OF
THE ARABS.
WITH A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN.
BY
RE V. HENRY HARRIS JESSUP, D.D.,
seventeen years American Missionary in Syria.
EDITED BY
RsV. C. S. ROBINSON, D.D., & REV. ISAAC RILEY.
"The threshold weeps forty days when a girl is born."
-Mt. Lebason Prove,
NEW YORK:
DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS,




Entered according -to Act of Congress in the year 1873, by
DODD & MEAD,
in tne Office of the Librarian no Congress at Wasnington




THSI BCOOK
IS DEDICATED TO THE
CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF AMERICAA








BEIRUT, SYRIA, 7yuly, -873.
Owing to the impossibility of my attending
jiersonally to the editing of this volume, I re-:quested my old friends, REV. C. S. ROBINSON,.DD., and REV. ISAAC RILEY, of New York, to
superintend the work, and would gratefully ac.
knowledge  their kind and disinterested aid,
cheerfully profered a' no little sacrifice of
time.
H. H. JESSUP.








PREFACE.
T-HE 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 notonly 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




vi- Vi —PREFA CE.
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 BeirAit.
Rev. S. Lyde's interesting book called the" Asian
Mystery," has given me the principal items with
regard to the Nusairlyeh religion. This confirms




PREFA CE.                 ii
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,
187I, 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 Beirfit, 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.




XViii             PREFA CE.
The pages of Arabic were electrotyped in Beirht
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,
BwRUT, Syria, Nov. 28, I872.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
State of Women among the Arabs of the Yahiliyeh,
or the " Times of the Ignorance."......z........... I
CHAPTER II.
State of Women in the Mohammedan World..........  7
CHAPTER III.
The Druze Religion and Druze Women............   so
CHAPTER IV.
Nusairhyeh....................                    35
CHAPTER V.
Chronicle of Women's Work from 1820 t 1872.......  45
CHAPTER VI.
Mrs. Whiting's School................. 
CHAPTER VII.
Dr. De Forest's Work in Beirtt................   73
CHAPTER VIII.
Reoopening of the School in Beirut............    97




x                    CON TERNTS.
CHAPTER IX.
PAGB
Zuciya Shekkur................14..........  I4
CHAPTER X.
Raheel.........1.                       1 20
CHAPTER XI.
HIJums.....................................4. 4o0
CHAPTER XII.
Miriam the Aleppine.1.5.............'              1.....   S5
CHAPTER XIII..Modern Syrian Views with regard to Female Education 158
CHAPTER XIV.
Bedawin Arabs.............   I8o
CHAPTER XV.
Woman between Barbarism and Civilization......... 9gr
CHAPTER XVI.
Opinions of Protestant Syrians with regard to the
Work of American Women in Syria............    200
CHAPTER XVII.
Other Laborsfor Women and Girls in this Field....   204
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Amount of Biblical Instruction given in Mission
Schools..............2 a I15
CHAPTER XIX.
The Children's Chaj5ter............. 233




TVr 3:
WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
CHAPTER I.
STATE OF WOMEN AMONG THE ARABS OF THE
JAHILIYEH,  OR THE "TIMES OF THE IGNORANCE."
I N that eloquent Sura of the Koran, called Ettekwir, (Ixxxi.) 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 Temilm, 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
it




2         THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 (blas
phemously) 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 gra've."
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




"TI-MES OF THE IGNORA YCE."                   3
to have been gradually abandoned, but was retained the longest in the tribe of Temlm. 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."
"M y 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!"




;4       zTHE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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:




" TIMES OF THE IGNORANCE."                       5
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 lit.
eral.
"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."




6        THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
The most ancient Arab poetess, Zarlfeh, 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 poetcss, 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 conversing 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?"' Nor much," said he,
" only I am assured that she is white."
In a book written by Mirai ibn Yu.ef~ el Hanbali,
are the names of twenty Arab women who improvised poetry. Among them are Leila, Leila el
Akhyaliyeh, Lubna, Zeinab, Afra, Hind, Mdy, Jenib,
Hubaish, Zarifeh, Jemlleh, 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 Soxg, 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.
O UR 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,




8           THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 excru



SFSTATE OF MOHA4MMEDAN WOMEN.        9
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."
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;      I~~*




IO       THE WOMEN OF THE ARA4BS.
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




STA TE OF MOHAMMNEDAN WOMEN.            I!
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:3.)
An old wvoman 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




12       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 hus-bands, 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




S7TA TE OF MOtAIMMEDAN WOMEtN.    13
your excellency." Said the doctor, "and who may
it be?" "Ajellak, it is my wife!"
I remember once meeting the Mohammedan
Mufti of Beiruit 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




1,       SETHE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 remarry 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 com.
pany with a woman. The women are closely veiled:




SSTA TE OF MOHAMMEDAN WOMEN.    I 
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 kowwnjhat
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 exposingtheir 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




4I6      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
began to reside there, by the infliction of tile basti.
nado.
In I857, 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 lie 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 Mo.
hammedan 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
motheri-n-law, being present. The blihd Sheikhs
have remarkable memories and sharp ears, and cau




STA TE OF MOHAMMEDAN WOMEN.    17
detect the slightest error in pronunciation or render.
ing, so they are employed in the most of the Moslemschools. 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




t8       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
and Judea, and although enemies stood watching
with hateful gaze on every side, not one word of in.
sinuation 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/ "




S TA TE OF MOHAMMEDAN WOMEN.         19
Not two months since, I was conversing with several of the aristocratic Mohammedans of Beiruit, 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! Mash-allah! " " 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, I867, 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 pres.
ent, with a number of his Moslem friends.




CHAPTER  III.
THE DRUZE RELIGION AND DRUZE WOMEN.
"7HE 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 goo lunar years. The date
of the Druze era is 408 Hegira, or I02o  A. D. The
present year, I872, corresponds to the year I289
Anno Hegira, so that in nineteen lunar years the
system will begin to come to an end according to its
own reckoning, and after iooo 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.




THE DR UZE RELIGION AND DR UZE WOMEN. 21
Their secret books, which were found in the civil
wars of I84I and I845, 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 Beirutt. 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 Mazhn 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




22        THE WOMIEN OF THE ARABS.
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 re-,
leased them entirely from the observance of the
Seven Arbitrary Pillars of the Law (of Islam) which
are (I) Prayer, (2) Fasting (3) Pilgrimage, (4) Assert.




THE DR UZE RELIGION AND DR UZE WOMEN. 23
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.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 sectet 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 I59 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!
lie is my hope and victory!"
What can you expect of the women, if the teachtrs 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




24        THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I860, I rode
from Abeih to Beiruit 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




THE DR UZE WOMEN AND DRUZE RELIGION. 25
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 proph.
ets, 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
2




26       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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, aid 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 1) 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




THE DRUZE RELIGION AND DR UZE WOMEN. 27
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
zilaghfeet 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




8   THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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
yo  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 call.
ed to attend a sick Druze woman, he cannot see her




THE DR UZE RELIGION AND DR UZE WOMEN. 29
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 Beiruft 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,




30        THE WOMEN OF THE ARAIS.
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 Beiruit 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




THE DR UZE WOMEN AND DR UZE RELIGION. 31
village to Beirutt, 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 couiEl




32       TIE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Beirhit, 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 twofold persecution from her Druze relatives and her
Jesuit brother. On her removal to Beiruit 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 I849 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 zwhom I have suffered
the loss of all things..... and I still continue, by the
grace of Him Exalted, and by the merits of Jesus




THE DRUZE WOMEN AND DR UZE RELIGION. 33
Christ my Saviour, awaiting a happy death, and evertasting 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 Beirdt 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 I854. 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 I86I she taught a day school for girls in Beirut,
and assisted Dr. De Forest in his work in the Beiruit
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.
2*




THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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.
What a difference between the faithful Christran
nurture her little children are receiving at home,
and the worse than no training received by the
children of her Druze relatives at Ras Beiruit, 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 Beirfut, and Hassan, Hassein, Asaad and All,
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 Beiruit, Lebanon, and the vicinity of
fIermon, as well as in other schools in Damascus,
IHasbeiya and elsewhere, and some of their young
men are receiving a Christian education.




