Arabia we can
every day see illustrations of the words of Solomon in the book of
Proverbs about "divers weights" and "false balances." The most of the
shopkeepers do not have proper weights of iron or brass, but use ordinary
cobblestones and pebbles. Only a few days ago I bought some walnuts and
the grocer weighed them so many stones' weight! Do you know what a "stone"
weight is. Maybe you had better look it up in your dictionary. That
covered kettle near the scale-pans on top of the little box contains
_semn_, which is the Arabic name for sheep's fat. You would hardly believe
me if I told you what a lot of this greasy yellow stuff the boys and girls
eat on their rice, and how much is used in an Arab kitchen. It is sold by
weight, just as well as all other things, even _milk_ in Arabia. If we
wait long enough you will see Fatimah and Mirjam and the other girls come
with empty bowls to buy so many pennies' worth of grease.

Do you notice that the shop has queer little doors on the lower part of
the front opening? The other part of the shop is closed by a flap-door
that does not show on the picture. This is hinged from the top and is used
when the shop is open as a sort of blind to keep off the sun or the rain.

When the shopkeeper leaves his shop for a half hour or so he hangs a sort
of fish-net over the opening of his shop and never needs to lock it. This
is a curious custom, and I have often wondered how the shops were safe
from stealing boys or robbers in such cases. It is one more instance of
how different the East is from the West.

The shopkeepers generally close their shops at sunset, and only in a very
few places are there people who buy and sell or go about to do shopping
by lamplight. Our grocer on the corner has provided for emergencies, and
the large Arabian lantern ought to light up all his little shop.

Across the street is the place where they sell crockery. The salesman is
out, but his boy, as you see, has taken the opportunity to eat some
apples. I wonder whether he got them at the grocer's?

[Illustration: ARAB BOY IN A CROCKERY SHOP. (Float this image to the
right.)]

His father sells water-jugs and jars made of porous earth. Oh what a
blessing those jars are to all the people of this hot and dry country. We
have no ice in Arabia and so no refrigerators; the wells are never very
deep and the water comes a long distance. So if it were not for the
crockery man and his water-jugs we could never drink