You ate up the chickens of old Katrin,
And ran away singing like wild Bedawin.

It is not pleasant to have so many fleas annoying us all the time, but
we must not be more anxious to keep the fleas out than to get the people
in, and as the fellaheen come to see us, they will be likely to _flea_
us too. Safita is famous for fleas, so no wonder that Nejmeh knows the
following song of the boys about fleas:

I caught and killed a hopping flea,
His sister's children came to me:
One with drum my ears did pierce,
One was fluting loud and fierce,
Then they danced me, made me sing,
Like a monkey in a ring.
Come O Deeby, come I pray,
Bring the Doctor right away!
Peace on your heart feel no alarm,
You have not had the slightest harm.

Laia is never at a loss for something new, and I am amazed at her
memory. She will give us some rhyming riddles in Arabic, and we will put
them into English as best we may. The first is about the _Ant_:

'Tis black as night,
But it is not night:
Like a bird it has wings,
But it never sings:
It digs through the house,
But it is not a mouse: