It is unpleasant to an Anglo-Saxon to note how many things an Oriental says, but does not mean. And it is distressing to an Oriental to note how many things the Anglo-Saxon means, but does not say. To an unreconstructed Syrian the brevity, yea, even curtness, of an Englishman or an American, seems to sap life of its pleasures and to place a disproportionate value on time. For the Oriental, the primary value of time must not be computed in terms of business and money, but in terms of sociability and good fellowship. Poetry, and not prosaic accuracy, must be the dominant feature of speech. There is much more of intellectual inaccuracy than of moral delinquency in the Easterner's {109} speech. His misstatements are more often the result of indifference than the deliberate purpose to deceive. One of his besetting sins is his _ma besay-il_--it does not matter. He sees no essential difference between nine o'clock and half after nine, or whether a conversation took plate on the housetop or in the house. The main thing is to know the substance of what happened, with as many of the supporting details as may be conveniently remembered. A case may be overstated or understated, not necessarily for the purpose of deceiving, but to impress the hearer with the significance or the insignificance of it. If a sleeper who had been expected to rise at sunrise should oversleep and need to be awakened, say half an hour or an hour later than the appointed time, he is then aroused with the call, "Arise, it is noon already--_qûm sar edh-hir_." Of a strong and brave man it is said, "He can split the earth--_yekkid elaridh_." The Syrians suffer from no misunderstanding in such cases. They _discern_ one another's meaning. {110} So also many Scriptural passages need to be _discerned_. The purpose of the Oriental speaker or writer must be sought often beyond the letter of his statement, which he uses with great freedom.