File:Abraham Mitrie Rihbany at 21.jpg

Identifier: farjourne00rihb (find matches)
Title: A far journey
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Rihbany, Abraham Mitrie, 1869-
Subjects: Rihbany, Abraham Mitrie, 1869-
Publisher: Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin company
Contributing Library: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Princeton Theological Seminary Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
arb I touchedthe fringe of Occidental life at two points. First,I acquired a European costume. Europeandress was slowly becoming the attire of the newaristocracy of learning. When I first donnedthis fashionable but strange garb, I wasashamed to appear where people might look atme. The lower half of my person felt quite bareand my legs seemed uncomfortably long. Thehabit of sitting on the floor often asserted itselfunconsciously, and occasionally endangered theseams of the newly acquired costume. Mytownspeople most uncharitably called me theman in tights. Happily for me, I only put onthe strange garb on special occasions, and re-tained with it the Turkish fez as a connectinglink between the East and the West. My other touch of Occidental life came fromdining with the other teachers one evening atthe home of the American missionary. Here itwas that I heard the piano for the first and lasttime in Syria, and ate with the knife and fork.The chief dish of the occasion consisted of a ( 154 )
Text Appearing After Image:
MR. RIHBANY AT 21 Taken at Zahlah. Tlie first photograph SCHOOL TEACHER AND EMIGRANT stratum of dough baked over a dissectedchicken. When my plate reached me heavilyladen with the strange composition, I was not alittle puzzled to know how it was to be eaten.I deemed it wise to follow the example of theothers, but to disengage the flesh from the bonesof a chicken, with knife and fork, was a painfulexperience to me. Lacking skill, I applied force,when suddenly my awkward eating tools slipped,and almost broke the plate. I was deeplyimpressed with the gracious dignity of my host,who appeared not to notice it, while my fellowSyrian guests (I suppose because of our famili-arity with one another) snickered at my dis-tressing experience. My three years of activity and intellectualendeavor as a school-teacher, while they provedadvantageous in many ways, failed to put meon the highway of true progress. My salarykept me on the level of poverty, and the oppor-tunities for promotion were extremely

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