ing or example. There are many instances
on record of Mohammedan men testifying that the girls trained in
Christian schools make the best wives. More than once have they come to
thank and bless the Protestant teachers who have taught to their pupils
such lessons of neatness, gentleness, obedience, and self-control. There
are many Mohammedan men who are worthy to have refined, educated wives,
and can appreciate the blessing of the homes such are capable of making.
On the other hand, however, there is a very large proportion who need to
be educated themselves in order to know how to treat such women and who
have the deserved reputation of being brutal, sensual, unspeakably vile
in language and behavior. Many of these belong to the better class in
the large inland cities. The women who are at the mercy of the caprices
and passions of such men are very greatly to be pitied.

In the towns along the coast, where there is more enlightenment; the
women have more freedom and seem outwardly happier than those who are
more strictly secluded in the towns where Mohammedanism is the
predominant influence. Freedom, however, is used as a comparative term,
for the following was told to me to show what privileges are accorded
under that name to the upper-class women in one of the smaller coast
cities. They are allowed to go often, every day if they like, and sit by
the graves in the Mohammedan cemetery. When you consider the fact that
they are shrouded in their long "covers" or cloaks, with faces veiled,
and that the cemetery is not a cheerful place, to say the least, and
that it is the only place where they are allowed to go, this so-called
"freedom" does not seem to be so very wonderful, after all. However, it
is far better than being shut indoors all the time.

[Illustration: A FAMILY GROUP AT JERICHO]

Any one living among these people becomes gradually accustomed to the
accepted state of things, especially when one has learned that outside
interference only makes matters worse, and it is only now and then when
some especially sad or heart-rending thing comes to your knowledge that
you realize how truly dreadful the whole system is. The other day I was
talking about this with a friend whose knowledge of Mohammedan women had
been confined to a few families who on the outside would compare very
favorably with Christian families she knew, as regards comfort,
cleanliness, and contentment. I agreed with her that there were many of
the n