag) to show the world how glad
+I am that I have another daughter." "On <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span>my head, on my head, sir," said
+Amr, and away he went and hauled up the stars and stripes. Now the
+Pasha's palace is not far away, and soon the Turkish guards saw the
+flag, and hastened to the Pasha with the news that the American Consul
+had some great feast day, as his flag was raised. The Pasha, supposing
+it to be some important national feast day of the American Government
+which he was so stupid as not to know about, sent his Chief Secretary at
+once to Mr. Yanni to ask what feast it might be? Yanni received him
+politely and ordered a narghileh and coffee and sherbet, and after
+saying "good-morning," and "may you live forever," and "God prolong your
+days!" over and over and over again, and wishing that Doulet America
+might ever flourish, the Secretary asked which of the great American
+festivals he was celebrating that day. Yanni laughed and said,
+"Effendum, you know how many of the ignorant in Syria are so foolish as
+to mourn and lament when God sends them a daughter, but I believe that
+all God's gifts are good, and that daughters are to be valued as much as
+sons, and to rebuke this foolish notion among the people, I put up my
+flag as a token of joy and gratitude." "Sebhan Allah! you have done
+right, sir," ... was the Secretary's reply, and away he went to the
+Pasha. What the Pasha said, I do not know, but there was probably more
+cursing than usual that day in the grand palace of Tripoli, for the
+Mohammedans think the birth of a daughter a special judgment from God.</p>
+
+<p>When a boy is born, there is great rejoicing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span> Presents are sent to him,
+and the people call to congratulate the father, and the whole house is
+gay and joyous. After a few days a dainty dish called "Mughly" is made
+and sent around as a present to all of the relatives. It is made of
+pounded rice, and flavored with rich spices and sugar and put into
+little bowls, and almonds and other nuts sprinkled over the top. One of
+these little bowls is sent to each of the friends. But when a girl is
+born, there is no rejoicing, no giving of presents, and no making of the
+delicious "mughly."</p>
+
+<p>Here come two little girls bringing earthen pots of milk. They are poor
+girls, daughters of two of our neighbors who are fellaheen or farmers.
+One has no shoes, and neither have stockings. They wear plain blue
+gowns, made of coarse cotton cloth, dyed with indigo, and rusty looking
+tarbooshes on their heads, and a little piece of dirty white muslin
+thrown over their heads as a veil to cover their faces with, when men
+come in sight. One is named Lebeeby and the other Lokunda, which means
+<i>Hotel</i>. They behave very well when they come here, as they have the
+fear of the big Khowadja before their eyes, but when they are at home
+running about, they often use dreadful language. Little boys and girls
+in Syria have some awful oaths which they constantly use. I suppose the
+poor things do not know the meaning of half the bad words they use. One
+of the most common is "Yil&#257;n Abook," "curse your father!" It is used
+everywhere and on every side by bad people, and the children use it
+constantly in their play. When <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span>the little girls come into our Schools
+and Seminaries, it is a long time before they will give up "abook"-ing.
+One of our friends in America is educating a nice little girl in the
+Beir&ucirc;t Seminary, and we asked the teacher about her a few days ago. The
+answer was, "She still lies and swears dreadfully, but she has greatly
+improved during the past two years, and we are encouraged about her."</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes a boy will say to another Yilan abook, "Curse your father,"
+and another will answer, Wa jiddak, "and your grandfather," and then
+they will call back and forth like cats and dogs. I saw a Moslem boy
+near my house standing by the corner to shield himself from the stones
+another boy was throwing, and shouting wa jid, jid, jid, jid, jidak,
+"and your great-great-great-great-grandfather," and away went the other
+boy, shouting as he ran, "and your great-great-great-great gr-e-at," and
+I heard no more. And then there are a great many very naughty and vile
+words which the children use, which I cannot write, and yet we hear them
+every day. It is very hard to keep our children from learning them, as
+they talk Arabic better than we do, and often learn expressions which
+they do not know the meaning of. One of the most common habits is using
+the name of God in vain. The name of God is Allah, and "O God,"
+<i>Yullah</i>. Then there is <i>Wullah</i> and <i>Bismillah</i>, "In the name of God,"
+<i>Hamdlillah</i>, "Praise to God," <i>Inshullah</i>, "If God will." The most
+awful oaths are Wullah and Billah. The people use <i>Yullah</i> at all times
+and on all occasions. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span>donkey-drivers and muleteers say <i>Yullah</i>
+when they drive their animals. Some years ago a good man from America,
+who fears God and would not take his name in vain was travelling in the
+Holy Land, and came on to Beir&ucirc;t. When he reached there, some one asked
+him if he had learned any Arabic during his journey. He said yes, he had
+learned <i>Bakhshish</i> for "a present," and <i>Yullah</i> for "go ahead." His
+friend asked him if he had used the latter word much on the way. He said
+certainly, he had used it all the way. His friend answered, Professor,
+you have been swearing all the way through the Holy Land. Of course he
+did not know it and meant no wrong. But it shows that such words are
+used so commonly in Syria that strangers do not think them bad language,
+and it also shows that travellers ought to be careful in using the words
+they learn of muleteers and sailors in Arab land.</p>
+
+<p>In some parts of the country the little boys and girls swear so
+dreadfully that you can hardly bear to be with them. Especially among
+the Nusair&icirc;yeh, they think that nothing will be believed unless they add
+an oath. Dr. Post once rebuked an old Sheikh for using the word "Wullah"
+so often, and argued so earnestly about it that the man promised never
+to use it again. The old man a moment after repeated it. The doctor
+said, "will you now pledge me that you will not say 'Wullah' again?" He
+replied, "Wullah, I will."</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes a donkey-driver will get out of patience with his long-eared
+beast. The donkey will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span>lie down with his load in a deep mud-hole, or
+among the sharp rocks. For a time the man will kick and strike him and
+throw stones at him, and finally when nothing else succeeds he will
+stand back, with his eyes glaring and his fist raised in the air, and
+scream out, "May Allah curse the beard of your grandfather!" I believe
+that the donkey always gets up after that,&mdash;that is, if the muleteer
+first takes off his load and then helps him, by pulling stoutly at his
+tail.</p>
+
+<p>I told you that one of the girls who bring us milk, is named
+"<i>Lokunda</i>," or <i>Hotel</i>. She is a small specimen of a hotel, but
+provides us purer and sweeter cow's milk than many a six-storied hotel
+on Broadway would do. You will say that is a queer name for a girl, but
+if you stop and think about many of our English names you would think
+them queer too. Here in Syria, we have the house of Wolf, the house of
+"Stuffed Cabbage," Khowadji Leopard, the lady "Wolves," and one of our
+fellow villagers in Abeih where we spend the summer is Eman ed Deen
+"faith-of-religion," although he has neither faith nor religion.</p>
+
+<p>Among the boys' names are Selim, Ibrahim, Moosa, Yakob, Ishoc, Mustafa,
+Hanna, Yusef, Ali, Saieed, Assaf, Giurgius, Faoor, and Abbas. I once met
+a boy at the Cedars of Lebanon, who was named Jidry, or "Small-Pox,"
+because that disease was raging in the village when he was born. It is
+very common to name babies from what is happening in the world when they
+are born. A friend of mine in Tripoli had a daughter born when an
+American ship <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span>was in the harbor, so he called her America. When another
+daughter was born there was a Russian ship in port, so he called her
+Russia. There is a young woman in S&ucirc;k el Ghurb named Fetneh or Civil
+War, and her sister is Hada, or Peace. An old lady lately died in Beir&ucirc;t
+named Fein&ucirc;s or Lantern. In the Beir&ucirc;t school are and have been girls
+named Pearl, Diamond, Morning Dawn, Dew, Rose, Only one, and Mary Flea.
+That girl America's full name was America Wolves, a curious name for a
+Syrian lamb!</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes children are named, and if after a few years they are sick,
+the parents change their names and give them new ones, thinking that the
+first name did not agree with them. A Druze told me that he named his
+son in infancy <i>Asaad</i> (or happier) but he was sickly, so they changed
+his name to <i>Ahmed</i> (Praised) and after that he grew better! He has now
+become a Christian, and has resumed his first name Asaad.</p>
+
+<p>I once visited a man in the village of Brummana who had six daughters,
+whom he named <i>Sun</i>, <i>Morning</i>, <i>Zephyr breeze</i>, <i>Jewelry</i>, <i>Agate</i>, and
+<i>Emerald</i>. I know girls named Star, Beauty, Sugar, One Eyed, and
+Christian Barbarian. Some of the names are beautiful, as Leila, Zarifeh,
+L&ucirc;l&ucirc;, Selma, Luc&icirc;ya, Miriam and Fereedy.</p>
+
+<p>All of the men are called Aboo-somebody; <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> the father of somebody
+or something. Old Sheikh Hassein, whose house I am living in, is called
+Aboo Abbas, <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> the father of Abbas, because his eldest son's name is
+Abbas. A young lad in the village, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span>who is just about entering the
+Freshman class in the Beir&ucirc;t College, has been for years called Aboo
+Habeeb, or the father of Habeeb, when he has no children at all. Elias,
+the deacon of the church in Beir&ucirc;t was called Aboo Nasif for more than
+fifty years, and finally in his old age he married and had a son, whom
+he named Nasif, so that he got his name right after all. They often give
+young men such names, and if they have no children they call them by the
+name of the son they might have had. But they will not call a man Aboo
+L&ucirc;l&ucirc; or Aboo Leila. If a man has a dozen daughters he will never be
+called from them. They are "nothing but girls." A queer old man in
+Ghurz&ucirc;z once tried to name himself from his daughter Seleemeh, but
+whenever any one called him Aboo Seleemeh, all the fellaheen would laugh
+as if they would explode, and the boys would shout at him "there goes
+old Aboo Seleemeh," as if it were a grand joke.</p>
+
+<p>The Moslems and Druzes generally give their children the old unmixed
+Arabic names, but the Maronites, the Greeks, and the Protestants often
+use European names. A young lady named Miss Mason was once a teacher in
+the Sidon Seminary, and spent the summer in the mountain village of Deir
+Mimas. One of the women of the village liked her name, and named her
+daughter "Miss Mason," and if you should go there you would hear the
+little urchins of Deir Mimas shouting Miss Mason! to a little
+blue-gowned and tarbooshed Arab girl.</p>
+
+<p>What noise is that we hear down in the village, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span>under the great jowz
+(walnut) trees by the fountain? It rolls and gurgles and growls and
+bellows enough to frighten a whole village full of children. But the
+little Arab boys and girls are playing around, and the women are filling
+their jars at the fountain just as if nothing had happened. But it is a
+frightful noise for all that. It is the bellowing of the camels as their
+heavy loads are being put on. They are kneeling on the ground, with
+their long necks swaying and stretching around like boa constrictors.
+These camels are very useful animals, but I always like to see them at a
+distance, especially in the month of February, for at that time they get
+to be as "mad as a March hare." They are what the Arabs call "taish,"
+and often bite men severely. In Hums one bit the whole top of a man's
+head off, and in Tripoli another bit a man's hand off. I once saw a
+camel "taish" in Beir&ucirc;t, and he was driving the whole town before him.
+Wherever he came, with his tongue hanging down and a foaming froth
+pouring from his mouth as he growled and bellowed through the streets,
+the people would leave their shops and stools and run in dismay. It was
+a frightful sight. I was riding down town, and on seeing the crowd, and
+the camel coming towards me, I put spurs to my horse and rode home.</p>
+
+<p>When camels are tied together in a long caravan with a little
+mouse-colored donkey leading the van, ridden by a long-legged Bedawy,
+who sits half-asleep smoking his pipe, you would think them the tamest
+and most innocent creatures in the world, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span>when they fall into a
+panic, they are beyond all control. A few years ago a drove of camels
+was passing through the city of Damascus. The Arabs drive camels like
+sheep, hundreds and sometimes thousands in a flock, and they look
+awkward enough. When this drove entered the city, something frightened
+them, and they began to run. Just imagine a camel running! What a sight
+it must have been! Hundreds of them went through the narrow streets,
+knocking over men and women and donkeys, upsetting the shopkeepers, and
+spilling out their wares on the ground, and many persons were badly
+bruised. At length a carpenter saw them coming and put a timber across
+the street, which dammed up the infuriated tide of camels, and they
+dashed against one another until they were all wedged together, and thus
+their owners secured them.</p>
+
+<p>In August, 1862, a famous Bedawin Chief, named Mohammed ed Dukhy, in
+Houran, east of the Jordan, rebelled against the Turkish Government. The
+Druzes joined him, and the Turks sent a small army against them.
+Mohammed had in his camp several thousand of the finest Arabian camels,
+and they were placed in a row behind his thousands of Arab and Druze
+horsemen. Behind the camels were the women, children, sheep, cattle and
+goats. When the Turkish army first opened fire with musketry, the camels
+made little disturbance, as they were used to hearing small arms, but
+when the Turkish Colonel gave orders to fire with cannon, "the ships of
+the desert" began to tremble. The artillery thundered, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span>and the poor
+camels could stand it no longer. They were driven quite crazy with
+fright, and fled over the country in every direction in more than a Bull
+Run panic. Some went down towards the Sea of Galilee, others towards the
+swamps of Merom, and hundreds towards Banias, the ancient C&aelig;sarea
+Philippi, and onwards to the West as far as Deir Mimas. Nothing could
+stop them. Their tongues were projecting, their eyes glaring, and on
+they went. The fellaheen along the roads caught them as they could, and
+sold them to their neighbors. Fine camels worth eighty dollars, were
+sold for four or five dollars a head, and in some villages the fat
+animals were butchered and sold for beef. Some of them came to Deir
+Mimas, where two of the missionaries lived. The Protestants said to the
+missionaries, "here are noble camels selling for five and ten dollars,
+shall we buy? Others are buying." "By no means," they told them. "They
+are stolen or strayed property, and you will repent it if you touch
+them." Others bought and feasted on camel steaks, and camel soup, and
+camel kibby, but the Protestants would not touch them. In a day or two,
+the cavalry of the Turks came scouring the country for the camels, as
+they were the spoils of war. Then the poor fellaheen were sorry enough
+that they had bought and eaten the camels, for the Turks made them pay
+back double the price of the beasts, and the Protestants found that
+"honesty was the best policy."</p>
+
+<p>The camel is very sure footed, but cannot travel on muddy and slippery
+roads. The Arabs say "the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span>camel never falls, but if he falls, he never
+gets up again." They carry long timbers over Lebanon, on the steep and
+rocky roads, the timber being balanced on the pack saddle, one end
+extending out on front, and the other behind. Sometimes the timber
+begins to swing about, and down the camel goes over the precipice and is
+dashed to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>The Arabs say that a man once asked a camel, "What made your <i>neck</i> so
+crooked?" The camel answered, "My neck? Why did you ask about my neck?
+Is there anything else straight about me, that led you to notice my
+neck?" This has a meaning, which is, that when a man's habits are all
+bad, there is no use in talking about <i>one</i> of them.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps you will ask, did you ever eat camel's flesh? Certainly. We do
+not get it in Beir&ucirc;t, as camels are too expensive along the sea-coast to
+be used as food, but in the interior towns, like Hums and Hamath, which
+border on the desert or rather the great plains occupied by the ten
+thousands of the Bedawin, camel's meat is a common article in the
+market. They butcher fat camels, and young camel colts that have broken
+their legs, and sometimes their meat is as delicious as beefsteak. But
+when they kill an old lean worn-out camel, that has been besmeared with
+pitch and tar for many years, and has been journeying under heavy loads
+from Aleppo to Damascus until he is what the Arabs call a "basket of
+bones," and then kill him to save his life, or rather his beef, the meat
+is not very delicate.</p>
+
+<p>The Arab name for a camel is "Jemel" which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span>means <i>beauty</i>! They call
+him so perhaps because there is no beauty in him. You will read in
+books, that the camel is the "ship of the desert." He is very much like
+a ship, as he carries a heavy cargo over the ocean-like plains and
+"buraries" or wilds of the Syrian and Arabian deserts. He is also like a
+ship in making people sea-sick who ride on his back, and because he has
+a strong odor of tar and pitch like the hold of a ship, which sometimes
+you can perceive at a long distance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h4><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II"></a>PART II.</h4>
+
+<p>Perhaps you would like to take a ride with me some day, and visit some
+of the missionary stations in Syria. What will you ride? The horses are
+gentle, but you would feel safer on a donkey. Mules are sometimes good
+for riding, but I prefer to let them alone. I never rode a mule but
+once. I was at Hasbeiya, and wished to visit the bitumen wells. My horse
+was not in a condition to be ridden, so I took Mons&ucirc;r's mule. It had
+only a jillal or pack saddle, and Mons&ucirc;r made stirrups of rope for me.
+My companions had gone on in advance, and when I started, the mule was
+eager to overtake them. All went well until we approached the little
+stream which afterwards becomes the River Jordan. The ground was
+descending, and the road covered with loose stones. The rest of our
+party were crossing the stream and the mule thought he would trot and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span>come up with them. I tried to hold him in with the rope halter, but he
+shook his head and dashed on. About the middle of the descent he
+stumbled and fell flat upon his nose. I went over his head upon my
+hands, but my feet were fast in the rope stirrups. Seeing that he was
+trying to get up, I tried to work myself back into the saddle, but I had
+only reached his head, when he sprang up. I was now in a curious and not
+very safe situation. The mule was trotting on and I was sitting on his
+head holding on to his ears, with my feet fast in the rope stirrups. A
+little Arab boy was passing with a tray of bread upon his head and I
+shouted to him for help. He was so amused to see a Khowadja with a hat,
+riding at that rate on a mule's head, that he began to roar with
+laughter and down went his tray on the ground and the Arab bread went
+rolling among the stones. It was a great mercy that I did not fall under
+the brute's feet, but I held on until he got the other side of the
+Jordan, when a man ran out from the mill and stopped him. Mons&ucirc;r now led
+him by the halter and I reached the bitumen wells in safety.</p>
+
+<p>You can mount your donkey and Harry will ride another, and I will ride
+my horse, and we will try a Syrian journey. As we cannot spare the time
+to go from Beir&ucirc;t to Tripoli by land, I have sent Ibrahim to take the
+animals along the shore, and we will go up by the French steamer, a fine
+large vessel called the "Ganges." We go down to the Kumruk or Custom
+House, and there a little Arab boat takes us out to the steamer. In
+rough weather it is very dan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span>gerous going out to the steamers, and
+sometimes little boats are capsized, but to-night there is no danger.
+You are now on the deck of the steamer. What a charming view of Beir&ucirc;t
+and Mount Lebanon. Far out on the point of the cape are the new
+buildings of the Syrian College, and next is the Prussian Hospital and
+then the Protestant Prussian Deaconesses Institution with 130 orphans
+and 80 paying pupils. There is the house of Dr. Thomson and Dr. Van Dyck
+and Dr. Post, and the Turkish Barracks, and Mrs. Mott's school, and our
+beautiful Church, with its clock tower, and you can hear the clock
+strike six. Then next to the Church is the Female Seminary with its 100
+pupils, and the Steam Printing Press, where are printed so many books
+and Scriptures every year in the Arabic language. Those tall cypress
+trees are in the Mission Cemetery where Pliny Fisk, and Eli Smith, and
+Mr. Whiting, and a good many little children are buried. Near by are the
+houses of Dr. Bliss and Dr. Lewis and our house, and you can see mosques
+and minarets and domes and red-tiled roofs, and beautiful arched
+corridors and green trees in every direction. Do you see the beautiful
+purple tints on the Lebanon Mountains as the sun goes down? Is it not
+worth a long journey to see that lofty peak gilded and tinted with
+purple and pink and yellow as the sun sinks into the sea?</p>
+
+<p>What a noise these boatmen make! I doubt whether you have ever heard
+such a screaming before.</p>
+
+<p>Now you can imagine yourself going to sleep in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span>the state-room of this
+great steamer, and away we go. The anchor comes up clank, clank, as the
+great chain cable is wound up by the donkey engine, and now we move off
+silently and smoothly. In about five hours we have made the fifty miles,
+and down goes the anchor again in Tripoli harbor. At sunrise the Tripoli
+boatmen come around the steamer. We are two miles off from the shore and
+a rough north wind is blowing. Let us hurry up and get ashore before the
+wind increases to a gale, as these North winds are very fierce on the
+Syrian coast. Here comes Mustafa, an old boatman, and begs us to take
+his fel&ucirc;ca. We look over the side of the steamer and see that his boat
+is large and clean and agree to take it for twelve piastres or fifty
+cents for all of us and our baggage. Then the other boatmen rush up and
+scream and curse and try to get us to take their boats, but we say
+nothing and push through them and climb down the steps to the boat. The
+white caps are rolling and the boat dances finely. Mustafa puts up a
+large three-cornered sail, Ali sits at the rudder, and with a stroke or
+two of the oars we turn around into the wind and away we dash towards
+the shore. The Meena (port) is before us, that white row of houses on
+the point; and back among the gardens is the city of Tripoli. In less
+than half an hour we reach the shore, but the surf is so high that we
+cannot go near the pier, so they make for the sand beach, and before we
+reach it, the boat strikes on a little bar and we stop. Out jump the
+boatmen, and porters come running half naked from the shore <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span>and each
+shouts to us to ride ashore on his shoulders. They can carry you and
+Harry with ease, but I am always careful how I sit on the shoulders of
+these rough fellows. There is Ibrahim on the shore with our animals, and
+two mules for the baggage. We shall take beds and bedsteads and cooking
+apparatus and provisions and a tent. Ibrahim has bought bread and
+potatoes and rice and semin (Arab butter) and smead (farina) and
+candles, and a little sugar and salt, and other necessaries. We will
+accept Aunt Annie's invitation to breakfast, and then everything will be
+ready for a start.</p>
+
+<p>What is the matter with those boys in that dark room? Are they on
+rockers? They keep swinging back and forth and screaming at the top of
+their voices all at once, and an old blind man sits on one side holding
+a long stick. They all sit on the floor and hold books or tin cards in
+their hands. This is a Moslem school, and the boys are learning to read
+and write. They all study aloud, and the old blind Sheikh knows their
+voices so well that when one stops studying, he perceives it, and
+reaches his long stick over that way until the boy begins again. When a
+boy comes up to him to recite, he has to shout louder than the rest, so
+that the Sheikh can distinguish his voice. There, two boys are fighting.
+The Sheikh cannot and will not have fighting in his school, and he calls
+them up to him. They begin to scream and kick and call for their
+mothers, but it is of no use. Sheikh Mohammed will have order. Lie down
+there you Mahmoud! Mahmoud lies down, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span>and the Sheikh takes a stick like
+a bow with a cord to it, and winds the cord around his ankles. After
+twisting the cord as tight as possible, he takes his rod and beats
+Mahmoud on the soles of his feet, until the poor boy is almost black in
+the face with screaming and pain. Then he serves Saleh in the same way.
+This is the <i>bastinado</i> of which you have heard and read. When the
+Missionaries started common schools in Syria, the teachers used the
+bastinado without their knowledge, though we never allow anything of the
+kind. But the boys behave so badly and use such bad language to each
+other, that the teacher's patience is often quite exhausted. I heard of
+one school where the teacher invited a visitor to hear the boys recite,
+and then offered to whip the school all around from the biggest boy to
+the smallest, in order to show how well he governed the school! They do
+not use the alphabet in the Moslem schools. The boys begin with the
+Koran and learn the <i>words by sight</i>, without knowing the letters of
+which they are composed.</p>
+
+<p>Here come two young men to meet us. Fine lads they are too. One is named
+Giurgius, and the other Leopold. When they were small boys, they once
+amused me very much. Mr. Yanni, who drew up his flag on the birth of
+Barbara, sent Giurgius his son, and Leopold his nephew to the school of
+an old man named Hanna Tooma. This old man always slept in the
+afternoon, and the boys did not study very well when he was asleep. I
+was once at Yanni's house when the boys came home from school.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> They
+were in high glee. One of them said to his father, our teacher slept all
+the afternoon, and we appointed a committee of boys to fan him and keep
+the flies off while the rest went down into the court to play, and when
+he moved we all hushed up until he was sound asleep again. But when he
+<i>did</i> wake up, he took the big "Asa" and struck out right and left, and
+gave every boy in the school a flogging. The father asked, but why did
+he flog them all? Because he said he knew some of us had done wrong and
+he was determined to hit the right one, so he flogged us all!</p>
+
+<p>See the piles of fruit in the streets! Grapes and figs, watermelons and
+pomegranates, peaches, pears, lemons and bananas. At other seasons of
+the year you have oranges, <i>sweet lemons</i>, plums, and apricots. There is
+fresh fruit on the trees here every week in the year. Now we are passing
+a lemonade stand, where iced lemonade is sold for a cent a glass, cooled
+with snow from the summit of Mount Lebanon 9000 feet high. Grapes are
+about a cent a pound and figs the same, and in March you can buy five
+oranges or ten sweet lemons for a cent. Huge watermelons are about eight
+or ten cents a piece. We buy so many pounds of milk and oil and potatoes
+and charcoal. The prickly pear, or subire, is a delicious fruit,
+although covered with sharp barbed spines and thorns. It is full of hard
+large woody seeds, but the people are very fond of the fruit. Sheikh
+Nasif el Yazijy was a famous Arab poet and scholar, and a young man once
+brought him a poem <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span>to be corrected. He told him to call in a few days
+and get it. He came again and the Sheikh said to him. "Your poem is like
+the Missionary's prickly pear!" "The Missionary's prickly pear?" said
+the young poet. "What do you mean?" "Why," said the Sheikh, "Dr. &mdash;&mdash; a
+missionary, when he first came to Syria, had a dish of prickly pears set
+before him to eat. Not liking to eat the seeds, he began to pick them
+out, and when he had picked out all the seeds, there was nothing left!
+So your poem. You asked me to remove the errors, and I found that when I
+had taken out all the errors, there was nothing left."</p>
+
+<p>It is about time for us to start. We will ride through the orange
+gardens and see the rich fruit bending the trees almost down to the
+ground. Steer your way carefully through the crowd of mules, pack
+horses, camels and asses loaded with boxes of fruit hastening down to
+the Meena for the steamer which goes North to-night.</p>
+
+<p>Here is Yanni, with his happy smiling face coming out to meet us. We
+will dismount and greet him. He will kiss us on both cheeks and insist
+on our calling at his house. The children are glad to see you, and the
+Sitt Kar&icirc;meh asks, how are "the preserved of God?" that is, the
+<i>children</i>. Then the little tots come up to kiss my hand, and Im
+Antonius, the old grandmother, comes and greets us most kindly. It was
+not always so. She was once very hostile to the Missionaries. She
+thought that her son had done a dreadful deed when he became a
+Protestant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> Although she once loved him, she hated him and hated us.
+She used to fast, and make vows, and pray to the Virgin and the saints,
+and beat her breast in agony over her son. She had a brother and another
+son, who were like her, and they all persecuted Yanni. But he bore it
+patiently without an unkind word in return for all their abuse. At
+length the brother Ishoc was taken ill. Im Antonius brought the pictures
+and put them over his head and called the priests. He said, "Mother,
+take away these idols. Send away these priests. Tell my brother Antonius
+to come here, I want to ask his forgiveness." Yanni came. Ishoc said to
+him, "Brother, your kindness and patience have broken me down. You are
+right and I am wrong. I am going to die. Will you forgive me?" "Yes, and
+may God forgive and bless you too." "Then bring your Bible and read to
+me. Read about some <i>great</i> sinner who was saved." Yanni read about the
+dying thief on the cross. "Read it again! Ah, that is my case! I am the
+chief of sinners." Every day he kept Yanni reading and praying with him.
+He loved to talk about Jesus and at length died trusting in the Saviour!
+The uncle Michaiel, was also taken ill, and on his death-bed would have
+neither priest nor pictures, and declared to all the people that he
+trusted only in the Saviour whom Yanni had loved and served so well.
+After that Im Antonius was softened and now she loves to hear Yanni read
+the Bible and pray.</p>
+
+<p>The servant is coming with sherbet and sweet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span>meats and Arabic coffee in
+little cups as large as an egg-shell. Did you notice how the marble
+floors shine! They are scrubbed and polished, and kept clean by the
+industrious women whom you see so gorgeously dressed now. These good
+ladies belong to the Akabir, or aristocracy of Tripoli, but they work
+most faithfully in their housekeeping duties. But alas, they can neither
+read nor write! And there is hardly a woman in this whole city of 16,000
+people that can read or write! I once attended a company of invited
+guests at one of the wealthy houses in Tripoli, and there were thirty
+Tripolitan ladies in the large room, dressed in the most elegant style.
+I think you never saw such magnificence. They were dressed in silks and
+satins and velvets, embroidered with gold thread and pearls, and their
+arms and necks were loaded with gold bracelets and necklaces set with
+precious stones, and on their heads were wreaths of gold and silver work
+sparkling with diamonds, and fragrant with fresh orange blossoms and
+jessamine. Many of them were beautiful. But not one of them could read.
+The little boys and girls too are dressed in the same rich style among
+the wealthier classes, and they are now beginning to learn. Many of the
+little girls who were taught in Sadi's school here thirteen years ago,
+are now heads of families, and know how to read the gospel.</p>
+
+<p>Ibrahim comes in to say that we must hurry off if we would reach Halba
+to sleep to-night. So we bid Yanni's family good-bye. We tell them "Be
+Khaterkum." "By your pleasure," and they say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> "Ma es Salameh," "with
+peace."&mdash;Then they say "God smooth your way," and we answer, "Peace to
+your lives." Saieed the muleteer now says "Dih, Ooah," to his mules, and
+away we ride over the stony pavements and under the dark arches of the
+city, towards the East. We cross the bridge over the River Kadisha, go
+through the wheat and barley market, and out of the gate Tibbaneh, among
+the Moslems, Maronites, Bedawin, Nusair&icirc;yeh, Gypsies, and Greeks, who
+are buying and selling among the Hamath and Hums caravans.</p>
+
+<p>Do you see those boys playing by the stone wall? They are catching
+scorpions. They put a little wax on a stick and thrust it into the holes
+in the wall, and the scorpions run their claws into the wax when they
+are easily drawn out, and the boys like to play with them. The sting of
+the scorpion is not deadly, but it is very painful, something like being
+stung by half a dozen hornets.</p>
+
+<p>Here come a company of Greek priests, with the Greek bishop of Akkar.
+The priests are all Syrians but the bishop is from Greece, and knows but
+little Arabic. The priests are very ignorant, for they are generally
+chosen from among the lowest of the people.</p>
+
+<p>When the former Greek Bishop died in Tripoli, in 1858, his dead body was
+dressed in cloth of gold, with a golden crown on his head, and then the
+corpse was set up in a chair in the midst of the Greek Church, with the
+face and hands uncovered so that all the people could see him. The
+fingers were all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span>black and bloated, but the men, women and children
+crowded up to kiss them. When the body was taken from the city to Deir
+Keftin, three miles distant the Greek mountaineers came down in a rabble
+to get the blessing from the corpse. And how do you think they got the
+blessing? They attacked the bearers and knocked off pieces of the
+coffin, and then carried off the pall and tore it in pieces, fighting
+for it like hungry wolves. A number of people were wounded. After the
+burial they dug up the earth for some distance around the tomb, and
+carried it off to be used as medicine. A little girl brought a piece of
+the bishop's handkerchief to my house, hearing that some one was ill,
+saying that if we would burn it and drink the ashes in water, we would
+be instantly cured.</p>
+
+<p>The Syrians have a good many stories about their priests, which they
+laugh about, and yet they obey them, no matter how ignorant they are.
+Ab&ucirc; Selim in the Meena used to tell me this story: Once there was a
+priest who did not know how to count. This was a great trial to him, as
+the Greeks have so many fasts and feasts that it is necessary to count
+all the time or get into trouble. They have a long fast called <i>Soum el
+keb&icirc;r</i>, and it is sometimes nearly sixty days long. One year the fast
+commenced, and the priest had blundered so often that he went to the
+bishop and asked him to teach him some way to count the days to the
+Easter feast. The bishop told him it would be forty days, and gave him
+forty kernels of "hummus," or peas, telling him to put <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span>them into his
+pocket and throw one out every day, and when they were all gone, to
+proclaim the feast! This was a happy plan for the poor priest, and he
+went on faithfully throwing away one pea every day, until one day he
+went to a neighboring village. In crossing the stream he fell from his
+donkey into the mud, and his black robe was grievously soiled. The good
+woman of the house where he slept, told him to take off his robe and she
+would clean it in the night. So after he was asleep she arose and washed
+it clean, but found to her sorrow that she had destroyed the peas in the
+priest's pocket. Poor priest, said she, he has lost all his peas which
+he had for lunch on the road! But I will make it up to him. So she went
+to her earthen jar and took a big double handful of hummus and put them
+into the priest's pocket, and said no more. He went on his way and threw
+out a pea every morning for weeks and weeks. At length, some of his
+fellaheen heard that the feast had begun in another village, and told
+the Priest. Impossible, said he. My pocket is half full yet. Others came
+and said, will you keep us fasting all the year? He only replied, look
+into my pocket. Are you wiser than the Bishop? At length some one went
+and told the Bishop that the priest was keeping his people fasting for
+twenty days after the time. And then the story leaked out, and the poor
+woman told how she had filled up the pocket, and the bishop saw that
+there was no use in trying to teach the man to count.</p>
+
+<p>See the reapers in the field, and the women glean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span>ing after them, just
+as Ruth did so many thousand years ago! On this side is a "lodge in a
+garden of cucumbers."</p>
+
+<p>Now we come down upon the sea-shore again, and on our right is the great
+plain of Akkar, level as a floor, and covered with fields of Indian corn
+and cotton. Flocks and herds and Arab camps of black tents are scattered
+over it. Here is a shepherd-boy playing on his "zimmara" or pipe, made
+of two reeds tied together and perforated. He plays on it hour after
+hour and day after day, as he leads his sheep and goats or cattle along
+the plain or over the mountains. You do not like it much, any more than
+he would like a melodeon or a piano. When King David was a shepherd-boy
+he played on such a pipe as this as he wandered over the mountains of
+Judea.</p>
+
+<p>Now we turn away from the sea and go eastward to Halba. Before long we
+cross the river Arka on a narrow stone bridge, and pass a high hill
+called "Tel Arka." Here the Arkites lived, who are mentioned in Genesis
+x:17. That was four thousand two hundred years ago. What a chain of
+villages skirt this plain! The people build their villages on the hills
+for protection and health, but go down to plough and sow and feed their
+flocks to the rich level plain. Now we cross a little stream of water,
+and look up the ravine, and there is Ishoc's house perched on the side
+of the hill opposite Halba. Ishoc and his wife Im Hanna, come out to
+meet us, and he helps us pitch the tent by the great fig tree near his
+house. We unroll the tent, splice the tent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span>pole, open the bag of tent
+pins, get the mallet, and although the wind is blowing hard, we will
+drive the pegs so deep that there will be no danger of its blowing over.</p>
+
+<p>Ab&ucirc; Hanna, or Ishoc, is a noble Christian man, one of the best men in
+Syria. He has suffered very much for Christ's sake. The Greeks in the
+village on the hill have tried to poison him. They hired Nusairy
+Mughlajees to shoot him. They cut down his trees at night, and pulled up
+his plantations of vegetables. They came at night and tore up the roof
+of his house, and shot through at him but did not hit him. But the
+Mohammedan Begs over there always help him, because he is an honest man,
+and aids them in their business and accounts. When the Greeks began to
+persecute him, they told him to fire a gun whenever they came about his
+house, and they would come over and fight for him. They even offered to
+go up and burn the Greek village and put an end to these persecutions.
+But Ishoc would not let them. He said, "Mohammed Beg, you know I am a
+Christian, not like these Greeks who lie and steal and kill, but I
+follow the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, 'Love your
+enemies,' and I do not wish to injure one of them." The Begs were
+astonished at this, and went away, urging him if there were any more
+trouble at night to fire his gun and they would come over from Halba at
+once.</p>
+
+<p>I love this good man Ishoc. His pure life, his patience and gentleness
+have preached to these wild <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span>people in Akkar, more than all the sermons
+of the missionaries.</p>
+
+<p>Would you like to see Im Hanna make bread for our supper? That hole in
+the ground, lined with plaster, is the oven, and the flames are pouring
+out. They heat it with thorns and thistles. She sits by the oven with a
+flat stone at her side, patting the lumps of dough into thin cakes like
+wafers as large as the brim of your straw hat. Now the fire is burning
+out and the coals are left at the bottom of the oven, as if they were in
+the bottom of a barrel. She takes one thin wafer on her hand and sticks
+it on the smooth side of the oven, and as it bakes it curls up, but
+before it drops off into the coals, she pulls it out quickly and puts
+another in its place. How sweet and fresh the bread is! It is made of
+Indian corn. She calls it "khubs dura." Ab&ucirc; Hanna says that we must eat
+supper with them to-night. They are plain fellaheen, and have neither
+tables, chairs, knives nor forks. They have a few wooden spoons, and a
+few plates. But hungry travellers and warm-hearted friendship will make
+the plainest food sweet and pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>Supper is ready now, and we will go around to Ab&ucirc; Hanna's house for he
+has come to tell us that "all things are ready." The house is one low
+room, about sixteen by twenty feet. The ceiling you see is of logs
+smoked black and shining as if they had been varnished. Above the logs
+are flat stones and thorns, on which earth is piled a foot deep. In the
+winter this earth is rolled down with a heavy stone <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span>roller to keep out
+the rain. In many of the houses the family, cattle, sheep, calves and
+horses sleep in the same room. The family sleep in the elevated part of
+the room along the edge of which is a trough into which they put the
+barley for the animals. This is the "medhwad" or manger, such as the
+infant Jesus was laid in. We will now accept Im Hanna's kind invitation
+to supper. The plates are all on a small tray on a mat in the middle of
+the floor, and there are four piles of bread around the edge. There is
+one cup of water for us all to drink from, and each one has a wooden
+spoon. But Ab&ucirc; Hanna, you will see, prefers to eat without a spoon.
+After the blessing is asked in Arabic, Ab&ucirc; Hanna says, "tefudduloo,"
+which means help yourselves. Here is kibby, and camel stew, and Esau's
+pottage, and olives, and rice, and figs cooked in dibbs, and chicken
+boiled to pieces, and white fresh cheese, and curdled milk, and fried
+eggs.</p>
+
+<p>Kibby is the Arab plum pudding and mince pie and roast beef all in one.
+It is made by pounding meat in a mortar with wheat, until both are mixed
+into a soft pulp and then dressed with nuts and onions and butter, and
+baked or roasted in cakes over the fire. Dr. Thomson thinks that this
+dish is alluded to in Prov. 27:22, "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in
+a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart
+from him." That is, put the fool into Im Hanna's stone mortar with wheat
+and pound him into kibby, and he would still <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span>remain a fool! It takes
+something besides pounding to get the folly out of foolish men.</p>
+
+<p>You see there are no separate plates for us. We all help ourselves from
+the various dishes as we prefer. Ab&ucirc; Hanna wants you to try the
+"mejeddara," made of "oddis." It is like thick pea soup, but with a
+peculiar flavor. This is what Jacob made the pottage of, when he tempted
+Esau and bought his birthright. I hope you will like it, but I do not.
+After seventeen years of trying, I am not able to enjoy it, but Harry
+will eat all he can get, and the little Arab children revel in it. You
+make poor work with that huge wooden spoon. You had better try Ab&ucirc;
+Hanna's way of eating. Many better men than any of us have eaten in that
+way, and I suppose our Saviour and his disciples ate as Ab&ucirc; Hanna eats.
+He tears off a small piece of the thin wafer-like bread, doubles it into
+a kind of three cornered spoon, dips it into the rice, or picks up a
+piece of kibby with it, and then eats it down, spoon and all! Im Hanna
+says I am afraid those little boys do not like our food, so she makes a
+spoon and dips up a nice morsel of the chicken, and comes to you and
+says "minshan khatri," for my sake, eat this, and you open your mouth
+and she puts it in. That is the way our Saviour dipped the "sop" and put
+it into the mouth of Judas Iscariot to show the disciples which one it
+was. Giving the sop was a common act, and I have no doubt Jesus had
+often given it to John and Peter and the other disciples, as a kindly
+act, when they were eating together.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span></p><p>Im Hanna is fixing the lamp. It is a little earthen saucer having a lip
+on one side, with the wick hanging over. The wick just began to smoke
+and she poured in more olive oil, and it burns brightly again. Do you
+remember what the prophet Isaiah (42:3) said, "a bruised reed shall he
+not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench." This is quoted in
+Matt. 12 of our Lord Jesus. The word flax means <i>wick</i>. It is "fetileh"
+in Arabic, and this is just what Im Hanna has been doing. She saw the
+wick smoking and flickering, and instead of blowing it out and quenching
+it, she brought the oil flask, and gently poured in the clear olive oil
+and you saw how quickly the flame revived. So our Lord would have us
+learn from Him. When the flame of our faith and love is almost dead and
+nothing remains but the smoking flickering wick, He does not quench it,
+and deal harshly with us, but he comes in all gentleness and love and
+pours in the oil of His grace, and then our faith revives and we live
+again.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h4><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III"></a>PART III.</h4>
+
+<p>Here come some little Bedawin gypsy children. One is laughing at my hat.
+He never saw one before and he calls me "Ab&ucirc; Suttle," the "father of a
+Pail," and wonders why I carry a pail on my head. The people love to use
+the word Ab&ucirc;, [father] or Im, [mother]. They call a musquito Ab&ucirc; Fas,
+the father of an axe. The centipede is "Im Arb&#257; wa Arb-ain;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> "The
+mother of forty-four legs." The Arabic poet Hariri calls a <i>table</i> the
+"father of assembling;" <i>bread</i>, the "father of pleasantness;" a <i>pie</i>,
+"the mother of joyfulness," <i>salt</i>, "the father of help," <i>soap</i> the
+"father of softness;" Death is called by the Arab poets, "Father of the
+Living," because all the living are subject to him.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast we will start for Saf&icirc;ta. You see that snow-white dome
+on the hill-top! and another on the next hill under that huge oak tree,
+and then another and another. These are called Nebi or Ziarat or Wely.
+Each one contains one or more tombs of Nusairy saints or sheikhs, and
+the poor women visit them and burn lamps and make vows to the saints who
+they think live in them. They know nothing of Christ, and when they feel
+sad and troubled and want comfort they enter the little room under the
+white dome, and there they call, "O J&#257;far et T&icirc;yyar hear me! O Sheikh
+Hassan hear me!"</p>
+
+<p>This is just as the old Canaanite women used to go up and worship on
+every high hill, and under every green tree, thousands of years ago, and
+these poor Nusair&icirc;yeh are thought to be the descendants of the old
+Canaanites.</p>
+
+<p>Here come men on horseback to visit that "ziyara." Up they go to the
+little room with the white dome, and all dismount. The old sheikh who
+has charge, comes out to meet them. They are pilgrims and have to make
+vows and bring offerings. One had a sick son and he once vowed that if
+his son got well he would bring a sheep and a bushel of wheat as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span>an
+offering to this shrine. So there is the sheep on one of the horses, and
+that mule is bringing the wheat. If the old sheikh has many such
+visitors he will grow rich. Some of them do. And yet the people laugh at
+these holy places, and tell some strange stories about them. One of the
+stories is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Once upon a time there was a great Sheikh Ali, a holy man, who kept a
+holy tomb of an ancient prophet. The tomb was on a hill under a big oak
+tree, and the white dome could be seen for miles around. Lamps were kept
+burning day and night in the tomb, and if any one extinguished them,
+they were miraculously lighted again. Men with sore eyes came to visit
+it and were cured. The earth around the tomb was carried off to be used
+as medicine. Women came and tied old rags on the limbs of the tree, as
+vows to the wonderful prophet. Nobody knew the name of the prophet, but
+the tomb was called "Kobr en Nebi," or "tomb of the prophet." A green
+cloth was spread over the tomb under the dome, and incense was sold by
+the sheikh to those who wished to heal their sick, or drive out evil
+spirits from their houses. Pilgrims came from afar to visit the holy
+place, and its fame extended over all the land. Sheikh Ali was becoming
+a rich man, and all the pilgrims kissed his hand and begged his
+blessing. Now Sheikh Ali had a faithful servant named Mohammed, who had
+served him long and well. But Mohammed was weary of living in one place,
+and asked permission to go and seek his for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span>tune in distant parts. So
+Sheikh Ali gave him his blessing and presented him with a donkey, which
+he had for many years, that he might ride when tired of walking. Then
+Mohammed set out on his journey. He went through cities and towns and
+villages, and at last came out on the mountains east of the Jordan in a
+desert place. No village or house was in sight and night came on. Tired,
+hungry and discouraged poor Mohammed lay down by his donkey on a great
+pile of stones and fell asleep. In the morning he awoke, and alas his
+donkey was dead. He was in despair, but his kindly nature would not let
+the poor brute lie there to be devoured by jackals and vultures, so he
+piled a mound of stones over its body and sat down to weep.</p>
+
+<p>While he was weeping, a wealthy Hajji or pilgrim came along, on his
+return from Mecca. He was surprised to see a man alone in this
+wilderness, and asked him why he was weeping? Mohammed replied, O Hajji,
+I have found the tomb of a holy prophet, and I have vowed to be its
+keeper, but I am in great need. The Hajji thanked him for the news, and
+dismounted to visit the holy place, and gave Mohammed a rich present.
+After he had gone Mohammed hastened to the nearest village and bought
+provisions and then returned to his holy prophet's tomb. The Hajji
+spread the news, and pilgrims thronged to the spot with rich presents
+and offerings. As money came in Mohammed brought masons and built a
+costly tomb with a tall white dome that could be seen across the Jordan.
+He lived in a little room <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span>by the tomb, and soon the miraculous lights
+began to appear in the tomb at night, which Mohammed had kindled when no
+one was near. He increased in fame and wealth, and the Prophet's tomb
+became one of the great shrines of the land.</p>
+
+<p>At length Sheikh Ali heard of the fame of the new holy place in the
+desert, and as his own visitors began to fall off, decided to go himself
+and gain the merit of a visit to the tomb of that famous prophet. When
+he arrived there with his rich presents of green cloth, incense and
+money, he bowed in silence to pray towards Mecca, when suddenly he
+recognized in the holy keeper of the tomb, his old servant Mohammed.
+"Salam alaykoom" said Sheikh Ali. "Alaykoom es Salam," replied Mohammed.
+When he asked him how he came here, and how he found this tomb, Mohammed
+replied, this "tomb is a great "sirr" or mystery, and I am forbidden to
+utter the secret." "But you <i>must</i> tell <i>me</i>," said Sheikh Ali, "for I
+am a father to you." Mohammed refused and Ali insisted, until at length
+Mohammed said, "my honored Sheikh, you remember having given me a
+donkey. It was a faithful donkey, and when it died I buried it. This is
+the tomb of that donkey!" "Mashallah! Mashallah!" said Sheikh Ali. The
+will of Allah be done! Then they ate and drank together, and renewed the
+memory of their former life, and then Sheikh Mohammed said to Sheikh
+Ali, "My master, as I have told you the 'sirr' of my prophet's tomb, I
+wish to know the secret of yours." "Impossible," said Ali, "for that is
+one of the ancient mysteries, too <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span>sacred to be mentioned by mortal
+lips." "But you <i>must</i> tell me, even as I have told you." At length the
+old Sheikh Ali stroked his snowy beard, adjusted his white turban, and
+whispered to Mohammed, "and my holy place is the <i>tomb of that donkey's
+father</i>!" "Mashallah," said Mohammed, "may Allah bless the beard of the
+holy donkeys!"</p>
+
+<p>The people tell this story, which shows, that they ridicule and despise
+their holy places, and yet are too superstitious to give them up. The
+great thing with the sheiks who keep them is <i>the piastres</i> they make
+from the visitors.</p>
+
+<p>As we go up the hill to Safita, you see the tall, beautiful Burj, or
+Crusader's tower, built as were many of the castles and towers whose
+ruins you see on the hills about here, by the French and English eight
+hundred years ago, to keep down the wild and rebellious people. The
+Protestant Church is at the east. These are two watch towers. One was
+built for warriors who fought with sword and spear, and the other for
+the simple warfare of the gospel. You may depend upon it, we shall have
+a welcome here. It is nearly sunset, and the people are coming in from
+their fields and pastures and vineyards. Da&ucirc;d and Nicola, and Michaiel,
+Soleyman, Ibrahim, and Yusef, Miriam, Raheel and Nejmy and crowds of
+others with a throng of little ragged boys and girls, come running to
+greet us. "Praise God we have seen you in peace!" "Ehelan wa Sehelan,"
+"Welcome and Welcome!" "Be preferred!" "Honor us with your presence!"
+"How is your state?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> "Inshullah you are all well!" "How are those you
+left behind?" "How are the preserved of God?" "I hope you are not
+wearied with the long ride, this hot day?" "From whence have you come,
+in peace?" "What happy day is this to Safita!" and we answer as fast as
+we can, and dismount and pitch the tent in front of the church door, in
+the little plot of ground next to the houses of some of the brethren.
+The church is built of cream colored limestone, the same color as the
+great Burj, and contrasts strongly with the houses of the people. Did
+you ever see such houses? They are hardly high enough to stand up in,
+and are built of roundish boulders of black trap-rock, without lime, and
+look as if the least jar would tumble them all down. Each house has but
+one room, and here the cattle, goats and donkeys all sleep in the same
+room. The people are poorer than any fellaheen (peasants) you ever saw.
+There is not a chair or table in the village, unless the Beshoor family
+have them. They are the only wealthy people here, and in years past they
+have oppressed the Protestants in the most cruel manner. Beshoor had a
+lawsuit with the people about the land of the village. It belonged to
+them, and he wanted it. So he brought Government horsemen and drove them
+off their lands and took the crops himself. They thought they would try
+a new way to get justice. The Government officials were all bribed, so
+there was no hope there. So they decided to turn Protestants and get aid
+in that way. They did not know what the Protestant <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span>religion was, but
+had some idea that it would help them. Down they went to Tripoli to the
+missionaries with a list of three hundred persons who wanted to become
+Angliz or Protestants. The people sometimes call us Angliz, or English,
+others call us "Boostrant" or "Brostant," but the common name is
+"Injiliyeen" or people of the Enjeel, or Evangel, that is, the
+Evangelicals.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Post and your Uncle Samuel came up to Safita to look into the
+matter. They found the people grossly ignorant and living like cattle,
+calling themselves Protestants and knowing nothing of the gospel. So
+they sent a teacher and began to teach them. When the people found that
+the missionaries did not come to distribute money, some of them went
+back to the Greeks. But others said no; this new religion is more than
+we expected. The more we hear, the more we like it. We shall live and
+die Protestants. Then Beit Beshoor became alarmed. They said, if this
+people get a school, have a teacher, and read the Bible, we cannot
+oppress them. They must be kept down in ignorance. So they began in
+earnest. The Protestants were arrested and dragged off to Duraikish to
+prison. Women and children were beaten. Brutal horsemen were quartered
+on their houses. That means, that a rough fellow, armed with pistols and
+a sword came to the house of Ab&ucirc; Asaad, and stayed two weeks. He made
+them cook chickens, and bring eggs and bread and everything he wanted
+every day, and bring barley for his horse. The poor man had no barley
+and had to buy, and the Greeks would make <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span>him pay double price for it.
+When he could get no more he was beaten and his wife insulted, and so it
+was in almost every Protestant house. They began to love the Gospel, and
+the men who knew how to read, would meet to read and pray together. One
+evening, all the Protestants met together in one of the houses. Their
+sufferings were very great. Their winter stores had been plundered,
+their olives gathered by Beit Beshoor, and they talked and prayed over
+their trouble. It was a dark, cold, rainy night, and the wind blew a
+gale. While they were talking together, a man came rushing in crying,
+run for your lives! the horsemen are here! Before they could get out, a
+squad of wild looking wretches were at the door. The men fled, carrying
+the larger children and the women carrying the babies, and off they went
+into the wilderness in the storm and darkness. Some women were seized
+and tied by ropes around their waists, to the horsemen, and marched off
+for miles to prison. The men who were caught were put in chains. Some
+time later they got back home again. But they would not give up the
+Gospel. Beshoor sent men who told them they could have peace if they
+would only go back to the Greek Church. But he offered peace quite too
+late. They had now learned to love the Gospel, and it was worth more to
+them than all the world beside. One night they were assembled in a
+little low black house, when some men came to the door and threw in
+burning bundles of straw and then shut the door, so that they were
+almost stifled with the smoke. They <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span>sent a messenger to Beir&ucirc;t. The
+case was laid before the Pasha, and he telegraphed to have the
+Protestants let alone. But Beshoor cared for nothing. A Nusairy was
+hired to shoot Ab&ucirc; Asaad, the leading Protestant. His house was visited
+in the daytime, and the man saw where Ab&ucirc; Asaad's bed was placed. In the
+night he came stealthily upon the roof, dug a hole through, and fired
+three bullets at the spot. But see how God protects his people! That
+evening Ab&ucirc; Asaad said to his wife; the floor is getting damp in the
+corner, let us remove the bed and mat to the other side. They did so,
+and when the man fired, the bullets went into the ground just where Ab&ucirc;
+Asaad had slept the night before! He ran out and saw the assassins and
+recognized one of them as the servant of Beshoor's son. The next day he
+complained to the Government and they refused to hear him because he did
+not bring witnesses!</p>
+
+<p>But the poor people would not give up. Every day they went to their
+fields, carrying their Testaments in their girdles and at noontime would
+read and find comfort. Their children were half naked and half starved.
+When word reached Beir&ucirc;t, the native Protestant women met together and
+collected several hundred piastres (a piastre is four cents) for the
+women and girls of Safita. They made up a bale of clothing, and sent
+with it a very touching and kind letter, telling their poor persecuted
+sisters to bear their trials in patience, and put all their trust in the
+Lord Jesus. That aid, together with the con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span>tributions made by the
+missionaries and others in Beir&ucirc;t, gave them some relief, and the kind
+words of sympathy strengthened their hearts. The school was kept up amid
+all these troubles. One of the boys was taught in Abeih Seminary, and
+two of the girls were sent to the Beir&ucirc;t Female Seminary.</p>
+
+<p>You would have been amused to see those girls when they first reached
+Beir&ucirc;t. They walked barefoot from Safita down to Tripoli, about forty
+miles, and then Uncle S. took them on to Beir&ucirc;t. He bought shoes for
+them, and hired two little donkeys for them to ride, but they preferred
+to walk a part of the way, and would carry their shoes in their hands
+and run along the sandy beach in the surf, far ahead of the animals. I
+rode out to meet them, and they were a sorry sight to see. Uncle S. rode
+a forlorn-looking horse, and two ragged men from Safita walked by his
+side, followed by two ragged fat-faced girls riding on little donkeys.
+The girls were almost bewildered at the city sights and scenes. Soon we
+met a carriage, and they were so frightened that they turned pale, and
+their donkeys were almost paralyzed with fear. One of the little girls,
+when asked if she knew what that was, said it was a mill walking.</p>
+
+<p>The first few days in school they were so homesick for Safita that they
+ran away several times. They could not bear to be washed and combed and
+sent to the Turkish bath, but wanted to come back here among the goats
+and calves and donkeys. One night they went to their room and cried
+aloud. Rufka, the teacher, asked them what they wanted?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span> They said,
+pointing to the white beds, "We don't like these white things to sleep
+on. We don't want to stay here. There are no calves and donkeys, and the
+room is so light and cold!" The people here in Safita think that the
+cattle help to keep the room warm. In the daytime they complained of
+being tired of sitting on the seats to study, and wished to <i>stand up
+and rest</i>. One was 11 and the other 12 years old, and that was in 1865.</p>
+
+<p>One of them, Raheel, fell sick after a time, and was much troubled about
+her sins. Her teacher Sara, who slept near her, overheard her praying
+and saying, "Oh Lord Jesus, do give me a new heart! I am a poor sinner.
+Do you suppose that because I am from Safita, you cannot give me a new
+heart? O Lord, I <i>know</i> you can. Do have mercy on me!"</p>
+
+<p>Who are those clean and well dressed persons coming out of the church?
+Our dear brother Yusef Ahtiyeh, the native preacher, and his wife Hadla,
+and Miriam, the teacher of the girls' school. Yusef is one of the most
+refined and lovely young men in Syria. What a clear eye he has, and what
+a pleasant face! He too has borne much for his Master. In 1865, when he
+left the Greek Church, he was living with his brother in Beir&ucirc;t. His
+brother turned him out of the house at night, with neither bed nor
+clothing. He came to my house and staid with me some time. He said it
+was hard to be driven out by his brother and mother, but he could bear
+anything for Christ's sake. Said he, "I can bear cursing and beating and
+the loss of property. But <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span>my mother is weeping and wailing over me. She
+thinks I am a heretic and am lost forever. Oh, it is hard to bear, the
+'persecution of tears!'" But the Lord gave him grace to bear it, and he
+is now the happy spiritual guide of this large Protestant community, and
+the Nusairy Sheikhs look up to him with respect, while that persecuting
+brother of his is poverty-stricken and sick, and can hardly get bread
+for his children.</p>
+
+<p>Miriam, the teacher, is a heroine. Her parents were Greeks, but sent her
+to school to learn to read. She learned in a short time to read the New
+Testament, and to love it, and to keep the Sabbath day holy. The keeping
+of the Sabbath was something new in Safita. The Nusair&icirc;yeh have no holy
+day at all, and the Greeks have so many that they keep none of them.
+They work and buy and sell and travel on the Sabbath as on other days,
+and think far more of certain saint's days than of the Sabbath. When
+Miriam was only seven years old, her father said to her one Sabbath
+morning, "go with me to the hursh (forest) to get a donkey load of
+wood." She replied, "my father, I cannot go, it is not right, for it is
+God's day." The father went without her, and while cutting wood, his
+donkey strayed away, and he had to search through the mountains for
+hours, so that he did not reach home until twelve o'clock at night, and
+then without any wood. He said he should not go for wood on Sunday any
+more.</p>
+
+<p>But a few Sundays after, it was the olive season, and Miriam's mother
+told her to go out with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span>women and girls to gather olives. They had
+been at work during the week, and the mother thought Miriam ought to go
+on Sunday with the rest. But Miriam said, "don't you remember father's
+losing the donkey, and what he said about it? I cannot go." "Then," said
+her mother, "if you will not work, you shall not eat." "Very well, ya
+imme, I will not eat. If I keep the Lord's day, He will keep me." Away
+went the mother to the olive orchard, and Miriam went to the preaching
+and the Sunday School. At evening, when the family all came home, Miriam
+read in her New Testament and went to bed without her supper. The next
+morning she said, "Mother, now I am ready to gather olives. Didn't I
+tell you the Lord would keep me?"</p>
+
+<p>After this Miriam's father became a Protestant, and allowed the
+missionaries to send her to the Seminary in Sidon, where she was the
+best girl in the school. When she went home in the vacation in 1869, new
+persecutions were stirred up against the Protestants. The Greek Bishop,
+with a crowd of priests and a body of armed horsemen, came to the
+village, to compel all the Protestants to turn back to the old religion.
+The armed men went to the Protestant houses and seized men and women and
+dragged them to the great Burj, in which is the Greek church. Miriam's
+father and mother were greatly terrified and went back with them to the
+Greeks. They then called for Miriam. "Never," said she to the Bishop, "I
+will never worship pictures and pray to saints again. You may cut me in
+pieces, but I will not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span>stir one step with them." The old Bishop turned
+back, and left her to herself. Near by was a man named Ab&ucirc; Isbir, who
+was so frightened that he said, "yes, I will go back, don't strike me!"
+But his wife, Im Isbir, was not willing to give up. She rebuked her
+husband and took hold of his arm, and actually dragged him back to his
+house, to save him the shame of having denied the Gospel. He stood firm,
+and afterwards united with the Church.</p>
+
+<p>Here comes Im Isbir. Poor woman, she is a widow now. Her husband died
+and left her with these little children, and last night her valuable cow
+died, and she is in great distress. Yusef, the preacher, says she is the
+most needy person in Safita. You would think so from the ragged
+appearance of the children. They are like the children in Eastern
+Turkey, whom Mr. Williams of Mardin used to describe, whose garments
+were so ragged and tattered that there was hardly cloth enough to <i>make
+borders for the holes</i>! They dig up roots in the fields for food, and
+now and then the neighbors give them a little of their coarse corn
+bread. The Greeks tell her to turn back to them and they will help her,
+but she says, "when one has found the light, can she turn back into the
+darkness again?" Yusef wishes us to walk in and sit down, as the people
+are anxious to see us. He lives in the church from necessity. He cannot
+get a house in the village, excepting these dark cavern-like rooms with
+damp floors, and so the missionaries told him to occupy one half of the
+church room. A curtain divides it into two rooms <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span>and on Sunday the
+curtain is drawn, his things are piled up on one side, and the women and
+girls sit in that part, while the men and boys sit on the other side.
+All sit on mats on the floor. Is that cradle hanging from the ring in
+the arch between the two rooms, kept there on Sunday? Yes, and when I
+preached here last June, Yusef's baby was swinging there during the
+whole service. One of the women kept it swinging gently, by pulling a
+cord, which hung down from it. It did not disturb the meeting at all. No
+one noticed it. They have calves and cows, donkeys and goats in their
+own houses at night, and sleep sweetly enough, so that the swinging of a
+hanging cradle in the inside of the church is not thought to be at all
+improper.</p>
+
+<p>Do you see that shelf on the wall? It reminds me of a little girl named
+Miriam who once came to your Aunt Annie in Deir Mimas to ask about the
+Sidon school, whither she was going in a few weeks. She told Miriam that
+she would have to be thoroughly washed and combed every day, and would
+sleep on a <i>bedstead</i>. Then Miriam asked permission to see a bedstead,
+as she did not know what it could be. The next night, about midnight,
+Miriam's mother heard something drop heavily on the floor, and then a
+child crying. She went across the room, and there was Miriam sitting on
+the mat. "What is the matter, Miriam?" she asked. Miriam said, "mother,
+the Sit told me I was to sleep on a bedstead in Sidon school, and I
+thought I would prac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span>tice beforehand, so I tried to sleep on the shelf,
+and tumbled off in my sleep!"</p>
+
+<p>Ab&ucirc; Asaad says the Nusairy Sheikh who was arrested some months ago has
+been poisoned. Poisoning used to be very common in Syria. If we should
+call at the house of a Nusairy, and he brought coffee for us to drink,
+he would take a sip himself out of the cup before giving it to us, to
+show that it was not poisoned. Once Uncle S. and Aunt A. were invited
+out to dine in Hums at the house of the deacon of the church. His mother
+is an ignorant woman, and had often threatened to kill him. When they
+had eaten, they suddenly were taken ill, and suffered much from the
+effects of it. It was found that the mother had put poison into the
+food, intending to kill her son, the missionaries, and the other invited
+guests, but through the mercy of God none of them were seriously
+injured.</p>
+
+<p>Michaiel says that they have only half a crop of corn this year, as the
+<i>locusts</i> devoured the other half in the spring. You remember I sent you
+some locusts' wings once, in a letter. When they appear in the land, the
+Pashas and Mudirs and Kaimakams give orders to the people to go out and
+gather the eggs of the locusts as soon as they begin to settle down to
+bury themselves in the earth. The body of the female locust is like the
+spawn of a fish, filled with one mass of eggs. Each man is obliged to
+bring so many ounces of these eggs to the Pasha and have them weighed
+and then burned. A tailor of Beir&ucirc;t brought a bag of them, and as it was
+late, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span>put them in his shop for the night and went home. He was unwell
+for a few days and when he went to his shop again, opened the door, and
+thousands of little black hopping creatures, like imps, came like a
+cloud into his face. They had hatched out in his absence.</p>
+
+<p>This is a fearful land for lying; in these mountains around us, you
+cannot depend on a word you hear. The people say that in the beginning
+of the world, Satan came down to the earth with seven bags of lies,
+which he intended to distribute in the seven kingdoms of the earth. The
+first night after he reached the earth he slept in Syria, and opened one
+of the bags, letting the lies loose in the land. But while he was
+asleep, some one came and opened all the other bags! so that Syria got
+more than her share!</p>
+
+<p>An old man in Beir&ucirc;t once said, "Sir, you must be careful what you
+believe, and whom you trust in this country. If there are twenty-four
+inches of hypocrisy in the world, twenty-three are in Syria." This man
+was a native of great experience. I think he was rather severe on his
+countrymen. Yet the people have had a hard training. The Nusair&icirc;yeh all
+lie. They do not even pretend to tell the truth. The Druze religion
+teaches the people that it is right to lie to all except Druzes. The
+Moslems are better than either of these two classes, but they lie
+without a blush, and you must be very careful how you believe them.</p>
+
+<p>Among the Maronite and Greek sects, their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span>priests tell the people that
+they can forgive sins. When a man lies or steals or does anything else
+that is wicked, he pays a few piastres to the priest, who gives him what
+they call absolution or forgiveness. So the people can do what they
+please without fear, as the priest is ready to forgive them for money.
+These sects call themselves Christian, but there is very little of
+Christianity among them. A Greek in Tripoli once told me that there was
+not a man in the Greek church in Tripoli who would not lie, excepting
+<i>one</i> of the priests.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Safita, we will go back on a different road, crossing directly
+to the sea-shore, and then along the coast to Tripoli. Here is a little
+abject village, and the people look as abject as the village. Their
+neighbors laugh at them for their stupidity, and tell the following
+story: They have no wells in the village, and the little fountain is not
+sufficient for their cattle, so they water them from the Ramet or pool,
+which is filled by the rains and lasts nearly all summer. One year the
+water in the Ramet began to fail, and there was a quarrel between the
+two quarters of the village, as to which part should have the first
+right to the water. Finally they decided to divide the pool into two
+parts, by making a fence of poles across the middle of it. This worked
+very well. One part watered their cattle on one side and the other part
+on the other side. But one night there was a great riot in the village.
+Some of the men from the north side saw a south-sider dipping up water
+from the north side and pouring it over the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span>fence into the other part
+of the pool. Of course this made no difference, as the fence was nothing
+but open lattice work, but the people were too stupid to see that, so
+they fought and bruised one another for a long time.</p>
+
+<p>In another village, <i>Aaleih</i>, near Beir&ucirc;t, the people were formerly so
+stupid that the Arabs say that once when the clouds came up the
+mountains and settled like a bank of fog under the cliff on which their
+village is built, they thought it was the sea, and went to fish in the
+clouds!</p>
+
+<p>So you see the Syrians are as fond of humorous stories as other people.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h4><a name="PART_IV" id="PART_IV"></a>PART IV.</h4>
+
+<p>But here we are coming upon a gypsy camp. The Arabs call them Nowar, and
+you will find that the Arab women of the villages are careful to keep an
+eye on their little children when the gypsies are around. They often
+steal children in the towns and cities, when they can find them straying
+away from home at dusk, and then sell them as servants in Moslem
+families. Last year we were all greatly interested in a story of this
+kind, which I know you will be glad to hear.</p>
+
+<p>After the terrible massacre in Damascus in 1860, thousands of the Greek
+and Greek Catholic families migrated to Beir&ucirc;t, and among them was a man
+named Khalil Ferah, who escaped the fire and sword with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span>his wife and
+his little daughter Zahidy. I remember well how we were startled one
+evening in 1862, by hearing a crier going through the streets, "child
+lost! girl lost!" The next day he came around again, "child lost!" There
+was great excitement about it. The poor father and mother went almost
+frantic. Little Zahidy, who was then about six years old, was coming
+home from school with other girls in the afternoon, and they said a man
+came along with a sack on his back, and told Zahidy that her mother had
+sent him to buy her some sugar plums and then take her home, and she
+went away with him. It is supposed that he decoyed her away to some
+by-road and then put her into the great sack, and carried her off to the
+Arabs or the gypsies.</p>
+
+<p>The poor father left no means untried to find her. He wrote to Damascus,
+Alexandria, and Aleppo, describing the child and begged his friends
+everywhere to watch for her, and send him word if they found her. There
+was one mark on the child, which, he said, would be certain to
+distinguish her. When she was a baby, and nursing at her mother's
+breast, her mother upset a little cup of scalding hot coffee upon the
+child's breast, which burned it to a blister, leaving a scar which could
+not be removed. This sign the father described, and his friends aided
+him in trying to find the little girl. They went to the encampments of
+the gypsies and looked at all the children, but all in vain. The father
+journeyed by land and by sea. Hearing of a little girl in Aleppo who
+could not give an account of herself, he went <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span>there, but it was not his
+child. Then he went to Damascus and Alexandria, and at length hearing
+that a French Countess in Marseilles had a little Syrian orphan girl
+whose parents were not known, he sent to Marseilles and examined the
+girl, but she was <i>not his child</i>. Months and years passed on, but the
+father never ceased to speak and think of that little lost girl. The
+mother too was almost distracted.</p>
+
+<p>At length light came. Nine years had passed away, and the Beir&ucirc;t people
+had almost forgotten the story of the lost Damascene girl. Your uncle S.
+and your Aunt A. were sitting in their house one day, in Tripoli, when
+Tannoos, the boy, brought word that a man and woman from Beir&ucirc;t wished
+to see them. They came in and introduced themselves. They were Khalil,
+the father of the little lost girl, and his sister, who had heard that
+Zahidy was in Tripoli, and had come to search for her. The mother was
+not able to leave home.</p>
+
+<p>It seems that a native physician in Tripoli, named Sheikh Aiub el
+Hashim, was an old friend of the father and had known the family and all
+the circumstances of the little girl's disappearance, and for years he
+had been looking for her. At length he was called one day to attend a
+sick servant girl in the family of a Moslem named Syed Abdullah. The
+poor girl was ill from having been beaten in a cruel manner by the
+Moslem. Her face and arms were tattooed in the Bedawin style, and she
+told him that she was a Bedawin girl, and had been living here for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span>some
+years, and her name was Khodra. While examining the bruises on her body,
+he observed a peculiar scar on her breast. He was startled. He looked
+again. It was precisely the scar that his friend had so often described
+to him. From her age, her features, her complexion and all, he felt sure
+that she was the lost child. He said nothing, but went home and wrote
+all about it to the father in Beir&ucirc;t. He hastened to Tripoli bringing
+his sister, as he being a man, could not be admitted to a Moslem hareem.
+Then the question arose, how should the sister see the girl! They came
+and talked with your uncle, and went to Yanni and the other Vice
+Consuls, and at length they found out that the women of that Moslem
+family were skillful in making silk and gold embroidery which they sold.
+So his sister determined to go and order some embroidered work, and see
+the girl. She talked with the Moslem women, and with their Bedawy
+servant girl, and made errands for the women to bring her specimens of
+their work, improving the opportunity to talk with the servant. She saw
+the scar, and satisfied herself from the striking resemblance of the
+girl to her mother, that she was the long-lost Zahidy.</p>
+
+<p>The father now took measures to secure his daughter. The American,
+Prussian, English and French Vice Consuls sent a united demand to the
+Turkish Pasha, that the girl be brought to court to meet her father, and
+that the case be tried in the Mejlis, or City Council. The Moslems were
+now greatly excited. They knew that there were not less <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span>than twenty
+girls in their families who had been stolen in this way, and if one
+could be reclaimed, perhaps the rest might, so they resolved to resist.
+They brought Bedawin Arabs to be present at the trial, and hired them to
+swear falsely. When the girl was brought in, the father was quite
+overcome. He could see the features of his dear child, but she was so
+disfigured with the Bedawin tattooing and the brutal treatment of the
+Moslems, that his heart sank within him. Yet he examined her, and took
+his oath that this was his daughter, and demanded that she be given up
+to him. The Bedawin men and women were now brought in. One swore that he
+was the father of the girl, and a woman swore that she was her mother.
+Then several swore that they were her uncles, but it was proved that
+they were in no way related to the one who said he was her father. Other
+witnesses were called, but they contradicted one another. Then they
+asked the girl. Poor thing, she had been so long neglected and abused,
+that she <i>had forgotten her father</i>, and the Moslem women had threatened
+to kill her if she said she was his daughter, so she declared she was
+born among the Bedawin, and was a Moslem in religion. Money had been
+given to certain of the Mejlis, and they finally decided that the girl
+should go to the Moslem house of Derwish Effendi to await the final
+decision.</p>
+
+<p>The poor father now went to the Consuls. They made out a statement of
+the case and sent it to the Consuls General in Beir&ucirc;t, who sent a joint
+dispatch <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span>to the Waly of all Syria, who lives in Damascus, demanding
+that as the case could not be fairly tried in Tripoli, the girl be
+brought to Beir&ucirc;t to be examined by a Special Commission. The Waly
+telegraphed at once to Tripoli, to have the girl sent on by the first
+steamer to Beir&ucirc;t. The Moslem women now told the girl that orders had
+come to have her killed, and that she was to be taken on a steamer as if
+to go to Beir&ucirc;t, but that really they were going to throw her into the
+sea, and that if she reached Beir&ucirc;t alive they would cut her up and burn
+her! So the poor child went on the steamer in perfect terror, and she
+reached Beir&ucirc;t in a state of exhaustion. When she was rested, a
+Commission was formed consisting of the Moslem Kadi of Beir&ucirc;t who was
+acting Governor, the political Agent, Delenda Effendi, the Greek
+Catholic Bishop Agabius, the Maronite Priest Yusef, and the agent of the
+Greek Bishop, together with all the members of the Executive Council.</p>
+
+<p>Her father, mother and aunt were now brought in and sat near her. She
+refused to recognize them, and was in constant fear of being injured.
+The Kadi then turned to her and said, "do not fear, my child. You are
+among friends. Do not be afraid of people who have threatened you. No
+one shall harm you." The Moslem Kadi, the Greek Catholic priests, and
+others having thus spoken kindly to her, the father and mother stated
+the history of how the little girl was lost nine years ago, and that she
+had a scar on her breast. The scar was examined, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span>all began to feel
+that she was really their own daughter. The girl began to feel more
+calm, and the Kadi told her that her own mother wanted to ask her a few
+questions.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother now went up to her and said, "My child, don't you remember
+me?" She said "no I do not." "Don't you remember that <i>your name was
+once Zahidy</i>, and I used to call you, and you lived in a house with a
+little yard, and flowers before the door, and that you went with the
+little girls to school, and came home at night, and that one day a man
+came and offered you sugar plums and led you away and carried you off to
+the Arabs? Don't you know <i>me</i>, my <i>own daughter</i>?" The poor girl
+trembled; her lips quivered, and she said, "Yes, I <i>did</i> have another
+name. I <i>was</i> Zahidy. I did go with little girls. Oh, ya imme! My
+mother! you <i>are</i> my mother," and she sprang into her arms and wept, and
+the mother wept and laughed, and the Moslem Kadi and the Mufti, and the
+priests and the Bishops and the Effendis and the great crowd of
+spectators wiped their eyes, and bowed their heads, and there was a
+great silence.</p>
+
+<p>After a little the Kadi said, "it is enough. This girl <i>is</i> the daughter
+of Kahlil Ferah. Sir, take your child, and Allah be with you!"</p>
+
+<p>The father wiped away the tears and said, "Your Excellency, you see this
+poor girl all tattooed and disfigured. You see how ignorant and feeble
+she is. If she were not my child, there is nothing about her to make me
+wish to take her. But she is my own <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span>darling child, and with all her
+faults and infirmities, I love her." The whole Council then arose and
+congratulated the father and mother, and a great crowd accompanied them
+home. Throngs of people came to see her and congratulate the family, and
+after a little the girl was sent to a boarding school.</p>
+
+<p>I can hardly think over this story even now without tears, for I think
+how glad I should have been to get back again a child of mine if it had
+been lost. And I have another thought too about that little lost girl.
+If that father loved his daughter so as to search and seek for her, and
+expend money, and travel by land and sea for years, in trying to find
+her, and when at length he found her, so forlorn and wretched and
+degraded, yet loved her still because she was <i>his daughter</i>, do you not
+think that Jesus loves us even more? We were lost and wretched and
+forlorn. A worse being than Bedawin gypsies has put his mark on our
+hearts and our natures. We have wandered far, far away. We have served
+the world, and forgotten our dear Heavenly Father. We have even refused
+to receive Him when he has come near us. Yet Jesus came to seek and to
+save us. And when he found us so degraded and sinful and disfigured, He
+loved us still, because we are His own children. Don't you think that
+the little lost Damascene girl was thankful when she reached her home,
+and was loved and kindly treated by father and mother and relatives and
+friends? And ought we not to be very thankful when Jesus brings <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span>us
+home, and calls us "dear children" and opens the gate of heaven to us?</p>
+
+<p>This story of the lost Damascene child calls to my mind a little song
+which the Maronite women in Lebanon sing to their babies as a lullaby.
+The story is that a Prince's daughter was stolen by the Bedawin Arabs,
+and carried to their camp. She grew up and was married to a Bedawin
+Sheikh and had a little son. One day a party of muleteers came to the
+camp selling grapes, and she recognized them as from her own village.
+She did not dare speak to them, so she began to sing a lullaby to her
+baby, and motioned to the grape-sellers to come near, and when the
+Bedawin were not listening, she would sing them her story in the same
+tone as the lullaby.</p>
+
+
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%;">
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">THE LULLABY.</h4>
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mild,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!</span><br />
+<span style="float: left;"><i>Aside to the</i></span><span style="margin-left: 5.75em;">Once I was a happy girl,</span><br />
+<span style="float: left;"><i>grape-sellers</i></span><span style="margin-left: 5.4em;">The Prince Abdullah's daughter.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Playing with the village maids,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Bringing wood and water.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Suddenly the Bedawin</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Carried me away;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Clothed me in the Aba robe</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">And here they make me stay.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mild,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!</span><br />
+<span style="float: left;"><i>Aside</i></span><span style="margin-left: 8.1em;">Ye sellers of grapes hear what I say.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">I had dressed in satin rich and gay.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">They took my costly robes away,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">And dressed me in Aba coarse and grey.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">I had lived on viands costly and rare,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">And now raw camel's flesh is my fare.</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mild,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!</span><br />
+<span style="float: left;"><i>Aside</i></span><span style="margin-left: 8.3em;">Oh seller of grapes, I beg you hear,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Go tell my mother and father dear,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">That you have seen me here to-day.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Just by the Church my parents live,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">The Bedawin stole me on Thursday eve.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Let the people come and their sister save,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Let them come with warriors bold and brave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Lest I die of grief and go to my grave.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The grape-sellers then go home, and the warriors come and rescue her,
+and take her home.</p>
+
+<p>We will stop here a moment and make a pencil sketch of this Arab camp,
+but we must be very careful not to let them see us writing. They have a
+great fear of the art of writing, a superstitious idea that a person who
+writes or sketches in their camp, is writing some charm or incantation
+to bring mischief upon them. I once heard of a missionary who went to an
+Arab village to spend the night. The people were all Maronites, and
+grossly ignorant. He pitched his tent and sat down to rest. Presently a
+crowd of rough young men came in and began to insult him. They demanded
+bakhshish, and handled his bedding and cooking utensils in a very brutal
+manner, and asked him if he had any weapons. He bethought himself of one
+weapon and began to use it. He took out a pencil and paper, and began to
+make a sketch of the ringleader. He looked him steadily in the eye, and
+then wrote rapidly with his pencil. The man began to tremble and slowly
+retreated and finally shouted to his companions, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span>off they all went.
+Shortly after, they sent a man to beg Mr. L. not to cut off their heads!
+Their priests teach them that the Protestants have the power of working
+magic, and that they draw a man's portrait and take it with them, and if
+the man does anything to displease them, they cut off the head of the
+picture and the man's head drops off! Mr. L. sent them word that they
+had better be very careful how they behaved. They did not molest him
+again.</p>
+
+<p>Here we are near Tripoli, at the Convent of the <i>Sacred Fish</i>. What a
+beautiful spot! This large high building with its snow-white dome, and
+the great sycamore tree standing by this circular pool of crystal water,
+make a beautiful scene. What a crowd of Moslem boys! They have come all
+the way from Tripoli, about two miles, to feed the Sacred Fish. They are
+a gay looking company, with their red, green, blue, yellow, white and
+purple clothes, and their bright red caps and shoes, and some of them
+with white turbans. They come out on feast days and holidays to play on
+this green lawn and feed the fish. The old sheikh who keeps this holy
+place, has great faith in these fish. He says they are all good Moslems,
+and are inhabited by the souls of Moslem saints, and there is one black
+fish, the Sheikh of the saints, who does not often show himself to
+spectators. There are hundreds if not thousands of fish, resembling the
+dace or chubs of America. He says that during the Crimean war, many of
+the older ones went off under the sea to Sevastopol and fought the
+Russian infidels, and some of them came back wounded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span> The people think
+that if any one eats these fish he will die immediately. That I <i>know</i>
+to be false, for I have tried it. When the American Consul was here in
+1856, his Moslem Kawasses caught several of the fish, and brought them
+to Mr. Lyons' house. We had them cooked and ate them, but found them
+coarse and unpalatable. That was sixteen years ago and we have not felt
+the evil effects yet.</p>
+
+<p>This poor woman has a sick child, and has come to get the Sheikh to read
+the Koran over it and cure it. The most of the Syrian doctors are
+ignorant quacks, and the people have so many superstitions that they
+prefer going to saints' tombs rather than call a good physician. There
+is a Medical College in Beir&ucirc;t now, and before long Syria will have some
+skilful doctors. I knew an old Egyptian doctor in Duma named Haj
+Ibrahim, who was a conceited fellow. He used to bleed for every kind of
+disease. An old man eighty years of age was dying of consumption, and
+the Haj opened a vein and let him bleed to death. When the man died, he
+said if he had only taken a little more blood, the old man would have
+recovered. I was surprised by his coming to me one day and asking for
+some American newspapers. I supposed he wished them to wrap medicines in
+and gave him several New York Tribunes. A few days after he invited us
+to eat figs and grapes in his vineyard and we stopped at his house. He
+said he was very thankful for the papers. They had been very useful. I
+wondered what he meant, and asked him. He showed me a jar in the corner
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span>in which he had dissolved the papers into a pulp in oil and water, and
+had given the pulp as medicine to the people! He said it was a powerful
+medicine. He supposed that the English printed letters would have some
+magic influence on diseases.</p>
+
+<p>One of the Moslem lads carries a short iron spear as a sign that he is
+going to be a derwish. Dr. De Forest once found himself surrounded in a
+Moslem village by a troop of little Moslems, each of them with an
+iron-headed spear in his hand. A Moorish Sheikh, or Chief, had been for
+some two years teaching the Moslems of the place the customs of their
+holy devotees, and in consequence all the boys had become derwishes, or
+Moslem monks. He was a shrewd old Sheikh. He knew that the true way to
+perpetuate his religion was to <i>teach the children</i>. He had taught them
+the Moslem prayers and prostrations, and to keep certain moral precepts.
+How glad we should be if these boys would come and sit down by us while
+we talk to them of Jesus! There they come. See how their eyes sparkle,
+as I speak to them. They have never heard about the gospel before. But I
+must speak in a low tone, as the old Sheikh is coming and he looks down
+upon us as infidel dogs! Perhaps some of them will think of these words
+some day, and put their trust in our Divine Saviour.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the people seem to think that the missionary's house is like the
+Cave of Adullam, where David lived, (1 Sam. xxii:2) when "every one that
+was in distress, and every one that was in debt <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span>and every one that was
+discontented, gathered themselves unto him." It makes it very hard to
+deal with the people, to have so many of them come to us with improper
+motives. They come and say they love the gospel and want instruction,
+and have endured persecution, when suddenly you find that they want
+money, or to be protected from punishment, or to get office, or to get
+married to some improper person, or something else that is wrong.</p>
+
+<p>Once a sheikh from Dunn&icirc;yeh in Lebanon came to Tripoli, and declared
+himself a Protestant. He was very zealous, and wanted us to feel that he
+was too good a man to be turned away, as he was wealthy and of a high
+family. He was armed with a small arsenal of weapons. He had a servant
+to carry his gun and pipe, and came day after day to read books, and
+talk on religion. He said that all he needed was the protection of the
+American Consul, and then he would make his whole village Protestants.
