Ignorance of the language of the people, is a barrier which no skill of an interpreter can break down, and every woman who would labor with acceptance and success among the women of Syria, must be able to speak to them familiarly in their own mother tongue.  Interpreters may be honest and conscientious, but not one person in a thousand can translate accurately from one language to another without previous preparation.  And besides, interpreters are not always reliable.  There is still living, in the city of Tripoli, an old man named Abdullah Yanni, who acted as interpreter for a Jewish Missionary some forty years ago.  He tells many a story of the extraordinary shape which that unsuspecting missionary’s discourses assumed in passing through his lips.  One day they went through the principal street to preach to the Moslems.  A great crowd assembled, and Abdullah trembled, for in those days of darkness Moslems oppressed and insulted Christians with perfect impunity.  Said the missionary, “Tell the Moslems that unless they all repent and believe in Christ, they will perish forever.”  Abdullah translated, and the Moslems gave loud and earnest expression to their delight.  They declared, “That is so, that is so, welcome to the Khowadja!” Abdullah had told them that “the Khowadja says, that he loves you very much, and the Engliz and the Moslems are ‘sowa sowa,’ i.e. together as one.”

Abdullah soon found it necessary to tell his confiding friend and employer, that it would not do to preach in that bold manner, for if he should translate it literally, the Moslems would kill both of them on the spot.  The missionary replied, “Let them kill us then.”  Abdullah said, “it may do very well for you, but I am not prepared to die, and would prefer to wait.”  The very first requisite for usefulness in a foreign land is the language.  It might be well, as previously intimated in this volume, that in each of the Female Seminaries, the number of the teachers should be large enough to allow the most experienced in the language to give themselves for a portion of each week to these friendly religious visits.  The Arab race are eminently a sociable, visiting people, and a foreign lady is always welcome among the women of every grade of society, from the highest to the lowest.

IV.  Holding special Women’s Meetings of the Female Church members from week to week in the homes of the different families.  The neighboring women will come in, and the native women, who would never take part in a women’s prayer-meeting, in the presence of a missionary, will gladly do it with the example and encouragement of one of their own sex.  Such meetings have been conducted in Hums and Tripoli, in Beirut, Abeih, Deir el Komr and Sidon, and in Suk el Ghurb, B’hamdun, Hasbeiya, and Deir Mimas for many years.  Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Isaac Bird, Mrs. Thomson, Mrs. Van Dyck, Mrs. Whiting, Mrs. Goodell, Mrs. Dr. Dodge, Miss Williams, Miss Tilden, Mrs. De Forest, Mrs. Calhoun, Mrs. Wilson,