I observe that the boys here usually play by themselves. They rather look down on their sisters, and the average family considers the girl of but little account. When a girl is born no fuss is made, but when a boy comes the friends of the family run through the streets crying out: “Good tidings! Good tidings!” The father prepares a feast, and all the friends of the family give presents of money for the benefit of the boy. Immediately after the child is born it is rubbed over with salt and then wrapped in swaddling clothes so tight that it cannot move. After it has been bound up thus for about a week, it is unfastened, washed with fresh oil, salted, and bound up again. This wrapping, oiling, salting, and re-wrapping goes on for about forty days, at the end of which time the child is ready to wear the ordinary clothing of babyhood. This usually consists of one garment, but in the summer, if the child be poor, that is omitted, although a naked baby may wear a skull cap. The usual garment is a shirt reaching to the knees, and as the children grow older they may have jackets over their shirts. One of the important ceremonies is naming the boy. To the child’s given name that of the father is always added. In olden times if the son of James was named John, his name would be John, son of James, but now the words “son of” are omitted and he is known as John James. I am surprised at the beauty of the Nazarene girls, and especially of the little ones. They have rosy cheeks and bright eyes and are quite as good looking as our American babies. They dress in bright colours and some have rows of coins on their headdresses and rings on their fingers. I see many little girls at the fountain of Mary, each with a jar in which to bring water home. This is the work of almost every woman in the land. The little ones are taught by beginning with a tiny jar which they steady on the head with the hand. As they grow older they use larger jars, until at last they are able to walk through the streets carrying four or five gallons of water on the head without touching the jar. This work gives them erect figures, and there are no stooped shoulders or curved spines among them. When a girl reaches ten or eleven years of age she begins to think of marriage, and it is not an uncommon thing for her to be a mother at thirteen or fourteen. After marriage the wife becomes a member of her husband’s family, and, for a time at least, lives with her mother-in-law. For this reason people believe in early marriages, so that the girl may be trained by her husband’s mother into a suitable wife when she grows up.