opened the door with gladness to eat
their supper, when suddenly the Ghoul sprang upon them with her huge
mouth open, and swallowed them both down at once. She then shut the door
and fastened it as it was before, and went on her way. At evening the
Nanny Goat came home with milk and grass for her twin kids' supper, and
knocked at the door and sang:

Hearken now Sunaisil,
Come Rabab my dear, etc., etc.,

as usual, but no one opened the door. Then she knocked and sang again,
and at length she gave up all hope of their opening the door, and butted
against the door with her horns and broke it open. She then entered the
cave but there were no twin kids there. All was still. Then she knew
that the Ghoul had eaten them. So she hastened to the house of the
Ghoul, and went upon the top of the house, and began to stamp and pound
upon the roof. The Ghoul, hearing the stamping upon the roof, called
out, whosoever stamps on my roof, may Allah stamp on his roof! The Nanny
Goat replied, I am on your roof; I, whose children you have eaten. Come
out now, and we will fight it out by butting our heads together. Very
well, said the Ghoul, only wait a little until I can make me a pair of
horns like you. So the goat waited, and away went the Ghoul to make her
horns. She made two horns of dough and dried them in the sun until they
were hard, and then came to "butt" with the goat. At the first shock,
when the goat butted her with her horns, the horns of dough broke all to
pieces; then the goat butted her again in her bowels and broke her in
twain, and out jumped Sunaisil and Rabab, frisking and leaping and
calling out "ya imme," oh, my mother, Oh, my mother! The Ghoul being
dead they had no more fear, and lived long and happy lives with their
mother the Anaziyeh.

* * * * *

Did you notice how the little boys listened to Saleh's story of the
Goats and the Ghoul? This story is told by the mothers to their little
children, all over Syria, in the tents of the Bedawin and in the houses
of the citizens. One of the women, named Noor, (_i.e._ Light), a sister
of the bridegroom, says she will tell the children the story of the
Hamam, the Butta, the Wez, and the Hamar, that is, of the Dove, the
Duck, the Goose, and the Donkey, if all will sit still on the floor. So
all the little boys and girls curl their feet under them and fold their
arms, and Noor begins:

Once the Dove, the Duck, the Goose, and the Donk