+We told him we could have nothing to do with politics. If he wanted to
+become a Christian, he must take up his cross and follow Christ. He said
+that was just what he wanted to do, only he wished to benefit the cause
+by bringing others to follow Him. He seemed very earnest, but there was
+something dark and mysterious in his ways, and we were afraid of him.
+Now the Arabs have a proverb, "No tree is cut down but by <i>one of its
+own limbs</i>," <i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> the axe handle, and we thought a native only could
+understand a native, so we took the famous convert around to see Yanni.
+He went into Yanni's office, and Mr. L. and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span>myself sat out in the
+garden under the orange trees. After a few minutes Yanni called out,
+"Come in, be preferred, your excellencies! I have found it all out. I
+understand the case." We went in and climbed up upon the platform, next
+the desk in the office. The Maronite candidate for the church sat
+smiling, as if he thought he would now be received at once. Yanni went
+on, "I understand the case exactly. This man is a son of a Sheikh in
+Dunn&icirc;yeh. He is in a deadly quarrel with his father and brothers about
+the property, and says that if we will give him the protection of the
+American Consulate, he will go home, kill his father and brothers, seize
+all the property, and then come down and join the church, and live in
+Tripoli!" We were astounded, but the brutal fellow turned to us and
+said, "yes, and I will then make all the village Protestants, and if I
+fail, then cut my head off!" We told him that if he did anything of that
+kind, we would try to get him hung, and the American Consulate would
+have nothing to do with him. "Very well," said he, "I have made you a
+<i>fair offer</i>, and if you don't accept it, I have nothing more to say."
+We rebuked him sharply, and gave him a sermon which he did not relish,
+for he said he was in haste, and bade us a most polite good morning. He
+was what I should call an Adullamite.</p>
+
+<p>A Greek priest in the village of Barbara once took me aside, to a
+retired place behind his house, and told me that he had a profound
+secret to tell me. He wished to become a Protestant and make the whole
+village Protestant, but on one condition, that I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span>would get him a hat, a
+coat, and pantaloons, put a flag-staff on his house, and have him
+appointed American Consul. I told him the matter of the hat, coat and
+pantaloons he could attend to at but slight expense, but I had no right
+to make Consuls and erect flagstaffs. Then he said he could not become
+Protestant.</p>
+
+<p>In 1866, a man named Yusef Keram rebelled against the Government of
+Lebanon and was captured and exiled. The day he was brought into Beir&ucirc;t,
+a tall rough looking mountaineer called at my house. He was armed with a
+musket and sword, besides pistols and dirks. After taking a seat, he
+said, "I wish to become Angliz and American." "What for," said I. "Only
+that I would be honored with the honorable religion." "Do you know
+anything about it?" "Of course not. How should I know?" "Don't you know
+better than to follow a religion you know nothing about?" "But I can
+learn." "How do you know but what we worship the devil?" "No matter.
+Whatever you worship, I will worship." I then asked him what he came
+for. He said he was in the rebel army, was captured, escaped and fought
+again, and now feared he should be shot, so he wanted to become Angliz
+and American. I told him he need have no fear, as the Pasha had granted
+pardon to all. "Is that so?" "Yes, it is." On hearing this he said he
+had business to look after, and bade me good evening.</p>
+
+<p>But you will be tired of hearing about the Adullamites. If those who
+came to David were like the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span>discontented and debtors who come to us, he
+must have been tired too. So many suspicious characters come to us, that
+we frequently ask men, when they come professing great zeal for the
+gospel, whether they have killed anybody, or stolen, or quarrelled with
+any one? And it is not always easy to find out the truth. If fifty men
+turn Protestants in a village, perhaps five or ten will stand firm, and
+the rest go back, and frequently all go back.</p>
+
+<p>But the rain is coming down and we will hasten to the Meena to Uncle
+S.'s house, where we can rest after this wearisome and hasty journey
+from Safita. For your sake I am glad that we took comfortable bedding
+and bedsteads with us. It costs a few piastres more to hire a baggage
+animal, but it is cheaper in the end. At one time I was going on a hard
+journey, and I thought I would be economical, so I took only my horse
+and a few articles in my khurj or saddle bags, with a little boy to show
+me the road and take care of my horse. When I reached the village, I
+stopped at the house of a man said to be a Protestant. He lived in the
+most abject style, and I soon found by his bad language towards his
+family and his neighbors that he needed all the preaching I could give
+him that evening. There was only one room in the house, and that was
+small. By nine o'clock the mother and the children had lain down on a
+mat to sleep, and the neighbors who came in were beginning to doze. I
+was very weary with a long ride on a hot August day, and asked mine host
+where I should lie down to sleep. He led me to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span>little elevated
+platform on the back side of the room, where a bed was spread for me.
+The dim oil lamp showed me that the bed and covering were neither of
+them clean, but I was too weary to spend much time in examining them,
+and after spreading my linen handkerchief over the pillow, I tried to
+sleep. But this could not be done. Creeping things, great and small,
+were crawling over me from head to foot. There was a hole in the wall
+near my head, and the bright moonlight showed what was going on. Fleas,
+bugs, ants, (attracted by the bread in my khurj,) and more horrible
+still, swarms of lice covered the bed, and my clothing. I could stand it
+no longer. Gathering up my things, and walking carefully across the
+floor to keep from stepping on the sleeping family, I reached the door.
+But it was fastened with an Arab lock and a huge wooden key, and could
+only be opened by a violent shaking and rattling. This, with the
+creaking of the hinges, woke up my host, who sprung up to see what was
+the matter. I told him I had decided to journey on by moonlight. It was
+then one o'clock in the morning, and on I rode, so weary, that when I
+reached Jebaa at ten o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I did not
+recover from the onset of the vermin for weeks.</p>
+
+<p>I have known missionaries to travel without beds, tents or bedsteads,
+and to spend weary days and sleepless nights, so as to be quite unfitted
+for their great work of preaching to the people. If you ever grow up to
+become a missionary, I hope you will live as simply as you can, but be
+careful of your health <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span>and try to live as long as you can, for the sake
+of the people you are working for, and the Lord who sends you forth. It
+is not good economy for a missionary to become a martyr to studying
+Arabic, or to poor food, or to exhausting modes of travelling. One can
+kill himself in a short time, if he wishes, on missionary ground, but he
+could have done that at home without the great expense of coming here to
+do it, and besides, that is not what a missionary goes out for. He ought
+to live as long as he can. He should have a dry house, in a healthy
+location, good food, and proper conveniences for safe travelling.</p>
+
+<p>How pleasant it is to hear that sweet toned bell! Let us climb up to the
+roof and read the inscription on it. "From little Sabbath School
+Children in America to the Mission Church in Tripoli, Syria." It was
+sent in 1862 by the children in Fourth Avenue Church, New York, and in
+Newark, Syracuse, Owego, Montrose and other places.</p>
+
+<p>The Moslems abhor bells. They say bells draw together evil spirits. We
+are not able yet to have a bell in Hums, on account of the Moslem
+opposition. They do not use bells, but have men called Muezzins
+stationed on the little balconies around the top of the tall minarets,
+to call out five times a day to the people to come to prayer. They
+select men and boys with high clear voices, and at times their voices
+sound very sweetly in the still evening. They say, "There is no God but
+God." That is true. Then they add, "and Mohammed is the Apostle of God,"
+and that is not true. As the great historian Gibbon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span>said; these words
+contain an "eternal truth and an eternal lie."</p>
+
+<p>The Moslems are obliged to pray five times every day, wherever they may
+be. At home, in their shops, in the street, or on a journey, whenever
+the appointed time arrives, they fall on their knees, and go through
+with the whole routine of prayers and bodily prostrations. One day
+several Moslems called on us in Tripoli, at the eighth hour of the day
+(about 2 o'clock <span class="smcap">p.&nbsp;m.</span>), and after they had been sitting some
+time engaged in conversation, one of them arose and said to his
+companions, "I must pray.". They all asked, "Why? It is not the hour of
+prayer." "Because," said he, "when I went to the mosque at noon to pray,
+I had an ink-spot on my finger nail, and did not perceive it until after
+I came out, and hence my prayer was of no account. I have just now
+scraped it off, and must repeat my noon prayer." So saying, he spread
+his cloak upon the floor, and then kneeling upon it with his face
+towards Mecca, commenced his prayers, while his companions amused
+themselves by talking about his ceremonial strictness. One of them said
+to me, "He thinks he is holy, but if you could see the <i>inside</i> of him,
+you would find it black as pitch!" He kept his head turned to hear what
+was being said, and after he had finished, disputed a remark one of them
+had made while he was praying. Such people worship God with their lips,
+while their hearts are far from him.</p>
+
+<p>Moslems have a great horror of swine. They <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span>think us barbarians to eat
+ham or pork. In February, 1866, the Moslems of Beir&ucirc;t were keeping the
+Fast of Ramadan. For a whole month of each year they can eat and drink
+nothing between sunrise and sunset, and they become very cross and
+irritable. In Hums, some Moslems saw a dog eating a bone in Ramadan, and
+killed him because he would not keep the fast. They fast all day, and
+feast all night. Ramadan is really a great nocturnal feast, but it is
+hard for the working people to wait until night before beginning the
+feast. During that fast of 1866, a Maronite fellah came into Beir&ucirc;t
+driving a herd of swine to the market. Now of all sights in the world,
+the sight of swine is to an orthodox Moslem the most intolerable, and
+especially in the holy month of Ramadan. Even in ordinary times, when
+swine enter the city, the Moslems gather up their robes, turn their
+backs and shout, "hub hub," "hub hub," and if the hogs do not hasten
+along, the "hub hub," is very apt to become a hubbub. On the 28th of
+that holy month, a large herd entered Beir&ucirc;t on the Damascus road. The
+Moslems saw them, and forthwith a crowd of Moslem young men and boys
+hastened to the fray. A few days before, the Maronite Yusef Keram had
+entered the city amid the rejoicings of the Maronites. These swine, whom
+the Moslems called "Christian Khanzir," should meet a different
+reception. Their wrath overcame their prejudice. The Maronite
+swine-drivers were dispersed and the whole herd were driven on the run
+up the Assur with shouts of derision, and pelted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span>with stones and clubs.
+"You khanzir, you Maronite, you Keram, out with you!" and the air rang
+with shouts mingled with squeals and grunts. I saw the crowd coming. It
+gathered strength as it approached Bab Yakoob, where the white turbaned
+faithful rose from their shops and stables to join in the persecution of
+the stampeding porkers. "May Allah cut off their days! Curses on their
+grandfather's beard! Curses on the father of their owner! Hub hub! Allah
+deliver us from their contamination!" were the cries of the crowd as
+they rushed along. The little boys were laughing and having a good time,
+and the men were breathing out wrath and tobacco smoke. Alas, for the
+poor swine! What became of them I could not tell, but the last I saw,
+was the infuriated crowd driving them into the Khan of Muhayeddin near
+by, where one knows not what may have happened to them. I hope they did
+not steal the pork and eat it "on the sly," as the Bedawin did at Mt.
+Sinai, who threw away the hams the travellers were carrying for
+provisions, and declared that their camels should not be defiled with
+the unclean beast! The travellers were <i>very</i> indignant at such a loss,
+but thought it was too bad to injure the feelings of the devout Moslems,
+and said no more. What was their horror and wrath to hear the next night
+that the Bedawin were seen cooking and eating their hams at midnight,
+when they thought no one would see them!</p>
+
+<p>Do the Syrian people all smoke? Almost all of them. They speak of it as
+"drinking a pipe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span> drinking a cigar," and you would think that they look
+upon tobacco as being as necessary to them as water. Old and young men,
+women and even children smoke, smoke while they work or rest, while at
+home or journeying, and measure distances by their pipes. I was
+travelling, and asked a man how far it was to the next village. He said
+about two pipes of tobacco distant! I found it to be nearly an hour, or
+three miles. The Orientals spend so much time in smoking, that some one
+has said "the Moslems came into power with the Koran in one hand, and
+the sword in the other, but will go out with the Koran in one hand and
+the pipe in the other!"</p>
+
+<p>Here we are on the sandy beach. What myriads of sea shells, and what
+beautiful colors they have. And here are sponges without number, but
+they are worthless. There on the sea are the little sloops of the sponge
+fishers. They are there through the whole summer and the fishers dive
+down into the sea where the water is from 100 to 200 feet deep, and walk
+around on the bottom holding their breath, and when they can bear it no
+longer pull the cord which is tied around the waist, and then their
+companions draw them up. They do not live long, as it is very hard and
+unnatural labor. Sometimes they are killed by sharks or other sea
+monsters. One of them told me that he was once on the bottom, and just
+about to pick up a beautiful white sponge, when he saw a great monster
+with huge claws and arms and enormous eyes coming towards him, and he
+barely escaped being devoured. At another time, the men in the boat felt
+a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span>sudden jerk on the rope and pulled in, when they found only the man's
+head, arms and chest on it, the rest of his body having been devoured by
+some great fish or sea animal. The sponges grow on rocks, pebbles or
+shells, and some of them are of great value. It is difficult to get the
+best ones here, as the company who hire the divers export all the good
+ones to Europe.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h4><a name="PART_V" id="PART_V"></a>PART V.</h4>
+
+<p>Word has come that there is cholera in Odessa, so that all the Russian
+steamers going to Beir&ucirc;t will be in quarantine. It will not be pleasant
+to spend a week in the Beir&ucirc;t quarantine, so we will keep our baggage
+animals and go down by land. It is two long days of nine hours each, and
+you will be weary enough. Bidding good-bye to our dear friends here and
+wishing them God's blessing in their difficult work among such people,
+away we go! Yanni and Uncle S. and some of the teachers will accompany
+us a little way, according to the Eastern custom, and then we dismount
+and kiss them all on both cheeks, and pursue our monotonous way along
+the coast, sometimes riding over rocky capes and promontories and then
+on the sand and pebbles close to the roaring surf.</p>
+
+<p>See how many monasteries there are on the sides of Lebanon! Between
+Tripoli and Beir&ucirc;t there are about a hundred. The men who live in them
+are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span>called monks, who make a vow never to marry, and spend their lives
+eating and drinking the fruits of other men's labors. They own almost
+all the valuable land in this range of mountains for fifty miles, and
+the fellaheen live as "tenants at will" on their estates. When a man is
+lazy or unfortunate, if he is not married, his first thought is to
+become a monk. They are the most corrupt and worthless vagabonds in the
+land, and the day must come before long, when the monasteries and
+convents will be abolished and their property be given back to the
+people to whom it justly belongs.</p>
+
+<p>We are now riding along by the telegraph wires. It seems strange to see
+Morse's telegraph on this old Phenician coast, and it will seem stranger
+still when we reach Beir&ucirc;t, to receive a daily morning paper printed in
+Arabic, with telegrams from all parts of the world!</p>
+
+<p>In July, a woman came to the telegraph office in Beir&ucirc;t, asking, "Where
+is the telegraph?" The Clerk, Yusef Effendi, asked her, "Whom do you
+want, the Director, the Operator, or the Kawass?" She said, "I want
+Telegraph himself, for my husband has sent me word that he is in prison
+in Zahleh and wants me to come with haste, and I heard that Telegraph
+takes people quicker than any one else. Please tell me the fare, and
+send me as soon as possible!" The Effendi looked at her, and took her
+measure, and then said, "You are too tall to go by telegraph, so you
+will have to go on a mule." The poor ignorant woman went away greatly
+disappointed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span></p><p>Another old woman, whose son was drafted into the Turkish army, wished
+to send him a pair of new shoes, so she hung them on the telegraph wire.
+A way-worn foot traveller coming along soon after took down the new
+shoes and put them on, and hung his old ones in their place. The next
+day the old lady returned and finding the old shoes, said, "Mashallah,
+Mohammed has received his new shoes and sent back his old ones to be
+repaired."</p>
+
+<p>The telegraph has taught all the world useful lessons, and the Syrians
+have learned one lesson from it which is of great value. When they write
+letters they use long titles, and flowery salutations, so that a whole
+page will be taken up with these empty formalities, leaving only a few
+lines at the end, or in a postscript, for the important business. But
+when they send a telegram and have to pay for every word, they leave out
+the flowery salutations and send only what is necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The following is a very common way of beginning an Arabic letter:</p>
+
+<p>"To the presence of the affectionate and the most distinguished, the
+honorable and most ingenuous Khowadja, the honored, may his continuance
+be prolonged!"</p>
+
+<p>"After presenting the precious pearls of affection, the aromatic
+blossoms of love, and the increase of excessive longing, after the
+intimate presence of the light of your rising in prosperity, we would
+say that in a most blessed and propitious hour your precious letter
+honored us," etc.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span></p><p>That would cost too much to be sent by telegraph. Precious pearls and
+aromatic blossoms would become expensive luxuries at two cents a word.
+So they have to be reserved for letters, if any one has time to write
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Here we come to the famous Dog River. You will read in books about this
+river and its old inscriptions. If you have not forgotten your Latin,
+you can read a lesson in Latin which was written here nearly two
+thousand years ago. There you can see the words.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Imp. Caes. M. Aurelius</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Par. Max. Brit. Max. Germ. Maximus</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Pontifex Maximus</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Montibus Imminentibus</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">etc. etc.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This Emperor Marcus Aurelius, must have cut this road through the rocks
+about the year 173 <span class="smcap">a.&nbsp;d.</span> But there is another inscription higher up, with
+arrow-headed characters and several other tablets. They are Assyrian and
+Egyptian. One of the Assyrian tablets was cut by Sennacherib 2500 years
+ago, and one of the Egyptian by Sesostris, king of Egypt, 3100 years
+ago. Don't you feel very young and small in looking at such ancient
+monuments? All of those men brought their armies here, and found the
+path so bad along the high precipice overhanging the sea, that they cut
+a road for their horses and chariots in the solid limestone rock. Just
+think <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span>of standing where Sennacherib and Alexander the Great passed
+along with their armies!</p>
+
+<p>What a steep and narrow road! We will dismount and walk over this
+dangerous pass. It is not pleasant to meet camels and loaded mules on
+such a dizzy precipice, with the high cliff above, and the roaring waves
+of the sea far below! It is well we dismounted. Our horses are afraid of
+those camels carrying long timbers balanced on their backs. Let us turn
+aside and wait until they pass.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing these camels reminds me of what I saw here in 1857. I was coming
+down the coast from Tripoli and reached the top of this pass, in the
+narrowest part, just as a caravan of camels were coming from the
+opposite direction. I turned back a little, and stood close under the
+edge of the cliff to let the camels go by. They were loaded with huge
+canvas sacks of tibn, or cut straw, which hung down on both sides,
+making it impossible to pass them without stooping very low. Just then I
+heard a voice behind me, and looking around, saw a shepherd coming up
+the pass with his flock of sheep. He was walking ahead, and they all
+followed on. I called to him to go back, as the camels were coming over
+the pass. He said, "Ma ahlaik," or "don't trouble yourself," and on he
+came. When he met the camels, they were in the narrowest part, where a
+low stone wall runs along the edge of the precipice. He stooped down and
+stepped upon the narrow wall, calling all the time to his sheep, who
+followed close upon his heels, walking in single file. He said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span> "tahl,
+tahl," "come, come," and then made a shrill whirring call, which could
+be heard above the roaring of the waves on the rocks below. It was
+wonderful to see how closely they followed the shepherd. They did not
+seem to notice the camels on the one side, or the abyss on the other
+side. Had they left the narrow track, they would either have been
+trodden down by the heavily laden camels, or have fallen off into the
+dark waters below. But they were intent on following their shepherd.
+They heard his voice, and that was enough. The cameleers were shouting
+and screaming to their camels to keep them from slipping on these smooth
+rocks, but the sheep paid no attention to them. They knew the shepherd's
+voice. They had followed him before, through rivers and thickets, among
+rocks and sands, and he had always led them safely. The waves were
+dashing and roaring on the rocks below, but they did not fear, for the
+shepherd was going on before. Had one of those sheep turned aside, he
+would have lost his footing and been destroyed and thrown the whole
+flock into confusion.</p>
+
+<p>You know why I have told you this story. You know that Jesus is the Good
+Shepherd. He said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they
+follow me." Wherever Jesus leads it is safe for us to go. How many boys
+and girls there are who think they know a better path than the one Jesus
+calls them to follow. There are "stranger" voices calling on every side,
+and many a child leaves the path of the Good Shepherd, and turns aside
+to hear <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span>what they would say. If they were truly lambs of Jesus' fold,
+they would love Him, and follow Him in calm and storm, and never heed
+the voice of strangers.</p>
+
+<p>I was once travelling from D&ucirc;ma to Ak&ucirc;ra, high up on the range of
+Lebanon. It was a hot summer's day, and at noon I stopped to rest by a
+fountain. The waste water of the fountain ran into a square stone birkeh
+or pool, and around the pool were several shepherds resting with their
+flocks of sheep and goats. The shepherds came and talked with me, and
+sat smoking for nearly an hour, when suddenly one of them arose and
+walked away calling to his flock to follow him. The flocks were all
+mixed together, but when he called, his sheep and goats began to raise
+their heads and start along together behind him. He kept walking along
+and calling, until all his flock had gone. The rest of the sheep and
+goats remained quietly as though nothing had happened. Then another
+"Rai," or shepherd, started up in another direction, calling out in a
+shrill voice, and <i>his sheep</i> followed him. They knew their shepherd's
+voice. Our muleteers were talking all the time, but the sheep paid no
+attention to them. They knew one voice, and would follow no other.</p>
+
+<p>We will now hasten on to Beir&ucirc;t. You will wish to see the Female
+Seminary, and the Sabbath School and the Steam Printing Press, and many
+of the Beir&ucirc;t Schools, before we start to Abeih again.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the Female Seminary. There are a hundred girls here, studying
+Arabic reading and writing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span>geography, arithmetic, grammar, botany,
+physiology and astronomy, and a few study English, French and music. But
+the great study is the <i>Bible</i>. I am afraid that very few schools in
+America have as much instruction in the Bible, as the girls in this
+Seminary and the Sidon Seminary receive. You would be surprised to hear
+the girls recite correctly the names of all the patriarchs; kings and
+prophets of the Old Testament, with the year when they lived, and the
+date of all the important events of the Old and New Testament History,
+and the Life of Christ, and the travels of the Apostle Paul, and the
+prophecies about Christ in the Old Testament, and then recite the whole
+Westminster Assembly's Catechism in Arabic! I have given out <i>one
+hundred and twenty</i> Bibles and Hymn Books as rewards to children in the
+schools in Beir&ucirc;t, who have learned the Shorter Catechism perfectly in
+Arabic.</p>
+
+<p>Five years ago there was a girl in the school who was once very rude and
+self-willed, and very hard to control. She had a poor bed-ridden brother
+who had been a cripple for years, and was a great care to the family.
+They used to carry him out in the garden in fine weather and lay him on
+a seat under the trees, and sometimes his sister would come home from
+the school and read to him from the Bible, to which he listened with
+great delight. Not long after this he died, and his sister was sent for
+to come home to the funeral. On reaching home she found a large crowd of
+women assembled from all that quarter of the city, shrieking and wailing
+over his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span>death, according to the Oriental custom. When A. the little
+girl came in, one of the women from an aristocratic Greek family was
+talking in a loud voice and saying that it was wrong for any person to
+go from the house of mourning to another house before first going home,
+because one going from a house of mourning would carry an <i>evil
+influence</i> with her. A. listened and then spoke out boldly before the
+seventy women, "How long will you hold on to these foolish
+superstitions? Beir&ucirc;t is a place of light and civilization. Where can
+you find any such teaching as this in the gospel? It is time for us to
+give up such superstitions." The old woman asked, "Where did that girl
+learn these things? Truly she is right. These things <i>are</i>
+superstitions, but they will not die until <i>we old women die</i>." It
+required a great deal of courage in A. to speak out so boldly, when her
+own brother had died, but all felt that she spoke the truth, and no one
+rebuked her.</p>
+
+<p>Near by the house of A. is another beautiful house surrounded by
+gardens, and ornamented in the most expensive manner. A little girl from
+this family was attending the school in 1867. Her name was Fereedy. She
+was a boarder and the best behaved girl in the school. One day during
+vacation, her mother came to Rufka and said, "What have you done to my
+little daughter Fereedy? She came home last Saturday with her sister,
+and at once took the whole care of the little children, so that I had no
+trouble with them. And when night came she put her little sisters to bed
+and prayed with them all, and then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span>in the morning she prayed with them
+again. I never saw such a child. She is like a little angel." The mother
+is of the Greek sect, and the little girl was only twelve years old.</p>
+
+<p>And here is a story about another of the superstitions of the fellaheen,
+and what a little girl taught the people about them. This little girl
+named L. went with her father to spend the summer in a mountain village,
+where the people had a strange superstition about an oak tree. One day
+she went out to walk and came to the great oak tree which stood alone on
+the mountain side. You know that the Canaanites used to have idols under
+the green trees in ancient times. When L. reached the tree, she found
+the ground covered with dead branches which had fallen from the tree.
+Now, wood is very scarce and costly in Syria, and the people are very
+poor, so that she wondered to see the wood left to rot on the ground,
+and asked the people why they did not use it for fuel. They said they
+dared not, as the tree belonged to Moses the Prophet, and he protected
+the tree, and if any one took the wood, they would <i>fall dead</i>. She
+said, "Moses is in heaven, and does not live in oak trees, and if he
+did, he is a good man, and would not hurt me for burning up old dry
+sticks." So she asked them if she might have the wood? They said, "yes,
+if you <i>dare</i> to take it, for we are afraid to touch it." So she went to
+the tree and gathered up as much as she could carry, and took it home.
+The people screamed when they saw her, and told her to drop it or it
+would kill her, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span>on she went, and afterwards went back and brought
+the rest. She then talked with the ignorant women, and her father told
+them about the folly of their superstitions, and read to them in the
+Bible about Moses, and they listened with great attention. I have often
+thought I should like to go to that village, and see whether the people
+now leave the dead branches under Moses' oak, or use them for fuel
+during the heavy snow storms of winter.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h4><a name="PART_VI" id="PART_VI"></a>PART VI.</h4>
+
+<p>Here we are, home again at Abeih. Here are Asaad and Khalil, and several
+others. I asked Khalil one day to write out for me a list of all the
+games the boys play in Abeih, and he brought me a list of <i>twenty-eight</i>
+different ones, and said there were many more.</p>
+
+<p>I. The first is called Khatim or the Ring. A boy puts a ring on the back
+of his hand, tosses it and catches it on the back of his fingers. If it
+falls on the middle finger, he shakes it to the forefinger, and then he
+is Sultan, and appoints a Vizier, whom he commands to beat the other
+boys. Then the boys all sing,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ding, dong, turn the wheel,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wind the purple thread:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Spin the white and spin the red,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wind it on the reel:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Silk and linen as well as you can,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Weave a robe for the Great Sultan.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span></p><p>II. Killeh. Like the game of shooting marbles.</p>
+
+<p>III. Owal Howa. The same as leap frog.</p>
+
+<p>IV. Biz Zowaia. Cat in the corner.</p>
+
+<p>V. Taia ya Taia. All the boys stand in a row, and one in front facing
+them, who calls out Taia ya Taia. They all then run after him and hit
+him. He then hops on one foot as if lame, and catches one of them, who
+takes his place.</p>
+
+<p>VI. El Manya. Hig tig.</p>
+
+<p>VII. Bil Kobbeh. A circle of boys stand with their heads bowed. Another
+circle stand outside, and on a given signal try to mount on the backs of
+the inner circle of boys. If they succeed they remain standing in this
+way; if not, the boy who failed must take the inside place.</p>
+
+<p>VIII. Ghummaida. Blind-man's-buff.</p>
+
+<p>IX. Tabeh. Base ball and drop ball.</p>
+
+<p>X. Kurd Murboot or Tied Monkey. A rope is tied to a peg in the ground,
+and one boy holds it fast. The others tie knots in their handkerchiefs
+and beat him. If he catches them without letting go his hold on the
+rope, they take his place.</p>
+
+<p>XI. Shooha or Hawk. Make a swing on the limb of a tree. A boy leans on
+the swing and runs around among the boys, until he catches one to take
+his place.</p>
+
+<p>XII. Joora. Shooting marbles into a joora or hole in the ground.</p>
+
+<p>XIII. Khubby Mukhzinak. "Pebble pebble." One boy goes around and hides a
+pebble in the hand of one of the circle and asks "pebble, pebble, who's
+got the pebble." This is like "Button, button."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span></p><p>Then there are other games like chequers and "Morris," chess, and games
+which are used in gambling, which you will not care to hear about.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes when playing, they sing a song which I have translated:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I found a black crow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With a cake in his maw,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I asked him to feed me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He cried caw, caw.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A chicken I found<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With a loaf of bread&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I asked him to feed me.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He cried, enough said.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And an eagle black<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With a beam on his back<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Said from Egypt I come<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he cried clack, clack.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>So you see the Arab boys are as fond of plays and songs as American
+boys. They have scores of songs about gazelles, and pearls, and Sultans,
+and Bedawin, and Ghouls, and the "Ghuz," and the Evil Eye, and Arab
+mares and Pashas.</p>
+
+<p>A few days ago a Druze, named Sheikh Ali, called upon me and recited to
+me a strange song, which reminded me of the story of "Who killed Cock
+Robin," and "The House that Jack built." In some of the Arab villages
+where fleas abound, the people go at times to the tenn&ucirc;r or oven, (which
+is like a great earthen jar sunken in the ground,) to shake off the
+fleas into the fire. The story which I have translated goes thus: A
+brilliant bug and a noble flea once went to the oven to shake off the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span>ignoble fleas from their garments into the fire. But alas, alas, the
+noble flea lost his footing, fell into the fire and was consumed. Then
+the brilliant bug began to weep and mourn, saying,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">Alas! Ah me!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">The Noble Flea!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While he was thus weeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And his sad watch keeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A glossy raven overhead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flew swiftly down and gently said,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh my friend, oh brilliant bug,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why are you weeping on the rug?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The bug replied, O glossy raven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With your head all shorn and shaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am now weeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sad watch keeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Over, Ah me!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">The Noble Flea.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The raven he,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wept over the flea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And flew to a green palm tree&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in grief, <i>dropped a feather</i>,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like snow in winter weather.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The palm tree said my glossy raven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why do you look so craven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why did you drop a feather,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like snow in winter weather?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The raven said,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The flea is dead!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I saw the brilliant bug weeping<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And his sad watch keeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Alas, Alas, Ah me!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Over the Noble Flea.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then the green Palm tree,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wept over the noble flea.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Said he, The flea is dead!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And <i>all his branches shed</i>!<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Shaggy Wolf he strayed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To rest in the Palm tree's shade<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He saw the branches broken,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of deepest grief the token,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And said, Oh Palm tree green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What sorrow have you seen?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What noble one is dead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That you your branches shed?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He said, O Wolf so shaggy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Living in rocks so craggy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I saw the glossy raven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Looking forlorn and craven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dropping down a feather,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like snow in winter weather.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He saw the brilliant bug weeping<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And his sad watch keeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Alas, Alas, Ah me!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Over the Noble Flea!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then the Wolf in despair<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Shed his shaggy hair</i>.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then the River clear and shining,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Saw the wolf in sorrow pining,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Asked him why in sad despair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He had shed his shaggy hair?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Said the Wolf, Oh River shining,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I in sorrow deep am pining,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For the Palm tree I have seen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shedding all his branches green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he saw the glossy raven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Looking so forlorn and craven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As he dropped a downy feather,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like the snow in winter weather.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He saw the brilliant bug weeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And his sad watch keeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Alas, Alas, Ah me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Over the Noble Flea!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sadly then the shining River,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Dried its waters up forever</i>.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then the Shepherd with his sheep<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Asked the River once so deep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What great grief, oh shining river,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dried your waters up forever?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Said the River once so shining,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I in sorrow deep am pining,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Since I saw the wolf's despair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When he shed his shaggy hair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For the Palm tree he had seen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shedding all his branches green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he saw the glossy raven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Looking so forlorn and craven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As he dropped a downy feather,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like the snow in winter weather,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He saw the brilliant bug weeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And his sad watch keeping.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Alas, Alas, Ah me!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Over the Noble Flea!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then the Shepherd in sorrow deep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Tore the horns from all his sheep</i>,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sadly bound them on his head,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Since he heard the flea was dead.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then the Shepherd's mother dear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Asked him why in desert drear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He had torn in sorrow deep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All the horns from all his sheep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sadly bound them on his head,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Just as though a friend was dead?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Said he, 'tis because the River,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dried his waters up forever,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Since he saw the Wolf's despair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When he shed his shaggy hair.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For the Palm tree he had seen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shedding all his branches green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For he saw the glossy raven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Looking so forlorn and craven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As he dropped a downy feather,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like the snow in winter weather.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He saw the brilliant bug weeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And his sad watch keeping,<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Alas, Alas, Ah me!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Over the Noble Flea!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mother sad began to cry,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thrust her needle in her eye;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Could no longer see her thread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Since she heard the flea was dead.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then the Father grave and bland,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hearing this, <i>cut off his hand</i>;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the daughter, when she hears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In despair, <i>cuts off her ears</i>;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And through the town deep grief is spread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Because they heard the flea was dead.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h4 style="font-weight: normal;" class="padtop">THE NURSERY RHYMES OF THE ARABS.</h4>
+
+<p>Who is that singing in such a sweet plaintive voice in the room beneath
+our porch? It is the Sit Leila, wife of Sheikh Abbas, saying a lullaby
+to her little baby boy, Sheikh Fereed. We will sit on the porch in this
+bright moonlight, and listen while she sings:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Whoever loves you not,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My little baby boy;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May she be driven from her house,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And never know a joy!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May the "Ghuz" eat up her husband,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the mouse her oil destroy!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This is not very sweet language for a gentle lady to use to a little
+infant boy, but the Druze and Moslem women use this kind of imprecation
+in many of their nursery songs. Katrina says that many of the Greek and
+Maronite women sing them too. This young woman Laia, who sits here, has
+repeated for me not less than a hundred and twenty <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span>of these nursery
+rhymes, songs for weddings, funeral wails, etc. Some of the imprecations
+are dreadful.</p>
+
+<p>They seem to think that the best way to show their love to their babies,
+is to hate those who do not love them.</p>
+
+<p>Im Faris says she has heard this one in Hasbeiya, her birthplace:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">O sleep to God, my child, my eyes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Your heart no ill shall know;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Who loves you not as much as I,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">May God her house o'erthrow!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May the mosque and the minaret, dome and all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On her wicked head in anger fall!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May the Arabs rob her threshing floor,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And not one kernel remain in her store.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The servant girl Nideh, who attends the Sit Leila, thinks that her turn
+has come, and she is singing,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We've the white and the red in our baby's cheeks,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In pounds and tons to spare;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But the black and the rust,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the mould and the must,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For our neighbor's children are!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I hope she does not refer to <i>us</i> for we are her nearest neighbors. But
+in reality I do not suppose that they actually mean what they sing in
+these Ishmaelitic songs. Perhaps they do when they are angry, but they
+probably sing them ordinarily without thinking of their meaning at all.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes snakes come down from the ceilings of these earth-roofed
+houses, and terrify the people. At other times government horsemen come
+and drag them off to prison, as they did in Safita. These <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span>things are
+referred to in this next song which Nideh is singing:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If she love you not, my boy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May the Lord her life destroy!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Seven mules tread her down,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drag her body through the town!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Snakes that from the ceiling hang,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sting her dead with poison fang!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Soldiers from Damascus city,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drag her off and shew no pity!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor release her for a day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though a thousand pounds she pay!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>That is about enough of imprecations, and it will be pleasanter to
+listen to Katrina, for she will sing us some of the sweetest of the
+Syrian Nursery Songs.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sleep, my moon, my baby sleep!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Pleiades bright their watches keep.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Libra shines so fair and clear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The stars are shining, hush my dear!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>There is not much music in the tunes they sing to these words. The airs
+generally are plaintive and monotonous, and have a sad and weary sound.</p>
+
+<p>Here is another:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My boy, my moon, I bid you good morrow!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who wishes you peace shall know no sorrow!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whom you salute, his earth is like heaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His care relieved, his sin forgiven!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>She says that last line is extravagant, and I think as much. The next
+one is a Moslem lullaby.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Lord of the heavens, Knowing and Wise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Preserve my Ali, the light of my eyes!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lord of high heaven, Compassionate!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Keep my dear boy in every state!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span></p><p>This one is used by the women of all the sects, but in all of the songs
+the name is changed to suit the name of the baby to whom the mother is
+singing,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ali, your eyes are sleeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But God's eyes never sleep:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their hours of lonely weeping<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">None can forever keep.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How sweet is the night of health,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When Ali sleeps in peace!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh may such nights continue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor ever, ever cease!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Among all the scores of nursery songs, I have heard only a very few
+addressed to <i>girls</i>, but some of these are beautiful. Hear Katrina sing
+this one:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">L&ucirc;l&ucirc; dear the house is bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With your forehead's sunny light;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Men your father honor now<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When they see your lovely brow.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If father comes home sad and weary,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sight of you will make him cheery.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The "fuller's soap" mentioned in Malachi 3:2, is the plant called in
+Arabic "Ashnan or Shenan," and the Arabs sometimes use it in the place
+of soap. The following is another song addressed to a baby girl:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Come Cameleer, as quick as you can,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And make us soap from the green "Shenan,"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To bathe our L&ucirc;l&ucirc; dear;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We'll wash her and dress her,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And then we'll caress her,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She'll sleep in her little sereer. (cradle)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This song is sung by the Druze women to their baby girls:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span></p><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Your eye is jet black, and dark are its lashes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Between the arched brows, like a crescent it flashes;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When painted with "kohl" 'tis brighter by far,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than the full-orbed moon or the morning star.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The following is supposed to be addressed by a Druze woman to her
+neighbor who has a daughter of marriageable age, when she is obliged to
+veil her face:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hide your daughter, veil her face,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Neighbor, do not tarry:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For my Hanna is of age,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Says he wants to marry.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When I asked about his choice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Said he was not needy:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But that if he ever wed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He thought he'd like Fereedy.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next one is also Druze and purely Oriental:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Two healths, one health,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Four healths more:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Four sacks of sesam&eacute; seed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Scattered on the floor;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pick and count them one by one.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Reckon up their number;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For every seed wish Hassan's health.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sweetly may he slumber!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The Druze women delight in nothing so much as to have their sons ride
+fine horses:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My Yusef, my cup of sherbet sweet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My broadcloth red hung over the street,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When you ride the blood mare with sword and pistol,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your saddle is gold and your stirrups crystal.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Katrina says that this little song is the morning salutation to baby
+boys:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span></p><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Good morning now to you, Little boy!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Your face is like the dew, Little boy!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There never was a child, so merry and so mild,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">So good morning once again, Little boy!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This song is sung by the Druze women to their babes:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Sparrow of Paradise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hush him to sleep?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your feathers are "henna."<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Watch him and keep!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bring sleep soft and sweet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon your white wings!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For Hassan the pet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And his mother who sings!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The apples of Damascus are noted throughout Syria, though we should
+regard them as very poor fruit:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What's he like? If any ask us,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flowers and apples of Damascus;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Apples fragrant on the tray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Roses sweet with scent of May.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Laia says that the next one is sung by the Druze women to their baby
+boys:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">I love you, I prize you, and for you I wish,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">A hundred oak trees in the valley;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">A hundred blood mares all tied in the court,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And ready for foray or sally.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mount your horse, fly away, with your scarf flowing free,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The chiefs of the tribe will assemble;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Damascus, Aleppo, and Ghutah beside,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">At the sound of your coming will tremble.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Nejmeh says that the Bedawin women who come to Safita, her native place,
+often sing the following song:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span></p><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Come little Bedawy, sit on my lap,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pretty pearls shine in your little white cap,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rings are in your ears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rings are in your nose,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rings upon your fingers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And "henna" on your toes.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>They use the "henna" to dye their hands, feet and finger nails, when a
+wedding or festive occasion occurs in the family.</p>
+
+<p>Katrina recalls another little song which she used to sing to Harry:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Welcome now, my baby dear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whence did you come?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your voice is sweet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What little feet!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Make yourself at home!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Nideh, the Druze girl down stairs is ready with another song. She is
+rocking little Sheikh Fereed in his cradle, and says:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In your cradle sleep my boy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rest from all your labor;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May El Hakim, heaven's God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ever be your neighbor!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It makes me feel sad to hear a poor woman praying to a man. This El
+Hakim was a man, and a bad man too, who lived many hundred years ago,
+and now the Druzes regard him as their God. But what difference is there
+between worshipping Hakim as the Druzes do, and worshipping Mary and
+Joseph as the Greeks and Maronites do. Laia says the Maronites down in
+the lower part of this village sing the following song:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span></p><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hill&ucirc;, Hill&ucirc;, Hallelujah!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come my wild gazelles!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He who into trouble falls<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On the Virgin Mother calls;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To Damascus she's departing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All the mountain monks are starting.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come my priest and come my deacon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bring the censer and the beacon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We will celebrate the Mass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the Church of Mar Elias;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mar Elias, my neighbor dear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You must be deaf if you did not hear.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Sit Leila sings:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I love you my boy, and this is the proof,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I wish that you had all the wealth of the "Shoof,"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hundreds of costly silken bales,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hundreds of ships with lofty sails.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hundreds of towns to obey your word,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And thousands of thousands to call you lord!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Katrina is ready to sing again:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I will sing to you,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">God will bring to you,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All you need, my dear:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He's here and there,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He is everywhere,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And to you He's ever near.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>People say that every baby that is born into the world is thought by its
+mother to be better than any other ever born. The Arab women think so
+too, and this is the way they sing it:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">One like you was never born,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One like you was never brought;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All the Arabs might grow old,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fighting ne'er so brave and bold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet with all their battles fought<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One like you they never caught.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span></p><p>Im Faris asks if we would not like to hear some of the rhymes the Arab
+women sing when playing with their children. Here are some of them. The
+first one you will think is like what you have already seen in "Mother
+Goose."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Blacksmith, blacksmith, shoe the mare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shoe the colt with greatest care;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hold the shoe and drive the nail,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Else your labor all will fail;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shoe a donkey for Seleem,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And a colt for Ibraheem.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Sugar cane grows luxuriantly in Syria, and it was first taken from
+Tripoli, Syria, to Spain, and thence to the West Indies and America. But
+all they do with it now in Syria, is to suck it. It is cut up in pieces
+and sold to the people, old and young, who peel it and suck it. So the
+Arab women sing to their children:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Pluck it and suck it, the green sugar cane,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whatever is sweet is costly and vain;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He'll cut you a joint as long as a span,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And charge two piastres. Now buy if you can!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Wered says she will sing us two or three which they use in teaching the
+little Arab babies to "pat" their hands:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Patty cake, baby! Make him dance!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May his age increase and his years advance!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May his life like the rock, long years endure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Overgrown with lilies, so sweet and pure!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And now the Sit Leila is singing again one of the Druze lullabys:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span></p><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Tish for two, Tish for two!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A linen shirt with a border blue!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With cloth that the little pedler sells,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For the father of eyes like the little gazelles!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your mother will weave and spin and twine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To clothe you so nicely O little Hassein!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Do you hear the jackals crying as they come up out of the valley? Their
+cry is like the voice of the cat and dog mingled together, and Im Faris
+knows some of the ditties which they sing to their children about the
+jackals and their fondness for chickens:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You cunning rogues beware!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You jackals with the long hair!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You ate up the chickens of old Katrin,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And ran away singing like wild Bedawin.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is not pleasant to have so many fleas annoying us all the time, but
+we must not be more anxious to keep the fleas out than to get the people
+in, and as the fellaheen come to see us, they will be likely to <i>flea</i>
+us too. Safita is famous for fleas, so no wonder that Nejmeh knows the
+following song of the boys about fleas:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I caught and killed a hopping flea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His sister's children came to me:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One with drum my ears did pierce,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One was fluting loud and fierce,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then they danced me, made me sing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like a monkey in a ring.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come O Deeby, come I pray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bring the Doctor right away!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Peace on your heart feel no alarm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You have not had the slightest harm.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span></p><p>Laia is never at a loss for something new, and I am amazed at her
+memory. She will give us some rhyming riddles in Arabic, and we will put
+them into English as best we may. The first is about the <i>Ant</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Tis black as night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But it is not night:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like a bird it has wings,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But it never sings:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It digs through the house,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But it is not a mouse:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It eats barley and grass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But it is not an ass.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Riddle about a <i>gun</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A featherless bird flew over the sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A bird without feathers, how can that be?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A beautiful bird which I admire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With wooden feet and a head of fire!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Riddle on <i>salt</i>:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Arab tribes, so bold and gay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What little grain have you to-day?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It never on the trees is seen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor on the flowers and wheat so green.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Its source is pure, 'tis pleasant to eat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From water it comes that is not sweet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though from water it comes, and there's water in it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You put it in water, it dies in a minute.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The door has opened down stairs, and some of Sit Leila's friends have
+come to see her. The moment they saw the little baby Fereed, they all
+began to call out, "Ism Allah alayhee," "The name of Allah upon him."
+They use this expression to keep off the Evil Eye. This superstition is
+universal through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span>out Western Asia, Northern Africa, and exists also in
+Italy and Spain. Dr. Meshaka of Damascus says that those who believe in
+the Evil Eye, "think that certain people have the power of killing
+others by a glance of the eye. Others inflict injury by the eye. Others
+pick grapes by merely looking at them. This power may rest in <i>one</i> eye,
+and one man who thought he had this power, <i>veiled one eye</i>, out of
+compassion for others! The Moslem Sheikhs and others profess to cure the
+evil eye, and prevent its evil effects by writing mystic talismanic
+words on papers, which are to be worn. Others write the words on an egg,
+and then strike the forehead of the evil eyed with the egg."</p>
+
+<p>Whenever a new house is built, the workmen hang up an egg shell or a
+piece of alum, or an old root, or a donkey's skull, in the front door,
+to keep off the evil eye. Moslem women leave their children ragged and
+dirty to keep people from admiring them, and thus smiting them with the
+evil eye. They think that blue eyes are especially dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>They think that the name of God or Allah is a charm against evil, and
+when they repeat it, they have no idea of reverence for that Holy Name.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a terrible imprecation against a woman who smites with the Evil
+Eye:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">May her hand be thrust in her mouth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And her eyes be burned in the fire!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The blessings of Mighty God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Preserve you from her ire!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span></p><p>Nideh sings</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Upon you the name of Allah,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Around you Allah's eye!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May the Evil Eye be blinded,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And never harm my boy!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is ten o'clock at night, and Katrina, Laia, Wered, and Hand&ucirc;meh say
+it is time to go. Handumeh insists that we come to her wedding
+to-morrow. Am&icirc;n will go with them to drive away the dogs, and see that
+no wolves, hyenas, or leopards attack them by the way.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h4><a name="PART_VII" id="PART_VII"></a>PART VII.</h4>
+
+<p>The boys of Abeih are early risers. What a merry laugh they have! What
+new song is that they are singing now?</p>
+
+<p>There has been a shower in the night and Yusef and Khalil are singing
+about the rain. We say in English "<i>it</i> rains" but the Arabs tell us
+what "it" refers to. They say "The world rains," "The world snows," "The
+world is coming down," "The world thunders and lightens." So you will be
+able to tell your teacher, when he asks you to parse "it rains," that
+"<i>it</i>" is a pronoun referring to "world." Hear them sing:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Rain, O world, all day and night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We will wash our clothing white.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rain, O world, your waters shed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On my dear grandmother's head.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span></p><p>The sun shines out now, and Khalil says the "world has got well" again,
+so he sings:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Shines the sun with brightest beam<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On the roof of Im Seleem;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now the bear will dance a reel,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On the roof of Im Khaleel.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The roofs of the houses are low and flat, and on the hill-sides you can
+walk from the street above upon the roof of the houses below. I once
+lived in a house in Duma in which the cattle, donkeys, and sheep used to
+walk on our roof every evening as they came in from pasture. It was not
+very pleasant to be awakened at midnight by a cow-fight on the roof, and
+have the stones and dirt rattling down into our faces, but we could get
+no other house, and had to make the best of it. You can understand then
+Khalil's song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The sun is rising all so bright<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Upon the Pasha's daughter:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">See her toss the tassels blue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As her mother taught her.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Turn the oxen on the roof<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the village priest;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He will kill them one and all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And give the poor a feast.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The boys seem to be in high glee. They all know Hand&ucirc;meh and her
+betrothed Shaheen Ma'ttar, so they are swinging and singing in honor of
+her wedding.</p>
+
+<p>But the time has come for the wedding, and we will go over to Ain Kes&ucirc;r,
+about a mile away, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span>join in the bridal procession. As we come near
+the house we hear the women inside singing. They have been dressing the
+bride, and after she is dressed they lead her around and try to make her
+dance. Perhaps they will let us see how she is dressed. Her head is
+covered with a head-dress of pink gauze, embroidered with gold thread
+and purple chenille, and ornamented with pearl beads and artificial
+flowers, and over all a long white gauze veil trimmed with lace. Her
+ear-rings are gold filigree work with pendant pearls, and around her
+neck is a string of pure amber beads and a gold necklace. She wears a
+jacket of black velvet, and a gilt belt embroidered with blue, and
+fastened with a silver gilt filigree buckle in the form of a bow knot
+with pendants. On her finger is a gold ring set with sapphire, and
+others with turquoises and amethysts. Her dress is of brown satin, and
+on her arms are solid gold bracelets which cost 1400 piastres or
+fifty-six dollars. You know Hand&ucirc;meh is not a rich girl, and her
+betrothed is a hard working muleteer, and he has had to work very hard
+to get the money to buy all these things, for it is the custom for the
+bridegroom to pay for the bride's outfit. The people always lay out
+their money in jewelry because it is easily carried, and easily buried
+in time of civil wars and troubles in the land. Shaheen's brothers and
+relatives have come to take her to Abeih, but he is nowhere to be seen.
+It would not be proper for him to come to her house. For weeks she has
+not been over to Abeih, except to invite us to her wedding, and when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span>
+Anna asked her on what day she was to be married, she professed not to
+know anything about it. They think it is not modest for a bride to care
+anything about the wedding, and she will try to appear unwilling to go
+when they are ready to start. The women are singing now:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Dance, our bride so fair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dance and never care;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your bracelets sing, your anklets ring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your shining beauty would dazzle a king!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To Damascus your father a journey has made,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And your bridegroom's name is Ab&ucirc; Zeid.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And now the young men outside are dancing and fencing, and they all join
+in singing:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Dance, my dancer, early and late,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Would I had like you seven or eight;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Two uncles like you, blithe and gay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To stand at my back in the judgment day!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And now the young men, relatives of the bridegroom, address the brother
+of the bride, as her father is not living, and they all sing:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O brother of the bride, on a charger you should ride;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Councillor of State you should be;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whene'er you lift your voice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The judgment halls rejoice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the earth quakes with fear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From Acre to Ghuzeer.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And now the warlike Druzes, who are old friends of Shaheen and his
+father, wish to show their good will by singing a wedding song, which
+they have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span>borrowed from the old wild inhabitants of this land of
+Canaan:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O brother of the bride, your mare has gnawed her bridle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Run for the blacksmith, do not be idle.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She has run to the grave where are buried your foes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And pawed out their hearts with her iron shoes!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But the time has come for the procession to move, and we go along slowly
+enough. The bride rides a mare, led by one of Shaheen's brothers, and as
+we pass the fountain, the people pour water under the mare's feet as a
+libation, and Hand&ucirc;meh throws down a few little copper coins to the
+children. The women in the company set up the zilagheet, a high piercing
+trill of the voice, and all goes merry as a marriage bell. When we reach
+the house of Shaheen, he keeps out of sight, not even offering to help
+his bride dismount from her horse. That would never do. He will stay
+among the men, and she in a separate room among the women, until the
+hour of the ceremony arrives.</p>
+
+<p>But the women are singing again, and this time the song is really
+beautiful in Arabic, but I fear I have made lame work of it in the
+translation:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Allah, belaly, belaly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Allah, belaly, belaly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May God spare the life of your sire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our lovely gazelle of the valley!<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">May Allah his riches increase<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">He has brought you so costly a dowry;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The moonlight has gone from his house,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The rose from his gardens so flow'ry.<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Run away, rude men, turn aside,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Give place to our beautiful bride:<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">From her sweet perfumes I am sighing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">From the odor of musk I am dying.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come and join us fair maid, they have brought you your dress,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Leave your peacocks and doves, give our bride a caress;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Red silk! crimson silk! the weaver cries as he goes:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But our bride's cheeks are redder blushing bright as the rose.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dark silk! black silk! hear him now as he sings:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But our bride's hair is black, like the raven's dark wings;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With the light of our eyes with our Hand&ucirc;meh sweet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No maid of the Druzes can ever compete.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She is worth all the wealth of the Lebanon domain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All the vineyards and olives, the silk worms and grain.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And no maids of the Christians can with her compare<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho' shining with pearls and with jewels so rare.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The house is now crowded full, the men being all in one room with
+Shaheen, and the women in the other room, and the court with the bride
+Hand&ucirc;meh. One of Shaheen's brothers comes around with a kumkum, and
+sprinkles orange flower water in all our faces, and Khalil asks us if we
+wish the ceremony to take place now? We tell him that he must ask the
+bride and groom. So Ab&ucirc; Shaheen comes into the court with the old priest
+Eklemandus, as Shaheen's family belong to the Greek Catholic sect.
+Hand&ucirc;meh is really a Protestant, and Shaheen has nothing to do with the
+priests, but the "old folks" had their way about it. A white curtain
+hangs across the court, and the bride stands on one side, with her
+bridesmaid, and all the women and girls, and on the other side is the
+priest with Shaheen, and all of the men and boys. Then candles were
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span>distributed, and lighted, and the old priest adjusted his robes and
+began to read the marriage service. An assistant stood by his side
+looking over his shoulder, and responding Amen in a loud and long drawn
+voice. At length the priest called out to him, "A little shorter there
+on those Amens. We don't want long Amens at a wedding!" This set the
+whole crowd laughing, and on he went reading passages of Scripture,
+prayers and advice to the bride and bridegroom in the most hasty and
+trifling manner, intoning it through his nose, so that no one could
+understand what he was saying. While he was reading from the gospel
+about the marriage at Cana of Galilee, a small boy, holding a lighted
+candle, came very near burning off the old man's beard, and he called
+out to him, "Put out your candle! You have tormented my life out of me
+with that candle." This raised another laugh, and on he read. Then he
+took two rings, and drawing aside the curtain, placed one on the bride's
+head, and the other on the bridegroom's head, pronouncing them man and
+wife, and then gave them each a sip of wine and the ceremony was
+concluded, all the men kissing Shaheen, and the women Hand&ucirc;meh.
+Refreshments were then served to the guests from the village, and a
+dinner to those from other villages. In the evening there assembled a
+great company in Shaheen's house, and the hour was given up to story
+telling. Saleh, whose brother married Shaheen's sister, will begin with
+the <i>Story of the Goats and the Ghoul</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Once there was a Nanny Goat, strong and power<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span>ful, with long and strong
+horns, and once upon a time she brought forth twin kids, fair and
+beautiful. One was named <i>Sunaisil</i>, and the other Rabab. Now the Nanny
+Goat went out every morning to the pasture, leaving her twin kids in the
+cave. She shut the door carefully, and they locked it on the inside
+through fear of the Ghoul, for her neighbor in the next house was a
+Ghoul who swallowed little children alive. Then at evening when she came
+home, she would stand outside the door, and sing to her twin kids this
+little song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hearken now Sunaisil,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come Rabab my dear:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Open to your mother,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Never, never fear.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She has sweet milk in her udder.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tufts of grass upon her horn;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She'll give you both your supper,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And breakfast in the morn.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The little twin kids would know her voice, open the door in gladness,
+and eat a hearty supper, and after hearing a nice story from the
+Anz&icirc;yeh, (for so their mother was called), drop off to sweet sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Now all things went on well for some time, until one day the Ghoul
+neighbor being very hungry for a supper of twin kids, came to the door
+of the cave and tried to push it open. But it was too strong for her, so
+she went away in perplexity. At length she thought she would sing to
+them the very song, which the Nanny Goat sang to them every evening on
+her return, so she sang it:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span></p><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hearken now Sunaisil,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come Rabab, my dear, etc., etc.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and when they heard this song, they opened the door with gladness to eat
+their supper, when suddenly the Ghoul sprang upon them with her huge
+mouth open, and swallowed them both down at once. She then shut the door
+and fastened it as it was before, and went on her way. At evening the
+Nanny Goat came home with milk and grass for her twin kids' supper, and
+knocked at the door and sang:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hearken now Sunaisil,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come Rabab my dear, etc., etc.,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>as usual, but no one opened the door. Then she knocked and sang again,
+and at length she gave up all hope of their opening the door, and butted
+against the door with her horns and broke it open. She then entered the
+cave but there were no twin kids there. All was still. Then she knew
+that the Ghoul had eaten them. So she hastened to the house of the
+Ghoul, and went upon the top of the house, and began to stamp and pound
+upon the roof. The Ghoul, hearing the stamping upon the roof, called
+out, whosoever stamps on my roof, may Allah stamp on his roof! The Nanny
+Goat replied, I am on your roof; I, whose children you have eaten. Come
+out now, and we will fight it out by butting our heads together. Very
+well, said the Ghoul, only wait a little until I can make me a pair of
+horns like you. So the goat waited, and away went the Ghoul to make her
+horns. She made two horns of dough <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span>and dried them in the sun until they
+were hard, and then came to "butt" with the goat. At the first shock,
+when the goat butted her with her horns, the horns of dough broke all to
+pieces; then the goat butted her again in her bowels and broke her in
+twain, and out jumped Sunaisil and Rabab, frisking and leaping and
+calling out "ya imme," oh, my mother, Oh, my mother! The Ghoul being
+dead they had no more fear, and lived long and happy lives with their
+mother the Anaz&icirc;yeh.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Did you notice how the little boys listened to Saleh's story of the
+Goats and the Ghoul? This story is told by the mothers to their little
+children, all over Syria, in the tents of the Bedaw&icirc;n and in the houses
+of the citizens. One of the women, named Noor, (<i>i.&nbsp;e.</i> Light), a sister
+of the bridegroom, says she will tell the children the story of the
+Hamam, the Butta, the Wez, and the Hamar, that is, of the Dove, the
+Duck, the Goose, and the Donkey, if all will sit still on the floor. So
+all the little boys and girls curl their feet under them and fold their
+arms, and Noor begins:</p>
+
+<p>Once the Dove, the Duck, the Goose, and the Donkey joined company and
+agreed to live together. Then they took counsel about their means of
+living, and said, how long shall we continue in such distress for our
+necessary food? Come let us plough a piece of ground, and plant each one
+such seeds as are suited to his taste. So they ploughed a piece of
+ground and sowed the seed. The Goose planted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span>rice, the Duck planted
+wheat, the Dove planted pulse, and the Donkey planted barley, and they
+stationed the Donkey on guard to watch the growing crop. Now when the
+seeds began to grow and flourish, and the Donkey looked upon it green
+and bright and waving in the wind, he arose and ate it all, and then
+went and threw himself into a ditch near by. Then came the Dove, the
+Goose, and the Duck to survey the growing crop, and lo and behold, it
+was all eaten up, and the ground was red and barren. Then said they,
+where is the Donkey whom we set on guard over our crop? They searched
+near and far, and at length they found him standing in the ditch, and
+they asked him where are the crops we so carefully planted and set you
+to watch? Then said the Donkey, the Bedaw&icirc;n came with their flocks of
+sheep and pastured them on our crops, and when I tried to resist, they
+threw me into this ditch. Then they replied, it is false, you have eaten
+it yourself. He said, I did not. They said, yes, you did, for you are
+sleek and fat, and the contest waxed hot between them, until at length
+they all agreed to make each one swear an oath "by the life of the
+Lake," which was near at hand, and whoever swore the oath, and sprang
+into the Lake without falling, should be declared innocent. So the Dove
+went down first and said:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ham, Ham, Ham, I am the Dove Hamam,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ham, Ham, Ham, My food is the plain Kotan, (pulse),<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ham, Ham, Ham, If I ate the growing crop,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">May I suddenly throw it up!<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i8">May Allah tumble me into the Lake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And none any news of me ever take!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then the Dove leaped into the Lake, and flew to the limb of a tree on
+the shore, and was proved innocent.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Duck went down and said:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But But, But, I am the Butta Duck,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, But, But, My food is wheat and muck;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, But, But, If I ate the growing crop,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">May I suddenly throw it up!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">May Allah tumble me into the Lake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And none any news of me ever take!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>So the Duck leaped into the Lake, and then flew to the limb of a tree on
+the shore and was proved innocent.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Goose went down and said:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Wez, Wez, Wez, I am the Goose and the Wez,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wez, Wez, Wez, I eat Egyptian riz, (rice),<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wez, Wez, Wez, If I ate the growing crop,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">May I suddenly throw it up!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">May Allah tumble me into the Lake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And none any news of me ever take!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>So the Goose leaped into the Lake and then flew to the limb of a tree on
+the shore and was proved innocent.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Donkey went down and said:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hak, Hak, Hak, I am the Donkey Jack,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hak, Hak, Hak, I barley eat by the sack:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hak, Hak, Hak, If I ate the growing crop,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">May I suddenly throw it up!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">May Allah tumble me into the Lake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And none any news of me ever take!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span></p><p>Then the Donkey leaped boldly into the Lake, and down he fell, and his
+feet stuck fast in the mud and mire. Then his three companions, seeing
+him proved guilty of the crime, flew away and left him to his fate. Then
+the Donkey began to "bray" for mercy, and called at the top of his
+voice:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">Whoever will help me out of this plight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">May eat my tail at a single bite!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Bear heard the braying,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And without long delaying,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He answered by saying:<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Long eared Donkey will you pay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Every word of what you say?<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">If I save you by my might,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Will you stand still while I bite?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The lying Ass lay still,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And answered, "Yes, I will."<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">The Bear then gave a fearful roar,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And dragged the Donkey to the shore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And said, I saved you from your plight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Now stand still, Donkey, while I bite!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He said: Wait Bruin till I rest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And "smell the air" from East to West,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And then I'll run with all my might,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And turn my tail for you to bite!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Then Bruin took him at his word<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Away he went swift as a bird,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And called out, now Bruin, I will rest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">I'll smell the air from East to West,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">I'm running now with all my might,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">I've "turned my tail" for you to bite!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Bear resolved in grief and pain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He'd never help an Ass again.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Ab&ucirc; Habeeb, who is just about to enter the college, has a story which
+all the Arabs know, and love to hear. It is called:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span></p><p>The Lion and Ibn Adam, that is, the Lion and Man, the son of Adam.</p>
+
+<p>Once there was a Lion who had a son, and he always charged him, saying,
+my son, beware of Ibn Adam. But at length the old Lion died, and the
+young lion resolved that he would search through the world and see that
+wonderful animal called Ibn Adam, of whom his father had so often warned
+him. So out he went from his cave, and walked to and fro in the
+wilderness. At length he saw a huge animal coming towards him, with long
+crooked legs and neck, and running at the top of his speed. It was a
+Camel. But when the Lion saw his enormous size and rapid pace, he said,
+surely, this must be Ibn Adam himself. So he ran towards him and roared
+a fearful roar. Stop where you are! The Camel stopped, trembling with
+fear of the Lion. Said the Lion, are you Ibn Adam? No, said the Camel, I
+am a Camel fleeing from Ibn Adam. Said the Lion, and what did Ibn Adam
+do to you that you should flee from him? The Camel said, he loaded me
+with heavy burdens, and beat me cruelly, and when I found a fit chance,
+I fled from him to this wilderness. Said the Lion, is Ibn Adam stronger
+than you are? Yes indeed, many times stronger. Then the Lion was filled
+with terror, lest he too should fall into the hands of Ibn Adam, and he
+left the Camel to go his way in peace. After a little while, an Ox
+passed by, and the Lion said, <i>this</i> must be Ibn Adam. But he found that
+he too was fleeing from the yoke and the goad of Ibn Adam. Then he met a
+Horse running <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span>fleet as the wind, and he said, this swift animal must be
+the famous Ibn Adam, but the Horse too was running away from the halter,
+the bridle the spur or the harness of the terrible Ibn Adam. Then he met
+a mule, a donkey, a buffalo and an elephant, and all were running in
+terror of Ibn Adam. The Lion thought what terrible monster must he be to
+have struck terror into all these monstrous animals! And on he went
+trembling, until hunger drove him to a forest to seek for prey to eat.
+While he was searching through the forest, lo and behold, a Carpenter
+was at work cutting wood. The Lion wondered at his curious form, and
+said, who knows but this may be Ibn Adam? So he came near and asked him
+saying, Are you Ibn Adam? He replied, I am. Then the Lion roared a
+fearful roar, and said, prepare for battle with the Lion, the king of
+beasts! Then Ibn Adam said: What do you want of me? Said the Lion, I
+want to devour you. Very well, said the Carpenter, wait until I can get
+my claws ready. I will go and take this wood yonder, and then I will
+return and fight you. If you kill me, eat me, and if I conquer you I
+will let you go, for we the sons of Adam do not eat the flesh of wild
+beasts, nor do we kill them, but we let them go. The Lion was deceived
+by those artful words, for he had seen the Camel and his companions
+running away, and he thought within himself, now, if Ibn Adam did really
+eat the flesh of beasts, he would not have let the Camel and the Horse,
+the Buffalo and the Mule escape into the desert. So he said to the
+Carpenter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span>very well, I will wait for you to take the wood, and return
+with your claws. Not so, said the Carpenter, I am afraid that you will
+not wait for me. You are a stranger, and I do not trust your word. I
+fear you will run away before I return. Said the Lion, it is impossible
+that the Lion should run away from any one. Said the Carpenter, I cannot
+admit what you say, unless you will grant me one thing. And what is
+that, said the Lion. The Carpenter said, I have here a little rope. Come
+let me tie you to this tree until I return, and then I shall know where
+to find you. The Lion agreed to this plan, and the Carpenter bound him
+with ropes to the tree until he and the tree were one compact bundle.
+Then the Carpenter went away to his shop, and brought his glue pot, and
+filling it with glue and pitch boiled it over the fire. Then he returned
+and besmeared the Lion with the boiling mixture from his head to the end
+of his tail, and applied a torch until he was all in a flame from head
+to tail, and in this plight the Carpenter left him. Then the Lion roared
+in agony until the whole forest echoed the savage roar, and all the
+animals and wild beasts came running together to see what had happened.
+And when they saw him in this sad plight, they rushed to him and loosed
+his bonds, and he sprang to the river and extinguished the flames, but
+came out singed and scarred, with neither hair nor mane. Now when all
+the beasts saw this pitiable sight, they made a covenant together to
+kill Ibn Adam. So they watched and waited day and night, until at length
+they found <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span>him in the forest. As soon as he saw them, he ran to a lofty
+tree, and climbed to its very top, taking only his adze with him, and
+there awaited his fate. The whole company of beasts now gathered around
+the foot of the tree, and tried in vain to climb it, and after they
+walked around and around, at length they agreed that one should stand at
+the foot of the tree, and another on his back, and so on, until the
+upper one should reach Ibn Adam, and throw him down to the ground. Now
+the Lion whose back was burned and blistered, from his great fear of man
+demanded that he should stand at the bottom of the tree. To this all
+agreed. Then the Camel mounted upon the Lion's back, the Horse upon the
+Camel, the Buffalo upon the Horse, the Bear upon the Buffalo, the Wolf
+upon the bear, and the Donkey upon the Wolf, and so on in order, until
+the topmost animal was almost within reach of the Carpenter, Ibn Adam.
+Now, when he saw the animals coming nearer and nearer, and almost ready
+to seize him, he shouted at the top of his voice. Bring the glue pot of
+boiling pitch to the Lion! Hasten! Hasten! Now when the Lion heard of
+the boiling pitch, he was terrified beyond measure and leaped one side
+with all his might and fled. Down came the pile of beasts, tumbling in
+confusion, the one upon the other, and all lay groaning bruised and
+bleeding, some with broken legs, some with broken ribs, and some with
+broken heads. But as soon as the clamor of their first agony was over,
+they all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span>called out to the Lion, why did you leap out and bring all
+this misery upon us! The Lion replied:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The story's point he never knew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who never felt the burning glue!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Monsoor, who has just been to Damascus, says that if he can have another
+pipe, and a cup of Arab coffee, he will tell the story of the famous Jew
+Rufaiel of Damascus. So he begins:</p>
+
+<p>The story of Rufaiel, the rich Jew of Damascus, and the Moslem Dervish.</p>
+
+<p>Once there lived in Damascus a rich Jew named Rufaiel. He had great
+wealth in marble palaces and rich silk robes, and well stored bazaars,
+and his wife and daughters were clad in velvets and satins, in gold and
+precious stones. He had also great wit and cunning, and often helped his
+fellow Jews out of their troubles. Now the Pasha of Damascus was a
+Mohammedan, who had a superstitious fear of the holy Moslem Dervishes,
+and they could persuade him to tax and oppress the Jews in the most
+cruel manner. In those days there came to Damascus a holy Dervish who
+had long, uncombed black hair, and although he was a vile and wicked
+man, he made the people believe that he was a holy saint, and could
+perform wonderful miracles. The Pasha held him in great reverence, and
+invited him often to dinner, and when he came in, he would stoop and
+kiss the Dervish's feet! And what was most wonderful of all, the Dervish
+left Damascus every Thursday night after bidding the Pasha farewell, and
+journeyed to Mecca <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span>and returned in the morning and told the Pasha all
+the Mecca news and what he had seen and heard. This he did every week,
+though all wise men laughed at him, and said he only went out of the
+City Gate and slept in the gardens of Damascus!</p>
+
+<p>Now the Dervish was a great enemy of the Jews. He hated them, cursed
+them, spat upon them, and called them infidel dogs, and he persuaded the
+Pasha to increase their taxes fourfold. Their sufferings now became very
+great. They had to sell their houses and furniture to pay the heavy
+taxes, and many were beaten and thrust into prison. So the leading Jews
+in their distress came to Rufaiel, and begged him to go to the Pasha and
+obtain relief for them and their families. He said he would think about
+the matter. So after they had gone, he called the chief jeweller and
+pipe maker of the city, and ordered them to make a long pipe of
+exquisite workmanship, with a stem of rosewood carved and inlaid with
+pearls, a bowl of pure gold set with diamonds, and a mouth-piece of gold
+and amber. Then he went one day to call on the Pasha, and made him a
+present of this elegant pipe, the like of which had never been seen in
+Damascus. The Pasha was greatly pleased and ordered all in his presence
+to retire that he might enjoy the society of Rufaiel, the munificent
+Jew. Then Rufaiel turned to the Pasha and said, "may your Excellency
+live forever! I have brought you this pipe as a faint token of my high
+esteem and affection, but I am filled with deepest sorrow that it is not
+perfect." "Not perfect?" said the Pasha. "In <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span>what respect could it be
+more perfect than what it is?" Said Rufaiel, "you will notice that
+between the amber and the gold of the mouth-piece a little ring is
+wanting. This ring was the very gem and excellence of the pipe. It was
+cut from the Black Stone of the Kaaba in Mecca, and has miraculous
+properties. But when the pipe was brought from Mecca, the ring was left
+with Mustafa, the jeweller, who is ready to send it by the first fit
+opportunity." "Alas," said the Pasha, "but how can we send for it now?
+The Pilgrim caravan has gone, and there will be none again for a year."
+"Oh," said Rufaiel, "this is easily arranged. To-day is Thursday, and
+to-night the holy Dervish will go to Mecca and return to-morrow morning.
+Your Excellency need only command him to bring the black ring, and
+before this time to-morrow the pipe will be complete in its beauty and
+excellency." "El Hamd&ucirc; Lillah! Praise to Allah! It shall be done!" So
+when Rufaiel had gone, the Pasha summoned the Dervish, and told him of
+this wonderful pipe which had come to him from Mecca, and that it only
+needed the black ring to make it absolutely perfect, and that he was
+hereby commanded on pain of death to bring the ring from Mecca before
+Friday at the hour of noon prayer. The Dervish bowed most obeisantly and
+retired black in the face with rage and despair. But it occurred to him
+at once that none in Damascus but Rufaiel could have purchased such a
+pipe. So he left the City Gate, called the Bab Allah, or Gate of God, at
+sunset, bidding his friends farewell, and walked away in the gardens
+until night came on.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> Then, at the sixth hour of the night he returned
+by another gate, and crept along to the door of the mansion of Rufaiel.
+The door was opened, and Rufaiel received him with great politeness. The
+Dervish fell on the floor and kissed his feet and begged for his life.
+Said he, "give me that black ring which belongs to the Pasha's pipe, and
+we will be friends forever! Ask what you will and it shall be done to
+you. Only give me this ring." Said Rufaiel, "you have ruined my people
+with oppression, and now do you ask a favor?" "Yes," said the Dervish,
+"and you shall have any favor you ask." So Rufaiel thought to himself a
+moment, and then said, "I ask one thing. Do you obtain from the Pasha an
+order on all the tax collectors of Damascus, that when any Jew shall
+say, <i>I am one of the Seventy</i>, the collector shall pass him by, and no
+tax ever be demanded of him." "Done," said the Dervish, and embracing
+Rufaiel, he bade him good-night. Then in the morning he hastened in at
+Bab Allah, and presented the ring to the Pasha, who was so delighted
+that he granted his request, and orders were given that no tax should
+ever be collected from any Jew who should say "I am one of the Seventy."
