. After looking through the
Seminary, examining the various departments, and inquiring into the
course of study he turned to the pupils and said, "Our Bedawin girls
would learn as much in six months as you learn in two years." I told him
we should like to see the experiment tried, and that if he would send on
a dozen Bedawin girls, we would see that they had every opportunity for
improvement. He said, "Allah only knows the future. Who knows but it may
yet come to pass?" The Sheikh himself can neither read nor write, but
his wife, the Sitt Harba, or Lady Spear, who came from the vicinity of
Hamath, can read and write well, and she is said to be the only
Bedawiyeh woman who can write a letter. With this in view we prepared an
elegant copy of the Arabic Bible, enclosed in a waterproof case made by
the girls of the Seminary, and presented it to him at the Press. He
expressed great interest in it, and asked what the book contained. We
explained the contents, and he remarked, "I will have the Sitt Harba
read to me of Ibrahim, Khalil Allah, (the Friend of God), and Ismaeel,
the father of the Arabs, and Neby (prophet) Moosa, and Soleiman the
king, and Aieesa, (Jesus,) the son of Mary." The electrotype apparatus
deeply interested him, but when Mr. Hallock showed him the steam
cylinder press, rolling off the sheets with so great rapidity and
exactness, he stood back and remarked in the most deliberate manner,
"the man who made that press can conquer anything but death!" It seemed
some satisfaction to him that in the matter of _death_ the Bedawin was
on a level with the European.

From the Press, the Sheikh went to the Church, and after gazing around
on the pure white walls, remarked, "There is the Book, but I see no
pictures nor images. You worship only God here!" He was anxious to see
the _Tower Clock_, and although he had lost one arm, and the other was
nearly paralyzed by a musket shot in a recent fight in the desert, he
insisted on climbing up the long ladders to see the clock whose striking
he had heard at the other end of the city, and he gazed long and
admiringly at this beautiful piece of mechanism. On leaving us, he
renewedly thanked us for _The Book_, and the next day he left by
diligence coach for Damascus.

In the summer we sent, at Mr. Arthington's expense, a young man from the
Beirut Medical College, named Ali, as missionary to itinerate among the
Bedawin, with special instructions to persuade the Arabs if possible