ceal any of the stars or spots tattooed on her face or chest in infancy. A line of blue dots encircling the lips is sometimes seen, and a spot on the chin is very common. A little rouge is added to highten the color of the cheeks when considered necessary.
Angelina gets into sad disgrace with the clergy of Hâifa for encouraging all this vanity, out of which she, by the by, makes a good living. She goes from one church to another for absolution, sometimes reckoning herself a Greek, sometimes a Latin, and sometimes a Melchite, according to the leniency of the respective priests.
The Arab women are very much wedded to the ancient customs of the country, and they will not abandon them, notwithstanding the persevering efforts of the priesthood.
The Greek Catholic Church vainly pronounces anathemas, and threatens with excommunication those women who tattoo themselves, and use kohl, and henna, and rouge. They will persist in doing so while they believe that it adds to their beauty, and to their powers of attraction, and in vain the noisy processions at weddings and at burials are forbidden, so long as the people believe them to be propitious. Their respect for custom is stronger even than their fear of the Church. If the priests persisted in carrying out their threats of excommunication for such offenses, their congregations would soon be scattered; so they are lenient, and thus Greek and Roman forms of Christianity are blended insensibly with ceremonies and practices so ancient that their origin even is unknown.
This is not the only difficulty which the priests find to contend with, in the pastoral care of Arab women.
In 1859 a number of black silk mittens were sold in Hâifa by a peddler from Beirût. They were a novelty to the Arab women, who were quite proud of this addition to their toilette, and displayed their mittened hands delightedly in church. The priest of the Greek Catholic community actually denounced them from the altar, forbidding the adoption of gloves, mittens, or any new and expensive
