street that leads through the Tartar district of the city, having other streets equally wide crossing it at right angles. The houses were all one-storied, and not in good order. There were shops of all sorts, with open fronts, or windows of close lattice, covered with thin white paper in the inside; from butchers, who dealt in raw meat, as at home, in carcases, chiefly mutton and pork, to "chow-chow" shops, where meat pies were made and dressed. Then came hat shops, grocers' shops, ready-made clothes shops, druggists, and the hundred-and-one trades that go to supply the necessities of a large city. Numerous customers were buying, and the hum and bustle reminded me of the busy streets in the east end of London. The whole of the central causeway was occupied by a dense moving mass, composed of operatives in every department of active life. Tinkers, cobblers, blacksmiths, barbers, were there with their locomotive shops; and booths and tents were erected on the kerb of the footway for the sale of tea, fruit, rice, and vegetables, so that little space remained for foot-passengers. There were public officers with their retinues bearing canopies, lanterns, flags, and numerous insignia of rank and station; coffins attended by mourners clad in white; and brides conveyed in glittering palanquins, the cries of sorrow from one procession being occasionally drowned by the shouts of exultation and peals of music that ascended from the other. Mixed with these were troops of dromedaries laden with coals, wheelbarrows, and hand-carts, and an immense concourse, literally struggling for liberty to go in pursuit of their way or their wants. After passing through this great thoroughfare the chair-bearers turned into a comparatively quiet street, where there were scarcely any shops or stalls. This was the street leading to the government offices, and the houses are chiefly the residences of officials. Very little of these dwellings was visible from the road, as they were mostly surrounded by high brick walls. It was only when abreast of the entrance gates that a glimpse of the buildings within could be obtained. At length we stopped at one of these gates of ornamental trellis-work, and the front chair-bearer knocked for admittance. A doorkeeper seated inside, smoking his long-stemmed brass pipe, undid the bars, and the sedan-chair was carried into the vestibule. As I was about to follow, the porter was going to close the gates in my face, but a sweet voice from the chair ordered him to forbear. He recognised his young mistress's voice, and with a smile and a bow allowed me to enter. From the vestibule we went through an intricate dark passage, which led to an open court, or rather garden, with ornamental rockwork, water, and flowers. Around were the apartments appropriated exclusively to the accommodation of the family. Here the sedan-chair was set down, and Loo A-Lee stepped out, ordering the chair-bearers to proceed to the kitchen for some refreshment. "Welcome, noble stranger," she then said, "to my father's house! When he knows how bravely you have rescued me from the doomed palace of Yuen-ming-yuen, he will be more profound in thanks than I, but he cannot feel so grateful as I do for your protection and kindness. And now I must go and see if my father is at home. I am afraid he is not, for he should have made his appearance by this time. Indeed, I fear there is something wrong in the house, for it seems so deserted. Wait here until I return," and with that she entered one of the apartments. I sat down on a porcelain seat in the garden, before a table of the same ware, and did not wait long before Loo A-Lee returned with an old duenna, stating that her father and friends were in great tribulation as to her safety, and had that day gone out to search for her, but had not yet come back. After obtaining some refreshments I bade her adieu, and hastened back to the camp, passing the city gates just before they were closed. HOW GIPSIES ARE SOMETIMES TRUE THAT gipsies and other fortune-tellers do sometimes give true predictions is generally believed, but there is always a good explanation, if it can be discovered. This was illustrated in the case of an Austrian officer, Baron von Weber, in a war with the Turks early in the eighteenth century. Near the camp was a gipsy sutler's tent, to which many of the soldiers resorted to have their fortunes told. The baron heard of it, and while ridiculing the superstition, went one day to the fortune-teller, "just for the fun of the thing," as the saying is. No word could be got from the gipsy but "the twentieth of August," repeated over and over in a peculiar and impressive tone. About a week before the twentieth the gipsy came to the baron's tent, and begged he would leave her a legacy in case he should die on the twentieth of August, offering on her part the gift of a hamper of good tokay wine to drink her health, if he should live to claim it. As there were other officers present, although the baron thought the woman either a rogue or a fool, he pledged a good round sum of money against the woman's tokay, and the paymaster of the regiment was called to sign, seal, and deliver the contract, amidst the laughter of those who witnessed the affair. The twentieth of August arrived. The baron's regiment had to furnish a piquet for the night. Of the two officers senior to the baron, one was taken suddenly ill, and the other was seriously injured by being thrown