here he was born. But the life was a hard one and his wages
were small. Moreover, the coming of steamships up the Gulf took away the
profit of the sailing craft, and so Mohammed fared from bad to worse. He
loved an Arab lass with plaited, well-greased locks of hair and a pleasant
face, but her father asked a larger dowry than he could ever pay.

An Arab young man must always pay a good price to the father of his
sweetheart before he is allowed to marry her. But this Mohammed was too
poor to pay the price asked. What a queer topsy-turvy custom it is for a
man to buy his wife just as he buys a horse or a camel! The Arabs often
ask how much a wife costs in America and wonder that we are not allowed by
the Christian laws to send away our wives and marry others.

Mohammed could not stay at home so he once more went in a ship to Jiddah,
the port to Mecca, where pilgrims from all the Moslem world exchange
thought and money for bad bread and fanaticism. And yet even here the
civilisation of the West tries to enter. Wandering through the bazars
Mohammed for the first time saw a sewing machine, in the hands of an
Indian tailor. A marvel to the sailor fisherman, indeed! Almost as great a
miracle to him as the Koran. The more he looked the more he coveted, and
he could not pass the place without reckoning up the possible profits of
such an investment should he return with it to his native island. The
result was that he forswore the sea and preferred another kind of wheel to
that of the pilot. With many mutual _wallahs_ the bargain was concluded
and the machine reached Bahrein. It was the first on the islands, and all
the sheikhs came to see its marvellous build and wonderful work. Mohammed
has a Western head on Eastern shoulders, and there was not a screw or
tension from treadle to shuttle, which he did not learn the use of. It is
unnecessary to state at the cost of how many broken needles he became
proficient. Amid cries of _ajeeb, ajeeb_, the first Arab shirt was
stitched together, and even the youngsters on the street imitated the
whirrr-clic-whirrr of the machine. As for Mohammed, he sewed on, and while
his sandalled feet worked the treadle his mind worked out a problem
something like this: Three long-shirts a day and an _abba_, at one _kran_
per shirt and two for the abba, thirty-five krans per week, how long will
it take to pay the dowry? An _abba_ is a large over-garment worn by both
men and women in Arabia. It is like a cape