P. 139. The "untying the shoe" is very interesting in connection with the Levirate ceremony of "loosing the shoe," which is not confined to the Jews. The shoe is intimately connected with weddings in the mythology and folk-lore of all Asiatics.
P. 141. The dirge of a hunter seems modern in form.
The gun rusts with dew,
There is the gun, the hero has not come.
There is none to clean the gun.
O, youth, forbid to breathe the breeze,
There is nought to snare in the grave,
The woman's dirge appears to run—
Hamdah was precious as silver,
O, Hasan, buy her;
Weigh the coin and buy her—
P. 137. The tales of heroes sung at marriages would be very interesting to collect: in some cases they are probably taken from books, such as are read in the Lebanon, but if they are merely oral they might be valuable.
The war song which records the news being sent to Damascus to a "King" seems to be probably ancient, going back to the 8th or 9th
war-song older than the seventh century B.C., which may be compared with the modern fellah song:—
"Leading the herd
You trod the corn
I go knee deep
I stay not my foot
Not first in fault
My Lost obeys me
You come and waste
The foeman's field
He comes and wastes
Thy field O foe
The corn grows high
What care we
The corn is ripe
What care we
The lot of death
Be thine to taste
The lot of life
May I enjoy."
