They Were Pleased With This, And I Had In A Short Time A Whole Sewing School Round Me.

How much good might be done here by any one who knew the language and had the inclination, only the parents must be taught at the same time as the children.

What a fine field is here open to the missionaries if they would accustom themselves to live among these people, and with kindness and patience to counteract their failings! As it is, however, they devote at the utmost only a few hours in the day to them, and make their converts come to them, instead of visiting them in their own houses.

The women and girls in the Asiatic countries receive no education, those in the towns have little or no employment, and are left to themselves during the whole day. The men go at sunrise to the bazaars, where they have their stalls or workshops, the bigger boys go to school or accompany their fathers, and neither return home before sunset. There the husband expects to find the carpets spread out on the terraces, the supper ready, and the nargilly lighted, he then plays a little with the young children, who, however, during meal-time are obliged to keep away with their mothers. The women in the villages have more liberty and amusement, as they generally take part in the housekeeping. It is said that the people in the country here are, as among ourselves, more moral than in the towns.

The dress worn by the richer Kurds is the Oriental, that of the common people differs slightly from it. The men wear wide linen trousers, over them a shirt reaching to the hips, and fastened round the waist by a girdle. They frequently draw on, over the shirt, a jacket without sleeves, made of coarse brown woollen stuff, which is properly cut into strips of a hand's breath, and joined together by broad seams. Others wear trousers of brown stuff instead of white linen; they are, however, extremely ugly, as they are really nothing more than a wide shapeless sack with two holes, through which the feet are put. The coverings for the feet are either enormous shoes of coarsely woven white sheeps' wool, ornamented with three tassels, or short, very wide boots of red or yellow leather, reaching only just above the ankle and armed with large plates an inch thick. The head-dress is a turban.

The women wear long wide trousers, blue shirts, which frequently reach half a yard over the feet, and are kept up by means of a girdle; a large blue mantle hangs from the back of the neck, reaching down to the calves. They wear the same kind of plated boots as the men. On their heads they wear either black kerchiefs wound in the manner of a turban, or a red fez, the top of which is very broad, and covered with silver coins arranged in the form of a cross.

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