the homeland must

master the language of their country before anything else. Over and above these, the pupil studies the various sciences and certain arts, among them embroidery, handwork, and sewing. In this last branch the pupil begins with simple pieces and finishes by sewing a dress for herself. Sewing fell into arrears at the school during the war on account of the high price of cloth, but it has returned to its normal state in these days.

The school gives much attention to physical training, for it trusts that a sound mind dwells in a sound body, and it has set aside special hours for this branch.

The English School has two branches:

The first — the secondary section, in which the pupil spends ten years, at the end of which she either leaves the school or enters the Women Teachers' College to continue her studies. This Teachers' College is the second part of the school. No pupil is admitted to it unless she has obtained her secondary certificate, and she remains from one year to three years, as she chooses. The first year qualifies her to be a teacher in an elementary kindergarten; the second prepares her to teach the middle classes, or to be a certificated teacher in a kindergarten; and the third grants her a certificate enabling her to teach the upper classes.

The pupil is trained in teaching by practical application: at the start she takes a single subject, which gives her an idea of this delightful and arduous profession — delightful in its results, arduous in its responsibility.

At the end of the year every graduate teaches for a full week, during which she bears absolute responsibility for her classes. Her teaching proceeds under the watch of her instructresses, who criticize her, correct her mistakes, and give a report on her fitness — or unfitness — to practice this calling. The institute has an outside school for practice, called the "Practice School," where the graduate of the Teachers' College spends a long time in testing and training.

The boarding section has conditions and rules which every pupil must observe.

The school holds an annual athletic festival for its pupils, to encourage the sporting spirit in them — this apart from the closing ceremony for the graduates, held at the end of June every year.

Here the headmistress smiled, having finished answering my many questions, each of which she had answered with a relish and eagerness plain upon her kindly face throughout my conversation with her; and I took my leave, thanking her for her kindness, and wishing the school and all within it steady success.

Bewildered

Munir Hanna

Drowsy-eyed, dark of skin,

bewildered by the world, and bewildering;

in him there are smiles for hopes,

and for sorrows, more.

Whenever I gazed at him

to fix a color, it changed;

and he wounded the young, free spirit

with that dust-covered face,

with that bewildered, weary stillness,

with that scattered glance.

A tenderness for him stirred me,

took hold of me, and reigned;

the bliss of a lifetime is hours

of tenderness freely chosen.

And behold, in his eyes

a hope that is folded up and spread out;

it is the light of the guiding shore

gazing from the distances —

it never dimmed but to appear

brighter, gleaming with radiance.

Everything in him is poetry's

choicest, in colors, and its wellspring:

his flowing hair

is strings for the lyres of Abqar;

inspiration plays upon it,

and reason wakes and grows drunk;

and the waist sways...

oh, that waist — how wasting, how slender!

In his confiding whisper he is a secret,

and of that secret I know best;

so remember, you, a beautiful pledge —

wretched is the one who does not remember.