n,
And ran away singing like wild Bedawin.

It is not pleasant to have so many fleas annoying us all the time, but
we must not be more anxious to keep the fleas out than to get the people
in, and as the fellaheen come to see us, they will be likely to _flea_
us too. Safita is famous for fleas, so no wonder that Nejmeh knows the
following song of the boys about fleas:

I caught and killed a hopping flea,
His sister's children came to me:
One with drum my ears did pierce,
One was fluting loud and fierce,
Then they danced me, made me sing,
Like a monkey in a ring.
Come O Deeby, come I pray,
Bring the Doctor right away!
Peace on your heart feel no alarm,
You have not had the slightest harm.

Laia is never at a loss for something new, and I am amazed at her
memory. She will give us some rhyming riddles in Arabic, and we will put
them into English as best we may. The first is about the _Ant_:

'Tis black as night,
But it is not night:
Like a bird it has wings,
But it never sings:
It digs through the house,
But it is not a mouse:
It eats barley and grass,
But it is not an ass.

Riddle about a _gun_:

A featherless bird flew over the sea,
A bird without feathers, how can that be?
A beautiful bird which I admire,
With wooden feet and a head of fire!

Riddle on _salt_:

O Arab tribes, so bold and gay,
What little grain have you to-day?
It never on the trees is seen,
Nor on the flowers and wheat so green.
Its source is pure, 'tis pleasant to eat,
From water it comes that is not sweet,
Though from water it comes, and there's water in it,
You put it in water, it dies in a minute.

The door has opened down stairs, and some of Sit Leila's friends have
come to see her. The moment they saw the little baby Fereed, they all
began to call out, "Ism Allah alayhee," "The name of Allah upon him."
They use this expression to keep off the Evil Eye. This superstition is
universal throughout Western Asia, Northern Africa, and exists also in
Italy and Spain. Dr. Meshaka of Damascus says that those who believe in
the Evil Eye, "think that certain people have the power of killing
others by a glance of the eye. Others inflict injury by the eye. Others
pick grapes by merely looking at them. This power may rest in _one_ eye,
and one man who thought he had this power, _veiled one eye_, out of
compassion for