+Then Rufaiel assembled all the Jews of Damascus, and bade them say to
+the tax-gatherers whenever they came, "<i>I am one of the Seventy</i>." So
+the Jews had rest from taxation, all the days of Rufaiel.</p>
+
+<p>Saleh B&ucirc; Nusr, one of the best men in Mount Lebanon, and the father of
+Khalil, who brought us the list of Arab boys' games, has already told us
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span>story of the Goats and the Ghoul, and he says that the savory odor
+of the egg plant being cooked for the wedding guests, reminds him of the
+story of the Badinjan or Egg Plant.</p>
+
+<p>Once there was a great Emir or Prince who had a very abject and
+obsequious servant named Deeb (Wolf). One day Deeb brought to the Emir
+for his dinner a dish of stewed badinjan, which pleased the Emir so much
+that he complimented Deeb, and told him that it was the best dinner he
+had eaten for months. Deeb bowed to the earth and kissed the feet of the
+Emir, and said, "may God prolong the life of your excellency! Your
+excellency knows what is good. There is nothing like the badinjan. It is
+the best of vegetables. Its fruit is good, its leaf is good, its stalk
+is good, and its root is good. It is good roasted, stewed, boiled,
+fried, and even raw. It is good for old and young. Your excellency,
+there is nothing like the badinjan." Now the Emir was unusually hungry,
+and ate so bountifully of the badinjan that he was made very ill. So he
+sent for Deeb, and rebuked him sharply, saying, "you rascal, you Deeb,
+your name is Wolf, and you are rightly named. This badinjan which you
+praised so highly has almost killed me." "Exactly so," said Deeb, "may
+your excellency live forever! The badinjan is the vilest of plants. It
+is never eaten without injury. Its fruit is injurious, its leaf is
+injurious, its stalk is noxious, and its root is the vilest of all. It
+is not fit 'ajell shanak Allah,' for the pigs to eat, whether raw,
+roasted, stewed, boiled or fried. It is injurious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span>to the young and
+dangerous to the old. Your excellency, there is nothing so bad as the
+badinjan! Never touch the badinjan!"&mdash;"Out with you, you worthless
+fellow, you Deeb! What do you mean by praising the badinjan when I
+praise it, and abusing it when it injures me?" "Ah, your excellency,"
+said Deeb, "am I the servant of the badinjan, or the servant of your
+excellency? I must say what pleases you, but it makes no difference
+whether I please the badinjan or not."</p>
+
+<p>The wedding party is now over, and the guests are departing. Each one on
+leaving says, "by your pleasure, good evening!" The host answers, "go in
+peace, you have honored us." The guests reply, "we have been honored,
+Allah give the newly married ones an arees," (a bridegroom). They would
+not dare wish that Shaheen and Hand&ucirc;meh might some day have a little
+baby <i>girl</i>. That would be thought an insult.</p>
+
+<p>We will walk up the hill to our mountain home, passing the fountain and
+the great walnut trees. Here comes a horseman. It is Ali, who has been
+spending a month among the Bedawin Arabs. He will come up and stay with
+us, and tell us of his adventures. He says that the Sit Harba, the wife
+of the great Arab Sheikh ed Dukhy, taught him a number of the Bedawin
+Nursery Songs, and although he is weary with his journey, he will repeat
+some of them in Arabic.</p>
+
+<p>They are all about camels and spears and fighting and similar subjects,
+and no wonder, as they see nothing else, and think of nothing else.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span></p><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">To-morrow is the feast day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We've no "henna" on our hands;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our camels went to bring it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From far off distant lands;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We'll rise by night and listen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The camel bells will ring;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And say a thousand welcomes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To those who "henna" bring.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And here is a song which shows that the Bedawin have the same habit of
+cursing their enemies, which we noticed in the Druze lullabys:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">On the rose and sweetest myrtle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May you sleep, my eyes, my boy;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But may sharpest thorns and briars,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All your enemies destroy!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Ali says that one of the most mournful songs he heard in the desert was
+the following:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I am like a wounded camel,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I grind my teeth in pain;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My load is great and heavy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am tottering again.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My back is torn and bleeding,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My wound is past relief,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And what is harder still to bear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">None other knows my grief!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next is a song which the people sung in the villages on the borders
+of the desert. By "the sea" they mean the Sea of Galilee:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My companions three,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were fishing by the sea;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Arabs captured one,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Koords took his brother,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In one land was I,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My friends were in another.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span><span class="i0">I was left to moan,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In sorrow deep and sad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like a camel all alone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Departing to Baghdad;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My soul I beg you tell me whether,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Once parted friends e'er met together?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The Bedawin have as low an idea of girls as the Bedawin in the cities,
+and are very glad when a boy is born. Sometimes when the Abeih girls are
+playing together, you will hear a little girl call out, "it is very
+small indeed. Why it is a little wee thing, as small as was the
+rejoicing the day I was born!" But hear what the Bedawin women sing when
+a boy is born:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Mashallah, a boy, a <i>boy</i>!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May Allah's eye defend him!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May she who sees and says not <i>the Name</i>,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Be smitten with blindness and die in shame!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>How would you like to live among the Bedawin, and have a dusky Arab
+woman, clad in coarse garments, covered with vermin and odorous of
+garlic and oil, to sing you to sleep on a mat on the ground?</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hasten my cameleer, where are you going?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is eventide, and the camels are lowing:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My house in a bundle I bear on my back,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whenever night comes, I my bundle unpack.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next is a song of the pastoral Arabs:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hasten my guide and lead us away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For we have fought and lost the day;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To the well we went all thirsty and worn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The well was dry! and we slept forlorn.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span><span class="i0">The Bedawin came in battle array,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Attacked us all famished at break of day<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And took all our camels and tents away!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Death enters the Bedawin tents as well as the palaces of kings and the
+comfortable homes of the people in Christian lands. But what desolation
+it leaves behind in those dark sorrowing hearts, who know nothing of the
+love of Jesus and the consolations of the gospel. This is a funeral song
+the poor Bedawin women sing over the death of a child:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh hasten my camel, begone, begone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh haste where your loved ones stay:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There weep and lament. There my "spirit" is gone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is gone to a night without day:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh Star of the Morning, thou Star of the day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Star of the Evening, both hasten away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And bring me a balm for my wounded heart,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For I from my child, my "spirit" must part.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Soon may the "day dawn, and the day star arise" in their dark hearts,
+and Jesus the "Bright and Morning Star" be their portion forever!</p>
+
+<p>The next song is about the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Thousands of Greeks,
+Armenians and Catholics go to Jerusalem every year to visit the "Holy
+Places," and get a certificate of the pardon of all their sins. The
+Greek Patriarch performs a lying imposture called the Holy Fire every
+year at Greek Easter, by lighting a candle with a match inside a dark
+room, and declaring that it is miraculously lighted by fire which comes
+forth from the tomb of Christ! So the poor Greek woman sings to her
+child:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span></p><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh take me on a pilgrimage,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Jerusalem to see:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Tomb of Christ and Holy fire,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Hill of Calvary:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And then I'll to the Convent go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ask pardon for my sin:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And say, my Lady, now forgive,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And comfort me again.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next is really beautiful, and is good enough for any mother to sing
+to her child. It is a morning song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Praise to Him who brings the light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And keeps the birds in darkest night.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">God is merciful to all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rise ye men and on Him call!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Allah praise in every lot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He keeps you and you know it not.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And this one too, about the little worms, is curious enough:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Praise to Him who feeds the worms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the silent vale!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Provides their portion every day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Protects them in the dangerous way.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No doubt they praise Him too, and pray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the silent vale!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>When our good friend Yusef, whom we saw in Safita, asked the Nusair&icirc;yeh
+women to repeat to him their nursery rhymes, they denied that they had
+any. They were afraid to recite them, lest he write them down and use
+them as a magic spell or charm against them. When a child is born among
+them, no one is allowed to take a coal or spark of fire from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span>house
+for a week, lest the child be injured. They always hang a little coin
+around the child's neck to keep off eruptions and diseases from its
+body.</p>
+
+<p>You must be weary by this time, after Handumeh's wedding and the story
+telling and the Bedawin songs. Let us retire to rest for the night,
+thankful for the precious Bible, and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. You
+are safe indeed in the hands of God, and need not fear the Ghoul nor the
+Bah'oo. Good night.</p>
+
+<p>Such is life. Yesterday a wedding, and to-day a funeral. Do you hear
+that terrific wail, those shrieks and bitter cries of anguish? Young
+Sheikh Milham has died. The Druze and Christian women are gathered in
+the house, and wailing together in the most piteous manner. It is
+dreadful to think what sufferings the poor women must endure. They do
+everything possible to excite one another. They not only call out,
+"Milham, my pride, my bridegroom, star of my life, you have set, my
+flower, you have faded," but they remind each other of all the deaths
+that have occurred in their various families for years, and thus open
+old wounds of sorrow which time had healed. Yet they have regular
+funeral songs, and we will listen while they sing in a mournful strain:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Milham Beg my warrior,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your spear is burnished gold;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Your costly robes and trappings,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Will in the street be sold.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Where is the Beg who bore me?"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I hear the armor crying&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where is the lord who wore me?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I hear the garments sighing.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span></p><p>Now Im Hassein from Ainab bursts out in a loud song, addressing the
+dead body, around which they are all seated on the ground:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Rise up my lord, gird on your sword,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of heavy Baalbec steel;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why leave it hanging on the nail?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let foes its temper feel!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Would that the Pasha's son had died,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not our Barmakeh's son and pride!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then Lemis answers in another song in which they all join:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ten thousands are thronging together,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Beg has a feast to-day;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We thought he had gone on a visit,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But alas, he has gone to stay.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then they all scream, and tear their hair and beat their breasts. Alas,
+they have no light beyond the grave. Who could expect them to do
+otherwise? The Apostle Paul urges the Christians "not to sorrow even as
+others which have no hope!" This is sorrow without hope. The grave is
+all dark to them. How we should thank our Saviour for having cast light
+on the darkness of the tomb, and given us great consolation in our
+sorrows! Here comes a procession of women from Kefr Metta. Hear them
+chanting:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I saw the mourners thronging round,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I saw the beds thrown on the ground;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The marble columns leaning,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The wooden beams careening,<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My lord and Sheikh with flowing tears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I asked what was its meaning?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He sadly beckoned me aside,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And said, To-day <i>my son</i> has died!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then an old woman, a widow, who has been reminded of the death of her
+husband, calls out to him:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, Sheikh, have you gone to the land?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then give my salams to my boy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He has gone on a long, long journey,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And took neither clothing nor toy.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah, what will he wear on the feast days,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When the people their festal enjoy?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Now one of the women addresses the corpse:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Lord of the wide domain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All praise of you is true.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The women of your hareem,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Are dressed in mourning blue.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then one sings the mother's wail:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My tears are consuming my heart,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How can I from him bear to part.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh raven of death, tell me why,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You betrayed me and left him to die?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh raven of death begone!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You falsely betrayed my son!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh Milham, I beg you to tell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Why you've gone to the valley to dwell?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From far, far away I have come,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who will come now to take me back home?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then rises such a wail as you never heard before. A hundred women all
+screaming together and then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span>men are coming to take it away. The women
+hug and kiss the corpse, and try to pull it back, while the men drive
+them off, and carry it out to the bier. Some of the women faint away,
+and a piercing shriek arises. Then you hear the mother's wail again.</p>
+
+<p>Then one sings the call of the dead man for help:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh ransom me, buy me, my friends to-day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Tis a costly ransom you'll have to pay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh ransom me, father, whate'er they demand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though they take all your money and houses and land.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And another sings his address to the grave-diggers:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh cease, grave-diggers, my feelings you shock,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I forbade you to dig, you have dug to the rock;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I bade you dig little, you have dug so deep!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When his father's not here, will you lay him to sleep?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Then a poor woman who has lately buried a young daughter begins to sing:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh bride! on the roofs of heaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come now and look over the wall:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh let your sad mother but see you,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh let her not vainly call!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hasten, her heart is breaking,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let her your smile behold;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The mother is sadly weeping,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The maiden is still and cold.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The Druzes believe that millions of Druzes live in China and that China
+is a kind of heaven. So another woman sings:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span></p><div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Yullah, now my lady, happy is your state!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Happy China's people, when you reached the gate!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lady, you are passing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To the palace bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All the stars surpassing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On the brow of night!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And now the body is taken to be buried, and the women return to the
+house, where the wailing is kept up for days and weeks. They have many
+other funeral songs, of which I will give two in conclusion:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ye Druzes, gird on your swords,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A great one is dead to-day;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Arabs came down upon us,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They thought us in battle array,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But they wept when they found us mourning,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For our leader has gone away!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next is the lament of the mother over her dead son:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The sun is set, the tents are rolled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Happy the mother whose lambs are in fold;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But one who death's dark sorrow knew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let her go to the Nile of indigo blue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And dye her robes a mourning hue!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And now, my dear boy, our Syrian journey is ended. You have seen and
+heard many strange things. Whatever is good among the Arabs, try to
+imitate; whatever is evil, avoid. Perhaps you will write to me some day,
+and tell me what you think of Syria and the Syrians. Many little boys
+and girls will read this long letter, but it is your letter, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span>and I have
+written it for your instruction and amusement.</p>
+
+<p>May the good Shepherd, who gave His life for the sheep, lead you beside
+the still waters of life, and at last when He shall appear, may He give
+you a crown of glory which fadeth not away!</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent">THE END</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2>
+
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Arabs of the Jahiliyeh, <a href="#Page_1">1</a><br />
+<br />
+Arabs of Kinaneh, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Arabic Proverbs, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Araman, Michaiel, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br />
+<br />
+As&icirc;n Haddad, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
+<br />
+Abu Selim, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a><br />
+<br />
+Abu Mishrik, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br />
+<br />
+Aleppo, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br />
+<br />
+Asur el Jedid, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br />
+<br />
+American Seminary Abeih, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br />
+<br />
+Anazy, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br />
+<br />
+Arthington, Mr., <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br />
+<br />
+Ali, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a><br />
+<br />
+Amount of Instruction, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a><br />
+<br />
+Abdullah Yanni, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br />
+<br />
+Aintab, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br />
+<br />
+Abu Asaad, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a><br />
+<br />
+Abu Isbir, <a href="#Page_281">281</a><br />
+<br />
+Arab Camp, <a href="#Page_295">295</a><br />
+<br />
+Abdullamites, <a href="#Page_298">298</a><br />
+<br />
+Arkites, <a href="#Page_262">262</a><br />
+<br />
+Abu Hanna, <a href="#Page_263">263</a><br />
+<br />
+Asaad Mishrik, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Burying Alive, <a href="#Page_1">1</a><br />
+<br />
+Birth of Daughter, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a><br />
+<br />
+B'hamd&ucirc;n, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br />
+<br />
+Bliss, Mrs. Dr., <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+<br />
+Booth, Wm. A., <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br />
+<br />
+Bird, Rev., <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
+<br />
+Bistany, Mr., <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br />
+<br />
+Bedr, Rev. Yusef, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br />
+<br />
+Belinda, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br />
+<br />
+Bedawin Arabs, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br />
+<br />
+British Syrian Schools, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br />
+<br />
+Beattie, Rev., <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br />
+<br />
+Bird, Mrs., <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Beit Beshoor, <a href="#Page_274">274</a><br />
+<br />
+Bells, <a href="#Page_304">304</a><br />
+<br />
+Bedawin Songs, <a href="#Page_360">360</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Carabet Melita, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br />
+<br />
+Cheney, Miss, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br />
+<br />
+Carruth, Miss, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+<br />
+Calhoun, Mrs., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a><br />
+<br />
+Crawford, Mrs., <a href="#Page_204">204</a><br />
+<br />
+Church of Scotland Schools for Jewish Girls, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br />
+<br />
+Carabet, Bishop Dionysius, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Convent of the Sacred Fish, <a href="#Page_296">296</a><br />
+<br />
+Camels, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Divorce, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br />
+<br />
+Druze, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+<br />
+Dodds, Dr., <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+De Forrest, Dr., <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a><br />
+<br />
+Dales, Miss, <a href="#Page_204">204</a><br />
+<br />
+Department of Women's Work, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br />
+<br />
+Dodge, Dr., <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Dodge, Mrs., <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
+<br />
+Dog River, <a href="#Page_312">312</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+El Khunsa, the poetess, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Education of Girls, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Everett, Miss, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br />
+<br />
+Early Age of Marriage, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br />
+<br />
+Eddy, Mr., <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br />
+<br />
+El Hakem, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br />
+<br />
+Evil Eye, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Female Prayer-Meeting, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br />
+<br />
+Ford, Mr., <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a><br />
+<br />
+French Lazarist School, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br />
+<br />
+Francis Effendi Merrash, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br />
+<br />
+Fast of Ramadan, <a href="#Page_306">306</a><br />
+<br />
+Feller's Soap, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br />
+<br />
+Funerals, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a><br />
+<br />
+Female Seminary, Beir&ucirc;t, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br />
+<br />
+Fruits, <a href="#Page_255">255</a><br />
+<br />
+Fisk, Rev. Pliny, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Greek School Suk el Ghurb, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br />
+<br />
+Ghubrin Jebara, <a href="#Page_173">173</a><br />
+<br />
+Goodell, Mrs., <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Games, <a href="#Page_319">319</a><br />
+<br />
+Greek Priests, <a href="#Page_259">259</a><br />
+<br />
+Goodell, Dr., <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Houris, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
+<br />
+Hamz&eacute;, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br />
+<br />
+Hala of Abeih, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
+<br />
+Hamm&ucirc;d, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+Hums, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br />
+<br />
+Hassan, <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br />
+<br />
+Hicks, Miss, <a href="#Page_206">206</a><br />
+<br />
+Howe, Fisher, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br />
+<br />
+Haj Ibraham, <a href="#Page_297">297</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Ishoc, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a><br />
+<br />
+Irish-American United Presbyterian Mission in Damascus, <a href="#Page_204">204</a><br />
+<br />
+Ishmaelitic Songs, <a href="#Page_326">326</a><br />
+<br />
+Imprecations, <a href="#Page_326">326</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span>Johnson, Miss, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br />
+<br />
+Jacombs, Miss, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br />
+<br />
+Jackson, Miss Ellen, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+<br />
+Jenan, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
+<br />
+Jenneh, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br />
+<br />
+Jeneineh, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br />
+<br />
+Jesuit School Ghuzir, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br />
+<br />
+Job, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Khozma Ata, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
+<br />
+Katrina Subra, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+Koukab es Subah, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br />
+<br />
+Koran, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a><br />
+<br />
+Khalil Effendi, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br />
+<br />
+Khalil Ferah, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><br />
+<br />
+King, Dr. Jonas, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Latakiah Boarding School, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
+<br />
+Loring, Miss Sophia, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+<br />
+Luciya, Shekkur, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
+<br />
+Lyde, Mr., <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+Lying, <a href="#Page_284">284</a><br />
+<br />
+Lullaby, <a href="#Page_294">294</a><br />
+<br />
+Letters, <a href="#Page_311">311</a><br />
+<br />
+Lokunda, <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Moslem Paradise for Women, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
+<br />
+Moslem Idea of Women, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+<br />
+Moulah Hakem, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a><br />
+<br />
+Massacres of 1860, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><br />
+<br />
+Marriage Ceremony of Druzes, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br />
+<br />
+Marie, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
+<br />
+Maronites, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br />
+<br />
+Mason, Miss, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br />
+<br />
+Meshakah, Dr., <a href="#Page_118">118</a><br />
+<br />
+Miriam the Aleppine, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br />
+<br />
+Modern Syrian Views, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br />
+<br />
+Moslem Schools, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a><br />
+<br />
+Miss Taylor's School Moslem Girls, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br />
+<br />
+Methak en Nissa, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
+<br />
+Metheny, Dr., <a href="#Page_40">40</a><br />
+<br />
+Manger, <a href="#Page_265">265</a><br />
+<br />
+Missionary Stations, <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br />
+<br />
+Miriam, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a><br />
+<br />
+Monasteries, <a href="#Page_309">309</a><br />
+<br />
+Marriage, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br />
+<br />
+Mohammed ed Dukhy, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Naman, King of Hira, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Nusair&icirc;yeh, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
+<br />
+Nusair&icirc;yeh Women, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><br />
+<br />
+Nejm, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
+<br />
+Naame Tabet, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br />
+<br />
+Nowar, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><br />
+<br />
+Nursery Songs, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br />
+<br />
+Names, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Othman, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Okkal, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
+<br />
+Oulad el Arab, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Poetesses of Arabs, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Position of Woman in Mohammedan World, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br />
+<br />
+Prussian Deaconess' Institute Beir&ucirc;t, <a href="#Page_206">206</a><br />
+<br />
+Post, Dr., <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
+<br />
+Praying, <a href="#Page_305">305</a><br />
+<br />
+Parsons, Rev. Levi, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Qualifications for Missionaries, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Rak&acirc;sh, the Poetess, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Rufka, Gregory, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a><br />
+<br />
+Resha, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
+<br />
+Raheel, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br />
+<br />
+Ruella Arabs, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Sa Saah, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Schwire, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
+<br />
+Sheikh Owad, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br />
+<br />
+Sheikh Said el Ghur, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Sheikh Khottar, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Sheikh Mohammed ed Dukhy, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a><br />
+<br />
+Sheikh Aiub el Hashem, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br />
+<br />
+Sitt Abla, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br />
+<br />
+Syrian Christianity, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br />
+<br />
+Stale of Mission in 1828, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;1834, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;1841, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;1846, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;1852, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;1864, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Seclusion of Oriental Females, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br />
+<br />
+Sada Gregory, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br />
+<br />
+Superstitions, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+Sada Barakat, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br />
+<br />
+Stanton, Miss, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br />
+<br />
+Sada el Haleby, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
+<br />
+Sara Bistany, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br />
+<br />
+Smith, Dr., <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Sarkis, Mr. Ibraham, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Sulleba Jerwan, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
+<br />
+Sara Huntington Bistany, <a href="#Page_157">157</a><br />
+<br />
+Sitt Mariana Merrash, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br />
+<br />
+Sitt Wustina Mesirra, <a href="#Page_165">165</a><br />
+<br />
+Schools of Syria, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
+<br />
+Sitt Harba, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a><br />
+<br />
+Safita, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br />
+<br />
+Seven Arbitrary Pillars of the Law, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br />
+<br />
+Suggestions to Friends of Missions, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br />
+<br />
+Sidon Female Seminary, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br />
+<br />
+Saad-ed-Deen, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Sphere and Mode of Woman's Work, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br />
+<br />
+Syed Abdullah, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br />
+<br />
+Swine, <a href="#Page_306">306</a><br />
+<br />
+Story of the Goats and the Ghoul, <a href="#Page_343">343</a><br />
+<br />
+Story of the Hamam, Butta, etc., <a href="#Page_346">346</a><br />
+<br />
+Story of the Lion and Ibn Adam, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br />
+<br />
+Story of the Jew Rufaiel, <a href="#Page_354">354</a><br />
+<br />
+Story of the Badinjan, <a href="#Page_358">358</a><br />
+<br />
+Shepherds, <a href="#Page_313">313</a><br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum indent'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span>Swearing, <a href="#Page_240">240</a><br />
+<br />
+Soum el Kebir, <a href="#Page_260">260</a><br />
+<br />
+Smith, Mrs., <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br />
+<br />
+Syrian School-Houses, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Tribe of Tem&icirc;m, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Triangle of Solomon, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br />
+<br />
+Temple, Miss, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br />
+<br />
+Thomson, Dr., <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br />
+<br />
+Thomson, Miss Emilia, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+<br />
+Tod, Mrs. Alexander, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br />
+<br />
+Thompson, Mrs. Bowen, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br />
+<br />
+Thomson, Mrs., <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br />
+<br />
+Telegraph, <a href="#Page_310">310</a><br />
+<br />
+Tilden, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Van Dyck, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
+<br />
+Value Set on Woman's Life, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Wahidy, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br />
+<br />
+Women's Work, 1820 to 1872, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br />
+<br />
+Wortabet, Salome, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+<br />
+Whittlesey, Mrs. A.&nbsp;L., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+Watson, Mrs., <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a><br />
+<br />
+Women's Boards of Missions, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+<br />
+Whiting, Mrs., <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+<br />
+Wilson, Rev. D.&nbsp;M., <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
+<br />
+Werdeh, <a href="#Page_156">156</a><br />
+<br />
+Wortabet, Rev. John, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br />
+<br />
+Whiting, Rev., <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br />
+<br />
+Waly, <a href="#Page_291">291</a><br />
+<br />
+Wortabet, Gregory, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br />
+<br />
+Williams, Miss Rebecca, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Yusef Jedid, <a href="#Page_40">40</a><br />
+<br />
+Yusef Ahtiyeh, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a><br />
+<br />
+Yanni, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a><br />
+<br />
+Yusef Keram, <a href="#Page_301">301</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+Zarifeh, the Poetess, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Zeyarehs, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a><br />
+<br />
+Zahara, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+Zarify, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
+<br />
+Zahidy, <a href="#Page_287">287</a><br />
+</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3 class="left">Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+<p class="noindent">
+Replaced "Beirut" with "Beir&ucirc;t" for consistency throughout the book.<br />
+Replaced "Nusairiyeh" with "Nusair&icirc;yeh" for consistency throughout the  book.<br />
+<a href="#Page_147">Page 147</a>: Added opening parenthesis before "etc., etc."<br />
+<a href="#Page_206">Page 206</a>: Changed Aitah to Aitath.<br />
+<a href="#Page_273">Page 273</a>: Changed Inshallah to Inshullah.<br />
+<a href="#Page_311">Page 311</a>: Changed Mushullah to Mashallah.<br />
+<a href="#Page_370">Page 370</a>: Changed Abdulla Yanni to Abdullah Yanni.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Women of the Arabs, by Henry Harris Jessup
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Women of the Arabs, by Henry Harris Jessup
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Women of the Arabs
+
+Author: Henry Harris Jessup
+
+Editor: C.S. Robinson and Isaac Riley
+
+Release Date: December 11, 2005 [EBook #17278]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Stacy Brown Thellend,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of
+public domain works from the University of Michigan Digital
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WOMEN
+
+OF
+
+THE ARABS.
+
+
+_WITH A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN._
+
+
+BY
+
+
+Rev. HENRY HARRIS JESSUP, D.D.,
+
+_Seventeen years American Missionary in Syria._
+
+
+EDITED BY
+Rev. C.S. ROBINSON, D.D., & Rev. ISAAC RILEY.
+
+
+"The threshold weeps forty days when a girl is born."
+--_Mt. Lebanon Proverb._
+
+
+NEW YORK:
+DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS.
+
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873, by
+DODD & MEAD,
+in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
+
+
+
+
+_THIS BOOK_
+
+IS DEDICATED TO THE
+
+CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF AMERICA.
+
+
+
+
+                              Beirut, Syria, _July, 1873_.
+
+        _Owing to the impossibility of my attending personally to the
+    editing of this volume, I requested my old friends_, Rev. C.S.
+    Robinson, D.D., _and_ Rev. Isaac Riley, _of New York, to superintend
+    the work, and would gratefully acknowledge their kind and
+    disinterested aid, cheerfully proffered at no little sacrifice of
+    time._
+
+                                                  H.H. JESSUP.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The Orient is the birthplace of prophecy. Before the advent of our Lord,
+the very air of the East was resounding with the "unconscious prophecies
+of heathenism." Men were in expectation of great changes in the earth.
+When Mohammed arose, he not only claimed to be the deliverer of a
+message inspired of Allah, but to foretell the events of futurity. He
+declared that the approach of the latter day could be distinguished by
+unmistakable signs, among which were two of the most notable character.
+
+Before the latter day, the _sun shall rise in the West_, and God will
+send forth a cold odoriferous wind blowing from _Syria Damascena_, which
+shall _sweep away_ the souls of all the faithful, and _the Koran
+itself_. What the world of Islam takes in its literal sense, we may take
+in a deeper spiritual meaning. Is it not true, that far in the West, the
+gospel sun began to rise and shed its beams on Syria, many years ago,
+and that in our day that cold odoriferous wind of truth and life,
+fragrant with the love of Jesus and the love of man, is beginning to
+blow from Syria Damascena, over all the Eastern world! The church and
+the school, the printing press and the translated Bible, the periodical
+and the ponderous volume, the testimony of living witnesses for the
+truth, and of martyrs who have died in its defence, all combine to sweep
+away the systems of error, whether styled Christian, Moslem or Pagan.
+
+The remarkable uprising of christian women in Christian lands to a new
+interest in the welfare of woman in heathen and Mohammedan countries, is
+one of the great events of the present century. This book is meant to be
+a memorial of the early laborers in Syria, nearly all of whom have
+passed away. It is intended also as a record of the work done for women
+and girls of the Arab race; to show some of the great results which have
+been reached and to stimulate to new zeal and effort in their behalf.
+
+In tracing the history of this work, it seemed necessary to describe the
+condition of woman in Syria when the missionaries first arrived, and to
+examine the different religious systems, which affect her position.
+
+In preparing the chapter on the Pre-Islamic Arabs, I have found valuable
+materials in Chenery's Hariri, Sales and Rodwell's Koran, and Freytag's
+Arabic Proverbs.
+
+For the facts about the Druze religion, I have consulted Col.
+Churchill's Works, Mount Lebanon, and several Arabic manuscripts in the
+mission library in Beirut.
+
+Rev. S. Lyde's interesting book called the "Asian Mystery," has given me
+the principal items with regard to the Nusairiyeh religion. This
+confirms the statements of Suleiman Effendi, whose tract, revealing the
+secrets of the Nusairiyeh faith, was printed years ago at the Mission
+Press in Beirut, and translated by that ripe Arabic Scholar Prof. E.
+Salisbury of New Haven. The bloody Nusairiyeh never forgave Suleiman for
+revealing their mysteries; and having invited him to a feast in a
+village near Adana, 1871, brutally buried him alive in a dunghill!
+
+For the historical statements of this volume, I am indebted to the files
+of the Missionary Herald, the Annual Reports of the Syria Mission, the
+archives of the mission in Beirut, the memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith,
+and private letters from Mrs. Whiting, Mrs. De Forest, and various
+missionary and native friends.
+
+Information on the general work of the Syrian Mission may be found in
+Dr. Anderson's "Missions to the Oriental churches," Rev. Isaac Bird's
+"Bible Work in Bible Lands," and the pamphlet sketches of Rev. T. Laurie
+and Rev. James S. Dennis.
+
+The specimens of poetry from ancient Arabic poetesses, have been
+gathered from printed and manuscript volumes, and from the lips of the
+people.
+
+Some accounts of child life in Syria and specimens of Oriental stories
+and nursery rhymes have been gathered into a "Children's Chapter." They
+have a value higher than that which is given by mere entertainment as
+they exhibit many phases of Arab home life. The illustrations of the
+volume consist of drawings from photographs by Bergheim of Jerusalem and
+Bonfils of Beirut.
+
+The pages of Arabic were electrotyped in Beirut by Mr. Samuel Hallock,
+the skilful superintendent of the American Press.
+
+I send out this record of the work carried on in Syria with deep
+gratitude for all that the Lord has done, and with an ardent desire that
+it may be the means of bringing this great field more vividly before the
+minds of Christian people, of wakening warmer devotion to the missionary
+cause, and so of hastening the time when every Arab woman shall enjoy
+the honor, and be worthy of the elevation which come with faith in Him
+who was first foretold as the seed of the woman.
+
+                                        HENRY HARRIS JESSUP.
+Beirut, Syria, Nov. 28, 1872.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+                                                             PAGE
+_State of Women among the Arabs of the Jahiliyeh,
+or the "Times of the Ignorance."_                               1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+_State of Women in the Mohammedan World._                       7
+
+CHAPTER III.
+_The Druze Religion and Druze Women._                          20
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+_Nusairiyeh._                                                  35
+
+CHAPTER V.
+_Chronicle of Women's Work from 1820 to 1872._                 45
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+_Mrs. Whiting's School._                                       57
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+_Dr. De Forest's Work in Beirut._                              73
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+_Re-opening of the School in Beirut._                          97
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+_Luciya Shekkur._                                             114
+
+CHAPTER X.
+_Raheel._                                                     120
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+_Hums._                                                       140
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+_Miriam the Aleppine._                                        151
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+_Modern Syrian Views with regard to Female Education._        158
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+_Bedawin Arabs._                                              180
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+_Woman between Barbarism and Civilization._                   191
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+_Opinions of Protestant Syrians with regard to the
+Work of American Women in Syria._                             200
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+_Other Labors for Women and Girls in this Field._             204
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+_The Amount of Biblical Instruction given in Mission
+Schools._                                                     215
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+_The Children's Chapter._                                     233
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+STATE OF WOMEN AMONG THE ARABS OF THE JAHILIYEH, OR THE "TIMES OF THE
+IGNORANCE."
+
+
+In that eloquent Sura of the Koran, called Ettekwir, (lxxxi.) it is
+said, "When the _girl buried alive_ shall be asked for what sin she was
+slain." The passage no doubt refers to the cruel practice which still in
+Mohammed's time lingered among the tribe of Temim, and which was
+afterwards eradicated by the influence of Islam. The origin of this
+practice has been ascribed to the superstitious rite of sacrificing
+children, common in remote times to all the Semites, and observed by the
+Jews up to the age of the Captivity, as we learn from the denunciations
+of Jeremiah. But in later times daughters were buried alive as a matter
+of household economy, owing to the poverty of many of the tribes, and to
+their fear of dishonor, since women were often carried off by their
+enemies in forays, and made slaves and concubines to strangers.
+
+So that at a wedding, the wish expressed in the gratulations to the
+newly-married pair was, "with concord and sons," or "with concord and
+permanence; with sons and no daughters." This same salutation is
+universal in Syria now. The chief wish expressed by women to a bride is,
+"may God give you an arees," _i.e._ a bridegroom son.
+
+In the Koran, Sura xiv, Mohammed argues against the Arabs of Kinaneh,
+who said that the angels were the daughters of God. "They
+(blasphemously) attribute daughters to God; yet they _wish them not for
+themselves_. When a female child is announced to one of them, his face
+grows dark, and he is as though he would choke."
+
+The older Arab Proverbs show that the burying alive of female children
+was deemed praiseworthy.
+
+     "To send women before to the other world, is a benefit."
+
+     "The best son-in-law is the grave."
+
+The Koran also says, that certain men when hearing of the birth of a
+daughter hide themselves "from the people because of the ill-tidings;
+shall he keep it with disgrace, or bury it in the dust." (Sura xvi.)
+
+It is said that the only occasion on which Othman ever shed a tear, was
+when his little daughter, whom he was burying alive, wiped the dust of
+the grave-earth from his beard!
+
+Before the Seventh Century this practice seems to have been gradually
+abandoned, but was retained the longest in the tribe of Temim. Naman,
+king of Hira, carried off among his prisoners in a foray, the daughter
+of Kais, chief of Temim, who fell in love with one of her captors and
+refused to return to her tribe, whereupon her father swore to bury alive
+all his future female children, which he did, to the number of ten.
+
+Subsequent to this, rich men would buy the lives of girls devoted to
+inhumation, and Sa Saah thus rescued many, in one case giving two milch
+camels to buy the life of a new-born girl, and he was styled "the
+Reviver of the Maidens buried alive."
+
+The following Arabic Proverbs having reference to women and girls _will
+illustrate_ the ancient Arab ideas with regard to their character and
+position, better than volumes of historic discourse:
+
+     "Obedience to women will have to be repented of."
+
+     "A man can bear anything but the mention of his women."
+
+     "The heart of woman is given to folly."
+
+     "Leave not a girl nor a green pasture unguarded."
+
+     "What has a girl to do with the councils of a nation?"
+
+     "If you would marry a beauty, pay her dowry."
+
+     "Fear not to praise the man whose wives are true to him."
+
+     "Woman fattens on what she hears." (flattery)
+
+     "Women are the whips of Satan."
+
+     "If you would marry a girl, inquire about the traits of her
+     mother."
+
+     "Trust neither a king, a horse, nor a woman. For the king is
+     fastidious, the horse prone to run away, and the woman is
+     perfidious."
+
+     "My father does the fighting, and my mother the talking about it."
+
+     "Our mother forbids us to err and runs into error."
+
+     "Alas for the people who are ruled by a woman!"
+
+The position of woman among the Arabs before the times of Mohammed can
+be easily inferred from what has preceded. But there is another side to
+the picture. Although despised and abused, woman often asserted her
+dignity and maintained her rights, not only by physical force, but by
+intellectual superiority as well. The poetesses of the Arabs are
+numerous, and some of them hold a high rank. Their poetry was impromptu,
+impassioned, and chiefly of the elegiac and erotic type. The faculty of
+improvisation was cultivated even by the most barbarous tribes, and
+although such of their poetry as has been preserved is mostly a kind of
+rhymed prose, it often contains striking and beautiful thoughts. They
+called improvised poetry "the daughter of the hour."
+
+The queen of Arabic poetesses is El Khunsa, who flourished in the days
+of Mohammed. Elegies on her two warrior brothers Sakhr and Mu'awiyeh are
+among the gems of ancient Arabic poetry. She was not what would be
+called in modern times a refined or delicate lady, being regarded as
+proud and masculine in temper even by the Arabs of her own age. In the
+eighth year of the Hegira, her son Abbas brought a thousand warriors to
+join the forces of the Prophet. She came with him and recited her poetry
+to Mohammed. She lamented her brother for years. She sang of Sakhr:
+
+    "His goodness is known by his brotherly face,
+    Thrice blessed such sign of a heavenly grace:
+    You would think from his aspect of meekness and shame,
+    That his anger was stirred at the thought of his fame.
+    Oh rare virtue and beautiful, natural trait,
+    Which never will change by the change of estate!
+    When clad in his armor and prepared for the fray,
+    The army rejoiceth and winneth the day!"
+
+Again, she lamented him as follows:
+
+    "Each glorious rising sun brings Sakhr to my mind,
+    I think anew of him when sets the orb of day;
+    And had I not beheld the grief and sorrow blind
+    Of many mourning ones o'er brothers snatched away,
+    I should have slain myself, from deep and dark despair."
+
+The poet Nabighah erected for her a red leather tent at the fair of
+Okaz, in token of honor, and in the contest of poetry gave her the
+highest place above all but Maymun, saying to her, "If I had not heard
+him, I would say that thou didst surpass every one in poetry. I confess
+that you surpass all women." To which she haughtily replied, "Not the
+less do I surpass all men."
+
+The following are among the famous lines of El Khunsa, which gave her
+the title of princess of Arab poetesses. The translation I have made
+quite literal.
+
+    "Ah time has its wonders; its changes amaze,
+    It leaves us the tail while the head it slays;
+    It leaves us the low while the highest decays;
+    It leaves the obscure, the despised, and the slave,
+    But of honored and loved ones, the true and the brave
+    It leaves us to mourn o'er the untimely grave.
+    The two new creations, the day and the night,
+    Though ceaselessly changing, are pure as the light:
+    But man changes to error, corruption and blight."
+
+The most ancient Arab poetess, Zarifeh, is supposed to have lived as
+long ago as the Second Century, in the time of the bursting of the
+famous dyke of Mareb, which devastated the land of Saba. Another
+poetess, Rakash, sister of the king of Hira, was given in marriage, by
+the king when intoxicated, to a man named Adi.
+
+Alas, in these days the Moslem Arabs do not wait until blinded by wine,
+to give their daughters in marriage to strangers. I once overheard two
+Moslem young men converging in a shop, one of whom was about to be
+married. His companion said to him, "have you heard anything about the
+looks of your betrothed?" "Not much," said he, "only I am assured that
+she is _white_."
+
+In a book written by Mirai ibn Yusef el Hanbali, are the names of twenty
+Arab women who improvised poetry. Among them are Leila, Leila el
+Akhyaliyeh, Lubna, Zeinab, Afra, Hind, May, Jenub, Hubaish, Zarifeh,
+Jemileh, Remleh, Lotifeh, and others. Most of the verses ascribed to
+them are erotic poetry of an amatory character, full of the most
+extravagant expressions of devotion of which language is capable, and
+yet the greater part of it hardly bearing translation. It reminds one
+strikingly of Solomon's Song, full of passionate eloquence. And yet in
+the poetry of El Khunsa and others, which is of an elegiac character,
+there are passages full of sententious apothegms and proverbial wisdom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+STATE OF WOMEN IN THE MOHAMMADAN WORLD.
+
+
+Our knowledge of the position of women among the Mohammedans is derived
+from the Koran, Moslem tradition, and Moslem practice.
+
+I. In the first place, the Koran does not teach that women have no
+souls. Not only was Mohammed too deeply indebted to his rich wife
+Khadijah, to venture such an assertion, but he actually teaches in the
+Koran the immortality and moral responsibility of women. One of his
+wives having complained to him that God often praised the men, but not
+the women who had fled the country for the faith, he immediately
+produced the following revelation:
+
+     "I will not suffer the work of him among you who worketh to be
+     lost, whether he be male or female." (Sura iii.)
+
+In Sura iv. it is said:
+
+     "Whoso doeth good works, and is a true believer, whether male or
+     female, shall be admitted into Paradise."
+
+In Sura xxxiii:
+
+    "Truly, the Muslemen and the Muslimate, (fem.)
+    The believing men and the believing women,
+    The devout men and the devout women,
+    The men of truth and the women of truth,
+    The patient men and the patient women,
+    The humble men and the humble women,
+    The charitable men and the charitable women,
+    The fasting men and the fasting women,
+    The chaste men and the chaste women,
+    And the men and women who oft remember God;
+    For them hath God prepared
+    Forgiveness and a rich recompense."
+
+II. Thus Mohammedans cannot and do not deny that women have souls, but
+their brutal treatment of women has naturally led to this view. The
+Caliph Omar said that "women are worthless creatures and soil men's
+reputations." In Sura iv. it is written:
+
+    "Men are superior to women, on account of the qualities
+    With which God has gifted the one above the other,
+    And on account of the outlay they make, from their substance for them.
+    Virtuous women are obedient....
+    But chide those for whose refractoriness
+    Ye have cause to fear ... _and scourge them_."
+
+The interpretation of this last injunction being left to the individual
+believer, it is carried out with terrible severity. The scourging and
+beating of wives is one of the worst features of Moslem domestic life.
+It is a degraded and degrading practice, and having the sanction of the
+Koran, will be indulged in without rebuke as long as Islamism as a
+system and a faith prevails in the world. Happily for the poor women,
+the husbands do not generally beat them so as to imperil their lives, in
+case their own relatives reside in the vicinity, lest the excruciating
+screams of the suffering should reach the ears of her parents and bring
+the husband into disgrace. But where there is no fear of interference or
+of discovery, the blows and kicks are applied in the most merciless and
+barbarous manner. Women are killed in this way, and no outsider knows
+the cause. One of my Moslem neighbors once beat one of his wives to
+death. I heard her screams day after day, and finally, one night, when
+all was still, I heard a dreadful shriek, and blow after blow falling
+upon her back and head. I could hear the brute cursing her as he beat
+her. The police would not interfere, and I could not enter the house.
+The next day there was a funeral from that house, and she was carried
+off and buried in the most hasty and unfeeling manner. Sometimes it
+happens that the woman is strong enough to defend herself, and conquers
+a peace; but ordinarily when you hear a scream in the Moslem quarter of
+the city and ask the reason, it will be said to you with an indifferent
+shrug of the shoulder, "that is only some man beating his wife."
+
+That thirty-eighth verse of Sura iv. is one of the many proofs that the
+Koran is not the book of God, because it violates the law of love.
+"Husbands love your wives," is a precept of the Gospel and not of the
+Koran. Yet it is a sad fact that the nominal Christians of this dark
+land are not much better in this respect than their Moslem neighbors.
+The Greeks, Maronites and Papal Greeks beat their wives on the slightest
+provocation. In the more enlightened towns and cities this custom is
+"going out of fashion," though still often resorted to in fits of
+passion. Sometimes the male relatives of the wife retaliate in case a
+husband beats her. In the village of Schwire, in Lebanon, a man beat his
+wife in a brutal manner and she fled to the house of her brother. The
+brother watched his opportunity; waylaid the offending husband, and
+avenged his sister's injuries by giving him a severe flogging. In
+Eastern Turkey, a missionary in one of the towns noticed that not one
+woman attended church on Sunday. He expostulated with the Protestants,
+and urged them to persuade their wives to accompany them. The next
+Sunday the women were all present, as meek and quiet as could be wished.
+The missionary was delighted, and asked one of the men how they
+persuaded them to come? He replied, "We all beat our wives soundly until
+they consented to come!" This wife-beating custom has evidently been
+borrowed by the Christian sects from their Moslem rulers and oppressors,
+and nothing but a pure Christianity can induce them to abandon it.
+
+III. Some have supposed that there will be no place in the Moslem
+Paradise for women, as their place will be taken by the seventy-two
+bright-eyed Houris or damsels of Paradise. Mohammed once said that when
+he took a view of Paradise he saw the majority of its inhabitants to be
+the poor, and when he looked down into hell, he saw the _greater part_
+of the wretches confined there to be _women_! Yet he positively promised
+his followers that the very meanest in Paradise will have eighty
+thousand servants, seventy-two wives of the Houris, _besides the wives
+he had in this world_. The promises of the Houris are almost exclusively
+to be found in Suras, written at a time when Mohammed had only a single
+wife of sixty years of age, and in all the ten years subsequent to the
+Hegira, women are only twice mentioned as the reward of the faithful.
+And this, while in four Suras, the proper wives of the faithful are
+spoken of as accompanying their husbands into the gardens of bliss.
+
+    "They and their wives on that day
+    Shall rest in shady groves." (Sura 36.)
+
+    "Enter ye and your wives into Paradise delighted." (Sura 43.)
+
+    "Gardens of Eden into which they shall enter
+    Together with the just of their fathers, and their wives." (Sura 13.)
+
+An old woman once desired Mohammed to intercede with God that she might
+be admitted to Paradise, and he told her that no old woman would enter
+that place. She burst into loud weeping, when he explained himself by
+saying that God would then make her young again.
+
+I was once a fellow-passenger in the Damascus diligence, with a
+Mohammedan pilgrim going to Mecca by way of Beirut and Egypt, in company
+with his wife. I asked him whether his wife would have any place in
+Paradise when he received his quota of seventy-two Houris. "Yes," said
+he, looking towards his wife, whose veil prevented our seeing her,
+although she could see us, "if she obeys me in all respects, and is a
+faithful wife, and goes to Mecca, she will be made more beautiful than
+all the Houris of Paradise." Paradise is thus held up to the women as
+the reward of obedience to their husbands, and this is about the sum and
+substance of what the majority of Moslem women know about religion.
+
+Women are never admitted to pray with men in public, being obliged to
+perform their devotions at home, or if they visit the Mosques, it must
+be at a time when the men are not there, for the Moslems are of opinion
+that the presence of women inspires a different kind of devotion from
+that which is desirable in a place set apart for the worship of God.
+
+The Moslem idea of woman is vile and degraded. A Moslem absent from home
+never addresses a letter to his wife, but to his son or brother, or some
+male relative. It is considered a grievous insult to ask a Moslem about
+the health of his wife. If obliged to allude to a woman in conversation,
+you must use the word "ajellak Allah," "May God elevate you" above the
+contamination of this subject! You would be expected to use the same
+expression in referring to a donkey, a dog, a shoe, a swine or anything
+vile. It is somewhat like the Irish expression, "Saving your presence,
+sir," when alluding to an unpleasant subject.
+
+A Greek christian (?) in Tripoli came to an American Missionary
+physician and said, "there is a woman, 'ajell shanak Allah' here who is
+ill. I beg your pardon for mentioning so vile a subject to your
+excellency." Said the doctor, "and who may it be?" "Ajellak, it is my
+wife!"
+
+I remember once meeting the Mohammedan Mufti of Beirut in Dr. Van Dyck's
+study at the printing press. The Mufti's wife, (at least _one_ of them,)
+was ill, and he wished medical advice, but could not insult the Doctor
+by alluding to a woman in his presence. So he commenced, after
+innumerable salutations, repeating good-morning, and may your day be
+happy, until he could decently proceed to business. "Your excellency
+must be aware that I have a sick man at my house. May God grant you
+health! Indeed, peace to your head. Inshullah, it is only a slight
+attack!" "He has pain in his back, headache, and he will not eat." "Has
+he any fever?" "A little." "I will come and see _her_ this afternoon."
+"May God increase your good. Good morning, sir!"
+
+The Mohammedan laws with regard to polygamy, inheritance and divorce,
+are a decided advance on the Pagan Arabs of "the Ignorance."
+
+The Pagan Arabs allowed any number of wives. The Koran allows _only
+four_ to any believer, the prophet himself having peculiar privileges in
+this respect. The modern practice of Mohammedans in taking a score or
+more of wives is directly contrary to the Koran. The Pagan Arabs
+suffered no woman to have any part of the husband's or father's
+inheritance, on the ground that none should inherit who could not go to
+war, and the widows were disposed of as a part of their husband's
+possessions. The Koran says, (Sura iv.) "Women ought to have a part of
+what their parents leave." A male shall have twice as much as a female.
+But a man's parents, and also his brothers and sisters are to have equal
+shares, without reference to sex. "God commandeth you to give the male
+the portion of two females. If she be an only daughter, she shall have
+the half. Your wives shall have a fourth part of what ye leave, if ye
+have no issue."
+
+Among the Pagan Arabs, divorce was a mere matter of caprice. The Koran
+says, (Sura ii.) "You may divorce your wives twice (and take them back
+again). But if the husband divorce her a third time, it is not lawful
+for him to take her again, until she shall have been actually married to
+another husband, and then divorced by him." I have known cases where the
+husband in a fit of passion has divorced his wife the third time, and,
+in order to get her back again, has _hired another man_ to marry her and
+then divorce her. A rich Effendi had divorced his wife the third time,
+and wishing to re-marry her, hired a poor man to marry her for a
+consideration of seven hundred piastres. He took the wife and the money,
+and the next day refused to give her up for less than five thousand
+piastres, which the Effendi was obliged to pay, as the woman had become
+the lawful and wedded wife of the poor man.
+
+No Mohammedan ever walks with his wife in the street, and in Moslem
+cities, very few if any of men of other sects are willing to be seen in
+public in company with a woman. The women are closely veiled, and if a
+man and his wife have occasion to go anywhere together, he walks in
+advance and she walks a long distance behind him. Nofel Effendi, one of
+the most learned and intelligent Protestants in Syria, once gave me the
+explanation of this aversion to walking in public with women, in a more
+satisfactory manner than I had ever heard it before. Said he, "You
+Franks can walk with your wives in public, because their faces are
+unveiled, and it is _known that they are your wives_, but our women are
+so closely veiled that if I should walk with my wife in the street, no
+one would know whether I was walking with my own wife or another man's!
+You cannot expect a respectable man to put himself into such an
+embarrassing position!" No Moslem woman or girl would dare go into the
+street without a veil, for fear of personal chastisement from the
+husband and father, and the Greek, Maronite and other nominal Christian
+women in Syria shrink from exposing their faces, through fear of insult
+from the Mohammedans.
+
+When European women, either residents or travellers, pass through the
+Moslem quarter of these cities of Syria and Palestine, with faces
+unveiled, they are made the theme of the most outrageous and insulting
+comments by the Moslem populace. Well is it for the feelings of the most
+of these worthy Christian women, that they do not understand the Arabic
+language. The Turkish governor of Tripoli was obliged to suppress the
+insulting epithets of the Moslems towards European ladies when they
+first began to reside there, by the infliction of the bastinado.
+
+In 1857, the Rev. Mr. Lyons in Tripoli, hired Sheikh Owad, a Moslem
+bigot, to teach him the Arabic grammar. He was a conceited boor; well
+versed in Arabic grammar, but more ignorant of geography, arithmetic and
+good breeding than a child. One day Mrs. Lyons passed through the room
+where he was teaching Mr. L. and he turned his head away from her and
+spat towards her with a look of unutterable contempt. It was the last
+time he did it, and he has now become so civilized that he can say good
+morning to the wife of a missionary, and even consent to teach the
+sacred, pure and undefiled Arabic to a woman! I believe that he has not
+yet given his assent to the fact that the earth revolves on its axis,
+but he has learned that there are women in the world who know more than
+Sheikh Owad.
+
+In ancient times Moslem women were occasionally taught to read the
+Koran, and among the wealthier and more aristocratic classes, married
+women are now sometimes taught to read, but the mass of the Moslem men
+are bitterly opposed to the instruction of women. When a man decides to
+have his wife taught to read, the usual plan is to hire a blind
+Mohammedan Sheikh, who knows the Koran by heart. He sits at one side of
+the room, and she at the other, some elderly woman, either her mother or
+her mother-in-law, being present. The blind Sheikhs have remarkable
+memories and sharp ears, and can detect the slightest error in
+pronunciation or rendering, so they are employed in the most of the
+Moslem-schools. The mass of the Mohammedans are nervously afraid of
+entrusting the knowledge of reading and writing to their wives and
+daughters, lest they abuse it by writing clandestine letters to improper
+persons. "Teach a _girl_ to read and write!" said a Mohammedan Mufti in
+Tripoli to me, "Why, she will _write letters_, sir,--yes, _actually
+write letters_! the thing is not to be thought of for a moment." I
+replied, "Effendum, you put your foot on the women's necks and then
+blame them for not rising. Educate your girls and train them to
+intelligence and virtue, and then their pens will write only what ought
+to be written. Train the hand to hold a pen, without training the mind
+to direct it, and only mischief can result." "_Saheah, saheah_," "very
+true, very true," said he, "But how can this be done?"
+
+It has begun to be done in Syria. From the days of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith
+to the present time, Moslem girls have been taught to read and write and
+sew, and there are many now learning in the various American, British
+and Prussian schools. But it will be long before any true idea of the
+dignity of woman enters the debased minds of Arab Mohammedans. The
+simple fact is that there is no moral purity or elevation among the men,
+and how can it be expected among the women. The Moslem idea of woman is
+infinitely lower than the old Jewish idea. Woman in the time of Christ
+was highly honored. Believing women followed Christ throughout Galilee
+and Judea, and although enemies stood watching with hateful gaze on
+every side, not one word of insinuation was ever lisped against them. It
+is a most sadly impressive fact to one living in Syria at the present
+day, that the liberty and respect allowed to woman in the days of our
+Saviour would now be absolutely impossible. In purely Greek or Maronite
+or Armenian villages, the women enjoy far greater liberty than where
+there is a Moslem element in the population. And it is worthy of remark
+and grateful recognition, that although Christianity in the East has
+sunk almost to a level, in outward morality, with the Islamic and
+semi-Pagan sects, there is a striking difference between the lowest
+nominal Christian community and the highest Mohammedan, in the respect
+paid to woman. Ignorant and oppressed as the Greek and Maronite women
+may be, you feel on entering their houses, that the degrading yoke of
+Moslem brutality is not on their necks. Their husbands may be coarse,
+ignorant and brutal, beating their wives and despising their daughters,
+mourning at the birth of a daughter, and marrying her without her
+consent, and yet there are lower depths of coarseness and brutality, of
+cruelty and bestiality, which are only found among Mohammedans. I once
+suggested to a Tripoli Moslem, that he send his daughters to our Girls'
+School, then taught by Miss Sada Gregory, a native teacher trained in
+the family of Mrs. Whiting, and he looked at me with an expression of
+mingled pity and contempt, saying, "Educate a _girl_! You might as well
+attempt to educate _a cat_!"
+
+Not two months since, I was conversing with several of the aristocratic
+Mohammedans of Beirut, who were in attendance at the commencement of the
+Beirut Protestant Medical College. The subject of the education of girls
+was introduced, and one of them said, "we are beginning to have our
+girls instructed in your Protestant schools, and would you believe it, I
+heard one of them read the other day, (probably his own daughter,) and
+she actually asked a question about the construction of a noun preceded
+by a preposition! I never heard the like of it. The things do
+distinguish and understand what they read, after all!" The others
+replied, "_Mashallah! Mashallah!_" "The will of God be done!"
+
+Some ten years ago, an influential Moslem Sheikh in Beirut, who was a
+personal friend of Mr. Araman, the husband of Lulu, brought his daughter
+Wahidy (only one) to the Seminary to be instructed, on condition that no
+man should ever see her face. As Mr. Araman himself was one of the
+teachers, and I was accustomed to make constant visits to the school,
+she was obliged to wear a light veil, which she drew adroitly over her
+face whenever the door was opened. This went on for months and years,
+until at length in recitation she would draw the veil aside. Then she
+used to listen to public addresses in the school without her veil, and
+finally, in June, 1867, she read a composition on the stage at the
+Public Examination, on, "The value of education to the women and girls
+of Syria," her father, Sheikh Said el Ghur, being present, with a number
+of his Moslem friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE DRUZE RELIGION AND DRUZE WOMEN.
+
+
+The great expounder and defender of the Druze religion is Hamze, the
+"Universal Intelligence," the only Mediator between God and man, and the
+medium of the creation of all things. This Hamze was a shrewd, able and
+unprincipled man. In his writings he not only defends the abominations
+of Hakem, but lays down the complete code of Druze doctrine and duty.
+
+It is the belief of many, and said to be the orthodox view among the
+Druzes that their system as such is to last exactly 900 lunar years. The
+date of the Druze era is 408 Hegira, or 1020 A.D. The present year,
+1872, corresponds to the year 1289 Anno Hegira, so that _in nineteen
+lunar years_ the system will begin to come to an end according to its
+own reckoning, and after 1000 years it will cease to exist. Others have
+fixed this present year as the year of the great cataclysm, but the
+interpreters are so secret and reserved in their statements, that it is
+only by casual remarks that we can arrive at any idea of their real
+belief. Lying to infidels is such a meritorious act, that you cannot
+depend on one word they say of themselves or their doctrines. Their
+secret books, which were found in the civil wars of 1841 and 1845, have
+been translated and published by De Sacy, and we have a number of them
+in the original Arabic manuscripts in the Mission Library in Beirut.
+From a chapter in one of these, entitled "Methak en Nissa," or the
+"Engagements of Women," I have translated the following passages, to
+show the religious position of women, as bearing upon my object in
+describing the condition of Syrian females.
+
+"Believers are both male and female. By instruction women pass from
+ignorance to knowledge, and become angels like the Five Ministers who
+bear the Throne: _i.e._, the Doctrine of the Unity. All male and female
+believers ought to be free from all impurity and disgrace and dishonor.
+Believing women should shun lying (to the brethren) and infidelity and
+concupiscence, and the appearance of evil, and show the excellency of
+their work above all Trinitarian women, avoiding all suspicion and taint
+which might bring ill upon their brethren, and avoiding giving attention
+to what is contrary to the Divine Unity.
+
+"We have written this epistle to be read to all believing women who hold
+to the Unity of Hakem, who knows His Eternity and obey their husbands.
+But let no Dai or Mazun read it to a woman until he is well assured of
+her faith and her religion, and she shall have made a written profession
+of her faith. He shall not read it to one woman alone, nor in a house
+where there is but one woman, even though he be worthy of all
+confidence, lest suspicion be awakened and the tongue of slander be
+loosed. Let there be assembled together at least three women, and let
+them sit behind a curtain or screen, so as not to be seen. Each woman
+must be accompanied by her husband, or her father, or brother or son, if
+he be a Unitarian. The Dai in reading must keep his eyes fixed on his
+book, neither turning towards the place where the women are, nor casting
+a glance towards it, nor listening to them. The woman, moreover, must
+not speak a word during the reading, and whether she is affected by a
+transport of joy, or moved by an impression of respect and fear, she
+must carefully abstain from showing her feelings either by smiles or
+tears. For the smiles, the tears, and the words of a woman may excite
+man's passions. Let her give her whole attention to the reading, receive
+it in her heart, and apply all the faculties of her mind to understand
+its meaning, in order clearly to conceive the true signification of what
+she is listening to. If she finds any passage obscure, let her ask the
+Dai, (the preacher,) and he shall answer, if he can, and if not, promise
+to ask those who are more learned, and when he has obtained the solution
+he must inform her, if she be deemed worthy.
+
+"The highest duty of Unitarian women is to know our Moulah Hakem and the
+Kaim Hamze. If they follow Him, let them know that He has released them
+entirely from the observance of the Seven Arbitrary Pillars of the Law
+(of Islam) which are (1) Prayer, (2) Fasting, (3) Pilgrimage, (4)
+Asserting, There is no God but God and Mohammed is the Prophet of God,
+(5) Giving tithes, (6) War on infidels, (7) Submission to authority. But
+on the other hand, all believing women must perform the Seven Religious
+Duties: The First and greatest is Truth in your words: (_i.e._ to the
+brethren and sisters); the Second is, To watch reciprocally over the
+safety of the brethren; the Third is, to renounce wholly and entirely
+whatever religion you may have previously professed; the Fourth is, To
+keep yourselves apart, clear and distinct from all who are in error; the
+Fifth is, To recognize the existence of the Unity of our Lord in all
+ages, times and epochs; the Sixth is, To be satisfied with His will and
+His works, whatever they may be; The Seventh is, To abandon and resign
+yourselves to all His orders whether in prosperity or adversity. You
+must keep these Seven Commandments, and keep them strictly secret from
+all who are of a different religion. If the Druze women do all this and
+fulfil their duties, they are indeed among the good, and shall have
+their reward among the 159 Angels of the Presence and among the Prophets
+who were Apostles, and be saved from the snare of the accursed Iblis
+(Diabolus). Praise then to our Lord Hakim, the praise of the thankful!
+He is my hope and victory!"
+
+What can you expect of the women, if the teachers are thus warped with
+hypocrisy and falsehood. They receive you politely. Dr. De Forest used
+to say, that there is not a boor in the Druze nation. But their very
+politeness confounds you. The old Druze women are masters of a pious
+religious phraseology. "We are all sinners." "The Lord's will be done."
+"Praise to His name." "He only can command." "The Lord be merciful to
+us." "He orders all things," and yet they will lie and deceive, and if
+not of the initiated class, they will swear in the most fearful manner.
+The Okkal cannot swear, smoke or drink, but they tell a story of a
+village where the people were all Okkal, and things having reached a
+high pitch of excitement, they sent for a body of Jehal or the
+non-initiated to come over and swear on the subject, that their pure
+minds might be relieved! When they talk in the most affectingly pious
+manner, and really surpass you in religious sentiment, you hardly know
+what to do. Tell them God knows the heart. They reply, "He alone is the
+All-knowing, the Searcher of the hearts of men." You shrink from telling
+them in plain language that they are hypocrites and liars. You _can_
+tell them of the _personal love_ of a personal Saviour, and this simple
+story will affect and has affected the minds of some of them more than
+all logic and eloquent refutation of their foggy and mysterious
+doctrinal system.
+
+They respect us and treat us politely for political reasons. During the
+massacres of 1860, I rode from Abeih to Beirut in the midst of burning
+villages, and armed bodies of Druzes passed us shouting the war song "Ma
+hala ya ma hala kotal en Nosara," "How sweet, oh how sweet, to kill the
+Christians," and yet as they passed us they stopped and most politely
+paid their salams, saying, "Naharkum Saieed," "May your day be blessed,"
+"Allah yahtikum el afiyeh," "God give you health!"
+
+When a Druze Sheikh wishes to marry, he asks consent of the father
+without having seen the daughter. If the father consents, he informs
+her, and if she consents, the suitor sends his affianced presents of
+clothes and jewelry, which remain in her hands as a pledge of his
+fidelity. She is pictured to him as the paragon of beauty and
+excellence, but he is never allowed to see her, speak to her, or write
+to her, should she know how to write. His mother or aunt may see her or
+bring reports, but he does not see her until the wedding contract is
+signed and the bride is brought to his house.
+
+The following is the marriage ceremony of the Druzes. It is read by the
+Kadi or Sheikh, and in accordance to the Druze doctrine that they must
+outwardly conform to the religion of the governing power, it is a purely
+Mohammedan ordinance.
+
+"Praise to God, the original Creator of all things; the Gracious in all
+His gifts and prohibitions; who has decreed and fixed the ordinance of
+marriage; may Allah pray for (bless) our Prophet Mohammed, and his four
+successors! Now after this, we say that marriage is one of the laws
+given by the prophets, and one of the statutes of the pious to guard
+against vice; a gift from the Lord of the earth and the heaven. Praise
+to Him who by it has brought the far ones near, and made the foreigner a
+relative and friend! We are assembled here to attend to a matter
+decreed and fated of Allah, and whose beginning, middle and end he has
+connected with the most happy and auspicious circumstances. This matter
+is the blessed covenant of marriage. Inshullah, may it be completed and
+perfected, and praise to Allah, the Great Completer! Amen!
+
+"In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. He is my portion
+and sufficiency. May Allah pray for his pure prophet!"
+
+This is the marriage contract between the person named A. son of ---- of
+the village of ---- in the district of ---- in Lebanon, and his
+betrothed named B. the daughter of ---- of the village of ---- she being
+a maiden of full and marriageable age, with no legal obstacles to her
+marriage. (May Allah protect her veil, and have mercy on her relatives
+and friends!)
+
+In view of the mercies of Allah and his prophet Mohammed, they pay fifty
+piastres ($2.00) of full and lawful number, weight and measure, of the
+Imperial mint of our Moulah the Sultan, (may the exalted and merciful
+One give him the victory!) and of new white silver. The agent of the
+husband is ---- and of the wife is ----.
+
+It is the absolute and bounden duty of the husband to provide clothing
+for the body of his wife and a crown for her head, and of the wife to
+give him his due honor and rights and do his work, and Allah will be
+with those who fear Him, and not suffer those who do well to lose their
+reward.
+
+                                        Signed Sheikh ---- (seal)
+                     --                          seal
+         Witnesses   --                          seal
+                     --                          seal
+
+A whole week is given up to festivity before her arrival, and the
+retinue of the bride mounted on fine horses escort her amid the firing
+of musketry, the _zilagheet_ shrieks of the women, and general
+rejoicing, to the bridegroom's house. Col. Churchill describes what
+follows: "The bride meantime, after having received the caresses and
+congratulations of her near relatives, is conducted to a chamber apart
+and placed on a divan, with a large tray of sweetmeats and confectionery
+before her, after which all the females withdraw and she is left alone,
+with a massive veil of muslin and gold thrown over her head and covering
+her face, breasts and shoulders down to the waist. What thoughts and
+sensations must crowd upon the maiden's mind in this solitude! not to be
+disturbed but by him who will shortly come to receive in that room his
+first impressions of her charms and attractions! Presently she hears
+footsteps at the door; it opens quietly; silently and unattended her
+lover approaches her, lifts the veil off her face, takes one glance,
+replaces it and withdraws."
+
+He then returns to the grand reception-room, takes his seat at the head
+of the divan amid the throng of Sheikhs and other invited guests. He
+maintains an imperturbable silence, his mind being supposed to be
+absorbed by one engrossing object. It may be delight. It may be bitter
+disappointment. It is generally past midnight when the party breaks up
+and the family retires.
+
+A plurality of wives is absolutely forbidden. If a Druze wishes to
+divorce his wife, he has merely to say, "You had better go back to your
+father," or she, the woman, wishes to leave her husband, she says, "I
+wish to go back to my father," and if her husband says, "Very well, go,"
+the divorce in either case holds good, and the separation is
+irrevocable. Both parties are free to re-marry. Childlessness is a
+common cause of divorce.
+
+The birth of a son is the occasion of great rejoicing and presents to
+the family. But the birth of a daughter is considered a misfortune, and
+of course not the slightest notice is taken of so inauspicious an event.
+This holds true among all the sects and peoples of Syria, and nothing
+but a Christian training and the inculcation of the pure principles of
+gospel morality can remove this deeply seated prejudice. The people say
+the reason of their dislike of daughters is that while a son builds up
+the house, and brings in a wife from without and _perpetuates the family
+name_, the daughter pulls down the house, loses her name, and is lost to
+the family.
+
+The wealthier and more aristocratic Druze sitts or ladies are taught to
+read by the Fakih or teacher, but the masses of the women are in brutish
+ignorance. You enter a Druze house. The woman waits upon you and brings
+coffee, but you see only _one eye_, the rest of the head and face being
+closely veiled. In an aristocratic house, you would never be allowed to
+see the lady, and if she goes abroad, it is only at night, and with
+attendants on every side to keep off the profane gaze of strangers. If a
+physician is called to attend a sick Druze woman, he cannot see her
+face nor her tongue, unless she choose to thrust it through a hole in
+her veil. In many cases they suffer a woman to die sooner than have her
+face seen by a physician.
+
+The Druzes marry but one wife at a time, and yet divorce is so common
+and so heartlessly practiced by the men, that the poor women live in
+constant fear of being driven from their homes.
+
+In Abeih, we were startled one evening by the cry "Rouse ye men of self
+respect! Come and help us!" It was a dark, rainy night, and the earthen
+roof of a Druze house had fallen in, burying a young man, his wife and
+his mother, under the mass of earth, stones and timber. They all escaped
+death, but were seriously injured, the poor young wife suffering the
+most of all, having fallen with her left arm in a bed of burning coals,
+and having been compelled to lie there half an hour, so that when dug
+out, her hand was burned to a cinder! For several days the husband
+refused to send for a doctor, but at length his wife Hala was sent to
+the College Hospital (of the Prussian Knights of St. John) in Beirut
+where Dr. Post amputated the hand below the elbow.
+
+One would naturally suppose that such a calamity, in which both so
+narrowly escaped death, would bind husband and wife together in the
+strongest bonds of affection and sympathy. But not so in this case. The
+poor young wife is now threatened with divorce, because she is no longer
+of any use to her husband, and her two little children are to be taken
+from her! She lies on her bed in the Hospital, the very picture of
+stoical resignation. Not a groan or complaint escapes her.
+
+She said one day, "Oh how glad I am that this happened, for it has taken
+away all my sins, and I shall never have to suffer again in this world
+or the next!" This is the doctrine of the Druzes, and, cold and false as
+it is, she has made it her support and her stay.
+
+Dr. Post and Mrs. Bliss have pointed her to the Lamb of God "who bore
+our sins in His own body on the tree," and she seems interested to hear
+and learn more.
+
+Her younger sister is in the Beirut Seminary. May this poor sufferer
+find peace where alone it can be found, in trusting in the Lord Jesus
+Christ, whose blood cleanseth from all sin!
+
+The cruelty of her husband, sanctioned as it is by the religious code of
+the Druzes, may be the means of opening her eyes to the falsity of that
+heartless Christless system, and lead her to the foot of the Cross!
+
+Christians, who read these lines, pray for Hala of Abeih!
+
+
+SITT ABLA.
+
+More than twenty years ago in the little Druze village of Aitath, in
+Lebanon, about seven miles from Beirut, lived a family of Druze Sheikhs
+of the tribe of Telhuk. This tribe was divided into the great Sheikhs
+and the little Sheikhs, and among the latter was the Sheikh Khottar. The
+proximity of this village to Beirut, its elevated position, cool air,
+and fine fountain of water, made it a favorite summer retreat for the
+missionaries from the withering heats of the plain. Sheikh Khottar and
+his wife the Sitt, having both died, their orphan son Selim and daughter
+Abla, called the Sitt (or lady) Abla, were placed under the care of
+other members of the family of Telhuk. The missionaries opened a school
+for boys and Selim attended it. Dr. and Mrs. Van Dyck were living in
+Aitath at the time, and the young Druze maiden Abla, who was betrothed
+to a Druze Sheikh, became greatly attached to Mrs. Van Dyck, and came
+almost constantly to visit her. The light of a better faith and the
+truth of a pure gospel gradually dawned upon her mind, until her love
+for Mrs. Van Dyck grew into love for the Saviour of sinners. The Sheikh
+to whom she was betrothed was greatly enraged at her course in visiting
+a Christian lady, and meeting her one day when returning to her home,
+attacked her in the most brutal manner, and gave her a severe beating.
+She fled and took refuge in the house of Mrs. Van Dyck, who had taught
+her to read and given her a Bible. A short time after, several of her
+cousins seized her and scourged her most cruelly, and a violent
+persecution was excited against her and her brother Selim. She was in
+daily and hourly expectation of being killed by her male relatives, as
+it had never been heard of in the Druze nation that a young girl should
+dare to become a Christian, and Mr. Whiting, missionary in Abeih, sent
+over a courageous Protestant youth named Saleh, who took the Sitt Abla
+by night over the rough mountain road to Abeih in safety. But even here
+she was not safe. The Druzes of Lebanon at that time were at the height
+of their feudal power. Girls and women were killed among them without
+the least notice on the part of the mountain government. Abla was like a
+prisoner in the missionary's house, not venturing to go outside the
+door, and in order to be at peace, she went down with her brother to
+Beirut, where she has since resided. Selim united with the Church, but
+was afterwards suspended from communion for improper conduct, and joined
+himself to the Jesuits, so that Abla has had to endure a two-fold
+persecution from her Druze relatives and her Jesuit brother. On her
+removal to Beirut she was disinherited and deprived of her little
+portion of her father's estate, and her life has been a constant
+struggle with persecution, poverty and want. Yet amid all, she has stood
+firm as a rock, never swerving from the truth, or showing any
+disposition to go back to her old friends. At times she has suffered
+from extreme privation, and the missionaries and native Protestants
+would only hear of it through others who happened to meet her. Since
+uniting with the Church in 1849 she has lived a Christian life. In a
+recent conversation she said, "I count all things but loss for the
+excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, _for whom I have
+suffered the loss of all things_ ... and I still continue, by the grace
+of Him Exalted, and by the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, awaiting
+a happy death, and everlasting rest."
+
+
+KHOZMA.
+
+Her Christian experience is like that of Khozma Ata. She is the only
+female member of the Protestant church in Syria from among the Druzes,
+except Sitt Abla. She was born, in Beirut of the Druze family of Witwat,
+and when quite a child was taken by Dr. Beadle, then by Miss Tilden,
+living at one time in Aleppo, then in Jerusalem, and finally settled in
+the family of Dr. De Forest, where she continued until his departure for
+America in 1854. For several years she has been an invalid, and is not
+often able to leave her house, even to go to church. Two of her little
+girls are in the Female Seminary. In 1861 she taught a day school for
+girls in Beirut, and assisted Dr. De Forest in his work in the Beirut
+Seminary. I called upon her a few days since, and she handed me a roll
+of Arabic manuscript, which she said she had been translating from the
+English. It is a series of stories for children which she has prepared
+to be printed in our monthly journal for Syrian children. The name of
+the journal is "koukab es Subah," or "Morning Star." She has been
+confined to her bed a part of the summer, and when she gave me the
+manuscript, she apologized for the handwriting, on the ground that she
+had written the most of it sitting or lying on her bed. She has not
+forgotten the example and instructions of Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and
+speaks of them with enthusiastic interest. Her husband failed in
+business some years ago, and she is in a constant struggle with want,
+but her old friends and loving sisters, Raheel and Lulu, who are among
+her nearest neighbors, are unremitting in their kind attentions to her.
+
+What a difference between the faithful Christian nurture her little
+children are receiving at home, and the worse than no training received
+by the children of her Druze relatives at Ras Beirut, who are still
+under the shadow of their old superstitions. She never curses her
+children nor invokes the wrath of God upon them. She is never beaten and
+spit upon and tortured and threatened with death by her husband. It is
+worth much to have rescued a Khozma and an Abla from the degradation of
+Druze superstition! These two good women, with Abdullah in Beirut, and
+Hassan, Hassein, Asaad and Ali, in Lebanon, are among the living
+witnesses to the preciousness of the love of Christ, who have come forth
+from the Druze community. They have been persecuted, and may be again,
+but they stand firm in Christ. Not a few Druze girls are gathered in our
+schools in Beirut, Lebanon, and the vicinity of Hermon, as well as in
+other schools in Damascus, Hasbeiya and elsewhere, and some of their
+young men are receiving a Christian education.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+NUSAIRIYEH.
+
+
+To the North of Mount Lebanon, and along the low range of mountains
+extending from Antioch to Tripoli, and from the Mediterranean on the
+West to Hums on the East, live a strange, wild, blood-thirsty race
+called the Nusairiyeh numbering about 200,000 souls, and now for the
+first time in their history coming within the range of Missionary
+effort.
+
+The Druzes admit women to the Akkal or initiated class, but not so the
+Nusairiyeh. The great secret of the Sacrament is administered in a
+secluded place, the women being shut up in a house, or kept away from
+the mysteries. In these assemblies the Sheikh reads prayers, and then
+all join in cursing Abubekr, Omar, Othman, Sheikh et-Turkoman and the
+Christians and others. Then he gives a spoonful of wine, first to the
+Sheikhs present, and then to all the rest. They then eat fruit, offer
+other prayers, and the assembly breaks up. The rites of initiation are
+frightful in the extreme, attended by threats, imprecations and
+blasphemous oaths, declaring their lives forfeited if they expose the
+secrets of the order.
+
+They use given signs and questions, by which they salute each other, and
+ascertain whether a stranger is one of them or not. In their books they
+employ the double interlacing triangle or seal of Solomon. They call
+each other brethren, and enjoin love and truthfulness, but _only to the
+brethren_. In this they are like the Druzes. So little do they regard
+all outside their own sect, that they _pray to God to take out of the
+hearts of all others than themselves, what little light of knowledge and
+certainty they may possess_! The effect of this secret, exclusive, and
+selfish system is shown in the conduct of the Nusairiyeh in robbing and
+murdering Moslems and Christians without compunction.
+
+As it has been said, the Nusairiyeh women are entirely excluded from all
+participation in religious ceremonies and prayers, and from all
+religious teaching. The reason given, is two-fold; the first being that
+women cannot be trusted to keep a secret, and the second because they
+are considered by the Nusairiyeh as something unclean. They believe that
+the soul of a wicked man may pass at death into a brute, or he may be
+punished for his sins in this life by being born in a woman's form in
+the next generation. And so, if a woman live in virtue and obedience,
+there is hope of her again being born into the world _as a man_, and
+becoming one of the illuminati and possessors of the secret. It is a
+long time for the poor things to wait, but it is a convenient reward for
+their husbands to hold out before them.
+
+Yet the women are so religiously inclined by nature that they will have
+some object of worship, and while their husbands, fathers and sons are
+talking and praying about the celestial hierarchies, and the
+unfathomable mysteries, the wives, mothers and daughters will throng the
+"zeyarehs," or holy visiting shrines, on the hill tops, and among the
+groves of green trees, to propitiate the favor of the reputed saints of
+ancient days. These shrines are supposed to have miraculous powers, but
+Friday is the day when the prophets are more especially "at home," to
+receive visitors. On other days they may be "on a journey," or asleep.
+Whenever a Nuisairiyeh woman is in sorrow or trouble or fear, she goes
+to the zeyareh and cries in a piteous tone, "zeyareh, hear me!"
+
+Their women do not veil themselves, and consequently there is more of
+freedom among them than among Moslems and Druzes, and in their great
+festivals, men and women all dance together.
+
+When a young man sees a girl who pleases him, he bargains with her
+father, agreeing to pay from twenty dollars to two hundred, according to
+the dignity of her family; of which sum she receives but four dollars,
+unless her father should choose to give her a red bridal box and bedding
+for her outfit. She rides in great state to the bridegroom's house amid
+the firing of guns and shouts of the women, and on dismounting, the
+bridegroom gives her a present of from one to three dollars, called the
+"dismounting money."
+
+Divorce needs only the will of the man, and polygamy is common. Lane
+says in speaking of Egypt, "The depraving effects of this freedom of
+divorce upon both sexes, may be easily imagined. There are many men in
+this country who, in the course of ten years, have married as many as
+twenty, thirty or more wives; and women, not far advanced in age, who
+have been wives to a dozen or more men successively."
+
+The Nusairiyeh women smoke, swear, and use the most vile and unclean
+language, and even go beyond the men in these respects. Swearing and
+lying are universal not only among the Nusairiyeh, but among the most of
+the Syrian people. You never receive a direct reply from a Nusairy. He
+will answer your question by asking another, in order, if possible, to
+ascertain your object in asking it and to conceal the true state of the
+case. Their Moslem and nominal Christian neighbors are not much better.
+They all lie, and swear, and deceive. Mr. Lyde illustrates the ignorance
+of the Greek clergy in Latakiah by the following incident. A ploughman
+who had learned something of the Bible, heard a Greek priest cursing the
+father of a little child. He said, "My father, is it right to curse?"
+"Oh," said he, "it was only from my lips." "But does not the psalmist
+say, Keep the door of my lips?" "That," replied the priest, "is only in
+the English Bible."
+
+Walpole says of the Nusairiyeh women, "when young, they are handsome,
+often fair, with light hair and jet-black eyes; or the rarer beauty of
+fair eyes and coal-black hair or eyebrows."
+
+When a fight takes place between the tribes, the women, like the women
+of the Druzes, enter into the spirit of it with demoniacal fury. During
+the battle they bring jars of water, shout, sing, and encourage the
+men, and at the close carry off the booty, such as pots, pans, chickens,
+quilts, wooden doors, trays, etc. In the Druze war of 1860, I saw the
+Druze women running with the men through Aitath, on their way to the
+scene of hostilities in the Metn. The Bedawin women likewise aid their
+husbands in the commissariat of their nomad warfare.
+
+The Rev. Mr. Lyde was the first to undertake direct missionary labors
+among the Nusairiyeh, and his work has been carried on by the Reformed
+Presbyterian Mission in Latakiah. The Rev. J. Beattie sends me the
+following facts with regard to the work now going on among the women and
+girls.
+
+The first convert under the labors of Mr. Lyde was Hammud, of the
+village of Merj, a young man of fine mind and most lovely character, who
+gave promise of great usefulness. After he became a Christian, his
+mother, finding that no Nusairy girl would marry a Christian, determined
+to secure a young girl and have her educated for Hammud. So she paid
+four Turkish pounds for a little Nusairy girl named Zahara or Venus,
+whose widowed mother had removed to her village. This payment was in
+accordance with Nusairy customs, and constituted the girl's dowry. After
+the betrothal in 1863, Hammud sent her to Latakiah, where she was taken
+into the family of the late Dr. Dodds for instruction and training. She
+gladly received the truth, and Hammud labored earnestly for her
+enlightenment. Everything seemed bright and promising, until suddenly
+all their earthly hopes were dashed by the early death of Hammud in
+December, 1864. He died in the triumphs of the Christian faith, and from
+that time she gave herself to the Lord. In August, 1865, she with
+several others was baptized and received into the communion of the
+Church. At her own request, she was baptized as Miriam.
+
+In 1866 she was married to Yusef Jedid, and lived with him in several of
+the villages among the Nusairiyeh, where he was engaged in teaching. Her
+husband at length removed to Bahluliyeh in 1870, and a wide door of
+usefulness was opened to them. Her little daughters Lulu and Helany were
+with her, and there was every prospect that she would be able to do much
+for Christ among her benighted sisters. But the same disease,
+consumption, which prostrated Hammud, now laid her aside. It was
+probably brought on by a careless exposure of her health while lying
+down on the damp ground and falling asleep uncovered, as the natives of
+the mountain villages are in the habit of doing. The missionaries from
+Latakiah constantly visited her, and Dr. Metheny gave her the benefit of
+his medical skill, but all in vain. She loved to converse on heavenly
+things, and hear the Scriptures and prayer. But when the missionaries
+returned to the city, she was overwhelmed by the rebukes and merciless
+upbraidings of the fellaheen, who have no sympathy for the sick, the
+disabled and the dying. Her ears were filled with the sound of cursing
+and bitterness, and no wonder that she entreated the missionaries not
+to leave her. She told Mr. Beattie that she did not fear to die, for her
+trust was in Jesus Christ, but it was hard to be left among such coarse
+and unsympathizing people. At length she was brought into Latakiah,
+where she seemed to feel more at home. At times she passed through
+severe spiritual conflicts, and said she was struggling with the
+adversary, who had tried to make her blaspheme. At one time she was in
+great excitement, but when the 34th Psalm was read she became entirely
+composed and calm, and in turn, began chanting the 23rd Psalm to the
+end. She sent for all of her friends and begged their forgiveness,
+commended her children to the care of Miss Crawford, and asked Mr.
+Beattie to pray with her again. Her bodily sufferings now increased,
+when suddenly she called out, "The Lord be glorified! To God give the
+glory!" Soon after, she gently fell "asleep in Jesus." Thus died the
+first woman, as far as we know, ever truly converted from among the
+Pagan Nusairiyeh. Her conversion opened the way for that work of moral,
+religious and intellectual elevation among the Nusairy females which has
+since been carried on in Latakiah and vicinity.
+
+The first Christian woman to undertake the direct task of educating and
+elevating the Nusairiyeh females was Miss Crawford. She commenced her
+work in 1869. The Mission had found that the Boarding School for boys
+was training a class of young men, who could not find, among the tens of
+thousands of families in their native mountains, a single girl fitted
+to be one's companion for life. The females were everywhere neglected,
+and Miss Crawford came to Syria just at the time of the greatest need.
+Under the care and direction of the Mission, she commenced a Boarding
+School for girls in Latakiah in the fall of 1869. At first, but few
+pupils could be persuaded to come. Only two attended during the first
+year. Their names were Sada and Naiuf, the sister of Zahara. The next
+year Sada left, and ten new ones entered the school: Marie, Howa,
+Naiseh, Shehla, Thaljeh, (snow,) Tumra, (fruit,) Ghazella, Husna,
+Bureib'han, and Harba. They were all from twelve to fourteen in age, and
+remained through the winter, but at the beginning of wheat harvest,
+their friends forced them to return to their homes for the summer. They
+made marked progress both in study and deportment, and before leaving
+for their homes passed a creditable examination both in their studies
+and in needlework. The fact was thus established to the astonishment of
+the citizens of Latakiah, that the Nusairiyeh girls were equal in
+intellect and skill in needlework to the brightest of the city girls. In
+the autumn of 1871 it was feared that the Pagan parents of the girls
+would prevent their return to the school, but, greatly to the
+gratification of the missionaries, all of the ten returned, bringing
+with them nine others; Hamameh, (dove,) Henireh, Elmaza, (diamond,)
+Deebeh,(she-wolf,) Alexandra, Zeinab, Lulu, (pearl,) Howwa, (Eve,) and
+Naameh, (grace).
+
+During the year the pupils brought new joy to the hearts of their
+teachers. Not only were their numbers greatly increased, but the older
+girls seemed all to be under the influence of deep religious impressions
+on their return to the school. Although they had spent the summer among
+the wild fellaheen and been compelled to listen to blasphemy, impurity
+and cursing on every side, they had been able by the aid of God's Spirit
+to discriminate between good and evil, and to contrast the lawless
+wickedness of the fellaheen with the holy precepts of the Bible. Finding
+themselves unable to meet the requirements of God's pure and holy law,
+they returned under serious distress of mind, asking what they should do
+to be saved? Such of them as could do so, had been in the habit of
+meeting together during the summer for prayer, and of repeating the ten
+commandments and other portions of Scripture with which they were
+familiar. They had been threatened and beaten by their friends on
+account of their religious views, but they remained unmoved. The
+child-like simple faith of some of them was remarkable. Marie was
+punished on one occasion by her father for attending the missionary
+service at B'hamra on the Sabbath. He forbade her to eat for a whole
+day, and she prayed that God would give her bread. Soon after, on her
+way to the village fountain, she found part of a merkuk, loaf of bread,
+by the wayside, which she picked up and ate most gratefully, regarding
+it as a direct answer to her prayer. Another Ghuzaleh, was brutally
+beaten because she would not swear and blaspheme, and all were
+threatened and insulted because they would not work on Sunday.
+
+In November, 1871, seven of these girls, on their own application, were
+received into the membership of the Church. It was an interesting sight
+to see that group of Nusairiyeh heathen girls standing to receive the
+ordinance of Christian baptism. In the spring of 1872, another was added
+to the list. These little ones of Christ have all thus far shown
+themselves faithful. They were sent back to their homes in the summer,
+and several, if not the most, of them may be forbidden to return again
+to the school. Some may say, why allow them to go home? The policy of
+encouraging children to run away from their parents and connect
+themselves with foreign missionaries and missionary institutions, will
+lead the heathen to hate the very name of Christianity, and to charge it
+with being a foe to all social and family order, and on the broad ground
+of missionary usefulness, the girls can do far more good in their own
+homes than elsewhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CHRONICLE OF WOMEN'S WORK FROM 1820 TO 1872.
+
+
+It must not be inferred from what has been said on a preceding page with
+regard to the favorable position occupied by the women of the nominal
+Christian sects of Syria as compared with the Mohammedan women, that the
+first missionaries found the Greek and Maronite women and girls who
+speak the Arabic language eager or even willing to receive instruction.
+Far from it. The effects of the Mohammedan domination of twelve hundred
+years have been to degrade and depress all the sects and nationalities
+who are subject to Islam. Not only were there not women and girls found
+to learn to read, but the great mass of the men of the Christian sects
+could neither read nor write. Many of the prominent Arab merchants in
+Beirut to-day can neither read nor write. I say Arab merchants, and yet
+very few of the Arabs of the Greek Church have more than a mere tinge of
+Arab blood in their veins. To call them Syrians, would be to confound
+them with the "Syrian" or "Jacobite" sect, who are found only in the
+vicinity of Hums, Hamath and Mardin. So with the Maronites. They are
+chiefly of a darker complexion than the Arab Greeks, and are supposed to
+have had their origin in Mesopotamia. Yet all these sects and races
+speak the common Arabic language, and hence it will be convenient to
+call them Arabs, although I am aware, that while many of the modern
+Syrians glory in the name "Oulad el Arab," many others regard it with
+dislike.
+
+The Syrian Christianity, moreover, so often alluded to in the history of
+the Syrian Mission, is the lowest type of the religion of the Greek and
+Roman churches. Saint-worship and picture-worship are universal. An
+ignorant priesthood, and a superstitious people, no Bibles, and no
+readers to read them, no schools and no teachers capable of conducting
+them, prayers in unknown tongues, and a bitter feeling of party spirit
+in all the sects, universal belief in the efficacy of fasts and vows,
+pilgrimages and offerings to the shrines of reputed saints, churches
+without a preached gospel, and prayers performed as a duty without the
+worship of the heart, universal Mariolatry, a Sabbath desecrated by
+priests and people alike, God's name everywhere profaned by men, women
+and children, and truthfulness of lip almost absolutely unknown; the
+women and girls degraded and oppressed and left to the tender mercies of
+a corrupt clergy through the infamies of the confessional; all these
+practices and many others which space forbids us to mention, combined
+with the social bondage entailed upon woman by the gross code of Islam,
+rendered the women of the nominal Christian sects of Syria almost as
+hopeless subjects of missionary labor as were their less favored Druze
+and Moslem sisters.
+
+In order to present the leading facts in the history of Mission Work for
+Syrian women, I propose to give a brief review of the salient points, in
+the order of time, as I have been able to glean them from the missionary
+documents within my reach.
+
+The first Protestant missionary to Syria since the days of the Apostles,
+was the Rev. Levi Parsons, who reached Jerusalem January 16, 1821, and
+died in Alexandria February 10, 1822. In 1823, Rev. Pliny Fisk, and Dr.
+Jonas King reached Jerusalem to take his place, and on the 10th of July
+came to Beirut. Dr. King spent the summer in Deir el Kamr, and Mr. Fisk
+in a building now occupied by the Jesuit College in Aintura.
+
+On the 16th of November, 1823, Messrs. Goodell and Bird reached Beirut,
+and on the 6th of December, 1824, they wrote as follows: "Mr. King's
+Arabic instructor laughs heartily that the ladies of our company are
+served first at table. He said that if any person should come to his
+house and speak to his wife _first_, he should be offended. He said the
+English ladies have some understanding, the Arab women have none. It is
+the custom of this country that a woman must never be seen eating or
+walking, or in company with her husband. When she walks abroad, she must
+wrap herself in a large white sheet, and look like a ghost, and at home
+she must be treated more like a slave than a partner. Indeed, women are
+considered of so little consequence that to ask a man after the health
+of his wife, is a question which is said never to find a place in the
+social intercourse of this country."
+
+Jan. 24, 1825, Dr. Goodell wrote, "Some adult females come occasionally
+to be taught by Mrs. Bird or Mrs. Goodell, and although their attendance
+is very irregular, and their _disadvantages very great_, being _without
+Arabic books_, and their friends deriding their efforts, yet they make
+some improvement. One of them, who a fortnight ago did not know a single
+letter of the alphabet, can now read one verse in the Bible."
+
+July 1, 1825, Messrs. Goodell and Bird speak of the first girls taught
+to read in Syria in mission schools. "Our school contains between eighty
+and ninety scholars, who are all boys _except two_. One is the teacher's
+wife, who is perhaps fifteen years of age, and the other a little girl
+about ten." That teacher was Tannus el Haddad, who died a few years ago,
+venerated and beloved by all sects and classes of the people, having
+been for many years deacon of the Beirut Church, and his wife, Im
+Beshara, still lives, with an interesting family.
+
+On the 21st of Dec, 1825, Dr. King wrote as follows: "I spent about a
+month in Tyre, and made some efforts to establish a school for Tyrian
+females, and was very near succeeding, when one of the principal priests
+rose up and said, 'It is by no means expedient to teach women to read
+the word of God. It is better for them to remain in ignorance than to
+know how to read and write. They are quite bad enough with what little
+they now know. Teach them to read and write, and _there would be no
+living with them_!'" That Tyrian priest of fifty years ago, was a fair
+sample of his black-frocked brethren throughout Syria from that time to
+this. There have been a few worthy exceptions, but the Syrian priesthood
+of all sects, taken as a class, are the avowed enemies of the education
+and elevation of their people. Some of the exceptions to this rule will
+be mentioned in the subsequent pages of this volume.
