you get away! You will
find instances of this respect for the duty of hospitality all through the
Bible story. It was in the earliest Bible times, as later and as now, a
grievous sin to be inhospitable. The cradle of the Mohammedan religion is
Arabia, and yet in no country are they more ignorant of their religion.
How sad to think that when they do worship God they do it in such an
ignorant and idolatrous way! In our next chapter we shall see more about
this.

Arabia has no national flag, no national hymn and no national feeling.
Every one lives for himself and no one cares for his neighbour. This does
not sound strange of robbers but it does of people who are so hospitable.
This queer country we are about to visit together and talk over with each
other.

You will not grow weary by the way, we hope. If the desert tracks are long
and tiresome through the following chapters, just refresh yourself in the
oasis of a picture.

III

THE SQUARE-HOUSE WITH THE BLACK OVERCOAT

You think I am making fun but it is really true that in western Arabia
there is a house that always wears an overcoat. This is a large, square
stone house without windows and with only one door to let in the light and
the air; it is empty inside, although crowds gather around it as you see
in the picture. Yet this house always has on an overcoat of black silk,
very heavy and richly embroidered. Every year the old coat is taken off
and a new one put on. A few days ago a Moslem pilgrim showed me a piece of
the cloth of last year's overcoat and he was very proud of it. It was
indeed a fine piece of heavy silk and the names of God and Mohammed were
prettily woven into the cloth. This man had just come from visiting the
square-house and I will tell you what he saw.

The place he visited with hundreds and thousands of other pilgrims is
called Mecca and the square-house is the _Beit Allah_ or house of God to
all Mohammedans. It is also called the _Kaaba_, which is the Arabic word
for a cube.

The Moslems believe all sorts of foolish things about the Kaaba. They say
Adam built it as soon as he fell down on the earth out of Paradise, and
that Abraham repaired it after it had been ruined by the flood in the days
of Noah. They even show a large white stone on which Abraham and Ishmael
stood when they plastered the walls; the stone still bears the impress of
Abraham's feet, they say. Did you ever hear such a topsy-turvy story?

The building is about