women come forth in their wrath. In one town was a virago, who
often, single-handed, faced down and drove off Moslem tax-gatherers
when the men fled in terror. No one who has ever heard the stinging
shrillness of their tongues, or looked on their frenzied gestures,
can ever forget them, or wonder why the ancients painted the Furies
in the form of women. Words cannot portray the excitement of such a
scene. The hair of the frantic actors is streaming in the wind;
stones and clods seem only embodiments of the unearthly yells and
shrieks that fill the air; and yet it was such beings that grace
made to be "last at the cross and first at the sepulchre."

The East is notorious for profanity, and among the Nestorians women
were as profane as men. The pupils in the Seminary at first used to
swear, and use the vilest language on the slightest provocation.
Poor, blind Martha, on her death bed, in her own father's house, was
constantly cursed and reviled. She was obliged sometimes to cover
her head with the quilt, and stop her ears, to secure an opportunity
to pray for her profane and abusive brother; and though, in such
circumstances, she died before her prayers were answered, yet they
were heard, for he afterwards learned to serve his sister's God. "Do
you think people will believe me," said a pupil to her teacher, who
was reproving her for profanity, "if I do not repeat the name of God
very often?"

Lying was almost as common as profanity, and stealing quite as
prevalent as either. It was a frequent remark, "We all lie here; do
you think we could succeed in business without it?"

In the early days of the Seminary, nothing was safe except under
lock and key. Sometimes there seemed to be a dawn of improvement,