+
+In 1826, there were three hundred children in the Mission schools in the
+vicinity of Beirut.
+
+In 1827, there were 600 pupils in 13 schools, of whom _one hundred and
+twenty were girls_! In view of the political, social and religious
+condition of Syria at that time, that statement is more remarkable than
+almost any fact in the history of the Syrian Mission. It shows that Mrs.
+Bird and Mrs. Goodell must have labored to good purpose in persuading
+their benighted Syrian sisters to send their daughters to school, and to
+these two Christian women is due the credit of having commenced Woman's
+Work for Women in modern times in Syria. In that same year, the wives of
+Bishop Dionysius Carabet and Gregory Wortabet were received to the
+communion of the Church in Beirut, being the first spiritual fruits of
+Women's Work for Women in modern Syria.
+
+During 1828 and 1829 the Missionaries temporarily withdrew to Malta. In
+1833, Dr. Thomson and Dr. Dodge arrived in Beirut. The Mission now
+consisted of Messrs. Bird, Whiting, Eli Smith, Drs. Thomson and Dodge.
+In a letter written at that time by Messrs. Bird, Smith and Thomson, it
+is said, "Of the females, none can either read or write, or the
+exceptions are so very few as not to deserve consideration. Female
+education is not merely neglected, but discouraged and opposed." They
+also stated, that "the whole number of native children in the Mission
+Schools from the beginning had been 650; 500 before the interruption in
+1828, and 150 since." "Female education as such is yet nearly untried."
+
+During that year Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. Dodge commenced a school for
+girls in Beirut. Dr. Eli Smith speaks of this school as follows, in the
+Memoir of Mrs. S.L. Smith: "A few girls were previously found in some of
+the public schools supported by the Mission, and a few had lived in the
+Mission families. But these ladies wished to bring them more directly
+under missionary influence, and to confer upon them the benefit of a
+system of instruction adapted to females. A commencement was accordingly
+made, by giving lessons to such little girls as could be irregularly
+assembled for an hour or two a day at the Mission-house; such an
+informal beginning being not only all that the ladies had time to
+attempt, but being also considered desirable as less likely to excite
+jealousy and opposition. For the project was entered upon with much
+trembling and apprehension. Not merely indifference to female education
+had to be encountered, but strong prejudice against it existing in the
+public mind from time immemorial. The Oriental prejudice against
+innovations from any quarter, and especially from foreigners, threatened
+resistance. The seclusion of females within their own immediate circle
+of relationship, originally Oriental, but strengthened by Mohammedan
+influence, stood in the way. And more than all, religious jealousy,
+looking upon the missionaries as dangerous heretics, and their influence
+as contamination, seemed to give unequivocal warning that the attempt
+might be fruitless. But the missionaries were not aware of the hold they
+had gained upon the public confidence. The event proved in this, as in
+many other missionary attempts, that strong faith is a better principle
+to act upon in the propagation of the gospel, than cautious calculation.
+Even down to the present time (1840) it is not known that a word of
+opposition has been uttered against the school which was then commenced.
+
+"On the arrival of Mrs. S.L. Smith in Beirut in January, 1834, she found
+some six or eight girls assembled every afternoon in Mrs. Thomson's room
+at the Mission house, receiving instruction in sewing and reading. One
+was far enough advanced to aid in teaching, and the widow of Gregory
+Wortabet occasionally assisted. On the removal of Mrs. Thomson and Mrs.
+Dodge to Jerusalem, the entire charge of the school devolved upon Mrs.
+Smith, aided by Mrs. Wortabet. Especial attention was given to reading,
+sewing, knitting and good behavior. In November, 1835, Miss Rebecca
+Williams arrived in Beirut as an assistant to Mrs. Smith. The school
+then increased, and in the spring of 1836 an examination was held, at
+which the mothers of the children and some other female friends were
+present. The scholars together amounted to upwards of forty; the room
+was well-filled, "presenting a scene that would have delighted the heart
+of many a friend of missions. Classes were examined in reading,
+spelling, geography, first lessons in arithmetic, Scripture questions,
+the English language, and sacred music, and the whole was closed by a
+brief address from Mrs. Dodge. The mothers then came forward of their
+own accord, and in a gratifying manner expressed their thanks to the
+ladies for what they had done for their daughters." Of the pupils of
+this school, the greater part were Arabs of the Greek Church; two were
+Jewesses; and some were Druzes; and at times there were eight or ten
+Moslems.
+
+A Sabbath School, with five teachers and thirty pupils, was established
+at the same time, the majority of the scholars being girls. A native
+female prayer-meeting was also commenced at this time, conducted by
+three missionary ladies and two native Protestant women. At times, as
+many as twenty were present, and this first female prayer-meeting in
+Syria in modern times, was attended with manifest tokens of the Divine
+blessing.
+
+As has been already stated, the seclusion of Oriental females renders
+it almost impossible for a male missionary to visit among them or hold
+religious meetings exclusively for women. This must be done, if at all,
+by the missionary's wife or by Christian women devoted especially to
+this work. It was true in 1834, and it is almost equally true in 1873.
+The Arabs have a proverb, "The tree is not cut down, but by a branch of
+itself;" _i.e._ the axe handle is of wood. So none can reach the women
+of Syria but women. The Church of Rome understands this, and is sending
+French, Italian and Spanish nuns in multitudes to work upon the girls
+and women of Syria, and the women of the Syria Mission, married and
+unmarried, have done a noble work in the past in the elevation and
+education of their Syrian sisters. And in this connection it should be
+observed, that a _sine qua non_ of efficient usefulness among the women
+of Syria, is that the Christian women who labor for them should know the
+Arabic language. Ignorance of the language is regarded by the people as
+indicating a want of sympathy with them, and is an almost insuperable
+barrier to a true spiritual influence. The great work to be done for the
+women of the world in the future, is to be done in their own
+mother-tongue, and it would be well that all the Female Seminaries in
+foreign lands should be so thoroughly supplied with teachers, that those
+most familiar with the native language could be free to devote a portion
+of their time to labors among the native women in their homes.
+
+In 1834 and 1835 Mrs. Dodge conducted a school for Druze girls in
+Aaleih, in Lebanon. This School in Aaleih, a village about 2300 feet
+above the level of the sea, was once suddenly broken up. Not a girl
+appeared at the morning session. A rumor had spread through the village,
+that the English fleet had come up Mount Lebanon from Beirut, and was
+approaching Aaleih to carry off all the girls to England! The panic
+however subsided, and the girls returned to school. In 1836 Mrs. Hebard
+and Mrs. Dodge carried on the work which Mrs. Smith had so much loved,
+and which was only temporarily interrupted by her death.
+
+In 1837, Mrs. Whiting and Miss Tilden had an interesting school of
+Mohammedan girls in Jerusalem, and Mrs. Whiting had several native girls
+in her own family.
+
+In reply to certain inquiries contained in a note I addressed to Miss T.
+she writes: "I arrived in Beirut, June 16, 1835. Mr. and Mrs. Whiting in
+Jerusalem were desirous that I should take a small school that Mrs.
+Whiting had gathered, of Mohammedan girls. She had in her family two
+girls from Beirut, Salome, (Mrs. Prof. Wortabet,) and Hanne, (Mrs.
+Reichardt.) There were in school from 12 to 20 or more scholars, all
+Moslems. Only one Christian girl could be persuaded to attend. I think
+that the inducement they had to send their daughters was the instruction
+given in sewing and knitting, free of expense to them. Mrs. Whiting
+taught the same scholars on the Sabbath. The Scripture used in their
+instruction, both week days and on the Sabbath, was the Psalms. After a
+year and a half I went to Beirut and assisted in the girl's school,
+which was somewhat larger and more promising. Miss Williams had become
+Mrs. Hebard, and Miss Badger from Malta was teaching at the time. Mrs.
+Smith's boarding scholar Raheel, was with Mrs. Hebard. I suppose that
+female education in the family was commenced in Syria by Mr. Bird, who
+taught the girl that married Demetrius. (Miss T. probably meant to say
+Dr. Thomson, as Mariya, daughter of Yakob Agha, was first placed in his
+family by her father in 1834.) The girls taught in the different
+missionaries' families were Raheel, Salome, Hanne, Khozma, Lulu, Kefa,
+and Susan Haddad. Schools were taught in the mountains, and instruction
+given to the women, and meetings held with them as the ladies had
+strength and opportunity, at their different summer residences. The day
+scholars were taught in Arabic, and the boarding scholars in Arabic and
+English. I taught them Colburn's Arithmetic. I taught also written
+arithmetic, reading, etc., in the boys' school."
+
+In 1841, war broke out between the Druzes and Maronites, and the nine
+schools of the Mission, including the Male Seminary of 31 pupils, the
+Girls' School of 25 pupils, and the Druze High School in Deir el Kamr,
+were broken up.
+
+In 1842, the schools were resumed. In twelve schools were 279 pupils, of
+whom 52 were girls, and twelve young girls were living as boarders in
+mission families.
+
+In 1843, there were thirteen schools with 438 pupils, and eleven young
+girls in mission families.
+
+During the year 1844, 186 persons were publicly recognized as
+Protestants in Hasbeiya. Fifteen women attended a daily afternoon
+prayer-meeting, and expressed great surprise and delight at the thought
+that religion was a thing in which _women_ had a share! A fiery
+persecution was commenced against the Protestants, who all fled to Abeih
+in Lebanon. On their return they were attacked and stoned in the
+streets, and Deacon Fuaz was severely wounded.
+
+In 1845, Lebanon was again desolated with civil war, the schools were
+suspended, and the instruction of 182 girls and 424 boys interrupted for
+a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MRS. WHITING'S SCHOOL.
+
+
+In 1846, Mrs. Whiting commenced a girls' day-school in her family at
+Abeih, and in Beirut there were four schools for boys and girls
+together, and one school for girls alone. In 18 Mission schools there
+were 144 girls and 384 boys. This girls' school in Abeih in 1846 was
+taught by Salome (Mrs. Wortabet) and Hanne, (Mrs. Reichardt,) the two
+oldest girls in Mr. Whiting's family. It was impossible to begin the
+school before August 1st, as the houses of the village which had been
+burned in the war of the preceding year had not been rebuilt, and
+suitable accommodations could not readily be found. During the summer
+there were twelve pupils, and in the fall twenty-five, from the Druze,
+Maronite, Greek Catholic and Greek sects, and the greatest freedom was
+used in giving instruction in the Bible and the Assembly's and Watts'
+Catechisms. A portion of every day was spent in giving especial
+religious instruction, and on the Sabbath a part of the pupils were
+gathered into the Sabbath School. During the fall a room was erected on
+the Mission premises for the girls' school, at an expense of 100
+dollars.
+
+The following letter from Mrs. Whiting needs no introduction. It bears a
+melancholy interest from the fact that the beloved writer died shortly
+afterwards, at Newark, N.J., May 18th, 1873.
+
+"My first introduction to the women of Syria was by Mrs. Bird, mother of
+Rev. Wm. Bird and Mrs. Van Lennep. She was then in the midst of her
+little family of four children. I daily found her in her nursery,
+surrounded by native women who came to her in great numbers, often with
+their sick children. They were always received with the greatest
+kindness and ministered to. She might be seen giving a warm bath to a
+sick child, or waiting and watching the effect of other remedies.
+Mothers from the neighboring villages of Lebanon were allowed to bring
+their sick children and remain for days in her house until relief was
+obtained. She was soon known throughout Beirut and these villages as the
+friend of the suffering, and I have ever thought that by these Christian
+self-denying labors, she did much towards gaining the confidence of the
+people. And who shall say that while good Father Bird was in his study
+library among the 'Popes and Fathers,' preparing his controversial work
+'The Thirteen Letters,' this dear sister, by her efforts, was not making
+a way to the hearts of these people for the reception of gospel truth,
+which has since been preached so successfully in the neighboring
+villages of Lebanon?
+
+"In the autumn of 1834, Mr. Whiting was removed to the Jerusalem
+station. I found the women accessible and ready to visit me, and invite
+me to their houses, but unwilling to place their girls under my
+instruction. All my efforts for some time were fruitless. Under date of
+Aug. 22, I find this entry in Mr. Whiting's journal: "During the past
+week, three little Moslem girls have been placed under Mrs. Whiting's
+instruction for the purpose of learning to read and sew. They seem much
+pleased with their new employment, and their parents, who are
+respectable Moslems, express great satisfaction in the prospect of their
+learning. They say, in the Oriental style that the children are no
+longer theirs, but ours, and that they shall remain with us and learn
+everything we think proper to teach them. This event excited much talk
+in the city, particularly among the Moslem mothers. The number of
+scholars, chiefly Moslem girls, increased to twenty-five and thirty."
+
+At a later date, Jan., 1836, "one of the girls in Mrs. Whiting's school,
+came with a complaint against a Jew who had been attempting to frighten
+her away from the school by telling her and her uncle (her guardian)
+that her teacher certainly had some evil design, and no doubt intended
+to select the finest of the girls, and send them away to the Pasha, and
+that it was even written so in the books which she was teaching the
+children to read. Whether the Jew has been set up by others to tell the
+people this absurd nonsense, I cannot say, but certainly it is a new
+thing for Jews to make any opposition, or to show any hostility to us.
+And this looks very much like the evil influence which has been
+attempted in another quarter."
+
+"March 7. Yesterday Mrs. W. commenced a Sunday school for the pupils of
+her day school. They were much delighted. They began to learn the
+Sermon on the Mount."
+
+"Sept. 7. Had a visit from two Sheikhs of the Mosque of David. One of
+them inquired particularly respecting Mrs. Whiting's school for Moslem
+girls, and wished to know what she taught them to read. I showed him the
+little spelling-book which we use, with which he was much pleased and
+begged me to lend it to him. I gave him one, with a copy of the Psalms,
+which he wished to compare with the Psalms of David as the Moslems have
+them. He invited me strongly to come and visit him, and to bring Mrs.
+Whiting to see his family."
+
+The school continued with little interruption until October 3d, when
+Miss Tilden arrived and had the charge of the school for nearly two
+years. I left in feeble health, with Mr. Whiting, for the United States,
+where we spent more than one year. Miss Tilden during our absence was
+engaged in teaching in the boys' school in Beirut. On my return the
+Moslem school was not resumed, and soon after Mr. Whiting was again
+transferred to the Abeih station.
+
+My work in the family school began in October, 1835, when Salome Carabet
+and Hanne Wortabet were placed by their parents in our family school. We
+afterwards added to the number Melita Carabet, and the two orphan girls
+Sada and Rufka Gregory. These two were brought to us in a very
+providential way. They were the children of Yakob Gregory, a respectable
+Armenian well known in Beirut.
+
+He had two children, and when these were quite young, he left his wife,
+and nothing was heard of him afterwards. The mother died soon after and
+left the children in the care of the American Mission and the Armenian
+Bishop. The old grandmother, who was in Aleppo, on hearing of her death,
+soon returned to Beirut to look after the children. She was allowed to
+visit them in the Bishop's family, where they were cared for, and one
+day, in a stealthy way, she took Sada into the city, placed her in the
+hands of a Jew, on board of a native boat bound for Jaffa. I suppose
+Sada was then about six years old. They set sail. The child cried
+bitterly on finding her grandmother was not on board as she had
+promised. There was on board the boat an Armenian, well acquainted with
+her father, who inquired of her the cause. On hearing her story he
+remonstrated, with the Jew, who said she had been placed in his hands by
+her grandmother to be sent to Jerusalem. On their arriving at Jaffa, the
+affair was made known to Mr. Murad, the American Consul. He sent for the
+Jew, took the child from his hands, and dismissed him, and wrote to Mr.
+Whiting in Jerusalem an account of the affair, and was directed by him
+to send the child to us. Not long after, her grandmother came to
+Jerusalem bringing Rufka. She tried to interest the Armenian Convent in
+her behalf. Here I find an extract from Mr. Whiting's journal, which
+will give you all of interest on this point. "After being out much of
+the morning, I returned and found the grandmother of little Sada, who
+had brought her little sister Rufka to leave her with us. She had a
+quarrel with the convent, and fled for refuge to us. We cannot but be
+thankful that both these little orphans are at length quietly placed
+under our care and instruction."
+
+The parents of three of the girls in our family, being Protestants,
+always gave their sanction to our mode of instructing and training them.
+Bishop Carabet likewise aided us in every way in his power, and ever
+seemed most grateful for what I was doing for his daughters. In his last
+sickness, when enfeebled by age, I often visited him. Once on going into
+his room, he was seated as usual on his Turkish rug. One of the family
+rose to offer me a chair, I said, "let me sit near you on your rug, that
+I may talk to you." With much emotion he replied, "_Inshullah tukodee
+jenb il Messiah fe melakoot is sema!_" "God grant that you may sit by
+the side of Christ in the kingdom of Heaven!"
+
+We were from time to time encouraged by tokens of a work of God's Spirit
+in their hearts. Melita Carabet was the first to indulge a hope in
+Christ, and united with the Church in Abeih. Salome united in Beirut;
+Hanne in Hasbeiya, where her brother, Rev. John Wortabet, was pastor.
+Sada was received by Mr. Calhoun at Abeih, soon after Mr. Whiting's
+death, and Rufka in later years united with the United Presbyterian
+Church in Alexandria, Egypt. I have ever thought these girls were under
+great obligations to the American Churches and the American Mission, who
+for so many years supported and instructed them, and I have ever tried
+to impress upon them a sense of their obligation to impart to others of
+their countrywomen what they had received. I believe as early as 1836,
+they began assisting me in the Moslem school for girls in Jerusalem, in
+which they continued to assist Miss Tilden until the school was given
+up.
+
+Soon after our removal to Abeih, October, 1844, we established a
+day-school for girls in the village on the Mission premises, of which
+Salome and Hanne had the entire charge under my superintendence. When
+the Station at Mosul was established, Salome was appointed by the
+Mission to assist Mrs. Williams in her work among the women, in which
+work she continued until her marriage with Rev. John Wortabet. Melita
+was afterwards appointed by the Mission to the Aleppo Station to assist
+Mrs. Eddy and Mrs. Ford in the work, and so they were employed at
+various stations in the work of teaching, until I left the Mission. I
+have kept up a continual correspondence with them, and have learned from
+others to my joy, that they were doing the work for which I had trained
+them."
+
+The above deeply interesting letter from Mrs. Whiting is enough in
+itself to show what an amount of patient Christian labor was expended
+through a course of many years, in the education of the five young
+Syrian maidens who were entrusted in the providence of God to her care.
+I have been personally acquainted with four of them for seventeen years,
+and can testify, as can many others, of the good use they have made of
+their high opportunities. The amount of good they have accomplished as
+teachers, in Abeih, Jerusalem, Deir el Komr, Hasbeiya, Tripoli, Aleppo,
+Mosul, Alexandria, Cairo, Melbourne, (Australia,) and in the Mission
+Female Seminary and the Prussian Deaconesses' Institute in Beirut, will
+never be known until all things are revealed. I have received letters
+from several of them, which I will give in their own language, as they
+are written in English. The first is from Salome, now the wife of the
+Rev. Prof. John Wortabet, M.D., of the Syrian Protestant College in
+Beirut.
+
+"I do not consider my history worth recording, and it is only out of
+consideration of what is due to Mrs. Whiting for the labor she bestowed
+upon us, that I am induced to take up my pen to comply with your
+request. I was taken by Mrs. Whiting when only six years old, together
+with Hannie Wortabet, who was five years old, to be brought up in her
+family, she having no children of her own. Owing partly to the nature of
+the religious instruction we received, and partly to my own timid
+sensitive nature, I was, from time to time for many years, under deep
+spiritual terrors, without any saving result. When I was about sixteen,
+a revival of religion took place, under whose influence I was also
+brought. Mr. Calhoun was my spiritual adviser, and although my mind
+groped in darkness, and bordered on despair for many weeks, I hope I was
+then led to put my trust in Jesus, and if ever I am saved, my only hope
+now is, and ever shall be, in the merits of Jesus' blood and His
+promises."
+
+The next letter is from Melita Carabet, daughter of the Armenian Bishop
+Dionysius Carabet, who became a Protestant in 1823. She writes as
+follows:
+
+"Nothing could give me more pleasure than to comply with your request,
+and thereby recall some of the happy days and incidents of my childhood
+and youth, spent under the roof of my godly teachers, Mr. and Mrs.
+Whiting. I ought to remember them as far back as at the baptismal font,
+for I heard afterwards that they were both present on the occasion,
+which took place in Malta, where I was born. But as my memory does not
+carry me back so far, I must date my recollections from the time I was
+five years of age, when I came to live in their family. I can distinctly
+recollect the first texts of Scripture and verses of hymns that dear
+Mrs. Whiting taught my young lips to repeat, and my little prayer which
+I used to say at her knees on going to bed, I still repeat to this day,
+"Now I lay me," etc. One incident which happened about a year later, was
+so deeply impressed on my memory, and had such an effect upon me at the
+time, that I must mention it. It was this. Mrs. Whiting had given us
+girls (we were five in number, my sister Salome, and Hannie, Dr.
+Wortabet's sister, and Sada and Rufka Gregory) some raisins to pick over
+preparatory to making cake. I stole an opportunity after a while, to
+slip about a dozen of these raisins into my pocket. No one saw me do it
+but from the moment I had done it, I began to feel very unhappy, and
+repented the deed. My companions went out to play, but I could not join
+in their sports. My heart was too heavy. I sat mourning over my sin, and
+could eat no supper, and had no rest until I had made a full confession
+to Mrs. Whiting at bed-time. She prayed and wept over me, and somehow I
+was comforted and went to my little bed much happier.
+
+"I remember nothing more until a much later period, when I was about the
+age of twelve. About this time, there was a great awakening among the
+young girls in some of the Mission families. Mr. Calhoun's prayers and
+advice were very much solicited and sought, in guiding and praying with
+the young inquirers. One Sunday as I was reading the little tract "The
+Blacksmith's wife," (which I have kept to this day,) I felt a great
+weight and sense of sin. I trace my conversion to the reading of this
+tract. It was not long before I found peace. I have often since longed
+for those days and hours of sweet communion with my Saviour. I joined
+the Church a very short time after this, and at this early age was given
+charge of a Bible class in Abeih.
+
+"Now I must pass over a few more years, when I went to Hasbeiya, to
+spend a little time with my sister Salome, now wife of Dr. John
+Wortabet, who was appointed pastor of the little Protestant Church
+there. I spent one year of my life here, during which time I took charge
+of a little day school for girls in my sister's house. Dr. Wortabet's
+sister Hannie had opened this school some years before I came. I do not
+remember the number of pupils, but there were five little Moslem
+princesses, grandchildren of the great Emir "Saad-ed-Deen," who was
+called some years later to Constantinople to be punished for having
+spoken disrespectfully of Queen Victoria. These little princesses were
+regular attendants at the school, and learned to read in the New
+Testament, and studied Watts' Catechism with the rest of the Christian
+children. I had also charge of a Bible class for women, who used to meet
+once a week in the Protestant Church. This was before the massacre of
+1860. The rest of my life has been spent in teaching in Beirut. Since
+the massacres, I have been teaching the orphans in the Prussian School,
+where I at present reside. Indeed it has been my home ever since I
+undertook this work which I love dearly, and which I hope to continue so
+long as the Lord sees fit, and gives me strength to work for Him."
+
+I am permitted to make the following extract from a letter written by
+Melita to Mrs. Whiting, in February, 1868. I give the exact language, as
+the letter is written in English:
+
+                                         Prussian Institution, Beirut,
+                                                  _February 23, 1868_.
+
+     My Dear Mrs. Whiting--
+
+     It is so cold this morning that I can with difficulty hold my pen.
+     It has been a very cold and stormy month, and there seems no
+     prospect of fair weather yet. The snow on the mountains is as low
+     as the lowest hills, and I pity the poor creatures who must be
+     suffering in consequence. J. enjoys the weather very much; indeed
+     he seems so exhilarated and invigorated by it that one could almost
+     wish it to last on his account, but I must say that I wish it was
+     over, and the warm sunbeams shedding their genial rays again upon
+     the cold frozen earth.
+
+     Trouble and grief are such a common complaint at present that you
+     will not be surprised to hear me relate my share of them. I have
+     indeed had my full share, and you would say so too had you seen how
+     I was occupied during my holidays last summer, in taking care of my
+     ill and suffering brother. And aside from my fatigue, for I was
+     always on my feet until two or three hours after midnight, quite
+     alone with him--merely to witness such indescribable suffering as
+     he went through, was more than is generally allotted to human
+     beings on earth. He had been unwell for some time previous, and had
+     been advised by the Doctor to go up to the mountains, so Mr.
+     Calhoun kindly offered him a place in the Seminary, where he could
+     stop until his health was recruited, and in the meantime give a
+     couple of English lessons during the day to the boys in the
+     Seminary. He lodged with the Theological students in a little room
+     above the school, but he had not been up there more than a week,
+     when his whole body became suddenly covered with a burning eruption
+     that was always spreading and increasing in size. He could neither
+     lie nor sit in any possible position, and was racked with pains
+     that seemed at times well nigh driving him mad. I trembled for his
+     reason, and was so awed and terrified by the sight, that I was in
+     danger of losing mine as well. No one would come near him, and Mrs.
+     Calhoun had kindly asked me to come and spend the holidays with
+     them, so it fell to my lot to nurse and take care of him. I used to
+     go to him in the morning as soon as I got up, and sit (or stand) up
+     with him until two or three o'clock at night, dressing his sores;
+     running down only occasionally for my meals, and with my little
+     lantern coming down in the dead of night, all alone, to lay my
+     weary head and aching heart and limbs on my bed for a little rest.
+     But not to sleep, for whenever I closed my eyes, I had that eternal
+     picture and scene of suffering before me. I could find no one who
+     was willing for love or for money to help me or relieve me for one
+     night or day. The disease was so offensive as well as frightful,
+     that no one could stop in the room. One of the Prussian "Sisters"
+     who went up with me, kindly assisted me sometimes until she came
+     down. In this state did J. find me on his return from England. His
+     family was up in Aaleih, and he used to ride over occasionally to
+     see P. and prescribe some new medicine for him, but his skill was
+     baffled with this terrifying disease, and poor P. remained in this
+     agonizing state of suffering for five whole months without leaving
+     his bed. He was carried down on a litter to Beirut, where he has
+     been since. He took a little room by himself, and gives lessons in
+     English until something more prosperous turns up for him. Twenty
+     years' experience seemed to be added to my life in those three
+     months of anxiety I went through last summer; and what a picture of
+     suffering and grief was I, after this, myself. No wonder if I feel
+     entirely used up this winter, and feel it a great effort to live.
+
+     There is not the slightest prospect of my ever getting back my lost
+     property from that man--as he has long since left the country, and
+     is said to be a great scoundrel and a very dishonorable man. If he
+     were not, he would never have risked the earnings of a poor orphan
+     girl by asking for it on the eve of his bankruptcy. Had I my
+     property I might perhaps have given up teaching for a while, and
+     gone away for a little change and rest, but God has willed it
+     otherwise, no doubt for some wise purpose, and to some wise end,
+     although so difficult and incomprehensible at present. It is all
+     doubtless for the trial of my faith and trust in Him. Let me then
+     trust in Him! Yea, though He slay me, let me yet trust in Him! Has
+     He ever yet failed me? Has He not proved Himself in all ages to be
+     the Father and the God of the orphan and the widow? He must see
+     that I need these troubles and sorrows, or He would not send them,
+     for my Father's hand would never cause his child a needless tear. A
+     bruised reed He will not break, but will temper the storm to the
+     shorn lamb; I will then no longer be dejected and cast down, but
+     look upward and trust in my Heavenly Father, feeling sure that He
+     will make all right in the end.
+
+     My letter is so sad and melancholy that I cannot let it go without
+     something more cheerful, so I will add a line to brighten and cheer
+     it up a little. For life, with all the bitterness it contains, has
+     also much that is agreeable and affords much enjoyment; for there
+     is a wonderful elasticity in the human mind which enables it, when
+     sanctified by divine grace, to bear up under present ills. So with
+     all my griefs and ills, I have been able to enjoy myself too
+     sometimes this winter. I have lately attended two Concerts, one
+     here, given by the Prussian Sisters, for the benefit of the new
+     Orphanage, "Talitha Kumi," at Jerusalem, lately erected by the
+     Prussian Sisters there--and one given by the "Sisters of Charity,"
+     for the benefit of the orphans and poor of this town. Daood Pasha
+     most generously gave up the large hall in his mansion for the
+     occasion, as well as honoring it by his attendance. The Concert in
+     our Institution was entirely musical, vocal and instrumental. All
+     the Missionaries came. We had nearly three hundred tickets sold at
+     five francs apiece, so that there was a nice little sum added to
+     the Orphan's Fund at Jerusalem.
+
+                    Ever your affectionate
+
+                                                  Melita.
+
+Saada Gregory was engaged in teaching at different times in Tripoli,
+Aleppo, Hasbeiya and Egypt. Her school in Tripoli was eminently
+successful, and her labors in Alexandria were characterized by great
+energy and perseverance. She kept up a large school even when suffering
+from great bodily pain. She is now in the United States in enfeebled
+health.
+
+                                  American Mission House, Alexandria,
+                                                  _November 8, 1867_.
+
+     My Dear Mrs. Whiting,
+
+     I know you will be expecting a letter from me soon, partly in
+     answer to yours sent by Mrs. Van Dyck, and especially because it is
+     the day on which you expect all your children to remember you. I
+     never do forget this day, but this time there are special reasons
+     for my remembering it. Whenever the day has come around, I have
+     felt more forcibly than at others, how utterly alone I have been,
+     for since dear Mr. Whiting was taken away from us, it has seemed as
+     though we were made doubly orphans, but this time it has not been
+     so. I think I have been made to realize that I have a loving Father
+     in heaven who loves and watches over and cares for me more than
+     ever you or Mr. Whiting did. I do really feel now that God has
+     given me friends, so this day has not been so sad a one to me as it
+     usually is. Another source of thankfulness to-day is, that I have
+     been raised up from a bed of pain and suffering from which neither
+     I nor any of my friends thought I ever would rise. Weary days and
+     nights of pain, when it was torture to move and almost impossible
+     to lie still, and when it seemed at times that death would be only
+     a relief, and yet here I am still living to praise Him for many,
+     many mercies. Mr. Pinkerton waited on me day and night, often
+     depriving himself of sleep and rest in order to do it, and when
+     convalescence set in, and with the restlessness of a sick person, I
+     used to fancy I would be more comfortable up stairs, he used to
+     carry me up and down and gratify all my whims. For five weeks I was
+     in bed, and many more confined to my room and the house. But the
+     greatest reason for thankfulness is, that God has in His great
+     mercy brought me to a knowledge of Himself, and of my own lost
+     state as a guilty sinner. It was while lying those long weary days
+     on the bed that I was made to see that for ten long years I had
+     been deceiving myself. Instead of being a Christian and being
+     prepared to die, I was still in the gall of bitterness and the
+     bonds of iniquity, and if God had taken me away during that
+     sickness, it would have been with a lie in my right hand. Now when
+     I look back on those long years spent in sin and in self-deception,
+     I wonder at God's loving kindness and patience in sparing me still
+     to show forth in me His goodness and forbearance. Truly it is of
+     His mercies that I was not consumed. How often I taught others and
+     talked to them of the love of Christ, and yet I had not that love
+     myself. How many times I sat down to His table with his children,
+     and yet I had no portion nor lot in the matter. Sometimes when I
+     think how near destruction I was, with literally but a step between
+     me and death, eternal death, and yet God raised me up and brought
+     me to Christ and made me love Him, and how ever since He has been
+     watching over me giving me the measure of comfort and peace that I
+     enjoy and giving me the desire to know and love Him more, I wonder
+     at my own coldness, at the frequency with which I forget Him. How
+     strong sin still is over me, how prone I am to wander away from
+     Christ and to forget His love, to allow sin to come between me and
+     Him, and yet He still follows me with His love, still He brings me
+     back to Him, the good Shepherd. Oh! if I could live nearer Christ,
+     if I could realize and rejoice in His love. Now when I think how
+     near I may be to the eternal world, that at any moment a severe
+     attack of pain may come on which will carry me off, it is good to
+     know that my Saviour will be with me; that He is mine and I am His.
+     It is not easy to look death calmly in the face and know that my
+     days are numbered, yet can I not participate in the promise that He
+     Himself will come and take me to be with Him where He is. I would
+     like to be allowed to live longer and be permitted to bring souls
+     to Christ, but I feel assured that He will do what is best, and
+     that He will not call me away as long as He has any work for me to
+     do here I have a feeling that this will be my last letter to you,
+     and I now take the opportunity of thanking you for all you have
+     done for me, for all the care you bestowed on me, the prayers you
+     have offered for me, and the kind thoughtfulness you still manifest
+     for my welfare. It would be a comfort to me if I could see and talk
+     with you once more, but I fear that will never be in this world,
+     but shall we not meet in our Saviour's presence, purified,
+     justified and sanctified through His blood? With truest love and
+     gratitude
+
+                    I remain yours,
+
+                                                  Saada.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+DR. DE FOREST'S WORK IN BEIRUT.
+
+
+In 1847, Dr. and Mrs. De Forest commenced their work of female
+education, receiving two young women into their family. In 13 Mission
+schools there were 163 girls and 462 boys. During the year 1847, six
+schools were in operation in connection with the Beirut Station. One in
+the Mesaitebe with 32 pupils, of whom 10 were girls. This school was
+promising and 15 of the pupils could read in the Bible. Another was in
+the Ashrafiyeh, with 50 pupils, of whom 12 were girls. Nineteen in this
+school could read in the Bible. Another was on the Mission premises with
+seventy pupils. Another school, south of the Mission premises, had 60
+pupils, of whom 15 were girls. In addition to these was the Female
+School with thirty girls, taught by Raheel.
+
+In 1848, on the organization of the first Evangelical Church, nineteen
+members were received, of whom four were women. Dr. De Forest had seven
+native girls in his family, and there were fifty-five girls in other
+schools.
+
+In 1849, Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. De Forest visited Hasbeiya to labor among
+the women, by whom they were received with great cordiality. The girls'
+school of that time was regularly maintained and well attended. Dr. De
+Forest had thirteen native girls boarders in his family in Beirut, and
+Mr. Whiting had five.
+
+In the Annual Report of the Beirut Station for 1850, it is stated that
+"a more prayerful spirit prevails among the brethren and sisters. One
+pleasing evidence of this is the recent establishment of a weekly female
+prayer-meeting, which is attended by all the female members of the
+Church. Yet it is somewhat remarkable that in our little Church there is
+so small a proportion of females. Unhappily, only one of our native
+brethren is blessed with a pious wife. Some of them are surrounded with
+relatives and friends whose influence is such as to hinder rather than
+help them in their Christian course, and in the religious training of
+their children."
+
+This difficulty still exists in all parts of the Protestant community,
+not only in Syria, but throughout the Turkish Empire, and probably
+throughout the missionary world. The young men of the Protestant
+Churches at the present time endeavor to avoid this source of trial and
+embarrassment by marrying only within the Protestant community, and the
+rapid growth of female education in these days gives promise that the
+time is near when the mothers in Syria will be in no respect behind the
+fathers in either virtue or intelligence. The Beirut Church now numbers
+107 members, of whom 57 are men and 50 are women.
+
+In 1851, Miss Anna L. Whittlesey arrived in Beirut as an assistant to
+Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and died in a year less one day after her
+arrival, beloved and lamented by all. In July of that year five of the
+women in Hasbeiya united with the Church.
+
+In 1852 and 1853 the Female Seminary in Beirut reached a high degree of
+prosperity, and the girls' schools in different parts of the land were
+well attended. Miss Cheney arrived from America to supply Miss
+Whittlesey's place.
+
+In 1854, Dr. De Forest was obliged from failing health, to relinquish
+his work and return to the United States. A nobler man never lived. As a
+physician he was widely known and universally beloved, and as a teacher
+and preacher he exerted a lasting influence. The good wrought by that
+saintly man in Syria will never be fully known in this world. The lovely
+Christian families in Syria, whose mothers were trained by him and his
+wife, will be his monuments for generations to come. It is a common
+remark in Syria, that the great majority of all Dr. De Forest's pupils
+have turned out well.
+
+I have not been able to find the official reports with regard to the
+Female Seminary of Dr. De Forest in Beirut for the years 1847, 1848, and
+1849, but from the Reports made by Dr. De Forest himself for the years
+1850, 1852 and 1853, I make the following extracts:
+
+In 1850, the Doctor writes: "The Seminary now has seventeen pupils
+including two, Khozma and Lulu, who act as teachers. The older class
+have continued to study the Sacred Scriptures as a daily lesson, and
+have nearly finished the Old Testament. They have studied a brief
+Compend of History in Arabic, and have continued Arithmetic and English.
+Compositions have been required of them weekly in Arabic until last
+autumn, when they began to write alternately in English and Arabic. A
+brief course of Astronomy was commenced, illustrated by Mattison's maps,
+given by Fisher Howe, Esq., of Brooklyn, N.Y.
+
+"Recently the pupils have been invited to spend every second Sabbath
+evening with the other members of the family in conversation respecting
+some missionary field which has been designated previously. The large
+missionary map is hung in the sitting-room, and all are asked in turn to
+give some fact respecting the field in question. Even the youngest, who
+have not yet learned to read with facility in their own language,
+furnish their mite of information.
+
+"The instruction in this school has been given by Dr. and Mrs. De
+Forest, aided by Mrs. De Forest's parents and the two elder pupils who
+have rendered such efficient aid heretofore. The pupils of all the
+classes have made good progress in their various studies, and their
+deportment has been satisfactory. They are gaining mental discipline and
+intellectual furniture, and have acquired much evangelical knowledge.
+Deep seriousness has been observed on the part of some of the elder
+pupils at different times, and they give marked and earnest attention to
+the preached word.
+
+"In our labors for the reconstruction of society here, we feel more and
+more the absolute need of a sanctified and enlightened female influence;
+such an influence as is felt so extensively in America, and whose
+beneficent action is seen in the proper training of children, and in the
+expulsion of a thousand superstitions from the land. Christian schools
+seem the most evident means of securing such an end. Commerce and
+intercourse with foreigners, and many other causes are co-operating with
+missionary effort to enlighten the _men_ of Beirut and its vicinity, but
+the women, far more isolated than in America, are scarcely affected by
+any of these causes, and they hinder materially the moral elevation of
+the other sex. Often the man who seems full of intelligence and
+enterprise and mental enlargement when abroad, is found when at home to
+be a mere superstitious child; the prophecy that his mother taught him
+being still the religion of his home, and the heathenish maxims and
+narrow prejudices into which he was early indoctrinated still ruling the
+house. The inquirer after truth is seduced back to error by the many
+snares of unsanctified and ignorant companionship, and the convert who
+did run well is hindered by the benighted stubbornness to which he is
+unequally yoked.
+
+"While exerting this deleterious influence over their husbands and
+children, the females of the land have but little opportunity for
+personal improvement, and are not very promising subjects of missionary
+labor. His faith must be strong who can labor with hope for the
+conversion of women, with whom the customs of society prohibit freedom
+of intercourse, and who have not learning enough to read a book, or
+vocabulary enough to understand a sermon, or mental discipline enough to
+follow continuous discourse."
+
+In the Report for 1852, Dr. De Forest writes: "At the date of our last
+Annual Report, Miss Whittlesey was in good health, was rapidly acquiring
+the Arabic, and was zealously pressing on in her chosen work, with
+well-trained intellect, steady purpose and lively hope. But God soon
+called her away, and she departed in "hope of eternal life which God
+that cannot lie promised before the world began." The Female Boarding
+School has suffered much from the loss of its Principal, but the same
+course of study has been pursued as before, though necessarily with less
+efficiency. One of the assistant pupils, (Lulu,) who has been relied
+upon for much of the teaching, and superintendence of the scholars, was
+married last autumn to the senior tutor of the Abeih Seminary. The
+number of pupils now in the school is fifteen. The communication of
+Biblical and religious knowledge has been a main object of this school.
+All the pupils, as a daily lesson, study the Assembly's Shorter
+Catechism, first in Arabic with proof-texts, and afterwards in English
+with Baker's Explanatory Questions and Scripture proofs, and they are
+taught a brief Historical Catechism of the Old and New Testaments. The
+first of proper school hours every day is occupied with the Scriptures
+by all the school. The Epistles to the Hebrews and the Romans formed
+the subject of these lessons until the autumn, when Mr. Calhoun's
+revised edition of the "Companion to the Bible" was adopted as a
+text-book, and the Old Testament has been studied in connection with
+that work. The pupils all attend the service at the Mission Chapel, and
+have lessons appropriate to the Sabbath in the intervals of worship.
+
+"The evening family worship is in Arabic, and is a familiar Bible Class.
+All the pupils are present, and not unfrequently some of their relatives
+and other strangers. In addition to this religious instruction, the
+several classes have studied the Arabic and English languages, some of
+them writing in both, geography and history, arithmetic mental and
+higher, astronomy, and some of the simple works on natural philosophy
+and physiology. Compositions have been required in Arabic and English.
+The lessons in drawing, commenced by Miss Whittlesey, have been
+continued under the instruction of Mrs. Smith, and plain and fancy
+needle-work have been taught as heretofore.
+
+"To those who have watched the growth of intellect, and in some
+instances, we hope, the growth of grace in these few pupils, and in the
+other female boarding scholars in some of the mission families, who have
+seen the pleasing contrast afforded by Syrian females when adorned after
+the Apostolic recommendation by good works and a "meek and quiet
+spirit," with those who cover empty heads with pearls and enrobe untidy
+persons in costly array,--who have rejoiced to see one and another
+family altar set up, where both heads of the family and the hearts of
+both unite in acknowledging God,--this branch of our labors need offer
+no further arguments to justify its efficient prosecution.
+
+"The library of the Seminary consists of 220 school books, and 148
+volumes of miscellaneous books, chiefly for the young. The school has 6
+large fine maps, and 5 of Mr. Bidwell's Missionary maps, and 16 of
+Mattison's astronomical maps. These maps were the gifts of Mrs. Dr.
+Burgess and of Fisher Howe, Esq. The school has a pair of globes, one
+Season's machine, one orrery, a pair of gasometers, a spirit-lamp and
+retort stand, a centre of gravity apparatus, a capillary attraction
+apparatus, a galvanic trough, a circular battery, an electromagnet, a
+horse shoe magnet, a revolving magnet, a wire coil and hemispheric
+helices, and an electric shocking machine."
+
+The report of the Female Seminary for 1853 is written in the handwriting
+of Mrs. De Forest, owing to the increasing infirmity of Dr. De Forest's
+health, and this report has a sad interest from its being the last one
+ever dictated by Dr. De Forest.
+
+"A small day-school for girls has been taught by one of the pupils in
+Mrs. Whiting's family during the winter, and it is contemplated to
+continue the school hereafter in the Girl's School house on the Mission
+premises, under the instruction of a graduate of the Female Seminary.
+The demand for such instruction for girls is steadily increasing.
+
+"The teaching force of the Seminary was increased last spring by the
+arrival of Miss Cheney, who entered at once upon the duties of her
+position, devoting a portion of her time to the acquisition of Arabic,
+and a part to the instruction of some classes in English. Still, on
+account of the repeated illnesses of Dr. De Forest, it was not deemed
+advisable to receive a new class last autumn. The only girls admitted
+during the year were one of Mrs. Whiting's pupils who was transferred to
+the Seminary for one year, one of the class who graduated two years
+since, and who desired to return for another year, and Sara, the
+daughter of Mr. Butrus Bistany. These three were received into existing
+classes, while it was not deemed advisable under the circumstances to
+make up another class composed of new pupils.
+
+"The course of instruction, Biblical and other, has been much the same
+as that hitherto pursued. Miss Cheney commenced "Watts on the Mind,"
+with some of the older pupils, in English. All the pupils have had
+familiar lessons on Church History in Arabic, and some of them have
+begun an abridged work on Moral Philosophy. Much effort has been
+bestowed upon the cultivation of a taste for the reading of profitable
+books, and a number of the girls have read the whole of "D'Aubigne's
+History of the Reformation," and other history with Mrs. De Forest in
+the evening class, the atlas being always open before them. Mrs. Smith
+has given some instruction in the rudiments of drawing to a part of the
+pupils, and Mrs. Bird and Mrs. Calhoun have given lessons in vocal
+music, for which some of the pupils have considerable taste.
+
+"After completing the 'Companion to the Bible' in Arabic, the whole
+school were engaged daily in a Harmony of the Gospels, and other
+Biblical and religious instruction has been continued as heretofore. We
+have ever kept in mind the necessity of not denationalizing these Arab
+children, and we believe that this desired result has been attained. The
+long vacation of six weeks in the spring, and the same in the autumn,
+the commencement of all instruction in Arabic, and the preponderance of
+Arabic study in the school, have contributed to this result. The older
+pupils have attained to a considerable knowledge of English, giving them
+access to books suitable for girls to read, and yet Arabic is the
+language of the school, and the pupils are Syrians still in dress and
+manners. The advantages of the school are more and more appreciated in
+the city, and the adjacent mountains. Many were exceedingly earnest in
+offering their daughters last autumn, both Protestant and other, and
+some when repulsed at the Seminary, besought the mission families to
+receive their children."
+
+During the next year, the school was placed in the family of Mr. and
+Mrs. Wilson, under the charge of Miss Cheney. A class of eight
+graduated, and the pupils contributed to benevolent objects of the
+fruits of their industry, over 1200 piastres, or about fifty dollars.
+
+In a report on Education, prepared by the Syria Mission in 1855, it was
+stated, that "without entering into details in regard to the course of
+study pursued, we are happy to say that the results of Dr. De Forest's
+Seminary were very gratifying, and proved, if proof were needed, that
+there is the same capacity in the native female mind of the country that
+there is in the male, and that under proper instruction, and by the
+blessing of God, there will be brought forward a class of intelligent,
+pious and efficient female helpers in the great work of evangelizing
+this community."
+
+The hope implied in the above sentence with regard to the raising up of
+"a class of intelligent, pious and efficient female helpers," has been
+abundantly realized. The list of Dr. De Forest's pupils is to a great
+extent the list of the leading female teachers and helpers in all the
+various departments of evangelic work in Syria.
+
+Not having access to the records of the Seminary as they have been lost,
+I have obtained from several of the former pupils a list of the members
+of the various classes from 1848 to 1852. The whole number of pupils
+during that period was twenty-three. Of these two died in faith, giving
+good evidence of piety. Of the twenty-one who survive, twelve are
+members of the Evangelical Church, and nine are now or were recently
+engaged in _teaching_, although nearly twenty years have elapsed since
+they graduated. Twenty-one are at the head of families, esteemed and
+honored in the communities where they reside. The names of the whole
+class are as follows:
+
+    Ferha Jimmal, now Kowwar of Nazareth.
+    Sara Haddad, now Myers of Beirut.
+    Sada Sabunjy, now Barakat of Beirut.
+    Sada Haleby, of Beirut.
+    Miriam Tabet, now Tabet of Beirut.
+    Khushfeh Mejdelany, now Musully of Beirut.
+    Khurma Mejdelany, now Ashy of Hasbeiya.
+    Mirta Tabet, now Suleeby of B'hamdun.
+    Feifun Maluf, of Aramoon.
+    Katrin Roza, of Kefr Shima.
+    Mirta Suleeby, now Trabulsy of Beirut.
+    Sara Suleeby, of Beirut.
+    Esteer Nasif, now Aieed of Suk el Ghurb.
+    Hada Suleeby, now Shidoody of Beirut.
+    Helloon Zazuah, now Zuraiuk of Beirut.
+    Khushfeh Towileh, now Mutr of Beirut.
+    Fetneh Suleeby, now Shibly of Suk el Ghurb.
+    Akabir Barakat, now Ghubrin of Beirut.
+    Hamdeh Barakat, now Bu Rehan of Hasbeiya.
+    Eliza Hashem, now Khuri of Beirut.
+    Rufka Haddad, (deceased).
+    Sara Bistany, (deceased).
+    Durra Schemail, of Kefr Shima.
+
+Two of the most successful of those engaged in teaching, are now
+connected with the British Syrian Schools. They are Sada Barakat and
+Sada el Haleby. The former has written me a letter in English in regard
+to her own history and religious experience, which I take the liberty
+to transcribe here verbatim in her own language. She was one of the
+_least_ religious of all the pupils in the school, when she was first
+received but the work of conviction and conversion was a thorough one,
+and she has been enabled by the grace of God to offer constant and most
+efficient testimony to the reality of Christian experience, in the
+responsible position she has been called upon to fill in the late Mrs.
+Thompson's institution.
+
+                                            Suk el Ghurb, Mt. Lebanon,
+                                                  _September 3, 1872_.
+
+     Dear Sir--I am thankful to say, in reply to your inquiry,
+     that I was not persecuted when I became a Protestant, like my other
+     native sisters were when they became Protestants, because I was
+     very young. I was about four years old when my father died, and a
+     year after, my mother married a Protestant man. I came to live with
+     my mother in her new home, with my two brothers. It was very hard
+     to lose a dear loving father who loved his children so much as my
+     mother tells me he did. But the Lord does everything right, because
+     if the Lord had not taken my father away from us I should not have
+     known the true religion. I lived in my step-father's house till I
+     was twelve years old. I was then placed in Dr. De Forest's school,
+     in the year 1848. I stayed there four years. I was not clever at my
+     studies, and especially the English language was very difficult for
+     me. Even until now I remember a lesson in English which was so hard
+     for me that I was punished twice for it, and I could not learn it.
+     Now it will make me laugh to think of these few words, which I
+     could not translate into Arabic: "The hen is in the yard." My mind
+     was more at play than at learning. I was very clever at housework,
+     and at dressing dolls, and was always the leader in all games. From
+     that you can see that I was not a very good girl at school. After
+     the two first years I began to think how nice it would be to become
+     a real Christian like my dear teacher Dr. De Forest. Then I used to
+     pray, and read, especially the "Pilgrim's Progress," and my mind
+     was so busy at it that I used sometimes to leave my lesson and go
+     and sit alone in my room. Nobody knew what was the matter with me,
+     but Dr. De Forest used to ask me why I did not go to school? I
+     told him that I was very troubled, and he told me to pray to God
+     very earnestly to give me a new heart. I did pray, but I did not
+     have an answer then. Three or four times during my school time I
+     began to wish to become a Christian. I prayed and was very
+     troubled. I wept and would not play, and as I got no immediate
+     answer, I left off reading and sometimes praying entirely.
+     Everybody noticed that I did not much care to read, and especially
+     a religious book. I felt that my heart had grown harder than before
+     I had wished to become a Christian. The greatest trial was that I
+     had no faith, and for that reason I used not to believe in prayer,
+     but still I longed to become a real Christian. I left school in the
+     year 1852, and went to live at home with my mother. I was taken
+     ill, and when I was ill I was very much afraid of death, for I felt
+     that God was very angry with me.
+
+     Till about two years after I left school, I had no religion at all.
+     One evening a young man from Abeih came to our house. His name is
+     Giurgius el Haddad, who is now Mr. Calhoun's cook. After a little
+     while he began to talk about religion, and to read the book,
+     "Little Henry and his Bearer." I felt very much ashamed that others
+     who did not have the opportunity to learn about religion had
+     religion, and I, who had learned so much, had none. That was the
+     blessed evening on which I began to inquire earnestly about my
+     salvation. I was three months praying and found no answer to my
+     prayers. Christian friends tried to lead me to Christ, but I could
+     not take hold of Him, till He Himself appeared to my soul in all
+     His beauty and excellency. Before I found peace Dr. Eli Smith and
+     Mr. Whiting wanted me to teach a day school for them. That was
+     about three years after I left off learning. "Oh," thought I, "how
+     can I teach others about Christ when I do not know Him myself?"
+     However I began the school by opening and closing it with prayer,
+     without any faith at all. So I began by reading from the first of
+     Matthew, till I came to the 16th chapter. When I came to that
+     chapter I read as usual, with blinded eyes; but when I came to the
+     (13th) thirteen verse, and from there to the seventeenth, where it
+     says, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath
+     not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," I
+     felt that this had been said to me, and were these words sounded
+     from heaven I would not have felt happier. How true it is that no
+     flesh could reveal unto me what God had revealed, because many
+     Christian friends tried to make me believe, but I could not, I
+     felt as if everything had become new and beautiful, because my
+     Heavenly Father had made them all. I was sometimes with faith and
+     sometimes doubting, and by these changes my faith was strengthened.
+     After a short time, I asked Mr. Whiting to let me join the Church.
+     He asked me if I saw any change in myself, and I said, "One thing I
+     know, that I used to dislike Christian people, and now they are my
+     best friends." After a short time I was permitted to join the
+     Church. Then I left off teaching the day school, and was asked to
+     teach in a Boarding school with Miss Cheney, in the same Seminary
+     where I was brought up. We taught in that school only six months.
+     Miss Cheney married, and I was engaged to be married. While I was
+     engaged, I went to Mr. Bird's school for girls in Deir el Kamr, and
+     taught there for more than a year. I was married by Mr. Bird in his
+     own house to M. Yusef Barakat, and then we went to Hasbeiya. I
+     stayed there seven months and then went to Beirut, and thence to
+     Damascus with my husband, because he had to teach there. I had
+     nothing to do there but to look after my house, my little boy, and
+     my husband.
+
+     After some time, the massacre broke out in Damascus, (July 9,
+     1860,) so we came back as refugees to Beirut. Soon after my husband
+     was taken ill and then died. In that same year 1860, dear Mrs.
+     Bowen Thompson came to Beirut. She felt for the widows and orphans,
+     being herself a widow. She asked me if I would come and teach a
+     school for the widows and orphans, which I accepted thankfully. We
+     opened the school with five children and seven women, and the work,
+     by God's help has prospered, so that now, instead of one school,
+     there are twenty-two schools. Until now I continue teaching in the
+     Institution, and had I known that nearly all my life would be spent
+     in teaching, I should have tried to gain more when I was a child. I
+     can forget father and mother, but can never forget those who taught
+     me, especially about religion. Although some of them are dead, yet
+     still they live by their Christian example, which they have left
+     behind. My whole life will be full of gratitude to those dear
+     Christian friends, and I pray that God himself may reward them a
+     hundred fold.
+
+                    Yours respectfully,
+
+                                                  Sada Barakat.
+
+In the year 1851 the Missionary Sewing Society of the Beirut Female
+Seminary heard of the interesting state of things in Aintab, and that
+the women there were anxious to learn to read. The missionaries in
+Aintab hired an old man to go around from house to house to teach the
+women to read in their homes, but the women were so eager to learn that
+the old man was unable to meet the demand. So children were employed to
+assist. The plan worked admirably, and in 1851, eighty women received
+instruction and became able to read God's Word. The Arab girls in Mrs.
+De Forest's school were called together, and it was proposed that they
+sew and embroider and send the proceeds of their work to pay the little
+girl teachers in Aintab. There were present, Ferha, (joy,) Sara, Saada
+Sabunjy, Miriam, Khushfeh, Khurma, Mirta, (Martha) Feifun, Katrina,
+Hada, Sada el Haleby, Esteer, Helloon, Fetny, Akabir, Hamdy, and Liza.
+The needles were briskly plied, and in due time, two hundred and fifty
+piastres were collected and forwarded to Aintab. Mrs. Schneider wrote
+back thanking the "dear Arab girls." The habits of benevolence thus
+acquired have continued with the most of these girls until now. The
+greater part of them are now church-members and the heads of families.
+
+The following letter written by Mrs. De Forest in Feb. 1852, gives some
+account of Lulu Araman.
+
+                                        Beirut, Syria, _February, 1852_.
+
+     My Dear young friends in Thetford:
+
+     The quilt you sent came safely, and I thank you much for all the
+     care and trouble you have taken to make and quilt it for me. I at
+     first thought of keeping it for myself, but then it occurred to me
+     that perhaps it might please you better and interest you more if I
+     gave it to Lulu, one of my girls, who is to be married some time
+     this year to Mr. Michaiel Araman, one of the teachers in the Abeih
+     Seminary. You will thus have the pleasure of feeling that you have
+     in one sense done something for the school, as she is an assistant
+     pupil, or pupil teacher. She has been with me now for about eight
+     years, and seems almost like my own daughter. Perhaps you will be
+     interested in knowing something of her.
+
+     She was born in a pleasant valley, Wady Shehrur, near Beirut,
+     celebrated for its fine oranges, and indeed for almost all kind of
+     fine fruits. She lost both her parents early in life. Her brothers
+     (contrary to the usual custom here where girls are not much
+     regarded or cared for) were very kind to her, and as she was a
+     delicate child, they took great care of her, and often used to make
+     vows to some saint in her behalf. At one time, when she was very
+     ill, they vowed to Mar Giurgis (for they are members of the Greek
+     Church, and St. George is one of the favorite saints of the Greeks,
+     and indeed of all the Christian sects here, and they still show the
+     spot where he is said to have killed the dragon) that if she
+     recovered, she should carry to one of his shrines two wax candles
+     as tall as herself and of a prescribed weight. While she was still
+     feeble they provided the candles, and as she was too weak to walk,
+     they carried her and the candles also, to the holy place and
+     presented them.
+
+     When she was eight years old, they were persuaded by an
+     acquaintance to place her in one of the Mission families. Here she
+     was instructed in her own language, and especially in the Holy
+     Scriptures. She was allowed, however, to keep her feasts and fasts,
+     and to attend her own church, until she became convinced that these
+     things would not save her and she wished to give them up. One feast
+     day the lady with whom she lived gave her some sewing and told her
+     to seat herself and do her task. She refused, saying it was a feast
+     day, and it was unlawful work. A little while after she asked
+     permission to go and visit her brother's family; but the lady told
+     her, "No, if it is unlawful to work, it is unlawful to visit. I
+     have no objection to your keeping your feast days, but if you do
+     you must keep them as holy time." So she gave her a portion of
+     Scripture to learn, and she was kept very quiet all day, as though
+     it was the Sabbath, and without the day being made agreeable to her
+     like the Sabbath by going to Church and Sabbath School. She did
+     not at all like keeping a feast in this manner, which is very
+     different from the manner in which such a day or even the Sabbath,
+     is kept in this land, and was ever after ready to work when told to
+     do so. When her brothers saw that she was beginning to give up
+     their vain ceremonies, they became anxious to get her away, lest
+     she should become a Protestant; and at one time, when she went home
+     to attend the wedding of one of her relatives, they refused to
+     allow her to return, and it was only through the good management of
+     the native friend who was sent for her, and her own determination
+     to come, that she was permitted to come back.
+
+     We hope that she became truly pious six years ago, in 1846, as her
+     life evinces that she is striving to live according to the precepts
+     of the gospel. She has never dared to go home again, although it
+     has been a great trial for her to stay away, because she knew that
+     she should be obliged to remain there, and to conform to the
+     idolatrous rites of the Greek Church. She has assisted us in the
+     School for nearly five years, besides teaching a day school at
+     various times, before the Boarding School was commenced, and we
+     shall feel very sorry to part with her. Still we hope that she will
+     yet be useful to her countrywomen, and furnish them an example of a
+     happy Christian home, of which there are so few at present in this
+     country.
+
+     Our school has now nineteen pupils, most of whom are promising.
+     Some we hope are true Christians. The girls opened their box the
+     other day, and found that they had a little more than last year
+     from their earnings. Some friends added a little, and they have now
+     forty dollars. One half they send to China, and the other half give
+     to the Church here.
+
+The hope expressed by Mrs. De Forest in 1852, with regard to the future
+usefulness of Lulu, has not been disappointed. Her family is a model
+Christian family, the home of piety and affection, the centre of a pure
+and hallowed influence. Her eldest daughter Katie, named from Mrs. De
+Forest, is now a teacher in the Beirut Female Seminary in which her
+father has been the principal instructor in the Bible and in the higher
+Arabic branches for ten years. For years this institution was carried
+on in Lulu's house, and she was the Matron while Rufka was the
+Preceptress, and its very existence is owing to the patient and faithful
+labors of those two Christian Syrian women. If any one who reads these
+lines should doubt the utility of labors for the girls and women of the
+Arab race, let him visit first the squalid, disorderly, cheerless and
+Christless homes of the mass of the Arab villagers of Syria, and then
+enter the cheerful, tidy, well ordered home of Mr. and Mrs. Araman, when
+the family are at morning prayers, listen to the voice of prayer and
+praise and the reading of God's word. Instead of the father sitting
+gloomily alone at his morning meal, and the mother and children waiting
+till their lord is through and then eating by themselves in the usual
+Arab way, he would see the whole family seated together in a Christian,
+homelike manner, the Divine blessing asked, and the meal conducted with
+propriety and decorum. After breakfast the father and Katie go to the
+Seminary to give their morning lessons, Henry (named for Dr. De Forest)
+sets out for the College, in which he is a Sophomore, and the younger
+children go to their various schools. Lulu's place at church is rarely
+vacant, and since that "relic of barbarism" the _curtain_ which
+separated the men from the women has been removed from the building, the
+whole family, father, mother, and children sit together and join in the
+worship of God. Her brother and relatives from "Wady" are on the most
+affectionate terms with her, and her elder sister is in the domestic
+department of the Beirut Female Seminary.
+
+This change is very largely due to the efforts of Mrs. De Forest, whose
+name with that of her sainted husband is embalmed in the memory of the
+Christian families of Syria, and will be held in everlasting
+remembrance. The _second generation_ of Christian teachers is now
+growing up in Syria. Three of Mrs. De Forest's pupils have daughters now
+engaged in teaching. Khushfeh, Lulu, and Sada el Haleby; and Miriam
+Tabet has a daughter married to Mr. S. Hallock, of the American Press in
+Beirut.
+
+
+FRUITS OF DR. DE FOREST'S GIRL'S SCHOOL.
+
+In the autumn of 1852, there was a school of thirty girls in B'hamdun, a
+village high up in Mt. Lebanon. Fifteen months before the teacher was
+the only female in the village who could read, and she had been taught
+by the native girls in Dr. De Forest's school. Quite a number of the
+girls of the village had there learned to read, and they all came to the
+school clean and neatly dressed. They committed to memory verses of
+Scripture, and it was surprising to see how correctly they recited them
+at the Sabbath School. At meeting they were quiet and attentive like the
+best behaved children in Christian lands. It would be difficult to sum
+up the results of that little school for girls twenty years ago in
+B'hamdun. That village is full of gospel light. A Protestant church
+edifice is in process of erection, a native pastor, Rev. Sulleba
+Jerawan, preaches to the people, and the mass of the people have at
+least an intellectual acquaintance with the truth.
+
+The picturesque village of B'hamdun, where Dr. De Forest's school is
+established, is on the side of a lofty mountain. It is nearly 4000 feet
+above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. The village is compact as a
+little city, the streets narrow, rocky and crooked, the houses
+flat-roofed, and the floors of mud. One of the Protestants, the father
+of Miriam Tabet, has built a fine large house with glass windows and
+paved floors, which is one of the best houses in that part of Lebanon.
+The village is surrounded by vineyards, and the grapes are regarded as
+the finest in Mt. Lebanon. The people say that they never have to dig
+for the foundation of a house, but only to sweep off the dust with a
+broom. There is not a shade tree in the village. One day Dr. De Forest
+asked, "Why don't you plant a tree?" "We shall not live till it has
+grown," was the reply. "But your children will," said the Doctor. "Let
+them plant it then," was the satisfactory answer.
+
+My first visit to B'hamdun was made in February, 1856, a few days after
+my first arrival in Syria. On Sabbath morning I attended the Sabbath
+School with Mr. Benton, at that time a missionary of the A.B.C.F.M. One
+little girl named Katrina Subra, then nine years of age, repeated the
+Arabic Hymn "Kumu wa Rettelu," "Awake and sing the song of Moses and the
+Lamb." She was a bright-eyed child of fair complexion and of unusual
+intelligence. At that time there was no children's hymn book in Arabic,
+and I asked Mr. B. to promise the children that when I had learned the
+Arabic, I would translate a collection of children's hymns into Arabic,
+which promise was fulfilled first in the printing of the "Douzan el
+Kethar," "The tuning of the Harp," in 1861. Katrina was the daughter of
+Elias Subra, one of the wealthiest men in the village, who had just then
+become a Protestant. She had been interested in the truth for some time,
+and though at the time only eight years old, was accustomed during the
+preceding summer to tell the Arab children that she was a Protestant,
+though they answered her with insults and cursing. At first she could
+not bear to be abused, and answered them in language more forcible than
+proper, but by the time of my visit she had become softened and subdued
+in her manner, and was never heard to speak an unkind word to any one.
+She undertook, even at that age, to teach the Greek servant girl in the
+family how to read. One day the old Greek Priest met her in the street
+and asked her why she did not go to confession as the other Greek
+children do. She replied that she could go to Christ and confess. The
+priest then said that her father and the rest of the Protestants go to
+the missionary and write out their sins on papers which he puts into rat
+holes in the wall! Katrina knew this to be a foolish falsehood and told
+the priest so. He then asked her how the Protestants confess. She
+replied that they confess as the Lord Jesus tells them to, quoting to
+him the language of Scripture, (Matt. 6:6.) "But thou when thou
+prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray
+to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret
+shall reward thee openly." The priest was confounded by the ready
+truthful answer of the child, and turned away.
+
+Three years later Katrina was a member of the Mission Female Seminary in
+Suk el Ghurb, a village three hours distant from Beirut, under the
+instruction of Miss Temple and Miss Johnson, and continued there until
+the Seminary was broken up by the massacres of May and June, 1860. I
+remember well the day when that procession of girls and teachers rode
+and walked down from Suk el Ghurb to Beirut. All Southern Lebanon was in
+a blaze. Twenty-five villages were burning. Druze and Maronite were in
+deadly strife. Baabda and Hadeth which we passed on our way to Beirut,
+were a smoking ruin. Armed bodies of Druzes passed and saluted us, but
+no one offered to insult one of the girls by word or gesture. Dr. and
+Mrs. Bliss gave us lunch at their home in the Suk as we came from Abeih,
+and then followed a few days later to Beirut. Miss Temple tried to
+re-open the school in Beirut, but the constant tide of refugees coming
+in from the mountains, and the daily rumors of an attack by Druzes and
+Moslems on Beirut, threw the city into a panic, and it was found
+impossible to carry on the work of instruction. The girls were sent to
+their parents where this was practicable, and the Seminary as such
+ceased for a time to exist. Katrina, was married in 1864 to M. Ghurzuzy,
+a Protestant merchant of Beirut, who is now secular agent or Wakil of
+the Syrian Protestant College. In 1866, she united with the Evangelical
+Church in Beirut. She has had repeated attacks of illness, in which she
+has manifested the most entire submission to the Divine will, and a calm
+and sweet trust in her Lord and Saviour. Her home is a Christian home,
+and her children are being trained in "the nurture and admonition of the
+Lord."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT.
+
+
+In 1856 Miss Cheney re-opened the Female Seminary with eight pupils, in
+Beirut, and in the 34 schools of the Mission there were 1068 pupils, of
+whom 266 were girls.
+
+In 1857, there were 277 girls in the various schools.
+
+In 1858, Miss Temple and Miss Johnson arrived from America, and the
+Female Seminary was opened in Suk el Ghurb in the family of Rev. Dr.
+Bliss. Miss Johnson and Miss Cheney having returned to the United
+States, Miss Mason came to aid Miss Temple in February, 1860. The girl's
+school in Beirut under the care of Rufka Gregory, had about 60 pupils.
+The civil war in Lebanon, followed by the massacres in Jezzin, Deir el
+Komr, Hasbeiya, Rasheiya and Damascus, beginning in May, and continuing
+until the middle of July, broke up all our schools and seminaries, and
+filled the land with sorrow and desolation.
+
+Miss Temple and Miss Mason remained for a season in Beirut, studying the
+Arabic language, and in 1862 Miss Temple having returned to the U.S.A.,
+Miss Mason opened a Boarding School for girls in Sidon.
+
+It was decided that none but Protestant girls should be received into
+this school, that no English should be taught, and that the style of
+eating, sleeping and dress should be conformed as much as possible to
+the standard of native customs in the country villages, in order that
+the girls might the more readily return to their homes as teachers,
+without acquiring European tastes and habits. Miss Mason carried on this
+school until 1865, when she returned to the U.S.A., and it was decided
+if possible to carry it on with native instructors under the supervision
+of Mrs. Eddy.
+
+In the winter of 1867 it was under the kind charge of Mrs. Watson of
+Shemlan and her adopted daughter, Miss Handumeh Watson, and is now
+conducted by two English young ladies, Miss Jacombs and Miss Stanton,
+who are supported by the London "Society for the Promotion of Female
+Education in the East." On the removal of the girls' Boarding School to
+Sidon, it was evident that the Female Seminary must be re-opened in
+Beirut. Owing to the depressed state of Missionary finances in America,
+arising from the civil war, it was deemed advisable to reorganize the
+Beirut Seminary on a new basis, with only native teachers. The
+Providence of God had prepared teachers admirably fitted for this work,
+who undertook it with cheerful hope and patient industry. It was decided
+to make a paying Boarding School of a higher order than any existing
+institution in Syria, and to resume instruction in the English language,
+giving lessons also in French and Music to those who were willing to
+pay for these branches.
+
+Mr. Michaiel Araman, for many years a teacher in the Abeih Seminary with
+Mr. Calhoun, and for some time a native preacher in Beirut, was
+appointed instructor in the Biblical History and the Higher Arabic
+branches; his wife Lulu, the Matron, and Miss Rufka Gregory, the
+Preceptress. Rufka was an orphan, as already stated, and was trained
+with her sister Sada in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Whiting for many
+years. As a teacher and a disciplinarian she had not an equal among the
+women of Syria, and under the joint management of this corps of
+teachers, aided by competent assistants in the various branches, the
+Seminary rose in public esteem, until it became one of the most
+attractive and prosperous institutions in Syria.
+
+In March, 1862, Rufka's day school of seventy girls held a public
+examination in the Chapel. The girls were examined in Arabic reading,
+geography, grammar, catechism, arithmetic, Scripture lessons and
+English, with an exhibition of specimens of their needle work. In the
+fall it was commenced as a Boarding School, with two paying pupils and
+four charity pupils. The funds for commencing the boarding department
+were furnished by Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Henry Farnum, Col.
+Frazer, H.B.M. Commissioner to Syria, and others. The Seminary not being
+under the direction of the Mission as such, nor in connection with the
+American Board, was placed under the care of a local Board of Managers,
+consisting of Dr. Thomson, Dr. Van Dyck, Consul J.A. Johnson, and Rev.
+H.H. Jessup. Dr. Thomson was indefatigable in his efforts to place it on
+a firm and permanent foundation, as a purely Native Protestant
+institution, and the fact that such a school could be carried on for a
+year without a single foreign instructor, was one of the most
+encouraging features in the history of the Syria Mission. It was the
+first purely native Female Seminary in Western Asia, and we hope it will
+not be the last.
+
+It will continue to be the aim of the Mission, and of the present able
+faculty of the institution, to train up Native teachers qualified to
+carry on the work in the future.
+
+At the same time in the fall of 1862, a school for Damascene girls was
+opened in an upper room of my house, under the care of one of Dr. De
+Forest's pupils, Sada el Haleby, who carried it on successfully with
+seventy girls until August, 1864, when, on my departure for the U.S.A.
+the school was taken up by the late Mrs. Bowen Thompson, whose Society
+has maintained it until this day.
+
+In 1863, the number of paying boarders in the Seminary had increased to
+twenty, and in 1866 the pupils numbered eighty, and the income from
+native paying pupils was about fifteen hundred dollars in gold!
+
+The Annual Examination was held in the latter part of June, in the
+Mission Chapel, and continued three days, thronged by a multitude of
+interested spectators. The Turkish official Arabic Journal of Beirut,
+the "Hadikat el Akhbar," published a lengthy report of the Examination,
+pronouncing it the most satisfactory examination of girls that ever took
+place in Syria. An English clergyman who was present refused to believe
+that they were Syrian girls, insisting that they must be English. The
+girls recited in Bible History, giving all the important dates from Adam
+to Christ, with an account of the rites, sacrifices and prophecies which
+refer to Christ, giving also the names of all the patriarchs, judges,
+kings and prophets in their order. Twenty-two different classes were
+examined, and many of the girls read original compositions.
+
+On the Sabbath, July 1st, two of the assistant teachers, Asin Haddad and
+Sara Sarkis were received to the communion of the Beirut Church. They
+traced their religious awakening to the dying testimony of Sara Bistany,
+which is described in a subsequent chapter. Several of the younger
+pupils were much interested in the subject of religion at the time, and
+one little girl about seven years old said to her teacher, "I gave the
+Lord my heart, and He took it." Asin died in Latakiah in 1869,
+triumphing in Christ. The women of the neighborhood came to the house of
+her brother to hear her joyous expressions of trust in Jesus, and her
+assurance that she should soon be with Him in glory. She was the second
+daughter of that young bride of fifteen years of age, who learned to
+read in 1825, in the school taught by her own husband, Tannus el
+Haddad.
+
+In 1867, the health of Rufka having become seriously impaired, she
+removed to Egypt, where after a period of rest, she opened on her own
+account a school for girls in Cairo, which she maintained with her
+wonted energy, until her marriage with the Rev. Mr. Muir, a Scotch
+clergyman, whom she accompanied to Melbourne, Australia, in 1869. Since
+the death of her husband she has returned to her favorite employment of
+teaching, with marked success, among the British population of
+Melbourne.
+
+While in Cairo, she passed through a deep and agonizing religious
+experience, which she described in the following letter to Mrs. Whiting,
+and the result of which was a new life in Christ.
+
+     Cairo, Egypt, _July 9, 1868_.
+
+     "I think I shall always remember my stay in Cairo with much
+     pleasure, but the greatest advantage of this year is the
+     opportunity I had of stopping to think of the interests of a never
+     dying soul, of a neglected Saviour, an offended God. Yes, I have
+     reflected, struggled, oh, how hard, and thanks to an ever merciful
+     God, I trust I have been led by the Holy Spirit to see and feel my
+     great sin, and casting myself at the feet of Jesus, stayed there
+     with my sinful heart till a loving Saviour just came and took it
+     up. Oh, how grieved was His tender heart when He saw how defiled it
+     was with sin and wickedness, but He said, fear not, my blood will
+     cleanse it and make it pure; then how He pleaded my case before His
+     Father, setting forth His boundless love and infinite righteousness
+     as a reason why He wished to be accepted. Yes, dear Mrs. Whiting, I
+     hope I can now say, Thy God is my God, and the blessed Saviour you
+     have loved so long is now very precious to me. The past winter has
+     been a solemn time with me. Many hard struggles have I had, much
+     fear that I might have forever grieved God's Holy Spirit, and for
+     a long time it all seemed so dark, there seemed no hope for me who
+     had been so long living away from the Saviour, but in great fear
+     and despair I just rushed and cast myself at His feet, and asked
+     Him to let me perish there if I must perish; there was nothing else
+     for me to do, and I felt such happiness in just leaving myself in
+     His care. How wonderful is His love! But what a life of constant
+     prayer and watching is that of a Christian! in the first place to
+     aim at close walking with God, leaving Him to order our steps for
+     us, and trusting Him so to order our way as to best enable us to
+     walk closely with Him. It has been a most comforting thought when I
+     find it difficult to live right and feel my utter weakness, that
+     Jesus is each day saying to His Father for me, "I pray not she
+     should be taken out of the world, but that she should be _kept from
+     the evil_," and to live up to our privileges and to walk worthy of
+     our high calling.
+
+     My precious teacher, I know you will rejoice and thank God with me
+     for His great goodness to me in bringing me to the feet of Jesus.
+     Oh, how precious He is to my poor soul! He is Heaven. How He
+     blesses me every moment! His boundless love to _me_ who am most
+     unworthy of the least of His mercies. If ever any one had reason to
+     boast of the loving kindness of the Lord, it surely must be myself.
+     In His great mercy I have had the privilege of openly confessing my
+     faith in Him, and publicly professing my determination to be the
+     Lord's at the last communion in the Church here in May. I put it
+     off till then hoping to do it in Beirut in the Church dear Mr.
+     Whiting had preached in for so many years, and among the girls I
+     had taught, and all the young friends there, but as that was not
+     allowed me, I joined the Church here."
+
+Her devoted friend and loving assistant teacher Luciyah, was deeply
+affected by what she learned from Rufka of her new spiritual life, and
+she too turned her thoughts to divine things, and soon after the arrival
+of Miss Everett and Miss Carruth in 1868, to take charge of the
+Seminary, she came out openly on the Lord's side, and in the midst of a
+fire of domestic persecution, publicly professed her faith in Jesus as
+her only Saviour.
+
+Miss Carruth, after staying just long enough in the Seminary to win the
+hearts of teachers and pupils, was obliged to return to her native land,
+where she is still an efficient laborer in the New England Woman's
+Boards of Missions.
+
+The year following the departure of Rufka to Egypt was a critical time
+in the history of the Seminary. Lulu continued in charge of the domestic
+department, and Mr. Araman managed the business of the school, while
+Mrs. Salt (a sister of Melita and Salome) aided in several of the
+classes. But the institution owed its great success during that year, if
+not its very existence, to the untiring energy and efficient services of
+Mrs. Dr. Bliss and Miss Emilia Thomson, daughter of the Rev. Dr.
+Thomson. They each gave several hours every day to instruction in the
+English language, the Scriptures and music, and the high standard of
+excellence already attained in the Seminary was maintained if not
+surpassed.
+
+Their perfect familiarity with the Arabic language gave them a great
+advantage in the management and instruction of the pupils, and their
+efforts on behalf of the Institution, in maintaining it in full and
+successful operation during the year previous to the arrival of Miss
+Everett and Miss Carruth, deserve grateful recognition.
+
+In the winter of 1870 and 1871 Miss Sophia Loring, and Miss Ellen
+Jackson arrived from America as colleagues of Miss Everett, and under
+their efficient management aided by Mr. Araman, Luciyah and other native
+teachers, the Seminary is enjoying a high degree of prosperity.
+
+In March, 1864, the Mission had issued an appeal for funds to erect a
+permanent home for this Seminary, and in 1866 the present commodious and
+substantial edifice was erected, a lasting monument of the liberality of
+Christian men and women in America and England.
+
+Its cost was about eleven thousand dollars, and the raising of this sum
+was largely due to the liberality and personal services of Mr. Wm. A.
+Booth, of New York, who also kindly acted as treasurer of the building
+fund. The lumber used in its construction was brought from the state of
+Maine. The doors and windows were made under the direction of Dr. Hamlin
+of Constantinople, in Lowell, Mass., the tiles came from Marseilles, the
+stone from the sandstone quarries of Ras Beirut, the stone pavement
+partly from Italy and partly from Mt. Lebanon, and the eighty iron
+bedsteads from Birmingham, England. The cistern, which holds about
+20,000 gallons, was built at the expense of a Massachusetts lady, and
+the portico by a lady of New York. The melodeon was given by ladies in
+Georgetown, D.C., and the organ is the gift of a benevolent lady in
+Newport, R.I.
+
+Time would fail me to recount the generous offerings of Christian men
+and women who have aided in the support of this school during the ten
+years of its history. Receiving no pecuniary aid from the American
+Board, the entire responsibility of its support fell upon a few members
+of the Syria Mission. Travellers who passed through the Holy Land,
+sometimes assumed the support of charity pupils, or interested their
+Sabbath Schools in raising scholarships, on their return home, and a few
+noble friends in the United States have sent on their gifts from time to
+time unsolicited, to defray the general expenses of the Institution. Its
+support has been to some of us a work of _faith_, as well as a labor of
+love. Not unfrequently has the end of the month come upon us, without
+one piastre in the treasury for paying the teachers' salaries or buying
+bread for the children, when suddenly, in some unknown and unexpected
+way, funds would be received, sufficient for all our wants. About two
+years since the funds were entirely exhausted. More than a hundred
+dollars would be owing to the teachers and servants on the following
+day. The accounts were examined, and all possible means of relief
+proposed, but without avail. At length one of the members of the
+Executive Committee asked leave to look over the accounts. He did so,
+and said he could not find any mention of a sum of about thirty
+Napoleons, which he was sure he had paid into the treasury several
+months before, as a donation from Mr. Booth of New York, whose son had
+died in Beirut. The money had _not_ been paid into the school treasury.
+The vouchers were all produced, and there was left no resort but prayer.
+There was earnest supplication that night that the Lord would relieve
+us from our embarrassment, and provide for the necessities of the
+school. The next morning the good brother, above mentioned, recalled to
+mind his having given that money to Dr. Van Dyck in the Mission Library
+for the School. Dr. Van Dyck was consulted, and at once replied,
+"Certainly I received the money. It is securely locked up in the safe
+where it has been for months awaiting orders." The safe was opened, and
+the money found to be almost to a piastre the amount needed for
+obligations of the School.
+
+Since the transfer of the Syria Mission to the board of Missions of the
+Presbyterian Church, the pecuniary status of the Seminary has been
+somewhat modified. The Women's Boards of Missions of New York and
+Philadelphia have assumed the responsibility of raising scholarships for
+its support among the Auxiliary Societies and Sabbath Schools; the
+salaries of the teachers are provided for by individuals and churches,
+and several of the old friends of the school retain their interest in
+it, while the danger of a deficit is guarded against, by the guarantees
+of the good Christian women who are doing so grand and noble a work in
+this age for the world's evangelization. The annual cost of supporting a
+pupil now is about sixty dollars gold. The number of paying pupils is
+increasing, and the prospect for the future is encouraging.
+
+In the year 1864, a letter was received from certain Christian women in
+America, addressed to the girls of the School, and some of the older
+girls prepared a reply in Arabic, a translation of which was sent to
+America. It was as follows:
+
+"From the girls of the Beirut School in Syria, to the sisters beloved in
+the Lord Jesus, in a land very far away. We have been honored in reading
+the lines which reached us from you, O sisters, distant in body but near
+in spirit, and we have given glory to God the Creator of all, who has
+caused in your hearts true love to us, and spiritual sympathies which
+have prompted you, dear sisters in the Lord, to write to us. Yes, it is
+the Lord Jesus who has brought about between us and between you (Arabic
+idiom) a spiritual intercourse, without the intercourse of bodily
+presence. For we have never in our lives seen you, nor your country, nor
+have we spoken to you face to face, and so you likewise have not seen
+us. Had neither of us the Word of God, the Holy and Only Book which is
+from one Father and a God unchangeable, to tell us that we have one
+nature, and have all fallen into one transgression, and are saved in one
+way, which is the Lord Jesus, we could not, as we now can, call you in
+one union, our sisters. The Lord Jesus calls those who love Him His
+brethren, and since He is the only bond and link, are we not His
+sisters, and thus sisters to each other? Truly, O dear sisters, we are
+thirsting to see you, and we all unite in offering prayers and praises
+to God, through His Son Immanuel, the possessor of the glorious Name,
+praying that we may see you; but we cannot in this world, for we are in
+the East, and you are in the West, far, very far. But, O dear friends,
+as we hope for the resurrection from the dead, so after our period in
+this world is ended, we shall meet by the blessing of God in those
+bright courts which are illumined by the light of the Saviour, which
+need not sun nor moon to give them light,--that holy place which is
+filled with throngs of angels who never cease to offer glory to God.
+There we may meet and unite with all the saved in praising the Saviour.
