everal women acknowledge that they knew no more than the
donkeys."

August 23. A Maronite priest compelled two little girls to leave her
school, but the Greek priest sent "his own daughter, a pretty,
rosy-cheeked girl" to be taught by Mrs. Smith. On the 22d of September,
1834, she wrote from B'hamdun, a village five hours from Beirut, on
Lebanon, "Could the females of Syria be educated and regenerated, the
whole face of the country would change; even, as I said to an Arab a few
days since, to the appearance of the houses and the roads. One of our
little girls, whom I taught before going to the mountains, came to see
me a day or two since, and talked incessantly about her love for the
school, and the errors of the people here, saying that they 'cared not
for Jesus Christ, but only for the Virgin Mary.'"

October 8. She says, "A servant woman of Mrs. Whiting, who has now
lived long enough with her to love her and appreciate her principles,
about a year and a half since remarked to some of the Arabs, that the
people with whom she lived did 'not lie, nor steal, nor quarrel, nor do
any such things; but poor creatures,' said she, 'they have no
religion.'"

On the 22d of October, she wrote again, "Yesterday I went up to Mr.
Bird's to consult about the plan of a _school-house now commenced for
females_. I can hardly believe that such a project is actually in
progress, and I hail it as the dawn of a happy change in Syria. Two
hundred dollars have been subscribed by friends in this vicinity, and I
told Mr. B. that if necessary he might expend fifty more upon the
building, as our Sabbath School in Norwich had pledged one hundred a
year for female education in Syria."

The principal contributor to this fund was Mrs. Alexander Tod, formerly
Miss Gliddon, daughter of the U.S. Consul in Alexandria.

The building stood near where the present Church in Beirut stands, and
was removed, and the stones used in the extension of the old Chapel. In
the year 1866 Mr. Tod revisited Beirut and contributed L100 towards the
erection of the new Female Seminary, saying that as Mrs. Tod aided in
the first Female Seminary building in Beirut, he wished to aid in the
second. The school-house was a plain structure, and was afterwards used
as a boy's school, and the artist who photographed the designs printed
in this volume received his education there under the instruction of the
late Shahin Sarkis, husband of Azizy.

In the latter part of October,