There has been a shower in the night and Yusef and Khalil are singing about the rain. We say in English "_it_ rains" but the Arabs tell us what "it" refers to. They say "The world rains," "The world snows," "The world is coming down," "The world thunders and lightens." So you will be able to tell your teacher, when he asks you to parse "it rains," that "_it_" is a pronoun referring to "world." Hear them sing: Rain, O world, all day and night, We will wash our clothing white. Rain, O world, your waters shed, On my dear grandmother's head. The sun shines out now, and Khalil says the "world has got well" again, so he sings: Shines the sun with brightest beam On the roof of Im Seleem; Now the bear will dance a reel, On the roof of Im Khaleel. The roofs of the houses are low and flat, and on the hill-sides you can walk from the street above upon the roof of the houses below. I once lived in a house in Duma in which the cattle, donkeys, and sheep used to walk on our roof every evening as they came in from pasture. It was not very pleasant to be awakened at midnight by a cow-fight on the roof, and have the stones and dirt rattling down into our faces, but we could get no other house, and had to make the best of it. You can understand then Khalil's song: The sun is rising all so bright Upon the Pasha's daughter: See her toss the tassels blue, As her mother taught her. Turn the oxen on the roof Of the village priest; He will kill them one and all, And give the poor a feast. The boys seem to be in high glee. They all know Handumeh and her betrothed Shaheen Ma'ttar, so they are swinging and singing in honor of her wedding.