+There we may meet our friends who have passed on before us "as waiting
+they watch us approaching the shore," as we sing in the hymn. There
+around the throne of the glorious Saviour, there in the heavenly
+Jerusalem, our songs will not be mingled with tears and grief, for the
+Lord Jesus Himself will wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will
+not enter sin nor its likeness into our hearts sanctified by the Holy
+Spirit. There this body which shall rise incorruptible, will not return
+to the state in which it was in this world. In those courts we shall be
+happy always, and the reason is that we shall always be with the Great
+Shepherd, as it is said in the Book of Revelation, 'He shall shepherd
+them and lead them to fountains of living waters and wipe all tears from
+their eyes.' Our sisters, were it not for the Holy Bible which the Lord
+has given to His people, we should have no comfort to console us with
+regard to our friends whom we have lost by means of death. We beg you to
+help us by offering prayers to the living and true God that He will make
+us faithful even unto death,--that He will bless us while on the sea of
+this life, until we reach the shore of peace without fear or trouble,
+that we may be ready to stand before the seat of the Lord Jesus the
+Judge of all, clothed in the robes of His perfect righteousness, which
+he wove for us on the Cross, and is now ready to give to those who ask
+Him. Let us then all ask of God that this our only treasure may be
+placed where no thief can break in and steal, and no moth shall corrupt.
+And may the Lord preserve you!
+
+We love to sing this hymn,
+
+    'Holy Bible, Book Divine,
+    Precious treasure, thou art mine!'
+
+and we entreat you that when you sing it, you will let it be a
+remembrancer from us to you."
+
+In March, 1865, a little girl was brought to the school under somewhat
+peculiar circumstances. Years ago, in the days of Mr. Whiting, a
+Maronite monk named Nejm, became enlightened, left the monastery and was
+married to a Maronite woman named Zarifeh, by Mr. Whiting. For years the
+poor man passed through the fires of persecution and trial. Even his
+wife, in her ignorance, though not openly opposing him, trembled with
+fear every time he read the Scriptures aloud. At the time mentioned
+above, their little daughter Resha was about five years of age. The
+Papal Maronite Bishop of Beirut made a visit to Nejm's village, Baabda,
+to dispense indulgences, in accordance with the Pope's Encyclical
+letter. Nejm was called upon to pay his portion of the sum assessed upon
+the people, but having been a Protestant fifteen years, he refused to
+pay it. At the instigation of the priests, his wife was then taken from
+him, and his little Resha, his only child, was carried off by one of the
+priests to Beirut, and thrust inside the gates of the convent of the
+French Sisters of Charity. The poor father came to me, well-nigh
+broken-hearted, pleading for assistance. I laid the case before His
+Excellency Daud Pasha, Governor of Lebanon, who was then in Beirut, and
+drew up a petition to the Pasha of Beirut also, on the subject. Nejm
+went about weeping and wringing his hands, and my feelings became deeply
+enlisted in his behalf. Three weeks afterwards, after a series of
+petitions and visits to the Pasha of Beirut, the girl Resha was removed
+from the convent and taken by Nejm's enemies to a house near Nahr
+Beirut, about two miles distant, and just over the border line of the
+Mountain Pashalic. I then addressed another letter to Daud Pasha, and he
+promptly ordered her to be restored to her father. The manner in which
+Nejm, the father, finally secured the child was not a little amusing. He
+had been searching for his child for several weeks, waiting and
+watching, until his patience was about exhausted, when he heard that
+Resha was again in the hands of the priests in Baabda. The mother
+followed the child, and the priests threatened to kill her, if she
+informed her husband where the girl was secreted. Daud Pasha was then at
+his winter palace in Baabda, and Nejm took my letter to him. While
+awaiting a reply at the door, some one informed him that his daughter
+was at the fountain. Without waiting further for official aid, he ran to
+the fountain, took up his daughter, put her on his back, and ran for
+Beirut, a distance of about four miles, where he brought her to my
+house, and placed her in my room, with loud ejaculations of thanks to
+God. "Neshkar Allah; El mejd lismoo." Thanks to God! Glory to His name!
+The mother soon followed, and the girl was sent as a day scholar to the
+Seminary. They are now living in Baabda. The mother, Zarify, united with
+the Evangelical Church of Beirut, July 21, 1872, giving the best
+evidence of a true spiritual experience. The little girl is anxious to
+teach, and it was proposed to employ her as an assistant in the girls'
+school in Baabda, but the tyrannical oppressions of the priesthood upon
+the family who had offered their house for the school, and the refusal
+of the Pasha of Lebanon to grant protection to the persecuted, have
+obliged the brethren there to postpone their request for a school for
+the present.
+
+Alas for the poor women of Syria! Even when they seek to obtain the
+consolations of the Gospel by learning to read the Word of life, they
+are surrounded by priests and Sheikhs who watch their chance to destroy
+the "Bread of Life!" In March, 1865, a Maronite woman called at the
+Press to buy a book of poems, to teach her boy to read. "Why not buy a
+Testament?" asked the bookseller. "I did buy an Engeel Mushekkel," (a
+voweled Testament.) "Be careful of it then," said Khalil, "for the
+edition is exhausted, and you cannot get another for months." "It is too
+late to be careful now, for the book _has been burned_." "Burned? by
+whom?" "By the Jesuits, who gathered a large pile and burned them." God
+grant that as Tyndale's English New Testament, first printed in 1527 was
+only spread the more widely for the attempts of the Papal Bishop of
+London to burn it, so the Arabic Bible may receive a new impulse from
+the similarly inspired efforts of the Bishop's successors!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+LUCIYA SHEKKUR.
+
+
+The work done for Christ and for Syrian girls in the families of
+Missionaries in Syria, may well compare with that done in the
+established institutions of learning. Mrs. Whiting was not alone in the
+work of training native Arab girls in her own home. The same work had
+been done by other Missionaries before her, and has been carried on with
+no little success by Mrs. Bird, Mrs. Calhoun and others, up to the
+present time.
+
+It is an interesting sight to see the Thursday afternoon Women's meeting
+in the house of Mrs. Calhoun in Abeih, and to know that a large part of
+that company of bright, intelligent and tidily dressed young native
+women, who listen so intently to the Bible lesson, and join so heartily
+in singing the sweet songs of Zion, were trained up either in her own
+family, or under her own especial influence. By means of her own example
+in the training of her children, she has taught the women of Abeih, and
+through them multitudes of women in other villages, the true Christian
+modes of family government and discipline, and introduced to their
+notice and practice many of those little conveniences and habits in the
+training of children, whose influence will be felt for many
+generations.
+
+When Mr. and Mrs. Bird removed to Deir el Komr in 1855, they not only
+opened a large school for the education of girls, with Sada Haleby, one
+of Dr. De Forest's pupils, as teacher, but received into their own
+family three young girls, named Luciya, Sikkar and Zihry, all of whom
+entered upon spheres of usefulness. Zihry became a teacher, in Deir el
+Komr, and has continued to teach until the present time. She was at one
+time connected with the Beirut Female Seminary, and is now teaching in
+the Institution of Mrs. Shrimpton, under the auspices of the British
+Syrian Schools.
+
+Luciya taught in Deir el Komr until the school was overwhelmed in the
+fires and blood of the Massacre year, 1860.
+
+In 1862 she taught in the Sidon School, and afterwards married the Rev.
+Sulleba Jerwan, the first native pastor in Hums. In that great city, and
+amid the growing interest of the young Protestant community, she found a
+wide and attractive field of labor. She was a young woman of great
+gentleness and delicacy of nature, and of strong religious feeling, and
+entered upon the work of laboring among the women and girls of Hums,
+with exemplary zeal and discretion. She became greatly beloved, and her
+Godly example and gentle spirit will never be forgotten.
+
+But at length her labors were abruptly cut short. Consumption, a disease
+little known in Syria, but which afterwards cut down her brother and
+only sister Sikkar, fastened upon her, and she was obliged, in great
+suffering, to leave the raw and windy climate of Hums, for the milder
+air of Beirut. Her two brothers being in the employ of Miss Whately in
+Cairo, she went, on their invitation, to Egypt, where after a painful
+illness, she fell asleep in Jesus. Amid all her sufferings, she
+maintained that same gentle and lovely temper of mind, which made her so
+greatly beloved by all who knew her.
+
+She has rested from her labors, and her works do follow her. Not long
+after her sister Sikkar, who had also been trained in Mrs. Bird's
+family, died in her native village Ain Zehalteh.
+
+Her last end also, was peace, and although no concourse of Druze Sheikhs
+came barefoot over the snow to her funeral, as they did on the death of
+the Sitt Selma, in the same village, no doubt a concourse of higher and
+holier beings attended her spirit to glory.
+
+When Luciya was in Beirut before her departure to Egypt, I used to see
+her frequently, and I shall never forget the calm composure with which
+she spoke of her anticipated release from the pains and sufferings of
+life. Christ was her portion, and she lived in communion with him,
+certain that ere long she should depart and be with him forever.
+
+The poor Moslem women in the houses adjoining her room used to come in,
+and with half-veiled faces look upon her calm and patient face with
+wonder. Would that they too might find her Saviour precious to them, in
+their hours of sickness, suffering and death!
+
+Truly, there is no religion but that of Jesus Christ, that can soften
+the pillow of suffering, and take away the sting and dread of death.
+
+One of the most serious difficulties in the way of the higher female
+education in Syria, is the early age at which girls are married. One
+young girl attended the Beirut Seminary for two years, from eight to
+ten, and the teachers were becoming interested in her progress, when
+suddenly her parents took her out of the school, and gave her to a man
+in marriage. After the festivities of the marriage week were over at her
+husband's house, she went home to visit her mother, _taking her dolls
+with her_ to amuse herself!
+
+The Arabic journal "the Jenneh" of Beirut, contained a letter in June,
+1872, from its Damascus correspondent, praising the fecundity of Syria,
+and stating that a young woman who was married at nine and a half,
+became a grandmother at twenty! Such instances are not uncommon in
+Damascus and Hums, where the chief and almost the only concern of
+parents is to marry off their daughters as early as nature will allow,
+without education, experience or any other qualification for the
+responsible duties of married life. When the above mentioned letter from
+Damascus was published, Dr. Van Dyck took occasion to write an article
+in the "Neshra," the Missionary Weekly, of which he is the editor,
+exposing the folly and criminality of such early marriages, and
+demonstrating their disastrous effects on society at large.
+
+Since the establishment of schools and seminaries of a high grade for
+girls, this tendency is being decidedly checked in the vicinity of
+Beirut, and girls are not given up as incorrigibly old, even if they
+reach the age of seventeen.
+
+Dr. Meshakah of Damascus, who has long been distinguished for his
+learned and eloquent works on the Papacy, is a venerable white-bearded
+patriarch and his wife looks as if she were his daughter. I once asked
+him how old she was when married, and he said _eleven_. I asked him why
+he married her so young? He said that in his day, young girls received
+no training at home, and young men who wished properly trained wives,
+had to marry them young, so as to educate them to suit themselves!
+
+Education is rapidly obviating that necessity, and young men are more
+than willing that girls to whom they are betrothed, should complete
+their education, lest they be eclipsed by others who remain longer at
+school. I once called on a wealthy native merchant in Beirut, who
+remarked that "the Europeans have a thing in their country which we have
+not. They call it ed-oo-cashion, and I am anxious to have it introduced
+into Syria." This "ed-oo-cashion" is already settling many a question in
+Syria which nothing else could settle, and the natives are also learning
+that something more than mere book-knowledge is needed, to elevate and
+refine the family. One of the most direct results of female education
+thus far in Syria has been the abolition from certain classes of
+society of some of those superstitious fears which harass and torment
+the ignorant masses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+RAHEEL.
+
+
+No sketch of Woman's Work for Syrian women would be complete which did
+not give some account of the life and labors of that pioneer in work for
+Syrian women, Mrs. Sarah L.H. Smith, wife of Dr. Eli Smith. She reached
+Beirut, January 28, 1834, full of high and holy resolves to devote her
+life to the benefit of her Syrian sisters. From the first to the very
+last of her life in Syria, this was the one great object of her toils
+and prayers. As soon as April 2, she writes, "Our school continues to
+prosper, and I love the children exceedingly. Do pray that God will
+bless this incipient step to enlighten the women of this country. You
+cannot conceive of their deplorable ignorance. I feel it more and more
+every day. Their energies are expended in outward adorning of plaiting
+the hair and gold and pearls and costly array, literally so. I close
+with one request, _that you will pray for a revival of religion in
+Beirut_." Again she writes, June 30, 1834, "I feel somewhat thoughtful,
+this afternoon, in consequence of having heard of the ready consent of
+the friends of a little girl, that I should take her as I proposed, and
+educate her. I am anxious to do it, and yet my experience and
+observation in reference to such a course, and my knowledge of the
+sinful heart of a child, lead me to think I am undertaking a great
+thing. I feel, too, that my example and my instruction will control her
+eternal destiny." This girl was Raheel Ata. Again, August 16: "It is a
+great favor that so many of the men and boys can read. Alas, our poor
+sisters! the curse rests emphatically upon them. Among the Druze
+princesses, some, perhaps the majority, furnish an exception and can
+read. Their sect is favorable to learning. Not so with the Maronites. I
+have one scholar from these last, but when I have asked the others who
+have been here if they wished to read, they have replied most absolutely
+in the negative, saying that it was for boys, and not for them. I have
+heard several women acknowledge that they knew no more than the
+donkeys."
+
+August 23. A Maronite priest compelled two little girls to leave her
+school, but the Greek priest sent "his own daughter, a pretty,
+rosy-cheeked girl" to be taught by Mrs. Smith. On the 22d of September,
+1834, she wrote from B'hamdun, a village five hours from Beirut, on
+Lebanon, "Could the females of Syria be educated and regenerated, the
+whole face of the country would change; even, as I said to an Arab a few
+days since, to the appearance of the houses and the roads. One of our
+little girls, whom I taught before going to the mountains, came to see
+me a day or two since, and talked incessantly about her love for the
+school, and the errors of the people here, saying that they 'cared not
+for Jesus Christ, but only for the Virgin Mary.'"
+
+October 8. She says, "A servant woman of Mrs. Whiting, who has now
+lived long enough with her to love her and appreciate her principles,
+about a year and a half since remarked to some of the Arabs, that the
+people with whom she lived did 'not lie, nor steal, nor quarrel, nor do
+any such things; but poor creatures,' said she, 'they have no
+religion.'"
+
+On the 22d of October, she wrote again, "Yesterday I went up to Mr.
+Bird's to consult about the plan of a _school-house now commenced for
+females_. I can hardly believe that such a project is actually in
+progress, and I hail it as the dawn of a happy change in Syria. Two
+hundred dollars have been subscribed by friends in this vicinity, and I
+told Mr. B. that if necessary he might expend fifty more upon the
+building, as our Sabbath School in Norwich had pledged one hundred a
+year for female education in Syria."
+
+The principal contributor to this fund was Mrs. Alexander Tod, formerly
+Miss Gliddon, daughter of the U.S. Consul in Alexandria.
+
+The building stood near where the present Church in Beirut stands, and
+was removed, and the stones used in the extension of the old Chapel. In
+the year 1866 Mr. Tod revisited Beirut and contributed L100 towards the
+erection of the new Female Seminary, saying that as Mrs. Tod aided in
+the first Female Seminary building in Beirut, he wished to aid in the
+second. The school-house was a plain structure, and was afterwards used
+as a boy's school, and the artist who photographed the designs printed
+in this volume received his education there under the instruction of the
+late Shahin Sarkis, husband of Azizy.
+
+In the latter part of October, 1834, Mrs. Smith writes, "Yesterday I
+commenced the female school with four scholars, which were increased to
+ten to-day, and the number will probably continue to augment as before
+from week to week. As I walked home about sunset this evening, I
+thought, 'Can it be that I am a schoolmistress, and the only one in all
+Syria?' and I tripped along with a quick step amid Egyptians, Turks and
+Arabs, Moslems and Jews, to my quiet and pleasant home."
+
+November 9. "I sometimes indulge the thought that God has sent me to the
+females of Syria--to the little girls, of whom I have a favorite
+school--for their good."
+
+January 5, 1835. "On Friday I distributed rewards to twenty-three little
+girls belonging to my school, which, as they are all poor, consisted of
+clothing. Our Sabbath School also increases. Eighteen were present last
+Sabbath."
+
+On the 11th of January Dr. Thomson wrote, "Mrs. Smith's female school
+prospers wonderfully, but it is the altar of her own health; and I fear
+that in the flame that goeth up toward heaven from off that altar, she
+will soon ascend as did Manoah's angel. We can hardly spare her; she is
+our only hope for a female school in Beirut at present."
+
+The state of society in Syria at that time is well pictured in the
+following language, used by Mrs. Smith in a letter dated February 12,
+1835: "Excepting the three or four native converts, we know not one
+pious religious teacher, one judicious parent, one family circle
+regulated by the fear of God; no, _not even one_!"
+
+"I wish I had strength to do more, but my school and my studies draw
+upon my energies continually." Even at that early day Moslem girls came
+to be taught by Mrs. Smith. She writes June 2, "A few days since, one of
+my little Moslem scholars, whose father was once an extensive merchant
+here, came and invited me to make a call upon her mother. I took Raheel
+and accompanied her to their house which is in our neighborhood. I found
+it a charming spot and very neatly kept. Hospitality is regarded here as
+a religious act, I think, and a reputation for it is greatly prized."
+
+In July she wrote of what has not ceased to be a trial to all
+missionaries in Beirut for the past forty years, the necessity of
+removing to the mountains during the hot summer months. The climate of
+the plain is debilitating to foreigners, and missionary families are
+obliged to spend three months of the hot season in the Lebanon villages.
+"My school interests me more and more every day, and I do not love to
+think of suspending it even for a few weeks during the hot season. Day
+before yesterday a wealthy Jewish lady came with her two daughters to
+the school, and begged me to take the youngest as a scholar."
+
+July 19. "At our Sabbath School to-day were _twenty-eight_ scholars,
+twenty-one girls and seven boys."
+
+July 31. "To-day I closed my school for the month of August by the
+distribution of rewards to _thirty little girls_. The American and
+English Consuls and a few Arab friends were present, and expressed much
+pleasure at the sight of so many young natives in their clean dress. A
+few of the more educated scholars read a little in the New Testament."
+
+August 8. "On Saturday I closed my school for the month of August. It
+was increasing every day in numbers and I would gladly have continued
+it. Last Sabbath we had at the Sabbath School forty-six scholars, a
+_fourth of whom were Moslems_."
+
+September 29. "Yesterday I commenced my school again with twenty
+scholars; which, for the first day, was a good number. Mrs. Whiting has
+ten little Moslem girls in Jerusalem, and the promise of more."
+
+December 14. "On Saturday, our native female prayer-meeting consisted of
+twenty, besides two children. Fourteen were Arabs, more than were ever
+present before. We met in the girls' school room, where we intend in
+future to assemble. We sung part of a psalm, as we have begun to teach
+music in our school. We find the children quite as capable of forming
+musical sounds as those in our own country; but alas, _we have no psalms
+or hymns adapted to their capacities_. The Arabic cannot be simplified
+like the English, without doing violence to Arab taste; at least such
+is the opinion now. What changes may be wrought in the language, we
+cannot tell. Of this obstacle in the instruction of the young here, you
+have not perhaps thought. It is a painful thought to us, that
+_children's literature_, if I may so term it, is _incompatible with the
+genius of this language_: of course, infant school lessons must be
+bereft of many of their attractions."
+
+It may be interesting to know whether present missionary experience
+differs from that of Mrs. Smith and her husband in 1835, with regard to
+children's literature in the Arabic language.
+
+In 1858, Mr. Ford prepared, with the aid of Mr. Bistany, (the husband of
+"Raheel," Mrs. Smith's adopted child,) a series of children's Scripture
+Tracts in simple and yet perfectly correct Arabic, so that the youngest
+child can understand them. In 1862, we printed the first Children's
+Hymn-book, partly at the expense of the girls in Rufka's school. We have
+now in Arabic about eighty children's hymns, and a large number of
+tracts and story books designed for children. We also publish an
+Illustrated Children's Monthly, called the "Koukab es Subah," "The
+Morning Star," and the children read it with the greatest eagerness.
+
+The Koran, which is the standard of classic Arabic, cannot be changed,
+and hence can never be a book for children. It cannot be a family book,
+or a women's book. It cannot attract the minds of the young, with that
+charm which hangs around the exquisitely simple and beautiful narratives
+of the Old and New Testament. It is a gem of Arabic poetry, but like a
+gem, crystalline and unchanging. It has taken a mighty hold upon the
+Eastern world, because of its Oriental style and its eloquent assertion
+of the Divine Unity. It is reverenced, but not loved, and will stand
+where it is while the world moves on. Every reform in government,
+toleration and material improvement in the Turkish Empire, Persia and
+Egypt, is made in spite of the Koran and contrary to its spirit. The
+printing of the Koran is unlawful, but it is being printed. All pictures
+of living objects are unlawful, but the Sultan is photographed, Abd el
+Kader is photographed, the "Sheikh ul Islam" is photographed. European
+shoes are unlawful because sewed with a swine's bristle, but Moslem
+Muftis strut about the streets in French gaiters, and the women of their
+harems tottle about in the most absurd of Parisian high-heeled slippers.
+
+The Arabic Bible translated by Drs. Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck, is
+voweled with the grammatical accuracy and beauty of the Koran with the
+aid of a learned Mohammedan Mufti, and yet has all the elegant
+simplicity of the original and is intelligible to every Arab, old and
+young, who is capable of reading at all. The stories of Joseph, Moses,
+and David, of Esther, Daniel and Jonah are as well adapted to the
+comprehension of children in the Arabic as in the English.
+
+Not a few of the hymns in the Children's Hymn book are original, written
+by M. Ibrahim Sarkis, husband of Miriam of Aleppo, and M. Asaad
+Shidoody, husband of Hada. This Hymn book was published in 1862, with
+Plates presented by Dr. Robinson's Sabbath School of the First
+Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn.
+
+This digression seemed necessary, in order to show the great progress
+that has been made since 1836, in preparing a religious literature. It
+is no longer true as in Mrs. Smith's day, "that we have no psalms or
+hymns adapted to the capacities of children." Nor is it longer true that
+"_children's literature is incompatible with the genius of the Arabic
+language_."
+
+In a letter addressed to the young women in the "Female Academy at
+Norwich," February, 1836, Mrs. Smith gives a vivid description of the
+"average woman" of Syria in her time, and the description holds true of
+nine-tenths of the women at the present day. There are now native
+Christian homes, not the least attractive of which is the home of her
+own little protege Raheel, but the great mass continue as they were
+forty years ago. She says, "My dear friends, will you send your thoughts
+to this, which is not a heathen, but an unevangelized country. I will
+not invite you to look at our little female school of twenty or thirty,
+because these form but a drop among the thousands and thousands of youth
+throughout Syria; although I might draw a contrast even from this not a
+little in your favor. But we will speak of the young Syrian females at
+large, moving in one unbroken line to the land of darkness and sorrow.
+Among them you will find many a fine form and beautiful face; but alas!
+the perfect workmanship of their Creator is rendered tame and insipid,
+for want of that mental and moral culture which gives a peculiar charm
+to the human countenance. It is impossible for me to bring the females
+of this country before you in so vivid a manner that you can form a
+correct idea of them. But select from among your acquaintances a lady
+who is excessively weak, vain and trifling; who has no relish for any
+intellectual or moral improvement; whose conversation is altogether
+confined to dress, parties, balls, admiration, marriage; whose temper
+and faults have never been corrected by her parents, but who is
+following, unchecked, all the propensities of a fallen, corrupt nature.
+Perhaps you will not be able to find any such, though I have
+occasionally met with them in America. If you succeed, however, in
+bringing a person of this character to your mind, then place the
+thousands of girls, and the women, too, of this land, once the land of
+patriarchs, prophets and apostles, in her class." "These weak-minded
+Syrian females are not attentive to personal cleanliness; neither have
+they a neat and tasteful style of dress. Their apparel is precisely such
+as the Apostle recommended that Christian females should avoid; while
+the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is thrown wholly out of the
+account. They have no books, and no means of moral or intellectual
+improvement. It is considered a disgrace for a female to know how to
+read and write, and a serious obstacle to her marriage, which is the
+principal object of the parent's heart. This abhorrence of learning in
+females, exists most strongly in the higher classes. Nearly every pupil
+in our school is very indigent. Of God's word they understand nothing,
+for a girl is taken to church perhaps but once a year, where nothing is
+seen among the women but talking and trifling; of course she attaches no
+solemnity to the worship of God. No sweet domestic circle of father,
+brother, mother and sister, all capable of promoting mutual cheerfulness
+and improvement, greets her in her own house. I do not mean to imply
+that there exists no family affection among them, for this tie is often
+very strong; but it has no foundation in respect, and is not employed to
+promote elevation of character. The men sit and smoke their pipes in one
+apartment, while in another the women cluster upon the floor, and with
+loud and vociferous voices gossip with their neighbors. The very
+language of the females is of a lower order than that of the men, which
+renders it almost impossible for them to comprehend spiritual and
+abstract subjects, when first presented to their minds. I know not how
+often, when I have attempted to converse with them, they have
+acknowledged that they did not understand me, or have interrupted me by
+alluding to some mode or article of dress, or something quite as
+foolish." "Thus you see, my young friends, how unhappy is the condition
+of the females of Syria, and how many laborers are wanted to cultivate
+this wide field. On the great day of final account, the young females of
+Syria, of India, of every inhabited portion of the globe, who are upon
+the stage of life with you, will rise up, either to call you blessed,
+or to enhance your condemnation." "God is furnishing American females
+their high privileges, with the intention of calling them forth into the
+wide fields of ignorance and error, which the world exhibits. I look
+over my country and think of the hundreds and thousands of young ladies,
+intelligent, amiable and capable, who are assembled in schools and
+academies there; and then turn my eye to Jerusalem, Hebron, Nazareth,
+Sychar, Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, Jaffa, and to the numerous villages of
+Mount Lebanon, and think, 'Why this inequality of condition and
+privileges? Why can there not be stationed at every one of those morally
+desolate places, at least one missionary family, and one single female
+as a teacher? Does not Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, require it of
+His youthful friends in America, that from love to Him, gratitude for
+their own distinguished mercies, compassion for perishing souls, and the
+expectation of perfect rest and happiness in heaven, they should spread
+themselves over the wide world, and feed the sheep and the lambs
+scattered without a shepherd upon the mountains?' Yes, He requires it,
+and angels will yet behold it; but shall we not see it in our day?"
+
+Great changes have come over Syria since the above words were written.
+Not less than twelve high schools for girls have been established since
+then in Syria and Palestine, and not far from forty common schools,
+exclusively for girls, under the auspices of the different Missionary
+Societies.
+
+In February, 1836, Mrs. Smith also undertook the work of _systematic
+visiting among the mothers of her pupils_. She says, "Perhaps it will be
+a very long time before we shall see any fruit. Indeed those who enter
+into our labors may gather it in our stead; yet I am anxious that we
+should persevere until we die, though no apparent effect be produced."
+
+In April, 1836, she wrote, "My mind is much upon a female boarding
+school; and if I can get the promise of ten girls, we shall, God
+willing, remove the press from our house, and commence one in the fall."
+
+In May she commenced a new term of her day school with twenty-six
+scholars. She says, "The wife of a persecuted Druze is very anxious to
+learn to read, and she comes to our house every day to get instruction
+from Raheel." She also says, "We feel the want of books exceedingly. The
+little girl whom I took more than a year since, and who advances
+steadily in intelligence and knowledge, has no book but the Bible to
+read, not one." Then again, "Should our press get into successful
+operation, I despair in doing anything in the way of infant schools,
+because the Arabic language cannot be simplified, at least under
+existing prejudices. If every hymn and little story must be dressed up
+in the august habiliments of the Koran, what child of three and six
+years old will be wiser and better for them! How complete is the
+dominion of the Great Adversary over this people! All the links of the
+chain must be separated, one by one. And what a long, I had almost
+said, tedious process! But I forget that to each one will be assigned a
+few only of these links. We are doing a little, perhaps, in this work;
+if faithful, we shall rest in heaven, and others will come and take our
+places and our work."
+
+On the eleventh of June, Mrs. Smith's health had become so impaired from
+the dampness of the floor and walls of her school building, that her
+physician advised a sea voyage for her. After suffering shipwreck on the
+coast of Asia Minor, and enduring great hardships, she reached Smyrna,
+where she died on the 30th of September, in the triumphs of the Gospel.
+Her Memoir is a book worthy of being read by every Christian woman
+engaged in the Master's service.
+
+In a letter written from Smyrna, July 28, she says, "I had set my heart
+much upon taking Raheel with me. Parents, however, in Syria, have an
+especial aversion to parting with their children for foreign countries.
+One of my last acts therefore was to make a formal committal of her into
+the hands of my kind friend Miss Williams. I had become so strongly
+attached to the little girl, and felt myself so much rewarded for all my
+efforts with her, that the circumstances of this separation were perhaps
+more trying than any associated with our departure."
+
+Mrs. Smith had from the first a desire to take a little Arab girl to be
+brought up in her family, and at length selected Raheel, one of the most
+promising scholars in her school, when about eight years of age, and
+with the consent of her parents adopted her. In her care, attentions
+and affections, she took almost the rank of a daughter. She was trained
+to habits of industry, truth and studiousness, and although Mrs. S. had
+been but nine months in the country when she adopted her, she commenced
+praying with her in Arabic from the very first.
+
+Dr. Eli Smith says, "In a word, the expectations Mrs. Smith had formed
+in taking her, were fully answered; and she was often heard to say, that
+she had every day been amply repaid for the pains bestowed upon her. It
+will not be wondered at, that her affections became entwined very
+closely around so promising a pupil, and that the attachment assumed
+much of the character of parental kindness. Mrs. Smith's sharpest trial,
+perhaps, at her departure from Beirut, arose from leaving her behind."
+
+After the departure of Mrs. Smith, her fellow-laborer, Miss Williams,
+afterwards Mrs. Hebard, took charge of Raheel, who remained with her
+five years. She then lived successively with Mrs. Lanneau and Mrs.
+Beadle, and lastly with Dr. and Mrs. De Forest.
+
+When in the family of Dr. De Forest, she became engaged to be married to
+Mr. Butrus Bistany, a learned native of the Protestant Church, who was
+employed by the Mission as a teacher. Her mother and friends were
+opposed to the engagement, as they wished to marry her to a man of their
+own selection. On Carnival evening, February 20, in the year 1843, her
+mother invited her to come and spend the feast with the family. She
+hesitated, but finally consented to go with Dr. De Forest and call upon
+her family friends and return before night. After sitting several hours,
+the Doctor arose to go and she prepared to follow him. Her mother
+protested, saying that they would not allow her to return to her home
+with the missionary. Finding that the mother and brother-in-law were
+preparing to resist her departure by violence, Dr. De Forest retired,
+sending a native friend to stay in the house until his return. He
+repaired to the Pasha and laid the case before him. The Pasha declared
+her free to choose her own home, as she was legally of age, and sent a
+janizary with Dr. De Forest to examine the case and insure her liberty
+of action. On entering the house, the janizary called for Raheel and
+asked her whether she wished to go home or stay with her mother? She
+replied, "I wish to go home to Mrs. De Forest." The janizary then wrote
+down her request, and told her to go. She arose to go, but could not
+find her shoes. There was some delay, when her brother-in-law seized her
+arm and attempted to drag her to an inner room. The Pasha's officer
+seized the other arm and the poor girl was in danger of having her
+shoulders dislocated. At length the officer prevailed and she escaped.
+Her mother and the women who had assembled from the neighborhood, then
+set up a terrific shriek, like a funeral wail, "She's lost! she's dead!
+wo is me!" It was all pre-arranged. The brother-in-law had been around
+to the square to a rendezvous of soldiers, and told them that an attempt
+would be made to abduct his sister by force, and if they heard a shriek
+from the women, to hasten to his house. The rabble of soldiers wanted no
+better pastime than such a melee among the infidels, and promised to
+come. When they heard the noise they started on a run. Raheel, having
+suspected something of the kind, induced Dr. De Forest to take another
+road, and as they turned the corner to enter the mission premises, they
+saw the rabble running in hot haste towards her mother's house, only to
+find that the bird had flown.
+
+In the following summer she was married to Mr. Bistany, who was for
+eight years assistant of Dr. Eli Smith in the work of Bible translation,
+and for twenty years Dragoman of the American Consulate. He is now
+Principal of a private Boarding School for boys, called the "Medriset el
+Wutaniyet" or "Native School," which has about 150 pupils of all sects.
+He and his son Selim Effendi are the editors and proprietors also of
+three Arabic journals; the _Jenan_, a Monthly Literary Magazine,
+illustrated by wood-cuts made by a native artist, and having a
+circulation of about 1500; the _Jenneh_, a semi-weekly newspaper
+published Tuesday and Friday; and the _Jeneineh_, published Monday,
+Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. There is not a more industrious man in
+Syria than Mr. Bistany, and he is doing a great work in the
+enlightenment of his countrymen.
+
+Raheel's home is one of affection, decorum, and Christian refinement,
+and she has fulfilled the highest hopes and prayers of her devoted
+foster mother, in discharging the duties of mother, neighbor, church
+member, and friend. May every missionary woman be rewarded in seeing
+such fruits of her labors!
+
+In January, 1866, Sarah, one of Raheel's daughters, named after Mrs.
+Sarah L. Smith, was attacked by typhoid pneumonia. From the first she
+was deeply impressed on the subject of religion, and in deep concern
+about her soul. She sent for me, and I found her in a very hopeful state
+of mind. Day after day I called and conversed and prayed with her, and
+her views of her need of Christ were most clear and comforting, and she
+wished her testimony to His love to be known among all her young
+companions. Her friends from the school gathered at her request to see
+her, and she urged them to come to Christ, and several who have since
+united with the Church traced their first awakening to her words on her
+death-bed.
+
+One day Sarah said to me, "How thankful I am for this sickness! It has
+been the voice of God to my soul! I have given myself to Jesus forever!
+I have been a great sinner, and I have been thinking about my sins, and
+my need of a Saviour, and I am resolved to live for Him hereafter." On
+her father's coming into the room, she said in English, "Papa, I am so
+happy that the Lord sent this sickness upon me. You cannot tell how I
+thank him for it."
+
+After a season spent in prayer, I urged her, on leaving, to cast herself
+entirely on the Saviour of sinners, before another hour should pass. The
+next day as I entered the room, she said, "I am at peace now. I _did_
+cast myself on Jesus and He received me. I know His blood has washed my
+sins away." She had expressed some fear that she might not be able to
+live a consistent Christian life should she recover, "but," said she, "I
+could trust in Christ to sustain me." After a few words of counsel and
+prayer, and reading a portion of Scripture, she exclaimed, "It is all
+one now, whether I die or live. I am ready to go or stay. The Lord knows
+best."
+
+At the last interview between her and her father, she expressed her
+determination to make the Bible henceforth her study and guide, and
+requested him to read the 14th chapter of John, which seemed to give her
+great comfort. Soon after that she ceased to recognize her friends, and
+on Monday night, January 5, she gently fell asleep. I was summoned to
+the house at 2 A.M. by a young man who said, "She is much
+worse, hasten." On reaching the house I met Rufka, teacher of the
+Seminary, who exclaimed, "She is gone, she is gone." Entering the mukod
+room, I found all the family assembled. There were no shrieks and
+screams and loud wailings, as is the universal custom in this land. All
+were seated, and the father, Abu Selim, was reading that chapter which
+Sarah had asked him to read. I then led the family in prayer, and all
+were much comforted. She had lived a blameless life, beloved by all who
+knew her, and had been a faithful and exemplary daughter and sister, but
+her only trust at the last was in her Saviour. She saw in her past life
+only sin, and hoped for salvation in the blood of Christ alone. The
+funeral was attended by a great concourse of people of all sects, and
+the Protestant chapel was crowded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+HUMS.
+
+
+The city of Hums, the ancient Emessa, is situated about one mile east of
+the river Orontes, and about half way between Aleppo and Damascus. It is
+in the midst of a vast and fertile plain, extending to Palmyra on the
+east, and to the Orontes on the west. With the exception of a few
+mud-built villages along the east and near the city, there is no settled
+population between Hums and Palmyra. The wild roving Bedawin sweep the
+vast plains in every direction, and only a few years ago, the great
+gates of Hums were frequently closed at midday to prevent the incursion
+of these rough robbers of the desert. On the west of the city are
+beautiful gardens and orchards of cherry, walnut, apricot, plum, apple,
+peach, olive, pomegranate, fig and pear trees, and rich vineyards cover
+the fields on the south. It is a clean and compact town of about 25,000
+inhabitants, of whom 7000 are Greek Christians, 3000 Jacobites, and the
+rest Mohammedans. The houses are built of sun-dried bricks and black
+basaltic rock, and the streets are beautifully paved with small square
+blocks of the same rock, giving it a neat and clean appearance. There
+are few windows on the street; the houses are one story high, with
+diminutive doors, not more than four feet high; and the low dull walls
+stretching along the streets, give the city a dismal and monotonous
+appearance. The reason of building the doors so _low_, is to prevent the
+quartering of Turkish government horsemen on their families, as well as
+to prevent the Bedawin Arabs from plundering them. On the southwest
+corner of the city stands an ancient castle in ruins, built on an
+artificial mound of earth of colossal size, which was once faced with
+square blocks of black trap rock, but this facing has been all stripped
+off to build the modern city.
+
+The people are simple and country-like in dress and manners, and the
+most of them have a cow-yard within the courts of their houses, thus
+combining the pastoral with the citizen life. The majority of the Greeks
+are silk-weavers and shoemakers, weaving girdles, scarfs and robes for
+different parts of Syria and Egypt, and supplying the Bedawin and the
+Nusairy villagers with coarse red-leather boots and shoes.
+
+Hums early became the seat of a Christian Church, and in the reign of
+Diocletian, its bishop, Silvanus, suffered martyrdom. In 636
+A.D., it was captured by the Saracens, (or "Sherakiyeen,"
+"Easterns," as the Arab Moslems were called,) and although occupied for
+a time by the Crusaders, it has continued a Moslem city, under
+Mohammedan rule. The Greek population have been oppressed and ground to
+the very dust by their Moslem neighbors and rulers, and their women have
+been driven for protection into a seclusion and degradation similar to
+that of the Moslem hareems.
+
+The Rev. D.M. Wilson, a missionary of the A.B.C.F.M., took up his
+residence in Hums in October 1855, and remained until obliged to leave
+by the civil war which raged in the country in 1860. Mr. and Mrs. Aiken
+went to Hums in April, 1856, but Mrs. Aiken died June 20, after having
+given promise of rare usefulness among the women of Syria.
+
+After Mr. Wilson left Hums, a faithful native helper, Sulleba Jerwan,
+was sent to preach in Hums. His wife, Luciya Shekkoor, had been trained
+in the family of Rev. W. Bird in Deir el Komr, and was a devoted and
+excellent laborer on behalf of the women of Hums. In October, 1862, one
+of the more enlightened men among the Greeks was taken ill, and sent for
+Pastor Sulleba to come and make him a religious visit. He went, and
+found quite a company of relatives and friends present. The sick man
+asked him to read from the Word of God, and among the passages selected,
+was that containing the Ten Commandments. While he was reading the
+_Second_ Commandment, the _wife_ of the sick man exclaimed, "Is that the
+Word of God? If it is, read it again." He did so, when she arose and
+tore down a wooden painted picture of a saint, which had been hung at
+the head of the bed, declaring that henceforth there should be no idol
+worship in that house. Then taking a knife, she scraped the paint from
+the picture, and took it to the kitchen to serve as the cover to a
+saucepan! This was done with the approbation of all present. The case
+was the more remarkable, as it was one of the first cases in Syria in
+which a woman has taken such a decided stand against picture-worship and
+saint-worship, in advance of the rest of the family.
+
+In the year 1863, before the ordination of Pastor Sulleba, there being
+no Protestant properly qualified to perform the marriage ceremony in
+Hums, I went to that city to marry two of the Protestant young men. It
+was the first time a Protestant marriage had ever taken place in Hums,
+and great interest was felt in the ceremony. It is the custom among the
+other sects to _pronounce_ the bride and groom husband and wife, neither
+giving an opportunity to spectators to object, nor asking the girl if
+she is willing to marry the man. The girl is oftentimes not consulted,
+but simply told she is to marry such a man. If it pleases her, well and
+good. If not, there is no remedy. The Greek Church gives no liberty in
+this respect, although the priest takes it for granted that the friends
+have satisfied both bride and groom with regard to the desirableness of
+the match. If they are not satisfied, the form of the ceremony gives
+neither of them the right of refusal.
+
+The two young men, Ibrahim and Yunis, called upon me soon after my
+arrival, to make arrangements for the marriage. I read them the form of
+the marriage ceremony and they expressed their approval, but said it
+would be necessary to give the brides very careful instructions as to
+how and when to answer, lest they say yes when they should say _no_, and
+_no_ when they wished to say _yes_! I asked them to accompany me to the
+houses of the girls, that I might give them the necessary directions.
+They at once protested that this would not be allowed. They had never
+called at the brides' houses when the girls were present, and it would
+be a grievous breach of decorum for them to go even with me. So certain
+of the male relatives of the girls were sent for to accompany me, and I
+went to their houses. On entering the house of the first one, it was
+only after long and elaborate argument and diplomatic management, that
+we could induce the bride to come in from the other room and meet me. At
+length she came, with her face partially veiled, and attended by several
+married women, her relatives.
+
+They soon began to ply me with questions. "Do you have the communion
+before the ceremony?" "No." "Do you use the "Ikleel" or crown, in the
+service?" "No, we sometimes use the ring." Said one, "I hear that you
+ask the girl if she is willing to take this man to be her husband."
+"Certainly we do." "Well, if that rule had been followed in my day, I
+know of _one_ woman who would have said _no_; but they do not give us
+Greek women the chance."
+
+I then explained to them that the bride must stand beside the
+bridegroom, and when I asked her if she knew of any lawful reason why
+she should _not_ marry this man, Ibrahim, she should say _No_,--and when
+I asked her if she took him to be her lawful and wedded husband, she
+must answer _Yes_. Some of the women were under great apprehension that
+she might answer No in the wrong place; so I repeated it over and over
+again until the girl was sure she should not make a mistake. The woman
+above alluded to now said, "I would have said No in the _right_ place,
+if I had been allowed to do it!" I then went to the house of the other
+bride and gave her similar instructions. The surprise of the women who
+came in from the neighborhood, that the girl should have the right to
+say yes or no, was most amusing and suggestive. That one thing seemed to
+give them new ideas of the dignity and honor of woman under the Gospel.
+Marriage in the East is so generally a matter of bargain and sale, or of
+parental convenience and profit, or of absolute compulsion, that young
+women have little idea of exercising their own taste or judgment in the
+choice of a husband.
+
+This was new doctrine for the city of Heliogabalus, and, as was to be
+expected, the news soon spread through the town that the next evening a
+marriage ceremony was to be performed by the Protestant minister, in
+which the bride was to have the privilege of refusing the man if she
+wished. And, what was even more outrageous to Hums ideas of propriety,
+it was rumored that the brides were to walk home from the Church _in
+company with their husbands_! This was too much, and certain of the
+young Humsites, who feared the effect of conferring such unheard-of
+rights and privileges on women, leagued together to mob the brides and
+grooms if such a course were attempted. We heard of the threat and made
+ample preparations to protect Protestant women's rights.
+
+The evening came, and with it such a crowd of men, women and children,
+as had never assembled in that house before. The houses of Hums are
+built around a square area into which all the rooms open, and the open
+space or court of the mission-house was very large. Before the brides
+arrived, the entire court, the church and the schoolroom, were packed
+with a noisy and almost riotous throng. Men, women and children were
+laughing and talking, shouting and screaming to one another, and
+discussing the extraordinary innovation on Hums customs about to be
+enacted. Soon the brides arrived, accompanied by a veiled and sheeted
+crowd of women, all carrying candles and singing as they entered the
+house. We took them into the study of the native preacher Sulleba, and
+after a reasonable delay, we forced a way for them through the crowd
+into the large square room, then used as a church. My brother and myself
+finally succeeded in placing them in a proper position in front of the
+pulpit, and then we waited until Asaad and Michaiel and Yusef and Nasif
+had enforced a tolerable stillness. It should be said that silence and
+good order are almost unknown in the Oriental churches. Men are walking
+about and talking, and even laughing, while the priests are "performing"
+the service, and they are much impressed by the quiet and decorum of
+Protestant worship.
+
+The two brides were closely veiled so that I could not distinguish the
+one from the other. Ibrahim was slender and tall, at least six feet
+three, and Yunis was short and corpulent. So likewise, one of the brides
+was very tall, and the other even shorter than Yunis. As we could not
+see the brides' faces, we arranged them according to symmetry and
+apparent propriety, placing the tall bride by the tall groom, and the
+two short ones together. After the introductory prayer, I proceeded to
+deliver a somewhat full and practical address on the nature of marriage,
+and the duties and relations of husband and wife, as is our custom in
+Syria, not only for the instruction of the newly married pair, but for
+the good of the community. No Methodist exhorter ever evoked more hearty
+responses, than did this address, from the Hums populace. "That is
+true." "That is news in _this_ city." "Praise to God." _Mashallah!_ A
+woman exclaimed on hearing of the duties of husband to wife, "Praise to
+God, women are something after all!" I then turned to the two pairs, and
+commenced asking Ibrahim the usual question, "Do you" (etc., etc.,) when
+a woman screamed out, "Stop, stop, Khowadji, you have got the wrong
+bride by that man. He is to marry the short girl!" Then followed an
+explosion of laughter, and during the confusion we adjusted the matter
+satisfactorily. A Moslem Effendi who was present remarked after
+listening to the service throughout, "that is the most sensible way of
+getting married that I ever heard of."
+
+After the ceremony, we sent the newly married pairs to the study to
+await the dispersion of the multitude, before going into the street. But
+human curiosity was too great. None would leave until they saw the
+extraordinary sight of a bride and groom walking home together. So we
+prepared our lanterns and huge canes, and taking several of the native
+brethren, my brother and myself walked home first with Ibrahim and wife,
+and then with Yunis and his wife. We walked on either side of them, and
+the riotous rabble, seeing that they could not reach the bride and
+groom, without first demolishing two tall Khowadjis with heavy canes,
+contented themselves with coarse jokes and contemptuous laughter.
+
+This was nine years ago, and on a recent visit to Hums, the two brides
+and their husbands met me at the door of the church on Sunday, to show
+me their children. Since that time numerous Protestant weddings have
+taken place in Hums, and a new order of things is beginning to dawn upon
+that people.
+
+The present native pastor, the Rev. Yusef Bedr, was installed in June,
+1872. His wife Leila, is a graduate of the Beirut Female Seminary, and
+has been for several years a teacher. Her father died in January, 1871,
+in the hospital of the Beirut College, and her widowed mother, Im
+Mishrik, has gone to labor in Hums as a Bible Woman. When her father was
+dying, I went to see him. Noticing his emaciated appearance, I said,
+"Are you very ill, Abu Mishrik?" "No my friend, _I_ am not ill. My body
+is ill; and wasting away but _I_ am well. I am happy. I cannot describe
+my joy. I have no desire to return to health again. If you would fill my
+hands with bags of gold, and send me back to Abeih in perfect health, to
+meet my family again, I would not accept the offer, in the place of what
+I _know_ is before me. I am going to see Christ! I see Him now. I know
+He has borne my sins, and I have nothing now to fear. It would comfort
+me to see some of my friends again, and especially Mr. Calhoun, whom I
+love; but what are my friends compared with Christ, whom I am going so
+soon to see?" After prayer, I bade him good bye, and a few hours after,
+he passed peacefully away.
+
+The teacher of the Girls' School in Hums, is Belinda, also a former
+pupil of the Beirut Seminary. Her brother-in-law, Ishoc, is the faithful
+colporteur, who has labored so earnestly for many years in the work of
+the Gospel in Syria. His grandfather was a highway robber, who was
+arrested by the Pasha, after having committed more than twenty murders.
+When led out to the gallows, the Pasha offered him office as district
+governor, if he would turn Moslem. The old murderer refused, saying that
+he had not much religion, but he would not give up the Greek Church! So
+he was hung, and the Greeks regarded him as a martyr to the faith!
+Ishoc's father was as bad as the grandfather, and trained Ishoc to the
+society of dancing girls and strolling minstrels. When Ishoc became a
+Protestant, the father took down his sword to cut off his head, but his
+mother interceded and saved his life. Afterwards his father one day
+asked him if it was possible that a murderer, son of a murderer, could
+be saved. He read the gospel to him, prayed with him, and at length the
+wicked father was melted to contrition and tears. He died a true
+Christian, and the widowed mother is now living with Ishoc in Beirut.
+Belinda has a good school, and the wealthiest families of the Greeks
+have placed their daughters under her care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+MIRIAM THE ALEPPINE.
+
+
+The city of Aleppo was occupied as a Station of the Syria Mission for
+many years, until finally in 1855 it was left to the Turkish-speaking
+missionaries of the Central Turkey Mission. It is one of the most
+difficult fields of labor in Turkey, but has not been unfruitful of
+genuine instances of saving faith in Christ. Among them is the case of
+Miriam Nahass, (or Mary Coppersmith,) now Miriam Sarkees of Beirut.
+
+From a letter published in the Youth's Dayspring at the time, I have
+gathered the following facts:
+
+In 1853 and 1854 the Missionaries in Aleppo, Messrs. Ford and Eddy,
+opened a small private school for girls, the teacher of which was Miriam
+Nahass. When the Missionaries first came to Aleppo, her father professed
+to be a Protestant, and on this account suffered not a little
+persecution from the Greek Catholic priests. At times he was on the
+point of starvation, as the people were forbidden to buy of him or sell
+to him. One day he brought his little daughter Miriam to the
+missionaries, and asked them to take her and instruct her in all that is
+good, which they gladly undertook, and her gentle pleasant ways soon won
+their love.
+
+Her mother was a superstitious woman, who hated the missionaries, and
+could not bear to have her daughter stay with them. She used for a long
+time to come almost daily to their house and bitterly complain against
+them and against her husband for robbing her of her daughter. She would
+rave at times in the wildest passion, and sometimes she would weep as if
+broken-hearted; not because she loved her child so much, but because she
+did not like to have her neighbors say to her, "Ah! You have let your
+child become a Protestant!"
+
+It may well be supposed that this was very annoying to the missionary
+who had her in special charge, and so it was; but he found some profit
+in it. He was just then learning to speak the language, and this woman
+by her daily talk, taught him a kind of Arabic, and a use of it, not to
+be obtained from grammars and dictionaries. He traced much of his ready
+command of the language to having been compelled to listen so often to
+the wearisome harangues of Miriam's mother. Sometimes the father would
+be overcome by the mother's entreaties and would take away the girl, but
+after awhile he would bring her back again, to the great joy of those
+who feared they had lost her altogether. This state of things continued
+two or three years, while Miriam's mind was daily improving and her
+character unfolding, and hopes were often entertained that the Spirit of
+God was carrying on a work of grace in her soul.
+
+One day her father came to the missionary, and asked him to loan him
+several thousand piastres (a thousand piastres is $40,) with which he
+might set up business. This was of course refused, when he went away
+greatly enraged. He soon returned and took away his daughter, saying
+that Protestantism did not pay what it cost. It had cost him the loss of
+property and reputation; it had cost him the peace of his household and
+the presence of his little girl, and it did not bring in to him in
+return even the loan of a few piastres, and he would try it no longer.
+Prayer continued to be offered without ceasing for Miriam, thus taken
+back to an irreligious home; and though the missionaries heard of her
+return and her father's return to the corrupt Greek Catholic Church, and
+of the exultation of the mother over the attainment of her wishes, yet
+they did not cease to hope that God would one day bring her back and
+make her a lamb of His fold.
+
+An Arab young woman, Melita, trained in the family of Mrs. Whiting in
+Beirut, was sent to Aleppo about this time to open a girls' school
+there. The Greek Catholic priests then thought to establish a similar
+school of their own sect to prevent their children from attending that
+of the Protestants. They secured Miriam as their teacher. As she went
+from her home to the school and back again, she used sometimes to run
+into the missionary's house by stealth, and assure him that her heart
+was still with him, and her faith unchanged. The school continued a few
+weeks, but the priests having failed to pay anything towards its
+support, her father would let her teach no more. Perhaps two years
+passed thus, with but little being seen of Miriam, but she was not
+forgotten at the throne of grace.
+
+The teacher from Beirut having returned to her home, it was proposed to
+Miriam's father that she should teach in the Protestant school. Quite
+unexpectedly he consented, with the understanding that she was to spend
+every evening at home. At first, little was said to her on the subject
+of religion; soon she sought religious conversation herself, and brought
+questions and different passages of Scripture to be explained. After
+about a month, having previously conversed with the missionary about her
+duty, when her father came for her at night, she told him that she did
+not want to go home with him, but to stay where she was. She ought to
+obey God rather than her parents. They had made her act the part of a
+hypocrite long enough; to pretend to be a Catholic when she was a
+Protestant at heart, and they knew that she was. Her father promised
+that everything should be according to her wishes, and then she returned
+with him.
+
+Two or three days passed away and nothing was seen or heard of Miriam. A
+servant was then sent to her father's house to inquire if she was sick,
+and he was rudely thrust away from the door. The missionary felt
+constrained to interfere, that Miriam might at least have the
+opportunity of declaring openly her preference. According to the laws of
+the Turkish government, the father had no right to keep her at her age,
+against her will, and it was necessary that she have an opportunity to
+choose with whom she wished to live. The matter was represented to the
+American Consul, who requested the father to appear before him with his
+daughter. When the officer came to his house, he found that the father
+had locked the door and gone away with the key. From an upper window,
+however, Miriam saw him and told him that she was shut up there a
+prisoner, not knowing what might be done with her, and she begged for
+assistance. She had prepared a little note for the missionary, telling
+of her attachment to Christ's cause, and closing with the last two
+verses of the eighth chapter of Romans, "For I am persuaded, that
+neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
+things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other
+creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
+Christ Jesus our Lord." The janizary proposed to her to try if she could
+not get out upon the roof of the next house, and descend through it to
+the street, which she successfully accomplished, and was soon joyfully
+on her way to a place of protection in the Consulate.
+
+Miriam, after staying three days at the Consul's house, returned to that
+of the missionary. Her parents tried every means to induce her to
+return. They promised and threatened and wept, but though greatly moved
+at times in her feelings, she remained firm to her purpose. They tried
+to induce her to go home for a single night only, but she knew them too
+well to trust herself in their hands. Her mother had artfully arranged
+to meet her at the house of a friend; but her brother came, a little
+before the time, to warn her that a plan was laid to meet her at this
+house with a company of priests who were all ready to marry her forcibly
+to a man whom she knew nothing about, as is often done in this country.
+Miriam thus gave up father and mother, brothers and sisters, for the
+sake of Christ and his gospel.
+
+In the year 1855 Mr. Ford removed to Beirut, and Miriam accompanied him.
+She made a public profession of her faith in Christ in 1856, and was
+married in 1858 to Mr. Ibrahim Sarkees, foreman and principal proof
+reader of the American Mission Press. Her father has since removed to
+Beirut, and all of the family have become entirely reconciled to her
+being a Protestant. Her brother Habibs is a frequent attendant on Divine
+service, and regards himself as a Protestant.
+
+Miriam is now deeply interested in Christian work, and the weekly
+meetings of the Native Women's Missionary Society are held at her house.
+The Protestant women agree either to attend this Sewing Society, or pay
+a piastre a week in case of their absence.
+
+I close this chapter with the mention of Werdeh, [Rose,] daughter of the
+celebrated Arabic poet Nasif el Yazijy, who aided Dr. Eli Smith in the
+translation of the Bible into Arabic. She is now a member of the
+Evangelical Church in Beirut. She herself has written several poems of
+rare merit; one an elegy upon the death of Dr. Smith; another expressing
+grateful thanks to Dr. Van Dyck for attending her sick brother. Only
+this can be introduced here, a poem lamenting the death of Sarah
+Huntington Bistany, daughter of Raheel, who died in January, 1866.
+Sarah's father and her own father, Sheikh Nasif, had been for years on
+the most intimate terms, and the daughters were like sisters. The
+account of Sarah's death will be found in another part of this volume.
+
+    Oh sad separation! Have you left among mortals,
+    An eye without tears, hot and burning with sorrow?
+    Have you left on this earth a heart without anguish,
+    Or a soul unharrowed with grief and emotion?
+    Thou hast plucked off a flower from our beautiful garden,
+    Which shall shine like the stars in the gardens celestial.
+    Wo is me! I have lost a fair branch of the willow
+    Broken ruthlessly off. And what heart is _not_ broken?
+        Thou hast gone, but from me thou wilt never be absent.
+        Thy person will live to my sight and my hearing.
+    Tears of blood will be shed by fair maids thy companions,
+    Thy grave will be watered by tears thickly falling.
+    Thou wert the fair jewel of Syrian maidens,
+    Far purer and fairer than pearls of the ocean.
+    Where now is thy knowledge of language and science?
+    This sad separation has left to us nothing.
+        Ah, wo to the heart of fond father and mother,
+        No sleep,--naught but anguish and watching in sorrow
+        Thou art clad in white robes in the gardens of glory.
+        We are clad in the black robe of sorrow and mourning
+    Oh grave, yield thy honors to our pure lovely maiden,
+    Who now to thy gloomy abode is descending!
+        Our Sarah departed, with no word of farewell,
+        Will she ever return with a fond word of greeting?
+    Oh deep sleep of death, that knows no awaking!
+    Oh absence that knows no thought of returning!
+        If she never comes back to us here in our sorrow,
+        We shall go to her soon. 'Twill be but to-morrow
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+MODERN SYRIAN VIEWS WITH REGARD TO FEMALE EDUCATION.
+
+
+In the year 1847, a Literary Society was formed in Beirut, through the
+influence of Drs. Thomson, Eli Smith, Van Dyck, De Forest and Mr.
+Whiting, which continued in operation for about six years, and numbered
+among its members the leading men of all the various native communities.
+Important papers were read on various scientific and social subjects.
+The missionaries had been laboring for years to create an enlightened
+public sentiment on the subject of female education, contending against
+social prejudices, profound ignorance, ecclesiastical tyranny and
+selfish opposition, and at length the fruit of their labors began to
+appear. In the following articles may be seen something of the views of
+the better class of Syrians. The first was read before the Beirut
+Literary Society, Dec. 14, 1849, by Mr. Butrus Bistany, who, as stated
+above, married Raheel, and is now the head of a flourishing Academy in
+Beirut, and editor of three Arabic journals. I have translated only the
+salient points of this long and able paper:--
+
+We have already spoken of woman in barbarous lands. The Syrian women,
+although better off in some respects than the women of barbarous
+nations, are still in the deepest need of education and elevation,
+since they stand in a position midway between the barbarous and the
+civilized. How few of the hundreds of thousands of women in Syria know
+how to read! How few are the schools ever established here for teaching
+women! Any one who denies the degradation and ignorance of Syrian women,
+would deny the existence of the noonday sun. Do not men shun even an
+allusion to women, and if obliged to speak of them, do they not
+accompany the remark with "a jellak Allah," as if they were speaking of
+a brute beast, or some filthy object? Are they not treated among us very
+much as among the barbarians? To what do they pay the most attention? Is
+it not to ornament and dress, and refining about styles of tatooing with
+the "henna" and "kohl?" What do they know about the training of
+children, domestic economy and neatness of person, and the care of the
+sick? How many abominable superstitions do they follow, although
+forbidden by their own religions? Are not the journals and diaries of
+travellers full of descriptions of the state of our women? Does not
+every one, familiar with the state of society and the family among us,
+know all these things, and mourn over them, and demand a reform? Would
+that I might awaken among the women the desire to learn, that thus they
+might be worthy of higher honor and esteem!
+
+"Woman should be instructed in _religion_. This is one of her highest
+rights and privileges and her bounden duty.
+
+"She should be taught in her own vernacular tongue, so as to be able to
+express herself correctly, and use pure language. Woman should learn to
+_write_.
+
+"She should be taught to _read_. How is it possible for woman to
+remember all her duties, religious and secular, through mere oral
+instruction? But a written book, is a teacher always with her, and in
+every place and circumstance. It addresses her without a voice, rebukes
+her without fear or shame, answers without sullenness and complaint. She
+consults it when she wishes, without anxiety and embarrassment, and
+banishes it if not faithful or satisfactory, or even burns it without
+crime!
+
+"Why forbid woman the use of the only means she can have of sending her
+views and feelings where the voice cannot reach? _Now_ when a woman
+wishes to write a letter, she must go, closely veiled to the street, and
+hire a professional scribe to write for her, a letter which she cannot
+read, and which may utterly misrepresent her!
+
+"Woman should also have instruction in the _training of children_. The
+right training of children is not a natural instinct. It is an art, and
+a lost art among us. It must be learned from the experience and
+observation of those who have lived before us; and where do we now find
+the woman who knows how to give proper care to the bodies and souls of
+her children?"
+
+Mr. Bistany then speaks of the importance of teaching woman domestic
+economy, sewing, cooking, and the care of the sick, as well as
+geography, arithmetic, and history, giving as reasons for the foregoing
+remarks, that the education of woman will benefit herself, her husband,
+her children and her country.
+
+"How can she be an intelligent wife, a kind companion, a wise
+counsellor, a faithful spouse, aiding her husband, lightening his
+sufferings, training his children, and caring for his home, without
+education? Without education, her taste is corrupt. She will seek only
+outward ornament, and dress, and painting, as if unsatisfied with her
+Creator's work; becoming a mere doll to be gazed at, or a trap to catch
+the men. She will believe in countless superstitions, such as the Evil
+Eye, the howling of dogs, the crying of foxes, etc., which are too well
+known to need mention here. He who would examine this subject, should
+consult that huge unwritten book, that famous volume called "Ketab en
+Nissa," the "Book of the Women," a work which has no existence among
+civilized women; or ask the old wives who have read it, and taught it in
+their schools of superstition.
+
+"Let him who would know the evils of neglecting to educate woman, look
+at the ignorant, untaught woman in her language and dress, her conduct
+at home and abroad; her notions, thoughts, and caprices on religion and
+the world; her morals, inclinations and tastes; her house, her husband,
+her children and acquaintances, when she rejoices or mourns, when sick
+or well; and he will agree with us that an uneducated woman is a great
+evil in the world, not to say the greatest evil possible to be imagined.
+
+"In the reformation of a nation, then, the first step in the ladder is
+the education of the women from their childhood. And those who neglect
+the women and girls, and expect the elevation of the people by the mere
+training of men and boys, are like one walking with one foot on the
+earth, and the other in the clouds! They fail in accomplishing their
+purpose and are barely able, by the utmost energy, to repair that which
+woman has corrupted and destroyed. They build a wall, and woman tears
+down a castle. They elevate boys one degree, and women depress them many
+degrees.
+
+"Perhaps I have now said enough on a subject never before written upon
+by any of our ancestors of the sons of the Arabs. My object has been to
+prove the importance of the education of woman, based on the maxim,
+that, 'she who rocks the cradle with her right hand, moves the world
+with her arm.'"
+
+The next article I have translated from Mr. Bistany's Semi-monthly
+Magazine, called the "Jenan," for July, 1870. It was written by an Arab
+_woman_ of Aleppo, the Sitt Mariana Merrash. She writes with great power
+and eloquence in the Arabic; and her brother, Francis Effendi, is one of
+the most powerful writers of modern Syria. The paper of the Sitt Mariana
+is long, and the introduction is most ornate and flowery. She writes on
+the condition of woman among the Arabs, and refutes an ancient Arab
+slander against women that they are cowardly and avaricious, because
+they will not fight, and carefully hoard the household stores. She then
+proceeds:--
+
+"Wo to us Syrian women, if we do not know enough to distinguish and seek
+after those qualities which will elevate and refine our minds, and give
+breadth to our thoughts, and enable us to take a proper position in
+society! We ought to attract sensible persons to us by the charm of our
+cultivation and refinement, not by the mere phantom of beauty and
+personal ornament. Into what gulfs of stupidity have we plunged! Do we
+not know that the reign of beauty is short, and not enough of itself to
+be worthy of regard? And even supposing that it were enough of itself,
+in the public estimation, to make us attractive and desirable, do we not
+know assuredly that after beauty has faded, we should fall at once into
+a panic of anxiety and grief, since none would then look at us save with
+the eye of contempt and ridicule, to say nothing of the vain attempts at
+producing artificial beauty which certain foolish women make, as if they
+were deaf to the insults and abuse heaped upon them? Shall we settle
+down in indolence, and never once think of what is our highest advantage
+and our chiefest good? Shall we forever run after gay attire and
+ornament? Let us arise and run the race of mental culture and literary
+adornment, and not listen for a moment to those who insult us by denying
+the appropriateness of learning to women, and the capacity of women for
+learning!
+
+"Were we not made of the same clay as men? Even if we are of weaker
+texture, we have the same susceptibility which they have to receive
+impressions from what is taught to us. If it is good, we receive good as
+readily as they; and if evil, then evil. Of what use is a crown of gold
+on the brow of ignorance, and what loveliness is there in a jewelled
+star on the neck of coarseness and brutality, or in a diamond necklace
+over a heart of stupidity and ignorance? The great poet Mutanebbi has
+given us an apothegm of great power on this very subject. He says:
+
+    'Fukr el jehul bela okl ila adab,
+     Fukr el hamar bela ras ila resen,'
+
+     'A senseless fool's need of instruction is like a headless donkey's
+     need of a halter.'
+
+"Let us then gird ourselves with wisdom and understanding, and robe
+ourselves with true politeness and meekness, and be crowned with the
+flowers of the 'jenan' (gardens) of knowledge (a pun on the name of the
+magazine) now opened to us. Let us pluck the fruits of wisdom, lifting
+up our heads in gratulation and true pride, and remain no longer in that
+cowardice and avarice which were imputed to the women of the Arabs
+before us!"
+
+The next article I shall translate, is a paper on the Training of
+Children in the East, by an Arab woman of Alexandria, Egypt, the Sitt
+Wustina Mesirra, wife of Selim Effendi el Hamawy. It was printed in the
+"Jenan" for Jan., 1871. After a long and eloquent poetical introduction,
+this lady says:--
+
+"Let us put off the robes of sloth and inertness, and put on the dress
+of zeal and earnestness. We belong to the nineteenth century, which
+exceeds all the ages of mankind in light and knowledge. Why shall we not
+show to men the need of giving us the highest education, that we may at
+the least contribute to _their_ happiness and advantage, and rightly
+train our children and babes, not to say that we may pluck the fruits of
+science, and the best knowledge for ourselves? Let them say to us, you
+are weak and lacking in knowledge. I reply, by perseverance and
+patience, we shall attain our object.
+
+"Inasmuch as every one who reaches mature years, must pass by the road
+of childhood and youth, everything pertaining to the period of childhood
+becomes interesting and important, and I beg permission to say a word on
+the training of children.
+
+"When it pleased God to give us our first child, I determined to train
+it according to the old approved modes which I had learned from my
+family relatives and fellow-countrywomen. So I took the baby boy soon
+after his birth, and put him in a narrow cradle provided with a tin tube
+running down through a perforation in the little bed, binding and tying
+him down, and wrapping and girding him about from his shoulders to his
+heels, so that he was stiff and unmovable, excepting his head, which
+rolled and wriggled about from right to left, with the rocking of the
+cradle, this rocking being deemed necessary for the purpose of inducing
+sleep and silence in the child. My lord and husband protested against
+this treatment, proving to me the evil effects of this wrapping and
+rocking, by many and weighty reasons, and even said that it would injure
+the little ones for life, even if they survived the outrageous abuse
+they were subjected to. I was astonished, and said, how can this be? We
+were all trained and treated in this manner, and yet lived and grew up
+in the best possible style. All our countrymen have been brought up in
+this way, and none of them that I know of have ever been injured in the
+way you suggest. He gave it up, and allowed me to go on in the old way,
+until something happened which suddenly checked the babe in his progress
+in health and happiness. He began to throw up his milk after nursing,
+and to grow ill, giving signs of brain disease, and then my lord said,
+you must now give up these customs and take my counsel. So, on the spur
+of the moment, I accepted his advice and gave up the cradle. I unrolled
+the bindings and wrappings and gave up myself to putting things in due
+order. I clothed my child with garments adapted to his age and
+circumstances, and to the time and place, and regulated the times of his
+eating and play by day, and kept him awake as much as might be, so that
+he and his parents could sleep at night. I soon saw a wonderful change
+in his health and vigor, though I experienced no little trouble from my
+efforts to wean him from the rocking of the cradle to which he was
+accustomed. My favorable experience in this matter, led me to use my
+influence to induce the daughters of my race, and my own family
+relatives, to give up practices which are alike profitless, laborious
+and injurious to health. My husband also aided me in getting books on
+the training of children, and I studied the true system of training,
+learning much of what is profitable to the mothers and fathers of my
+country in preserving the health of their children in mind and body. The
+binding and wrapping of babes in the cradle prevents their free and
+natural movements, and the natural growth of the body, and injures their
+health."
+
+The next paper is from the pen of Khalil Effendi, editor of the Turkish
+official journal of Beirut. It appeared in the columns of the "Hadikat
+el Akhbar" of January, 1867. It represents the leading views of a large
+class of the more enlightened Syrians with regard to education, and by
+way of preface to the Effendi's remarks, I will make a brief historical
+statement.
+
+The Arab race were in ancient times celebrated for their schools of
+learning, and although the arts and sciences taught in the great
+University under the Khalifs of Baghdad, were chiefly drawn from Greece,
+yet in poetry, logic and law the old Arab writers long held a proud
+preeminence. But since the foundation of the present Ottoman Empire, the
+Arabs have been under a foreign yoke, subject to every form of
+oppression and wrong, and for generations hardly a poet worth the name
+has appeared excepting Sheikh Nasif el Yazijy. Schools have been
+discouraged, and learning, which migrated with the Arabs into Spain, has
+never returned to its Eastern home. There are in every Moslem town and
+city common schools, for every Moslem boy must be taught to read the
+Koran; but with the exception of the Egyptian school of the Jamea el
+Azhar in Cairo, there had not been up to 1867 for years even a high
+school under native auspices, in the Arabic-speaking world. But what the
+Turks have discouraged and the Arab Moslems have failed to do, is now
+being done among the nominal Christian sects, and chiefly by foreign
+educators. During the past thirty years a great work in educating the
+Arab race in Syria has been done by the American Missionaries. Their
+Seminary in Abeih, on Mount Lebanon, has trained multitudes of young
+men, who are now scattered all over Syria and the East, and are making
+their influence felt. Other schools have sprung up, and the result is,
+that the young men and women of Syria are now talking about the "Asur el
+Jedid," or "New Age of Syria," by which they mean an age of education
+and light and advancement. The Arabic journal, above referred to, is
+owned by the Turkish government, or rather subsidized by it, and its
+editor is a talented young Greek of considerable poetic ability. It is
+not often that he ventures to speak out boldly on such a theme as
+education, but the pressure from the people upon the Governor-General
+was so great at the time, that he gave permission to the editor to utter
+his mind. I translate what he wrote, quite literally.
+
+"There can be no doubt that the strength of every people and the source
+of their happiness, rest upon the diffusion of knowledge among them.
+Science has been in every age the foundation of wealth and national
+progress, and since science and the arts are the forerunners of popular
+civilization, and the good of the masses and their elevation in the
+scale of intellectual and physical growth, therefore primary education
+is the necessary preparation for all scientific progress. And in view of
+this, the providence of our most exalted government has been turned to
+the accomplishment of what has been done successfully in other lands, in
+the multiplication of schools and colleges. And none can be ignorant of
+the great progress of science and education, under His August Imperial
+Excellency the Sultan, in Syria, where schools and printing presses have
+multiplied, especially in the city of Beirut and its vicinity. For in
+Beirut and Mount Lebanon, there are nearly two thousand male pupils,
+large and small, in Boarding Schools, learning the Arabic branches and
+foreign languages, and especially the French language, which is more
+widely spread than any other. The most noted of these schools are the
+French Lazarist School at Ain Tura in Lebanon, the American Seminary in
+Abeih, the Jesuit School at Ghuzir, and the Greek School at Suk el
+Ghurb, the most of the pupils being from the cities of Syria. Then there
+are in Beirut the Greek School, the school of the Greek Catholic
+Patriarch, the Native National College of Mr. Betrus el Bistany, and
+there are also nearly a thousand _girls_ in the French Lazarist School,
+the Prussian Protestant Deaconesses, the American Female Seminary and
+Mrs. Thompson's British Syrian School, and other female schools. And
+here we must mention that all of these schools, (excepting the Druze
+Seminary,) are in the hands of _Christians_, and the Mohammedans of
+Beirut have not a single school other than a common school, although in
+Damascus and Tripoli they have High Schools which are most successful,
+and many of their children in Beirut, are learning in Christian schools,
+a fact which we take as a proof of their anxiety to attain useful
+knowledge, although they have not as yet done aught to found schools of
+their own. And though the placing of their children in Christian schools
+is a proof of the love and fellowship between these two sects in this
+glorious Imperial Age, we cannot but say that it would be far more
+befitting to the honor and dignity of the Mussulmen to open schools for
+their own children as the other sects are doing. And lately the Imperial
+Governor of Syria has been urging them to this step, and they are now
+planning the opening of such a school, which will be a means of great
+benefit and glory to Islam."
+
+The editor then states that the great want of Syria is a school where a
+high _practical_ education can be given, and says:--
+
+"We now publish the glad tidings to the sons of Syria that such a
+College has just been opened in Syria, in the city of Beirut, by the
+liberality of good men in America and England, and called the "Syria
+Protestant College." It is to accommodate eventually one thousand
+pupils, will have a large library and scientific apparatus, including a
+telescope for viewing the stars, besides cabinets of Natural History,
+Botany, Geology and Mineralogy. It will teach all Science and Art, Law
+and Medicine, and we doubt not will meet the great want of our native
+land."
+
+Five years have passed since the above was written. Since that time the
+number of pupils in the various schools in Beirut has trebled, and new
+educational edifices of stately proportions are being built or are
+already finished, in every part of the city. It may be safely said that
+the finest structures in Beirut are those built for educational
+purposes. The Latins have the Sisters of Charity building of immense
+proportions, the Jesuit establishment, the Maronite schools, and the
+French Sisters of Nazareth Seminary, which is to be one of the most
+commanding edifices of the East. The Greeks have their large High
+School, and the Papal-Greeks, or Greek-Catholics their lofty College.
+The Moslems have built with funds drawn from the treasury of the
+municipality, a magnificent building for their Reshidiyeh, while the
+Protestants have the imposing edifices occupied by the American Female
+Seminary, the British Syrian Schools, the Prussian Deaconesses
+Institute, and most extensive and impressive of all, the new edifices of
+the Syrian Protestant College at Ras Beirut.
+
+As another illustration of public sentiment in Syria with regard to
+evangelical work, I will translate another paragraph from this official
+newspaper:
+
+"We have been writing of the progress of the Press in Syria, and of
+Arabic literature in Europe, but we have another fact to mention which
+will no doubt fill the sons of our country with astonishment. You know
+well the efforts which were put forth some time since in the printing of
+the Old and New Testaments in various editions in the Arabic language,
+in the Press of the American Mission in Beirut. This work is under the
+direction of the distinguished scholar Dr. Van Dyck, who labored
+assiduously in the completion of the translation of the Bible from the
+Hebrew and Greek languages, which was commenced by the compassionated of
+God, Dr. Eli Smith. They had printed from time to time large editions of
+this Bible with great labor and expense, and sold them out, and then
+were obliged to set up the types again for a new edition. But Dr. Van
+Dyck thought it best, in order to find relief from the vast expenditure
+of time and money necessary to reset the types, to prepare for every
+page of the Bible a plate of copper, on whose face the letters should be
+engraved. He therefore proceeded to New York, and undertook in
+co-operation, with certain men skilled in the electrotyping art, to make
+plates exactly corresponding to the pages of the Holy Book, and he has
+sent to us a specimen page taken from the first plate of the vowelled
+Testament, and on comparison with the page printed here, we find it an
+exact copy of the Beirut edition which is printed in the same type with
+our journal. We regard it as far clearer and better than the sheets
+printed from movable types, and we congratulate Dr. Van Dyck, and wish
+him all success in this enterprise."
+
+Such statements as these derive their value from the fact that they
+appear in the official paper of a Mohammedan government, and are a
+testimony to the value of the Word of God.
+
+The next article is a literal translation of an address delivered in
+June, 1867, at the Annual Examination of the Beirut Female Seminary.
+This Seminary was the first school in Syria for girls, which was
+established on the paying principle, and in the year 1867 its income
+from Syrian girls who paid their own board and tuition was about fifteen
+hundred dollars in gold. It commenced with six pupils, and now has fifty
+boarders. A crowded assembly attended the examination in the year above
+mentioned, and at its close, several native gentlemen made addresses in
+Arabic. The most remarkable address was made by a Greek Priest, Ghubrin
+Jebara, the Archimandrite and agent of the Patriarch. When it is
+remembered that in the days of Bird, Goodell and Fisk, the Greek clergy
+were among the most bitter enemies of the missionaries, it will be seen
+that this address indicates a great change in Syria. Turning to the
+great congregation of three or four hundred people who were assembled in
+the American Chapel, Greeks, Maronites, Mohammedans, Catholics and
+Protestants, he said:
+
+"You know my friends, into what a sad state our land and people had
+fallen, morally, socially and intellectually. We had no schools, no
+books, no means of instruction, when God in His Providence awakened the
+zeal of good men far across two seas in distant America, of which many
+of us had never heard, to leave home and friends and country to spend
+their lives among us, yes even among such as I am. In the name of my
+countrymen in Syria, I would this day thank these men, and those who
+sent them. They have given us the Arabic Bible, numerous good books,
+founded schools and seminaries, and trained our children and youth. But
+for the American Missionaries the Word of God would have well nigh died
+out of the Arabic language. But now through the labors of the lamented
+Eli Smith and Dr. Van Dyck, they have given us a translation so pure, so
+exact, so clear and so classical as to be acceptable to all classes and
+all sects. But for their labors, education would still be where it was
+centuries ago, and our children would still have continued to grow up
+like wild beasts. Is there any one among us so bigoted, so ungrateful,
+as not to appreciate these benevolent labors; so blind as not to see
+their fruits? True, other European Missionaries have come here from
+France and Italy, and we will not deny their good intentions. But what
+have they brought us? And what have they taught? A little French. They
+tell us how far Lyons is from Paris, and where Napoleon first lived,
+and then they forbid the Word of God, and scatter broadcast the writings
+of the accursed infidel Voltaire. But these Americans have come
+thousands of miles, from a land than which there is no happier on earth,
+to dwell among such as we are, yes, I repeat it, such as I am, to
+translate God's word, to give us schools and good books, and a goodly
+example, and I thank them for it. I thank them and all who are laboring
+for us. I would thank Mr. Mikhaiel Araman, the Principal of this Female
+Seminary, who is a son of our land, and Miss Rufka Gregory, the
+Preceptress, who is a daughter of our own people, for the wonderful
+progress we have witnessed during these three days among the daughters
+of our own city and country, in the best kind of knowledge. Allah grant
+prosperity to this Seminary, and all its teachers and pupils, peace and
+happiness to all here present to-day and long life to our Sultan Abdul
+Aziz."
+
+As my object in giving these extracts from Arab writers and orators of
+the present day, is to give some idea of the change going on in Syrian
+public sentiment with regard to education, the dignity of woman, and the
+abolition of superstitious social usages, I cannot do better than to
+translate from the official journal of Daud Pasha, late governor of Mt.
+Lebanon, an article on the customs of the Lebanon population. This paper
+was styled "Le Liban," and printed both in Arabic and French in July,
+1867. It gives us a glimpse of the civilizing and Christianizing
+influences which are at work in Syria.
+
+"In Mount Lebanon there exist certain customs, which had their origin
+in kindly feeling and sympathy, but have now passed beyond the limits of
+propriety, and lost their original meaning. For example, when one falls
+sick, his relatives and friends at once begin to pour in upon him. The
+whole population of the town will come crowding into the house, each one
+speaking to the sick a word of comfort and encouragement, and then
+sitting down in the sick room. The poor invalid must respond to all
+these salutations, and even be expected to rise in bed and bow to his
+loving friends. Then the whole company must speak a word to the family,
+to the wife and children, assuring them that the disease is but slight,
+and the sick man will speedily recover. Then they crowd into the sick
+room (and _such_ a crowd it is!) and the family and servants are kept
+running to supply them with cigars and narghilehs, by means of which
+they fill the room with a dense and suffocating smoke. Meantime, they
+talk all at once and in a loud voice, and the air soon becomes impure
+and suffocating, and all these things as a matter of course injure the
+sick man, and he becomes worse. Then the childish doctors of the town
+are summoned, and in they come with grave faces, and a great show of
+wisdom, and each one begins to recount the names of all the medicines he
+has heard of, and describes their effects in working miraculous cures.
+Then they enter into ignorant disputes on learned subjects, and talk of
+the art of medicine of which they know nothing save what they have
+learned by hearsay. One will insist that this medicine is the best,
+because his father used it with great benefit just before he died, and
+another will urge the claims of another medicine, of a directly opposite
+character, and opinions will clash, and all in the presence of the sick
+man, who thus becomes agitated and alarmed. He takes first one medicine
+and then its opposite, and then he summons other doctors and consults
+his relatives. Then all the old women of the neighborhood take him in
+hand and set at naught all that the doctors have advised, give him
+medicines of whose properties they are wholly ignorant, and thus they
+hasten the final departure of their friend on his long last journey. And
+if he should die, the whole population of the town assembles at once at
+the house and the relatives, friends, and people from other villages
+come thronging in. They fill the house with their screams and wails of
+mourning. They recount the virtues of the departed with groans and
+shrieks, and lamentations in measured stanzas. This all resembles the
+customs of the old Greeks and Romans who hired male and female mourners
+to do their weeping for them. After this, they proceed at once to bear
+the corpse to the grave, without one thought as to proving whether there
+be yet life remaining or not, not leaving it even twelve hours, and
+never twenty-four hours. It is well known that this custom is most
+brutal and perilous, for they may suppose a living man to be dead, and
+bury him alive, as has, no doubt, often been done. Immediately after the
+burial, the crowd return to the house of the deceased, where a sumptuous
+table awaits them, and all the relatives, friends, and strangers eat
+their fill. After eight days, the wailing, assembling, crowding, and
+eating are repeated, for the consolation of the distracted relatives.
+And these crowds and turbulent proceedings occur, not simply at Syrian
+funerals, but also at marriages and births, in case the child born is a
+_boy_, for the Syrians are fond of exhibiting their joy and sorrow. But
+it should be remembered, that just as in civilized lands, all these
+demonstrations of joy and sorrow are tempered by moderation and wisdom,
+and subdued by silent acquiescence in the Divine will, so in uncivilized
+lands, they are the occasion for giving the loose rein to passion and
+tumult and violent emotion. How much in conformity with true faith in
+God, and religious principle, is the quiet, well-ordered and moderate
+course of procedure among civilized nations!
+
+"So in former times, the man was everywhere the absolute tyrant of the
+family. The wife was the slave, never to be seen by others. And if, in
+conversation, it became necessary to mention her name, it would be by
+saying this was done by my wife 'ajellak Allah.' But now, there is a
+change, and woman is no longer so generally regarded as worthy of
+contempt and abuse, and the progress being made in the emancipation and
+elevation of woman, is one of the noblest and best proofs of the real
+progress of Lebanon in the paths of morality and civilization."