CHAPTER IV.
NUSAIRIYEI-I.
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, bloodthirsty race called the Nusairlyeh 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




36        THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 out..
side 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




NUSAIRIYEH.                37
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 up.
on both sexes, may be easily imagined. There are




38'[-E WOMEN OF THE, RABS.
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




NUSAIRZYEH.                39
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 I86o, 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 Nusairlyeh, 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 Hammid, 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 Hammiud. 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 I863, Hammuod
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 Hammiud labored earnestly for her enlightenment. Every.
thing seemed bright and promising, until suddenly all




40       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS
their earthly hopes were dashed by the early death of
Hamm'd in December, I864. He died in the triumphs of the Christian faith, and from that time she
gave herself to the Lord. In August, i865, she with
several others was baptized and received into the
communion of the Church. At her own request, she
was baptized as Miriam.
In I866 she was married to Yusef Jedid, and
lived with him in several of the villages among the
Nusairlyeh, where he was engaged in teaching.
Her husband at length removed to Bahlullyeh in
I870, 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




NUSAIRZYEH.                41
not to leave' her. She told Mr. Beattie that she did
not fear to die, for her trust was ill 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 Nusalry 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
I869. 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




42       THE WOMEN OF THtE ARABS.
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
I869. 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 I871 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,) Henlreh, Elmaza, (diamond,)
Deebeh,(she-wolf,) Alexandra, Zeinab, Lullu, (pearl,)
Howwa, (Eve,) and Naameh, (grace).
During the year the pupils brought new joy to
the hearts of their teachers. Not only were their




NUSAZRI YEH.              43
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




44        THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
all were threatened and insulted because they would
not work on Sunday.
In November, I871, 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 I872, 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.
CIIRONICLE OF WOMEN'S WORK FROM I820 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 Mo-hammedan 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 Beiruit 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




46       THlE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 super-'stitious 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,




WOMEN'S WORIX FROM 1820 TO z872.    4
ary labor as were their less favored Druze and Moslem
sisters.
In order to present the leading facts in the his.
tory 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 I6, I82I, and died
in Alexandria February Io, 1822.  In I823, Rev.
Pliny Fisk, and Dr. Jonas King reached Jerusalem
to take his place, and on the Ioth 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 I6th of November, 1823, Messrs. Goodell
and Bird reached Beirfit, and on the 6th of December, I824, they wrote as follows: "Mr. King's Arabic instructor laughs heartily that the ladies of ouI
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




48        THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
to ask a man after the health of his wife, is a ques.
tion which is said never to find a place in the social
intercourse of this country."
Jan. 24, I825, 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 I, 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
Beiruit Church, and his wife, Im Beshara, still lives,
with an interesting family.
On the 2Ist of Dec., I825, 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




WOMEN'S WORK FROM I820 TO I872..   49
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 I826, there were three hundred children in
the Mission schools in the vicinity of Beirut.
In I827, there were 6oo 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 Beirctt, being the first
spiritual fruits of Women's Work for Women in
modern Syria.
During I828 and I829 the Missionaries temporarily withdrew to Malta. In I833, Dr. Thomson
3




S0,     THE YWOMEN OF TIE ARABS.
and Dr. Dodge arrived in Beiruft. 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 i828, and
I50 since."  "Female education as such is yet nearly
untried."
During that year Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. Dodge
commenced a school for girls in Beiruit. 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




WOMEN'S WORK FROM I820 TO IS72.    51
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 (I840) 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 Beirht
in January, I834, 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
I




THE WOMAEAt OF THE ARABS.
given to reading, sewing, knitting and good behavior. In November, I835, Miss Rebecca Williams
arrived in Beirut as an assistant to Mrs. Smith.
The school then increased, and in the spring of I 836
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 prayermeeting 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




WOMEN'S WORK FROM I820 TO 1872.    53
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 I834, and it is almost equally true in I873.
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 I835 Mrs. Dodge conducted a school




.54       TIHE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I836 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 I6, I835. 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 I2 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



WOMEN'S WORK FROM 1820 TO 1872.    55
bath, was the Psalms. After a year and a half I went
to Beiruit 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 I834.) 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 I84I, 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 I842, 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.




56      7THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
In 1843, there were thirteen schools with 438 pu.t
pils, and eleven young girls in mission families.
During the year I844, i86 persons were publicly
recognized as Protestants in Hasbeiya. Fifteen womean 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 I845, 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' dayschool in her family at Abeih, and in Beirut there
were four schools for boys and girls together, and
one school for girls alone. In I8 Mission schools
there were I44 girls and 384 boys. This girls'school
in Abeih in I846 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 Ist, 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 Ioo dollars.
The following letter from Mrs. Whiting needs no
Introduction. It bears a melancholy interest from
3*




58        THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
the fact that the beloved writer died shortly afterwards, at Newark, N. J., May I8th, I873.
" 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 BeirAt 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 I834, 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 in.
struction. All my efforts for some time were fruit.




MRS. WHITIG'S SCHOOL.            59
less. Under date of Aug. 22, 1 find this entry in AMr.
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., I836, "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 quarrter."
"March 7. Yesterday Mrs. W. commenced a
Sunday school for the pupils of her day school




-6o      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 unitil 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 BeirAt. 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




MRS. WHITING'S SCHOOL.           61
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 Beirfut 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 remonstratedwith 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




'52      THE WOMEN'OF THE ARABS.
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,' Ins/zullah tukodeejenb il Messiah fe melakoot is serma  "
"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 im.




MRS. WHITING'S SCHOOL.,        63'
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.
Soon after our removal to Abeih, October, I 844,
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
youpg 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.




64      ETHE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 bf 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




MRS. WHITZNG'S SCHOOL.          65
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 I823. 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 ill
number, my sister Salome, and Hannie, Dr. Wortabet's sister, and Sada and Rufka Gregory) some raisins
to pick ov&r 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




.THRE WOMEN OF THE ARA BS.
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 wene to tlasbeiya, 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




MRS. WHZITzNG'S SCHOOL.                 67
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 I86o. The rest of my life has been spent in
teaching in Beiruit. 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, i868.  I give the exact language, as the
letter is written in English:
PRUSSIAN INSTITUTION, BEIRUT,   }
February 23, 1868. f
\1Y DEAR MRS. WHITINGIt 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 wisli it to




.68          THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 lie 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 hi-m, but hip




MRS. WHITING'S SCHOOL.                      69
skill was baffled with this terrifying disease, and pror 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 —,.s 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 pool




70          ATHE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Jerusale m.
Ever your affectionate          MELITA.
Saada Gregory was engaged in teaching at different times in Tripoli, Aleppo, Hasbeiya and Egypt.
HIer 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, x867.
MY DEAR MRS. WHITING,
I know you will be expecting a letter from me soon, partly in an.
swer 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




-MRS. WHITING'S SCHOOL.                     7t
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 i yself. Instead of being a Christian and being prepared to die, 1 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 meicies 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 at.
tack 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 lIe 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




72:    ETHE WOMEN OF THE ARABV.
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 I847, Dr. and Mrs. De Forest commenced their
work of female education, receiving two young
women into their family. In I3 Mission schools there
were I63 girls and 462 boys. During the year I847,
six schools were in operation in connection with the
Beirit Station. One in the Mesaitebewith 32 pupils,
of whom IO were girls. This school was promising
and I 5 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 6o pupils, of whom  15 were girls.
In addition to these was the Female School with
thirty girls, taught by Raheel.
In I848, 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 I849, Mrs. Thomson and AMrs. 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
4




74    ~  THE WOMEN OE THE ARABS.
and well attended. Dr. De Forest had thirteen na.
tive girls boarders in his family in Beirult, 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. Olne 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 ill
Syria will be in no respect behind the fathers in
either virtue or intelligence. The Beir'at Church
now numbers Io7 members, of whom 57 are men and
50 are women.
In I85, Miss Anna L. Whittlesey arrived in Bei:
ruit as an assistant to Dr. and Mrs. De Forest, and




DR. DE FOREST'S WORK IN BEIRUT.    75
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 I852 and I853 the Female Seminary in Beirit
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 I854, 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 I847, I848, and
I849, but from the Reports made by Dr. De Forest
himself for the years I850, I852 and I853, I make
the following extracts:
In I850, 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,




76       THE MWOMIEN OF TI.E ARABS.
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 mem.
bers 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 pupil at different
times, and they give marked and earnest attention
to the preached word.
"In our labors for the reconstruction of society




DR. DE FORESTS WORK ZN BER UT.    77
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 Beiriut 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 mis.
sionary labor. His faith must be strong who can
labor with hope for the conversion of women, with




7.8      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS
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 I852, 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 het
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 Script.
ures by all the school. The Epistles to the Hebrews




DR. DE FOREST'S WORK IN BEIR UT.    79
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 Whittiesey,
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




-80       THE rWOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I48 volumes of miscellaneous
books, chiefly for the young. The school has 6 large
fine maps, and 5 of Mr. Bidwell's Missionary maps,
and I6 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 I853 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




DR. DE FOREST'S WORK IN BEIRUT.    8i
" 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'Aubign6'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
4




82       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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




DR. DE FOREST'S WORK N BEZR UT.    83
Mission in I855. 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 membersof the various classes from  I848 to I852. 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
teachingg, although nearly twenty years have elapsed
since they graduated. Twenty-one are at the head
of families, esteemed and honored in the communi.




