me with an expression of
mingled pity and contempt, saying, "Educate a _girl_! You might as well
attempt to educate _a cat_!"

Not two months since, I was conversing with several of the aristocratic
Mohammedans of Beirut, who were in attendance at the commencement of the
Beirut Protestant Medical College. The subject of the education of girls
was introduced, and one of them said, "we are beginning to have our
girls instructed in your Protestant schools, and would you believe it, I
heard one of them read the other day, (probably his own daughter,) and
she actually asked a question about the construction of a noun preceded
by a preposition! I never heard the like of it. The things do
distinguish and understand what they read, after all!" The others
replied, "_Mashallah! Mashallah!_" "The will of God be done!"

Some ten years ago, an influential Moslem Sheikh in Beirut, who was a
personal friend of Mr. Araman, the husband of Lulu, brought his daughter
Wahidy (only one) to the Seminary to be instructed, on condition that no
man should ever see her face. As Mr. Araman himself was one of the
teachers, and I was accustomed to make constant visits to the school,
she was obliged to wear a light veil, which she drew adroitly over her
face whenever the door was opened. This went on for months and years,
until at length in recitation she would draw the veil aside. Then she
used to listen to public addresses in the school without her veil, and
finally, in June, 1867, she read a composition on the stage at the
Public Examination, on, "The value of education to the women and girls
of Syria," her father, Sheikh Said el Ghur, being present, with a number
of his Moslem friends.

CHAPTER III.

THE DRUZE RELIGION AND DRUZE WOMEN.

The great expounder and defender of the Druze religion is Hamze, the
"Universal Intelligence," the only Mediator between God and man, and the
medium of the creation of all things. This Hamze was a shrewd, able and
unprincipled man. In his writings he not only defends the abominations
of Hakem, but lays down the complete code of Druze doctrine and duty.

It is the belief of many, and said to be the orthodox view among the
Druzes that their system as such is to last exactly 900 lunar years. The
date of the Druze era is 408 Hegira, or 1020 A.D. The present year,
1872, corresponds to the year 1289 Anno Hegira, so that _in nineteen
lunar years_ the system will begin to come to an end according to its
o