from his horse, which became violently restive just as he was mounting. The duty consequently devolved upon the baron, who, with his men, proceeded to his post. In the course of the night a sudden attack was made by a large body of Turkish cavalry, and the Austrians, being surprised, lost many men. The baron, severely wounded, was left among those supposed to be dead. In the morning, however, he contrived to reach the advanced posts, and was thence conveyed to the camp, where he recovered, after some weeks' suffering, and rejoined his regiment. Soon after, the gipsy reappeared, bringing the hamper of tokay, congratulating the baron on his narrow escape, and saying at the same time that many of her predictions had been verified, and that she had obtained many legacies. The mystery was before long simply but thoroughly cleared up. Two Servian Christians, having deserted from the Ottoman camp, on seeing the pretended fortune-teller, recognised her as having often visited the Turkish army by night to report the movements of the Germans, and that a Turkish cypher was her | passport. Being seized and examined, the cypher was found upon her, and she was consequently condemned to death as a spy. Before her death she confessed that, by her double office as spy, she had learnt much in both camps, and especially from those who came to consult her as a fortune-teller. As to what concerned the baron, she said she fixed on the date of his death as likely to be a notable example, by which she might confirm her authority with the common soldiers and others inclined to superstition. At the approach of the twentieth of August she visited the Turkish camp and gave information of the strength of the piquet, urging the enemy to make an attack in force on that night. To the commanding-officer she had sold some wine containing a deleterious potion, which caused his illness. At the moment when the second officer was mounting, she came near under pretext of selling something, and unperceived slipped up the nostrils of the horse some irritating substance which occasioned his unusual violence. In this way the baron was on duty the very night of the prediction, which only by merciful providence failed to be verified. Had his wound proved fatal, the reputation of this woman as a prophetess would have been wonderfully enhanced. But the discovery of the imposture cured many of her dupes of their foolish superstition. The present narrative of this affair may not be useless. In our own" enlightened days" there are numbers of people who still have a lingering faith in fortune-telling. This credulity is not confined to the poor and illiterate, who listen to vulgar tramps and gipsies. Crowds of " fashionable people," in what is called "good society," encourage the imposture of spiritualists and other rogues, who, by means of previous inquiries, and cunning artifices, obtain information sufficient to give colour to some of their predictions, and thus sustain the credulity of other dupes from whose folly they gain their disreputable living. THE es REFORMATORY AND REFUGE UNION. HE Reformatory and Refuge Union was tablished in 1856, as a centre of information and encouragement for reformatories, refuges, industrial schools, and other similar institutions, for the purpose of obtaining and diffusing information as to the working of such institutions, of promoting concerted action between them, of facilitating the establishment of new institutions of the kind, and of furthering the temporal and spiritual welfare of their inmates. When the Union was first instituted attention had not long been aroused to the necessity for the prevention of juvenile crime, and the training of the deserted and neglected children. Even a year after the Union was formed there were only 34 certified reformatories, and somé 160 voluntary institutes connected with it, having accommodation for about 15,000 inmates; now there are 65 certified reformatories, and about 300 industrial schools, making a total of 365, with accommodation for 31,500 inmates. Thus, mainly in consequence of the exertions of the Union, these valuable institutes have nearly doubled in number, and more than doubled in usefulness. Since its first establishment the Union has made grants of money to assist refuges and reformatories in need to the amount of £28,000, thus freeing many of them from the incubus of debt and the disheartening dread of being forced by want of means to discontinue their good work. This large amount has been distributed in various sums from £10 to £460; and before the grants were voted some 500 careful visits of inspection have been made by members of the council. From time to time, though at periods not too often recurring, conferences of managers of institutions have been held for the mutual interchange of experience, and for the discussion of matters bearing upon their work; and as the result of these meetings much knowledge of a practical kind has been obtained, which has been utilised in various ways. Of the several agencies the Union employs in London, some of the most effective were due to such interchange of experience. We shall briefly notice some of them, that the reader may see how the Union prosecutes its labours. First, there are its Christian female missionaries, who are to be found night by night in the streets of London, seeking to rescue the fallen of their own sex. During the past year they have succeeded in saving 824, about half of