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verses from the Koran are written out and put in a leather or silver case
and also tied around the arm or neck of the baby. If the child shows signs
of illness the mother makes it swallow some of the Koran. That is, a
portion is written out and the ink is washed off with water and this dirty
water is taken by the patient. A prescription was sent to me once when I
was ill by a Moslem _mullah_, or teacher, of this character and he was
quite certain I would recover if I drank it. I am glad to say I got better
without the ink medicine.

[Illustration: DATE-STICK CRADLE.]

When the baby is forty days old and has received its name a new date-stick
cradle is triumphantly brought home from the market and the new baby
placed in it. And then Master or Miss Arab will get such a violent rocking
that no Christian baby could stand. The ground is uneven, for there are no
wooden floors in Arabia, and the rockers are nearly straight so that you
can imagine it is not the pleasantest thing in the world to be rocked in
an Arab cradle. In the picture you can see just what a date-stick cradle
is like.

Arab babies cry a great deal; what with sand storms and flies and other
insects they generally have sore eyes and apparently need strong treatment
to make them quiet and give their mothers and sisters time to grind the
wheat and churn the butter. Everything is made fresh each day in an Arab
household. The rice must be cooked for the daily meal, the wheat ground
for bread, and the milk put into the leather churn. These people have no
ice chest, not even cupboards, many of them, so the coffee is freshly
roasted and pounded in a mortar for breakfast. The flour is taken to the
hand-mill and butter comes out of the churn every day fresh. Then the
mother will have to draw the daily supply of water and wash the few
clothes at the well. The better classes have their slaves to do the hard
work but the Bedouin women and the poor have to do all the toil and never
get a rest. Rich and poor are alike in not having any intellectual
pleasures. Few can read and even those who can read, are able to read only
the Koran and the Moslem traditions. The children have no primers or
picture-books, and no Arab mother ever has a newspaper or a magazine. She
has never heard of such things. Arab women do not know anything of the
many interests and pleasures that occupy the time of women in Christian
lands.

[Illustration: WOMEN GRINDING AT THE MILL.]

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