1907.] TRIPOLI. 199 



climate, and which extended entirely above the house terrace. 

 A gate led from the street into the courtyard, where were the 

 general offices and utility part of the house. On the interior 

 of the yard there is a gallery running about part of the house 

 which surrounds the inside of this courtyard, and upon that 

 gallery it is that the family are very apt to have their meals, 

 and this opens from the drawing-room, bedrooms, dining- 

 room, etc., and the more pleasant apartments of the house. 

 There is no third story. On the roof terrace the family usually 

 take their recreation in the latter part of the day when the 

 sunshine has become sufficiently cooled by the afternoon and 

 evening air. 



Of course, society and social customs there are radically 

 different from anything with which we are familiar here. In 

 Tripoli, ladies, and especially the Arab ladies, never go into 

 the streets if it is possible to avoid it. If they have been mar- 

 ried five years, they may go into the street veiled, and they all 

 wear in the street a very beautiful garment called a pelisse. 

 It is a fashion quite different from what one sees in Algiers or 

 Tunis. It is worn about the head or thrown over the head in 

 such a way as to drop down across the left eye. So that when 

 you see a Tripolitan you see the upper part of the left eye. Of 

 course, you do not know from that black eye whether it is a 

 beautiful young lady or an old crone. You cannot tell because 

 either is apt to have that black eye. Such eyes belong to any 

 style of beauty, and, of course, everybody may be beautiful in 

 Tripoli. I will say more about their habits of dress very soon. 

 We had a very charming invitation to a luncheon at a house 

 of a prominent resident where I met some ladies, so that I 

 really did have an opportunity to look into the family life of 

 the upper class Tripolitan. 



There are a great many Jews in Tripoli. I believe it is 

 estimated that there may be 160,000 Mohammedans in TripoH, 

 in this province, and perhaps 56,000 Jews, and 3,000 Christians. 

 That is about the proportion into which they are divided. The 

 Christians are Roman Catholics, chiefly from Malta, a few 

 Italians, and when I was there, there were only a very few 

 other Europeans. Of those only fourteen were English people. 



One was a missionary. Dr. . I asked him if he ever 



made a Mohammedan into a Christian, or if he expected to, 

 and he s.aid, " why no, I am not here to do that." Then I said. 