whom they have provided with situations, while they have effectually relieved in various ways most of the remainder. They labour in assigned districts, and make the character of their mission as widely known as possible, in order that any young women desirous of forsaking their sinful course of life may know where those ready and waiting to welcome and assist them are to be found. In the next place, there are the Union's workhouse missionaries, who visit the workhouses with the view of saving young girls from the contamination and debasement of the Magdalen wards. Connected with this mission is a home which receives friendless or fallen girls, either from the workhouse or the streets. Hundreds have been helped, many of whom have been trained to honest service, whilst many others have been restored to their friends. Again, there is the Union's Suicide Agent, appointed for the help of those who have attempted to commit suicide; this agent is in constant communication with the chaplain, and is often the means of raising the unhappy subjects of his care out of the slough of despond into which they have fallen by restoring them to their friends, or by giving them an opportunity to retrieve their characters. Both these last-named works are carried on under the superintendence of the Female Mission Committee. Next comes the "Boys' Beadle," an exceedingly useful personage, whose duty it is to befriend and aid the neglected children in the streets, and to discover the persons who fail in their duty to take care of them. He could only do this effectually by careful investigation of the cases that come within his notice, and adapting his services to their several needs; some he has restored to their parents or guardians; some he placed in "Homes" or refuges; while he has remitted the vagrants to industrial schools and reformatories. When the London School Board resolved to appoint similar officers, it was in contemplation to abolish the Union's beadle; but upon consideration it was resolved to continue his services; and at the present time he works in co-operation with the School Board officers, who have to resolve the difficult problem of dealing with deserted children. How great is the difficulty is shown by the Report of the Committee of the London School Board's Industrial Schools, from which it appears that of 1,307 children picked up in the streets, only 624 could be sent to certified schools. The rest had to be dismissed, or sent to voluntary institutions, and it was only through the exertions of the Boys' Beadle, and his taking up such cases when the Board could not deal with them, that, in many instances, they were permanently provided for, and not compelled to return to their former way of living. Another important agent is the Union's "Educational Inspector," a well qualified gentleman who devotes a portion of his time to the examination of the schools of the refuges, homes, and similar institutions, and sees to the efficiency of the teaching imparted to the scholars. The last of the Union's agencies we need mention in this brief notice, are the Agents for the Relief of Discharged Prisoners. We believe that there is no agency of a reforming kind more valuable than this, and none which yields better returns, whether we look at them, from a moral or a social point of view, for the money and the labour invested in it. We learn from the Report of the Metropolitan Relief Committee, that of 3,393 men who have been sent to the committee from the Coldbath Fields during nine years, 233 have, so far as is known, returned to crime; and of those who have been reconvicted, many have by no means relapsed into habitual crime; while from others letters are continually received expressing gratitude for the aid they received, and hope for the future. In asking for aid to this special mission the committee appeal, and rightly so, not only to the charity, but to the interest of every Englishman, observing, that unless discharged criminals are enabled to support themselves by honest industry, they will assuredly make society support them either as thieves or prisoners. In connection with the prosecution of a work so important as the reform of criminals, the committee make in their Report a suggestion of the utmost value, as well on account of the great advantage to the com munity to which it points, as of its evident practi eability. What they would urge is the establishment of a Central Aid Society which should act for all similar societies throughout the kingdom. The difficulty of finding employment for prisoners on their leaving the gaol is very great, but it would be vastly diminished if the society possessed complete information as to the existing demands for labour. A central agency in London in correspondence with the provincial societies would acquire and would impart information of this kind, and, after a little experience, would be in a position to act as a kind of labour "clearing-house," with the happy result of obtaining a far wider field for the allocation of the unfortunate subjects of their care. Some of our readers will doubtless be desirous of assisting in the prosecution of some of the good works to which we have directed their attention. They can do so with the certainty that whatever they contribute will be applied for the purpose for which it is given, seeing that the administrative expenses of the Reformatory and Refuge Union are merely nominal. Contributions are solicited for the General Fund, for maintaining the general operations of the Union; for the Refuge Fund, for supplementing the funds of refuges and homes in need of aid; and for the Female Mission Fund, for the maintenance of the Female Mission to the Fallen. For further information we refer readers to the Report of the Reformatory and Refuge Union for 1874, and would point them to the Appendix as teeming with interesting details supplied by managers, etc., of some forty institutions in connection with the Union. The office of the Union is at 34, Parliament Street, s.w. Sonnets of the Sacred Year. BY THE REV. S. J. STONE, M.A. EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."