84.CTLE H' WOMVEN OF THE ARABS.
ties where they reside. The names of the whole
class are as follows:
Ferha Jimmal, now Kowwar of Nazareth.
Sara Haddad, now Myers of Beiruit.
Sada Sabunjy, now Barakat of Beirut.
Sada Haleby, of Beirfit.
Miriam Tabet, now Tabet of Beirut.
Khushfeh Mejdelany, now Musully of BeirAt.
Khurma Mejdelany, now Ashy of Hasbeiya.
Mirta Tabet, now Suleeby of B-hamdin.
Feifun Maluff, of Aramoon.
Katrin Roza, of Kefr Shima.
Mirta Suleeby, now Trabulsy of Beirut.
Sara Suleeby, of Beiruft.
Esteer Nasif, now Aieed of Suk el Ghurb.
Hada Suleeby, now Shidoody of Beiruit.
Helloon Zazfiah, now Zuraiuk of Beirut.
Khushfeh Towileh, now Mutr of Beiruit.
Fetneh Suleeby, now Shibly of Suk el Ghurb.
Akabir Barakat, now Ghubrln of Beirut.
Hamdeh Barakat, now Bui Rehan of Hasbeiya.
Eliza Hashem, now Khufri 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




DR. DE FOREST'S WORK ZN BEIRUT.   85
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 schoo 1, 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 I848. I stayed
there four years. 1 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 tha.
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 some.
times 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




86           THE t"O2EL'V OF THIE ARABS.
why I did not go to school? I told him that I was very troubled, and.
ne 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 1
got no immediate answer, I left off reading and sometimes praying
entirtly. 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 xwished 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 I852, 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
iHenry and his Bearer." I felt very much ashamed that others who
lid not have the opportunity to learn about religion had religion, and
1, 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
opelling 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 I6th
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




DR. DE FOREST'S WORK IN BEIRUT.   87
not. I felt as if everything had become new and beautiful, because
my Heavenly Father had made them all. I was sometimes with faith
ani 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 Beirfit, 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,
I860,) so we came back as refugees to Beiruft. Soon after my husband was taken ill and then died. In that same year 186o, 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 I851 the Missionary Sewing Society




88        THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
of the Beiruit Female Seminary heard of the interest.
ing 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 I851, 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, Heiloon, 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. I852, 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 al




DR. DE FORESU'S WORK IN BEIRUT.   89
first thought of keeping it for myself, but then it occurred to mne 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   leasant valley, Wady Shehrfur, 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




90           THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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; ana 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 I846, 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
shouid 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?ome, 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 I852,
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




DR. DE FOREST'S WORK IN BEIRUT.    9I
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




92       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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
secondgeneration 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 Beiruft.
FRUITS OF DR. DE FORESTeS GIRL'S SCHOOL.
In the autumn of I852, 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'hamduin. That village is full of gospel light.
A Protestant church edifice is in process of erection,




.DR. DE FORES-'S TWORK' ZN BEIRUT.    93
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'hamduin, 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'hamduin 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 Rettelui," "Awake and sing the
song of Moses and the Lamb." She was a bright.
eyed child of fair complexion and of unusual initelli



94       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I86I. 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 conlfess as the
Lord Jesus tells them to, quoting to him the lan



DR. DE FORESTS WORK IN BEZREUT.   95
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.
Three years later Katrina was a member of the
Mission Female Seminary in Suk el Ghurb, a village
three hours distant from Beiruit, 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, I86o. I remember
well the day when that procession of girls and teachers rode and walked down from Suk el Ghurb to
Beiruit. 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 Beiruit, 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




96        TZIE IVOMI~EN OF THE ARABS.
Seminary as such ceased for a time to exist. Kas
trina, was married in I864 to M. Ghurzuizy, a Protestant merchant of Beiruit, who is now secular
agent or Wakil of the Syrian Protestant College.
In I866, 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 Io68 pupils, of
whom 266 were girls.
In I857, there were 277 girls in the various
schools.
In I858, Miss Temple and MIiss 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, I86o. The girl's school in Beirut
under the care of Rufka Gregory, had about 60o 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 Beirl't, studying the Arabic language, and
in I862 Miss Temple having returned to the U. S. A.,
Miss Mason opened a Boarding School for girls in
Sidon.
5




98       TIE WOMiEN OF THE ARABS.
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 car,
ried on this school until I865, 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 I867 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 Beiruit 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




RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN, BEIRUT. 99
Music to those who were willing to pay for these
branches.
Mr. Michael 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 iii Syria.
In March, I862, 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




too      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
Board of Managers, consisting of Dr. Thomson, I)r,
Van Dyck, Consul J. A. Johnson, and Rev. H. H. Jes.
sup. 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 I862, 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, I864, 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 I863, the number of paying boarders in the
Seminary had increased to twenty, and in i866 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




RE. OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIR'UT. II0
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. Twentytwo different classes were examined, and many of
the girls read original compositions.
On the Sabbath, July Ist, 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 itn 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 I869, 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.




102         THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I869.
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, 7ul.y 9, I868.
" 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




RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT. I03
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 1
felt such happiness in just leaving myself in His care. How wonder.
ful 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 t/ze 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
Luclyah, 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 I868,
to take charge of the Seminary, she came out openly
on the Lord's side, and in the midst of a fire of




0o4      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Board 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 I870 and I87I Miss Sophia
Loring, and Miss Ellen Jackson arrived from Amer



RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT. 105
ica as colleagues of Miss Everett, and under their
efficient management aided by Mr. Araman, Luclyah
and other native teachers, the Seminary is enjoying
a high degree of prosperity.
In March, I864, the Mission had issued an appeal for funds to erect a permanent home for this
Seminary, and in I866 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. Hamli-n 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




io6      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 offaith, 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 Beirfit. 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




RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT. 107
that the Lord would relieve us from our embarrassment, and provide for the necessities of the school.
The next morning the good brother, above men.
tioned, 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 NewYork 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 I864, a letter was received from cer.
tain Christian women in America, addressed to the
girls of the School, and somne of the older girls pre.




108      THE WOMEN OF 7'TE ARABS.
pared a reply in Arabic, a translation of which was
sent to America. It was as follows' From the girls of the Beiruit 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? Tru.ly, 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




RE-OPENING OF TILE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT. I09
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. Therewill 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 oil the sea of this life,




I0      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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, I865, 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 BeirAt 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




RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BE'IRUT. III
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
Beiruit 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 Beirit, 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




112      THE WOMIREN OE THE ARABS.
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 Beirft, 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 2I,
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




RE-OPENING OF THE SCHOOL IN BEIRUT. I 13
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 I527 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




LUCZYA SHEKKUR.              I 
training of children, whose influence will be felt for
many generations.
When Mr. and Mrs. Bird removed to Deir el
Komr in I855, 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 Beiruit 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, I86o.
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 fifeld 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




II6      THIE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
which afterwards cut down her brother and only sisN
ter 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 Beiruft. 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 portions 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




L UCIZYA SHEKKUR.           II7
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 her-self!
The Arabic journal "the Jenneh" of Beiruit, contained a letter in June, I872, 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




I I 8    THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
riages, 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




LUCIYA SHEKKUR.               I I9
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.
ON 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 willpray for a revival of religion in Beirf."'
Again she writes, June 30, I834, " 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,




RAHEEL.                121
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 Rahe'el Ata.
Again, August I6: " 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, I834, she wrote from B'hamdun, a village
five hours from Beirdt, 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.'"
6




122      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Beiruit stands, and was removed, and the stones
used in the extension of the old Chapel. In the
year I866 Mr. Tod revisited Beirut and contributed
~;Ioo 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




RAZHEEL.                123
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, I834, Mrs. Smith
writes, " Yesterday I commenced the female school
with four scholars, which were increased to ten today, 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 arr. 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, I835. " 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 IIth 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 Beiruit at present."
The state of society in Syria at that time is well




124      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
pictured in the following language, used by Mrs.
Smith in a letter dated February I2, 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."




RAHEEL.                 125
July 19. " At our Sabbath School to-day were
twenty-eight scholars, twenty-one girls and seven
boys."
July 3I. "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
flay, was a good number. Mrs. Whiting has ten little Moslem girls in Jerusalem, and the promise of
more. "
December I4. "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 *ave no psalms or hymns adapted to
their capacities. The Arabic cannot be simplified
like the English, without doing violence to Arab




126      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I835, with regard to children's
literature in the Arabic language.
In I858, 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 I862,
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




RAHEEL.                 127
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 un.
lawful 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 Shi




128      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
doody, husband of Hada. This Hymn book was pub
lished in I862, with Plates presented by Dr. Robin
son'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
I836, 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 incomnpatible with the genius of the Arabic language."
In a letter addressed to the young women in the
"Female Academy at Norwich," February, I836,
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 work



RAHEEL.                  I29
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 ap-parel 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 consid.
ered 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 ab.
lorrence of learn ing in females, exists most strongly
6*




130      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
in the higher classes. Nearly every pupil in — out
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




RAHEIRL.                131
to call you blessed, or to enhance your condemna.
tion." "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.




