at four o'clock in the afternoon, rests a little at home, then puts on the red cotton dress and goes to visit one of her girl friends, at whose house the young girls of the village gather; and they fall to telling anecdotes and stories, or they dance the dabkeh to the strains of the "mijwiz." Maryam dances the dabkeh well and counts it her favorite pastime.

Maryam laughed when I asked her opinion of politics, and said: "And how should we village girls know what goes on in the world, when we are all ignorant of reading and writing?! Why do you not visit the village from time to time with your educated companions, and tell us the news of the city and its wonders?"

And she showed me her regret at her ignorance of embroidery, sewing, and wool-knitting — which is owing to the want of women teachers who would volunteer to train the village girls in these important crafts.

Social life in the village prevents the mingling of the sexes at parties and gatherings, yet the village girl works directly alongside the man in the field. And no marriage takes place except by way of acquaintance and mutual love. Maryam declares that she will marry none but a man she knows; and her face reddened when I asked her whether she was really thinking of a certain person. She answered me that she inclines toward her cousin, who is a peasant too, seventeen years of age, and that she will wait for him until he becomes able to bear the responsibil-ities of a house and marriage.

Maryam holds the city of Beirut in reverence, and hopes to visit it one day to gaze at its houses, supplied with running water and the means of electricity and heating. Then Maryam sighed and said: "How lucky you city girls are — it is enough that the skin of your faces does not dry up and burn from the flame of the hearth and from work in the field under the blaze of the sun!..."