-Rom. viii. 14. foes thou endure? Seven nations of thy WOULDST THE LAND OF THE GIANT CITIES. WE BY THE REV. W. WRIGHT, B.A., DAMASCUS. III. E now proceed in a south-westerly direction, with the raised edge of the great lava bed on our left, and an immense ocean-like plain on our right. It is impossible to get rid of the impression that we are moving along the tide mark between a great ocean and its rugged shore. The Lejah (Argob), which is raised twenty or thirty feet above the plain, runs out into promontories, and is indented with bays and creeks, and all the headlands have their ruined towers, like lighthouses, and the bays have their little black ruins, like fishing villages; and low grey tents here and there in angles of bays and creeks, propped up with sticks, remind us of nets and fishing-tackle drying; and out on the ocean to the right, camels, steering in different directions, and greatly magnified by the miragy atmosphere, heave and toss about like boats; and the thick fat smoke of an occasional Arab's fire hangs black in the air, like the smoke of a steamboat starting on a voyage; and the small round stones on which our horses stumble ever call to mind the "pebbly beach." The real objects around us have all the marks of sea and shore; but in addition, the mirage as usual is playing all kinds of fantastic tricks, throwing up beautiful wooded beaches with castellated crests, and spreading out glassy seas which mirror all the surrounding objects. We coast along keeping clear of the headlands, crossing bay after bay in succession. In several of the bays are little Arab encampments of five or six tents each. The men are away with their flocks, and the women, who are hideously tattooed and frightfully dirty, are occupied in churning goats' milk. The churn is a goat's skin which has been drawn off the goat like a stocking. All the openings of the skin are tied except the neck, and when the milk is put into the skin the neck opening is tied too. A woman then gets down on her knees beside the skin, and rolls it backwards and forwards with her hands, which is the churning process. She uses her fingers as a strainer to separate the butter from the milk, and she then places the butter separately in another skin. I have sometimes partaken of such butter, but it smells of camel and tastes of leather, and no one can look at it without sympathising with the Yankee, who guessed it would be better to put the butter in one ball and the hairs in another, and then he could exercise his discretion. | 66 anxious to have them as I knew that Hasselquist and others had declared these were the quails by which the children of Israel were miraculously fed in the wilderness. I once saw them migrating, and they seemed sufficiently numerous to feed all the hungry tribes of the desert. They swarm so thickly in the desert that the Arabs snare them, and knock them down with sticks, and sell them for one halfpenny apiece. At Haushhoush, near Bosra, Burckhardt declares "the quantity of kattas is beyond description; the whole plain seemed sometimes to rise, and far off in the air they were seen like moving clouds." Russell says a donkey's load of them may sometimes be taken at one shutting of the clasp-net." They lay their eggs on the desert, and so thickly are they strewed over the ground that they are gathered every morning like manna. The Arabs go forth two and two, carrying a skin between them with its mouth open like a sack. Other Arabs, men, women, and children, scamper about picking up the eggs, which are of a black-greenish colour and as large as pigeons' eggs, and throw them into the bags. The eggs are of course all broken up, but the compound is strained through a hair sieve into other skins, and then served out like molasses for use. The finest specimen I got was nine and a-half ounces weight, and between the size of a partridge and a pigeon. Its colours and tints were very beautiful. A broad band of chestnut, edged with dark green, encircled the breast, and the upper surface of the body was streaked with alternate bars of yellow, and green, and silver-grey, and on the centre of the feathers were yellow heart-shaped spots. When flying it shouts, katta!" from which sound it takes its Hebrew and Arabic name, and it takes its English name, pin-tailed," from the fact that the two central feathers of the tail are elongated about seven inches, and stand out forked. We found its flesh dark and tasteless, like that of an old pigeon, and much inferior to partridge. There are many circumstances in favour of these being the quails of Scripture, but I am convinced that the kattas are the kath of Scripture, birds strictly unclean to the Israelites, which frequent desert and solitary places. The Hebrew name for quails is almost