by their women, is of itself a preservative against those desires which are the occasion of so many evils in society. No man knows the face of any other woman than his wife, his mother, his sister, and sisters-in-law. Every man lives in the bosom of his own family, and goes little abroad. The women, those even of the sheiks, make the bread, roast the coffee, wash the linen, cook the viands, and perform all domestic offices. The men cultivate their lands and vineyards, and dig canals for watering them. In the evening they sometimes assemble in the court, the area, or house of the chief of the village or family. There, seated in a circle, with legs crossed, pipes in their mouths, and poniards at their belts, they discourse of their various labours, the scarcity or plenty of their harvests, peace or war, the conduct of the emir, or the amount of the taxes; they relate past transactions, discuss present interests, and form conjectures on the future. Their children, tired with play, come frequently to listen; and a stranger is surprised to hear them, at ten or twelve years old, recounting, with a serious air, why Djezzar declared war against the emir Yousef, how many purses it cost that prince, what augmentation there will be of the miri, how many muskets there were in the camp, and who had the best mare. This is their only education. They are neither taught to read the psalms as among the Maronites, nor the Koran like the Mahometans; hardly do the sheikhs know how to write a letter. But if their mind be destitute of useful or agreeable information, at least it is not preoccupied by false and hurtful ideas; and, without doubt, such natural ignorance is well worth all our artificial folly. This advantage results from it, that their understandings being nearly on a level, the inequality of conditions is less perceptible. For, in fact, we do not perceive among the Drusis that great distance which, in most other societies, degrades the inferior, without contributing to the advantage of the great. All, whether sheikhs or peasants, treat each other with that rational familiarity, which is equally remote from rudeness and servility. The grand emir himself is not a different man from the rest; he is a good country gentleman, who does not disdain admitting to his table the meanest farmer. In a word, their manners are those of ancient times, and of that rustic life which marks the origin of every nation; and prove, that the people among whom they are still found are as yet only in the infancy of the social state."

John, a Protestant writer of great learning, born at Oudenarde in Flanders in 1555. He was designed for the study of divinity; but his father being outlawed, and deprived of his estate, they both retired to England, where the son became professor of the oriental languages at Oxford; but upon the pacification of Ghent, they returned to their own country, where Drufius was also appointed professor of the oriental languages. From thence he removed to Friesland, where he was admitted Hebrew professor in the university of Franeker; the functions of which he discharged with great honour till his death in 1616. His works show him to have been well skilled in Hebrew; and the States General employed him in 1600 to write notes on the most difficult passages in the Old Testament, with a pension of 400 florins a-year; but being frequently disturbed in this undertaking, it was not published till after his death. He held a vast correspondence with the learned; for besides letters in Hebrew, Greek, and other languages, there were found 2300 Latin letters among his papers. He had a son John, who died in England at 21, and was a prodigy for his early acquisition of learning; he wrote Notes on the Proverbs of Solomon, with many letters and verses in Hebrew.