“Were we not made of the same clay as men?  Even if we are of weaker texture, we have the same susceptibility which they have to receive impressions from what is taught to us.  If it is good, we receive good as readily as they; and if evil, then evil.  Of what use is a crown of gold on the brow of ignorance, and what loveliness is there in a jewelled star on the neck of coarseness and brutality, or in a diamond necklace over a heart of stupidity and ignorance?  The great poet Mutanebbi has given us an apothegm of great power on this very subject.  He says: 

    ’Fukr el jehul bela okl ila adab,
     Fukr el hamar bela ras ila resen,’

     ’A senseless fool’s need of instruction is like a headless donkey’s
     need of a halter.’

“Let us then gird ourselves with wisdom and understanding, and robe ourselves with true politeness and meekness, and be crowned with the flowers of the ‘jenan’ (gardens) of knowledge (a pun on the name of the magazine) now opened to us.  Let us pluck the fruits of wisdom, lifting up our heads in gratulation and true pride, and remain no longer in that cowardice and avarice which were imputed to the women of the Arabs before us!”

The next article I shall translate, is a paper on the Training of Children in the East, by an Arab woman of Alexandria, Egypt, the Sitt Wustina Mesirra, wife of Selim Effendi el Hamawy.  It was printed in the “Jenan” for Jan., 1871.  After a long and eloquent poetical introduction, this lady says:—­

“Let us put off the robes of sloth and inertness, and put on the dress of zeal and earnestness.  We belong to the nineteenth century, which exceeds all the ages of mankind in light and knowledge.  Why shall we not show to men the need of giving us the highest education, that we may at the least contribute to their happiness and advantage, and rightly train our children and babes, not to say that we may pluck the fruits of science, and the best knowledge for ourselves?  Let them say to us, you are weak and lacking in knowledge.  I reply, by perseverance and patience, we shall attain our object.

“Inasmuch as every one who reaches mature years, must pass by the road of childhood and youth, everything pertaining to the period of childhood becomes interesting and important, and I beg permission to say a word on the training of children.

“When it pleased God to give us our first child, I determined to train it according to the old approved modes which I had learned from my family relatives and fellow-countrywomen.  So I took the baby boy soon after his birth, and put him in a narrow cradle provided with a tin tube running down through a perforation in the little bed, binding and tying him down, and wrapping and girding him about from his shoulders to his heels, so that he was stiff and unmovable, excepting his head, which rolled and wriggled about from right to left, with the rocking of the cradle, this rocking