tenderness and sympathy, by calling attention first, by way of contrast, to a female failing— "O Woman! in our hours of ease, By the light quivering aspen made; If there is anything of truth in the former part of these familiar words-and, with fashions changing every month, it seems difficult to doubt it—what then will English women say when I assure them that as to colour to a shade, material to a perfect match, and style in every particular, all Eastern women of the Fellahheen, or country people, that is, all, high and low, who dwell in the unwalled villages, dress as their great-great-great-great-grandmothers dressed before them, and as every one of their own condition of life dresses around them. Thus each woman looks a perfect counterpart of all her neighbours, young and old, and of every woman for ages who has lived there before her! It is, they will tell you, their a'adeh-that is, their custom." Here, again, is a wonderful contrast to our life. For, whereas our manners and customs, at all events in indifferent matters, are constantly changing, and it is thought quite right to change them for those which seem to be better, with the inhabitants of Bible lands it is not only inexpedient, it is morally wrong to alter anything that is ancient. The writers on the manners and customs of Palestine do not seem to have made this sufficiently plain. The laws of Eastern society are inexorable, for they are all supposed to possess Divine authority; and this seems to point to their way of life, in almost all particulars, having come down from the dawn of time when God first taught man how to live. Be this as it may, a'adeh binds their life with an adamantine chain. They must not, they dare not change. Thus, in all probability, the life we now witness is truly primeval, a living exhibition of the life of the Bible, and a speaking commentary on its every page. For, if female attire has thus kept the same in each minute particular, it is easy to realise that nothing else has altered. Whilst on this subject of female dress, I may point out another very strong and striking contrast between the usages of Eastern and Western life. With us, women cover their persons, but leave their faces uncovered. In the East they cover the face, or at least the lower part of it, in the presence of men, but leave much of the body and limbs exposed. Townswomen, the Belladeen class, it is true, appear in public with their whole person closely covered; but women amongst the Fellahheen, the dwellers in unwalled villages, or peasantry, and amongst the Bedaween, or nomad Arabs of the desert-the two rougher, poorer, less civilised conditions of life-are constantly |