farmers.
One has no shoes, and neither have stockings. They wear plain blue
gowns, made of coarse cotton cloth, dyed with indigo, and rusty looking
tarbooshes on their heads, and a little piece of dirty white muslin
thrown over their heads as a veil to cover their faces with, when men
come in sight. One is named Lebeeby and the other Lokunda, which means
_Hotel_. They behave very well when they come here, as they have the
fear of the big Khowadja before their eyes, but when they are at home
running about, they often use dreadful language. Little boys and girls
in Syria have some awful oaths which they constantly use. I suppose the
poor things do not know the meaning of half the bad words they use. One
of the most common is "Yilan Abook," "curse your father!" It is used
everywhere and on every side by bad people, and the children use it
constantly in their play. When the little girls come into our Schools
and Seminaries, it is a long time before they will give up "abook"-ing.
One of our friends in America is educating a nice little girl in the
Beirut Seminary, and we asked the teacher about her a few days ago. The
answer was, "She still lies and swears dreadfully, but she has greatly
improved during the past two years, and we are encouraged about her."

Sometimes a boy will say to another Yilan abook, "Curse your father,"
and another will answer, Wa jiddak, "and your grandfather," and then
they will call back and forth like cats and dogs. I saw a Moslem boy
near my house standing by the corner to shield himself from the stones
another boy was throwing, and shouting wa jid, jid, jid, jid, jidak,
"and your great-great-great-great-grandfather," and away went the other
boy, shouting as he ran, "and your great-great-great-great gr-e-at," and
I heard no more. And then there are a great many very naughty and vile
words which the children use, which I cannot write, and yet we hear them
every day. It is very hard to keep our children from learning them, as
they talk Arabic better than we do, and often learn expressions which
they do not know the meaning of. One of the most common habits is using
the name of God in vain. The name of God is Allah, and "O God,"
_Yullah_. Then there is _Wullah_ and _Bismillah_, "In the name of God,"
_Hamdlillah_, "Praise to God," _Inshullah_, "If God will." The most
awful oaths are Wullah and Billah. The people use _Yullah_ at all times
and on all occasions. The donkey-drivers and muleteers say _Yulla