Im Faris asks if we would not like to hear some of the rhymes the Arab women sing when playing with their children. Here are some of them. The first one you will think is like what you have already seen in "Mother Goose." Blacksmith, blacksmith, shoe the mare, Shoe the colt with greatest care; Hold the shoe and drive the nail, Else your labor all will fail; Shoe a donkey for Seleem, And a colt for Ibraheem. Sugar cane grows luxuriantly in Syria, and it was first taken from Tripoli, Syria, to Spain, and thence to the West Indies and America. But all they do with it now in Syria, is to suck it. It is cut up in pieces and sold to the people, old and young, who peel it and suck it. So the Arab women sing to their children: Pluck it and suck it, the green sugar cane, Whatever is sweet is costly and vain; He'll cut you a joint as long as a span, And charge two piastres. Now buy if you can! Wered says she will sing us two or three which they use in teaching the little Arab babies to "pat" their hands: Patty cake, baby! Make him dance! May his age increase and his years advance! May his life like the rock, long years endure, Overgrown with lilies, so sweet and pure! And now the Sit Leila is singing again one of the Druze lullabys: Tish for two, Tish for two! A linen shirt with a border blue! With cloth that the little pedler sells, For the father of eyes like the little gazelles! Your mother will weave and spin and twine, To clothe you so nicely O little Hassein! Do you hear the jackals crying as they come up out of the valley? Their cry is like the voice of the cat and dog mingled together, and Im Faris knows some of the ditties which they sing to their children about the jackals and their fondness for chickens: You cunning rogues beware! You jackals with the long hair! You ate up the chickens of old Katrin, And ran away singing like wild Bedawin. It is not pleasant to have so many fleas annoying us all the time, but we must not be more anxious to keep the fleas out than to get the people in, and as the fellaheen come to see us, they will be likely to _flea_ us too. Safita is famous for fleas, so no wonder that Nejmeh knows the following song of the boys about fleas: I caught and killed a hopping flea, His sister's children came to me: One with drum my ears did pierce, One was fluting loud and fierce, Then they danced me, made me sing, Like a monkey in a ring. Come O Deeby, come I pray, Bring the Doctor right away! Peace on your heart feel no alarm, You have not had the slightest harm. Laia is never at a loss for something new, and I am amazed at her memory. She will give us some rhyming riddles in Arabic, and we will put them into English as best we may. The first is about the _Ant_: