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168 Letters from Ghristian Workers at Home and Abroad.entertainment. After we had finished a sevvani in daytime and the men chiefly at night, andbvought in a coppev ewev and basin, and thecontinual opportunity was presented for conversationon veligious subjects.Agha's wife offeved to pouv watev on my hands,bnt I got quite into her good gvaces by vefusingOn Fridays the women of Idlib go out toto allow such a thing, and anothev of the womentake the air, the government having set apartperfovined tbe offlce fov me. Ouv westevn habit for them a special place where the men areof dipping the hands into the Watev is thought anot allowed to go. The Teacher's wife asked mevevy divty one in the Ovient. After a time a to go oui with her. And, thinking that curiositywould draw some of ihe women aboutsevvant came to say that ouv voom was veady, iiI wished to retire. Thanking my hostess andus and so give an opportunity for speaking tobidding good night, I gladly crossed io the otherthem on the concerns of ihe soul, I consentedside of the house where we rested comfortably. to go. But I was not at all prepared for theirAs soon as daylight appeared we resumed ourexcessive curiosity.journey. Our road ior a couple of hours was We had gone but a short distance when thevery vough. Soon we began to descend until we women and children began to run from allagain weve viding among gavdens of figs,almonds,apvicots, vines and pomegranates. Ondirections and in their haste to see ihe Franjiethrew oue another down and threw us down.the outskirts of Armanaas, another Moslem village,we sat down in the shade to eat our break­And had not some men^ seeing from a distancethe commotion, come io our assistance, wefast, having vidden about two hours. Resumingshould bave been trampled uuder foot. Theseouv journey we chose the higher though rougher men, with sticks, kept back ihe women, untHroad to escape the flies,dust and heat of theusual path acvoss the plain. We vested awhileundev a flgtreeat the remarkable ruins of SheikhBahar; after which ouv road ran through a rockydesert-looking country without a tree and scarcewith a shrub to be seen untU we neared Idlib,when tbe country again became fine. The richred soil there contrasted beautifully with thewaving fieldsof wheat, and with the vines andoUve-trees. Soon the minarets of the town beganto appear and at half-past one p.m., we reachedTeacher Y^useph's house. The population ofIdlib is about twelve thousand, mainly Moslem.There is not a spring of water in Idlib or withinthe house of the representative (in the Turkishgovernment) of the Greek Ohurch Community.His daughter was sick and hermother told us thai she had just been toaMoslem Sheikh and got a charm and an incantationwritten and had put them on herau hour's vide of it. The town is dependent onthe wintev vains for its supply of water. The daughter's head io counteract the "Evil Eye"washings from the roofs and court-yards are collectedin cisterns. This yeav the vain-fall has woman told us she had brought an old witchby whioh she had been smitten. Anotherbeen unusually small ; and wheveas, ovdinarUy, to mutter some incantation over her child toat this season, there is from twelve to sixteen cure iis sore eyes. Early one morning, duringour stay, a woman came to the schoolfeet of water in the cisterns, Teacher Y^useph tellsus there is now but two feet and three inches.yard and asked for some salt. The Teacher'sIt is said that,, were all the cisterns in and avound wite asked what it was for. The woman replied," To dissolve and pour on the groundIdlib iu ovdev, the supply would be sufficient eveninthe dviest season ; but many ave " bvoken" andwhere my child fell just now, to cleanse the"can hold no watev." And to bvoken cistevnswhich they themselves have hewn out do thesepeople go fov the watev of life, having- fovsakenGod, the fountain of living watevs.During the firstfew days of our stay, we hada constant fiow of visitovs ; ihe women comingI returned safely io ibe house. So, thenceforth,during our stay, in going out to visit 1donned the sheet and face cover and becameto all appearance, " a daughter of Araby,"What a corrupt system this Greek religionis 1 In some of its rites it is, if possible, moregross and blasphemous than Popery. And,African fetichism can hardly be worse in itsuse of charms and incantations. We went toplace from evU spirits ihat they may not injuremy child." I tried to talk with her onGod's providence. But, she asked impatiently," will you give me the salt V " Not forsuch a purpose," I said. She went to a Moslemwoman who lived in the court-yard and