, 1889-03-27
AMONG THE M0SLEMS.
A COUNTRY WHERE WOMEN ARE
TREATED AS BEASTS OF BURDEN.

LazIness and Filth n Characteristic of the
PeopIe-GirIs Married When Only 10
Years Old.
A true Arab, when speaking with an
other in reference to the women of his
own country, begins his remarks with
'Ajellak Allah" Literally the words
mean, MAY God elevate you" and in
connection with the mention of females
Is construed as a wish that the nearer
may be put above contamination by the
subject under discussion. The Moslems
have a proverb that rum this way:
A man can bear anything put the men
ton OF his women.
This expresses in the shortest but the
most forcible way the prevailing opinion
among the male Arabs of the opposite
sex. Through Egypt and Palestine
women are regarded on much the plane
is NJ occasion of rejoicing, but when q.
daughter IN into q family, one of
their writers says, the threshold weeps
forty days whenever a girl is born"
The more information there is gathered
of the actual condition of the females
among the Arabic people, the more pa
thetic their condition appears. Week in
and week out the maidens and matrons
toll in the fields and mills. They are
slaves to be beaten and abused at Will
The children as n class are bright, intel
ligent and capable of being educated a.
well a the young of any foreign country.
But the people are all generally poor and
shiftless, and the little ones so ragged
and dirty, until they seem to lose all hope
or self respect.
THEY TREES.
1ndescribable ~laziness controls every.
body, and the filthiness of many is in
keeping. The footpaths through Syria
are bordered usually by cactus and pome-
granate trees, and beneath the shade the
people sit with their knees up to their
chins, laying the days away. The
women do the work. Frequently long
professions of women are seen staggering
under burdens of brush wood, but no
nan ever thinks of offering a helping
hand. Generation after generation goes
on with no advance. The prevailing
sentiment is well illustrated by the utter
ance of one of their philosophers, who
said they did not plant trees as they
would not live till they were grown, and
If their children wanted trees they could
plant them.
There are many stories of the over
whelming extent to which deceit and
kindred vices prevail among Mohamme-
dams. In Beyroot they say ''there arc
t~wenty-four inches of hypocrisy in the
world, with twenty-three of them spread
over Syria" There is a nursery tale OF
Satan's coming on earth with seven bags
of lies to distribute, but falling asleep
they were all accidentally opened in
Syria. Profanity is much used. They
do not,swear in English, but their words
mean swear just the same. "Allah" is
God; "Yullah" means o God; "Inshul-
lab" means If God will; "Wullah" and
."Bismillah," in the name of God, and
these words both men and women throw
into their talk with b~ewildering rapidity.
1t is related by n missionary that when
trying to persuade n shiekh not to swear
the latter earnestly replied, "Wullah, 1
will not"
GRANDMOTHER AT TWENTY.
Greediness for gain is a predominant
passion among adult Arabs, md is i'm
pressed upon the children from their
first hour of understanding. "Back-
sheesh" Is the cry and leading hope.
Women and children are beaten with n
view of exciting pity among foreigners,
and through sympathy reaching their
purse, Every man is naturally u despot,
and n of the most sordid, cold and
calculating faces to be seen in any
country is that of an Oriental phari-
sec with his philactery on his fore
head. One of the notable things is the
unvarying way in which things go on,
century after century. There has been
little change in many of the. customs
since Bible times. In the sacred book
Isaiah has a verse giving the water car
rier's cry, as follows: "Ho, every n
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters"
The water carrier of today goes around
with the same cry, the same skin bag
and the metal saucers that he claps to-
gether In time with his call, as when
Isaiah was written. A thing repulsive
to Americans is the early age at which
girls are married and the domestic ar
rangements. Girls are married before
they are 10 years old, and are often
grandmothers before they are 90. A
learned doctor of Damascus married his
wife when she was II years of age. 1t
was his claim that by marrying SO young
n girl he could train her as she should be.
Girls are taken from the English schools
at 8 yearsof age to prepare for approach
ing union with some man as old as their
fathers.
The missionaries have been laboring
to effect reformation, and, although it is
up hill work, the latest accounts tell of
DrOpresS in the RIGHT direction In Soma
families women are coming to be looked
upon moro in the light of humans than
beasts of the field, and occasional courte-
sizes after the example set by resident
Europeans are extended them.-St. Louis
Globe-Democrat.