This is a story from our modern national literature by Mr. Najati Sidqi, from his book "The Sorrowful Sisters," recently pub-lished by Dar al-Ma'arif in Egypt.

After the massacre of Deir Yassin, the men of the Red Crescent found the body of a girl in a nightgown, cast down near a byroad leading to the village. Some of them recognized her: it was the schoolteacher Hayat Balabsi.

I met her for the first time in the last months of 1947, when she submitted to the broadcasting station a literary piece, enclosing with it a letter in which she said: "I hope I may be able to broadcast this talk of mine at the earliest possible opportunity."

A few days after this talk arrived, I met one of the judges of Jerusalem, and he mentioned Hayat to me and commended her warmly to my care... Then I met one of the inspectors of education in Palestine, and he called my attention to Hayat's talk and the need to give it attention... Then I met one of the men of letters of Jerusalem, and he said to me: Will you not take an interest in Hayat and her talks? She is a girl who needs help and encouragement... Then I met the headmistress of a school in Jaffa, and she asked me whether I had received a talk from Hayat, and inquired how far I was prepared to help her.

So I asked myself: who might this Hayat Balabsi be?... And what is the reason for all this interest in her?... And I began to watch for a chance to meet her and to know her at close range.

On the afternoon of one of the days of January 1948, when snow was falling thickly in Jerusalem and cold, violent winds were blowing hard, Hayat came in to see me, wrapped in a simple coat, her head wound in a woolen kerchief studded with

little pieces of snow, so that she appeared as though a wreath of lemon blossom — the symbol of chastity and purity — encircled her lovely head.

In that meeting I learned from her her tragedy:

She had lost her father not long before; her mother was crippled and bedridden; her sister was small and unable to work. So there fell upon her shoulders the burden of caring for her mother and her sister, of managing all the affairs of the house, and at the same time of working to earn

a living, since her family had no source of income to live on, and her father had left her no sum of money nor any kind of property.

Thus she found herself compelled to leave school before obtaining the matriculation certificate, and to seek work as a supplementary teacher in an elementary school. At the department of education she was told: We cannot find you a vacant post in Jerusalem, but we do need a supplementary teacher for the village of Deir Yassin. So Hayat accepted the work in the village for a monthly salary of eight pounds.

The village of Deir Yassin lies to the west of Jerusalem, at a distance of ten kilometers, and means of transportation to it were lacking; so Hayat was obliged to make the journey there and back on foot. She would leave Jerusalem at six o'clock in the morning, passing on her way through certain of the Jewish quarters of Jerusalem — Mea Shearim, Beit Israel, Mahane Yehuda, and Romema... then through a rugged valley until she reached the settlement of Beit

HaKerem, and from there she headed straight for Deir Yassin.

This was the road of sorrows that Hayat crossed twice a day, summer and winter.

And though she was a bold young woman, she sometimes felt a dread as she crossed the valley, fearing something whose nature she did not know... so she would wait a while until the village women going to the village or returning from it passed by her, and she would go along with them... But this fear began to fade little by little, and Hayat came to cross the valley by herself, greeting the plowmen and the shepherds, and they would answer her with affection and welcome, asking her about their children and how far they were advancing and succeeding in their lessons, and praying God to keep her under the eye of His care and protection.

Nor did Hayat confine her work in the village to teaching; at certain times of the day she worked as a nurse as well, supplying whoever needed first aid with various medicines, and visiting the sick in their huts; and if she saw among them one whose condition required admission to the hospi-tal, she would get in touch at once with the health department in Jerusalem by telephone, or go herself to that department on her way home.

Hardly had Hayat completed her first year of work in Deir Yassin before she became the idol of its inhabitants, her name a synonym for education, purity, and true patriotism.

One day the girl returned to Jerusalem and found that her mother had departed this life. She bore the shock with a strong heart, did not give way before the cruel turns of fate, and persevered in her work at Deir Yassin with the resolve and steadfastness stamped upon her nature; and the