Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/434

Rh in a cargo of cotton. Here all the deck passengers landed, with the exception of one man, a Jew of Aleppo, who was bound for Liverpool. The captain wished to give him some directions one day, while we were off Alexandria, but found that he could not make himself understood; so he requested me to act as interpreter. I went out on to the deck, and approached the solitary Syrian, whom I had not before observed, for he had occupied the other end of the ship. He was a man of about thirty years of age, and appeared very intelligent, but extremely timid. His dress, which was scrupulously clean, was of the kind usually worn by respectable town Arabs. When I was near to him, I said in Arabic, "God save you!" He started with astonishment, and, bowing down, kissed my hands vehemently, exclaiming, "God bless you, and God bless the voice which speaks to me in Arabic! I thought that I was left here alone!" When he found that I was going all the way to Liverpool, he said fervently, "Thank God! Thank God! This is good!" After telling him, in the captain's name, that a sheltered sleeping-place had been prepared for him in the forepart of the ship, I entered into conversation with him, and found that he was going to some Syrian merchants at Manchester, to whom he had been recommended; but he had never seen any of them, and knew no one in England. He asked me how he was to find his way from Liverpool, and begged me to help him. He made many inquiries, which proved to me that he had no idea of the wide difference which there is between life in the East and life in the West. He did not know a word of English. He wrote his name "Shaayea"—that is, Isaiah—"Ateyas," in Arabic characters in my pocket-book, and a day or two afterward I wrote for him, in English and Arabic orthography, the names of the three Manchester merchants of whom he had spoken. I also gave him a letter of introduction to a Syrian gentleman of Liverpool. From this time, whenever I was on deck reading, studying the charts, or sketching, Shaayea was by my side, and always watched