is cap on his head.

The people never take off their caps or turbans when entering a house,
or visiting a friend, but always leave their shoes at the door. The
reason is, that their floors are covered with clean mats and rugs, and
in the Moslem houses, the man kneels on his rug to pray, and presses his
forehead to the floor, so that it would not be decent or respectful to
walk in with dirty shoes and soil his sijjady on which he kneels to
pray. They have no foot-mats or scrapers, and it is much cheaper and
simpler to leave the shoes, dirt and all at the door. Sometimes we are
much embarrassed in calling on the old style Syrians as they look with
horror on our muddy feet, and we find it not quite so easy to remove
our European shoes. But it must be done, and it is better to take a
little extra trouble, and regard their feelings and customs, than to
appear coarse and rude.

It is very curious to go to the Syrian school-houses, and see the piles
of shoes at the door. There are new bright red shoes, and old tattered
shoes, and kob kobs, and black shoes, and sometimes yellow shoes. The
kob kobs are wooden clogs made to raise the feet out of the mud and
water, having a little strap over the toe to keep it on the foot. You
will often see little boys and girls running down steps and paved
streets on these dangerous kob kobs. Sometimes they slip and then down
they go on their noses, and the kob kobs fly off and go rattling over
the stones, and little Ali or Yusef, or whatever his name is, begins to
shout, Ya Imme! Ya Imme! "Oh, my mother!" and cries just like little
children in other countries.

But the funniest part of it is to see the boys when they come out of
school and try to find their shoes. There will be fifty boys, and of
course a hundred shoes, all mixed together in one pile. When school is
out, the boys make a rush for the door. Then comes the tug of war. A
dozen boys are standing and shuffling on the pile of shoes, looking
down, kicking away the other shoes, running their toes into their own,
stumbling over the kob kobs, and then making a dash to get out of the
crowd. Sometimes shins will be kicked, and hair pulled, and tarbooshes
thrown off, and a great screaming and cursing follow, which will only
cease when the Muallim comes with his "Asa" or stick, and quells the
riot. That pile of shoes will have to answer for a good many schoolboy
fights and bruised noses and hard feelings in Syria. You would wonder
how they