I could not read, write, or even talk, for neither my hostess nor her children knew any language but Arabic.

I had, however, time to notice what was going on around me, and observed that these children were much more lively than those in Constantinople, for here they were continually chattering and running about.

According to the custom of the country, the wife does nothing but play with the children or gossip with the neighbours, while her husband attends to kitchen and cellar, makes all the requisite purchases, and besides attending to the guests, even lays the tablecloth for his wife and children.

He told me that in a week at furthest, his wife would go with the children to a convent on the Lebanon, to remain there during the hot season of the year.

What a difference between an Oriental and a European woman! I still found the heat at sea far from unendurable; a soft wind continually wafted its cooling influence towards us, and an awning had been spread out to shelter us from the rays of the sun.