13 2     THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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, I836, 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 anythingin 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




RAHEEL.                  133
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 3oth 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




134      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
her. In her care, attentions and affections, she took
almost the rank of as 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 Beiriit, arose from leaving her behind."
After the departure of Mrs. Smith, her fellowlaborer, 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 I843, her mother invited her to come and
spend the feast with the family. She hesitated, but




RAHEEL.                  I35
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 at..
tempted 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. LIer
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 sol-.
diers, and told them that an attempt would be made




136      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 i 5o pupils of all
sects. He and his son Selim Effendi are the editors
and proprietors also of three Arabic journals; the
yenan, a Monthly Literary Magazine, illustrated by
wood-cuts made by a native artist, and having a
circulation of about I500; the yenneh, a semi-weekly
newspaper published Tuesday and Friday; and the
yeneineh, 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 high.
est hopes and prayers of her devoted foster mother,




RAIJEEL.               137
in discharging the duties of mother, neighbor, church
member, and friend. May every missionary woman
be rewarded in seeing such fruits of her labors!
Inr January, i866, 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




138      THE WOMEN O.F THE ARABS.
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 exclainmed, " 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 I4th 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, Abfi 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




RAHEEL.                 139
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;




HUMS.                  I4I
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 cowyard 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 "Sheraklyeen,"
"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




142      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I855, and remained until obliged to leave by
the civil war which raged in the country in i86o.
Mr. and Mrs. Aiken went to Hums in April, I856,'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, I862, 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




HUMS. i                143
cover to a saucepan! This was done with the appro..
bation 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 I863, 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




x,+!     THE TWOMEN OF THE ARABS.
very careful instructions as to how and when to an.
swer, 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. btn 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
rdo." "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




HUMS.                 145
a~d wedded husband, she must answer Yes. Some
of tLe 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 Hums.
ites, who feared the effect of conferring such un
heard-of rights and privileges on women, leagued to.
gether to mob the brides and grooms if such a course
7




I46      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 im.
pressed by the quiet and decorum of Protestant wor.
ship.




HUMS.                  147
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." Mashullah! Awoman 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."'




148      7IE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
After the ceremony, we sent the newly married
pairs to the study to await the dispersion of the multit-.de, 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, I872. His wife Leila, is a
graduate of the Beiruit Female Seminary, and has
been for several years a teacher. Her father died
in January, I87I, 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,
Abui Mishrik?   "No my friend, I am not ill. My




HUMS.                 149
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
niot 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 Beiruit 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




150O     THRE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Beiruit. 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 I855 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 I853 and I854 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 pleas.
ant ways soon won their love.




1 52     THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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




MIRIAM THE A EPPINE.            I53
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 Beirfit, 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 would4
7*




1 54     THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Beiruit 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 miss
sionary 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




MIRIAM THE ALEPPINE.           155
sary that she have an opportunity to choose with
whom she wished to live. The matter was repre.
sented 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 successfiully
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




156      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I855 Mr. Ford removed to Beiruit,
and Miriam accompanied him. She made a public
profession of her faith in Christ in I856, and was married in I858 to Mr. Ibrahim Sarkees, foreman and
principal proof reader of the American Mission Press.
Her father has since removed to Beirit, 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 Beiruit. She herself has
written several poems of rare merit; onq an elegy up.
on the death of Dr. Smith; another expressing grate



MIR AM THE ALEPPINE.                       5 7
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, I866.
Sarah's father and her own father, Sheikh Nasif, had
been for years on the most intimate te ms, 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.
I N the year I847, a Literary Society was formed in
Beirit, 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 Beirit Literary Society, Dec. 14, I849, 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 respezts than the women of barbarous na



SYRIAN VIE WS ONV FEMALE ED UCA TION.  59
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!
" Woman should be instructed in religion. This
is one of her highest rights and privileges and her
bounden duty.




I60      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
"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,?  Nbw 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, cook.




SYRIAN VIEWS ON FEMALE ED UCA TION. 16!
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.
"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? jithout 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 herej 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




I62      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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. Bis,
tany's Semi-monthly Magazine, called the "Jenan,"
for July, I870. It was 7written 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 mrodern Syria. The paper of
the Sitt Mariana is long, and the introduction is most
ornate and flowery. She writes on the condition of




SYRIAN VIE WS ONh FEMALE ED UCA TION. I6J
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 givbreadth 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




164      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
appropriateness of learning to women, and the capa
city 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 jehOul 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.




SYRIAN VIE WS ON FEMALE ED UCA TIOON. 165
wife of Selim Effendi el Hamawy. It was printed
in the "Jenan" for Jan., I87I. 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 nineteeth 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 un.
movable, excepting his head, which rolled and wriggled about from right to left, with the rocking of the




i66      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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. I 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



SYRIAN VIEWS ON FAL.4E EDUCA TION. 16
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."
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, I867. 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 predmiinence.  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




I68,     THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I867 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,




SYRIA A' TFE WS ONA FEMA LE EDUCA TION. I69
"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 Beiruit 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 Beiruit the Greek School, the
school of the Greek Catholic Patriarch, the Native
National College of Mr. Butrus el Bistany, and there
8




170      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
are also nearly a thousand girls in the French Laza.
rist 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 Beiru'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 Beiruit, 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 s'hool,
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 Beiriut, by the liberality of good




SYRIAN VIEWS ON FEMAIPR IEDCUCATION. 171
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 Beiruit 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 Beiruit.




172      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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
Beiruit. 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-.




SYRIA  VIE WS ON FEMALE ED UCA TION. I73
tament, and on comparison with the page printed
here, we find it an exact copy of the Beiruit 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 Beiruit Female Seminary. This
Seminary was the first school in Syria for girls, which
was established on the paying principle, and in the
year I867 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 assembJ.y
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




I 74     THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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, numer
ous 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 h ave they taught? A little French. They tell
us how far Lyons is from Paris, and where Napoleon




SYRIAN VIEWS ON FEMALE EDUCATION. I75
first lived, and then they forbid the Word of God,
and scatter broadcast the writings of the accursed in.
fidel 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 DaiUd Pasha, late governor of
Mt. Lebanon, an article on the customs of the Leb.
-anon population. This paper was styled " Le Liban," and printed both in Arabic and French in July,
I867.  It gives us a glimpse of the civilizing and
Christianizing influences which are at work in Syria.
"In Mount Lebanon there exist certain cus.




I7f      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 suck 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




SI'RIAN VIE WS ON FEMALE ED UCA TION.  77
best, because his father used it with great benefit
just before he died, and another will urge the claims
iOf 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 sup.
pose 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
8~




J78      THE WOMEN OF THE ARA B.
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 utter



SYRIAN VIE WS ON FEMALE ED UCA TION. I79
ances! At the very time that article was written,
these customs continued in full force. A woman in
Abeih, whose husband died in i866, 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 iMohammedans, 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




BEDA WIN ARABS.             I81
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 BeirAt 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 cart 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 Beiruit
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




i-82.    THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Feburary, I871, 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




BE DA WrIN ARABS.           I83
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,




I84      THE WYOMEN OF TIHE ARABS.
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!" lie
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 deseIt, 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 Beiriut 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




BEDA VXIN ARABS.                       I85
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 I
Amen.
After offering you the pearls of salutation, and the ornaments of
pure odoriferous greeting, we would beg to inform you that your epis.
tle 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; anl hals 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 Et.ropeans, and we should like to have one like Ali Effendi, who
knows our way of talking and living, come to teach us and our childien. We would also inform you that the book with pictures, which




I86        THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Jemnady Akhar 
I289 of the Hegira j
" 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




REDA WIN ARABS.             i87
migratk. the East in the Jowf, where they are
quiet an\,.mtninterrupted 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,




188      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
Fevers prevailed through the entire district from
Tiberias to Damascus, and Ali devoted himself faith.
fully 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 $I4,) 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 /




BEDA rlWI  ARABS.                   I89
AIi 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 I866.
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 disastersSavage hyena, come forth, from youl lair in the land of Jedaileh,




Igo        THE WOMfE1N OF THE ARABS.
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 Diukhy, 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 themn
with a disinterested love, and who seek their everlasting welfare!




CHAPTER XV.
" WOMAN BETWEEN BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION-."
T HIS is the title of an Arabic article in the "Je.
nan" for Sept. I, I872, 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 " I evantine "
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 worth.
less part of the creation.
"' Woman possesses a nature remarkably impressi



192     THE WOMiEN OF THE ARABS.
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.
"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



BARBA RISM AND CI VILIZA TION.      93
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!
-- " 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
9




I94      THIE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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




BARBARISM AND CJ VILTZA TION.     195
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 impor.
tant of subjects. Woman is the one fountain from
which is derived the life of man in its earliest pe.
riods. 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 Pariian




i96      TiLE ItOAL~EN OF THE ARABS.
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 I3,000 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, i856, 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 I860, 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



BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION.        197
sault 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




!98      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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, I862, when Daid 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
BeirAt, 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




BARBARISM AND CIVILIZA TION.    199
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 Beiruit simply warned the public against patron.
izing such a bloody impostor!