+
+This is the language of the official paper of the Lebanon government.
+Yet how difficult to root out superstitious and injurious customs by
+official utterances! At the very time that article was written, these
+customs continued in full force. A woman in Abeih, whose husband died in
+1866, refused to allow her house or her clothes to be washed for more
+than a whole year afterward, just as though untidiness and personal
+uncleanliness would honor her deceased husband!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+BEDAWIN ARABS.
+
+
+There is one class of the Arab race, of which little or nothing has been
+said in the preceding pages, for the simple reason that there is little
+to be said of missionary work or progress among them. We refer to the
+Bedawin Arabs. The true sons of Ishmael, boasting of their descent from
+him, living a wild, free and independent life, rough, untutored and
+warlike, plundering, robbing and murdering one another as a business;
+roaming over the vast plains which extend from Aleppo to Baghdad, and
+from Baghdad to Central Arabia, and bordering the outskirts of the more
+settled parts of Syria and Palestine; ignorant of reading and writing,
+and yet transacting extensive business in wool and live-stock with the
+border towns and cities; nominally Mohammedans, and yet disobeying every
+precept of Moslem faith and practice; subjects of the Ottoman Sultan,
+and yet living in perpetual rebellion or coaxed by heavy bribes into
+nominal submission; suffering untold hardships from their life of
+constant exposure to winter storms and summer heats; without proper
+food, clothing or shelter, and utterly destitute of medical aid and
+relief, and yet despising the refinements of civilized life, and
+regarding with contempt the man who will sleep under a roof; they
+constitute a most ancient, attractive class of men, interesting to every
+lover of his race, and especially to the Missionary of the Cross.
+
+European missionaries can do little among them. To say nothing of the
+rough, nomadic, unsettled and perilous life they lead, any European
+would find himself so much an object of curiosity and suspicion among
+them, and the peculiar Bedawin pronunciation of the Arabic so different
+from the correct pronunciation, that he would be constantly embarrassed.
+Native missionaries, on the other hand, can go among them freely, and if
+provided with a supply of vaccine virus and simple medicines, can have
+the most unrestrained access to them. During the last ten years, several
+native colporteurs have been sent among the Bedawin, and lately the
+Native Missionary Society in Beirut has sent out one of its teachers as
+a missionary to the Arabs. There is little use in taking books among
+them, as very few can make use of them. Mr. Arthington of Leeds,
+England, has been making earnest efforts to induce the Bedawin to send
+their children to schools in the towns, or allow schools to be opened
+among their own camps. We have tried every means to induce their leading
+Sheikhs to send their sons and daughters to Beirut for instruction, but
+the Arabs all dread sending their children to any point within the
+jurisdiction of the Turks, lest they be suddenly seized by the Turks as
+hostages for the good behavior of their parents. The latter course,
+_i.e._, sending teachers to live among them, to migrate with them and
+teach their children as it were "on the wing," seems to be the one most
+practicable, as soon as teachers can be trained. Until the Turkish
+government shall compel the Bedawin to settle down in villages and till
+the soil, there can be little done in the way of instructing them. And
+when that step is taken, it is quite doubtful whether the Moslem
+government will not send its Khoteebs or religious teachers, and compel
+them all to embrace the religion of Islam. If that should be done,
+Christian teachers will have but little opportunity of opening schools
+among them.
+
+One of the leading tribes of the Bedawin is the Anazy, who are more
+numerous, powerful and wealthy than any other Kobileh of the Arabs.
+Their principal Sheikh on the Damascus border is Mohammed ed Dukhy, the
+warlike and successful leader of ten thousand Arab horsemen, of the
+Weled Ali. He is now an officer of the Turkish government, with a salary
+of ten thousand dollars a year, employed to protect the great Haj or
+Pilgrim Caravan, which goes annually from Damascus to Mecca. He
+furnishes camels for the Haj, and a powerful escort of horsemen, and is
+under bonds to keep the Arabs quiet.
+
+In February, 1871, he came to Beirut on business, and was the guest of a
+Maronite merchant, who brought him at our invitation to visit the Female
+Seminary, the College and the Printing Press. After looking through the
+Seminary, examining the various departments, and inquiring into the
+course of study he turned to the pupils and said, "Our Bedawin girls
+would learn as much in six months as you learn in two years." I told him
+we should like to see the experiment tried, and that if he would send on
+a dozen Bedawin girls, we would see that they had every opportunity for
+improvement. He said, "Allah only knows the future. Who knows but it may
+yet come to pass?" The Sheikh himself can neither read nor write, but
+his wife, the Sitt Harba, or Lady Spear, who came from the vicinity of
+Hamath, can read and write well, and she is said to be the only
+Bedawiyeh woman who can write a letter. With this in view we prepared an
+elegant copy of the Arabic Bible, enclosed in a waterproof case made by
+the girls of the Seminary, and presented it to him at the Press. He
+expressed great interest in it, and asked what the book contained. We
+explained the contents, and he remarked, "I will have the Sitt Harba
+read to me of Ibrahim, Khalil Allah, (the Friend of God), and Ismaeel,
+the father of the Arabs, and Neby (prophet) Moosa, and Soleiman the
+king, and Aieesa, (Jesus,) the son of Mary." The electrotype apparatus
+deeply interested him, but when Mr. Hallock showed him the steam
+cylinder press, rolling off the sheets with so great rapidity and
+exactness, he stood back and remarked in the most deliberate manner,
+"the man who made that press can conquer anything but death!" It seemed
+some satisfaction to him that in the matter of _death_ the Bedawin was
+on a level with the European.
+
+From the Press, the Sheikh went to the Church, and after gazing around
+on the pure white walls, remarked, "There is the Book, but I see no
+pictures nor images. You worship only God here!" He was anxious to see
+the _Tower Clock_, and although he had lost one arm, and the other was
+nearly paralyzed by a musket shot in a recent fight in the desert, he
+insisted on climbing up the long ladders to see the clock whose striking
+he had heard at the other end of the city, and he gazed long and
+admiringly at this beautiful piece of mechanism. On leaving us, he
+renewedly thanked us for _The Book_, and the next day he left by
+diligence coach for Damascus.
+
+In the summer we sent, at Mr. Arthington's expense, a young man from the
+Beirut Medical College, named Ali, as missionary to itinerate among the
+Bedawin, with special instructions to persuade the Arabs if possible to
+send their children to school. He remained a month or two among them, by
+day and by night, sleeping by night outside the tents with his horse's
+halter tied to his arms to prevent its being stolen, and spending the
+evenings reading to the assembled crowd from the New Testament. He was
+present as a spectator at a fight between Mohammed's men and the Ruella
+Arabs east of the Sea of Galilee, in which the Ruella were defeated, but
+Mohammed's son Faur was wounded, and Ali attended him. The Sitt Harba
+told Ali that a papist named Shwiry, in Damascus, had taken the Arabic
+Bible from them! So Ali gave them another. This Bible-hating spirit of
+the Papacy is the same the world over. How contemptible the spirit of a
+man _professing_ the name of Christian, and yet willing to rob the only
+woman among the Bedawin who can read, of the word of everlasting life!
+The whole family of the Sheikh were interested in reading an illustrated
+book for children of folio size, styled "Lilies of the Field," which we
+printed in Beirut last year. When Ali set out on this journey, I gave
+him a letter to the Sheikh, reminding him of his visit to Beirut, and
+urging again upon him the sending of his children to school. The Sheikh
+sent me the following reply, written by his wife, the Sitt Harba, and
+sealed with his own signet ring. I value the letter highly as being
+written by the only Bedawin woman able to write:
+
+     To his excellency the most honored and esteemed, our revered
+     Khowadja Henry Jessup, may his continuance be prolonged! Amen.
+
+     After offering you the pearls of salutation, and the ornaments of
+     pure odoriferous greeting, we would beg to inform you that your
+     epistle reached us in the hand of Ali Effendi, and we perused it
+     rejoicing in the information it contained about your health and
+     prosperity. You remind us of the importance of sending our sons and
+     daughters to be educated in your schools. Ali Effendi has urged us
+     very strongly to this course; and has spent several weeks with us
+     among the Arabs. He has read to the children from The Book, and
+     tried to interest them in learning to read. He has also gone from
+     tent to tent among our Bedawin, talking with them and urging upon
+     them this great subject. He constantly read to them that which
+     engaged their attention, and we aided him in urging it upon them.
+     Inshullah (God grant) that there may soon be a school among the
+     Arabs themselves. We Bedawin do not understand the language nor the
+     ways of Europeans, and we should like to have one like Ali Effendi,
+     who knows our way of talking and living, come to teach us and our
+     children. We would also inform you that the book with pictures,
+     which you sent to the Sitt Harba, has reached her, and she has
+     read it with great pleasure, and asks of God to increase your good.
+     She sends salams to you and to the Sitt, and all your family.
+
+                    And may you live forever! Salam
+
+                                                  MOHAMMED DUKHY.
+
+     29 Jemady Akhar
+     1289 of the Hegira
+
+     "Postscript.--There has been a battle between us and the Ruella
+     tribe, and the Ruellas ate a defeat, Ali Effendi was present and
+     will give you the particulars."
+
+At the date of this writing, Ali has been again to Mohammed's camp,
+taking books and medicines, and has done his utmost to prepare the way
+for opening schools among the Bedawin in their own camps. Ali has
+brought another letter from Sitt Harba, in which she gives her views
+with regard to the education of the Bedawin. I sent several written
+questions to her in Arabic, to which she cheerfully gave replies. The
+following is the substance of her answers:
+
+I. The Bedawin Arabs ought to learn to read and write, in order to learn
+religion, to increase in understanding, and to become acquainted with
+the Koran. They profess to be Moslems, but in reality have no religion.
+
+II. The reason why so few of the Bedawin know how to read, is because it
+is out of their line of business. They prefer fighting, plundering, and
+feeding flocks and herds. Reading and books are strange and unknown to
+them.
+
+III. If they wished to learn to read, the true time and place would be
+in the winter, when they migrate to the East in the Jowf, where they
+are quiet and uninterrupted by government tax-gatherers.
+
+IV. I learned to read in the vicinity of Hums. My father brought for my
+instruction a Khoteeb or Moslem teacher, who taught me reading. His name
+was Sheikh Abdullah. The Sheikh Mohammed taught me writing.
+
+V. The Bedawin esteem a boy better than a girl, because the boy may rise
+to honor, but the girl has nothing to expect from her husband, and his
+parents and relatives, but cursing and abuse.
+
+VI. A man may marry four wives. If one of them ceases bearing children,
+and she be of his family, he makes a covenant of fraternity with her,
+and he supports her in his own camp, but she is regarded simply as a
+sister. If she be of another family, he sends her home, and pays her
+what her friends demand.
+
+VII. The girls and women have no more religion than the boys and men.
+They never pray nor fast, nor make the pilgrimage to Mecca. But the old
+women repeat certain prayers, and visit the ziyaras, mazars, and welys,
+and other holy places.
+
+VIII. If teachers would come among us, who can live as we do, and dwell
+in our camps, and travel with us to the desert, they could teach the
+great part of our children to read, especially if they understood the
+art of medicine.
+
+Ali spent several weeks among them, sleeping in the camp, and attending
+upon their sick. The camp was on the mountains east of the Sea of
+Galilee. Fevers prevailed through the entire district from Tiberias to
+Damascus, and Ali devoted himself faithfully to the care of the sick.
+The Sheikh himself was ill with fever and ague, as were several members
+of his family. One day Ali prepared an effervescing draught for him, and
+when the acid and the alkali united, and the mixture effervesced, the
+Bedawin seated in the great tent screamed and ran from the tent as if
+the Ruellas were down upon them! What, said they, is this? He pours
+water into water, and out come fire and smoke! The Sheikh himself was
+afraid to drink it, so Ali took it himself, and finally, after
+explaining the principle of the chemical process, he induced both the
+Sheikh and the Sit Harba to drink the draught. On leaving the
+encampment, the Sheikh gave Ali a guard, and three Turkish pounds (about
+$14,) to pay for his medicines and medical services, saying, that as his
+Bedawin were growing poor since they were forbidden to make raids on
+other tribes, they could not pay for his services, and he would pay for
+all. He offered to give him a goat skin bottle of semin (Arab butter)
+and several sheep, but Ali was unable to carry either, and declined the
+offer. Ali brought a specimen of Bedawin bread. It is black, coarse, and
+mixed with ashes and sand. The Bedawin pound their wheat, and knead the
+coarse gritty flour without sifting, and bake it on the heated earthen
+ovens.
+
+The Bedawin swarm with vermin. Their garments, their persons, their
+tents and their mats are literally alive with the third plague of Egypt,
+_lice_! Ali soon found himself completely overrun with them, and was
+almost driven wild. The Sitt Harba urged him to try the Bedawin remedy
+for cleansing his head. On inquiring what it was, he declared he would
+rather have the disease than the remedy! After his return to his village
+in Lebanon, he spent several days in ablutions and purifications before
+venturing to bring me his report. The Sitt Harba gave him a collection
+of the nursery rhymes which she and the Bedawin women sing to their
+little brown babies, and some of them will be found in the "Children's
+Chapter" of this volume. The Sheikh Mohammed, who can neither read nor
+write, repeated to Ali the following Kosideh or Song, which he composed
+in Arabic poetry, after his victory over Feisal, of the Ruella tribe, in
+1866. The Ruellas had previously driven Mohammed's tribe from one of the
+finest pasture regions in Howian, and Ed Dukhy regained it after a
+desperate struggle.
+
+    Oh fair and beautiful plain, oh rich green Bedawin pasture.
+    We had left you, too often stained, with the blood of violent
+        battle;
+    Ah, dark disastrous day, when brother abandoned his brother,
+    Though riding the fleetest of mares, and safe from pursuit of the
+        foeman,
+    He never once turned to inquire, though we tasted the cup of
+        destruction.
+    Oh fair and beautiful plain, we yesterday fought and regained thee!
+    I praise and honor His name, who only the victory giveth!
+    O, Feisal, we've meted to you your deserts in royal measure;
+    With our spears so burning and sharp, we cut off the necks of your
+        Arabs,
+    O, Shepherd of Obaid, you fled deserting your pastures,
+    Biting your finger in pain and regret for your sad disasters--
+    Savage hyena, come forth, from your lair in the land of Jedaileh,
+    Howl to your fellow-beasts, in the distant land of Butina;
+    Come and eat your fill of the dead in the Plain of Fada,
+    O, fair and beautiful plain, you belong to the tribe of the victor;
+    But Feisal is racked with pain, when he hears the battle story,
+    Our right-handed spearmen have palsied his arm is its strength and
+        power;
+    A blow fell hard on his breast, from the hand of our Anazy warriors;
+    Come now, ye who wish for peace, we are ready in honor to meet you!
+    _Our_ wrongs are all avenged, and our arms are weary of battle.
+
+The Arabic original of these lines breathes the true spirit of poetry,
+and shows that the old poetic fire still burns in the desert. Feisal now
+lives in the region adjacent to Mohammed Dukhy, and they leave a space
+of several miles between their camps to prevent trespass, and the danger
+of re-opening the old blood-feud.
+
+I would commend the Arabs of the Desert to the prayerful remembrance of
+the Women of America. How the gospel is to reach them, is one of the
+great problems of our day. Their women are sunken to the lowest depths
+of physical and moral degradation. The extent of their religion is in
+being able to swear Mohammedan oaths. "Their mouths are full of cursing
+and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and
+misery are in their ways, and the _way of peace_ have they not known."
+Although their hand is against every man, and every man's hand against
+them, let them feel that there is one class of men who love them and
+care for them with a disinterested love, and who seek their everlasting
+welfare!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+"WOMAN BETWEEN BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION."
+
+
+This is the title of an Arabic article in the "Jenan" for Sept. 1, 1872,
+written by Frances Effendi Merrash, brother of the Sitt Mariana, whose
+paper we have translated on a preceding page. It is evident that the
+Effendi writes from the atmosphere of Aleppo. The more "polite" society
+of that city is largely made up of that mongrel population, half French
+and half Arab, which is styled "Levantine" and too often combines the
+vices of both, with the virtues of neither. It will be seen that the
+able author is combatting the worst form of French flippant
+civilization, which has already found its way into many of the towns and
+cities of the Orient. He says:--
+
+"Inasmuch as woman constitutes a large portion of human kind, and an
+essential element in society, as well as the leading member of the race
+in respect to its perpetuation, it becomes necessary both to consider
+and speak of her character and position although there are not wanting
+those who are coarse enough and rude enough to declare woman a worthless
+part of the creation.
+
+"Woman possesses a nature remarkably impressible and susceptible to
+influence, owing to the delicacy of her organization and the
+peculiarities of her structure. Her proper culture therefore calls for
+the greatest possible skill and care to protect her from those
+corrupting influences to which she is by nature especially susceptible.
+We should therefore neither leave her locked in the fetters of the
+ancient barbarism and rudeness, nor leave her free to the uncontrollable
+liberty of this modern civilization, for both these extremes bring her
+into one common evil estate and both have one effect upon her.
+
+"Have you not observed how the customs of ancient rude barbarism
+corrupted the manners of woman and obliterated all those virtues and
+excellencies for which she is especially designed by nature? It was
+deemed most opprobrious for woman to learn to read and write, to say
+nothing of other arts. It was thought indispensable to bind upon her
+mouth the fetters of profound silence so that none ever heard her voice
+but her own coarse husband, and the walls of the enclosure in which she
+was kept imprisoned. She had no liberty of thought or action. Every
+woman's thoughts were limited by the thoughts of her husband, and her
+character was cast in the mould of his, whether that were good or bad.
+And in addition to this, she always suffered from whatever of rudeness
+there might be in her rough companion, who availed himself of his
+superior brute physical strength as a weapon to overcome her moral
+power. He scourged and cursed and despised her in every possible way,
+when she was innocent of crime or error. As a result of this course,
+her own self respect, and the feeling that she was abused and insulted
+by her companion or partner, led her oftentimes to cast off all shame
+and modesty, whenever a suitable opportunity presented itself. This grew
+out of the fact that she no longer regarded herself as the companion of
+her husband and the sharer of all his natural and moral rights, his joys
+and sorrows, but she rather imagined herself his captive and bond slave.
+She thus sank to the position of a slave-woman who is never allowed
+peace or rest, and cares nothing for the training of her children or the
+ordering of her house, since she looks upon herself as a stranger in a
+home not her own, and we all know how difficult it is for a slave to
+perform the duties of the free!
+
+"On the other hand, have you not observed how the influence of modern
+civilization is corrupting the nature of woman and making havoc with her
+morals?
+
+"There is nothing strange in this, for her delicate nature, when it had
+escaped from the chains and imprisonment of the mildest barbarism, into
+the open free arena of civilization, lost its reckoning, and wandered
+hither and thither in bewilderment according to its own unrestrained
+passions. Woman thus became like a feather, 'Borne on the tempest
+wherever it blows, and driven about where no one knows.'
+
+"Now since evil images and objects are far more numerous in this world
+than those which are good, it becomes evident that the influence of evil
+upon the mind of woman is stronger and more abiding than the influence
+of the good, owing to this intense delicacy of texture in her mental
+constitution. Let us suppose that one man and one woman were placed in a
+position where they should only see evil deeds, or only good deeds: the
+woman would leave that place either vastly worse than the man, or vastly
+better. Now the moral misconduct of woman is far more detrimental to the
+propagation of the race, than is the misconduct of man. It is therefore
+better for the woman not to go to the extremes of the modern
+civilization, whose evils are equal to, yes, and far surpass, its
+benefits. Have you not noticed that the leaders of modern civilization
+in our age, have imitated, if not surpassed, all the excesses of riot,
+and lust and rapine, ever practiced under the barbarism of the ages of
+antiquity? Do not the women of this age go lower in shamelessness than
+the women of ancient times? Here we see them veiling their faces with
+the flimsy gauze of artifice, and befouling the pure waters of life with
+the turbulent stream of their own vanity. They pollute the purity of
+real beauty by the foul arts of beautifying, and cry out in loud rude
+voices in every assembly and gathering. They strut about in
+vain-glorious conceit, and flaunt their gaudy apparel in indecent
+boldness. They claim what does not belong to them and meddle with what
+does not concern them. They do not blush to cloud the precious jewel of
+modesty with the selfish airs of passion. Nothing is said which they do
+not hear, nothing occurs which they do not see. They become bold,
+unblushing and unwomanly.
+
+"Such being the state of things, there can be no doubt that an excess of
+this kind of civilization for woman amounts to about the same thing as
+the excess of her rude barbarism in ancient times. The two extremes
+meet. The dividing line between them then, that is, the middle course,
+is the proper one for woman to take. To this middle course there must be
+some natural and legitimate guide. This guide is a sound education, and
+on this subject we propose at some future time to write, inasmuch as the
+education of woman is one of the most important of subjects. Woman is
+the one fountain from which is derived the life of man in its earliest
+periods. She is the source of all training, and the root of character.
+Have you not heard that she who rocks the cradle, moves the world?"
+
+It is evident that the author of this paper has not been so happy as to
+see the noblest type of a sanctified Christian civilization, such as can
+be seen in the Christian homes of America and England, or even in the
+truly Christian homes of Syria. Let us hope that the day is not far
+distant, when even in Aleppo, a pure Christianity shall have taken the
+place of that semi-barbaric system styled the papacy, which enthralls
+the intellects and hearts of so many of the _nominal_ Christians of the
+Orient, and when the enslaved inmates of the Moslem hareems shall be set
+free, not to indulge in the license of a Parisian libertinism, but with
+that liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free!
+
+
+THE VALUE SET ON WOMAN'S LIFE IN SYRIA.
+
+The free license allowed to men by the Koran in the beating of their
+wives, has led the entire population of the East to set a low estimate
+upon the life of woman. Until recently in Syria women were poisoned,
+thrown down wells, beaten to death, or cast into the sea, and the
+government made no inquisition into the matter. According to Mohammedan
+law, a prosecution for murder must always be commenced by the friends of
+the victim, and if they do not enter complaint, or furnish witnesses,
+the murderer is not even arrested. And if he be convicted of the crime,
+he is released on paying to the relatives of the victim the price of
+blood, which is fixed at 13,000 piastres, or $520! A man may well "count
+the cost" before committing murder. This constant compounding of
+punishment has degraded the popular views of the value of human life, so
+that formerly the murder of a woman was never punished. In March, 1856,
+a Druze girl near B'hamdun married a man of her own choice, instead of
+marrying the man assigned to her by her family. She was waylaid by her
+own brother and the rejected suitor, murdered and thrown into a well.
+
+About a year after the massacres of 1860, while the European
+Commissioners were still in Syria, and Lebanon was beginning to attain
+something of its wonted quiet, several Turkish soldiers made an assault
+upon a young Maronite girl from the village of Ain Kesur, who was
+carrying a jar of water to the workmen on the Deir el Komr road. Mr.
+Calhoun was requested by the Relief Committee in Beirut to devote the
+charity funds distributed in this part of Lebanon, to giving employment
+to the needy in road-building. This girl was employed to supply the men
+with water. The brutal soldiers attempted to gag her with a
+handkerchief, in order to accomplish their design, but she was too
+strong for them. The struggle was long and violent, but she finally
+effected her escape, leaving on the road the fragments of the broken
+jar, her shoes and shreds of calico which they had torn from her
+clothing. Just at that moment Giurgius el Haddad, Mr. Calhoun's cook,
+came up, and seeing the broken jar and the clothing, guessed what had
+happened, and after finding the girl, and hearing her story, started in
+pursuit of the soldiers to Ainab, whither they had gone, and where a
+Turkish officer was stationed. He stated the case to the officer, and
+received in reply a blow on his arm from a heavy cane. The case was
+reported to the Turkish Colonel in Abeih, who summoned all parties and
+ordered each of the soldiers to be beaten with forty lashes on the bare
+back. But word had reached Col. Frazier, the British Commissioner, and
+he came at once to Abeih in company with Omar Pasha, with order from
+Evad, Pasha, to examine the case _de novo_. The result was that two of
+the soldiers were condemned by military law to be shot, and were shot at
+sunset June 5th, in front of the old palace just below Mr. Calhoun's
+house. The event produced a profound impression, and Druzes and Moslems
+began to feel that a woman's life and honor were after all of some
+value.
+
+In April, 1862, when Daud Pasha was governor of Mt. Lebanon, a Druze,
+named Hassan, murdered a Druze girl of his own village, supposing that
+Daud Pasha would not interfere with the time-honored custom of killing
+girls! Much to his surprise, however, he was arrested, convicted and
+hung, and the poor women of all sects in the mountain began to feel that
+after all they had an equal right to life with the other sex.
+
+In most parts of Syria to-day, the murder of women and girls is an act
+so insignificant as hardly to deserve notice. Mt. Lebanon and vicinity
+constitute an exception perhaps, but woman's right to life is one of
+those rights which have not yet been fully guaranteed in the Turkish
+Empire.
+
+In October, 1862, the Arabic official newspaper in Beirut, contained a
+letter from Hums which illustrates this fact. A fanatical wretch from
+Hamath, one of the infamous Moslem saints, set up the claim that he had
+received the power to cast out devils by divine inspiration. He found
+credulous followers among the more ignorant, and went to Hums to
+practice his diabolical trade. A poor woman had lost her reason through
+excessive grief at the death of her son. The husband and others of her
+relatives went to consult the new prophet. He refused to go and see her,
+stating that he would not condescend to go to the devils, but the
+devils must come to him. The poor woman was accordingly brought to him,
+and left to await the opportune moment, when he could cast out the
+devils, which he declared to be raving within her. After a few days, her
+father called to inquire about her, and found her growing constantly
+worse. The Hamathite told him that he must bring a gallon of liquid
+pitch, to be used as a medicine, and the next day the devils would leave
+her. The pitch was brought, and after the father had gone, the lying
+prophet tied a cord around her feet, and drew her up to the ceiling, and
+while she was thus suspended, thrust a red hot iron rod into one of her
+eyes, and cauterized her body almost from head to foot! He then placed
+the pitch on the floor under her head, and set it on fire until the body
+was "burned to charcoal!" The next day the friends called, expecting to
+find her restored to her right mind, when the wretch pointed them to the
+blackened cinder. They exclaimed with horror and asked him the reason of
+this bloody crime? He replied that on applying the test of burning
+pitch, one of the devils had gone out of her, tearing out her right eye,
+and when he forbade the rest from destroying the other eye, they fell
+upon her and killed her! The body was buried, but the government took
+not the slightest notice of the fact. The official journal in Beirut
+simply warned the public against patronizing such a bloody impostor!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+OPINIONS OF PROTESTANT SYRIANS WITH REGARD TO THE WORK OF AMERICAN WOMEN
+IN SYRIA.
+
+
+The following letters have been addressed to me by prominent native
+Syrian gentlemen, whose wives have been trained in the American Mission
+Seminaries and families. They all write in English, and I give their own
+language.
+
+Mr. Butrus el Bistany, the husband of Raheel, writes me as follows:--
+
+
+     Beirut, Oct. 23, 1872.
+
+     "It would be superfluous to speak of the efforts of American
+     Missionary ladies in training the females of Syria, and the good
+     done by them.
+
+     "The sainted Sarah L. Smith, who was one of the first among them,
+     established the first Female School in Beirut.
+
+     "Mrs. Whiting, also, who had no children of her own, trained five
+     girls in her family, all of whom are still living.
+
+     "Mrs. De Forest had a very interesting female school in her family,
+     and the girls educated in that school are of the best of those
+     educated by American ladies in Syria.
+
+     "The obstacles in those times were very great, and the people
+     believed that education is injurious to females. But these ladies
+     obtained a few girls to educate gratuitously, and thus made a good
+     impression on the minds of the people, and wrought a change in
+     public opinion, so that year by year the people began to appreciate
+     female education. And as we are now building on the foundation laid
+     by those good ladies and reaping the fruit of their labors, we
+     should pray to be imbued with the same spirit, and try as much as
+     we can to follow their example, and carry on the work with the same
+     spirit, zeal and wisdom as they did."
+
+Mr. Naame Tabet, the husband of Miriam, who was educated by Dr. and Mrs.
+De Forest, writes as follows:--
+
+
+     Beirut, Oct. 21, 1872.
+
+     "It affords me unfeigned gratification that you give me an
+     opportunity of recording my impressions in regard to the advantages
+     of female education in this country under the guidance of the light
+     of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, such as is exemplified by
+     the American Mission, whose labors in diffusing and disseminating
+     the Scriptures are so conspicuously manifest.
+
+     "That example chiefly has had the effect, in this neighborhood, to
+     stir up gigantic efforts to fill the want of female education. The
+     same feeling is extending itself throughout Syria, so that future
+     prospects for the promotion of pure Christian knowledge and true
+     civilization are brilliant and ought surely to encourage the
+     benevolent in persevering in their action."
+
+The Rev. John Wortabet, M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the Syrian
+Protestant College, and husband of Salome, writes as follows:--
+
+     Beirut, Oct. 20, 1872.
+
+     "Though I was very young when Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Whiting, and Mrs. De
+     Forest began their labors in the cause of Female Education in
+     Syria, I can distinctly recollect that they were the first to
+     initiate that movement which has grown to so vast an extent at the
+     present time. To them belongs the honor of having been the
+     determined and brave pioneers in the important work of raising
+     woman from her degraded position, brought on by ignorance and
+     Mohammedan influence, to one of considerable respect, in a social,
+     intellectual and moral point of view. I do not mean that they
+     achieved then this great and worthy object, but they were first to
+     begin the work, which is still going on, and destined apparently to
+     grow much farther. And it is but just that their names and primary
+     labors be embalmed in the memories of the past.
+
+     "Aside from the intrinsic good which they accomplished, and the
+     direct fruits of their labors, and you are as well acquainted with
+     them as I am--they gave the first and best _teachers_ for the
+     schools which have sprung up so abundantly since their time. Of the
+     importance of giving well-trained female teachers for female
+     schools, in the peculiar social system of the East, nothing need be
+     said.
+
+     "I believe, however, that the main value of these earlier labors
+     was the _impulse_ which they gave to the course of Female Education
+     in Syria. Prejudices and barriers, which had become hoary by the
+     lapse of time, have been completely broken down, at least among the
+     Christian Churches of the East."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+OTHER LABORS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THIS FIELD.
+
+
+The following statements have been chiefly made out from documents
+furnished to me by those in charge of the various Institutions. I give
+them in order according to the date of their establishment.
+
+
+THE IRISH AND AMERICAN UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MISSION IN DAMASCUS.
+
+I have not received official statistics with regard to the work of this
+Mission in behalf of women, but they have maintained schools for girls
+and personal labors for the women through a long series of years. Mrs.
+Crawford, who is thoroughly familiar with the Arabic language, has
+labored in a quiet and persevering manner among the women of Damascus
+and Tebrud, and the fruits of these labors will be seen in years to
+come. Miss Dales, now Mrs. Dr. Lansing, of Cairo, conducted a school for
+Jewish girls in Damascus some fifteen years ago, which was well
+attended.
+
+Mrs. E. Watson, an English lady of great energy and zeal in the cause of
+female education, after years of labor in North and South America,
+Greece and Asia Minor, came to Syria in 1858, and commenced a girls'
+school in her own hired house. She afterwards removed to Shemlan, in
+Mount Lebanon, where she erected a building at her own expense for a
+girls' boarding school, and afterwards gave it to the Society for the
+Promotion of Female Education in the East. She has since, with untiring
+energy, erected another building for a Seminary for Druze and Christian
+girls, the former Institution continuing as it has been for many years
+under the efficient management of Miss Hicks, assisted by Miss Dobbie.
+She has also recently erected a neat and substantial church edifice in
+Shemlan.
+
+In Miss Hicks' absence, Mrs. Watson has addressed me the following
+letter:
+
+     Shemlan, August 28, 1872.
+
+     "Our first school for native girls was commenced in Beirut in 1858.
+     The teachers have been Miss Hicks, Miss Hiscock, Mrs. Walker, Miss
+     Dillon, Miss Jacombs, (now in Sidon,) Miss Stainton, (now in
+     Sidon,) and Miss Dobbie. No native female teachers have been
+     employed except pupils of the school under Miss Hicks' care.
+     Masters Riskullah in Beirut, and Murad, Reshid and Daud, in
+     Shemlan, have been connected with the school as teachers of the
+     higher Arabic branches.
+
+     "The whole number of boarders under our care up to the present
+     time, is above one hundred. The only teachers in my second boarding
+     school are, my adopted daughter Handumeh, and Zarifeh Twiney, a
+     pupil of the Prussian Deaconesses. Seventeen or eighteen of our
+     pupils have been, or are now teachers, and ten are married.
+
+     "The school directed by Miss Hicks was given over to the Ladies'
+     Society in England, some six or seven years ago, and has been
+     supported by them since. The new school in the upper house is under
+     no society and is not regularly aided by any. There are from
+     twenty-six to twenty-eight boarders under the care of my daughter,
+     Miss Watson, I aiding as I can. Several girls have been supported
+     for the last two years by friends in America and England. We have
+     had ten Druze girls in our school in the upper house. Miss Hicks
+     has had three or four, and a number in her day school. We had also
+     a number in our day school at Aitath, four of whom are married to
+     Druze Sheikhs."
+
+Mr. Elias Suleeby, aided by friends in Scotland, has for a considerable
+period conducted common schools in a part of Mount Lebanon and the
+Bukaa, and now the enterprise has been adopted by the Free Church of
+Scotland, who have sent the Rev. Mr. Rae to be their Superintendent.
+
+Their schools are chiefly for boys, though in all the village schools it
+is usual for a few of the smaller girls to attend the boys' school. In
+Suk el Ghurb, however, they have a boarding school containing some
+twenty-five girls.
+
+
+THE PRUSSIAN DEACONESSES INSTITUTE IN BEIRUT
+
+The Orphan House, Boarding School and Hospital with which the Prussian
+Deaconesses are connected, were established in 1860. The two former are
+supported by the Kaiserswerth Institution in Germany, and the latter by
+the Knights of St. John.
+
+In the Orphan House are one hundred and thirty orphan girls, all native
+Syrians, who are clothed, fed and instructed for four or five years, and
+often transformed from wild, untutored semi-barbarians to tidy, well
+behaved and useful young women. They have ordinarily about fifty
+applicants waiting for a vacancy in order to enter.
+
+The Boarding School is for the education of the children of European
+residents, Germans, French, Italians, Greeks, Maltese, English, Scotch,
+Irish, Hungarians, Dutch, Swiss, Danish, Americans and others. The
+medium of instruction is the French language.
+
+Since the Orphan School began, many of the girls have married, thirty
+have become teachers, and about twenty of them are living as servants in
+families.
+
+In August of the year 1861, the Deaconesses had received about 110
+orphans. The children entering are received for three years, and the
+surviving parent or guardian is required to sign a bond, agreeing to
+leave the child for that period, or if the child is withdrawn before
+that time, to pay to the Deaconesses all that has been expended upon
+her.
+
+In the summer of 1861, several of the parents came and tried to remove
+their children, though they had no means of supporting them, but the
+contract stood in the way, and they had no money to pay. The Jesuits
+then came forward and furnished the parents with French gold in
+Napoleons, and withdrew in one day fifty orphan girls from the
+institution, sending them, not to an institution of their own, but
+turning them back upon their wretched parents and friends to be trained
+in poverty and ignorance. A few days later, thirty more of the girls
+were removed in the same way, leaving only thirty. The parents had a
+legal right to remove the children on the payment of the money, but what
+shall be said of the cruelty of the Jesuits who turned back these
+wretched children to the destitution and misery of a Syrian orphan? The
+Jesuits are the same everywhere, unscrupulous and intriguing, counting
+all means as right, which promote their own end.
+
+
+THE BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS.
+
+These Schools, so numerous and widely extended, have grown up since the
+massacre year 1860. I remember well the first arrival of Mrs. Bowen
+Thompson in Beirut, and her persevering energy in forming her little
+school for the widows and orphans of Hasbeiya, Deir el Komr and
+Damascus.
+
+From that little beginning in 1860, the school increased the following
+year, until finally other branch schools were organized in Beirut and
+Lebanon, and then in Damascus and Tyre, until now, the following
+schedule, furnished to me by the officers of the Institution, will show
+to what proportions the enterprise has grown. The Memoir of Mrs.
+Thompson, entitled "The Daughters of Syria," gives so full a history of
+these schools, that I need only refer the reader to that volume for all
+the information desired. Since the lamented death of Mrs. Thompson, the
+direction of the schools has been entrusted to her sister, Mrs. Mentor
+Mott. The Central Training School in Beirut was under the care of Mrs.
+Shrimpton, who labored with great earnestness and wisdom in that
+important institution until the spring of 1873, when she resigned her
+position and became connected with the work of Female education under
+the American mission in Syria. She was aided by English and native
+teachers. The schools in Zahleh, Damascus, Hasbeiya and Tyre are under
+the care of English and Scotch ladies, who have certainly evinced the
+most admirable courage and resolution in entering, in several of these
+places, upon outpost duty, without European society, and isolated for
+months together from persons speaking their own language. I believe that
+such instances as these have demonstrated anew the fact that where woman
+is to be reached, woman can go, and Christian women from Christian
+lands, even if beyond the age generally fixed as the best adapted to the
+easy acquisition of a foreign language, may yet do a great work in
+maintaining centres of influence at the outposts, and superintending the
+labors of native teachers. These young native teachers trained in
+Shemlan, Sidon, Suk el Ghurb and Beirut, cannot go to distant places as
+teachers, and _ought not to go_, without a home and proper protection
+provided for them. Such protection _is given_ by a European or American
+woman, who has the independence and the resolution to go where no
+missionary family resides, and carry on the work of female education.
+Even at the risk of offending the modesty of the persons concerned, I
+cannot refrain from putting on record my admiration of the course of
+Miss Wilson in Zahleh, Miss Gibbon in Hasbeiya, and Miss Williams in
+Tyre, in making homes for themselves, and carrying on their work far
+from European society and intercourse.
+
+The British Syrian Schools are doing a good work in promoting Bible
+education. Many of the native teachers, male and female, have been
+trained in our Mission Seminaries, and not a few of them are members of
+our evangelical churches. It has always been my aim, from the time when
+Mrs. Bowen Thompson first landed in Syria to the present time, to do all
+in my power to "help those women which labored with me in the gospel."
+
+We are engaged in a common work, surrounded by thousands of needy
+perishing souls, Mohammedan, Pagan and Nominal Christian. The work is
+pressing, and the Lord's husbandmen ought to work together, forgetting
+and ignoring all diversities of nationality, denomination and social
+customs. There should be no such word as American, English, Scotch or
+German, attached to any enterprise that belongs to the common Master.
+The common foe is united in opposition. Let us be united in every
+practicable way. Let our name be _Christian_, our work one of united
+sympathy, prayer and cooeperation, and let not Christ be divided in His
+members. I write these words in connection with the subject of the
+British Syrian Schools, because I can speak from experience of the
+value of such cooeperation in the past. As Acting Pastor of the Native
+Evangelical Church in Beirut, to the communion of which I have received
+so many young teachers and pupils from the various Seminaries and
+schools, I feel the great importance of this hearty cooeperation and
+unity of action among those who are at the head of the various
+Protestant Educational Institutions in Syria.
+
+The Emissaries of Rome are laboring with sleepless vigilance to win
+Syria to the Papacy. Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Nazareth, Jesuits,
+Lazarists, Capuchins, Dominicans, and Franciscans, monks, nuns and papal
+legates, are swarming throughout the land. Though notoriously jealous of
+each other's progress, they are always united in their common opposition
+to the Evangelical faith, and an open Bible. We have thus not only the
+old colossal fortresses of Syrian error to demolish, but the new
+structures of Jesuitical craft to overturn, before Syria comes to
+Christ.
+
+It has been stated on a preceding page that in 1835, the American wife
+of an English merchant, Mrs. Alexander Tod, gave a large part of the
+funds to build the first school-house for girls ever built in Syria.
+That substantial union has been happily reproduced in the cordial
+cooeperation of the Anglo-American and German communities in Beirut, both
+in the Church, public charities and educational institutions, up to the
+present time.
+
+Let us all live in Christ, work for Christ, keep our eye fixed on
+Christ, and we shall be with Christ, and Christ with us!
+
+
+_BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS_, 1872.
+
+BEIRUT.
+
+No.  Established.              Name.               Scholars.  Teachers.
+
+ 1       1860           Training Institution,          92         16
+ 2       1863           Musaitebeh,                    85          3
+ 3       1868           Blind School, men & boys,      16          2
+ 4       1868           Blind girls' School,           11          1
+ 5       1860           Boys' School,                  85          5
+ 6       1861           East Coombe,                  120          4
+ 7       1860           Elementary,                    30          2
+ 8       1872           Es-Saifeh,                    100          4
+ 9       1860           Infant School,                125          3
+10       1860           Moslem,                        50          4
+11       1860           Night School,                ----          5
+12       1863           Olive Branch,                  85          4
+
+DAMASCUS.
+
+13       1867           St. Paul's,                   170          6
+14       1869           Blind School,                  15          1
+15       1870           Medan,                         80          2
+16       1867           Night School,                  30          1
+
+LEBANON.
+
+17       1863          _Ashrafiyeh_,                   53          3
+18       1868          _Ain Zehalteh_,                 50          2
+19       1869          _Aramoon_,                      40          2
+20       1863          _Hasbeiya_,                    160          3
+21       1867          _Mokhtara_,                   ----       ----
+22       1868          _Zahleh_,                       75          4
+
+TYRE.
+
+23       1869           Girls' School,                 50          2
+                                                     ----       ----
+          Totals,                                    1522         79
+          Bible Women,                                  7
+
+MISS TAYLOR'S SCHOOL FOR MOSLEM GIRLS.
+
+This worthy Christian lady from Scotland is doing a quiet yet most
+effective work in Beirut, with which few are acquainted, yet it is
+carried on in faith from year to year, and the fruits will no doubt
+appear one day, in a vast reformation in the order, morality and general
+improvement of the Moslem families of Beirut.
+
+Ever since the days of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith, and Mrs. Dr. Dodge, Moslem
+girls have been more or less in attendance upon the schools of the Syria
+Mission, but the purely Moslem schools of Miss Taylor and of the British
+Syrian Schools are making a special effort to extend education into
+every Moslem household.
+
+This school was opened in February, 1868, for the poorest of the poor.
+It received the name of "The Original Ragged school for Moslem Girls."
+No one is considered as enrolled, who has not been at least three weeks
+in regular attendance. The number already received has reached very near
+five hundred, all Mohammedans, except five Jewish and fifteen Druze
+girls. Native teachers are also employed, and the pupils are taught
+reading, writing, geography, and arithmetic. The principal lesson-book
+is the Bible. The early history of this institution is replete with
+interest; but it has attracted little public notice hitherto. It has
+always been a prudential question whether it would not be wiser to
+proceed with its work in a quiet unobtrusive way, so as not to awake
+fanatical opposition. But steady and appreciative friends have stood by
+it from the beginning, and those who know the school best have commended
+it most earnestly.
+
+
+CHURCH OF SCOTLAND SCHOOL FOR JEWISH GIRLS IN BEIRUT.
+
+This school has been in operation since 1865. Although established
+originally for Jewish girls alone, of whom it frequently had fifty in
+regular attendance, it has also had under instruction, Greek and Moslem
+girls.
+
+Three European teachers and two native teachers have been connected with
+it, under the supervision of the Rev. James Robertson, Pastor of the
+Anglo-American congregation in Beirut.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE AMOUNT OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCTION GIVEN IN MISSION SCHOOLS.
+
+
+There has been great difference of opinion with regard to the proper
+position of Education in the Foreign Missionary work. While some have
+given it the first rank as a missionary agency, others have kept it in
+the background as being a non-missionary work, and hence to be left to
+the natives themselves to conduct, after their evangelization by the
+simple and pure preaching of the gospel. The Syria Mission have been
+led, by the experience of long and laborious years of labor in this
+peculiar field, to regard education as one of the most important
+auxiliaries in bringing the Gospel in contact with the people. Society
+and sects are so organized and constituted, that while the people of a
+given village would not receive a missionary as simply a preacher of the
+Gospel, they will gladly accept a school from his hands, and welcome him
+on every visit to the school as a benefactor. They will not only receive
+the daily lessons and instructions of the school-teacher in religious
+things, but even ask the missionary to preach to them the Word of life.
+Schools in Syria are entering wedges for Gospel truth.
+
+Our schools are of two classes, the High schools or Seminaries for
+young men and young women, and the common schools for children of both
+sexes. In the former, Biblical instruction is the great thing, the chief
+design of the High schools being to train the young to a correct and
+thorough acquaintance with Divine truth. The course of Bible instruction
+conducted by Mr. Calhoun in Abeih Seminary, is, I doubt not, more
+thorough and constant, than in any College or High School in the United
+States. While the sciences are taught systematically, the Bible is made
+the principal text-book, and several hours each day are given to its
+study. In our common schools, likewise, Bible reading and instruction
+hold a prominent place. Owing to the paucity of books in the Arabic
+language proper to be used as reading books, a reading book was prepared
+by the Mission, consisting almost exclusively of extracts from the
+Scriptures. In addition to this book, the Psalms of David and the New
+Testament are used as regular reading books in all the schools. There
+are daily exercises in reading the Bible and reciting the Catechism. It
+will be observed from what I have stated, that the amount of spiritual
+knowledge acquired by the children, in the very process of learning to
+read, is not small. Being obliged to commit to memory texts, paragraphs,
+and whole chapters, from year to year, their minds become stored with
+the precious words of the Sacred Book. Very much depends upon the
+teacher. When we can obtain pious, praying teachers, the Scripture
+lessons can be given with much more profit and success, and it is our
+aim to employ only pious teachers where we can get them. And the example
+of the teacher receives a new auxiliary, as it were, in impressing these
+lessons on the mind, where the pupils can attend a preaching service on
+the Sabbath. Sometimes a pressing call comes from a village, where it
+seems important for strategic reasons, to respond at once. A pious
+teacher cannot be found, and we send a young man of well-known moral
+character. But only necessity would oblige us to do this, and a change
+for the better is always made as soon as practicable.
+
+Bible schools are a mighty means of usefulness. I think nothing strikes
+a new missionary with more grateful surprise on entering the Syrian
+Mission-field, than to witness the great prominence given to Biblical
+instruction, from the humblest village school of little Arab boys and
+girls, to the highest Seminaries. The examinations in the Scriptures
+passed by the young men in Abeih, and the girls in the Beirut and Sidon
+Seminaries, would do credit to the young people in any American
+community. Bible schools are not merely useful as an entering wedge to
+give the missionary a position and an influence among the people; they
+are intrinsically useful in introducing a vast amount of useful Bible
+knowledge into the minds of the children, and through them to their
+parents. In countries where the people as a mass are ignorant of
+reading, they are an absolute necessity, and in any community they are a
+blessing. Had all Mission Schools been conducted on the same thorough
+Biblical basis as those in Syria, there would have been less objection
+to schools as a part of the missionary work.
+
+
+THE SPHERE AND MODES OF WOMAN'S WORK IN FOREIGN LANDS.
+
+In this age, when Christian women in many lands are engaging in the
+Foreign Mission work with so much zeal, it is important to know who
+should enter personally upon this work, and what are the modes and
+departments of labor in which they can engage when on the ground.
+
+No woman should go to the Foreign field who has not sound health,
+thorough education, and a reasonable prospect of being able to learn a
+foreign language. The languages of different nations differ as to
+comparative ease of acquisition, but it is well for any one who has the
+_Arabic_ language to learn, to begin as early in life as practicable. It
+should be borne in mind that the work in foreign lands is a self-denying
+work, and I know of no persons who are called to undergo greater
+self-denial than unmarried women engaged in religious work abroad. They
+are doing a noble work, a necessary work, and a work of lasting
+usefulness. Deprived in many instances of the social enjoyments and
+protection of a _home_, they _make_ a home in their schools, and throw
+themselves into a peculiar sympathy with their pupils, and the families
+with which they are brought into contact. Where several are associated
+together, as they always should be, the institution in which they live
+becomes a model of the Christian order, sympathy and mutual help, which
+is characteristic of the home in Christian lands. Christian women,
+married and unmarried, can reach a class in every Arabic community from
+which men are sedulously excluded. They should enter upon the foreign
+work as a life-work, devote themselves first of all to the mastery of
+the language of the people, open their eyes to all that is pleasant and
+attractive among the natives, and close them to all that is unlovable
+and repulsive, resolved to love the people, and what pertains to them,
+for Christ's sake who died for them, and to identify themselves with the
+people in every practicable way. Persons who are incapable of loving or
+admiring anything that is not American or English had better remain in
+America or England; and on the other hand, there is no surer passport to
+the affections of any people, than the disposition to overlook their
+faults, and to treat them as our brethren and sisters for whom a common
+Saviour died. Let no missionary of either sex who goes to a foreign
+land, think that there is nothing to be learned from Syrians or Hindoos,
+Chinese or Japanese. The good is not all confined to any land or people.
+
+Among the departments of woman's work in foreign lands are the
+following:--
+
+I. Teaching in established institutions, Female Seminaries, Orphan
+Houses and High Schools.
+
+II. Acting as Nurses in Hospitals, as is done by the Prussian
+Protestant Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, who are scattered over the East
+and doing a work of peculiar value.
+
+III. Visiting from house to house, for the express purpose of holding
+religious conversation with the people _in their own language_. This can
+only be done in Syria by one versed in the Arabic, and able to speak
+_without an interpreter_.
+
+Ignorance of the language of the people, is a barrier which no skill of
+an interpreter can break down, and every woman who would labor with
+acceptance and success among the women of Syria, must be able to speak
+to them familiarly in their own mother tongue. Interpreters may be
+honest and conscientious, but not one person in a thousand can translate
+accurately from one language to another without previous preparation.
+And besides, interpreters are not always reliable. There is still
+living, in the city of Tripoli, an old man named Abdullah Yanni, who
+acted as interpreter for a Jewish Missionary some forty years ago. He
+tells many a story of the extraordinary shape which that unsuspecting
+missionary's discourses assumed in passing through his lips. One day
+they went through the principal street to preach to the Moslems. A great
+crowd assembled, and Abdullah trembled, for in those days of darkness
+Moslems oppressed and insulted Christians with perfect impunity. Said
+the missionary, "Tell the Moslems that unless they all repent and
+believe in Christ, they will perish forever." Abdullah translated, and
+the Moslems gave loud and earnest expression to their delight. They
+declared, "That is so, that is so, welcome to the Khowadja!" Abdullah
+had told them that "the Khowadja says, that he loves you very much, and
+the Engliz and the Moslems are 'sowa sowa,' _i.e._ together as one."
+
+Abdullah soon found it necessary to tell his confiding friend and
+employer, that it would not do to preach in that bold manner, for if he
+should translate it literally, the Moslems would kill both of them on
+the spot. The missionary replied, "Let them kill us then." Abdullah
+said, "it may do very well for you, but I am not prepared to die, and
+would prefer to wait." The very first requisite for usefulness in a
+foreign land is the language. It might be well, as previously intimated
+in this volume, that in each of the Female Seminaries, the number of the
+teachers should be large enough to allow the most experienced in the
+language to give themselves for a portion of each week to these friendly
+religious visits. The Arab race are eminently a sociable, visiting
+people, and a foreign lady is always welcome among the women of every
+grade of society, from the highest to the lowest.
+
+IV. Holding special Women's Meetings of the Female Church members from
+week to week in the homes of the different families. The neighboring
+women will come in, and the native women, who would never take part in a
+women's prayer-meeting, in the presence of a missionary, will gladly do
+it with the example and encouragement of one of their own sex. Such
+meetings have been conducted in Hums and Tripoli, in Beirut, Abeih,
+Deir el Komr and Sidon, and in Suk el Ghurb, B'hamdun, Hasbeiya, and
+Deir Mimas for many years. Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Isaac Bird, Mrs. Thomson,
+Mrs. Van Dyck, Mrs. Whiting, Mrs. Goodell, Mrs. Dr. Dodge, Miss
+Williams, Miss Tilden, Mrs. De Forest, Mrs. Calhoun, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs.
+Ford, Mrs. Foot, Mrs. Eddy, and Mrs. W. Bird, Mrs. Lyons and Mrs.
+Cheney, Mrs. Bliss, Miss Temple, Miss Mason, Mrs. S. Jessup are among
+the American Christian women who have labored or are still laboring for
+the welfare of their sisters in Syria, and younger laborers more
+recently entered into the work, are preparing to prosecute the work with
+greater energy than ever. There are other names connected with Woman's
+Work in Syria as prosecuted by the American Mission, but the list is too
+long to be enumerated in full. Many of them have rested from their
+labors, and their works do follow them.
+
+
+THE BEIRUT FEMALE SEMINARY.
+
+The last Annual Report of the Board of Missions of the Presbyterian
+Church of the United States, speaks of these two Female Seminaries as
+follows:
+
+"The Beirut Seminary is conducted by Miss Everett, Miss Jackson and Miss
+Loring, containing forty boarding and sixty day scholars, where the
+object is to give an education suited to the wants of the higher classes
+of the people, to gain a control over the minds of those females who
+will be most influential in forming society and moulding opinion. This
+hold the Papal Sisters of Charity have striven earnestly to gain, and
+its vantage ground was not to be abandoned to them. The institution is
+rising in public esteem and confidence, as the number and the class of
+pupils in attendance testify. The Seminary is close to the Sanctuary,
+not less in sympathy than in position, and its whole influence is given
+to make its pupils followers of Christ."
+
+In addition to this brief notice, it should be said that there are in
+the Beirut Seminary thirty charity boarders, who are selected chiefly
+from Protestant, Greek and Druze families, to be trained for teachers of
+a high order in the various girls' schools in the land. A special Normal
+course of training is conducted every year, and it is believed that
+eventually young women trained in other schools will enter this Normal
+Department to receive especial preparation for the work of teaching.
+
+The charity boarders are supported by the contributions of Sabbath
+Schools and individuals in the United States, with especial reference to
+their being trained for future usefulness.
+
+After an experience of nearly ten years in conducting the greater part
+of the correspondence with the patrons of this school, and maintaining
+their interest in the pupils and teachers whom they were supporting by
+their contributions, I would venture to make a few suggestions to the
+Christian Mission Bands, Societies, Bible Classes, Sabbath Schools and
+individuals who are doing so much for the education of children in
+foreign lands.
+
+I. Let all contributions for Women's Work and the education of girls,
+be sent through the Women's Boards of Missions, or if that is not
+convenient, in the form of a banker's draft on London, payable to the
+Principal of the Seminary with whom you have correspondence.
+
+II. If possible, allow your donation to be used for the general purposes
+of the Seminary, without insisting that a special pupil or teacher be
+assigned to you. But if it be not possible to maintain the interest of
+your children and youth in a work so distant without some special
+object, then by all means,--
+
+III. Do not demand too much from your over-taxed sisters in the foreign
+field in the way of letters and reports. The labors of a teacher are
+arduous everywhere. But when instruction is given in a foreign language,
+in a foreign climate, and to children of a foreign nation, these labors
+are greatly increased. Add then to this toil correspondence with the
+Board of Missions, the daily study of the language, the work of visiting
+among the people, and receiving their visits, and you can understand how
+the keeping up of correspondence with twenty or thirty Sabbath Schools
+and Societies is a burden which no woman should be called on to bear.
+
+IV. Do not expect sensational letters from your friends abroad. Do not
+take for granted that the child of ten years of age you are supporting,
+will develop into a distinguished teacher or Bible woman before the
+arrival of the next mail. Do not be discouraged if you have to wait and
+pray for years before you hear good tidings. Should any of the native
+children ever send you a letter, (and they have about as clear an idea
+of who you are and where you are, as they have of the satellites of
+Jupiter,) do not expect from their youthful productions the elegance of
+Addison or the eloquence of Burke.
+
+V. Pray earnestly for the conversion of the pupils in Mission Schools.
+This I regard as the great advantage of the system of having pupils
+supported by Christians in the home churches, and known to them by name.
+They are made the subjects of special prayer. This is the precious
+golden bond which brings the home field near to us, and the foreign
+field near to you. Our chief hope for these multitudes of children now
+receiving instruction, is, that they will be prayed for by Christians at
+home.
+
+
+THE SIDON FEMALE SEMINARY.
+
+The Annual Report above mentioned, speaks thus of the Sidon Seminary:
+"It is conducted by Miss Jacombs and Miss Stainton, and has numbered
+about twenty boarders and six day scholars. The boarders are exclusively
+from Protestant families, selected from the common schools in all parts
+of the field, and are in training for the Mission service, as teachers
+and Bible readers. Four of the graduates of last year are already so
+employed. One difficulty in the way of reaching with the truth the minds
+of the women in the numerous villages of the land, will be obviated in
+part, as the results of this work are farther developed.
+
+"There has been considerable seriousness and some hopeful conversions,
+in both these seminaries during the past year.
+
+"The work is worthy of the interest taken in it by the Women's Boards of
+Missions, and by societies and individuals in the church who have
+co-operated in it."
+
+The Sidon Seminary, as stated on a previous page, was begun in 1862, and
+has had four European and six native teachers. Of the latter, one was
+trained in Mrs. Bird's family, one in Shemlan Seminary, three in the
+Sidon school, and one by Mrs. Watson.
+
+Ten of its graduates have been employed as teachers, and eight are still
+so engaged.
+
+I annex a list of Girls' Schools now or formerly connected with the
+Syria Mission.
+
+                          No. of  No. of   When begun
+  Location.               Pupils. Teach'rs
+
+Beirut,       Day School,   50       2       1834
+  "           Seminary,     50      10       1848
+Sidon,        Seminary,     20       3       1862
+  "           Day School,    6       1       1862
+Abeih,            "         60       1       1853
+Deir el Komr,     "         50       2       1855  To be resumed soon.
+Ghorify,          "         40       1       1863  All Druzes.
+El Hadeth,        "         40       1       1870
+Shwifat,          "         70       2       1871
+Dibbiyeh,         "         20       1       1868
+B'Hamdun,         "         30       1       1853  Discontinued.
+Meshgara,         "         30       1       1869  Boys and girls,
+Ain Anub,         "         20       1       1870    and 60 boys.
+Kefr Shima,       "         40       1       1856  Boys and girls.
+Rasheiya el
+  Fokhar,         "         30       1       1869
+Jedaideh,         "         40       1       1870
+El Khiyam,        "         25       1       1868
+Ibl,              "         30       1       1868
+Deir Mimas,       "         15       1       1865
+Kana,             "         35       1       1869
+Hums,             "         40       1       1865
+Safita,           "         30       1       1869
+Hamath,           "         30       1       1872
+-------------             -----------------
+Totals    23               801      36
+
+This gives a total of twenty-three girls' schools besides the
+twenty-four boys' schools under the care of the Mission, and three
+schools where there are both boys and girls. I have kept the name of
+B'hamdun in the list, for its historical associations, but the thirty
+pupils credited to it, will be more than made good in the girl's school
+about to be resumed in Tripoli under the care of Miss Kip.
+
+The total number of girls is about 800, and the number of teachers 36.
+The total cost of these twenty-three schools, including the two
+Seminaries in Beirut and Sidon, is about eight thousand dollars per
+annum, including rents, salaries of five American and English ladies,
+and thirty-one native teachers.
+
+The average cost of the common schools in the Sidon field is sixty
+dollars per annum, and in the Lebanon field it varies from this sum to
+about twice that amount, owing to the fact that the Deir el Komr and
+other schools are virtually High Schools.
+
+The teacher in the Sidon field, and in Abeih, and Safita, are graduates
+of the Sidon Seminary.
+
+It is probable that a High School or Seminary for girls will be opened
+by Miss Kip in Tripoli during the coming year.
+
+The preceding schedule can give but a faint idea of the struggles and
+toil, the patient labors, disappointments and trials of faith through
+which the women of the American Mission have passed during the last
+forty years, in beginning and maintaining so many of these schools for
+girls in Syria.
+
+Did I speak of _trials_? The Missionary work has its trials, but I
+believe that its joys are far greater. The saddest scenes I have
+witnessed during a residence of seventeen years in Syria, have been when
+Missionaries have been obliged to _leave the work_ and return to their
+native land. There are trials growing out of the hardness of the human
+heart, our own want of faith, the seeming slow progress of the gospel,
+and the heart-crushing disappointments arising from broken hopes, when
+individuals and communities who have promised well, turn back to their
+old errors "like the dog to his vomit" again. But of joys it is much
+easier to speak, the joy of preaching Christ to the perishing,--of
+laboring where others will not labor,--of laying foundations for the
+future,--of feeling that you are doing what you can to fulfil the
+Saviour's last command,--of seeing the word of God translated into a new
+language,--a christian literature beginning to grow,--children and youth
+gathered into Schools and Seminaries of learning, and even sects which
+hate the Bible obliged to teach their children to read it,--of seeing
+christian families growing up, loving the Sabbath and the Bible, the
+sanctuary and the family altar.--Then there is the joy of seeing souls
+born into the kingdom of our dear Redeemer, and churches planted in a
+land where pure Christianity had ceased to exist,--and of witnessing
+unflinching steadfastness in the midst of persecution and danger, and
+the triumphs of faith in the solemn hour of death.
+
+These are a few of the joys which are strewn so thickly along the path
+of the Christian Missionary, that he has hardly time to think of
+sorrow, trial and discouragement. Those who have read Dr. Anderson's
+"History of Missions to the Oriental Churches," and Rev. Isaac Bird's
+"History of the Syria Mission," or "Bible Work in Bible Lands," will see
+that the work of the Syria Mission from 1820 to 1872 has been one of
+conflict with principalities and powers, and with spiritual wickedness
+in high and low places, but that at length the hoary fortresses are
+beginning to totter and fall, and there is a call for a general advance
+in every department of the work, and in every part of the land.
+
+Other agencies have come upon the ground since the great foundation work
+was laid, and the first great victories won, and in their success it
+becomes all of God's people to rejoice; but the veterans who fought the
+first battles, and overcame the great national prejudice of the Syrian
+people against female education, should ever be remembered with
+gratitude.
+
+It has been my aim in this little volume to recount the history of
+Woman's Work in the past. Who can foretell what the future of Christian
+work for Syrian Women will be?
+
+May it ever be a work founded on the Word of God, aiming at the
+elevation of woman through the doctrines and the practice of a pure
+Christianity, striving to plant in Syria, not the flippant culture of
+modern fashionable society, but the God-fearing, Sabbath-loving, and
+Bible-reading culture of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors!
+
+A few years ago, a Greek priest named Job, from one of the distant
+villages high up in the range of Lebanon, called on me in Beirut. I had
+spent several summers in his village, and he had sometimes borrowed our
+Arabic sermons to read in the Greek Church, and now, he said, he had
+come down to see what we were doing in Beirut. I took him through the
+Female Seminary and the Church, and then to the Library and the Printing
+Press. He examined the presses, the steam engine, the type-setting, and
+type-casting, the folding, sewing, and binding of books, and looked
+through the huge cases filled with Arabic books and Scriptures, saw all
+the editions of the Bible and the Testament, and then turned in silence
+to take his departure. I went with him to the outer gate. He took my
+hand, and said, "By your leave I am going. The Lord bless your work.
+Sir, I have a thought; we are all going to be swept away, priests and
+bishops, Greeks and Maronites, Moslems and Druzes, and there will be
+nothing left, nothing but the Word of God and those who follow it. That
+is my thought. Farewell."
+
+May that thought be speedily realized! May the coarseness, brutality and
+contempt for woman which characterize the Moslem hareem, give way to the
+refinement, intelligence, and mutual affection which belong to the
+Christian family!
+
+May the God of prophecy and promise, hasten the time when Nusairy
+barbarism, Druze hypocrisy, Moslem fanaticism, Jewish bigotry and
+nominal Christian superstition shall fade away under the glorious beams
+of the rising Sun of Righteousness!
+
+May the "glory of Lebanon" be given to the Lord, in the regeneration
+and sanctification of the families of Lebanon!
+
+Too long has it been true, in the degradation of woman, that the "flower
+of Lebanon languisheth."
+
+Soon may we say in the truly Oriental imagery of the Song of
+Songs,--"Come with me from Lebanon, look from the top of Amana, from the
+top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of
+the leopards,"--and behold, in the culture of woman, in society
+regenerated, in home affection, in the Christian family, what is in a
+peculiar sense, "a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and
+streams from Lebanon!"
+
+"Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a
+fruitful field?" When "the reproach of the daughters of Syria," shall be
+taken away, and when amid the zearas of the Nusairiyeh, the kholwehs of
+the Druzes, the mosques of the Moslems and the tents of the Bedawin, may
+be heard the voice of Christ, saying to the poor women of the Arab race,
+weary and fainting under the burdens of life:
+
+    "Daughter be of good comfort,
+    Thy faith hath made thee whole,
+            Go in peace!"
+
+
+
+
+THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+                              _Abeih, Mount Lebanon_, Sept., 1872.
+
+My Dear Son Willie:--
+
+It is now eight years since you left Syria, and you were then so young,
+that you must have forgotten all about the country and the people. I
+have often promised to tell you more about the Syrian boys and girls,
+what they eat and wear, and how they study and play and sleep, and the
+songs their mothers sing to them, and many other things. And now I will
+try and fulfil my promise.
+
+Here is a little boy at the door. His name is Asaad Mishrik, or "happy
+sunrise," and his name is well given, for he comes every morning at
+sunrise with a basket of fresh ripe figs, sweet and cold, and covered
+with the sparkling dew. This morning when he came, your brother Harry
+stood by the door looking at the figs with wistful eyes, and I gave him
+a large one, which disappeared very suddenly. Asaad is a bright-eyed
+boy, and helps his mother every day.
+
+When he comes in, he says, Subah koom bil khire, "Your morning in
+goodness." Then Assaf, the cook, answers him, "Yusaid Subahak," "May God
+make happy your morning." If I come out when he is here, he runs up to
+kiss my hand, as the Arab children are trained to be respectful to their
+superiors. When a little Arab boy comes into a room full of older
+people, he goes around and kisses the hand of each one and then places
+it on his forehead. Asaad wears a red tarboosh or cap on his head, a
+loose jacket, and trowsers which are like a blue bag gathered around the
+waist, with two small holes for his feet to go through. They are drawn
+up nearly to his knees, and his legs are bare, as he wears no stockings.
+He wears red shoes pointed and turned up at the toes. When he comes in
+at the door, he leaves his shoes outside, but keeps his cap on his head.
+
+The people never take off their caps or turbans when entering a house,
+or visiting a friend, but always leave their shoes at the door. The
+reason is, that their floors are covered with clean mats and rugs, and
+in the Moslem houses, the man kneels on his rug to pray, and presses his
+forehead to the floor, so that it would not be decent or respectful to
+walk in with dirty shoes and soil his sijjady on which he kneels to
+pray. They have no foot-mats or scrapers, and it is much cheaper and
+simpler to leave the shoes, dirt and all at the door. Sometimes we are
+much embarrassed in calling on the old style Syrians as they look with
+horror on our muddy feet, and we find it not quite so easy to remove
+our European shoes. But it must be done, and it is better to take a
+little extra trouble, and regard their feelings and customs, than to
+appear coarse and rude.
+
+It is very curious to go to the Syrian school-houses, and see the piles
+of shoes at the door. There are new bright red shoes, and old tattered
+shoes, and kob kobs, and black shoes, and sometimes yellow shoes. The
+kob kobs are wooden clogs made to raise the feet out of the mud and
+water, having a little strap over the toe to keep it on the foot. You
+will often see little boys and girls running down steps and paved
+streets on these dangerous kob kobs. Sometimes they slip and then down
+they go on their noses, and the kob kobs fly off and go rattling over
+the stones, and little Ali or Yusef, or whatever his name is, begins to
+shout, Ya Imme! Ya Imme! "Oh, my mother!" and cries just like little
+children in other countries.
+
+But the funniest part of it is to see the boys when they come out of
+school and try to find their shoes. There will be fifty boys, and of
+course a hundred shoes, all mixed together in one pile. When school is
+out, the boys make a rush for the door. Then comes the tug of war. A
+dozen boys are standing and shuffling on the pile of shoes, looking
+down, kicking away the other shoes, running their toes into their own,
+stumbling over the kob kobs, and then making a dash to get out of the
+crowd. Sometimes shins will be kicked, and hair pulled, and tarbooshes
+thrown off, and a great screaming and cursing follow, which will only
+cease when the Muallim comes with his "Asa" or stick, and quells the
+riot. That pile of shoes will have to answer for a good many schoolboy
+fights and bruised noses and hard feelings in Syria. You would wonder
+how they can tell their own shoes. So do I. And the boys often wear off
+each other's shoes by mistake or on purpose, and then you will see Selim
+running with one shoe on, and one of Ibrahim's in his hand, shouting and
+cursing Ibrahim's father and grandfather, until he gets back his lost
+property. Sometimes when men leave their shoes outside the door of a
+house where they are calling, some one will steal them, and then they
+are in a sorry plight. Shoes are regarded as very unclean, and when you
+are talking in polite society, it will never do to speak of them,
+without asking pardon. You would say, "the other day some one stole my
+new shoes, ajellak Allah," _i.e._, May God exalt you above such a vile
+subject! You would use the same words if you were talking with a Moslem,
+and spoke of a dog, a hog, a donkey, a girl or a woman.
+
+They do not think much of girls in Syria. The most of the people are
+very sorry when a daughter is born. They think it is dreadful, and the
+poor mother will cry as if her heart would break. And the neighbors come
+in and tell her how sorry they are, and condole with her, just as if
+they had come to a funeral. In Kesrawan, a district of Mount Lebanon
+near Beirut, the Arab women have a proverb, "The threshold weeps forty
+days when a girl is born."
+
+There is a great change going on now in Syria in the feelings of the
+people in regard to girls, but in the interior towns and villages where
+the light of the Gospel has not shone as yet, and there are no schools,
+they have the ancient ideas about them up to this very hour.
+
+I knew an old Syrian grandmother in Tripoli who would not kiss her
+granddaughter for six months after she was born, because she was born a
+girl! But I know another family in that city of Tripoli that do not
+treat girls in that style. The father is Mr. Antonius Yanni, a good
+Christian man, and a member of the Mission Church. He is American Vice
+Consul, and on the top of his house is a tall flag-staff, on which
+floats the stars and stripes, on Fourth of July, and the Sultan's
+birthday, Queen Victoria's birthday, and other great feast days. One day
+when the Tripoli women heard that "Sitt Karimeh, Yanni's wife, had
+another "_bint_," (girl) they came in crowds to comfort her in her great
+affliction! When Yanni heard of it, he could not restrain himself. He
+loved his older daughter Theodora very dearly, and was thankful to God
+for another sweet baby girl, so he told the women that he would have
+none of this heathenish mourning in his house. He then shouted to his
+janizary or Cawass, a white bearded old Moslem named Amr, "Amr, haul up
+the Bandaira el Americaniyeh, (American flag) to show the world how glad
+I am that I have another daughter." "On my head, on my head, sir," said
+Amr, and away he went and hauled up the stars and stripes. Now the
+Pasha's palace is not far away, and soon the Turkish guards saw the
+flag, and hastened to the Pasha with the news that the American Consul
+had some great feast day, as his flag was raised. The Pasha, supposing
+it to be some important national feast day of the American Government
+which he was so stupid as not to know about, sent his Chief Secretary at
+once to Mr. Yanni to ask what feast it might be? Yanni received him
+politely and ordered a narghileh and coffee and sherbet, and after
+saying "good-morning," and "may you live forever," and "God prolong your
+days!" over and over and over again, and wishing that Doulet America
+might ever flourish, the Secretary asked which of the great American
+festivals he was celebrating that day. Yanni laughed and said,
+"Effendum, you know how many of the ignorant in Syria are so foolish as
+to mourn and lament when God sends them a daughter, but I believe that
+all God's gifts are good, and that daughters are to be valued as much as
+sons, and to rebuke this foolish notion among the people, I put up my
+flag as a token of joy and gratitude." "Sebhan Allah! you have done
+right, sir," ... was the Secretary's reply, and away he went to the
+Pasha. What the Pasha said, I do not know, but there was probably more
+cursing than usual that day in the grand palace of Tripoli, for the
+Mohammedans think the birth of a daughter a special judgment from God.
+
+When a boy is born, there is great rejoicing. Presents are sent to him,
+and the people call to congratulate the father, and the whole house is
+gay and joyous. After a few days a dainty dish called "Mughly" is made
+and sent around as a present to all of the relatives. It is made of
+pounded rice, and flavored with rich spices and sugar and put into
+little bowls, and almonds and other nuts sprinkled over the top. One of
+these little bowls is sent to each of the friends. But when a girl is
+born, there is no rejoicing, no giving of presents, and no making of the
+delicious "mughly."
+
+Here come two little girls bringing earthen pots of milk. They are poor
+girls, daughters of two of our neighbors who are fellaheen or farmers.
+One has no shoes, and neither have stockings. They wear plain blue
+gowns, made of coarse cotton cloth, dyed with indigo, and rusty looking
+tarbooshes on their heads, and a little piece of dirty white muslin
+thrown over their heads as a veil to cover their faces with, when men
+come in sight. One is named Lebeeby and the other Lokunda, which means
+_Hotel_. They behave very well when they come here, as they have the
+fear of the big Khowadja before their eyes, but when they are at home
+running about, they often use dreadful language. Little boys and girls
+in Syria have some awful oaths which they constantly use. I suppose the
+poor things do not know the meaning of half the bad words they use. One
+of the most common is "Yilan Abook," "curse your father!" It is used
+everywhere and on every side by bad people, and the children use it
+constantly in their play. When the little girls come into our Schools
+and Seminaries, it is a long time before they will give up "abook"-ing.
+One of our friends in America is educating a nice little girl in the
+Beirut Seminary, and we asked the teacher about her a few days ago. The
+answer was, "She still lies and swears dreadfully, but she has greatly
+improved during the past two years, and we are encouraged about her."
+
+Sometimes a boy will say to another Yilan abook, "Curse your father,"
+and another will answer, Wa jiddak, "and your grandfather," and then
+they will call back and forth like cats and dogs. I saw a Moslem boy
+near my house standing by the corner to shield himself from the stones
+another boy was throwing, and shouting wa jid, jid, jid, jid, jidak,
+"and your great-great-great-great-grandfather," and away went the other
+boy, shouting as he ran, "and your great-great-great-great gr-e-at," and
+I heard no more. And then there are a great many very naughty and vile
+words which the children use, which I cannot write, and yet we hear them
+every day. It is very hard to keep our children from learning them, as
+they talk Arabic better than we do, and often learn expressions which
+they do not know the meaning of. One of the most common habits is using
+the name of God in vain. The name of God is Allah, and "O God,"
+_Yullah_. Then there is _Wullah_ and _Bismillah_, "In the name of God,"
+_Hamdlillah_, "Praise to God," _Inshullah_, "If God will." The most
+awful oaths are Wullah and Billah. The people use _Yullah_ at all times
+and on all occasions. The donkey-drivers and muleteers say _Yullah_
+when they drive their animals. Some years ago a good man from America,
+who fears God and would not take his name in vain was travelling in the
+Holy Land, and came on to Beirut. When he reached there, some one asked
+him if he had learned any Arabic during his journey. He said yes, he had
+learned _Bakhshish_ for "a present," and _Yullah_ for "go ahead." His
+friend asked him if he had used the latter word much on the way. He said
+certainly, he had used it all the way. His friend answered, Professor,
+you have been swearing all the way through the Holy Land. Of course he
+did not know it and meant no wrong. But it shows that such words are
+used so commonly in Syria that strangers do not think them bad language,
+and it also shows that travellers ought to be careful in using the words
+they learn of muleteers and sailors in Arab land.
+
+In some parts of the country the little boys and girls swear so
+dreadfully that you can hardly bear to be with them. Especially among
+the Nusairiyeh, they think that nothing will be believed unless they add
+an oath. Dr. Post once rebuked an old Sheikh for using the word "Wullah"
+so often, and argued so earnestly about it that the man promised never
+to use it again. The old man a moment after repeated it. The doctor
+said, "will you now pledge me that you will not say 'Wullah' again?" He
+replied, "Wullah, I will."
+
+Sometimes a donkey-driver will get out of patience with his long-eared
+beast. The donkey will lie down with his load in a deep mud-hole, or
+among the sharp rocks. For a time the man will kick and strike him and
+throw stones at him, and finally when nothing else succeeds he will
+stand back, with his eyes glaring and his fist raised in the air, and
+scream out, "May Allah curse the beard of your grandfather!" I believe
+that the donkey always gets up after that,--that is, if the muleteer
+first takes off his load and then helps him, by pulling stoutly at his
+tail.
+
+I told you that one of the girls who bring us milk, is named
+"_Lokunda_," or _Hotel_. She is a small specimen of a hotel, but
+provides us purer and sweeter cow's milk than many a six-storied hotel
+on Broadway would do. You will say that is a queer name for a girl, but
+if you stop and think about many of our English names you would think
+them queer too. Here in Syria, we have the house of Wolf, the house of
+"Stuffed Cabbage," Khowadji Leopard, the lady "Wolves," and one of our
+fellow villagers in Abeih where we spend the summer is Eman ed Deen
+"faith-of-religion," although he has neither faith nor religion.
+
+Among the boys' names are Selim, Ibrahim, Moosa, Yakob, Ishoc, Mustafa,
+Hanna, Yusef, Ali, Saieed, Assaf, Giurgius, Faoor, and Abbas. I once met
+a boy at the Cedars of Lebanon, who was named Jidry, or "Small-Pox,"
+because that disease was raging in the village when he was born. It is
+very common to name babies from what is happening in the world when they
+are born. A friend of mine in Tripoli had a daughter born when an
+American ship was in the harbor, so he called her America. When another
+daughter was born there was a Russian ship in port, so he called her
+Russia. There is a young woman in Suk el Ghurb named Fetneh or Civil
+War, and her sister is Hada, or Peace. An old lady lately died in Beirut
+named Feinus or Lantern. In the Beirut school are and have been girls
+named Pearl, Diamond, Morning Dawn, Dew, Rose, Only one, and Mary Flea.
+That girl America's full name was America Wolves, a curious name for a
+Syrian lamb!
+
+Sometimes children are named, and if after a few years they are sick,
+the parents change their names and give them new ones, thinking that the
+first name did not agree with them. A Druze told me that he named his
+son in infancy _Asaad_ (or happier) but he was sickly, so they changed
+his name to _Ahmed_ (Praised) and after that he grew better! He has now
+become a Christian, and has resumed his first name Asaad.
+
+I once visited a man in the village of Brummana who had six daughters,
+whom he named _Sun_, _Morning_, _Zephyr breeze_, _Jewelry_, _Agate_, and
+_Emerald_. I know girls named Star, Beauty, Sugar, One Eyed, and
+Christian Barbarian. Some of the names are beautiful, as Leila, Zarifeh,
+Lulu, Selma, Luciya, Miriam and Fereedy.
+
+All of the men are called Aboo-somebody; _i.e._ the father of somebody
+or something. Old Sheikh Hassein, whose house I am living in, is called
+Aboo Abbas, _i.e._ the father of Abbas, because his eldest son's name is
+Abbas. A young lad in the village, who is just about entering the
+Freshman class in the Beirut College, has been for years called Aboo
+Habeeb, or the father of Habeeb, when he has no children at all. Elias,
+the deacon of the church in Beirut was called Aboo Nasif for more than
+fifty years, and finally in his old age he married and had a son, whom
+he named Nasif, so that he got his name right after all. They often give
+young men such names, and if they have no children they call them by the
+name of the son they might have had. But they will not call a man Aboo
+Lulu or Aboo Leila. If a man has a dozen daughters he will never be
+called from them. They are "nothing but girls." A queer old man in
+Ghurzuz once tried to name himself from his daughter Seleemeh, but
+whenever any one called him Aboo Seleemeh, all the fellaheen would laugh
+as if they would explode, and the boys would shout at him "there goes
+old Aboo Seleemeh," as if it were a grand joke.
+
+The Moslems and Druzes generally give their children the old unmixed
+Arabic names, but the Maronites, the Greeks, and the Protestants often
+use European names. A young lady named Miss Mason was once a teacher in
+the Sidon Seminary, and spent the summer in the mountain village of Deir
+Mimas. One of the women of the village liked her name, and named her
+daughter "Miss Mason," and if you should go there you would hear the
+little urchins of Deir Mimas shouting Miss Mason! to a little
+blue-gowned and tarbooshed Arab girl.
+
+What noise is that we hear down in the village, under the great jowz
+(walnut) trees by the fountain? It rolls and gurgles and growls and
+bellows enough to frighten a whole village full of children. But the
+little Arab boys and girls are playing around, and the women are filling
+their jars at the fountain just as if nothing had happened. But it is a
+frightful noise for all that. It is the bellowing of the camels as their
+heavy loads are being put on. They are kneeling on the ground, with
+their long necks swaying and stretching around like boa constrictors.
+These camels are very useful animals, but I always like to see them at a
+distance, especially in the month of February, for at that time they get
+to be as "mad as a March hare." They are what the Arabs call "taish,"
+and often bite men severely. In Hums one bit the whole top of a man's
+head off, and in Tripoli another bit a man's hand off. I once saw a
+camel "taish" in Beirut, and he was driving the whole town before him.
+Wherever he came, with his tongue hanging down and a foaming froth
+pouring from his mouth as he growled and bellowed through the streets,
+the people would leave their shops and stools and run in dismay. It was
+a frightful sight. I was riding down town, and on seeing the crowd, and
+the camel coming towards me, I put spurs to my horse and rode home.
+
+When camels are tied together in a long caravan with a little
+mouse-colored donkey leading the van, ridden by a long-legged Bedawy,
+who sits half-asleep smoking his pipe, you would think them the tamest
+and most innocent creatures in the world, but when they fall into a
+panic, they are beyond all control. A few years ago a drove of camels
+was passing through the city of Damascus. The Arabs drive camels like
+sheep, hundreds and sometimes thousands in a flock, and they look
+awkward enough. When this drove entered the city, something frightened
+them, and they began to run. Just imagine a camel running! What a sight
+it must have been! Hundreds of them went through the narrow streets,
+knocking over men and women and donkeys, upsetting the shopkeepers, and
+spilling out their wares on the ground, and many persons were badly
+bruised. At length a carpenter saw them coming and put a timber across
+the street, which dammed up the infuriated tide of camels, and they
+dashed against one another until they were all wedged together, and thus
+their owners secured them.
+
+In August, 1862, a famous Bedawin Chief, named Mohammed ed Dukhy, in
+Houran, east of the Jordan, rebelled against the Turkish Government. The
+Druzes joined him, and the Turks sent a small army against them.
+Mohammed had in his camp several thousand of the finest Arabian camels,
+and they were placed in a row behind his thousands of Arab and Druze
+horsemen. Behind the camels were the women, children, sheep, cattle and
+goats. When the Turkish army first opened fire with musketry, the camels
+made little disturbance, as they were used to hearing small arms, but
+when the Turkish Colonel gave orders to fire with cannon, "the ships of
+the desert" began to tremble. The artillery thundered, and the poor
+camels could stand it no longer. They were driven quite crazy with
+fright, and fled over the country in every direction in more than a Bull
+Run panic. Some went down towards the Sea of Galilee, others towards the
+swamps of Merom, and hundreds towards Banias, the ancient Caesarea
+Philippi, and onwards to the West as far as Deir Mimas. Nothing could
+stop them. Their tongues were projecting, their eyes glaring, and on
+they went. The fellaheen along the roads caught them as they could, and
+sold them to their neighbors. Fine camels worth eighty dollars, were
+sold for four or five dollars a head, and in some villages the fat
+animals were butchered and sold for beef. Some of them came to Deir
+Mimas, where two of the missionaries lived. The Protestants said to the
+missionaries, "here are noble camels selling for five and ten dollars,
+shall we buy? Others are buying." "By no means," they told them. "They
+are stolen or strayed property, and you will repent it if you touch
+them." Others bought and feasted on camel steaks, and camel soup, and
+camel kibby, but the Protestants would not touch them. In a day or two,
+the cavalry of the Turks came scouring the country for the camels, as
+they were the spoils of war. Then the poor fellaheen were sorry enough
+that they had bought and eaten the camels, for the Turks made them pay
+back double the price of the beasts, and the Protestants found that
+"honesty was the best policy."
