her free tongue runs free into obscenity when she grows angry and curses.

Illiteracy prevails among the women of Tihama as it prevails among the mountain women. And the women of Tihama are more cut off from the means of civilization than the mountain women.

The Tihama woman, on the whole, does not chew qat; though into some houses in the Tihama towns its contagion has passed.

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Early marriage is widespread in Tihama, as it is widespread in upper Yemen. So, too, is the plurality of wives.

And Tihama is still a source — though a very slender source — of slaves for their black markets, notwithstanding that slavery is absolutely forbidden in Yemen. But when poverty and orphanhood come together, the brokers find the fitting opportu-nity to persuade the girl — or to persuade her people, if she is a minor...

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This is a glimpse of the Yemeni woman, whom I left Yemen harboring for her a sincere affection, and a heartfelt wish that she may go forward on the road of the renaissance, under the care of His Majesty the Imam, master of the modern history of Yemen — that renais-sance which, I do not doubt, will be led by my friend the wife of His Royal Highness the Emir Sayf al-Islam al-Qasim, with the culture Her Ladyship enjoys, her close contact with modern civ-ilization, her self-sacrifice, and her zeal for the renaissance of the Yemeni woman.

Before me lies a collection of books, large and small; their number and the variety of their subjects oblige me not so much to examine them with the searching eye of the woman critic as to make them known to my gracious lady readers and set them before them:

Among the theatrical and fictional books is "A Handful of Wind" by Said Takieddine, brought out by Dar al-Ilm lil-Malayin. Alongside the farce from which the book takes its title — a farce in which the author achieved a large measure of theatrical and artistic success, into which he poured a spirit drawn from the amorous stage and into which he put much of his lightness of spirit — we find a number of short stories peopled with characters from Lebanon, living in a faraway land and leading a life that is partly of here and partly of there. The book also contains some letters revolving around criticism and literature.

In the series of popular books brought out by the Arab Publishing House there were a number of story collections. Some are old Arab tales cast in a new mold, such as "Legends of the Arabs in the Thousand and One Nights," which contains four stories — "A Youth in Search of His Father," "The Meeting," "The Man Who Was Killed Four Times," "The Young

Man with the Severed Hand" — and "Tales of the Arabs," which likewise contains four: "Ikrima al-Fayyad," "The Vizier Ja'far in His Revels," "al-Abbas," "Emir Mundhir." Some are modern Arab stories, such as "The Dove of the Valley" by Rashad al-Maghribi Darghouth, prefaced with an introduction by Dr. Taha Husayn, and "Were It Not for the Loaf" by Nasim Nasr; each holds a handful of modern stories that take Lebanon as the source of their events, their characters, and their spirit. Some are stories of love among the celebrated lovers, such as "Casanova" by Qadri Qalaji and "Great Men Who Loved" by Hasan Lutfi. And there is a narrative account of the work of espionage in the Arab East during the First World War, enti-tled "The Arabs and the Allies."

It may be said of all these books, and of the other books issued by the same Arab Publishing House, that they were written and published for the people, and that they aim to sat-isfy its passion for reading and its love of stories. It is to be hoped that this step will prove a rung on a ladder, by which the people will afterward rise to the reading of a higher literature, so that the publishing house may then set the books of that literature before it.

Among the books of poetry is an elegant English volume, a translation of certain verses and passages from "Clouds" by Riyad Maalouf, published in Brazil under the title Clouds. In the book are a few sweet poetic fancies and images, and artistic similes such as none but the poets among poets can invent — and they are not many.

Among the books of thought is "Whither?" by Fayez Sayegh,