I wonder if the boys of our Saviour’s time studied as do the Nazarene boys of to-day. As half the town is Mohammedan, many of them are taught by the sheiks. They sit on the floor, swaying back and forth as they scream out the verses and texts they are trying to learn. The teacher is sometimes blind, but he knows the voices so well that when one stops he can strike with his stick the place where that boy should be sitting to start him again. In our Lord’s time the Bible was probably taught in the same way to the Jewish children. Most of the slates used here are made of cast-off kerosene oil cans, the tin being cut into squares and pounded out flat. The Arabic characters are painted upon such tins with brushes and India ink. The chief study of the Mohammedan boys is the Koran, while the Jews learn the Psalms. At harvest time the schools close and the children go out into the fields, gardens, and vineyards. They are accustomed to work, and everywhere I go I see them herding the sheep. The boys use slings just as David did and are skilful in sending the stones just where they please. Some of these Palestine children are polite, but others are just the reverse. When the good boy comes into a room full of older people he goes around and kisses the hand of each one and places it on his forehead. He can be so sweet that you might think him the soul of innocence and piety, but take him outside and he will fight, kick, and scratch with his fellows. A great deal of slang is used, and in a quarrel the most common expressions are those cursing your enemy’s ancestors. One boy will say to another, “Curse your father!” and the other will reply, “And your grandfather!” And so they will go on to the fourth and fifth generations, each cursing the various branches of the other’s family. Here at Nazareth we find the children very polite, but at Nablus they threw stones at me and called me a “Nazarene,” the name used by the Mohammedans of Samaria to express contempt for all not of their faith.