ant odour. Each tree bears an enormous number of coffee-berries; a
single tree is said to have yielded sixteen pounds! Arabia not only
produces the finest coffee in the world, but I think the Arabs know how
to prepare a good cup of coffee better than other peoples. The raw bean is
roasted just before it is used and so keeps all its strength; it is
_pounded_ fine, much finer than you can grind it, in a mortar, with an
iron pestle; lastly two smelling herbs, _heyl_ and saffron are added when
it is boiled just enough to give a flavour. Some fibres of palm bark are
stuck into the spout of the coffee-pot to act as a strainer and then the
clear brown liquid is poured into a tiny cup and handed to you in the
coffee-shop. No wonder the Arab dervishes smack their lips over this,
their only luxury.

But how did the tobacco get into our picture? You can hunt up the story
for yourselves in your school histories. Had not Sir Walter Raleigh in
1586 introduced the weed to the court of Queen Elizabeth from Virginia,
our picture and social life in Arabia would be very different. The custom
of puffing tobacco has spread like a prairie fire and it is now so common
in the East that very few realise it was not always found there. There
they are all together, an Indian pipe, Arabian coffee and American
tobacco! How much faster and further tobacco has travelled than the Bible;
how many people had begun to drink Mocha before Arabia had a missionary!

But, of course, nothing can travel for nothing; and somebody must pay the
travelling expenses. America pays many millions more for tobacco in a year
than it pays for missionaries. It is not surprising, therefore, that all
Arabians smoke and only a very few have ever heard of the Son of God, the
Saviour of the world. As Jesus Himself said, "the children of this world
are wiser in their generation than the children of light." When people
learn to love missions as much and as often as they do a good cigar and a
cup of coffee there will be no need of mite boxes. God hasten the day.

V

AT THE CORNER GROCERY

It is not a very long distance from the Arab coffee-shop where we left our
friend smoking, to the grocer. The streets are very narrow and unless we
are very careful that camel will crowd us to the wall or those water-skins
on the white donkey wet our clothes--see how they drip! Well, one turn
more and here we are. The grocer in the picture on the next page is
leaning on his elbow waiti