CHAPTER  XVI.
OPINIONS OF PROTESTANT SYRIANS WITH REGARD TO
THE, WORK OF AMERICAN WOMEN IN SYRIA.
-HE 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, I872.
" 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 Beiruit.
" 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




OPINZON$S OF PROTESTANT SYRIANS.  201
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 ill
public opinion, so that year by year the people began to appreciate female education. And as we are
n.ow 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 diffus
ing 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
ro*




202       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
encourage the benevolent in persevering in their ac.
tion."
The Rev. John Wortabet, M. D., Professor of
Anatomy in the Syrian Protestant College, and husband of Salome, writes as follows:BEIRUT, Oct. 20, I872.
"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




OPINIONS OF PROTESTANT SYRIANS.  203
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.
OTI-ER LABORS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS IN TI1IS
FIELD.
T HE 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 establish
ment.
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
Tebruid, 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




OTHER LABORS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS. 205
of labor in North and South America, Greece and Asia
Minor, came to Syria in I858, 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 Dob.,
bie. 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, I872.
"Our first school for native girls was commenced
in Beirut in I858. 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




206     -THE WOiMfENV OF THE ARABS.
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 Aitah, 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.
T1IE PRUSSIAN DEACONESSES INSTITUTE IN BEIRUTT
The Orphan House, Boarding School and Hos.




OTIEi-R  tWORK' FO, t WOMEIE ATND GIR.S.  207
pital with which the Prussian Deaconesses are connected, were established in I86o. 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 ill
families.
In August of the year I86I, the Deaconesses had
received about IIO orphans. The children entering
are received for three years, and tile 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 I86I, 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




208      TH~E WOMEN OF TIME ARABS.
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 I86o. I remember well the first arrival of Mrs. Bowen Thompson in Beirut, and her persevering energy in forming
her little school for the widows aud orphans of Hasbeiya, Deir el Komr and Damascus.
From that little beginning in I86o, 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




OTHER ItORK FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS.  209
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 Beiruft
was under the care of Mrs. Shrimpton, who labored
with great earnestness and wisdom in that important
institution until the spring of I873, 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




210      THE YOMEN OF TILE ARABS.
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 cooperation, and let not Christ
be divided in His members. I write these words in
connection with the subject of the British Syrian




OTHER WORK FOR WOMEN A1ND GIRLS. 2II
Schools, because I can speak from experience of the
value of such cooperation in the past. As Acting
Pastor of the Native Evangelical Church in Beiruit,
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 cooperation 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
theland. 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
I835, 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 cooperation of the AngloAmerican and German communities in Beiruit,
both in the Church, public charities and educational
institutions, up to the present time.
Let us all live in Christ, work for Christ, keep




212           THE WOMEN' OF THE ARABS.
our eye fixed on Christ, and we shall be with Christ,
and Christ with us!
BRITISH SYRIANV SCHOOLS, I872.
B3 E I R UJ Tr.
No.  ESTABLISIED.             NAME.          SCHOLARS. TvACIEnRS
I        i86o         Training Institution,     92         16
2        I863         Musaitebeh,               85          3
3        I868         Blind School, men & boys, I6          2
4        I868         Blind girls' School,       II         I
5        i86o         Boys' School,             85          5
6        i86I         East Coombe,             I2o          4
7        I86o         Elementary,               30          2
8        1872         Es-Saifeh,               I00          4
9        i86o         Infant School,           I25          3
10        I86o         Moslem,                   50          4
II        x86o         Night School,             -           5
12        I863         Olive Branch,             85          4
DAMASCUS.
13        I867         St. Paul's,              I70          6
14        I869         Blind School,              I5         x
15        I870         Medan,                    80o         2
16-       I867         Night School,             30          I
LEBANON.
17         x863        Ashraflyeh                53          3
i8        I868         Ain Zehalteh,              50         2
19        I869         Aramoon,                  40          2
20        I863         Hasbeiya,                 I6o         3
21        I867         Mokhtara,                 -
22        I868         Zahleh,                    75         4
TYRE.
23        x869         Girls' School,       5-    02
Totals,..... 1522          79
Bible Women,..            7




OTHER WORK FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS.  213
MISS TAYLOR'S SCHOOL FOR MOSLEM GIRLS.
This worthy Christian lady from Scotland is doing a quiet yet most effective work in Beirit, 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
Beiruft.
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, i868, 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




214      THE WOME~V OF THE ARABS.
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 AMCUNT 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 themn the Word of life.
Schools in Syria are entering wedges for Gospel
truth.




216      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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




AMOUNT OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCTION.  217'ssons can be given with much more profit and such
cess, 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 Missionfield, 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
Beiruit 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.
Io0




Z 8      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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.
THlE 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 sev



AMOUNT OF BIBLICAL iNSTRUCTION.  219
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.
Among the departments of woman's work in for.
eign 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




220      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS,
the Piussian Protestant Deaconesses of Kaiserwerth,
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 Ab.
dullah trembled, for in those days of darkness Moslems oppressed and insulted Christians with perfect
impunity. Said the missionary, "Tell the Moslems
that unless theyall repent and believe in Christ, they
will perish forever." Abdullah translated, and the
Moslems gave loud and earnest expression to their




AMOUN'T OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCIOAV.  221
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 Huins




222      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
and Tripoli, in Beiruit, 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. WV. Bird, Mrs. Lyons and Mrs. Cheny, 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 Beirft 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,




AMOUNT OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCTION.  223
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 Beiriut 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.




224       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS
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 overtaxed 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




AMOUNT OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCTION.  225
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 very 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.




226           THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
"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 I862, 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 B1LOCATION.                 PUPILS. TEACH'RS- GUN
Beirut,      Day School,      50        2       i834
"          Seminary,        50      1o       1848
Sidon,       Seminary,        20        3       1862
C"         Day School,       6       I       x862
Abeih,                        60        x       1853            [soon.
Deir el Komr,     "           50        2       I855   To be resumed
Ghorify,          "           40        I       I863   All Druzes.
El Hadeth,         "          40        I       I870
Shwifat,                      70        2       I871
I)ibbiyeh,        "           20        I       868
B'Hamdin,         "           30                1 1853   Discontinued.
Meshghara,                    30        I       8 I69   Boys and girls,
Ain AnOb,         "           20                I870    and 60 boys.
Kefr Shima,       "           40                1 i856   Boys and girls
Rasheiya el
Fokhar,          "           30       I       I869
Jedaideh,         "           40        x       I870
El Khiyam,        "           25        I       i868
IbI,              "           30        I       i868
Deir Mimas,                    15       I       I865
Kana,             "           35                i869
Hums,                         40                1 x865
Safita,                       30               x1869
Hamath,                        30 30    I        872
1'"l.23                  Sol       36




AMO UNT OF BIBLICAL I.VSTR UCTION.  227
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'hamduin 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 800o, 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




228      THE HWOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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,




AMOUNT OF BIbLICAL INSTRUCTION.  229
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 I820 to I872
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




230      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
one of the distant villages high up in the range of
Lebanon, called on me in Beirut. I had spent seve.
ral 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 glo.
rious beams of the rising Sun of Righteousness!




AMOUNT OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCTION.  231
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:ulture 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.
P A ET   I.
Abeih, Mount Lebanon, Sept., I872.
MY DEAR SON WILLIE:It is now eight years since you left Syria, and
you were then so young, that you must have forgot.
ten 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.




4         THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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




THE CHILDREN'S CHiAP TER.
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 ma(e 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 lkob
kobs. Sometimes they slip and then down they go
oen 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
Inmme! " 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 koh
kobs, and then making a dash to get out of the
crowd. Sometimes shins will be kicked, and hair




6        THE WVOMEN OF THE ARABS.
pulled. and tarbooshes thrown off, and a great
screaming and cursing follow, which will only cease
when the Muiallim comes with his "Asa" or stick,
and quells the riot. That pile of shoes will have tc
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 losf 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 daugh.
ter 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 Beireut, the Arab women




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.
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




THE WOMEN OF TIHE ARABS.
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,




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.            9
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 fla..
vored 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 ot
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




10      STHZ  WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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, atnd " O God," is Yullah. Then there is Wiul.
lak and Bismillah, " In the name of God," Hamdlilla, " Praise to God," Inshullah, " If God will." The
most awful oaths are Wullah and Billah. The peo.
pie use YullZa at all times and on all occasions. The




THIE CIZILDREN'S CHAPTER.
donkey-drivers and muleteers say Vullah 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 Beiruft. 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 I.and. 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 re.
plied, "Wullah, I will."
Sometimes a donkey-driver will get out of parience with his long-eared beast. The donkey will
I




I2       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 grand.
father! "  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 " faithof-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 rag.
ing in the village when he was born. It is very com.
mon 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




THE CEIILDREV' S CHAP TER         13
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 Beiruit named Feinus or Lantern. In the
Bciruit 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 AhSmei
(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, Luli, Selma,' Luclya,
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,