the same as the Arabic, and they migrate through Syria in enormous numbers every spring. The first time I passed this way we had a most exciting chase. Our party consisted of several clergymen and a celebrated painter and his wife. I ascended a rising ground to get a view of the magnificent landscape, and just as I reached the top of the eminence I came face to face with an armed Bedawy. He was a scout sent on in advance by a party of Arabs who wished to pass that way to see if the country was free of Druzes. As soon as he saw me he galloped off in a most frightened manner, and I, not knowing what he might be, signalled our Druze escort, and we all started in pursuit, our lady companion among the foremost. As long as the Bedawy kept his distance he made straight for his companions, but when he found we were gaining upon him he doubled like a sly old partridge which wishes to decoy the enemy from its young. The day was bright and bracing."Katta, The ground inclined gently in the direction of the chase. The Arab, like "the manslayer" fleeing before "the avenger of blood," bent to his horse's neck, parallel with his spear, and seemed to fly over the plain. The Druzes, like the avengers of blood, thundered along on his track. Our lady friend and her companions galloped along promiscuously in the rear, and thoroughly enjoyed the chase. Those who have seen the excitement of huntsmen, after a miserable little hare or fox, can form some idea of our feelings in this wild chase, where the quarry was a son of Ishmael on his own ground, and our fellowhunters were the chivalrous Druzes, his inveterate enemy. The Bedawy fled for dear life, but after a brief course he was brought to the ground. He of course expected instant death at the hands of the Druzes, and he seemed when we came up as if the bitterness of death were already past, but his manner instantly changed when he found that our presence secured his safety. We kept him till near night, and then sent him away happy with a good backshish. Near the same place we came upon game of another kind-a large bustard (Otis tarda) and a flock of katta (Petrocles), or pin-tailed sand-grouse. This bustard was the first that my companion or I had ever seen at large, and so we stalked it carefully from different sides. We both got within long range of it, but did not fire-for the same reason that a friend of mine did not shoot at partridges once when they were flying round his head-lest we should miss it. I have since seen the same magnificent birds in the wide plains bordering the Orontes. There the young chieftains of Hasya catch them with hawks, which seize the wing of the great bird and bring it to the ground. I succeeded, however, in getting several specimens of the katta, and I was the more After a ride of two hours a raised promontory stretches out before us, and on its isthmus rise massive, black, jagged ruins. We work our way with difficulty along what was once a Roman road and enter the city Phaena. The most conspicuous ruin is a temple in a good state of preservation, and the most striking object in the temple is an enormous scallop-shell in the semicircular recess in the back side of the temple opposite the door. The columns which support the half-fallen roof are curiously wreathed with oak chaplets near the top. There are niches round the walls for statues, which would, no doubt, be found Dagon-like on their faces if the débris were removed; and one still sees traces of yellow and purple fresco on the plastered walls. The spirit that seeks immortality by scribbling on walls was abroad when this temple was erected. Hence, on the lintel of the door, and over the niches to right and left of the door, and on the stones of the architrave, are long and beautifully-cut Greek inscriptions. Some of these inscriptions contain forty lines, and in some of the lines are over seventy letters. What a paradise for the "dry-as-dusts"! cumbered by flesh or garments, they run over the ruins like tigers. When approaching a group of: ruins, you hear the crowd following with such a tumultuous noise, and with such vigour of epithets, that you suppose they are coming to blows. You turn and face them, and they shy back like fish in a pond, and there is a great calm. As you enter the ruin you see a form emerging from it at the other side, and when you pause in the centre to get an idea of the structure, you know that a score of pairs of eyes are converging upon you, as in a focus, from every part. They peep at you from every window, from over the wall, in at the open doors, and down. from the portions of the roof still remaining. When you look at one of these gazers, he returns your look with furtive, pickpocket glances, and soon disappears. When you move on to another position, they hurry, after, noisily comparing notes, and again scramble up the walls like monkeys, and take up their posi-tions as mutes. Everything you do is wonderful. A compass is an instrument for pointing out the position. of hidden treasures. A cylinder that lets out and in a long measuring line is looked upon as an inexplicable work of the Jann. But the greatest wonder of all is my Prince Pless breechloader, which they endow with virtues that would make it the idol of all the military powers of Europe. The inscriptions, however, are of great importance. The longest is a letter from the legate to the citizens touching the lodgment of soldiers and strangers. It begins thus: "Julius