+
+The camel is very sure footed, but cannot travel on muddy and slippery
+roads. The Arabs say "the camel never falls, but if he falls, he never
+gets up again." They carry long timbers over Lebanon, on the steep and
+rocky roads, the timber being balanced on the pack saddle, one end
+extending out on front, and the other behind. Sometimes the timber
+begins to swing about, and down the camel goes over the precipice and is
+dashed to pieces.
+
+The Arabs say that a man once asked a camel, "What made your _neck_ so
+crooked?" The camel answered, "My neck? Why did you ask about my neck?
+Is there anything else straight about me, that led you to notice my
+neck?" This has a meaning, which is, that when a man's habits are all
+bad, there is no use in talking about _one_ of them.
+
+Perhaps you will ask, did you ever eat camel's flesh? Certainly. We do
+not get it in Beirut, as camels are too expensive along the sea-coast to
+be used as food, but in the interior towns, like Hums and Hamath, which
+border on the desert or rather the great plains occupied by the ten
+thousands of the Bedawin, camel's meat is a common article in the
+market. They butcher fat camels, and young camel colts that have broken
+their legs, and sometimes their meat is as delicious as beefsteak. But
+when they kill an old lean worn-out camel, that has been besmeared with
+pitch and tar for many years, and has been journeying under heavy loads
+from Aleppo to Damascus until he is what the Arabs call a "basket of
+bones," and then kill him to save his life, or rather his beef, the meat
+is not very delicate.
+
+The Arab name for a camel is "Jemel" which means _beauty_! They call
+him so perhaps because there is no beauty in him. You will read in
+books, that the camel is the "ship of the desert." He is very much like
+a ship, as he carries a heavy cargo over the ocean-like plains and
+"buraries" or wilds of the Syrian and Arabian deserts. He is also like a
+ship in making people sea-sick who ride on his back, and because he has
+a strong odor of tar and pitch like the hold of a ship, which sometimes
+you can perceive at a long distance.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+
+Perhaps you would like to take a ride with me some day, and visit some
+of the missionary stations in Syria. What will you ride? The horses are
+gentle, but you would feel safer on a donkey. Mules are sometimes good
+for riding, but I prefer to let them alone. I never rode a mule but
+once. I was at Hasbeiya, and wished to visit the bitumen wells. My horse
+was not in a condition to be ridden, so I took Monsur's mule. It had
+only a jillal or pack saddle, and Monsur made stirrups of rope for me.
+My companions had gone on in advance, and when I started, the mule was
+eager to overtake them. All went well until we approached the little
+stream which afterwards becomes the River Jordan. The ground was
+descending, and the road covered with loose stones. The rest of our
+party were crossing the stream and the mule thought he would trot and
+come up with them. I tried to hold him in with the rope halter, but he
+shook his head and dashed on. About the middle of the descent he
+stumbled and fell flat upon his nose. I went over his head upon my
+hands, but my feet were fast in the rope stirrups. Seeing that he was
+trying to get up, I tried to work myself back into the saddle, but I had
+only reached his head, when he sprang up. I was now in a curious and not
+very safe situation. The mule was trotting on and I was sitting on his
+head holding on to his ears, with my feet fast in the rope stirrups. A
+little Arab boy was passing with a tray of bread upon his head and I
+shouted to him for help. He was so amused to see a Khowadja with a hat,
+riding at that rate on a mule's head, that he began to roar with
+laughter and down went his tray on the ground and the Arab bread went
+rolling among the stones. It was a great mercy that I did not fall under
+the brute's feet, but I held on until he got the other side of the
+Jordan, when a man ran out from the mill and stopped him. Monsur now led
+him by the halter and I reached the bitumen wells in safety.
+
+You can mount your donkey and Harry will ride another, and I will ride
+my horse, and we will try a Syrian journey. As we cannot spare the time
+to go from Beirut to Tripoli by land, I have sent Ibrahim to take the
+animals along the shore, and we will go up by the French steamer, a fine
+large vessel called the "Ganges." We go down to the Kumruk or Custom
+House, and there a little Arab boat takes us out to the steamer. In
+rough weather it is very dangerous going out to the steamers, and
+sometimes little boats are capsized, but to-night there is no danger.
+You are now on the deck of the steamer. What a charming view of Beirut
+and Mount Lebanon. Far out on the point of the cape are the new
+buildings of the Syrian College, and next is the Prussian Hospital and
+then the Protestant Prussian Deaconesses Institution with 130 orphans
+and 80 paying pupils. There is the house of Dr. Thomson and Dr. Van Dyck
+and Dr. Post, and the Turkish Barracks, and Mrs. Mott's school, and our
+beautiful Church, with its clock tower, and you can hear the clock
+strike six. Then next to the Church is the Female Seminary with its 100
+pupils, and the Steam Printing Press, where are printed so many books
+and Scriptures every year in the Arabic language. Those tall cypress
+trees are in the Mission Cemetery where Pliny Fisk, and Eli Smith, and
+Mr. Whiting, and a good many little children are buried. Near by are the
+houses of Dr. Bliss and Dr. Lewis and our house, and you can see mosques
+and minarets and domes and red-tiled roofs, and beautiful arched
+corridors and green trees in every direction. Do you see the beautiful
+purple tints on the Lebanon Mountains as the sun goes down? Is it not
+worth a long journey to see that lofty peak gilded and tinted with
+purple and pink and yellow as the sun sinks into the sea?
+
+What a noise these boatmen make! I doubt whether you have ever heard
+such a screaming before.
+
+Now you can imagine yourself going to sleep in the state-room of this
+great steamer, and away we go. The anchor comes up clank, clank, as the
+great chain cable is wound up by the donkey engine, and now we move off
+silently and smoothly. In about five hours we have made the fifty miles,
+and down goes the anchor again in Tripoli harbor. At sunrise the Tripoli
+boatmen come around the steamer. We are two miles off from the shore and
+a rough north wind is blowing. Let us hurry up and get ashore before the
+wind increases to a gale, as these North winds are very fierce on the
+Syrian coast. Here comes Mustafa, an old boatman, and begs us to take
+his feluca. We look over the side of the steamer and see that his boat
+is large and clean and agree to take it for twelve piastres or fifty
+cents for all of us and our baggage. Then the other boatmen rush up and
+scream and curse and try to get us to take their boats, but we say
+nothing and push through them and climb down the steps to the boat. The
+white caps are rolling and the boat dances finely. Mustafa puts up a
+large three-cornered sail, Ali sits at the rudder, and with a stroke or
+two of the oars we turn around into the wind and away we dash towards
+the shore. The Meena (port) is before us, that white row of houses on
+the point; and back among the gardens is the city of Tripoli. In less
+than half an hour we reach the shore, but the surf is so high that we
+cannot go near the pier, so they make for the sand beach, and before we
+reach it, the boat strikes on a little bar and we stop. Out jump the
+boatmen, and porters come running half naked from the shore and each
+shouts to us to ride ashore on his shoulders. They can carry you and
+Harry with ease, but I am always careful how I sit on the shoulders of
+these rough fellows. There is Ibrahim on the shore with our animals, and
+two mules for the baggage. We shall take beds and bedsteads and cooking
+apparatus and provisions and a tent. Ibrahim has bought bread and
+potatoes and rice and semin (Arab butter) and smead (farina) and
+candles, and a little sugar and salt, and other necessaries. We will
+accept Aunt Annie's invitation to breakfast, and then everything will be
+ready for a start.
+
+What is the matter with those boys in that dark room? Are they on
+rockers? They keep swinging back and forth and screaming at the top of
+their voices all at once, and an old blind man sits on one side holding
+a long stick. They all sit on the floor and hold books or tin cards in
+their hands. This is a Moslem school, and the boys are learning to read
+and write. They all study aloud, and the old blind Sheikh knows their
+voices so well that when one stops studying, he perceives it, and
+reaches his long stick over that way until the boy begins again. When a
+boy comes up to him to recite, he has to shout louder than the rest, so
+that the Sheikh can distinguish his voice. There, two boys are fighting.
+The Sheikh cannot and will not have fighting in his school, and he calls
+them up to him. They begin to scream and kick and call for their
+mothers, but it is of no use. Sheikh Mohammed will have order. Lie down
+there you Mahmoud! Mahmoud lies down, and the Sheikh takes a stick like
+a bow with a cord to it, and winds the cord around his ankles. After
+twisting the cord as tight as possible, he takes his rod and beats
+Mahmoud on the soles of his feet, until the poor boy is almost black in
+the face with screaming and pain. Then he serves Saleh in the same way.
+This is the _bastinado_ of which you have heard and read. When the
+Missionaries started common schools in Syria, the teachers used the
+bastinado without their knowledge, though we never allow anything of the
+kind. But the boys behave so badly and use such bad language to each
+other, that the teacher's patience is often quite exhausted. I heard of
+one school where the teacher invited a visitor to hear the boys recite,
+and then offered to whip the school all around from the biggest boy to
+the smallest, in order to show how well he governed the school! They do
+not use the alphabet in the Moslem schools. The boys begin with the
+Koran and learn the _words by sight_, without knowing the letters of
+which they are composed.
+
+Here come two young men to meet us. Fine lads they are too. One is named
+Giurgius, and the other Leopold. When they were small boys, they once
+amused me very much. Mr. Yanni, who drew up his flag on the birth of
+Barbara, sent Giurgius his son, and Leopold his nephew to the school of
+an old man named Hanna Tooma. This old man always slept in the
+afternoon, and the boys did not study very well when he was asleep. I
+was once at Yanni's house when the boys came home from school. They
+were in high glee. One of them said to his father, our teacher slept all
+the afternoon, and we appointed a committee of boys to fan him and keep
+the flies off while the rest went down into the court to play, and when
+he moved we all hushed up until he was sound asleep again. But when he
+_did_ wake up, he took the big "Asa" and struck out right and left, and
+gave every boy in the school a flogging. The father asked, but why did
+he flog them all? Because he said he knew some of us had done wrong and
+he was determined to hit the right one, so he flogged us all!
+
+See the piles of fruit in the streets! Grapes and figs, watermelons and
+pomegranates, peaches, pears, lemons and bananas. At other seasons of
+the year you have oranges, _sweet lemons_, plums, and apricots. There is
+fresh fruit on the trees here every week in the year. Now we are passing
+a lemonade stand, where iced lemonade is sold for a cent a glass, cooled
+with snow from the summit of Mount Lebanon 9000 feet high. Grapes are
+about a cent a pound and figs the same, and in March you can buy five
+oranges or ten sweet lemons for a cent. Huge watermelons are about eight
+or ten cents a piece. We buy so many pounds of milk and oil and potatoes
+and charcoal. The prickly pear, or subire, is a delicious fruit,
+although covered with sharp barbed spines and thorns. It is full of hard
+large woody seeds, but the people are very fond of the fruit. Sheikh
+Nasif el Yazijy was a famous Arab poet and scholar, and a young man once
+brought him a poem to be corrected. He told him to call in a few days
+and get it. He came again and the Sheikh said to him. "Your poem is like
+the Missionary's prickly pear!" "The Missionary's prickly pear?" said
+the young poet. "What do you mean?" "Why," said the Sheikh, "Dr. ---- a
+missionary, when he first came to Syria, had a dish of prickly pears set
+before him to eat. Not liking to eat the seeds, he began to pick them
+out, and when he had picked out all the seeds, there was nothing left!
+So your poem. You asked me to remove the errors, and I found that when I
+had taken out all the errors, there was nothing left."
+
+It is about time for us to start. We will ride through the orange
+gardens and see the rich fruit bending the trees almost down to the
+ground. Steer your way carefully through the crowd of mules, pack
+horses, camels and asses loaded with boxes of fruit hastening down to
+the Meena for the steamer which goes North to-night.
+
+Here is Yanni, with his happy smiling face coming out to meet us. We
+will dismount and greet him. He will kiss us on both cheeks and insist
+on our calling at his house. The children are glad to see you, and the
+Sitt Karimeh asks, how are "the preserved of God?" that is, the
+_children_. Then the little tots come up to kiss my hand, and Im
+Antonius, the old grandmother, comes and greets us most kindly. It was
+not always so. She was once very hostile to the Missionaries. She
+thought that her son had done a dreadful deed when he became a
+Protestant. Although she once loved him, she hated him and hated us.
+She used to fast, and make vows, and pray to the Virgin and the saints,
+and beat her breast in agony over her son. She had a brother and another
+son, who were like her, and they all persecuted Yanni. But he bore it
+patiently without an unkind word in return for all their abuse. At
+length the brother Ishoc was taken ill. Im Antonius brought the pictures
+and put them over his head and called the priests. He said, "Mother,
+take away these idols. Send away these priests. Tell my brother Antonius
+to come here, I want to ask his forgiveness." Yanni came. Ishoc said to
+him, "Brother, your kindness and patience have broken me down. You are
+right and I am wrong. I am going to die. Will you forgive me?" "Yes, and
+may God forgive and bless you too." "Then bring your Bible and read to
+me. Read about some _great_ sinner who was saved." Yanni read about the
+dying thief on the cross. "Read it again! Ah, that is my case! I am the
+chief of sinners." Every day he kept Yanni reading and praying with him.
+He loved to talk about Jesus and at length died trusting in the Saviour!
+The uncle Michaiel, was also taken ill, and on his death-bed would have
+neither priest nor pictures, and declared to all the people that he
+trusted only in the Saviour whom Yanni had loved and served so well.
+After that Im Antonius was softened and now she loves to hear Yanni read
+the Bible and pray.
+
+The servant is coming with sherbet and sweetmeats and Arabic coffee in
+little cups as large as an egg-shell. Did you notice how the marble
+floors shine! They are scrubbed and polished, and kept clean by the
+industrious women whom you see so gorgeously dressed now. These good
+ladies belong to the Akabir, or aristocracy of Tripoli, but they work
+most faithfully in their housekeeping duties. But alas, they can neither
+read nor write! And there is hardly a woman in this whole city of 16,000
+people that can read or write! I once attended a company of invited
+guests at one of the wealthy houses in Tripoli, and there were thirty
+Tripolitan ladies in the large room, dressed in the most elegant style.
+I think you never saw such magnificence. They were dressed in silks and
+satins and velvets, embroidered with gold thread and pearls, and their
+arms and necks were loaded with gold bracelets and necklaces set with
+precious stones, and on their heads were wreaths of gold and silver work
+sparkling with diamonds, and fragrant with fresh orange blossoms and
+jessamine. Many of them were beautiful. But not one of them could read.
+The little boys and girls too are dressed in the same rich style among
+the wealthier classes, and they are now beginning to learn. Many of the
+little girls who were taught in Sadi's school here thirteen years ago,
+are now heads of families, and know how to read the gospel.
+
+Ibrahim comes in to say that we must hurry off if we would reach Halba
+to sleep to-night. So we bid Yanni's family good-bye. We tell them "Be
+Khaterkum." "By your pleasure," and they say "Ma es Salameh," "with
+peace."--Then they say "God smooth your way," and we answer, "Peace to
+your lives." Saieed the muleteer now says "Dih, Ooah," to his mules, and
+away we ride over the stony pavements and under the dark arches of the
+city, towards the East. We cross the bridge over the River Kadisha, go
+through the wheat and barley market, and out of the gate Tibbaneh, among
+the Moslems, Maronites, Bedawin, Nusairiyeh, Gypsies, and Greeks, who
+are buying and selling among the Hamath and Hums caravans.
+
+Do you see those boys playing by the stone wall? They are catching
+scorpions. They put a little wax on a stick and thrust it into the holes
+in the wall, and the scorpions run their claws into the wax when they
+are easily drawn out, and the boys like to play with them. The sting of
+the scorpion is not deadly, but it is very painful, something like being
+stung by half a dozen hornets.
+
+Here come a company of Greek priests, with the Greek bishop of Akkar.
+The priests are all Syrians but the bishop is from Greece, and knows but
+little Arabic. The priests are very ignorant, for they are generally
+chosen from among the lowest of the people.
+
+When the former Greek Bishop died in Tripoli, in 1858, his dead body was
+dressed in cloth of gold, with a golden crown on his head, and then the
+corpse was set up in a chair in the midst of the Greek Church, with the
+face and hands uncovered so that all the people could see him. The
+fingers were all black and bloated, but the men, women and children
+crowded up to kiss them. When the body was taken from the city to Deir
+Keftin, three miles distant the Greek mountaineers came down in a rabble
+to get the blessing from the corpse. And how do you think they got the
+blessing? They attacked the bearers and knocked off pieces of the
+coffin, and then carried off the pall and tore it in pieces, fighting
+for it like hungry wolves. A number of people were wounded. After the
+burial they dug up the earth for some distance around the tomb, and
+carried it off to be used as medicine. A little girl brought a piece of
+the bishop's handkerchief to my house, hearing that some one was ill,
+saying that if we would burn it and drink the ashes in water, we would
+be instantly cured.
+
+The Syrians have a good many stories about their priests, which they
+laugh about, and yet they obey them, no matter how ignorant they are.
+Abu Selim in the Meena used to tell me this story: Once there was a
+priest who did not know how to count. This was a great trial to him, as
+the Greeks have so many fasts and feasts that it is necessary to count
+all the time or get into trouble. They have a long fast called _Soum el
+kebir_, and it is sometimes nearly sixty days long. One year the fast
+commenced, and the priest had blundered so often that he went to the
+bishop and asked him to teach him some way to count the days to the
+Easter feast. The bishop told him it would be forty days, and gave him
+forty kernels of "hummus," or peas, telling him to put them into his
+pocket and throw one out every day, and when they were all gone, to
+proclaim the feast! This was a happy plan for the poor priest, and he
+went on faithfully throwing away one pea every day, until one day he
+went to a neighboring village. In crossing the stream he fell from his
+donkey into the mud, and his black robe was grievously soiled. The good
+woman of the house where he slept, told him to take off his robe and she
+would clean it in the night. So after he was asleep she arose and washed
+it clean, but found to her sorrow that she had destroyed the peas in the
+priest's pocket. Poor priest, said she, he has lost all his peas which
+he had for lunch on the road! But I will make it up to him. So she went
+to her earthen jar and took a big double handful of hummus and put them
+into the priest's pocket, and said no more. He went on his way and threw
+out a pea every morning for weeks and weeks. At length, some of his
+fellaheen heard that the feast had begun in another village, and told
+the Priest. Impossible, said he. My pocket is half full yet. Others came
+and said, will you keep us fasting all the year? He only replied, look
+into my pocket. Are you wiser than the Bishop? At length some one went
+and told the Bishop that the priest was keeping his people fasting for
+twenty days after the time. And then the story leaked out, and the poor
+woman told how she had filled up the pocket, and the bishop saw that
+there was no use in trying to teach the man to count.
+
+See the reapers in the field, and the women gleaning after them, just
+as Ruth did so many thousand years ago! On this side is a "lodge in a
+garden of cucumbers."
+
+Now we come down upon the sea-shore again, and on our right is the great
+plain of Akkar, level as a floor, and covered with fields of Indian corn
+and cotton. Flocks and herds and Arab camps of black tents are scattered
+over it. Here is a shepherd-boy playing on his "zimmara" or pipe, made
+of two reeds tied together and perforated. He plays on it hour after
+hour and day after day, as he leads his sheep and goats or cattle along
+the plain or over the mountains. You do not like it much, any more than
+he would like a melodeon or a piano. When King David was a shepherd-boy
+he played on such a pipe as this as he wandered over the mountains of
+Judea.
+
+Now we turn away from the sea and go eastward to Halba. Before long we
+cross the river Arka on a narrow stone bridge, and pass a high hill
+called "Tel Arka." Here the Arkites lived, who are mentioned in Genesis
+x:17. That was four thousand two hundred years ago. What a chain of
+villages skirt this plain! The people build their villages on the hills
+for protection and health, but go down to plough and sow and feed their
+flocks to the rich level plain. Now we cross a little stream of water,
+and look up the ravine, and there is Ishoc's house perched on the side
+of the hill opposite Halba. Ishoc and his wife Im Hanna, come out to
+meet us, and he helps us pitch the tent by the great fig tree near his
+house. We unroll the tent, splice the tent pole, open the bag of tent
+pins, get the mallet, and although the wind is blowing hard, we will
+drive the pegs so deep that there will be no danger of its blowing over.
+
+Abu Hanna, or Ishoc, is a noble Christian man, one of the best men in
+Syria. He has suffered very much for Christ's sake. The Greeks in the
+village on the hill have tried to poison him. They hired Nusairy
+Mughlajees to shoot him. They cut down his trees at night, and pulled up
+his plantations of vegetables. They came at night and tore up the roof
+of his house, and shot through at him but did not hit him. But the
+Mohammedan Begs over there always help him, because he is an honest man,
+and aids them in their business and accounts. When the Greeks began to
+persecute him, they told him to fire a gun whenever they came about his
+house, and they would come over and fight for him. They even offered to
+go up and burn the Greek village and put an end to these persecutions.
+But Ishoc would not let them. He said, "Mohammed Beg, you know I am a
+Christian, not like these Greeks who lie and steal and kill, but I
+follow the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, 'Love your
+enemies,' and I do not wish to injure one of them." The Begs were
+astonished at this, and went away, urging him if there were any more
+trouble at night to fire his gun and they would come over from Halba at
+once.
+
+I love this good man Ishoc. His pure life, his patience and gentleness
+have preached to these wild people in Akkar, more than all the sermons
+of the missionaries.
+
+Would you like to see Im Hanna make bread for our supper? That hole in
+the ground, lined with plaster, is the oven, and the flames are pouring
+out. They heat it with thorns and thistles. She sits by the oven with a
+flat stone at her side, patting the lumps of dough into thin cakes like
+wafers as large as the brim of your straw hat. Now the fire is burning
+out and the coals are left at the bottom of the oven, as if they were in
+the bottom of a barrel. She takes one thin wafer on her hand and sticks
+it on the smooth side of the oven, and as it bakes it curls up, but
+before it drops off into the coals, she pulls it out quickly and puts
+another in its place. How sweet and fresh the bread is! It is made of
+Indian corn. She calls it "khubs dura." Abu Hanna says that we must eat
+supper with them to-night. They are plain fellaheen, and have neither
+tables, chairs, knives nor forks. They have a few wooden spoons, and a
+few plates. But hungry travellers and warm-hearted friendship will make
+the plainest food sweet and pleasant.
+
+Supper is ready now, and we will go around to Abu Hanna's house for he
+has come to tell us that "all things are ready." The house is one low
+room, about sixteen by twenty feet. The ceiling you see is of logs
+smoked black and shining as if they had been varnished. Above the logs
+are flat stones and thorns, on which earth is piled a foot deep. In the
+winter this earth is rolled down with a heavy stone roller to keep out
+the rain. In many of the houses the family, cattle, sheep, calves and
+horses sleep in the same room. The family sleep in the elevated part of
+the room along the edge of which is a trough into which they put the
+barley for the animals. This is the "medhwad" or manger, such as the
+infant Jesus was laid in. We will now accept Im Hanna's kind invitation
+to supper. The plates are all on a small tray on a mat in the middle of
+the floor, and there are four piles of bread around the edge. There is
+one cup of water for us all to drink from, and each one has a wooden
+spoon. But Abu Hanna, you will see, prefers to eat without a spoon.
+After the blessing is asked in Arabic, Abu Hanna says, "tefudduloo,"
+which means help yourselves. Here is kibby, and camel stew, and Esau's
+pottage, and olives, and rice, and figs cooked in dibbs, and chicken
+boiled to pieces, and white fresh cheese, and curdled milk, and fried
+eggs.
+
+Kibby is the Arab plum pudding and mince pie and roast beef all in one.
+It is made by pounding meat in a mortar with wheat, until both are mixed
+into a soft pulp and then dressed with nuts and onions and butter, and
+baked or roasted in cakes over the fire. Dr. Thomson thinks that this
+dish is alluded to in Prov. 27:22, "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in
+a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart
+from him." That is, put the fool into Im Hanna's stone mortar with wheat
+and pound him into kibby, and he would still remain a fool! It takes
+something besides pounding to get the folly out of foolish men.
+
+You see there are no separate plates for us. We all help ourselves from
+the various dishes as we prefer. Abu Hanna wants you to try the
+"mejeddara," made of "oddis." It is like thick pea soup, but with a
+peculiar flavor. This is what Jacob made the pottage of, when he tempted
+Esau and bought his birthright. I hope you will like it, but I do not.
+After seventeen years of trying, I am not able to enjoy it, but Harry
+will eat all he can get, and the little Arab children revel in it. You
+make poor work with that huge wooden spoon. You had better try Abu
+Hanna's way of eating. Many better men than any of us have eaten in that
+way, and I suppose our Saviour and his disciples ate as Abu Hanna eats.
+He tears off a small piece of the thin wafer-like bread, doubles it into
+a kind of three cornered spoon, dips it into the rice, or picks up a
+piece of kibby with it, and then eats it down, spoon and all! Im Hanna
+says I am afraid those little boys do not like our food, so she makes a
+spoon and dips up a nice morsel of the chicken, and comes to you and
+says "minshan khatri," for my sake, eat this, and you open your mouth
+and she puts it in. That is the way our Saviour dipped the "sop" and put
+it into the mouth of Judas Iscariot to show the disciples which one it
+was. Giving the sop was a common act, and I have no doubt Jesus had
+often given it to John and Peter and the other disciples, as a kindly
+act, when they were eating together.
+
+Im Hanna is fixing the lamp. It is a little earthen saucer having a lip
+on one side, with the wick hanging over. The wick just began to smoke
+and she poured in more olive oil, and it burns brightly again. Do you
+remember what the prophet Isaiah (42:3) said, "a bruised reed shall he
+not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench." This is quoted in
+Matt. 12 of our Lord Jesus. The word flax means _wick_. It is "fetileh"
+in Arabic, and this is just what Im Hanna has been doing. She saw the
+wick smoking and flickering, and instead of blowing it out and quenching
+it, she brought the oil flask, and gently poured in the clear olive oil
+and you saw how quickly the flame revived. So our Lord would have us
+learn from Him. When the flame of our faith and love is almost dead and
+nothing remains but the smoking flickering wick, He does not quench it,
+and deal harshly with us, but he comes in all gentleness and love and
+pours in the oil of His grace, and then our faith revives and we live
+again.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+
+Here come some little Bedawin gypsy children. One is laughing at my hat.
+He never saw one before and he calls me "Abu Suttle," the "father of a
+Pail," and wonders why I carry a pail on my head. The people love to use
+the word Abu, [father] or Im, [mother]. They call a musquito Abu Fas,
+the father of an axe. The centipede is "Im Arba wa Arb-ain; "The
+mother of forty-four legs." The Arabic poet Hariri calls a _table_ the
+"father of assembling;" _bread_, the "father of pleasantness;" a _pie_,
+"the mother of joyfulness," _salt_, "the father of help," _soap_ the
+"father of softness;" Death is called by the Arab poets, "Father of the
+Living," because all the living are subject to him.
+
+After breakfast we will start for Safita. You see that snow-white dome
+on the hill-top! and another on the next hill under that huge oak tree,
+and then another and another. These are called Nebi or Ziarat or Wely.
+Each one contains one or more tombs of Nusairy saints or sheikhs, and
+the poor women visit them and burn lamps and make vows to the saints who
+they think live in them. They know nothing of Christ, and when they feel
+sad and troubled and want comfort they enter the little room under the
+white dome, and there they call, "O Jafar et Tiyyar hear me! O Sheikh
+Hassan hear me!"
+
+This is just as the old Canaanite women used to go up and worship on
+every high hill, and under every green tree, thousands of years ago, and
+these poor Nusairiyeh are thought to be the descendants of the old
+Canaanites.
+
+Here come men on horseback to visit that "ziyara." Up they go to the
+little room with the white dome, and all dismount. The old sheikh who
+has charge, comes out to meet them. They are pilgrims and have to make
+vows and bring offerings. One had a sick son and he once vowed that if
+his son got well he would bring a sheep and a bushel of wheat as an
+offering to this shrine. So there is the sheep on one of the horses, and
+that mule is bringing the wheat. If the old sheikh has many such
+visitors he will grow rich. Some of them do. And yet the people laugh at
+these holy places, and tell some strange stories about them. One of the
+stories is as follows:--
+
+Once upon a time there was a great Sheikh Ali, a holy man, who kept a
+holy tomb of an ancient prophet. The tomb was on a hill under a big oak
+tree, and the white dome could be seen for miles around. Lamps were kept
+burning day and night in the tomb, and if any one extinguished them,
+they were miraculously lighted again. Men with sore eyes came to visit
+it and were cured. The earth around the tomb was carried off to be used
+as medicine. Women came and tied old rags on the limbs of the tree, as
+vows to the wonderful prophet. Nobody knew the name of the prophet, but
+the tomb was called "Kobr en Nebi," or "tomb of the prophet." A green
+cloth was spread over the tomb under the dome, and incense was sold by
+the sheikh to those who wished to heal their sick, or drive out evil
+spirits from their houses. Pilgrims came from afar to visit the holy
+place, and its fame extended over all the land. Sheikh Ali was becoming
+a rich man, and all the pilgrims kissed his hand and begged his
+blessing. Now Sheikh Ali had a faithful servant named Mohammed, who had
+served him long and well. But Mohammed was weary of living in one place,
+and asked permission to go and seek his fortune in distant parts. So
+Sheikh Ali gave him his blessing and presented him with a donkey, which
+he had for many years, that he might ride when tired of walking. Then
+Mohammed set out on his journey. He went through cities and towns and
+villages, and at last came out on the mountains east of the Jordan in a
+desert place. No village or house was in sight and night came on. Tired,
+hungry and discouraged poor Mohammed lay down by his donkey on a great
+pile of stones and fell asleep. In the morning he awoke, and alas his
+donkey was dead. He was in despair, but his kindly nature would not let
+the poor brute lie there to be devoured by jackals and vultures, so he
+piled a mound of stones over its body and sat down to weep.
+
+While he was weeping, a wealthy Hajji or pilgrim came along, on his
+return from Mecca. He was surprised to see a man alone in this
+wilderness, and asked him why he was weeping? Mohammed replied, O Hajji,
+I have found the tomb of a holy prophet, and I have vowed to be its
+keeper, but I am in great need. The Hajji thanked him for the news, and
+dismounted to visit the holy place, and gave Mohammed a rich present.
+After he had gone Mohammed hastened to the nearest village and bought
+provisions and then returned to his holy prophet's tomb. The Hajji
+spread the news, and pilgrims thronged to the spot with rich presents
+and offerings. As money came in Mohammed brought masons and built a
+costly tomb with a tall white dome that could be seen across the Jordan.
+He lived in a little room by the tomb, and soon the miraculous lights
+began to appear in the tomb at night, which Mohammed had kindled when no
+one was near. He increased in fame and wealth, and the Prophet's tomb
+became one of the great shrines of the land.
+
+At length Sheikh Ali heard of the fame of the new holy place in the
+desert, and as his own visitors began to fall off, decided to go himself
+and gain the merit of a visit to the tomb of that famous prophet. When
+he arrived there with his rich presents of green cloth, incense and
+money, he bowed in silence to pray towards Mecca, when suddenly he
+recognized in the holy keeper of the tomb, his old servant Mohammed.
+"Salam alaykoom" said Sheikh Ali. "Alaykoom es Salam," replied Mohammed.
+When he asked him how he came here, and how he found this tomb, Mohammed
+replied, this "tomb is a great "sirr" or mystery, and I am forbidden to
+utter the secret." "But you _must_ tell _me_," said Sheikh Ali, "for I
+am a father to you." Mohammed refused and Ali insisted, until at length
+Mohammed said, "my honored Sheikh, you remember having given me a
+donkey. It was a faithful donkey, and when it died I buried it. This is
+the tomb of that donkey!" "Mashallah! Mashallah!" said Sheikh Ali. The
+will of Allah be done! Then they ate and drank together, and renewed the
+memory of their former life, and then Sheikh Mohammed said to Sheikh
+Ali, "My master, as I have told you the 'sirr' of my prophet's tomb, I
+wish to know the secret of yours." "Impossible," said Ali, "for that is
+one of the ancient mysteries, too sacred to be mentioned by mortal
+lips." "But you _must_ tell me, even as I have told you." At length the
+old Sheikh Ali stroked his snowy beard, adjusted his white turban, and
+whispered to Mohammed, "and my holy place is the _tomb of that donkey's
+father_!" "Mashallah," said Mohammed, "may Allah bless the beard of the
+holy donkeys!"
+
+The people tell this story, which shows, that they ridicule and despise
+their holy places, and yet are too superstitious to give them up. The
+great thing with the sheiks who keep them is _the piastres_ they make
+from the visitors.
+
+As we go up the hill to Safita, you see the tall, beautiful Burj, or
+Crusader's tower, built as were many of the castles and towers whose
+ruins you see on the hills about here, by the French and English eight
+hundred years ago, to keep down the wild and rebellious people. The
+Protestant Church is at the east. These are two watch towers. One was
+built for warriors who fought with sword and spear, and the other for
+the simple warfare of the gospel. You may depend upon it, we shall have
+a welcome here. It is nearly sunset, and the people are coming in from
+their fields and pastures and vineyards. Daud and Nicola, and Michaiel,
+Soleyman, Ibrahim, and Yusef, Miriam, Raheel and Nejmy and crowds of
+others with a throng of little ragged boys and girls, come running to
+greet us. "Praise God we have seen you in peace!" "Ehelan wa Sehelan,"
+"Welcome and Welcome!" "Be preferred!" "Honor us with your presence!"
+"How is your state?" "Inshullah you are all well!" "How are those you
+left behind?" "How are the preserved of God?" "I hope you are not
+wearied with the long ride, this hot day?" "From whence have you come,
+in peace?" "What happy day is this to Safita!" and we answer as fast as
+we can, and dismount and pitch the tent in front of the church door, in
+the little plot of ground next to the houses of some of the brethren.
+The church is built of cream colored limestone, the same color as the
+great Burj, and contrasts strongly with the houses of the people. Did
+you ever see such houses? They are hardly high enough to stand up in,
+and are built of roundish boulders of black trap-rock, without lime, and
+look as if the least jar would tumble them all down. Each house has but
+one room, and here the cattle, goats and donkeys all sleep in the same
+room. The people are poorer than any fellaheen (peasants) you ever saw.
+There is not a chair or table in the village, unless the Beshoor family
+have them. They are the only wealthy people here, and in years past they
+have oppressed the Protestants in the most cruel manner. Beshoor had a
+lawsuit with the people about the land of the village. It belonged to
+them, and he wanted it. So he brought Government horsemen and drove them
+off their lands and took the crops himself. They thought they would try
+a new way to get justice. The Government officials were all bribed, so
+there was no hope there. So they decided to turn Protestants and get aid
+in that way. They did not know what the Protestant religion was, but
+had some idea that it would help them. Down they went to Tripoli to the
+missionaries with a list of three hundred persons who wanted to become
+Angliz or Protestants. The people sometimes call us Angliz, or English,
+others call us "Boostrant" or "Brostant," but the common name is
+"Injiliyeen" or people of the Enjeel, or Evangel, that is, the
+Evangelicals.
+
+Dr. Post and your Uncle Samuel came up to Safita to look into the
+matter. They found the people grossly ignorant and living like cattle,
+calling themselves Protestants and knowing nothing of the gospel. So
+they sent a teacher and began to teach them. When the people found that
+the missionaries did not come to distribute money, some of them went
+back to the Greeks. But others said no; this new religion is more than
+we expected. The more we hear, the more we like it. We shall live and
+die Protestants. Then Beit Beshoor became alarmed. They said, if this
+people get a school, have a teacher, and read the Bible, we cannot
+oppress them. They must be kept down in ignorance. So they began in
+earnest. The Protestants were arrested and dragged off to Duraikish to
+prison. Women and children were beaten. Brutal horsemen were quartered
+on their houses. That means, that a rough fellow, armed with pistols and
+a sword came to the house of Abu Asaad, and stayed two weeks. He made
+them cook chickens, and bring eggs and bread and everything he wanted
+every day, and bring barley for his horse. The poor man had no barley
+and had to buy, and the Greeks would make him pay double price for it.
+When he could get no more he was beaten and his wife insulted, and so it
+was in almost every Protestant house. They began to love the Gospel, and
+the men who knew how to read, would meet to read and pray together. One
+evening, all the Protestants met together in one of the houses. Their
+sufferings were very great. Their winter stores had been plundered,
+their olives gathered by Beit Beshoor, and they talked and prayed over
+their trouble. It was a dark, cold, rainy night, and the wind blew a
+gale. While they were talking together, a man came rushing in crying,
+run for your lives! the horsemen are here! Before they could get out, a
+squad of wild looking wretches were at the door. The men fled, carrying
+the larger children and the women carrying the babies, and off they went
+into the wilderness in the storm and darkness. Some women were seized
+and tied by ropes around their waists, to the horsemen, and marched off
+for miles to prison. The men who were caught were put in chains. Some
+time later they got back home again. But they would not give up the
+Gospel. Beshoor sent men who told them they could have peace if they
+would only go back to the Greek Church. But he offered peace quite too
+late. They had now learned to love the Gospel, and it was worth more to
+them than all the world beside. One night they were assembled in a
+little low black house, when some men came to the door and threw in
+burning bundles of straw and then shut the door, so that they were
+almost stifled with the smoke. They sent a messenger to Beirut. The
+case was laid before the Pasha, and he telegraphed to have the
+Protestants let alone. But Beshoor cared for nothing. A Nusairy was
+hired to shoot Abu Asaad, the leading Protestant. His house was visited
+in the daytime, and the man saw where Abu Asaad's bed was placed. In the
+night he came stealthily upon the roof, dug a hole through, and fired
+three bullets at the spot. But see how God protects his people! That
+evening Abu Asaad said to his wife; the floor is getting damp in the
+corner, let us remove the bed and mat to the other side. They did so,
+and when the man fired, the bullets went into the ground just where Abu
+Asaad had slept the night before! He ran out and saw the assassins and
+recognized one of them as the servant of Beshoor's son. The next day he
+complained to the Government and they refused to hear him because he did
+not bring witnesses!
+
+But the poor people would not give up. Every day they went to their
+fields, carrying their Testaments in their girdles and at noontime would
+read and find comfort. Their children were half naked and half starved.
+When word reached Beirut, the native Protestant women met together and
+collected several hundred piastres (a piastre is four cents) for the
+women and girls of Safita. They made up a bale of clothing, and sent
+with it a very touching and kind letter, telling their poor persecuted
+sisters to bear their trials in patience, and put all their trust in the
+Lord Jesus. That aid, together with the contributions made by the
+missionaries and others in Beirut, gave them some relief, and the kind
+words of sympathy strengthened their hearts. The school was kept up amid
+all these troubles. One of the boys was taught in Abeih Seminary, and
+two of the girls were sent to the Beirut Female Seminary.
+
+You would have been amused to see those girls when they first reached
+Beirut. They walked barefoot from Safita down to Tripoli, about forty
+miles, and then Uncle S. took them on to Beirut. He bought shoes for
+them, and hired two little donkeys for them to ride, but they preferred
+to walk a part of the way, and would carry their shoes in their hands
+and run along the sandy beach in the surf, far ahead of the animals. I
+rode out to meet them, and they were a sorry sight to see. Uncle S. rode
+a forlorn-looking horse, and two ragged men from Safita walked by his
+side, followed by two ragged fat-faced girls riding on little donkeys.
+The girls were almost bewildered at the city sights and scenes. Soon we
+met a carriage, and they were so frightened that they turned pale, and
+their donkeys were almost paralyzed with fear. One of the little girls,
+when asked if she knew what that was, said it was a mill walking.
+
+The first few days in school they were so homesick for Safita that they
+ran away several times. They could not bear to be washed and combed and
+sent to the Turkish bath, but wanted to come back here among the goats
+and calves and donkeys. One night they went to their room and cried
+aloud. Rufka, the teacher, asked them what they wanted? They said,
+pointing to the white beds, "We don't like these white things to sleep
+on. We don't want to stay here. There are no calves and donkeys, and the
+room is so light and cold!" The people here in Safita think that the
+cattle help to keep the room warm. In the daytime they complained of
+being tired of sitting on the seats to study, and wished to _stand up
+and rest_. One was 11 and the other 12 years old, and that was in 1865.
+
+One of them, Raheel, fell sick after a time, and was much troubled about
+her sins. Her teacher Sara, who slept near her, overheard her praying
+and saying, "Oh Lord Jesus, do give me a new heart! I am a poor sinner.
+Do you suppose that because I am from Safita, you cannot give me a new
+heart? O Lord, I _know_ you can. Do have mercy on me!"
+
+Who are those clean and well dressed persons coming out of the church?
+Our dear brother Yusef Ahtiyeh, the native preacher, and his wife Hadla,
+and Miriam, the teacher of the girls' school. Yusef is one of the most
+refined and lovely young men in Syria. What a clear eye he has, and what
+a pleasant face! He too has borne much for his Master. In 1865, when he
+left the Greek Church, he was living with his brother in Beirut. His
+brother turned him out of the house at night, with neither bed nor
+clothing. He came to my house and staid with me some time. He said it
+was hard to be driven out by his brother and mother, but he could bear
+anything for Christ's sake. Said he, "I can bear cursing and beating and
+the loss of property. But my mother is weeping and wailing over me. She
+thinks I am a heretic and am lost forever. Oh, it is hard to bear, the
+'persecution of tears!'" But the Lord gave him grace to bear it, and he
+is now the happy spiritual guide of this large Protestant community, and
+the Nusairy Sheikhs look up to him with respect, while that persecuting
+brother of his is poverty-stricken and sick, and can hardly get bread
+for his children.
+
+Miriam, the teacher, is a heroine. Her parents were Greeks, but sent her
+to school to learn to read. She learned in a short time to read the New
+Testament, and to love it, and to keep the Sabbath day holy. The keeping
+of the Sabbath was something new in Safita. The Nusairiyeh have no holy
+day at all, and the Greeks have so many that they keep none of them.
+They work and buy and sell and travel on the Sabbath as on other days,
+and think far more of certain saint's days than of the Sabbath. When
+Miriam was only seven years old, her father said to her one Sabbath
+morning, "go with me to the hursh (forest) to get a donkey load of
+wood." She replied, "my father, I cannot go, it is not right, for it is
+God's day." The father went without her, and while cutting wood, his
+donkey strayed away, and he had to search through the mountains for
+hours, so that he did not reach home until twelve o'clock at night, and
+then without any wood. He said he should not go for wood on Sunday any
+more.
+
+But a few Sundays after, it was the olive season, and Miriam's mother
+told her to go out with the women and girls to gather olives. They had
+been at work during the week, and the mother thought Miriam ought to go
+on Sunday with the rest. But Miriam said, "don't you remember father's
+losing the donkey, and what he said about it? I cannot go." "Then," said
+her mother, "if you will not work, you shall not eat." "Very well, ya
+imme, I will not eat. If I keep the Lord's day, He will keep me." Away
+went the mother to the olive orchard, and Miriam went to the preaching
+and the Sunday School. At evening, when the family all came home, Miriam
+read in her New Testament and went to bed without her supper. The next
+morning she said, "Mother, now I am ready to gather olives. Didn't I
+tell you the Lord would keep me?"
+
+After this Miriam's father became a Protestant, and allowed the
+missionaries to send her to the Seminary in Sidon, where she was the
+best girl in the school. When she went home in the vacation in 1869, new
+persecutions were stirred up against the Protestants. The Greek Bishop,
+with a crowd of priests and a body of armed horsemen, came to the
+village, to compel all the Protestants to turn back to the old religion.
+The armed men went to the Protestant houses and seized men and women and
+dragged them to the great Burj, in which is the Greek church. Miriam's
+father and mother were greatly terrified and went back with them to the
+Greeks. They then called for Miriam. "Never," said she to the Bishop, "I
+will never worship pictures and pray to saints again. You may cut me in
+pieces, but I will not stir one step with them." The old Bishop turned
+back, and left her to herself. Near by was a man named Abu Isbir, who
+was so frightened that he said, "yes, I will go back, don't strike me!"
+But his wife, Im Isbir, was not willing to give up. She rebuked her
+husband and took hold of his arm, and actually dragged him back to his
+house, to save him the shame of having denied the Gospel. He stood firm,
+and afterwards united with the Church.
+
+Here comes Im Isbir. Poor woman, she is a widow now. Her husband died
+and left her with these little children, and last night her valuable cow
+died, and she is in great distress. Yusef, the preacher, says she is the
+most needy person in Safita. You would think so from the ragged
+appearance of the children. They are like the children in Eastern
+Turkey, whom Mr. Williams of Mardin used to describe, whose garments
+were so ragged and tattered that there was hardly cloth enough to _make
+borders for the holes_! They dig up roots in the fields for food, and
+now and then the neighbors give them a little of their coarse corn
+bread. The Greeks tell her to turn back to them and they will help her,
+but she says, "when one has found the light, can she turn back into the
+darkness again?" Yusef wishes us to walk in and sit down, as the people
+are anxious to see us. He lives in the church from necessity. He cannot
+get a house in the village, excepting these dark cavern-like rooms with
+damp floors, and so the missionaries told him to occupy one half of the
+church room. A curtain divides it into two rooms and on Sunday the
+curtain is drawn, his things are piled up on one side, and the women and
+girls sit in that part, while the men and boys sit on the other side.
+All sit on mats on the floor. Is that cradle hanging from the ring in
+the arch between the two rooms, kept there on Sunday? Yes, and when I
+preached here last June, Yusef's baby was swinging there during the
+whole service. One of the women kept it swinging gently, by pulling a
+cord, which hung down from it. It did not disturb the meeting at all. No
+one noticed it. They have calves and cows, donkeys and goats in their
+own houses at night, and sleep sweetly enough, so that the swinging of a
+hanging cradle in the inside of the church is not thought to be at all
+improper.
+
+Do you see that shelf on the wall? It reminds me of a little girl named
+Miriam who once came to your Aunt Annie in Deir Mimas to ask about the
+Sidon school, whither she was going in a few weeks. She told Miriam that
+she would have to be thoroughly washed and combed every day, and would
+sleep on a _bedstead_. Then Miriam asked permission to see a bedstead,
+as she did not know what it could be. The next night, about midnight,
+Miriam's mother heard something drop heavily on the floor, and then a
+child crying. She went across the room, and there was Miriam sitting on
+the mat. "What is the matter, Miriam?" she asked. Miriam said, "mother,
+the Sit told me I was to sleep on a bedstead in Sidon school, and I
+thought I would practice beforehand, so I tried to sleep on the shelf,
+and tumbled off in my sleep!"
+
+Abu Asaad says the Nusairy Sheikh who was arrested some months ago has
+been poisoned. Poisoning used to be very common in Syria. If we should
+call at the house of a Nusairy, and he brought coffee for us to drink,
+he would take a sip himself out of the cup before giving it to us, to
+show that it was not poisoned. Once Uncle S. and Aunt A. were invited
+out to dine in Hums at the house of the deacon of the church. His mother
+is an ignorant woman, and had often threatened to kill him. When they
+had eaten, they suddenly were taken ill, and suffered much from the
+effects of it. It was found that the mother had put poison into the
+food, intending to kill her son, the missionaries, and the other invited
+guests, but through the mercy of God none of them were seriously
+injured.
+
+Michaiel says that they have only half a crop of corn this year, as the
+_locusts_ devoured the other half in the spring. You remember I sent you
+some locusts' wings once, in a letter. When they appear in the land, the
+Pashas and Mudirs and Kaimakams give orders to the people to go out and
+gather the eggs of the locusts as soon as they begin to settle down to
+bury themselves in the earth. The body of the female locust is like the
+spawn of a fish, filled with one mass of eggs. Each man is obliged to
+bring so many ounces of these eggs to the Pasha and have them weighed
+and then burned. A tailor of Beirut brought a bag of them, and as it was
+late, put them in his shop for the night and went home. He was unwell
+for a few days and when he went to his shop again, opened the door, and
+thousands of little black hopping creatures, like imps, came like a
+cloud into his face. They had hatched out in his absence.
+
+This is a fearful land for lying; in these mountains around us, you
+cannot depend on a word you hear. The people say that in the beginning
+of the world, Satan came down to the earth with seven bags of lies,
+which he intended to distribute in the seven kingdoms of the earth. The
+first night after he reached the earth he slept in Syria, and opened one
+of the bags, letting the lies loose in the land. But while he was
+asleep, some one came and opened all the other bags! so that Syria got
+more than her share!
+
+An old man in Beirut once said, "Sir, you must be careful what you
+believe, and whom you trust in this country. If there are twenty-four
+inches of hypocrisy in the world, twenty-three are in Syria." This man
+was a native of great experience. I think he was rather severe on his
+countrymen. Yet the people have had a hard training. The Nusairiyeh all
+lie. They do not even pretend to tell the truth. The Druze religion
+teaches the people that it is right to lie to all except Druzes. The
+Moslems are better than either of these two classes, but they lie
+without a blush, and you must be very careful how you believe them.
+
+Among the Maronite and Greek sects, their priests tell the people that
+they can forgive sins. When a man lies or steals or does anything else
+that is wicked, he pays a few piastres to the priest, who gives him what
+they call absolution or forgiveness. So the people can do what they
+please without fear, as the priest is ready to forgive them for money.
+These sects call themselves Christian, but there is very little of
+Christianity among them. A Greek in Tripoli once told me that there was
+not a man in the Greek church in Tripoli who would not lie, excepting
+_one_ of the priests.
+
+Leaving Safita, we will go back on a different road, crossing directly
+to the sea-shore, and then along the coast to Tripoli. Here is a little
+abject village, and the people look as abject as the village. Their
+neighbors laugh at them for their stupidity, and tell the following
+story: They have no wells in the village, and the little fountain is not
+sufficient for their cattle, so they water them from the Ramet or pool,
+which is filled by the rains and lasts nearly all summer. One year the
+water in the Ramet began to fail, and there was a quarrel between the
+two quarters of the village, as to which part should have the first
+right to the water. Finally they decided to divide the pool into two
+parts, by making a fence of poles across the middle of it. This worked
+very well. One part watered their cattle on one side and the other part
+on the other side. But one night there was a great riot in the village.
+Some of the men from the north side saw a south-sider dipping up water
+from the north side and pouring it over the fence into the other part
+of the pool. Of course this made no difference, as the fence was nothing
+but open lattice work, but the people were too stupid to see that, so
+they fought and bruised one another for a long time.
+
+In another village, _Aaleih_, near Beirut, the people were formerly so
+stupid that the Arabs say that once when the clouds came up the
+mountains and settled like a bank of fog under the cliff on which their
+village is built, they thought it was the sea, and went to fish in the
+clouds!
+
+So you see the Syrians are as fond of humorous stories as other people.
+
+
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+
+But here we are coming upon a gypsy camp. The Arabs call them Nowar, and
+you will find that the Arab women of the villages are careful to keep an
+eye on their little children when the gypsies are around. They often
+steal children in the towns and cities, when they can find them straying
+away from home at dusk, and then sell them as servants in Moslem
+families. Last year we were all greatly interested in a story of this
+kind, which I know you will be glad to hear.
+
+After the terrible massacre in Damascus in 1860, thousands of the Greek
+and Greek Catholic families migrated to Beirut, and among them was a man
+named Khalil Ferah, who escaped the fire and sword with his wife and
+his little daughter Zahidy. I remember well how we were startled one
+evening in 1862, by hearing a crier going through the streets, "child
+lost! girl lost!" The next day he came around again, "child lost!" There
+was great excitement about it. The poor father and mother went almost
+frantic. Little Zahidy, who was then about six years old, was coming
+home from school with other girls in the afternoon, and they said a man
+came along with a sack on his back, and told Zahidy that her mother had
+sent him to buy her some sugar plums and then take her home, and she
+went away with him. It is supposed that he decoyed her away to some
+by-road and then put her into the great sack, and carried her off to the
+Arabs or the gypsies.
+
+The poor father left no means untried to find her. He wrote to Damascus,
+Alexandria, and Aleppo, describing the child and begged his friends
+everywhere to watch for her, and send him word if they found her. There
+was one mark on the child, which, he said, would be certain to
+distinguish her. When she was a baby, and nursing at her mother's
+breast, her mother upset a little cup of scalding hot coffee upon the
+child's breast, which burned it to a blister, leaving a scar which could
+not be removed. This sign the father described, and his friends aided
+him in trying to find the little girl. They went to the encampments of
+the gypsies and looked at all the children, but all in vain. The father
+journeyed by land and by sea. Hearing of a little girl in Aleppo who
+could not give an account of herself, he went there, but it was not his
+child. Then he went to Damascus and Alexandria, and at length hearing
+that a French Countess in Marseilles had a little Syrian orphan girl
+whose parents were not known, he sent to Marseilles and examined the
+girl, but she was _not his child_. Months and years passed on, but the
+father never ceased to speak and think of that little lost girl. The
+mother too was almost distracted.
+
+At length light came. Nine years had passed away, and the Beirut people
+had almost forgotten the story of the lost Damascene girl. Your uncle S.
+and your Aunt A. were sitting in their house one day, in Tripoli, when
+Tannoos, the boy, brought word that a man and woman from Beirut wished
+to see them. They came in and introduced themselves. They were Khalil,
+the father of the little lost girl, and his sister, who had heard that
+Zahidy was in Tripoli, and had come to search for her. The mother was
+not able to leave home.
+
+It seems that a native physician in Tripoli, named Sheikh Aiub el
+Hashim, was an old friend of the father and had known the family and all
+the circumstances of the little girl's disappearance, and for years he
+had been looking for her. At length he was called one day to attend a
+sick servant girl in the family of a Moslem named Syed Abdullah. The
+poor girl was ill from having been beaten in a cruel manner by the
+Moslem. Her face and arms were tattooed in the Bedawin style, and she
+told him that she was a Bedawin girl, and had been living here for some
+years, and her name was Khodra. While examining the bruises on her body,
+he observed a peculiar scar on her breast. He was startled. He looked
+again. It was precisely the scar that his friend had so often described
+to him. From her age, her features, her complexion and all, he felt sure
+that she was the lost child. He said nothing, but went home and wrote
+all about it to the father in Beirut. He hastened to Tripoli bringing
+his sister, as he being a man, could not be admitted to a Moslem hareem.
+Then the question arose, how should the sister see the girl! They came
+and talked with your uncle, and went to Yanni and the other Vice
+Consuls, and at length they found out that the women of that Moslem
+family were skillful in making silk and gold embroidery which they sold.
+So his sister determined to go and order some embroidered work, and see
+the girl. She talked with the Moslem women, and with their Bedawy
+servant girl, and made errands for the women to bring her specimens of
+their work, improving the opportunity to talk with the servant. She saw
+the scar, and satisfied herself from the striking resemblance of the
+girl to her mother, that she was the long-lost Zahidy.
+
+The father now took measures to secure his daughter. The American,
+Prussian, English and French Vice Consuls sent a united demand to the
+Turkish Pasha, that the girl be brought to court to meet her father, and
+that the case be tried in the Mejlis, or City Council. The Moslems were
+now greatly excited. They knew that there were not less than twenty
+girls in their families who had been stolen in this way, and if one
+could be reclaimed, perhaps the rest might, so they resolved to resist.
+They brought Bedawin Arabs to be present at the trial, and hired them to
+swear falsely. When the girl was brought in, the father was quite
+overcome. He could see the features of his dear child, but she was so
+disfigured with the Bedawin tattooing and the brutal treatment of the
+Moslems, that his heart sank within him. Yet he examined her, and took
+his oath that this was his daughter, and demanded that she be given up
+to him. The Bedawin men and women were now brought in. One swore that he
+was the father of the girl, and a woman swore that she was her mother.
+Then several swore that they were her uncles, but it was proved that
+they were in no way related to the one who said he was her father. Other
+witnesses were called, but they contradicted one another. Then they
+asked the girl. Poor thing, she had been so long neglected and abused,
+that she _had forgotten her father_, and the Moslem women had threatened
+to kill her if she said she was his daughter, so she declared she was
+born among the Bedawin, and was a Moslem in religion. Money had been
+given to certain of the Mejlis, and they finally decided that the girl
+should go to the Moslem house of Derwish Effendi to await the final
+decision.
+
+The poor father now went to the Consuls. They made out a statement of
+the case and sent it to the Consuls General in Beirut, who sent a joint
+dispatch to the Waly of all Syria, who lives in Damascus, demanding
+that as the case could not be fairly tried in Tripoli, the girl be
+brought to Beirut to be examined by a Special Commission. The Waly
+telegraphed at once to Tripoli, to have the girl sent on by the first
+steamer to Beirut. The Moslem women now told the girl that orders had
+come to have her killed, and that she was to be taken on a steamer as if
+to go to Beirut, but that really they were going to throw her into the
+sea, and that if she reached Beirut alive they would cut her up and burn
+her! So the poor child went on the steamer in perfect terror, and she
+reached Beirut in a state of exhaustion. When she was rested, a
+Commission was formed consisting of the Moslem Kadi of Beirut who was
+acting Governor, the political Agent, Delenda Effendi, the Greek
+Catholic Bishop Agabius, the Maronite Priest Yusef, and the agent of the
+Greek Bishop, together with all the members of the Executive Council.
+
+Her father, mother and aunt were now brought in and sat near her. She
+refused to recognize them, and was in constant fear of being injured.
+The Kadi then turned to her and said, "do not fear, my child. You are
+among friends. Do not be afraid of people who have threatened you. No
+one shall harm you." The Moslem Kadi, the Greek Catholic priests, and
+others having thus spoken kindly to her, the father and mother stated
+the history of how the little girl was lost nine years ago, and that she
+had a scar on her breast. The scar was examined, and all began to feel
+that she was really their own daughter. The girl began to feel more
+calm, and the Kadi told her that her own mother wanted to ask her a few
+questions.
+
+Her mother now went up to her and said, "My child, don't you remember
+me?" She said "no I do not." "Don't you remember that _your name was
+once Zahidy_, and I used to call you, and you lived in a house with a
+little yard, and flowers before the door, and that you went with the
+little girls to school, and came home at night, and that one day a man
+came and offered you sugar plums and led you away and carried you off to
+the Arabs? Don't you know _me_, my _own daughter_?" The poor girl
+trembled; her lips quivered, and she said, "Yes, I _did_ have another
+name. I _was_ Zahidy. I did go with little girls. Oh, ya imme! My
+mother! you _are_ my mother," and she sprang into her arms and wept, and
+the mother wept and laughed, and the Moslem Kadi and the Mufti, and the
+priests and the Bishops and the Effendis and the great crowd of
+spectators wiped their eyes, and bowed their heads, and there was a
+great silence.
+
+After a little the Kadi said, "it is enough. This girl _is_ the daughter
+of Kahlil Ferah. Sir, take your child, and Allah be with you!"
+
+The father wiped away the tears and said, "Your Excellency, you see this
+poor girl all tattooed and disfigured. You see how ignorant and feeble
+she is. If she were not my child, there is nothing about her to make me
+wish to take her. But she is my own darling child, and with all her
+faults and infirmities, I love her." The whole Council then arose and
+congratulated the father and mother, and a great crowd accompanied them
+home. Throngs of people came to see her and congratulate the family, and
+after a little the girl was sent to a boarding school.
+
+I can hardly think over this story even now without tears, for I think
+how glad I should have been to get back again a child of mine if it had
+been lost. And I have another thought too about that little lost girl.
+If that father loved his daughter so as to search and seek for her, and
+expend money, and travel by land and sea for years, in trying to find
+her, and when at length he found her, so forlorn and wretched and
+degraded, yet loved her still because she was _his daughter_, do you not
+think that Jesus loves us even more? We were lost and wretched and
+forlorn. A worse being than Bedawin gypsies has put his mark on our
+hearts and our natures. We have wandered far, far away. We have served
+the world, and forgotten our dear Heavenly Father. We have even refused
+to receive Him when he has come near us. Yet Jesus came to seek and to
+save us. And when he found us so degraded and sinful and disfigured, He
+loved us still, because we are His own children. Don't you think that
+the little lost Damascene girl was thankful when she reached her home,
+and was loved and kindly treated by father and mother and relatives and
+friends? And ought we not to be very thankful when Jesus brings us
+home, and calls us "dear children" and opens the gate of heaven to us?
+
+This story of the lost Damascene child calls to my mind a little song
+which the Maronite women in Lebanon sing to their babies as a lullaby.
+The story is that a Prince's daughter was stolen by the Bedawin Arabs,
+and carried to their camp. She grew up and was married to a Bedawin
+Sheikh and had a little son. One day a party of muleteers came to the
+camp selling grapes, and she recognized them as from her own village.
+She did not dare speak to them, so she began to sing a lullaby to her
+baby, and motioned to the grape-sellers to come near, and when the
+Bedawin were not listening, she would sing them her story in the same
+tone as the lullaby.
+
+
+THE LULLABY.
+
+                 Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mild,
+                 Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!
+_Aside to the  }     Once I was a happy girl,
+grape-sellers_ }     The Prince Abdullah's daughter.
+                     Playing with the village maids,
+                     Bringing wood and water.
+                     Suddenly the Bedawin
+                     Carried me away;
+                     Clothed me in the Aba robe
+                     And here they make me stay.
+                 Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mild,
+                 Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!
+_Aside_              Ye sellers of grapes hear what I say.
+                     I had dressed in satin rich and gay.
+                     They took my costly robes away,
+                     And dressed me in Aba coarse and grey.
+                     I had lived on viands costly and rare,
+                     And now raw camel's flesh is my fare.
+                 Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mild,
+                 Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!
+_Aside_              Oh seller of grapes, I beg you hear,
+                     Go tell my mother and father dear,
+                     That you have seen me here to-day.
+                     Just by the Church my parents live,
+                     The Bedawin stole me on Thursday eve.
+                     Let the people come and their sister save,
+                     Let them come with warriors bold and brave,
+                     Lest I die of grief and go to my grave.
+
+The grape-sellers then go home, and the warriors come and rescue her,
+and take her home.
+
+We will stop here a moment and make a pencil sketch of this Arab camp,
+but we must be very careful not to let them see us writing. They have a
+great fear of the art of writing, a superstitious idea that a person who
+writes or sketches in their camp, is writing some charm or incantation
+to bring mischief upon them. I once heard of a missionary who went to an
+Arab village to spend the night. The people were all Maronites, and
+grossly ignorant. He pitched his tent and sat down to rest. Presently a
+crowd of rough young men came in and began to insult him. They demanded
+bakhshish, and handled his bedding and cooking utensils in a very brutal
+manner, and asked him if he had any weapons. He bethought himself of one
+weapon and began to use it. He took out a pencil and paper, and began to
+make a sketch of the ringleader. He looked him steadily in the eye, and
+then wrote rapidly with his pencil. The man began to tremble and slowly
+retreated and finally shouted to his companions, and off they all went.
+Shortly after, they sent a man to beg Mr. L. not to cut off their heads!
+Their priests teach them that the Protestants have the power of working
+magic, and that they draw a man's portrait and take it with them, and if
+the man does anything to displease them, they cut off the head of the
+picture and the man's head drops off! Mr. L. sent them word that they
+had better be very careful how they behaved. They did not molest him
+again.
+
+Here we are near Tripoli, at the Convent of the _Sacred Fish_. What a
+beautiful spot! This large high building with its snow-white dome, and
+the great sycamore tree standing by this circular pool of crystal water,
+make a beautiful scene. What a crowd of Moslem boys! They have come all
+the way from Tripoli, about two miles, to feed the Sacred Fish. They are
+a gay looking company, with their red, green, blue, yellow, white and
+purple clothes, and their bright red caps and shoes, and some of them
+with white turbans. They come out on feast days and holidays to play on
+this green lawn and feed the fish. The old sheikh who keeps this holy
+place, has great faith in these fish. He says they are all good Moslems,
+and are inhabited by the souls of Moslem saints, and there is one black
+fish, the Sheikh of the saints, who does not often show himself to
+spectators. There are hundreds if not thousands of fish, resembling the
+dace or chubs of America. He says that during the Crimean war, many of
+the older ones went off under the sea to Sevastopol and fought the
+Russian infidels, and some of them came back wounded. The people think
+that if any one eats these fish he will die immediately. That I _know_
+to be false, for I have tried it. When the American Consul was here in
+1856, his Moslem Kawasses caught several of the fish, and brought them
+to Mr. Lyons' house. We had them cooked and ate them, but found them
+coarse and unpalatable. That was sixteen years ago and we have not felt
+the evil effects yet.
+
+This poor woman has a sick child, and has come to get the Sheikh to read
+the Koran over it and cure it. The most of the Syrian doctors are
+ignorant quacks, and the people have so many superstitions that they
+prefer going to saints' tombs rather than call a good physician. There
+is a Medical College in Beirut now, and before long Syria will have some
+skilful doctors. I knew an old Egyptian doctor in Duma named Haj
+Ibrahim, who was a conceited fellow. He used to bleed for every kind of
+disease. An old man eighty years of age was dying of consumption, and
+the Haj opened a vein and let him bleed to death. When the man died, he
+said if he had only taken a little more blood, the old man would have
+recovered. I was surprised by his coming to me one day and asking for
+some American newspapers. I supposed he wished them to wrap medicines in
+and gave him several New York Tribunes. A few days after he invited us
+to eat figs and grapes in his vineyard and we stopped at his house. He
+said he was very thankful for the papers. They had been very useful. I
+wondered what he meant, and asked him. He showed me a jar in the corner
+in which he had dissolved the papers into a pulp in oil and water, and
+had given the pulp as medicine to the people! He said it was a powerful
+medicine. He supposed that the English printed letters would have some
+magic influence on diseases.
+
+One of the Moslem lads carries a short iron spear as a sign that he is
+going to be a derwish. Dr. De Forest once found himself surrounded in a
+Moslem village by a troop of little Moslems, each of them with an
+iron-headed spear in his hand. A Moorish Sheikh, or Chief, had been for
+some two years teaching the Moslems of the place the customs of their
+holy devotees, and in consequence all the boys had become derwishes, or
+Moslem monks. He was a shrewd old Sheikh. He knew that the true way to
+perpetuate his religion was to _teach the children_. He had taught them
+the Moslem prayers and prostrations, and to keep certain moral precepts.
+How glad we should be if these boys would come and sit down by us while
+we talk to them of Jesus! There they come. See how their eyes sparkle,
+as I speak to them. They have never heard about the gospel before. But I
+must speak in a low tone, as the old Sheikh is coming and he looks down
+upon us as infidel dogs! Perhaps some of them will think of these words
+some day, and put their trust in our Divine Saviour.
+
+Many of the people seem to think that the missionary's house is like the
+Cave of Adullam, where David lived, (1 Sam. xxii:2) when "every one that
+was in distress, and every one that was in debt and every one that was
+discontented, gathered themselves unto him." It makes it very hard to
+deal with the people, to have so many of them come to us with improper
+motives. They come and say they love the gospel and want instruction,
+and have endured persecution, when suddenly you find that they want
+money, or to be protected from punishment, or to get office, or to get
+married to some improper person, or something else that is wrong.
+
+Once a sheikh from Dunniyeh in Lebanon came to Tripoli, and declared
+himself a Protestant. He was very zealous, and wanted us to feel that he
+was too good a man to be turned away, as he was wealthy and of a high
+family. He was armed with a small arsenal of weapons. He had a servant
+to carry his gun and pipe, and came day after day to read books, and
+talk on religion. He said that all he needed was the protection of the
+American Consul, and then he would make his whole village Protestants.
+We told him we could have nothing to do with politics. If he wanted to
+become a Christian, he must take up his cross and follow Christ. He said
+that was just what he wanted to do, only he wished to benefit the cause
+by bringing others to follow Him. He seemed very earnest, but there was
+something dark and mysterious in his ways, and we were afraid of him.
+Now the Arabs have a proverb, "No tree is cut down but by _one of its
+own limbs_," _i.e._ the axe handle, and we thought a native only could
+understand a native, so we took the famous convert around to see Yanni.
+He went into Yanni's office, and Mr. L. and myself sat out in the
+garden under the orange trees. After a few minutes Yanni called out,
+"Come in, be preferred, your excellencies! I have found it all out. I
+understand the case." We went in and climbed up upon the platform, next
+the desk in the office. The Maronite candidate for the church sat
+smiling, as if he thought he would now be received at once. Yanni went
+on, "I understand the case exactly. This man is a son of a Sheikh in
+Dunniyeh. He is in a deadly quarrel with his father and brothers about
+the property, and says that if we will give him the protection of the
+American Consulate, he will go home, kill his father and brothers, seize
+all the property, and then come down and join the church, and live in
+Tripoli!" We were astounded, but the brutal fellow turned to us and
+said, "yes, and I will then make all the village Protestants, and if I
+fail, then cut my head off!" We told him that if he did anything of that
+kind, we would try to get him hung, and the American Consulate would
+have nothing to do with him. "Very well," said he, "I have made you a
+_fair offer_, and if you don't accept it, I have nothing more to say."
+We rebuked him sharply, and gave him a sermon which he did not relish,
+for he said he was in haste, and bade us a most polite good morning. He
+was what I should call an Adullamite.
+
+A Greek priest in the village of Barbara once took me aside, to a
+retired place behind his house, and told me that he had a profound
+secret to tell me. He wished to become a Protestant and make the whole
+village Protestant, but on one condition, that I would get him a hat, a
+coat, and pantaloons, put a flag-staff on his house, and have him
+appointed American Consul. I told him the matter of the hat, coat and
+pantaloons he could attend to at but slight expense, but I had no right
+to make Consuls and erect flagstaffs. Then he said he could not become
+Protestant.
+
+In 1866, a man named Yusef Keram rebelled against the Government of
+Lebanon and was captured and exiled. The day he was brought into Beirut,
+a tall rough looking mountaineer called at my house. He was armed with a
+musket and sword, besides pistols and dirks. After taking a seat, he
+said, "I wish to become Angliz and American." "What for," said I. "Only
+that I would be honored with the honorable religion." "Do you know
+anything about it?" "Of course not. How should I know?" "Don't you know
+better than to follow a religion you know nothing about?" "But I can
+learn." "How do you know but what we worship the devil?" "No matter.
+Whatever you worship, I will worship." I then asked him what he came
+for. He said he was in the rebel army, was captured, escaped and fought
+again, and now feared he should be shot, so he wanted to become Angliz
+and American. I told him he need have no fear, as the Pasha had granted
+pardon to all. "Is that so?" "Yes, it is." On hearing this he said he
+had business to look after, and bade me good evening.
+
+But you will be tired of hearing about the Adullamites. If those who
+came to David were like the discontented and debtors who come to us, he
+must have been tired too. So many suspicious characters come to us, that
+we frequently ask men, when they come professing great zeal for the
+gospel, whether they have killed anybody, or stolen, or quarrelled with
+any one? And it is not always easy to find out the truth. If fifty men
+turn Protestants in a village, perhaps five or ten will stand firm, and
+the rest go back, and frequently all go back.
+
+But the rain is coming down and we will hasten to the Meena to Uncle
+S.'s house, where we can rest after this wearisome and hasty journey
+from Safita. For your sake I am glad that we took comfortable bedding
+and bedsteads with us. It costs a few piastres more to hire a baggage
+animal, but it is cheaper in the end. At one time I was going on a hard
+journey, and I thought I would be economical, so I took only my horse
+and a few articles in my khurj or saddle bags, with a little boy to show
+me the road and take care of my horse. When I reached the village, I
+stopped at the house of a man said to be a Protestant. He lived in the
+most abject style, and I soon found by his bad language towards his
+family and his neighbors that he needed all the preaching I could give
+him that evening. There was only one room in the house, and that was
+small. By nine o'clock the mother and the children had lain down on a
+mat to sleep, and the neighbors who came in were beginning to doze. I
+was very weary with a long ride on a hot August day, and asked mine host
+where I should lie down to sleep. He led me to a little elevated
+platform on the back side of the room, where a bed was spread for me.
+The dim oil lamp showed me that the bed and covering were neither of
+them clean, but I was too weary to spend much time in examining them,
+and after spreading my linen handkerchief over the pillow, I tried to
+sleep. But this could not be done. Creeping things, great and small,
+were crawling over me from head to foot. There was a hole in the wall
+near my head, and the bright moonlight showed what was going on. Fleas,
+bugs, ants, (attracted by the bread in my khurj,) and more horrible
+still, swarms of lice covered the bed, and my clothing. I could stand it
+no longer. Gathering up my things, and walking carefully across the
+floor to keep from stepping on the sleeping family, I reached the door.
+But it was fastened with an Arab lock and a huge wooden key, and could
+only be opened by a violent shaking and rattling. This, with the
+creaking of the hinges, woke up my host, who sprung up to see what was
+the matter. I told him I had decided to journey on by moonlight. It was
+then one o'clock in the morning, and on I rode, so weary, that when I
+reached Jebaa at ten o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I did not
+recover from the onset of the vermin for weeks.
+
+I have known missionaries to travel without beds, tents or bedsteads,
+and to spend weary days and sleepless nights, so as to be quite unfitted
+for their great work of preaching to the people. If you ever grow up to
+become a missionary, I hope you will live as simply as you can, but be
+careful of your health and try to live as long as you can, for the sake
+of the people you are working for, and the Lord who sends you forth. It
+is not good economy for a missionary to become a martyr to studying
+Arabic, or to poor food, or to exhausting modes of travelling. One can
+kill himself in a short time, if he wishes, on missionary ground, but he
+could have done that at home without the great expense of coming here to
+do it, and besides, that is not what a missionary goes out for. He ought
+to live as long as he can. He should have a dry house, in a healthy
+location, good food, and proper conveniences for safe travelling.
+
+How pleasant it is to hear that sweet toned bell! Let us climb up to the
+roof and read the inscription on it. "From little Sabbath School
+Children in America to the Mission Church in Tripoli, Syria." It was
+sent in 1862 by the children in Fourth Avenue Church, New York, and in
+Newark, Syracuse, Owego, Montrose and other places.
+
+The Moslems abhor bells. They say bells draw together evil spirits. We
+are not able yet to have a bell in Hums, on account of the Moslem
+opposition. They do not use bells, but have men called Muezzins
+stationed on the little balconies around the top of the tall minarets,
+to call out five times a day to the people to come to prayer. They
+select men and boys with high clear voices, and at times their voices
+sound very sweetly in the still evening. They say, "There is no God but
+God." That is true. Then they add, "and Mohammed is the Apostle of God,"
+and that is not true. As the great historian Gibbon said; these words
+contain an "eternal truth and an eternal lie."
+
+The Moslems are obliged to pray five times every day, wherever they may
+be. At home, in their shops, in the street, or on a journey, whenever
+the appointed time arrives, they fall on their knees, and go through
+with the whole routine of prayers and bodily prostrations. One day
+several Moslems called on us in Tripoli, at the eighth hour of the day
+(about 2 o'clock P.M.), and after they had been sitting some
+time engaged in conversation, one of them arose and said to his
+companions, "I must pray.". They all asked, "Why? It is not the hour of
+prayer." "Because," said he, "when I went to the mosque at noon to pray,
+I had an ink-spot on my finger nail, and did not perceive it until after
+I came out, and hence my prayer was of no account. I have just now
+scraped it off, and must repeat my noon prayer." So saying, he spread
+his cloak upon the floor, and then kneeling upon it with his face
+towards Mecca, commenced his prayers, while his companions amused
+themselves by talking about his ceremonial strictness. One of them said
+to me, "He thinks he is holy, but if you could see the _inside_ of him,
+you would find it black as pitch!" He kept his head turned to hear what
+was being said, and after he had finished, disputed a remark one of them
+had made while he was praying. Such people worship God with their lips,
+while their hearts are far from him.
+
+Moslems have a great horror of swine. They think us barbarians to eat
+ham or pork. In February, 1866, the Moslems of Beirut were keeping the
+Fast of Ramadan. For a whole month of each year they can eat and drink
+nothing between sunrise and sunset, and they become very cross and
+irritable. In Hums, some Moslems saw a dog eating a bone in Ramadan, and
+killed him because he would not keep the fast. They fast all day, and
+feast all night. Ramadan is really a great nocturnal feast, but it is
+hard for the working people to wait until night before beginning the
+feast. During that fast of 1866, a Maronite fellah came into Beirut
+driving a herd of swine to the market. Now of all sights in the world,
+the sight of swine is to an orthodox Moslem the most intolerable, and
+especially in the holy month of Ramadan. Even in ordinary times, when
+swine enter the city, the Moslems gather up their robes, turn their
+backs and shout, "hub hub," "hub hub," and if the hogs do not hasten
+along, the "hub hub," is very apt to become a hubbub. On the 28th of
+that holy month, a large herd entered Beirut on the Damascus road. The
+Moslems saw them, and forthwith a crowd of Moslem young men and boys
+hastened to the fray. A few days before, the Maronite Yusef Keram had
+entered the city amid the rejoicings of the Maronites. These swine, whom
+the Moslems called "Christian Khanzir," should meet a different
+reception. Their wrath overcame their prejudice. The Maronite
+swine-drivers were dispersed and the whole herd were driven on the run
+up the Assur with shouts of derision, and pelted with stones and clubs.
+"You khanzir, you Maronite, you Keram, out with you!" and the air rang
+with shouts mingled with squeals and grunts. I saw the crowd coming. It
+gathered strength as it approached Bab Yakoob, where the white turbaned
+faithful rose from their shops and stables to join in the persecution of
+the stampeding porkers. "May Allah cut off their days! Curses on their
+grandfather's beard! Curses on the father of their owner! Hub hub! Allah
+deliver us from their contamination!" were the cries of the crowd as
+they rushed along. The little boys were laughing and having a good time,
+and the men were breathing out wrath and tobacco smoke. Alas, for the
+poor swine! What became of them I could not tell, but the last I saw,
+was the infuriated crowd driving them into the Khan of Muhayeddin near
+by, where one knows not what may have happened to them. I hope they did
+not steal the pork and eat it "on the sly," as the Bedawin did at Mt.
+Sinai, who threw away the hams the travellers were carrying for
+provisions, and declared that their camels should not be defiled with
+the unclean beast! The travellers were _very_ indignant at such a loss,
+but thought it was too bad to injure the feelings of the devout Moslems,
+and said no more. What was their horror and wrath to hear the next night
+that the Bedawin were seen cooking and eating their hams at midnight,
+when they thought no one would see them!
+
+Do the Syrian people all smoke? Almost all of them. They speak of it as
+"drinking a pipe, drinking a cigar," and you would think that they look
+upon tobacco as being as necessary to them as water. Old and young men,
+women and even children smoke, smoke while they work or rest, while at
+home or journeying, and measure distances by their pipes. I was
+travelling, and asked a man how far it was to the next village. He said
+about two pipes of tobacco distant! I found it to be nearly an hour, or
+three miles. The Orientals spend so much time in smoking, that some one
+has said "the Moslems came into power with the Koran in one hand, and
+the sword in the other, but will go out with the Koran in one hand and
+the pipe in the other!"
+
+Here we are on the sandy beach. What myriads of sea shells, and what
+beautiful colors they have. And here are sponges without number, but
+they are worthless. There on the sea are the little sloops of the sponge
+fishers. They are there through the whole summer and the fishers dive
+down into the sea where the water is from 100 to 200 feet deep, and walk
+around on the bottom holding their breath, and when they can bear it no
+longer pull the cord which is tied around the waist, and then their
+companions draw them up. They do not live long, as it is very hard and
+unnatural labor. Sometimes they are killed by sharks or other sea
+monsters. One of them told me that he was once on the bottom, and just
+about to pick up a beautiful white sponge, when he saw a great monster
+with huge claws and arms and enormous eyes coming towards him, and he
+barely escaped being devoured. At another time, the men in the boat felt
+a sudden jerk on the rope and pulled in, when they found only the man's
+head, arms and chest on it, the rest of his body having been devoured by
+some great fish or sea animal. The sponges grow on rocks, pebbles or
+shells, and some of them are of great value. It is difficult to get the
+best ones here, as the company who hire the divers export all the good
+ones to Europe.
+
+
+
+
+PART V.
+
+
+Word has come that there is cholera in Odessa, so that all the Russian
+steamers going to Beirut will be in quarantine. It will not be pleasant
+to spend a week in the Beirut quarantine, so we will keep our baggage
+animals and go down by land. It is two long days of nine hours each, and
+you will be weary enough. Bidding good-bye to our dear friends here and
+wishing them God's blessing in their difficult work among such people,
+away we go! Yanni and Uncle S. and some of the teachers will accompany
+us a little way, according to the Eastern custom, and then we dismount
+and kiss them all on both cheeks, and pursue our monotonous way along
+the coast, sometimes riding over rocky capes and promontories and then
+on the sand and pebbles close to the roaring surf.
+
+See how many monasteries there are on the sides of Lebanon! Between
+Tripoli and Beirut there are about a hundred. The men who live in them
+are called monks, who make a vow never to marry, and spend their lives
+eating and drinking the fruits of other men's labors. They own almost
+all the valuable land in this range of mountains for fifty miles, and
+the fellaheen live as "tenants at will" on their estates. When a man is
+lazy or unfortunate, if he is not married, his first thought is to
+become a monk. They are the most corrupt and worthless vagabonds in the
+land, and the day must come before long, when the monasteries and
+convents will be abolished and their property be given back to the
+people to whom it justly belongs.
+
+We are now riding along by the telegraph wires. It seems strange to see
+Morse's telegraph on this old Phenician coast, and it will seem stranger
+still when we reach Beirut, to receive a daily morning paper printed in
+Arabic, with telegrams from all parts of the world!
+
+In July, a woman came to the telegraph office in Beirut, asking, "Where
+is the telegraph?" The Clerk, Yusef Effendi, asked her, "Whom do you
+want, the Director, the Operator, or the Kawass?" She said, "I want
+Telegraph himself, for my husband has sent me word that he is in prison
+in Zahleh and wants me to come with haste, and I heard that Telegraph
+takes people quicker than any one else. Please tell me the fare, and
+send me as soon as possible!" The Effendi looked at her, and took her
+measure, and then said, "You are too tall to go by telegraph, so you
+will have to go on a mule." The poor ignorant woman went away greatly
+disappointed.
+
+Another old woman, whose son was drafted into the Turkish army, wished
+to send him a pair of new shoes, so she hung them on the telegraph wire.
+A way-worn foot traveller coming along soon after took down the new
+shoes and put them on, and hung his old ones in their place. The next
+day the old lady returned and finding the old shoes, said, "Mashallah,
+Mohammed has received his new shoes and sent back his old ones to be
+repaired."
+
+The telegraph has taught all the world useful lessons, and the Syrians
+have learned one lesson from it which is of great value. When they write
+letters they use long titles, and flowery salutations, so that a whole
+page will be taken up with these empty formalities, leaving only a few
+lines at the end, or in a postscript, for the important business. But
+when they send a telegram and have to pay for every word, they leave out
+the flowery salutations and send only what is necessary.
+
+The following is a very common way of beginning an Arabic letter:
+
+"To the presence of the affectionate and the most distinguished, the
+honorable and most ingenuous Khowadja, the honored, may his continuance
+be prolonged!"
