sire,
Our lovely gazelle of the valley!
May Allah his riches increase
He has brought you so costly a dowry;
The moonlight has gone from his house,
The rose from his gardens so flow'ry.
Run away, rude men, turn aside,
Give place to our beautiful bride:
From her sweet perfumes I am sighing,
From the odor of musk I am dying.
Come and join us fair maid, they have brought you your dress,
Leave your peacocks and doves, give our bride a caress;
Red silk! crimson silk! the weaver cries as he goes:
But our bride's cheeks are redder blushing bright as the rose.
Dark silk! black silk! hear him now as he sings:
But our bride's hair is black, like the raven's dark wings;
With the light of our eyes with our Handumeh sweet
No maid of the Druzes can ever compete.
She is worth all the wealth of the Lebanon domain,
All the vineyards and olives, the silk worms and grain.
And no maids of the Christians can with her compare
Tho' shining with pearls and with jewels so rare.

The house is now crowded full, the men being all in one room with
Shaheen, and the women in the other room, and the court with the bride
Handumeh. One of Shaheen's brothers comes around with a kumkum, and
sprinkles orange flower water in all our faces, and Khalil asks us if we
wish the ceremony to take place now? We tell him that he must ask the
bride and groom. So Abu Shaheen comes into the court with the old priest
Eklemandus, as Shaheen's family belong to the Greek Catholic sect.
Handumeh is really a Protestant, and Shaheen has nothing to do with the
priests, but the "old folks" had their way about it. A white curtain
hangs across the court, and the bride stands on one side, with her
bridesmaid, and all the women and girls, and on the other side is the
priest with Shaheen, and all of the men and boys. Then candles were
distributed, and lighted, and the old priest adjusted his robes and
began to read the marriage service. An assistant stood by his side
looking over his shoulder, and responding Amen in a loud and long drawn
voice. At length the priest called out to him, "A little shorter there
on those Amens. We don't want long Amens at a wedding!" This set the
whole crowd laughing, and on he went reading passages of Scripture,
prayers and advice to the bride and bridegroom in the most hasty and
trifling manner, intoning it through his nose, so that n