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: 

    ’Tis black as night,
    But it is not night: 
    Like a bird it has wings,
    But it never sings: 
    It digs through the house,
    But it is not a mouse: 
    It eats barley and grass,
    But it is not an ass.

Riddle about a gun: 

    A featherless bird flew over the sea,
    A bird without feathers, how can that be? 
    A beautiful bird which I admire,
    With wooden feet and a head of fire!

Riddle on salt: 

    O Arab tribes, so bold and gay,
    What little grain have you to-day? 
    It never on the trees is seen,
    Nor on the flowers and wheat so green. 
    Its source is pure, ’tis pleasant to eat,
    From water it comes that is not sweet,
    Though from water it comes, and there’s water in it,
    You put it in water, it dies in a minute.