loveliness is there in a jewelled
star on the neck of coarseness and brutality, or in a diamond necklace
over a heart of stupidity and ignorance? The great poet Mutanebbi has
given us an apothegm of great power on this very subject. He says:

'Fukr el jehul bela okl ila adab,
Fukr el hamar bela ras ila resen,'

'A senseless fool's need of instruction is like a headless donkey's
need of a halter.'

"Let us then gird ourselves with wisdom and understanding, and robe
ourselves with true politeness and meekness, and be crowned with the
flowers of the 'jenan' (gardens) of knowledge (a pun on the name of the
magazine) now opened to us. Let us pluck the fruits of wisdom, lifting
up our heads in gratulation and true pride, and remain no longer in that
cowardice and avarice which were imputed to the women of the Arabs
before us!"

The next article I shall translate, is a paper on the Training of
Children in the East, by an Arab woman of Alexandria, Egypt, the Sitt
Wustina Mesirra, wife of Selim Effendi el Hamawy. It was printed in the
"Jenan" for Jan., 1871. After a long and eloquent poetical introduction,
this lady says:--

"Let us put off the robes of sloth and inertness, and put on the dress
of zeal and earnestness. We belong to the nineteenth century, which
exceeds all the ages of mankind in light and knowledge. Why shall we not
show to men the need of giving us the highest education, that we may at
the least contribute to _their_ happiness and advantage, and rightly
train our children and babes, not to say that we may pluck the fruits of
science, and the best knowledge for ourselves? Let them say to us, you
are weak and lacking in knowledge. I reply, by perseverance and
patience, we shall attain our object.

"Inasmuch as every one who reaches mature years, must pass by the road
of childhood and youth, everything pertaining to the period of childhood
becomes interesting and important, and I beg permission to say a word on
the training of children.

"When it pleased God to give us our first child, I determined to train
it according to the old approved modes which I had learned from my
family relatives and fellow-countrywomen. So I took the baby boy soon
after his birth, and put him in a narrow cradle provided with a tin tube
running down through a perforation in the little bed, binding and tying
him down, and wrapping and girding him about from his shoulders to his
heels, so that he was stiff and