At the last interview between her and her father, she expressed her determination to make the Bible henceforth her study and guide, and requested him to read the 14th chapter of John, which seemed to give her great comfort.  Soon after that she ceased to recognize her friends, and on Monday night, January 5, she gently fell asleep.  I was summoned to the house at 2 A.M. by a young man who said, “She is much worse, hasten.”  On reaching the house I met Rufka, teacher of the Seminary, who exclaimed, “She is gone, she is gone.”  Entering the mukod room, I found all the family assembled.  There were no shrieks and screams and loud wailings, as is the universal custom in this land.  All were seated, and the father, Abu Selim, was reading that chapter which Sarah had asked him to read.  I then led the family in prayer, and all were much comforted.  She had lived a blameless life, beloved by all who knew her, and had been a faithful and exemplary daughter and sister, but her only trust at the last was in her Saviour.  She saw in her past life only sin, and hoped for salvation in the blood of Christ alone.  The funeral was attended by a great concourse of people of all sects, and the Protestant chapel was crowded.

CHAPTER XI.

HUMS.

The city of Hums, the ancient Emessa, is situated about one mile east of the river Orontes, and about half way between Aleppo and Damascus.  It is in the midst of a vast and fertile plain, extending to Palmyra on the east, and to the Orontes on the west.  With the exception of a few mud-built villages along the east and near the city, there is no settled population between Hums and Palmyra.  The wild roving Bedawin sweep the vast plains in every direction, and only a few years ago, the great gates of Hums were frequently closed at midday to prevent the incursion of these rough robbers of the desert.  On the west of the city are beautiful gardens and orchards of cherry, walnut, apricot, plum, apple, peach, olive, pomegranate, fig and pear trees, and rich vineyards cover the fields on the south.  It is a clean and compact town of about 25,000 inhabitants, of whom 7000 are Greek Christians, 3000 Jacobites, and the rest Mohammedans.  The houses are built of sun-dried bricks and black basaltic rock, and the streets are beautifully paved with small square blocks of the same rock, giving it a neat and clean appearance.  There are few windows on the street; the houses are one story high, with diminutive doors, not more than four feet high; and the low dull walls stretching along the streets, give the city a dismal and monotonous appearance.  The reason of building the doors so low, is to prevent the quartering of Turkish government horsemen on their families, as well as to prevent the Bedawin Arabs from plundering them.  On the southwest corner of the city stands an ancient castle in ruins, built on an artificial mound of earth of colossal size, which was once faced with square blocks of black trap rock, but this facing has been all stripped off to build the modern city.