The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-06-05
THE LOST ARAB GIRL,

of Philadelphia, with which the public
mind has been painfully engaged for
months, finds counterpart in the follow
ing story of an Arab girl, which is given
by DR.. Jessup in his Women of the Ara6s:
CATER the terrible massacre in Damas-
Gus in 1860, thousands of the Greek and
Greek Catholic families migrated to Beirut,
and among them was man named Khalil
Ferah, who escaped the fire and sword with
his wife and his little daughter Zahidy. l
remember well how we were startled one
evening in 1862, by hearing crier going
through the streets, Child lost! girl lostr
The next day he came around again, child
lost! There was great excitement about
it. The poor father and mother went
almost frantic. Little Zahidy, who was
then about six years old, was coming home
from school with other girls in the after
noon, and they said a man came along with
a sack on his back, and told Zahidy that
her mother had sent him to buy her some
sugar plums and then take her home, and
that he decoyed her away to some by-road
and then put her into the great sack, and
carried her off to the Arabs or the gypsies.
The poor father left no means untried to
find her. He wrote to Damascus, Alexan-
dria, and Aleppo, describing the child, and
begging his friends everywhere to watch
for her, and send him word if they found
her. There was one mark on the child,
guish her. When she was baby, and
nursing at her mothers breast, her mother
upset little cup of scalding hot coffee
upon the child's breast, which burned it to
a blister, leaving scar which could not be
removed. This sign the father described,
and his friends aided him in trying to find
the little girl. They went to the encamp-
ments of the gypsies and looked at all the
children, but all in vain. Months and
years passed on, but the father never ceased
to speak and think of that little lost girl
The mother, too, was almost distracted.
At length light came. Nine years had
passed away, and the Beirut people had
almost forgotten the story of the lost
Damascene girl. Your uncle S. and your
aunt A. were sitting in their house one day
in Tripoli, when Jannoos, the boy, brought
word that a man and woman from Beirut
wished to see them. They came in and
introduced themselves. They were Khalil
ba fat IF no ri
sister, who had heard that Zahidy was in
Tripol, and had come to search for her.
The mother was not able to leave home.
1t seems that a native physician in Trip
oil, named Sheikh Aiub ell Hashim, was an
old friend of the father, and had known
the family and all the circumstances of the
little girls disappearance, and for years he
had been looking for her. At length he
was called one day to attend a sick servant
girl in the family of Moslem named Syed
Abdullah. The poor girl was i'll from
having been beaten in cruel manner by
the Mosem. Her face and arms were tat
tooed in the Bedawin style, and she told
him that she was a Bedawin girl, and had
been living here for some years. and her
name was Khodra. While examining the
bruises on her body, he observed peculiar
scar on her breast. He was startled. He
looked again. 1t was precisely the scar
that his friend had so often described to
him. From her age, her features, her
complexion and all, he felt sure that she
was the lost child. He said nothing, but
went home and wrote all about it to the
father in Beirut. He fastened to Tripoli,
could not be admitted to Moslem hareem
Then the question arose, how should the
sister see the girlo They came and talked
with your uncle, and went to Yanni and
the other Vice Consuls, and at length they
found that the women of that Moslem
family were skillful in making silk and
gold embroidery, which they sold. So his
sister determined to go and order some
embroidered work, and to see the girl.
She talked with the Moslem women and
with their Bedawy servant girl, and made
e-rands for the women to bring her speci-
mems of their work, improving the oppor-
tunity to talk with the servant. She saw
the scar and satisfied herself from the
striking resemblance of the girl to her
mother, that she was the long lost Zahidy.
The father now took measures to secure
his daughter. The American, Prussian,
English and French Vice Consuls sent a
united demand to the Turkish Pasha. that
the girl be brought to court to meet her
father, and that the case be tried in the
Mejlis, or City Council. The Moslems
were now greatly excited. They knew
that there we're not less than twenty girls
in their families who had been stolen in
this way, and if one could be reclaimed
perhaps the rest might, SO they resolved to
resist. They brought Bedawin Arabs to
be present at the trial, and hired them to
swear falsely. When the girl was brought
in, the father was quite overcome. He
could see the features of his dear child,
but they were SO disfigured with the Bed
awin tattooing and the brutal treatment
of the Moslems, that his heart sank within
him. Yet be examined her, and took his
oath that this was his daughter and de-
manded that she be given up to him. The
Bedawin men and women were now brought
in. One swore that he was the father of
the girl, and woman swore that she was
her mother. Then several swore that they
were her uncles, but it was proved that
they were in no way related to the one who
said he was her father. Other witnesses
were called, but they contradicted one
another. Then they asked the girl. Poor
thing, she had been so long neglected and
abused, that she had forgotten her father,
and the Moslem women had threatened to
kill her if she said she was his daughter,
so she declared she was born among the
Bedawin, and was a Moslem in religion.
Money had been given to certain of the
Mejlis, and they finally decided that the
girl should go to the Mosem house of
Derwish Effendi to await the final decision.
The poor father now went to the Consuls.
They made out a statement of the case,