14       TH1E WO.MENr OF THE ARABS.
who is just about entering the Freshman class in the
Beiruit 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 Lulut 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 Ghurzuiz 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,




THE CHILDREN'S CHIAPTER.          I 
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 halfasleep smoking his pipe, you would think them the
tamest and most innocent creatures in the world, but




I6 -     THE WYOSMEN OF THE ARABS.
when they fall into a panic, they are beyond all con.
trol. 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, I862, 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,




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.          17
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 CQesarea 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




I8       TITE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
camnel 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 Beir-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 some..
times their meat is -as delicious as beef steak. 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




THr  CtHILDRENS CHAPTER.         29
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 sometim.es you can perceiv e
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 Monsiur'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 tde mule thought he would trot and
ti 




20       THE WOMEN OF THE ~ARABS.
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 stumn
bled and fell flat upon his nose. I went over his
aead upon my hands, but my feet were fast in the:ope 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 Beirtit 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 ot
Custom House, and there a little Arab boat takes us
out to the steamer. In rough weather it is very darr




THE GI1Z,DREN'S CHAPTER.         2I
gerous goingout 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 Beiruit 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 I30 orphans and 8o0 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 Ioo 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 ice




THEE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 M{ustafa, 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




-TE CH-IILDREN'S CHAP-TER.       23
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)
aud 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




24       THE WOIMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 visit.
or 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




TH1E CHILDREN'S CHA P TR.        25
rhey 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 9oo0
feet high. Grapes are about a cent a pound and
figs the same, and in March you can buy five or.
anges or tell 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




26       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 com.
ing out to meet us. We will dismount and greet him.
He will kiss us on both cheeks and insist on our call.
ing 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.




THE CHILDREN'S CHAP TER.         27
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 tie,
Saviour! The uncle Michaiel, was also taken ill, and
on his death-bed would have neither priest nor pic.
tures, 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 soften*d and now she loves to hear Yanni read the Bible
id pray.
The servant is coming with sherbet and sweet.




28       THE WOMVEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I6,ooo
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 nevet 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 Halbato sleep to-night. So we
bid Yanni's family good-bye. We tell them " Be
Khaterkum."  "By your nleasure," and they say




THE CHILDRE N'S CHAP TER.        29'!Ma es Salameh" "with peace."-Then they say'God smooth your way," and we answer, "Peace'o your lives." Saieed the muleteer now says " Dih,
Coah," to his mules, and away we ride over the stony
pa\ements and under the dark arches of the city, to.
wvars 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, Nusairlyeh, 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 gene- Lily chosen from among the lowest of the
people.
When the former Greek Bishop died in Tripoli,
in I858, hri 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




30       7HE WOAIA  OF' THE ARABS.
black and bloated, but the mlen, 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. Af 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 apiece
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 Sou0l 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




THE CHILDREA'S CHAPTER.          31
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 keep.
ing 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 mai
to count.
See the reapers in the field, and the women glean




32       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
ing 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 ismthe 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." tIzre the Arkites lived, who are mentioned
in Genesis x: I7. That was four thousand two
hundred yedrs 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




THE CHILDREAT'S C'HAPTER.        33
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 blow.
ing over.
Ab; Har.na, 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




34        THE WOMEN OF THE ARAB S.
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
Abit 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




THE CHI~LDREN'S CIAPTER           35
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 tiough
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 AbiU Hanna,
you will see, prefers to eat without a spoon. After
the blessing is asked in Arabic, Abi' 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 inl 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




36       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
remain a fool! It takes something besides pound.
ing 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 Ab'i
Hanna eats. He tears off a small piece of the thil
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 commci 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




THE CHI~LDREN'S CHAPTER.         37
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.
I2 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 Abui, [father] or Im,
[mother]. They call a musquito Abui Fas, the fath( t
of an axe. The centipede is "Im Arbd wa Arb-ain,




38       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
"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
Df Nusairy saints or sheikhs, and the poor women visit thein 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, " 0 Jqfar et Tiyyar
hear me! 0 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 Nusairlyeh 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAP TER
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 for




40       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Jor.
dan in a desert place. No village or house was in sight
and night came on. Tired, hungy 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 Mohamnmed 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 pilgrms 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.          41
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! " " Mashallat!
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, toe




42       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 thepiastres 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,
coine running to greet us. "Praise God we have
seen you in peace!"  "Ehelan wa Sehelan," "Wel.
come and Welcome!"  ".Be preferred!" "Honor
us with your presence!"  "How is your state?'




THF CHLDREN'S CHAP TER.         43
Inshallah 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 somp 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 feliaheen (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
I2*




44       THE WOMEJN OF THE ARABS.
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 Pro.
testants 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.
WVe 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




THE CH'ILDREN'S CHAPTER          45.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
gel: 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 wrent
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




46       THE 1 O~MEN OF THE ARABS.
sent a messenger to Beirfut. 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 i
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 con.




Tr'HE CHILDREN'S CHA PTER.
tributloris made by the missionaries and others in
Beiruit, gave them some relief, and the kind words of
sympathy strengthened their hearts.  The school
was kept up amid all these troubles. One of tile
boys was taught in Abeih Seminary, and two of the
girls were sent to the Beiruit Female Seminary.
You would have been amused to see those girls
when they first reached Beiruit. They walked barefoot from Safita down to Tripoli, about forty miles,
and then Uncle S. took them on to Beiriit. 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 forlornlooking 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?




48       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I  and the other 12
years old, and that was in I865.
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! lie too has borne much for his Master. In
1865, when he left the Greek Church, he was living
with his brother in Beiruit. His brother turned him
out of the house at night, with neither bed nov
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 beat
anything for Christ's sake. Said he, "I can bear
cursing and beating and the loss of property-. But




7HE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.          49
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 tolearn 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 mo'intains for
hours, so that he did not reach home ui.til twelve
o'clock at night, and then without any wood.  Tie
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 to!d her to go out with the




50       TIHE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
women and girls to gather olives. They hacd 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
I869, 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




THE CHILDRENAS CHAPTER           51
stir one: step with them." The old Bishop turned
back, and left her to herself. Near by was a man
named AbA 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 coN
died, and she is in great distress. Yusef, the preach.
er, 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 bardersfor 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.




S2' THE' W'OMEN OF THE ARABS.
and on Sunday the curtain is drawn, his things arc
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
xrother 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 bed.
stead in Sidon school, and I thought I would prac.




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.
tice beforehand, so I tried to sleep on the shdlf, and
tumbled off in my sleep I"
Abiu Asaad says the Nusairy Sheikh who was
arrested some months ago has been poisoned. Poi.
soning 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.




THE  WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 thoulsands 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 Beirfit 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




2'E1 CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.            5$
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 cf the
men from the north side saw a south-sider dipping'lp water from the north side and pouring it over the




56       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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, Aaleik, near Beirit, 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 i86o,
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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAP TER.         57
his wife and his little daughter Zahidy. I remember
well how we were startled one evening in I862, 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 m eit




58      sTtHE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
there, btt it was not his child. Then he went tc
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 sittin, ii their house one day,
In Tripoli,'when Tannoos, the boy, brought word
that a man and woman from Beirht 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAP TER.           9
some ySears, and her name was Khodra. While examining the bruises on her body, he observed a pe.
culiar 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 Beirlt.
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
I3




60       THRE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
than twenty girls in their families who had been st&
len in this way, and if one could be reclaimed, per.
haps 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. IIe
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 tohim. 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
wvomen 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 decis.
ion.
The poor father now went to the Consuls. They
made out a statement of the case and sent it to the
Consuls General in Bcirqit, who sent a joint dispatch




~HE CHILDREN'S CHAP TER.         6I
to'he 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 Beirlit to be examined by a Special Commission. The Waly telegraphed at once to Tripoli, to have the girl sent on
by tile 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 Beiruit, 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 Beirfit 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




62       THE WOMEN OPt THE ARAB,':
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.
Hsr 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 thatyour 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 Vas a great silence.
After a little the Kadi said,' it is enough. This
girl is the laughter of Kal,lil Ferah. Sir, take your
J;ild, and Allah be wi a you'."
The father wiped way the tears and said, "Your
Excellency, yoa see this poor girl all tattooed and
disfigured. You see how ignorant and feeble she is.
If she were not my child, there is nothiig about her
to make me wish to take her. But she is my own




TElE CHILDREN'S CH4P TER.        63
da-ling 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 beer
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 tc
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




64         ~THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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
l.ebanon  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 mo:ioned 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,
Aside to the   Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child!
&- tellrers      t. *   Once I was a happy girl,
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.i.d..... 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.