+
+"After presenting the precious pearls of affection, the aromatic
+blossoms of love, and the increase of excessive longing, after the
+intimate presence of the light of your rising in prosperity, we would
+say that in a most blessed and propitious hour your precious letter
+honored us," etc.
+
+That would cost too much to be sent by telegraph. Precious pearls and
+aromatic blossoms would become expensive luxuries at two cents a word.
+So they have to be reserved for letters, if any one has time to write
+them.
+
+Here we come to the famous Dog River. You will read in books about this
+river and its old inscriptions. If you have not forgotten your Latin,
+you can read a lesson in Latin which was written here nearly two
+thousand years ago. There you can see the words.
+
+       Imp. Caes. M. Aurelius
+   Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus
+  Par. Max. Brit. Max. Germ. Maximus
+          Pontifex Maximus
+         Montibus Imminentibus
+             etc. etc.
+
+This Emperor Marcus Aurelius, must have cut this road through the rocks
+about the year 173 A.D. But there is another inscription higher up, with
+arrow-headed characters and several other tablets. They are Assyrian and
+Egyptian. One of the Assyrian tablets was cut by Sennacherib 2500 years
+ago, and one of the Egyptian by Sesostris, king of Egypt, 3100 years
+ago. Don't you feel very young and small in looking at such ancient
+monuments? All of those men brought their armies here, and found the
+path so bad along the high precipice overhanging the sea, that they cut
+a road for their horses and chariots in the solid limestone rock. Just
+think of standing where Sennacherib and Alexander the Great passed
+along with their armies!
+
+What a steep and narrow road! We will dismount and walk over this
+dangerous pass. It is not pleasant to meet camels and loaded mules on
+such a dizzy precipice, with the high cliff above, and the roaring waves
+of the sea far below! It is well we dismounted. Our horses are afraid of
+those camels carrying long timbers balanced on their backs. Let us turn
+aside and wait until they pass.
+
+Seeing these camels reminds me of what I saw here in 1857. I was coming
+down the coast from Tripoli and reached the top of this pass, in the
+narrowest part, just as a caravan of camels were coming from the
+opposite direction. I turned back a little, and stood close under the
+edge of the cliff to let the camels go by. They were loaded with huge
+canvas sacks of tibn, or cut straw, which hung down on both sides,
+making it impossible to pass them without stooping very low. Just then I
+heard a voice behind me, and looking around, saw a shepherd coming up
+the pass with his flock of sheep. He was walking ahead, and they all
+followed on. I called to him to go back, as the camels were coming over
+the pass. He said, "Ma ahlaik," or "don't trouble yourself," and on he
+came. When he met the camels, they were in the narrowest part, where a
+low stone wall runs along the edge of the precipice. He stooped down and
+stepped upon the narrow wall, calling all the time to his sheep, who
+followed close upon his heels, walking in single file. He said "tahl,
+tahl," "come, come," and then made a shrill whirring call, which could
+be heard above the roaring of the waves on the rocks below. It was
+wonderful to see how closely they followed the shepherd. They did not
+seem to notice the camels on the one side, or the abyss on the other
+side. Had they left the narrow track, they would either have been
+trodden down by the heavily laden camels, or have fallen off into the
+dark waters below. But they were intent on following their shepherd.
+They heard his voice, and that was enough. The cameleers were shouting
+and screaming to their camels to keep them from slipping on these smooth
+rocks, but the sheep paid no attention to them. They knew the shepherd's
+voice. They had followed him before, through rivers and thickets, among
+rocks and sands, and he had always led them safely. The waves were
+dashing and roaring on the rocks below, but they did not fear, for the
+shepherd was going on before. Had one of those sheep turned aside, he
+would have lost his footing and been destroyed and thrown the whole
+flock into confusion.
+
+You know why I have told you this story. You know that Jesus is the Good
+Shepherd. He said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they
+follow me." Wherever Jesus leads it is safe for us to go. How many boys
+and girls there are who think they know a better path than the one Jesus
+calls them to follow. There are "stranger" voices calling on every side,
+and many a child leaves the path of the Good Shepherd, and turns aside
+to hear what they would say. If they were truly lambs of Jesus' fold,
+they would love Him, and follow Him in calm and storm, and never heed
+the voice of strangers.
+
+I was once travelling from Duma to Akura, high up on the range of
+Lebanon. It was a hot summer's day, and at noon I stopped to rest by a
+fountain. The waste water of the fountain ran into a square stone birkeh
+or pool, and around the pool were several shepherds resting with their
+flocks of sheep and goats. The shepherds came and talked with me, and
+sat smoking for nearly an hour, when suddenly one of them arose and
+walked away calling to his flock to follow him. The flocks were all
+mixed together, but when he called, his sheep and goats began to raise
+their heads and start along together behind him. He kept walking along
+and calling, until all his flock had gone. The rest of the sheep and
+goats remained quietly as though nothing had happened. Then another
+"Rai," or shepherd, started up in another direction, calling out in a
+shrill voice, and _his sheep_ followed him. They knew their shepherd's
+voice. Our muleteers were talking all the time, but the sheep paid no
+attention to them. They knew one voice, and would follow no other.
+
+We will now hasten on to Beirut. You will wish to see the Female
+Seminary, and the Sabbath School and the Steam Printing Press, and many
+of the Beirut Schools, before we start to Abeih again.
+
+Here is the Female Seminary. There are a hundred girls here, studying
+Arabic reading and writing geography, arithmetic, grammar, botany,
+physiology and astronomy, and a few study English, French and music. But
+the great study is the _Bible_. I am afraid that very few schools in
+America have as much instruction in the Bible, as the girls in this
+Seminary and the Sidon Seminary receive. You would be surprised to hear
+the girls recite correctly the names of all the patriarchs; kings and
+prophets of the Old Testament, with the year when they lived, and the
+date of all the important events of the Old and New Testament History,
+and the Life of Christ, and the travels of the Apostle Paul, and the
+prophecies about Christ in the Old Testament, and then recite the whole
+Westminster Assembly's Catechism in Arabic! I have given out _one
+hundred and twenty_ Bibles and Hymn Books as rewards to children in the
+schools in Beirut, who have learned the Shorter Catechism perfectly in
+Arabic.
+
+Five years ago there was a girl in the school who was once very rude and
+self-willed, and very hard to control. She had a poor bed-ridden brother
+who had been a cripple for years, and was a great care to the family.
+They used to carry him out in the garden in fine weather and lay him on
+a seat under the trees, and sometimes his sister would come home from
+the school and read to him from the Bible, to which he listened with
+great delight. Not long after this he died, and his sister was sent for
+to come home to the funeral. On reaching home she found a large crowd of
+women assembled from all that quarter of the city, shrieking and wailing
+over his death, according to the Oriental custom. When A. the little
+girl came in, one of the women from an aristocratic Greek family was
+talking in a loud voice and saying that it was wrong for any person to
+go from the house of mourning to another house before first going home,
+because one going from a house of mourning would carry an _evil
+influence_ with her. A. listened and then spoke out boldly before the
+seventy women, "How long will you hold on to these foolish
+superstitions? Beirut is a place of light and civilization. Where can
+you find any such teaching as this in the gospel? It is time for us to
+give up such superstitions." The old woman asked, "Where did that girl
+learn these things? Truly she is right. These things _are_
+superstitions, but they will not die until _we old women die_." It
+required a great deal of courage in A. to speak out so boldly, when her
+own brother had died, but all felt that she spoke the truth, and no one
+rebuked her.
+
+Near by the house of A. is another beautiful house surrounded by
+gardens, and ornamented in the most expensive manner. A little girl from
+this family was attending the school in 1867. Her name was Fereedy. She
+was a boarder and the best behaved girl in the school. One day during
+vacation, her mother came to Rufka and said, "What have you done to my
+little daughter Fereedy? She came home last Saturday with her sister,
+and at once took the whole care of the little children, so that I had no
+trouble with them. And when night came she put her little sisters to bed
+and prayed with them all, and then in the morning she prayed with them
+again. I never saw such a child. She is like a little angel." The mother
+is of the Greek sect, and the little girl was only twelve years old.
+
+And here is a story about another of the superstitions of the fellaheen,
+and what a little girl taught the people about them. This little girl
+named L. went with her father to spend the summer in a mountain village,
+where the people had a strange superstition about an oak tree. One day
+she went out to walk and came to the great oak tree which stood alone on
+the mountain side. You know that the Canaanites used to have idols under
+the green trees in ancient times. When L. reached the tree, she found
+the ground covered with dead branches which had fallen from the tree.
+Now, wood is very scarce and costly in Syria, and the people are very
+poor, so that she wondered to see the wood left to rot on the ground,
+and asked the people why they did not use it for fuel. They said they
+dared not, as the tree belonged to Moses the Prophet, and he protected
+the tree, and if any one took the wood, they would _fall dead_. She
+said, "Moses is in heaven, and does not live in oak trees, and if he
+did, he is a good man, and would not hurt me for burning up old dry
+sticks." So she asked them if she might have the wood? They said, "yes,
+if you _dare_ to take it, for we are afraid to touch it." So she went to
+the tree and gathered up as much as she could carry, and took it home.
+The people screamed when they saw her, and told her to drop it or it
+would kill her, but on she went, and afterwards went back and brought
+the rest. She then talked with the ignorant women, and her father told
+them about the folly of their superstitions, and read to them in the
+Bible about Moses, and they listened with great attention. I have often
+thought I should like to go to that village, and see whether the people
+now leave the dead branches under Moses' oak, or use them for fuel
+during the heavy snow storms of winter.
+
+
+
+
+PART VI.
+
+
+Here we are, home again at Abeih. Here are Asaad and Khalil, and several
+others. I asked Khalil one day to write out for me a list of all the
+games the boys play in Abeih, and he brought me a list of _twenty-eight_
+different ones, and said there were many more.
+
+I. The first is called Khatim or the Ring. A boy puts a ring on the back
+of his hand, tosses it and catches it on the back of his fingers. If it
+falls on the middle finger, he shakes it to the forefinger, and then he
+is Sultan, and appoints a Vizier, whom he commands to beat the other
+boys. Then the boys all sing,
+
+    Ding, dong, turn the wheel,
+    Wind the purple thread:
+    Spin the white and spin the red,
+    Wind it on the reel:
+    Silk and linen as well as you can,
+    Weave a robe for the Great Sultan.
+
+II. Killeh. Like the game of shooting marbles.
+
+III. Owal Howa. The same as leap frog.
+
+IV. Biz Zowaia. Cat in the corner.
+
+V. Taia ya Taia. All the boys stand in a row, and one in front facing
+them, who calls out Taia ya Taia. They all then run after him and hit
+him. He then hops on one foot as if lame, and catches one of them, who
+takes his place.
+
+VI. El Manya. Hig tig.
+
+VII. Bil Kobbeh. A circle of boys stand with their heads bowed. Another
+circle stand outside, and on a given signal try to mount on the backs of
+the inner circle of boys. If they succeed they remain standing in this
+way; if not, the boy who failed must take the inside place.
+
+VIII. Ghummaida. Blind-man's-buff.
+
+IX. Tabeh. Base ball and drop ball.
+
+X. Kurd Murboot or Tied Monkey. A rope is tied to a peg in the ground,
+and one boy holds it fast. The others tie knots in their handkerchiefs
+and beat him. If he catches them without letting go his hold on the
+rope, they take his place.
+
+XI. Shooha or Hawk. Make a swing on the limb of a tree. A boy leans on
+the swing and runs around among the boys, until he catches one to take
+his place.
+
+XII. Joora. Shooting marbles into a joora or hole in the ground.
+
+XIII. Khubby Mukhzinak. "Pebble pebble." One boy goes around and hides a
+pebble in the hand of one of the circle and asks "pebble, pebble, who's
+got the pebble." This is like "Button, button."
+
+Then there are other games like chequers and "Morris," chess, and games
+which are used in gambling, which you will not care to hear about.
+
+Sometimes when playing, they sing a song which I have translated:
+
+    I found a black crow,
+    With a cake in his maw,
+    I asked him to feed me,
+    He cried caw, caw.
+
+    A chicken I found
+    With a loaf of bread--
+    I asked him to feed me.
+    He cried, enough said.
+
+    And an eagle black
+    With a beam on his back
+    Said from Egypt I come
+    And he cried clack, clack.
+
+So you see the Arab boys are as fond of plays and songs as American
+boys. They have scores of songs about gazelles, and pearls, and Sultans,
+and Bedawin, and Ghouls, and the "Ghuz," and the Evil Eye, and Arab
+mares and Pashas.
+
+A few days ago a Druze, named Sheikh Ali, called upon me and recited to
+me a strange song, which reminded me of the story of "Who killed Cock
+Robin," and "The House that Jack built." In some of the Arab villages
+where fleas abound, the people go at times to the tennur or oven, (which
+is like a great earthen jar sunken in the ground,) to shake off the
+fleas into the fire. The story which I have translated goes thus: A
+brilliant bug and a noble flea once went to the oven to shake off the
+ignoble fleas from their garments into the fire. But alas, alas, the
+noble flea lost his footing, fell into the fire and was consumed. Then
+the brilliant bug began to weep and mourn, saying,
+
+            Alas! Ah me!
+            The Noble Flea!
+    While he was thus weeping,
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+    A glossy raven overhead,
+    Flew swiftly down and gently said,
+    Oh my friend, oh brilliant bug,
+    Why are you weeping on the rug?
+    The bug replied, O glossy raven,
+    With your head all shorn and shaven,
+    I am now weeping,
+    And sad watch keeping,
+            Over, Ah me!
+            The Noble Flea.
+      The raven he,
+    Wept over the flea,
+    And flew to a green palm tree--
+    And in grief, _dropped a feather_,
+    Like snow in winter weather.
+    The palm tree said my glossy raven,
+    Why do you look so craven,
+    Why did you drop a feather,
+    Like snow in winter weather?
+    The raven said,
+    The flea is dead!
+    I saw the brilliant bug weeping
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+            Alas, Alas, Ah me!
+            Over the Noble Flea.
+    Then the green Palm tree,
+    Wept over the noble flea.
+    Said he, The flea is dead!
+    And _all his branches shed_!
+    The Shaggy Wolf he strayed,
+    To rest in the Palm tree's shade
+    He saw the branches broken,
+    Of deepest grief the token,
+    And said, Oh Palm tree green,
+    What sorrow have you seen?
+    What noble one is dead,
+    That you your branches shed?
+    He said, O Wolf so shaggy,
+    Living in rocks so craggy,
+    I saw the glossy raven,
+    Looking forlorn and craven,
+    Dropping down a feather,
+    Like snow in winter weather.
+    He saw the brilliant bug weeping
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+            Alas, Alas, Ah me!
+            Over the Noble Flea!
+    Then the Wolf in despair
+    _Shed his shaggy hair_.
+    Then the River clear and shining,
+    Saw the wolf in sorrow pining,
+    Asked him why in sad despair,
+    He had shed his shaggy hair?
+    Said the Wolf, Oh River shining,
+    I in sorrow deep am pining,
+    For the Palm tree I have seen,
+    Shedding all his branches green,
+    And he saw the glossy raven,
+    Looking so forlorn and craven,
+    As he dropped a downy feather,
+    Like the snow in winter weather.
+    He saw the brilliant bug weeping,
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+            Alas, Alas, Ah me,
+            Over the Noble Flea!
+    Sadly then the shining River,
+    _Dried its waters up forever_.
+    Then the Shepherd with his sheep
+    Asked the River once so deep,
+    What great grief, oh shining river,
+    Dried your waters up forever?
+    Said the River once so shining,
+    I in sorrow deep am pining,
+    Since I saw the wolf's despair,
+    When he shed his shaggy hair,
+    For the Palm tree he had seen,
+    Shedding all his branches green,
+    And he saw the glossy raven,
+    Looking so forlorn and craven,
+    As he dropped a downy feather,
+    Like the snow in winter weather,
+    He saw the brilliant bug weeping,
+    And his sad watch keeping.
+            Alas, Alas, Ah me!
+            Over the Noble Flea!
+    Then the Shepherd in sorrow deep,
+    _Tore the horns from all his sheep_,
+    Sadly bound them on his head,
+    Since he heard the flea was dead.
+    Then the Shepherd's mother dear,
+    Asked him why in desert drear,
+    He had torn in sorrow deep,
+    All the horns from all his sheep,
+    Sadly bound them on his head,
+    Just as though a friend was dead?
+    Said he, 'tis because the River,
+    Dried his waters up forever,
+    Since he saw the Wolf's despair,
+    When he shed his shaggy hair.
+    For the Palm tree he had seen,
+    Shedding all his branches green,
+    For he saw the glossy raven,
+    Looking so forlorn and craven,
+    As he dropped a downy feather,
+    Like the snow in winter weather.
+    He saw the brilliant bug weeping,
+    And his sad watch keeping,
+    Alas, Alas, Ah me!
+            Over the Noble Flea!
+    Mother sad began to cry,
+    Thrust her needle in her eye;
+    Could no longer see her thread,
+    Since she heard the flea was dead.
+    Then the Father grave and bland,
+    Hearing this, _cut off his hand_;
+    And the daughter, when she hears,
+    In despair, _cuts off her ears_;
+    And through the town deep grief is spread,
+    Because they heard the flea was dead.
+
+
+THE NURSERY RHYMES OF THE ARABS.
+
+Who is that singing in such a sweet plaintive voice in the room beneath
+our porch? It is the Sit Leila, wife of Sheikh Abbas, saying a lullaby
+to her little baby boy, Sheikh Fereed. We will sit on the porch in this
+bright moonlight, and listen while she sings:
+
+    Whoever loves you not,
+    My little baby boy;
+    May she be driven from her house,
+    And never know a joy!
+    May the "Ghuz" eat up her husband,
+    And the mouse her oil destroy!
+
+This is not very sweet language for a gentle lady to use to a little
+infant boy, but the Druze and Moslem women use this kind of imprecation
+in many of their nursery songs. Katrina says that many of the Greek and
+Maronite women sing them too. This young woman Laia, who sits here, has
+repeated for me not less than a hundred and twenty of these nursery
+rhymes, songs for weddings, funeral wails, etc. Some of the imprecations
+are dreadful.
+
+They seem to think that the best way to show their love to their babies,
+is to hate those who do not love them.
+
+Im Faris says she has heard this one in Hasbeiya, her birthplace:
+
+        O sleep to God, my child, my eyes,
+        Your heart no ill shall know;
+        Who loves you not as much as I,
+        May God her house o'erthrow!
+    May the mosque and the minaret, dome and all,
+    On her wicked head in anger fall!
+    May the Arabs rob her threshing floor,
+    And not one kernel remain in her store.
+
+The servant girl Nideh, who attends the Sit Leila, thinks that her turn
+has come, and she is singing,
+
+    We've the white and the red in our baby's cheeks,
+    In pounds and tons to spare;
+    But the black and the rust,
+    And the mould and the must,
+    For our neighbor's children are!
+
+I hope she does not refer to _us_ for we are her nearest neighbors. But
+in reality I do not suppose that they actually mean what they sing in
+these Ishmaelitic songs. Perhaps they do when they are angry, but they
+probably sing them ordinarily without thinking of their meaning at all.
+
+Sometimes snakes come down from the ceilings of these earth-roofed
+houses, and terrify the people. At other times government horsemen come
+and drag them off to prison, as they did in Safita. These things are
+referred to in this next song which Nideh is singing:
+
+    If she love you not, my boy,
+    May the Lord her life destroy!
+    Seven mules tread her down,
+    Drag her body through the town!
+    Snakes that from the ceiling hang,
+    Sting her dead with poison fang!
+    Soldiers from Damascus city,
+    Drag her off and shew no pity!
+    Nor release her for a day,
+    Though a thousand pounds she pay!
+
+That is about enough of imprecations, and it will be pleasanter to
+listen to Katrina, for she will sing us some of the sweetest of the
+Syrian Nursery Songs.
+
+    Sleep, my moon, my baby sleep!
+    The Pleiades bright their watches keep.
+    The Libra shines so fair and clear,
+    The stars are shining, hush my dear!
+
+There is not much music in the tunes they sing to these words. The airs
+generally are plaintive and monotonous, and have a sad and weary sound.
+
+Here is another:
+
+    My boy, my moon, I bid you good morrow!
+    Who wishes you peace shall know no sorrow!
+    Whom you salute, his earth is like heaven,
+    His care relieved, his sin forgiven!
+
+She says that last line is extravagant, and I think as much. The next
+one is a Moslem lullaby.
+
+    O Lord of the heavens, Knowing and Wise,
+    Preserve my Ali, the light of my eyes!
+    Lord of high heaven, Compassionate!
+    Keep my dear boy in every state!
+
+This one is used by the women of all the sects, but in all of the songs
+the name is changed to suit the name of the baby to whom the mother is
+singing,
+
+    Ali, your eyes are sleeping,
+    But God's eyes never sleep:
+    Their hours of lonely weeping
+    None can forever keep.
+    How sweet is the night of health,
+    When Ali sleeps in peace!
+    Oh may such nights continue,
+    Nor ever, ever cease!
+
+Among all the scores of nursery songs, I have heard only a very few
+addressed to _girls_, but some of these are beautiful. Hear Katrina sing
+this one:
+
+    Lulu dear the house is bright,
+    With your forehead's sunny light;
+    Men your father honor now
+    When they see your lovely brow.
+    If father comes home sad and weary,
+    Sight of you will make him cheery.
+
+The "fuller's soap" mentioned in Malachi 3:2, is the plant called in
+Arabic "Ashnan or Shenan," and the Arabs sometimes use it in the place
+of soap. The following is another song addressed to a baby girl:
+
+    Come Cameleer, as quick as you can,
+    And make us soap from the green "Shenan,"
+    To bathe our Lulu dear;
+    We'll wash her and dress her,
+    And then we'll caress her,
+    She'll sleep in her little sereer. (cradle)
+
+This song is sung by the Druze women to their baby girls:
+
+    Your eye is jet black, and dark are its lashes,
+    Between the arched brows, like a crescent it flashes;
+    When painted with "kohl" 'tis brighter by far,
+    Than the full-orbed moon or the morning star.
+
+The following is supposed to be addressed by a Druze woman to her
+neighbor who has a daughter of marriageable age, when she is obliged to
+veil her face:
+
+    Hide your daughter, veil her face,
+    Neighbor, do not tarry:
+    For my Hanna is of age,
+    Says he wants to marry.
+    When I asked about his choice,
+    Said he was not needy:
+    But that if he ever wed,
+    He thought he'd like Fereedy.
+
+The next one is also Druze and purely Oriental:
+
+    Two healths, one health,
+    Four healths more:
+    Four sacks of sesame seed,
+    Scattered on the floor;
+    Pick and count them one by one.
+    Reckon up their number;
+    For every seed wish Hassan's health.
+    Sweetly may he slumber!
+
+The Druze women delight in nothing so much as to have their sons ride
+fine horses:
+
+    My Yusef, my cup of sherbet sweet,
+    My broadcloth red hung over the street,
+    When you ride the blood mare with sword and pistol,
+    Your saddle is gold and your stirrups crystal.
+
+Katrina says that this little song is the morning salutation to baby
+boys:
+
+      Good morning now to you, Little boy!
+      Your face is like the dew, Little boy!
+    There never was a child, so merry and so mild,
+      So good morning once again, Little boy!
+
+This song is sung by the Druze women to their babes:
+
+    O Sparrow of Paradise,
+    Hush him to sleep?
+    Your feathers are "henna."
+    Watch him and keep!
+    Bring sleep soft and sweet
+    Upon your white wings!
+    For Hassan the pet
+    And his mother who sings!
+
+The apples of Damascus are noted throughout Syria, though we should
+regard them as very poor fruit:
+
+    What's he like? If any ask us,
+    Flowers and apples of Damascus;
+    Apples fragrant on the tray,
+    Roses sweet with scent of May.
+
+Laia says that the next one is sung by the Druze women to their baby
+boys:
+
+        I love you, I prize you, and for you I wish,
+        A hundred oak trees in the valley;
+        A hundred blood mares all tied in the court,
+        And ready for foray or sally.
+    Mount your horse, fly away, with your scarf flowing free,
+    The chiefs of the tribe will assemble;
+    Damascus, Aleppo, and Ghutah beside,
+    At the sound of your coming will tremble.
+
+Nejmeh says that the Bedawin women who come to Safita, her native place,
+often sing the following song:
+
+    Come little Bedawy, sit on my lap,
+    Pretty pearls shine in your little white cap,
+    Rings are in your ears,
+    Rings are in your nose,
+    Rings upon your fingers,
+    And "henna" on your toes.
+
+They use the "henna" to dye their hands, feet and finger nails, when a
+wedding or festive occasion occurs in the family.
+
+Katrina recalls another little song which she used to sing to Harry:
+
+    Welcome now, my baby dear,
+    Whence did you come?
+    Your voice is sweet,
+    What little feet!
+    Make yourself at home!
+
+Nideh, the Druze girl down stairs is ready with another song. She is
+rocking little Sheikh Fereed in his cradle, and says:
+
+    In your cradle sleep my boy,
+    Rest from all your labor;
+    May El Hakim, heaven's God,
+    Ever be your neighbor!
+
+It makes me feel sad to hear a poor woman praying to a man. This El
+Hakim was a man, and a bad man too, who lived many hundred years ago,
+and now the Druzes regard him as their God. But what difference is there
+between worshipping Hakim as the Druzes do, and worshipping Mary and
+Joseph as the Greeks and Maronites do. Laia says the Maronites down in
+the lower part of this village sing the following song:
+
+    Hillu, Hillu, Hallelujah!
+    Come my wild gazelles!
+    He who into trouble falls
+    On the Virgin Mother calls;
+    To Damascus she's departing,
+    All the mountain monks are starting.
+    Come my priest and come my deacon,
+    Bring the censer and the beacon,
+    We will celebrate the Mass,
+    In the Church of Mar Elias;
+    Mar Elias, my neighbor dear,
+    You must be deaf if you did not hear.
+
+Sit Leila sings:
+
+    I love you my boy, and this is the proof,
+    I wish that you had all the wealth of the "Shoof,"
+    Hundreds of costly silken bales,
+    Hundreds of ships with lofty sails.
+    Hundreds of towns to obey your word,
+    And thousands of thousands to call you lord!
+
+Katrina is ready to sing again:
+
+    I will sing to you,
+    God will bring to you,
+    All you need, my dear:
+    He's here and there,
+    He is everywhere,
+    And to you He's ever near.
+
+People say that every baby that is born into the world is thought by its
+mother to be better than any other ever born. The Arab women think so
+too, and this is the way they sing it:
+
+    One like you was never born,
+    One like you was never brought;
+    All the Arabs might grow old,
+    Fighting ne'er so brave and bold,
+    Yet with all their battles fought
+    One like you they never caught.
+
+Im Faris asks if we would not like to hear some of the rhymes the Arab
+women sing when playing with their children. Here are some of them. The
+first one you will think is like what you have already seen in "Mother
+Goose."
+
+    Blacksmith, blacksmith, shoe the mare,
+    Shoe the colt with greatest care;
+    Hold the shoe and drive the nail,
+    Else your labor all will fail;
+    Shoe a donkey for Seleem,
+    And a colt for Ibraheem.
+
+Sugar cane grows luxuriantly in Syria, and it was first taken from
+Tripoli, Syria, to Spain, and thence to the West Indies and America. But
+all they do with it now in Syria, is to suck it. It is cut up in pieces
+and sold to the people, old and young, who peel it and suck it. So the
+Arab women sing to their children:
+
+    Pluck it and suck it, the green sugar cane,
+    Whatever is sweet is costly and vain;
+    He'll cut you a joint as long as a span,
+    And charge two piastres. Now buy if you can!
+
+Wered says she will sing us two or three which they use in teaching the
+little Arab babies to "pat" their hands:
+
+    Patty cake, baby! Make him dance!
+    May his age increase and his years advance!
+    May his life like the rock, long years endure,
+    Overgrown with lilies, so sweet and pure!
+
+And now the Sit Leila is singing again one of the Druze lullabys:
+
+    Tish for two, Tish for two!
+    A linen shirt with a border blue!
+    With cloth that the little pedler sells,
+    For the father of eyes like the little gazelles!
+    Your mother will weave and spin and twine,
+    To clothe you so nicely O little Hassein!
+
+Do you hear the jackals crying as they come up out of the valley? Their
+cry is like the voice of the cat and dog mingled together, and Im Faris
+knows some of the ditties which they sing to their children about the
+jackals and their fondness for chickens:
+
+    You cunning rogues beware!
+    You jackals with the long hair!
+    You ate up the chickens of old Katrin,
+    And ran away singing like wild Bedawin.
+
+It is not pleasant to have so many fleas annoying us all the time, but
+we must not be more anxious to keep the fleas out than to get the people
+in, and as the fellaheen come to see us, they will be likely to _flea_
+us too. Safita is famous for fleas, so no wonder that Nejmeh knows the
+following song of the boys about fleas:
+
+    I caught and killed a hopping flea,
+    His sister's children came to me:
+    One with drum my ears did pierce,
+    One was fluting loud and fierce,
+    Then they danced me, made me sing,
+    Like a monkey in a ring.
+    Come O Deeby, come I pray,
+    Bring the Doctor right away!
+    Peace on your heart feel no alarm,
+    You have not had the slightest harm.
+
+Laia is never at a loss for something new, and I am amazed at her
+memory. She will give us some rhyming riddles in Arabic, and we will put
+them into English as best we may. The first is about the _Ant_:
+
+    'Tis black as night,
+    But it is not night:
+    Like a bird it has wings,
+    But it never sings:
+    It digs through the house,
+    But it is not a mouse:
+    It eats barley and grass,
+    But it is not an ass.
+
+Riddle about a _gun_:
+
+    A featherless bird flew over the sea,
+    A bird without feathers, how can that be?
+    A beautiful bird which I admire,
+    With wooden feet and a head of fire!
+
+Riddle on _salt_:
+
+    O Arab tribes, so bold and gay,
+    What little grain have you to-day?
+    It never on the trees is seen,
+    Nor on the flowers and wheat so green.
+    Its source is pure, 'tis pleasant to eat,
+    From water it comes that is not sweet,
+    Though from water it comes, and there's water in it,
+    You put it in water, it dies in a minute.
+
+The door has opened down stairs, and some of Sit Leila's friends have
+come to see her. The moment they saw the little baby Fereed, they all
+began to call out, "Ism Allah alayhee," "The name of Allah upon him."
+They use this expression to keep off the Evil Eye. This superstition is
+universal throughout Western Asia, Northern Africa, and exists also in
+Italy and Spain. Dr. Meshaka of Damascus says that those who believe in
+the Evil Eye, "think that certain people have the power of killing
+others by a glance of the eye. Others inflict injury by the eye. Others
+pick grapes by merely looking at them. This power may rest in _one_ eye,
+and one man who thought he had this power, _veiled one eye_, out of
+compassion for others! The Moslem Sheikhs and others profess to cure the
+evil eye, and prevent its evil effects by writing mystic talismanic
+words on papers, which are to be worn. Others write the words on an egg,
+and then strike the forehead of the evil eyed with the egg."
+
+Whenever a new house is built, the workmen hang up an egg shell or a
+piece of alum, or an old root, or a donkey's skull, in the front door,
+to keep off the evil eye. Moslem women leave their children ragged and
+dirty to keep people from admiring them, and thus smiting them with the
+evil eye. They think that blue eyes are especially dangerous.
+
+They think that the name of God or Allah is a charm against evil, and
+when they repeat it, they have no idea of reverence for that Holy Name.
+
+Here is a terrible imprecation against a woman who smites with the Evil
+Eye:
+
+    May her hand be thrust in her mouth,
+    And her eyes be burned in the fire!
+    The blessings of Mighty God,
+    Preserve you from her ire!
+
+Nideh sings
+
+    Upon you the name of Allah,
+    Around you Allah's eye!
+    May the Evil Eye be blinded,
+    And never harm my boy!
+
+It is ten o'clock at night, and Katrina, Laia, Wered, and Handumeh say
+it is time to go. Handumeh insists that we come to her wedding
+to-morrow. Amin will go with them to drive away the dogs, and see that
+no wolves, hyenas, or leopards attack them by the way.
+
+
+
+
+PART VII.
+
+
+The boys of Abeih are early risers. What a merry laugh they have! What
+new song is that they are singing now?
+
+There has been a shower in the night and Yusef and Khalil are singing
+about the rain. We say in English "_it_ rains" but the Arabs tell us
+what "it" refers to. They say "The world rains," "The world snows," "The
+world is coming down," "The world thunders and lightens." So you will be
+able to tell your teacher, when he asks you to parse "it rains," that
+"_it_" is a pronoun referring to "world." Hear them sing:
+
+    Rain, O world, all day and night,
+    We will wash our clothing white.
+    Rain, O world, your waters shed,
+    On my dear grandmother's head.
+
+The sun shines out now, and Khalil says the "world has got well" again,
+so he sings:
+
+    Shines the sun with brightest beam
+    On the roof of Im Seleem;
+    Now the bear will dance a reel,
+    On the roof of Im Khaleel.
+
+The roofs of the houses are low and flat, and on the hill-sides you can
+walk from the street above upon the roof of the houses below. I once
+lived in a house in Duma in which the cattle, donkeys, and sheep used to
+walk on our roof every evening as they came in from pasture. It was not
+very pleasant to be awakened at midnight by a cow-fight on the roof, and
+have the stones and dirt rattling down into our faces, but we could get
+no other house, and had to make the best of it. You can understand then
+Khalil's song:
+
+    The sun is rising all so bright
+    Upon the Pasha's daughter:
+    See her toss the tassels blue,
+    As her mother taught her.
+    Turn the oxen on the roof
+    Of the village priest;
+    He will kill them one and all,
+    And give the poor a feast.
+
+The boys seem to be in high glee. They all know Handumeh and her
+betrothed Shaheen Ma'ttar, so they are swinging and singing in honor of
+her wedding.
+
+But the time has come for the wedding, and we will go over to Ain Kesur,
+about a mile away, and join in the bridal procession. As we come near
+the house we hear the women inside singing. They have been dressing the
+bride, and after she is dressed they lead her around and try to make her
+dance. Perhaps they will let us see how she is dressed. Her head is
+covered with a head-dress of pink gauze, embroidered with gold thread
+and purple chenille, and ornamented with pearl beads and artificial
+flowers, and over all a long white gauze veil trimmed with lace. Her
+ear-rings are gold filigree work with pendant pearls, and around her
+neck is a string of pure amber beads and a gold necklace. She wears a
+jacket of black velvet, and a gilt belt embroidered with blue, and
+fastened with a silver gilt filigree buckle in the form of a bow knot
+with pendants. On her finger is a gold ring set with sapphire, and
+others with turquoises and amethysts. Her dress is of brown satin, and
+on her arms are solid gold bracelets which cost 1400 piastres or
+fifty-six dollars. You know Handumeh is not a rich girl, and her
+betrothed is a hard working muleteer, and he has had to work very hard
+to get the money to buy all these things, for it is the custom for the
+bridegroom to pay for the bride's outfit. The people always lay out
+their money in jewelry because it is easily carried, and easily buried
+in time of civil wars and troubles in the land. Shaheen's brothers and
+relatives have come to take her to Abeih, but he is nowhere to be seen.
+It would not be proper for him to come to her house. For weeks she has
+not been over to Abeih, except to invite us to her wedding, and when
+Anna asked her on what day she was to be married, she professed not to
+know anything about it. They think it is not modest for a bride to care
+anything about the wedding, and she will try to appear unwilling to go
+when they are ready to start. The women are singing now:
+
+    Dance, our bride so fair,
+    Dance and never care;
+    Your bracelets sing, your anklets ring,
+    Your shining beauty would dazzle a king!
+    To Damascus your father a journey has made,
+    And your bridegroom's name is Abu Zeid.
+
+And now the young men outside are dancing and fencing, and they all join
+in singing:
+
+    Dance, my dancer, early and late,
+    Would I had like you seven or eight;
+    Two uncles like you, blithe and gay,
+    To stand at my back in the judgment day!
+
+And now the young men, relatives of the bridegroom, address the brother
+of the bride, as her father is not living, and they all sing:
+
+    O brother of the bride, on a charger you should ride;
+    A Councillor of State you should be;
+    Whene'er you lift your voice,
+    The judgment halls rejoice,
+    And the earth quakes with fear
+    From Acre to Ghuzeer.
+
+And now the warlike Druzes, who are old friends of Shaheen and his
+father, wish to show their good will by singing a wedding song, which
+they have borrowed from the old wild inhabitants of this land of
+Canaan:
+
+    O brother of the bride, your mare has gnawed her bridle,
+    Run for the blacksmith, do not be idle.
+    She has run to the grave where are buried your foes,
+    And pawed out their hearts with her iron shoes!
+
+But the time has come for the procession to move, and we go along slowly
+enough. The bride rides a mare, led by one of Shaheen's brothers, and as
+we pass the fountain, the people pour water under the mare's feet as a
+libation, and Handumeh throws down a few little copper coins to the
+children. The women in the company set up the zilagheet, a high piercing
+trill of the voice, and all goes merry as a marriage bell. When we reach
+the house of Shaheen, he keeps out of sight, not even offering to help
+his bride dismount from her horse. That would never do. He will stay
+among the men, and she in a separate room among the women, until the
+hour of the ceremony arrives.
+
+But the women are singing again, and this time the song is really
+beautiful in Arabic, but I fear I have made lame work of it in the
+translation:
+
+    Allah, belaly, belaly,
+    Allah, belaly, belaly,
+    May God spare the life of your sire,
+    Our lovely gazelle of the valley!
+        May Allah his riches increase
+        He has brought you so costly a dowry;
+        The moonlight has gone from his house,
+        The rose from his gardens so flow'ry.
+        Run away, rude men, turn aside,
+        Give place to our beautiful bride:
+        From her sweet perfumes I am sighing,
+        From the odor of musk I am dying.
+    Come and join us fair maid, they have brought you your dress,
+    Leave your peacocks and doves, give our bride a caress;
+    Red silk! crimson silk! the weaver cries as he goes:
+    But our bride's cheeks are redder blushing bright as the rose.
+    Dark silk! black silk! hear him now as he sings:
+    But our bride's hair is black, like the raven's dark wings;
+    With the light of our eyes with our Handumeh sweet
+    No maid of the Druzes can ever compete.
+    She is worth all the wealth of the Lebanon domain,
+    All the vineyards and olives, the silk worms and grain.
+    And no maids of the Christians can with her compare
+    Tho' shining with pearls and with jewels so rare.
+
+The house is now crowded full, the men being all in one room with
+Shaheen, and the women in the other room, and the court with the bride
+Handumeh. One of Shaheen's brothers comes around with a kumkum, and
+sprinkles orange flower water in all our faces, and Khalil asks us if we
+wish the ceremony to take place now? We tell him that he must ask the
+bride and groom. So Abu Shaheen comes into the court with the old priest
+Eklemandus, as Shaheen's family belong to the Greek Catholic sect.
+Handumeh is really a Protestant, and Shaheen has nothing to do with the
+priests, but the "old folks" had their way about it. A white curtain
+hangs across the court, and the bride stands on one side, with her
+bridesmaid, and all the women and girls, and on the other side is the
+priest with Shaheen, and all of the men and boys. Then candles were
+distributed, and lighted, and the old priest adjusted his robes and
+began to read the marriage service. An assistant stood by his side
+looking over his shoulder, and responding Amen in a loud and long drawn
+voice. At length the priest called out to him, "A little shorter there
+on those Amens. We don't want long Amens at a wedding!" This set the
+whole crowd laughing, and on he went reading passages of Scripture,
+prayers and advice to the bride and bridegroom in the most hasty and
+trifling manner, intoning it through his nose, so that no one could
+understand what he was saying. While he was reading from the gospel
+about the marriage at Cana of Galilee, a small boy, holding a lighted
+candle, came very near burning off the old man's beard, and he called
+out to him, "Put out your candle! You have tormented my life out of me
+with that candle." This raised another laugh, and on he read. Then he
+took two rings, and drawing aside the curtain, placed one on the bride's
+head, and the other on the bridegroom's head, pronouncing them man and
+wife, and then gave them each a sip of wine and the ceremony was
+concluded, all the men kissing Shaheen, and the women Handumeh.
+Refreshments were then served to the guests from the village, and a
+dinner to those from other villages. In the evening there assembled a
+great company in Shaheen's house, and the hour was given up to story
+telling. Saleh, whose brother married Shaheen's sister, will begin with
+the _Story of the Goats and the Ghoul_.
+
+Once there was a Nanny Goat, strong and powerful, with long and strong
+horns, and once upon a time she brought forth twin kids, fair and
+beautiful. One was named _Sunaisil_, and the other Rabab. Now the Nanny
+Goat went out every morning to the pasture, leaving her twin kids in the
+cave. She shut the door carefully, and they locked it on the inside
+through fear of the Ghoul, for her neighbor in the next house was a
+Ghoul who swallowed little children alive. Then at evening when she came
+home, she would stand outside the door, and sing to her twin kids this
+little song:
+
+    Hearken now Sunaisil,
+    Come Rabab my dear:
+    Open to your mother,
+    Never, never fear.
+    She has sweet milk in her udder.
+    Tufts of grass upon her horn;
+    She'll give you both your supper,
+    And breakfast in the morn.
+
+The little twin kids would know her voice, open the door in gladness,
+and eat a hearty supper, and after hearing a nice story from the
+Anziyeh, (for so their mother was called), drop off to sweet sleep.
+
+Now all things went on well for some time, until one day the Ghoul
+neighbor being very hungry for a supper of twin kids, came to the door
+of the cave and tried to push it open. But it was too strong for her, so
+she went away in perplexity. At length she thought she would sing to
+them the very song, which the Nanny Goat sang to them every evening on
+her return, so she sang it:
+
+    Hearken now Sunaisil,
+    Come Rabab, my dear, etc., etc.
+
+and when they heard this song, they opened the door with gladness to eat
+their supper, when suddenly the Ghoul sprang upon them with her huge
+mouth open, and swallowed them both down at once. She then shut the door
+and fastened it as it was before, and went on her way. At evening the
+Nanny Goat came home with milk and grass for her twin kids' supper, and
+knocked at the door and sang:
+
+    Hearken now Sunaisil,
+    Come Rabab my dear, etc., etc.,
+
+as usual, but no one opened the door. Then she knocked and sang again,
+and at length she gave up all hope of their opening the door, and butted
+against the door with her horns and broke it open. She then entered the
+cave but there were no twin kids there. All was still. Then she knew
+that the Ghoul had eaten them. So she hastened to the house of the
+Ghoul, and went upon the top of the house, and began to stamp and pound
+upon the roof. The Ghoul, hearing the stamping upon the roof, called
+out, whosoever stamps on my roof, may Allah stamp on his roof! The Nanny
+Goat replied, I am on your roof; I, whose children you have eaten. Come
+out now, and we will fight it out by butting our heads together. Very
+well, said the Ghoul, only wait a little until I can make me a pair of
+horns like you. So the goat waited, and away went the Ghoul to make her
+horns. She made two horns of dough and dried them in the sun until they
+were hard, and then came to "butt" with the goat. At the first shock,
+when the goat butted her with her horns, the horns of dough broke all to
+pieces; then the goat butted her again in her bowels and broke her in
+twain, and out jumped Sunaisil and Rabab, frisking and leaping and
+calling out "ya imme," oh, my mother, Oh, my mother! The Ghoul being
+dead they had no more fear, and lived long and happy lives with their
+mother the Anaziyeh.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Did you notice how the little boys listened to Saleh's story of the
+Goats and the Ghoul? This story is told by the mothers to their little
+children, all over Syria, in the tents of the Bedawin and in the houses
+of the citizens. One of the women, named Noor, (_i.e._ Light), a sister
+of the bridegroom, says she will tell the children the story of the
+Hamam, the Butta, the Wez, and the Hamar, that is, of the Dove, the
+Duck, the Goose, and the Donkey, if all will sit still on the floor. So
+all the little boys and girls curl their feet under them and fold their
+arms, and Noor begins:
+
+Once the Dove, the Duck, the Goose, and the Donkey joined company and
+agreed to live together. Then they took counsel about their means of
+living, and said, how long shall we continue in such distress for our
+necessary food? Come let us plough a piece of ground, and plant each one
+such seeds as are suited to his taste. So they ploughed a piece of
+ground and sowed the seed. The Goose planted rice, the Duck planted
+wheat, the Dove planted pulse, and the Donkey planted barley, and they
+stationed the Donkey on guard to watch the growing crop. Now when the
+seeds began to grow and flourish, and the Donkey looked upon it green
+and bright and waving in the wind, he arose and ate it all, and then
+went and threw himself into a ditch near by. Then came the Dove, the
+Goose, and the Duck to survey the growing crop, and lo and behold, it
+was all eaten up, and the ground was red and barren. Then said they,
+where is the Donkey whom we set on guard over our crop? They searched
+near and far, and at length they found him standing in the ditch, and
+they asked him where are the crops we so carefully planted and set you
+to watch? Then said the Donkey, the Bedawin came with their flocks of
+sheep and pastured them on our crops, and when I tried to resist, they
+threw me into this ditch. Then they replied, it is false, you have eaten
+it yourself. He said, I did not. They said, yes, you did, for you are
+sleek and fat, and the contest waxed hot between them, until at length
+they all agreed to make each one swear an oath "by the life of the
+Lake," which was near at hand, and whoever swore the oath, and sprang
+into the Lake without falling, should be declared innocent. So the Dove
+went down first and said:
+
+    Ham, Ham, Ham, I am the Dove Hamam,
+    Ham, Ham, Ham, My food is the plain Kotan, (pulse),
+    Ham, Ham, Ham, If I ate the growing crop,
+                 May I suddenly throw it up!
+                 May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
+                 And none any news of me ever take!
+
+Then the Dove leaped into the Lake, and flew to the limb of a tree on
+the shore, and was proved innocent.
+
+Then the Duck went down and said:
+
+    But But, But, I am the Butta Duck,
+    But, But, But, My food is wheat and muck;
+    But, But, But, If I ate the growing crop,
+                 May I suddenly throw it up!
+                 May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
+                 And none any news of me ever take!
+
+So the Duck leaped into the Lake, and then flew to the limb of a tree on
+the shore and was proved innocent.
+
+Then the Goose went down and said:
+
+    Wez, Wez, Wez, I am the Goose and the Wez,
+    Wez, Wez, Wez, I eat Egyptian riz, (rice),
+    Wez, Wez, Wez, If I ate the growing crop,
+                 May I suddenly throw it up!
+                 May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
+                 And none any news of me ever take!
+
+So the Goose leaped into the Lake and then flew to the limb of a tree on
+the shore and was proved innocent.
+
+Then the Donkey went down and said:
+
+    Hak, Hak, Hak, I am the Donkey Jack,
+    Hak, Hak, Hak, I barley eat by the sack:
+    Hak, Hak, Hak, If I ate the growing crop,
+                 May I suddenly throw it up!
+                 May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
+                 And none any news of me ever take!
+
+Then the Donkey leaped boldly into the Lake, and down he fell, and his
+feet stuck fast in the mud and mire. Then his three companions, seeing
+him proved guilty of the crime, flew away and left him to his fate. Then
+the Donkey began to "bray" for mercy, and called at the top of his
+voice:
+
+                  Whoever will help me out of this plight,
+                  May eat my tail at a single bite!
+    The Bear heard the braying,
+    And without long delaying,
+    He answered by saying:
+                Long eared Donkey will you pay,
+                Every word of what you say?
+                If I save you by my might,
+                Will you stand still while I bite?
+    The lying Ass lay still,
+    And answered, "Yes, I will."
+                The Bear then gave a fearful roar,
+                And dragged the Donkey to the shore,
+                And said, I saved you from your plight,
+                Now stand still, Donkey, while I bite!
+    He said: Wait Bruin till I rest,
+    And "smell the air" from East to West,
+    And then I'll run with all my might,
+    And turn my tail for you to bite!
+                Then Bruin took him at his word
+                Away he went swift as a bird,
+                And called out, now Bruin, I will rest,
+                I'll smell the air from East to West,
+                I'm running now with all my might,
+                I've "turned my tail" for you to bite!
+    The Bear resolved in grief and pain,
+    He'd never help an Ass again.
+
+Abu Habeeb, who is just about to enter the college, has a story which
+all the Arabs know, and love to hear. It is called:
+
+The Lion and Ibn Adam, that is, the Lion and Man, the son of Adam.
+
+Once there was a Lion who had a son, and he always charged him, saying,
+my son, beware of Ibn Adam. But at length the old Lion died, and the
+young lion resolved that he would search through the world and see that
+wonderful animal called Ibn Adam, of whom his father had so often warned
+him. So out he went from his cave, and walked to and fro in the
+wilderness. At length he saw a huge animal coming towards him, with long
+crooked legs and neck, and running at the top of his speed. It was a
+Camel. But when the Lion saw his enormous size and rapid pace, he said,
+surely, this must be Ibn Adam himself. So he ran towards him and roared
+a fearful roar. Stop where you are! The Camel stopped, trembling with
+fear of the Lion. Said the Lion, are you Ibn Adam? No, said the Camel, I
+am a Camel fleeing from Ibn Adam. Said the Lion, and what did Ibn Adam
+do to you that you should flee from him? The Camel said, he loaded me
+with heavy burdens, and beat me cruelly, and when I found a fit chance,
+I fled from him to this wilderness. Said the Lion, is Ibn Adam stronger
+than you are? Yes indeed, many times stronger. Then the Lion was filled
+with terror, lest he too should fall into the hands of Ibn Adam, and he
+left the Camel to go his way in peace. After a little while, an Ox
+passed by, and the Lion said, _this_ must be Ibn Adam. But he found that
+he too was fleeing from the yoke and the goad of Ibn Adam. Then he met a
+Horse running fleet as the wind, and he said, this swift animal must be
+the famous Ibn Adam, but the Horse too was running away from the halter,
+the bridle the spur or the harness of the terrible Ibn Adam. Then he met
+a mule, a donkey, a buffalo and an elephant, and all were running in
+terror of Ibn Adam. The Lion thought what terrible monster must he be to
+have struck terror into all these monstrous animals! And on he went
+trembling, until hunger drove him to a forest to seek for prey to eat.
+While he was searching through the forest, lo and behold, a Carpenter
+was at work cutting wood. The Lion wondered at his curious form, and
+said, who knows but this may be Ibn Adam? So he came near and asked him
+saying, Are you Ibn Adam? He replied, I am. Then the Lion roared a
+fearful roar, and said, prepare for battle with the Lion, the king of
+beasts! Then Ibn Adam said: What do you want of me? Said the Lion, I
+want to devour you. Very well, said the Carpenter, wait until I can get
+my claws ready. I will go and take this wood yonder, and then I will
+return and fight you. If you kill me, eat me, and if I conquer you I
+will let you go, for we the sons of Adam do not eat the flesh of wild
+beasts, nor do we kill them, but we let them go. The Lion was deceived
+by those artful words, for he had seen the Camel and his companions
+running away, and he thought within himself, now, if Ibn Adam did really
+eat the flesh of beasts, he would not have let the Camel and the Horse,
+the Buffalo and the Mule escape into the desert. So he said to the
+Carpenter very well, I will wait for you to take the wood, and return
+with your claws. Not so, said the Carpenter, I am afraid that you will
+not wait for me. You are a stranger, and I do not trust your word. I
+fear you will run away before I return. Said the Lion, it is impossible
+that the Lion should run away from any one. Said the Carpenter, I cannot
+admit what you say, unless you will grant me one thing. And what is
+that, said the Lion. The Carpenter said, I have here a little rope. Come
+let me tie you to this tree until I return, and then I shall know where
+to find you. The Lion agreed to this plan, and the Carpenter bound him
+with ropes to the tree until he and the tree were one compact bundle.
+Then the Carpenter went away to his shop, and brought his glue pot, and
+filling it with glue and pitch boiled it over the fire. Then he returned
+and besmeared the Lion with the boiling mixture from his head to the end
+of his tail, and applied a torch until he was all in a flame from head
+to tail, and in this plight the Carpenter left him. Then the Lion roared
+in agony until the whole forest echoed the savage roar, and all the
+animals and wild beasts came running together to see what had happened.
+And when they saw him in this sad plight, they rushed to him and loosed
+his bonds, and he sprang to the river and extinguished the flames, but
+came out singed and scarred, with neither hair nor mane. Now when all
+the beasts saw this pitiable sight, they made a covenant together to
+kill Ibn Adam. So they watched and waited day and night, until at length
+they found him in the forest. As soon as he saw them, he ran to a lofty
+tree, and climbed to its very top, taking only his adze with him, and
+there awaited his fate. The whole company of beasts now gathered around
+the foot of the tree, and tried in vain to climb it, and after they
+walked around and around, at length they agreed that one should stand at
+the foot of the tree, and another on his back, and so on, until the
+upper one should reach Ibn Adam, and throw him down to the ground. Now
+the Lion whose back was burned and blistered, from his great fear of man
+demanded that he should stand at the bottom of the tree. To this all
+agreed. Then the Camel mounted upon the Lion's back, the Horse upon the
+Camel, the Buffalo upon the Horse, the Bear upon the Buffalo, the Wolf
+upon the bear, and the Donkey upon the Wolf, and so on in order, until
+the topmost animal was almost within reach of the Carpenter, Ibn Adam.
+Now, when he saw the animals coming nearer and nearer, and almost ready
+to seize him, he shouted at the top of his voice. Bring the glue pot of
+boiling pitch to the Lion! Hasten! Hasten! Now when the Lion heard of
+the boiling pitch, he was terrified beyond measure and leaped one side
+with all his might and fled. Down came the pile of beasts, tumbling in
+confusion, the one upon the other, and all lay groaning bruised and
+bleeding, some with broken legs, some with broken ribs, and some with
+broken heads. But as soon as the clamor of their first agony was over,
+they all called out to the Lion, why did you leap out and bring all
+this misery upon us! The Lion replied:
+
+    The story's point he never knew,
+    Who never felt the burning glue!
+
+Monsoor, who has just been to Damascus, says that if he can have another
+pipe, and a cup of Arab coffee, he will tell the story of the famous Jew
+Rufaiel of Damascus. So he begins:
+
+The story of Rufaiel, the rich Jew of Damascus, and the Moslem Dervish.
+
+Once there lived in Damascus a rich Jew named Rufaiel. He had great
+wealth in marble palaces and rich silk robes, and well stored bazaars,
+and his wife and daughters were clad in velvets and satins, in gold and
+precious stones. He had also great wit and cunning, and often helped his
+fellow Jews out of their troubles. Now the Pasha of Damascus was a
+Mohammedan, who had a superstitious fear of the holy Moslem Dervishes,
+and they could persuade him to tax and oppress the Jews in the most
+cruel manner. In those days there came to Damascus a holy Dervish who
+had long, uncombed black hair, and although he was a vile and wicked
+man, he made the people believe that he was a holy saint, and could
+perform wonderful miracles. The Pasha held him in great reverence, and
+invited him often to dinner, and when he came in, he would stoop and
+kiss the Dervish's feet! And what was most wonderful of all, the Dervish
+left Damascus every Thursday night after bidding the Pasha farewell, and
+journeyed to Mecca and returned in the morning and told the Pasha all
+the Mecca news and what he had seen and heard. This he did every week,
+though all wise men laughed at him, and said he only went out of the
+City Gate and slept in the gardens of Damascus!
+
+Now the Dervish was a great enemy of the Jews. He hated them, cursed
+them, spat upon them, and called them infidel dogs, and he persuaded the
+Pasha to increase their taxes fourfold. Their sufferings now became very
+great. They had to sell their houses and furniture to pay the heavy
+taxes, and many were beaten and thrust into prison. So the leading Jews
+in their distress came to Rufaiel, and begged him to go to the Pasha and
+obtain relief for them and their families. He said he would think about
+the matter. So after they had gone, he called the chief jeweller and
+pipe maker of the city, and ordered them to make a long pipe of
+exquisite workmanship, with a stem of rosewood carved and inlaid with
+pearls, a bowl of pure gold set with diamonds, and a mouth-piece of gold
+and amber. Then he went one day to call on the Pasha, and made him a
+present of this elegant pipe, the like of which had never been seen in
+Damascus. The Pasha was greatly pleased and ordered all in his presence
+to retire that he might enjoy the society of Rufaiel, the munificent
+Jew. Then Rufaiel turned to the Pasha and said, "may your Excellency
+live forever! I have brought you this pipe as a faint token of my high
+esteem and affection, but I am filled with deepest sorrow that it is not
+perfect." "Not perfect?" said the Pasha. "In what respect could it be
+more perfect than what it is?" Said Rufaiel, "you will notice that
+between the amber and the gold of the mouth-piece a little ring is
+wanting. This ring was the very gem and excellence of the pipe. It was
+cut from the Black Stone of the Kaaba in Mecca, and has miraculous
+properties. But when the pipe was brought from Mecca, the ring was left
+with Mustafa, the jeweller, who is ready to send it by the first fit
+opportunity." "Alas," said the Pasha, "but how can we send for it now?
+The Pilgrim caravan has gone, and there will be none again for a year."
+"Oh," said Rufaiel, "this is easily arranged. To-day is Thursday, and
+to-night the holy Dervish will go to Mecca and return to-morrow morning.
+Your Excellency need only command him to bring the black ring, and
+before this time to-morrow the pipe will be complete in its beauty and
+excellency." "El Hamdu Lillah! Praise to Allah! It shall be done!" So
+when Rufaiel had gone, the Pasha summoned the Dervish, and told him of
+this wonderful pipe which had come to him from Mecca, and that it only
+needed the black ring to make it absolutely perfect, and that he was
+hereby commanded on pain of death to bring the ring from Mecca before
+Friday at the hour of noon prayer. The Dervish bowed most obeisantly and
+retired black in the face with rage and despair. But it occurred to him
+at once that none in Damascus but Rufaiel could have purchased such a
+pipe. So he left the City Gate, called the Bab Allah, or Gate of God, at
+sunset, bidding his friends farewell, and walked away in the gardens
+until night came on. Then, at the sixth hour of the night he returned
+by another gate, and crept along to the door of the mansion of Rufaiel.
+The door was opened, and Rufaiel received him with great politeness. The
+Dervish fell on the floor and kissed his feet and begged for his life.
+Said he, "give me that black ring which belongs to the Pasha's pipe, and
+we will be friends forever! Ask what you will and it shall be done to
+you. Only give me this ring." Said Rufaiel, "you have ruined my people
+with oppression, and now do you ask a favor?" "Yes," said the Dervish,
+"and you shall have any favor you ask." So Rufaiel thought to himself a
+moment, and then said, "I ask one thing. Do you obtain from the Pasha an
+order on all the tax collectors of Damascus, that when any Jew shall
+say, _I am one of the Seventy_, the collector shall pass him by, and no
+tax ever be demanded of him." "Done," said the Dervish, and embracing
+Rufaiel, he bade him good-night. Then in the morning he hastened in at
+Bab Allah, and presented the ring to the Pasha, who was so delighted
+that he granted his request, and orders were given that no tax should
+ever be collected from any Jew who should say "I am one of the Seventy."
+Then Rufaiel assembled all the Jews of Damascus, and bade them say to
+the tax-gatherers whenever they came, "_I am one of the Seventy_." So
+the Jews had rest from taxation, all the days of Rufaiel.
+
+Saleh Bu Nusr, one of the best men in Mount Lebanon, and the father of
+Khalil, who brought us the list of Arab boys' games, has already told us
+the story of the Goats and the Ghoul, and he says that the savory odor
+of the egg plant being cooked for the wedding guests, reminds him of the
+story of the Badinjan or Egg Plant.
+
+Once there was a great Emir or Prince who had a very abject and
+obsequious servant named Deeb (Wolf). One day Deeb brought to the Emir
+for his dinner a dish of stewed badinjan, which pleased the Emir so much
+that he complimented Deeb, and told him that it was the best dinner he
+had eaten for months. Deeb bowed to the earth and kissed the feet of the
+Emir, and said, "may God prolong the life of your excellency! Your
+excellency knows what is good. There is nothing like the badinjan. It is
+the best of vegetables. Its fruit is good, its leaf is good, its stalk
+is good, and its root is good. It is good roasted, stewed, boiled,
+fried, and even raw. It is good for old and young. Your excellency,
+there is nothing like the badinjan." Now the Emir was unusually hungry,
+and ate so bountifully of the badinjan that he was made very ill. So he
+sent for Deeb, and rebuked him sharply, saying, "you rascal, you Deeb,
+your name is Wolf, and you are rightly named. This badinjan which you
+praised so highly has almost killed me." "Exactly so," said Deeb, "may
+your excellency live forever! The badinjan is the vilest of plants. It
+is never eaten without injury. Its fruit is injurious, its leaf is
+injurious, its stalk is noxious, and its root is the vilest of all. It
+is not fit 'ajell shanak Allah,' for the pigs to eat, whether raw,
+roasted, stewed, boiled or fried. It is injurious to the young and
+dangerous to the old. Your excellency, there is nothing so bad as the
+badinjan! Never touch the badinjan!"--"Out with you, you worthless
+fellow, you Deeb! What do you mean by praising the badinjan when I
+praise it, and abusing it when it injures me?" "Ah, your excellency,"
+said Deeb, "am I the servant of the badinjan, or the servant of your
+excellency? I must say what pleases you, but it makes no difference
+whether I please the badinjan or not."
+
+The wedding party is now over, and the guests are departing. Each one on
+leaving says, "by your pleasure, good evening!" The host answers, "go in
+peace, you have honored us." The guests reply, "we have been honored,
+Allah give the newly married ones an arees," (a bridegroom). They would
+not dare wish that Shaheen and Handumeh might some day have a little
+baby _girl_. That would be thought an insult.
+
+We will walk up the hill to our mountain home, passing the fountain and
+the great walnut trees. Here comes a horseman. It is Ali, who has been
+spending a month among the Bedawin Arabs. He will come up and stay with
+us, and tell us of his adventures. He says that the Sit Harba, the wife
+of the great Arab Sheikh ed Dukhy, taught him a number of the Bedawin
+Nursery Songs, and although he is weary with his journey, he will repeat
+some of them in Arabic.
+
+They are all about camels and spears and fighting and similar subjects,
+and no wonder, as they see nothing else, and think of nothing else.
+
+    To-morrow is the feast day,
+    We've no "henna" on our hands;
+    Our camels went to bring it,
+    From far off distant lands;
+    We'll rise by night and listen,
+    The camel bells will ring;
+    And say a thousand welcomes
+    To those who "henna" bring.
+
+And here is a song which shows that the Bedawin have the same habit of
+cursing their enemies, which we noticed in the Druze lullabys:
+
+    On the rose and sweetest myrtle,
+    May you sleep, my eyes, my boy;
+    But may sharpest thorns and briars,
+    All your enemies destroy!
+
+Ali says that one of the most mournful songs he heard in the desert was
+the following:
+
+    I am like a wounded camel,
+    I grind my teeth in pain;
+    My load is great and heavy,
+    I am tottering again.
+    My back is torn and bleeding,
+    My wound is past relief,
+    And what is harder still to bear,
+    None other knows my grief!
+
+The next is a song which the people sung in the villages on the borders
+of the desert. By "the sea" they mean the Sea of Galilee:
+
+    My companions three,
+    Were fishing by the sea;
+    The Arabs captured one,
+    The Koords took his brother,
+    In one land was I,
+    My friends were in another.
+
+    I was left to moan,
+    In sorrow deep and sad,
+    Like a camel all alone,
+    Departing to Baghdad;
+    My soul I beg you tell me whether,
+    Once parted friends e'er met together?
+
+The Bedawin have as low an idea of girls as the Bedawin in the cities,
+and are very glad when a boy is born. Sometimes when the Abeih girls are
+playing together, you will hear a little girl call out, "it is very
+small indeed. Why it is a little wee thing, as small as was the
+rejoicing the day I was born!" But hear what the Bedawin women sing when
+a boy is born:
+
+    Mashallah, a boy, a _boy_!
+    May Allah's eye defend him!
+    May she who sees and says not _the Name_,
+    Be smitten with blindness and die in shame!
+
+How would you like to live among the Bedawin, and have a dusky Arab
+woman, clad in coarse garments, covered with vermin and odorous of
+garlic and oil, to sing you to sleep on a mat on the ground?
+
+    Hasten my cameleer, where are you going?
+    It is eventide, and the camels are lowing:
+    My house in a bundle I bear on my back,
+    Whenever night comes, I my bundle unpack.
+
+The next is a song of the pastoral Arabs:
+
+    Hasten my guide and lead us away,
+    For we have fought and lost the day;
+    To the well we went all thirsty and worn,
+    The well was dry! and we slept forlorn.
+
+    The Bedawin came in battle array,
+    Attacked us all famished at break of day
+    And took all our camels and tents away!
+
+Death enters the Bedawin tents as well as the palaces of kings and the
+comfortable homes of the people in Christian lands. But what desolation
+it leaves behind in those dark sorrowing hearts, who know nothing of the
+love of Jesus and the consolations of the gospel. This is a funeral song
+the poor Bedawin women sing over the death of a child:
+
+    Oh hasten my camel, begone, begone,
+    Oh haste where your loved ones stay:
+    There weep and lament. There my "spirit" is gone,
+    Is gone to a night without day:
+    Oh Star of the Morning, thou Star of the day,
+    And Star of the Evening, both hasten away,
+    And bring me a balm for my wounded heart,
+    For I from my child, my "spirit" must part.
+
+Soon may the "day dawn, and the day star arise" in their dark hearts,
+and Jesus the "Bright and Morning Star" be their portion forever!
+
+The next song is about the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Thousands of Greeks,
+Armenians and Catholics go to Jerusalem every year to visit the "Holy
+Places," and get a certificate of the pardon of all their sins. The
+Greek Patriarch performs a lying imposture called the Holy Fire every
+year at Greek Easter, by lighting a candle with a match inside a dark
+room, and declaring that it is miraculously lighted by fire which comes
+forth from the tomb of Christ! So the poor Greek woman sings to her
+child:
+
+    Oh take me on a pilgrimage,
+    Jerusalem to see:
+    The Tomb of Christ and Holy fire,
+    And Hill of Calvary:
+    And then I'll to the Convent go,
+    Ask pardon for my sin:
+    And say, my Lady, now forgive,
+    And comfort me again.
+
+The next is really beautiful, and is good enough for any mother to sing
+to her child. It is a morning song:
+
+    Praise to Him who brings the light,
+    And keeps the birds in darkest night.
+    God is merciful to all,
+    Rise ye men and on Him call!
+    Allah praise in every lot,
+    He keeps you and you know it not.
+
+And this one too, about the little worms, is curious enough:
+
+    Praise to Him who feeds the worms,
+    In the silent vale!
+    Provides their portion every day,
+    Protects them in the dangerous way.
+    No doubt they praise Him too, and pray,
+    In the silent vale!
+
+When our good friend Yusef, whom we saw in Safita, asked the Nusairiyeh
+women to repeat to him their nursery rhymes, they denied that they had
+any. They were afraid to recite them, lest he write them down and use
+them as a magic spell or charm against them. When a child is born among
+them, no one is allowed to take a coal or spark of fire from the house
+for a week, lest the child be injured. They always hang a little coin
+around the child's neck to keep off eruptions and diseases from its
+body.
+
+You must be weary by this time, after Handumeh's wedding and the story
+telling and the Bedawin songs. Let us retire to rest for the night,
+thankful for the precious Bible, and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. You
+are safe indeed in the hands of God, and need not fear the Ghoul nor the
+Bah'oo. Good night.
+
+Such is life. Yesterday a wedding, and to-day a funeral. Do you hear
+that terrific wail, those shrieks and bitter cries of anguish? Young
+Sheikh Milham has died. The Druze and Christian women are gathered in
+the house, and wailing together in the most piteous manner. It is
+dreadful to think what sufferings the poor women must endure. They do
+everything possible to excite one another. They not only call out,
+"Milham, my pride, my bridegroom, star of my life, you have set, my
+flower, you have faded," but they remind each other of all the deaths
+that have occurred in their various families for years, and thus open
+old wounds of sorrow which time had healed. Yet they have regular
+funeral songs, and we will listen while they sing in a mournful strain:
+
+    Milham Beg my warrior,
+    Your spear is burnished gold;
+    Your costly robes and trappings,
+    Will in the street be sold.
+    "Where is the Beg who bore me?"
+    I hear the armor crying--
+    Where is the lord who wore me?
+    I hear the garments sighing.
+
+Now Im Hassein from Ainab bursts out in a loud song, addressing the
+dead body, around which they are all seated on the ground:
+
+    Rise up my lord, gird on your sword,
+    Of heavy Baalbec steel;
+    Why leave it hanging on the nail?
+    Let foes its temper feel!
+    Would that the Pasha's son had died,
+    Not our Barmakeh's son and pride!
+
+Then Lemis answers in another song in which they all join:
+
+    Ten thousands are thronging together,
+    The Beg has a feast to-day;
+    We thought he had gone on a visit,
+    But alas, he has gone to stay.
+
+Then they all scream, and tear their hair and beat their breasts. Alas,
+they have no light beyond the grave. Who could expect them to do
+otherwise? The Apostle Paul urges the Christians "not to sorrow even as
+others which have no hope!" This is sorrow without hope. The grave is
+all dark to them. How we should thank our Saviour for having cast light
+on the darkness of the tomb, and given us great consolation in our
+sorrows! Here comes a procession of women from Kefr Metta. Hear them
+chanting:
+
+    I saw the mourners thronging round,
+    I saw the beds thrown on the ground;
+    The marble columns leaning,
+    The wooden beams careening,
+    My lord and Sheikh with flowing tears,
+    I asked what was its meaning?
+    He sadly beckoned me aside,
+    And said, To-day _my son_ has died!
+
+Then an old woman, a widow, who has been reminded of the death of her
+husband, calls out to him:
+
+    Oh, Sheikh, have you gone to the land?
+    Then give my salams to my boy,
+    He has gone on a long, long journey,
+    And took neither clothing nor toy.
+    Ah, what will he wear on the feast days,
+    When the people their festal enjoy?
+
+Now one of the women addresses the corpse:
+
+    Lord of the wide domain,
+    All praise of you is true.
+    The women of your hareem,
+    Are dressed in mourning blue.
+
+Then one sings the mother's wail:
+
+    My tears are consuming my heart,
+    How can I from him bear to part.
+    Oh raven of death, tell me why,
+    You betrayed me and left him to die?
+    Oh raven of death begone!
+    You falsely betrayed my son!
+    Oh Milham, I beg you to tell,
+    Why you've gone to the valley to dwell?
+    From far, far away I have come,
+    Who will come now to take me back home?
+
+Then rises such a wail as you never heard before. A hundred women all
+screaming together and then men are coming to take it away. The women
+hug and kiss the corpse, and try to pull it back, while the men drive
+them off, and carry it out to the bier. Some of the women faint away,
+and a piercing shriek arises. Then you hear the mother's wail again.
+
+Then one sings the call of the dead man for help:
+
+    Oh ransom me, buy me, my friends to-day,
+    'Tis a costly ransom you'll have to pay,
+    Oh ransom me, father, whate'er they demand,
+    Though they take all your money and houses and land.
+
+And another sings his address to the grave-diggers:
+
+    Oh cease, grave-diggers, my feelings you shock,
+    I forbade you to dig, you have dug to the rock;
+    I bade you dig little, you have dug so deep!
+    When his father's not here, will you lay him to sleep?
+
+Then a poor woman who has lately buried a young daughter begins to sing:
+
+    Oh bride! on the roofs of heaven,
+    Come now and look over the wall:
+    Oh let your sad mother but see you,
+    Oh let her not vainly call!
+    Hasten, her heart is breaking,
+    Let her your smile behold;
+    The mother is sadly weeping,
+    The maiden is still and cold.
+
+The Druzes believe that millions of Druzes live in China and that China
+is a kind of heaven. So another woman sings:
+
+    Yullah, now my lady, happy is your state!
+    Happy China's people, when you reached the gate!
+    Lady, you are passing,
+    To the palace bright,
+    All the stars surpassing,
+    On the brow of night!
+
+And now the body is taken to be buried, and the women return to the
+house, where the wailing is kept up for days and weeks. They have many
+other funeral songs, of which I will give two in conclusion:
+
+    Ye Druzes, gird on your swords,
+    A great one is dead to-day;
+    The Arabs came down upon us,
+    They thought us in battle array,
+    But they wept when they found us mourning,
+    For our leader has gone away!
+
+The next is the lament of the mother over her dead son:
+
+    The sun is set, the tents are rolled,
+    Happy the mother whose lambs are in fold;
+    But one who death's dark sorrow knew,
+    Let her go to the Nile of indigo blue,
+    And dye her robes a mourning hue!
+
+And now, my dear boy, our Syrian journey is ended. You have seen and
+heard many strange things. Whatever is good among the Arabs, try to
+imitate; whatever is evil, avoid. Perhaps you will write to me some day,
+and tell me what you think of Syria and the Syrians. Many little boys
+and girls will read this long letter, but it is your letter, and I have
+written it for your instruction and amusement.
+
+May the good Shepherd, who gave His life for the sheep, lead you beside
+the still waters of life, and at last when He shall appear, may He give
+you a crown of glory which fadeth not away!
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Arabs of the Jahiliyeh, 1
+
+Arabs of Kinaneh, 2
+
+Arabic Proverbs, 3
+
+Araman, Michaiel, 19, 99
+
+Asin Haddad, 101
+
+Abu Selim, 138, 260
+
+Abu Mishrik, 148
+
+Aleppo, 151
+
+Asur el Jedid, 168
+
+American Seminary Abeih, 169
+
+Anazy, 182
+
+Arthington, Mr., 181, 184
+
+Ali, 184, 359
+
+Amount of Instruction, 57, 78, 81, 316
+
+Abdullah Yanni, 220
+
+Aintab, 88
+
+Abu Asaad, 274, 276, 283
+
+Abu Isbir, 281
+
+Arab Camp, 295
+
+Abdullamites, 298
+
+Arkites, 262
+
+Abu Hanna, 263
+
+Asaad Mishrik, 233
+
+
+Burying Alive, 1
+
+Birth of Daughter, 28, 236
+
+B'hamdun, 93, 121
+
+Bliss, Mrs. Dr., 104
+
+Booth, Wm. A., 105, 106
+
+Bird, Rev., 47, 48, 50, 58, 115
+
+Bistany, Mr., 126, 134, 158, 200
+
+Bedr, Rev. Yusef, 148
+
+Belinda, 149
+
+Bedawin Arabs, 180
+
+British Syrian Schools, 84
+
+Beattie, Rev., 41
+
+Bird, Mrs., 50
+
+Beit Beshoor, 274
+
+Bells, 304
+
+Bedawin Songs, 360
+
+
+Carabet Melita, 62, 65, 67, 153
+
+Cheney, Miss, 74, 81, 97
+
+Carruth, Miss, 104
+
+Calhoun, Mrs., 79, 114, 197
+
+Crawford, Mrs., 204
+
+Church of Scotland Schools for Jewish Girls, 214
+
+Carabet, Bishop Dionysius, 49
+
+Convent of the Sacred Fish, 296
+
+Camels, 245
+
+
+Divorce, 14, 17, 29, 37
+
+Druze, 20
+
+Dodds, Dr., 39
+
+De Forrest, Dr., 23, 33, 73, 75, 134, 298
+
+Dales, Miss, 204
+
+Department of Women's Work, 219
+
+Dodge, Dr., 50
+
+Dodge, Mrs., 50, 52, 53
+
+Dog River, 312
+
+
+El Khunsa, the poetess, 4
+
+Education of Girls, 18, 19
+
+Everett, Miss, 103
+
+Early Age of Marriage, 117
+
+Eddy, Mr., 151
+
+El Hakem, 331, 22
+
+Evil Eye, 336
+
+
+Female Prayer-Meeting, 56, 74
+
+Ford, Mr., 126, 151, 156
+
+French Lazarist School, 169
+
+Francis Effendi Merrash, 91
+
+Fast of Ramadan, 306
+
+Feller's Soap, 328
+
+Funerals, 316, 364
+
+Female Seminary, Beirut, 222, 315
+
+Fruits, 255
+
+Fisk, Rev. Pliny, 47
+
+
+Greek School Suk el Ghurb, 169
+
+Ghubrin Jebara, 173
+
+Goodell, Mrs., 50
+
+Games, 319
+
+Greek Priests, 259
+
+Goodell, Dr., 47, 48
+
+
+Houris, 10
+
+Hamze, 20
+
+Hala of Abeih, 29
+
+Hammud, 39
+
+Hums, 140
+
+Hassan, 198
+
+Hicks, Miss, 206
+
+Howe, Fisher, 76, 80
+
+Haj Ibraham, 297
+
+
+Ishoc, 149, 263
+
+Irish-American United Presbyterian Mission in Damascus, 204
+
+Ishmaelitic Songs, 326
+
+Imprecations, 326
+
+
+Johnson, Miss, 97
+
+Jacombs, Miss, 98, 225
+
+Jackson, Miss Ellen, 104
+
+Jenan, 136, 162, 165, 191
+
+Jenneh, 136
+
+Jeneineh, 136
+
+Jesuit School Ghuzir, 169
+
+Job, 229
+
+
+Khozma Ata, 33, 75
+
+Katrina Subra, 93, 95
+
+Koukab es Subah, 33, 126
+
+Koran, 1, 2, 11, 126, 297
+
+Khalil Effendi, 167
+
+Khalil Ferah, 286
+
+King, Dr. Jonas, 47, 48
+
+
+Latakiah Boarding School, 42
+
+Loring, Miss Sophia, 104
+
+Luciya, Shekkur, 114
+
+Lyde, Mr., 38, 39
+
+Lying, 284
+
+Lullaby, 294
+
+Letters, 311
+
+Lokunda, 242
+
+
+Moslem Paradise for Women, 10
+
+Moslem Idea of Women, 12, 17
+
+Moulah Hakem, 22, 331
+
+Massacres of 1860, 24, 95, 196, 286
+
+Marriage Ceremony of Druzes, 25
+
+Marie, 43
+
+Maronites, 45
+
+Mason, Miss, 97
+
+Meshakah, Dr., 118
+
+Miriam the Aleppine, 15
+
+Modern Syrian Views, 158
+
+Moslem Schools, 168, 253
+
+Miss Taylor's School Moslem Girls, 213
+
+Methak en Nissa, 21
+
+Metheny, Dr., 40
+
+Manger, 265
+
+Missionary Stations, 249
+
+Miriam, 279, 282
+
+Monasteries, 309
+
+Marriage, 338, 117, 143
+
+Mohammed ed Dukhy, 182, 189, 246
+
+
+Naman, King of Hira, 3
+
+Nusairiyeh, 35
+
+Nusairiyeh Women, 38
+
+Nejm, 110
+
+Naame Tabet, 201
+
+Nowar, 286
+
+Nursery Songs, 325
+
+Names, 242, 244
+
+
+Othman, 2
+
+Okkal, 24
+
+Oulad el Arab, 46
+
+
+Poetesses of Arabs, 6
+
+Position of Woman in Mohammedan World, 7
+
+Prussian Deaconess' Institute Beirut, 206
+
+Post, Dr., 29
+
+Praying, 305
+
+Parsons, Rev. Levi, 47
+
+
+Qualifications for Missionaries, 53
+
+
+Rakash, the Poetess, 6
+
+Rufka, Gregory, 60, 97, 99, 102, 138, 175, 277
+
+Resha, 110
+
+Raheel, 120
+
+Ruella Arabs, 184
+
+
+Sa Saah, 3
+
+Schwire, 10
+
+Sheikh Owad, 16
+
+Sheikh Said el Ghur, 19
+
+Sheikh Khottar, 31
+
+Sheikh Mohammed ed Dukhy, 182, 189, 246
+
+Sheikh Aiub el Hashem, 288
+
+Sitt Abla, 30
+
+Syrian Christianity, 46
+
+Stale of Mission in 1828, 49,
+  --1834, 51, 53,
+  --1841, 55,
+  --1846, 57
+  --1852, 75,
+  --1864, 101
+
+Seclusion of Oriental Females, 52
+
+Sada Gregory, 18, 61, 70
+
+Superstitions, 77, 317, 318, 336
+
+Sada Barakat, 84
+
+Stanton, Miss, 98
+
+Sada el Haleby, 84, 100, 115
+
+Sara Bistany, 101, 136
+
+Smith, Dr., 50, 127
+
+Sarkis, Mr. Ibraham, 127
+
+Sulleba Jerwan, 142
+
+Sara Huntington Bistany, 157
+
+Sitt Mariana Merrash, 162
+
+Sitt Wustina Mesirra, 165
+
+Schools of Syria, 169, 171
+
+Sitt Harba, 183, 185, 359
+
+Safita, 277, 285, 302, 334
+
+Seven Arbitrary Pillars of the Law, 22
+
+Suggestions to Friends of Missions, 224
+
+Sidon Female Seminary, 225
+
+Saad-ed-Deen, 67
+
+Sphere and Mode of Woman's Work, 218
+
+Syed Abdullah, 288
+
+Swine, 306
+
+Story of the Goats and the Ghoul, 343
+
+Story of the Hamam, Butta, etc., 346
+
+Story of the Lion and Ibn Adam, 350
+
+Story of the Jew Rufaiel, 354
+
+Story of the Badinjan, 358
+
+Shepherds, 313
+
+Swearing, 240
+
+Soum el Kebir, 260
+
+Smith, Mrs., 27, 50, 120
+
+Syrian School-Houses, 235
+
+
+Tribe of Temim, 3
+
+Triangle of Solomon, 36
+
+Temple, Miss, 97
+
+Thomson, Dr., 48, 100, 123
+
+Thomson, Miss Emilia, 104
+
+Tod, Mrs. Alexander, 122
+
+Thompson, Mrs. Bowen, 208
+
+Thomson, Mrs., 50
+
+Telegraph, 310
+
+Tilden, 33, 54, 60
+
+
+Van Dyck, 31, 107, 117, 127, 172
+
+Value Set on Woman's Life, 196
+
+
+Wahidy, 19
+
+Women's Work, 1820 to 1872, 45
+
+Wortabet, Salome, 49, 64
+
+Whittlesey, Mrs. A.L., 74, 78
+
+Watson, Mrs., 98, 204
+
+Women's Boards of Missions, 104
+
+Whiting, Mrs., 31, 57, 63, 125
+
+Wilson, Rev. D.M., 83, 142
+
+Werdeh, 156
+
+Wortabet, Rev. John, 202
+
+Whiting, Rev., 50, 58, 61
+
+Waly, 291
+
+Wortabet, Gregory, 49, 51
+
+Williams, Miss Rebecca, 52, 55
+
+
+Yusef Jedid, 40
+
+Yusef Ahtiyeh, 278, 281
+
+Yanni, 237, 254, 256, 289, 300, 309
+
+Yusef Keram, 301
+
+
+Zarifeh, the Poetess, 6
+
+Zeyarehs, 37, 268
+
+Zahara, 39
+
+Zarify, 110
+
+Zahidy, 287
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Replaced "Beirut" with "Beirut" for consistency throughout the book.
+Replaced "Nusairiyeh" with "Nusairiyeh" for consistency throughout the
+  book.
+Page 147: Added opening parenthesis before "etc., etc."
+Page 206: Changed Aitah to Aitath.
+Page 273: Changed Inshallah to Inshullah.
+Page 311: Changed Mushullah to Mashallah.
+Page 370: Changed Abdulla Yanni to Abdullah Yanni.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Women of the Arabs, by Henry Harris Jessup
+
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