On the roof of Im Seleem;
Now the bear will dance a reel,
On the roof of Im Khaleel.

The roofs of the houses are low and flat, and on the hill-sides you can
walk from the street above upon the roof of the houses below. I once
lived in a house in Duma in which the cattle, donkeys, and sheep used to
walk on our roof every evening as they came in from pasture. It was not
very pleasant to be awakened at midnight by a cow-fight on the roof, and
have the stones and dirt rattling down into our faces, but we could get
no other house, and had to make the best of it. You can understand then
Khalil's song:

The sun is rising all so bright
Upon the Pasha's daughter:
See her toss the tassels blue,
As her mother taught her.
Turn the oxen on the roof
Of the village priest;
He will kill them one and all,
And give the poor a feast.

The boys seem to be in high glee. They all know Handûmeh and her
betrothed Shaheen Ma'ttar, so they are swinging and singing in honor of
her wedding.

But the time has come for the wedding, and we will go over to Ain Kesûr,
about a mile away, and join in the bridal procession. As we come near
the house we hear the women inside singing. They have been dressing the
bride, and after she is dressed they lead her around and try to make her