Saturninus," alias Smith, "to the Phaenians in the metropolis of Trachon greeting." We ascertain that Trachonitis, of the Tetrarchy of Philip* (Luke iii. 1), and the modern Lejah, are one and the same, and that Phaena was the Roman capital of that region. From another inscription we get the date of the building, which was a little after the middle of the second century of the Christian era. From the date of this building we may approximate the dates of the other buildings. The palace, or residence of the legate, now tenanted by swarms of blue rock pigeons, is three stories high. Around this are grouped the other official residences of the city. The style of architecture is the same in all the buildings: well-built walls of moderately sized stones, roughly dressed; roofs of long, hewn, finely dressed stone slabs, closely jointed, and resting on cornices round the walls and on central arches; stone windows and doors, whose pivots project from above and below into lintels and thresholds. These buildings of Musmeih have a light, airy appearance, seldom met with elsewhere in Bashan. The native part of the town is of the usual low, gloomy character, and the Roman structures beside them strike one at first sight as being of yesterday, in comparison with Before these unsophisticated creatures it is the them; but then the native houses are generally built custom with some travellers to swagger and to bully of the undressed old stones brought in from the lava any of them that come in one's way, and this conduct beds, and the structures look as aged as the materials sometimes meets its reward in the bully getting of which they are built. On the other hand, the thrashed; for these men, though shy and sheepishRoman part of the city has a fresh and modern looking, are not cowards when their blood is up, and appearance, being built with stones dressed and as they live like wild beasts in dens, they fear no law chiselled, and fresh from the quarry. The accumuor government. I have always found that a joke, or lation of rubbish, however, is as deep about the anything that makes them laugh, gains their confiRoman houses as about the native houses, and in dence in a wonderful manner. They are astonished most cases deeper, which would prove that the native to hear you use their own language, and a question houses are of more recent construction. And this or a proverb which interests them throws them off view is not unreasonable when we consider how much their guard at once, and you can send them flying less solidly they are built than the Roman structures, over the place, searching out inscriptions, and bringand how much less fitted they are to endure the wearing you antiquities, in a manner that the Sultan of ages. On the other hand, the native houses stand on much higher mounds of accumulated rubbish than the Roman houses, a fact which points to many reconstructions of the native houses. These facts, however, in no way go to disprove the remote antiquity of the city, but only the remote antiquity of its present buildings. It may be added that there are structures in the suburbs half cave, half house, which might be of any age. There is, however, little accumulation of rubbish about them, and they show few signs of occupation. Musmeih is not a comfortable place to linger in. Tall men armed with long guns, which reach a good distance whether they carry far or not, follow us stealthily, and watch all our movements from afar. Their teeth are glittering white, and their black eyes have a peculiar uncertain light. Their only garment is a shirt, reaching from neck to heel, which, from colour and circumstance, seems to have been born at their birth, and to have grown with their growth. Through this garment peep lithe and brawny limbs of a dark olive colour. A camel's-hair rope two or three times round the head, and a broad leathern girdle, with knives and charms pendent, complete their toilets. They are all barefooted, and as they are little en I have a coin of this tetrarch struck at Cæsarea Philippi in the 12th year of his reign, and 8th A.P himself could not command. There are more people among the ruins than on my former visits, owing to the supply of water holding out, while it is exhausted in other villages. We follow our horses to the water at the west of the town, and find swarms of women at the different tanks or cisterns drawing water. The tanks are very numerous, and seem to be half cave, half well. The women are partly gipsies, and partly from the Arabs in the neighbourhood. They are lightly clothed like the men, and are horribly tattooed. They have the white teeth of the wild animal, and the piercing glance of the basilisk. Their speech resembles the sharp barking of a dog, and as they draw up their skins of water they scream and swear at each other like fiends. They are a most unlovely-looking set, who have seldom heard or uttered a kindly word, and who have not one attractive feature; and yet those black buttered tresses, escaping down their shoulders from under sooty bands, are eagerly sought to adorn lovely brows in the saloons of civilisation. There is in the town a ruffian who watches these hideous harpies till they fall, and then, vulture-like, rushes upon them, and tears off their hair to supply raven locks for the European hair-market. When we attempt to continue our journey southwest we get inextricably lost among tortuous mazes of lava; and though we are in the midst of Arabs, no |