ystery of life or
death is hidden from them.

It makes one's heart sick to think of these children, so sinned against
and so cruelly treated for being the products of this system. Sad
stories are told of those who are put out to service, especially when
they go to Turkish families. It is not very common, fortunately, for
there is always the fear that the men in the family, regarding them as
lawful prey, will ill-treat them. Girls disgraced in this way have a
terrible fate.

A friend came to us one day, weeping because of a dreadful thing which
had just come to her knowledge, too late, alas! for any help to be
given. The daughter of a neighbor, a poor man, had been sent out to
service, and the worst befell her. She was sent home in disgrace,--her
father was obliged to receive her, but he would not recognize her or
have anything to do with her till one day he ordered her to go out into
the garden and dig in a spot he indicated. Each day he came to see what
she had accomplished, till at last there was a hole deep enough for her
to stand in, her full height. Her father then called his brothers, they
brought lime, poured it over her, and then buried the child alive in the
hole she herself had dug. She was only twelve years old! The neighbors
found it out and informed the government. The parents and all concerned
were imprisoned, and the father is still in prison, though the mother
has been released.

The feeling is strong that such a disgrace can only be wiped out by
death, and this is especially the case when there has been misconduct
between a Mohammedan man and a Christian woman. In a Syrian city a
Christian girl of aristocratic family was betrothed and was soon to be
married when suddenly the engagement was broken. It could no longer be
hidden that she had been guilty of wrong relations with some man, and
the man proved to have been a Mohammedan. This disgrace was intolerable
to the families involved, and before long a man connected with the
family came to the girl with a glass of liquid, and said: "Here, drink
this!" She took it, drank, and died. Comments on it showed that the
sentiment of the community is in sympathy with such a course. "What else
could be done?" they say.

Probably a Mohammedan would not see the inconsistency of condemning to
death the child-victim of a man's lust, as in the first instance given,
while practically the same thing is legalized in allowing the marriage
of children with the probabili