THE CHILDREN'S CHAP7ER.                65
Sleep, baby sleep! a sleep so sweet and mil,,
Sleep, my Arab boy, my little Bedawin child i
Aside.....  Oh seller of grapes, I beg yc a 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 re
treated and finally shouted to his companions, and




66       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
off they all went. Shortly after, they sent a inan
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 carefui
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 du,
ring 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 CHILD-RE2' S CHAP TER.       62
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 I856, 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 coma
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 Beiruit 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 con.
sumption, 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 Trio
bunes. 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 comet
I3*




65       THAE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 then)
with an iron-headed spear in his hand. A Moorish
Sheikh, or Chief, had been for some two years teach..
ing 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 i
shrewd old Sheikh. He knew that the true way to
perpetuate his religion was to teach the chZildre~n.'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 Di.
vine Saviour.
Many of the people seem to think that the Irlissionary's house is like the Cave of Adullam, where
David lived, (I Sam. xxii: 2) when "every one
*hat was in distress, and every one that was in debt




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.          69
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
toTripoli, 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 han.
dle, 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. antI




70       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 morn.
ing 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER. -        71
would get him a hat, a coat, and pantaloons, put a
flag-staff on his house, and have him appointed Amer.
ican 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 I866, a man named Yusef Keram rebelled
against the Government of Lebanon and was captured and exiled. The day he was brought into Beiruit,
a tall rough looking mountaineer called at my house.
HIe 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 par.
don 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 Adul.
lamites. If those who came to David were like the




72       THlE WOMENl OF; THE ARABS.
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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPT ER.         73
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




THEE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I862 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.          75
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.
Moslerms have a great horror of swine.  They




76       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
think us barbarians to eat ham or pork. In February, I866, 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 I866, a Maronite fellah came into Beiriut 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.          77
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 "drinkivg a pipe,




78       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.'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 I00oo 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 de.
voured. At another time, the men in the boat felt a




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.         79
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 Beiruit 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
thenr 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




80       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 valua.
ble 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 Beirfit, 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 pool
ignorant woman went away greatly disappointed.




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.          8I
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,'' Mushullah, 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,
to that awhole page will be taken up with these'[npty formalities, leaving only a few lines at the,
jnd, 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 inge.
nuous Khowadja, the honored, may his continuance
be prolonged!"
A' fter 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.




82        THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
That would cost too much to be sent by tele
graph.  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. Maximut
Pontifex Maximus
Montibus Imminentibus
etc. etc.
This Emperor Marcus Aurelius, must have cut
this road through the rocks about the year I73 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAP TER.          83
of btanding where Sennacherib and Alexander the
Great passed along with their armies!
What a steep and narrow road! We will dis.
mount 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 I857. 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
tamels 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 aid stepped upon the narrow wall,
calling all the time to his sheep, who followed close
rpon his heels, walking in single file. He said
14




THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.' 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 won
derful 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
iheep 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 heat




THE CHIDREN'S CcHAPTER.         85
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 stran.
gers.
I was. once travelling from DiUma to Akiura, 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 Beiruit. You will wish
to see the Female Seminary, and the Sabath 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




86       THE W0MZAr OF THE ARABS.
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




THE CHiLDREN'S CHAP TER.         87
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 ot
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 I867. Her name was
Fereedy. She was a boarder and the best behaved
girl in the school. One day during vacation, her moth.
er came to Rufka and said, "What have you doneto 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




88       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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
dty 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.              8
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 du.
ring 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 an I linen as well as you can,
Weave a robe for the Great Sultan.




9o       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABs.
1I. 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.
IIe 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."




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.              91
Then there are other games like chequers and
"Morris," chess, and games which are used in gamng
bling, 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 breadI 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
Bedawln, andGhouls, 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
ire




92      TE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 1
The' Noble Flea.
The raven he,
Wept over the flea,
And flew to a green palm treeAnd in grief, dropy5ed 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 alnt his ibretances shedt




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER                     93
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!
t'hen the Wolf in despair
Shed his shaggy hair.
Then the River clear and shining,
Saw the wolf in sorrow pininpg
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




94          THE WOMEN OF THE ARABA'
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 hemheard 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 i
Said he,'tis because the River,
Dried his waters up forever,
Since he saw the Wolfs 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,




THE CHZLDREN'S CHAPTER.                   95
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 of 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




96          THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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
theit love to their babies, is to hate those who do
not lcve them.
Im Faris says she has heard this one in Hasbeiya,
her birthplace:
0 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




THE CHILDREX'S CHAP TER.                     97
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 




9g8         r Iff WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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:
LAlM 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 LflQ dear;
We'll wash her and dress her,
A nd 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:




TRE CHILDREAN'S CHAPTER.                      99
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 aq
t, 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:




loo,    THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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:




rTHE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.                i I
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.
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:




THE  WOMN'_tV OP THE ARAB.f
I02
HIillu, Hilluf, Hallelujah!
Come my wild gazelles!
Hie 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:
Ie's here and there,
He is everywhere,
And to you He's ever near.
People say that every baby that is born into the
wolld 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.




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.                   103
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:




0o4          THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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
)lea 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.




THE CHILDREN'S CZAP TER.                  Io0
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 I
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 sm 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 mo.
ment 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



'IXQ      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 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!




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.            107
Nideh sings
Upon you the name of Allah,
Around you Allah's eye!
May the Evil Eye be blinded,
And never harm my boy!
Jt is ten o'clock at night, and Katrina, Laia,
WLred, 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, 0 world, all day and night,
We will wash our clothing white,
Rain, 0 world, your waters shed,
On my dear grandmother's head.
Ir;




THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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  HandAmeh  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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.          lo
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. Hier 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 I400 piastres or fifty-six dollars. You
know Handumeh is not a rich girl, and her betrothed
is a hard working mtnleteer, and he has had to work
very hard to get the money to buy all these things,
for it is the custorr for the bridegroom to pay for
the bride's outfit. the people always lay out their
money in jewelry Decause it is easily carried, and
easily buried it, 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




'1 Q.''THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I
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




TI7E CHILDREN'S CHEPTER.                  I I
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 I
But the time has come for the procession to
move, and we go along slowly enough. The bride
ridcs 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
nave 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; I
The moonlight has gone from his house,
The rose from his gardens so flow'y,.




I 12          THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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.
rome and j6in 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 I 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 Handiumeh 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 Handimeh.
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 Abiu Shaheen comes into
the court with the old priest Eklemandus, as Shaheen's family belong to the Greek Catholic sect.
Handuimeh 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




TIlE CHILDREN'S CH.4P TER.     II3
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 power.




I1i4      THE WOMIEN OF TIE ARABS.
ful, with long and strong horns, and once upon a time
she brought forth twin kids, fair and beautiful. One
was named Sunaisiz, 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:




THE CHILDREANS CHAPTER.        lI5
HIearken 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 sud.
denly 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
15*




THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
and dried them in the sun until they were hard, and
then came to "butt " with the goat. At tile 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 Glhoul? 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAP TER.        117
rice, the Duck planted wheat, the Dove planted
pulse, and the Donkey planted barley, and they
stationed the Donkey on guard to watch the grow
ing 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 de.
dared 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 I




I i8         THE WOAIEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I
May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
And none any news of me ever take I
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 I
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 I
May Allah tumble me into the Lake,
And none any news of me ever take I




THr  CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.                     1Ig
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
nmercy, and called at the top of his voice:
Whoever will help me out of this plight,
May eat my tail at a single bite I
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 I
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,
tHe'd never help an Ass again.
AbuA Habeeb, who is just about to enter the col.
lege, has a storywhich all the Arabs know, and lox e
to hear. It is called;




I20      THE WOMrEN OF THE ARABS.
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 H-Iorse running




THlE CHILDREN'S CHAP TER.2 21
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 CarIerPter




122     THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 be-smeared 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 run
riing 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.        123
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




I24       THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Mo
hammedan, 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 Der.
vish 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 bid.
dinl- the Pasha farewell. and journeyed to Mecca




THIE CHILDREN'S CH'AP7'ER.       I25
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.
lie 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
or'dered them to make a long pipe of exquisite workminship, 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 mnight
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. " Io




126      THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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
Hamdiu 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 need.
ed 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 Damas.
cus 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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.         I2~
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 aln 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 Bi 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




128      THE WOMEN OF -THE ARABS.
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 unu.
sually 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




THE CHILDRENi'S CHAPTER.        129
to the young and dangerous to the old. Your ex.
cellency, 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 Handfumeh 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.




I30          THE WOMENV OF THE ARABS.
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 I
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 griefl
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.




THE CHILDREN"S CHAPT'ER.                 131
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 I
May Allah's eye defend him I
May she who sees and says not the Name,
Be smitten with blindness and die in shame I
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.
w6




132       -  HE  WOMEN OF THIE- ARABS.
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
"HIIoly 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 miraculous.
ly lighted by fire which comes forth from the tomb of
Christ! So the poor Greek woman sings to her child;




THE CHILDRE' S CII*  TER.                 133
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 I
Provides their portion every day,
Prosects 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 Nusainryeh 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




134       THE HWOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 Hlan(umeh's wedding and the story telling and the Beda.
win songs. Let us retire to rest for the night, thank.
ful 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 cryingWhere is the lord who wore me?
I hear the garments sighing.




