from different parts of the world
are used in different provinces. It is a land of contradictions and even
the waters that bound it are misnamed. The Red Sea is blue; the Persian
Gulf has no Persian ships and should be called an English lake; and the
_Straits_ of Hormuz are crooked. This topsy-turvy land has no political
divisions. Some say it has five and some seven provinces; no one knows
what is its population as no census was ever taken. In nearly all
countries the mountain ranges run north and south, but in Arabia they run
nearly east and west. There are desert sands six hundred feet deep and
mountain peaks nine thousand feet high. On the coasts it is fearfully hot
and the climate is often deadly. On the highlands it is often bitterly
cold; and yet the people are all of the same race and speech and custom
and language and religion.

[Illustration: READY FOR A CAMEL RIDE.]

There are no pumps in Arabia, but plenty of wells. There are no woods in
Arabia, but plenty of trees. The camel is a topsy-turvy ship and the
ostrich a topsy-turvy bird. The Arabs call the former the ship of the
desert; and the latter they say is half camel and half bird. In some parts
of Arabia horses and cows are fed on boiled fish because that is cheaper
than grass! In other parts of the country donkeys are fed on dates. Arabia
has more sultans and princes than any other country of the same size and
yet it is a land without a settled government. The people never meet one
another without saying "Peace to you"; yet there has never been any peace
over the whole land since Christ's birth or even since the days of
Ishmael.

Every one carries a weapon and yet there are very few wild animals. It is
more dangerous to meet a Bedouin than a lion when you are a stranger on
the road. The Arabs are a nation of robbers. Now you will wonder how we
can also say that Orientals are the most hospitable of any people in the
world for the Arabs are Orientals. And yet it is strictly true that these
robbers are more hospitable, in a way, than you people of Western
countries. They have a proverb which says that "Every stranger is an
invited guest"; and another which says, "The guest while in the house is
its lord." If an Arab gets after you to rob or kill you, it is only
necessary to take refuge in his tent for safety. He is bound then, by the
rules of Oriental hospitality, to treat you as his guest. But you must not
stay there too long and you must be careful how