THE:  C2HILDREN'S CHAPTER.              135
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 I
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 conso.
lation 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,




136-         THSE WOMEN OF THE ARABS.
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 I
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




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.!37
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.dig.
gers:
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 i
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 an.
other woman sings:




138         THE WYOMEN OF. THE ARABS.
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 supassing,
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 concluYe 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,




THE CHILDREN'S CHAPTER.         139
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 I
THE E.




INDEX.
Arabs of the Jahiliyeh, x               Divorce, 3], 7, 29, 37
Arabs of Kinaneh, 2                     Druze, 2so
Arabic Proverbs, 3                      Dodds, Dr., 39
Araman, Michael, 19, 99                De Forrest, Dr., 23, 33, 73, 75, 134, 298
Asin Haddad, IoI                        Dales, Miss, 204
Abu Selim, 138, 260                     Department of Women's Work, 2T9
Abu Mishrik, I48                        Dodge, Dr., 50
Aleppo, 151                             Dodge, Mrs., 50, 52, 53
Asur el Jedid, i68                      Dog River, 312
American Seminary Abeih, r69
Anlazy, 182                              El Khunsa, the poetess, 4
Arthington, Mr., I8x, I84                Education of Girls, I8, 19
Ali, I84, 359                            Everett, Miss, 103
Amount of Instruction, 57, 78, 8t, 3I6    Early Age of Marriage, 117.abdulla Yanni, 220                      Eddy, Mr., I5I'
Aintab, 88                              El Haketn, 331, 22
Abu Asaad, 274, 276, 283                Evil Eye, 336
Abu Isbir, 281
Arab Camp, 295                          Female Prayer-Meeting, 56, 74
Adullamites, 298                         Ford, Mr., I26, I5I, 156
Arkites, 262                             French Lazarist School, 169
Abu Hanna, 263                           Francis Effendi Marrash, 91
Asaad Mishrik, 233                       Fast of Ramadan, 306
Fuller's Soap, 328
Burying Alive, x                         Funerals, 3I6, 364
Birth of Daughter, 28, 236               Female Seminary, Beirfit, 222, 315
B'hamdun, 93, I21                        Fruits, 255
Bliss, Mrs. Dr. o04                     Fisk, Rev. Pliny, 47
Booth, Wm. A., os5, xo6
Bird, Rev. 47, 48, 50, 58, XI5          Greek School Suk el Ghurb, x69
Bistany ~.I26f, 26, 34, 58, so        Ghubrin Jebara, I73
Bedr, Rev. Yusef, 148                   Godell, Mrs., 50o
Belinda, I49                            Games, 319
Bedawin Arabs, x8o                      Greek Priests, 259
British Syrian Schools,,                Goodell, Dr., 47, 48
Beattie, Rev., 41
Bird, Mrs., 50o                         Houris, o
Beit Beshoor, 274                       Hamzd, 20
Bells, 304                              Hala of Abeih, 29
Bedawin Songs, 360                      Hammud, 39
Hums, 140
Carabet Melita, 62, 65, 67, I53         Hassan I98
Cheney, Miss, 74, 8I, 97                Hicks, iMviss, 206
Carruth, Miss, 104                      Howe, Fisher, 76, 8o
Calhoun Mrs., 79 x14, 197               Haj Ibraham, 297
Crawford, Mrs., 204
Church of Scotland Schools for Jewish  Ishoc, 149, 263
Girls, 2I4                          Irish - American  United  Presbyterian
Carabet, Bishop Dionysius, 49             Mission in Damascus, 2o4
Convent of the Sacred Fish, 296         Ishmaelitic Songs, 326
Camels, 245                             Ilprecations, 326
(370)




INDEX.Poetesses of Arabs, 6'ohnson, Miss, 97                      Position of Woman in Mohammedan
acombs, Miss, 98, 225                   World, 7,
ackson, Miss Ellen, I04               Prussian Deaconness' Institute Beirft,
enan, 136, I62, I65, 191                206
enneh, I36                            Post, Dr., 29
Jeneineh, i36                          Praying, 305
Jesuit School Ghuzir, I69              Parsons, Rev. Levi, 47
Tob, 229
Qualifications for Missionaries, 53
Khozma Ata, 33, 75
Katrina Subra, 93, 95                  Rakash, the Poetess, 6
Koukab es Soubah, 33, 126              Rufka, Gregory, 6o, 97, 99, 1x2, I38,'75
Koran, I, 2, 11, 126, 297                277
Khlalil Effendi, I67                   Resha, IIo
Khlalil Ferah, 286                     Raheel, 120
King, Dr. Jonas, 47, 48                Ruella Arabs, 184
Latakiah Boarding School, 42           Sa Saah, 3
Loring, Miss Sophia, I04               Schwire, Io
Luciya, Shekkur, II4                   Sheikh Owad.z x6
Lyde, Mr., 38, 39                      Sheikh Said ei G;ls;:. J
Lying, 284                            Sheikh Khottar, 32
Lullaby, 294                          Sheikh Mohammed ed Dukhy, x82, 189
Leters, 311                             246
Lokunda, 242                          Sheikh Aiub el Hashem, 288
Sitt Abla, 30
Moslem Paradise for Women, I0         Syrian Christianity, 46
Moslem Idea of Women, I2, 27          State of Mission in 2828, 49,-x834. 5s,
Moulah Hakem, 22, 332                   53-I84I, 55-I846, 57-2852, 75 -1864,
Massacres of z86o, 24, 95, I96, 286     I01.
Marriage Ceremony of Druzes, 25       Seclusion of Oriental Females, 54
Marie, 43                             Sada Gregory, i8, 61, 70
Maronites, 45                         Superstitions, 77, 317, 328, 336
Mason, Miss, 97                       Sada Barakat, 84
Meshakah, Dr., Ix8                    Stanton, Miss, 98
Miriam the Aleppine, 25               Sada el Haleby, 84, xoo, 225
Modern Syrian Views, x58              Sara Bistany, IOX, 236
Moslem Schools, I68, 253              Smith, Dr., o50, x27
Miss Taylor's School Moslem Girls, 213 Sarkis, Mr. Ibraham, 127
Methak en Nissa, 2I                   Sulleba Jerwan, I42
Metheny, Dr., 40                      Sara Huntington Bistany, 157
Manger, 265                           Sitt Mariana Marash, i62
Missionary Stations, 249              Sitt Wustina Mesirra, 265
Miriam, 279, 282                      Schools of Syria, 269, 27I
Monasteries, 309                       Sitt Harba, I83, I85, 359
Marriage, 338, I7?,x43                 Safita, 277, 285, 302, 334
Mohammed ed Dukhy, x82, I89. 246      Seven Arbitrary Pillars of the I w, 2s
Suggestions to Friends of Missk As, 220
Naman, King of Hira 3                  Sidon Female Seminary, 225
Nusairiyeh 35                         Saad ed Deen, 67
Nusairiyeh Women 38                    Sphere and Mode of Woman's Work
Nejm, Io  2I8
Naame Tabet, 2oz                       Syed Abdullah, 288
Nowar, 286                            Swine, 306
Nursery Songs, 325                     Story of the Goats and the Ghoul 343
Names, 242, 244                        Story of the Haman, Britta. etc  446
Story of the Lion and IRn Ada. go
Othman, 2                              Story of the Jew Rafaiel, 354
Okkal, 24                              Story of the Badinjan
Oulad el Arab 46                       Shepherds, 313




INDEX.
iwearing, 240                           Whittlesey, Mrs. A. L., 74, 78
Soum el Kebir, 260                      Watson. Mirs., 98, 204
Smith, Mrs., I7, 50, I20                Women's Boards of Missions, Izo
Syrian School-Houses, 235               Whiting, Mrs., 3T, 57, 63, I25
Wilson, Rev. D. M., 83, 142
Tribe of Temin, 3                       Werdeh, 156
Triangle of Solomon, 36                 Wortabet, Rev. John 202
Temple, Miss, 97                        Whiting, Rev., 5o, 58, 6I
Thomson, Dr., 48, o00, 223              Waly, 29I
Thomson, Miss Emilia, Io4               Wortabet, Gregory, 49, 51
Tod, Mrs. Alexander, 122                Williams, Miss Rebecca, 52, 55
Thompson, Mrs. Bowen, 208
r'hom;on, Mrs., 50o                     Yusef Jedid, 40
Telegraph, 3I0                          Yusef Ahtiy;~h, 278, 282
Tilden, 33, 54, 60                      Yanni, 237, 254, 256, 289, 300, 3W
Yusef Keram, 30I
Van Dyck, 3I, I07, 117, I27, 172
Value Set on Woman's Life, I96          Zarifeh, the Poetess, 6
Zeyarehs, 37, 268
Wahidy, I9                              Zahara, 39
Women's Work, I820 to x872, 45          Zarify, xIo
Wortabet Salomie,.., -                 Zahidy, a5