Topsy-Turvy Land | Page 7

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 waiting for a customer. And if he

keeps his groceries as free from flies and ants as he does his spotless
white turban we will buy our day's supplies here. The shops in Arabia
are not very large and they have no place for customers except outside.
Sometimes there is a sort of raised seat or bench on which the
purchaser sits when he bargains for something; but generally you have
to stand up outside while the crowds push and the traffic goes on. One
curious custom is that all the shops of one kind cluster close together in
one street or section of the town. You will see for example in one street
a long row of shops where they sell drugs and perfumery; in another
place there are only hardware merchants; again a whole street of
nothing but grocers. I think the reason is that Arabs love to bargain and
to beat down prices and so it is easier to have all the merchants of one
kind close together. At any rate this arrangement makes it quite
convenient for the purchaser. Indeed it is becoming somewhat
customary to group the shops in this way in some of your Western
cities. Occidental civilisation can learn some things from the Orient!
[Illustration: ARAB GROCER.]
Our shopkeeper has a mixed lot of groceries in his shop; many things
which you would find at your grocers' he has never heard of.
Everything is topsy-turvy. Just fancy how strange to hang up the sugar
in a row of cones on strings like sausages! Do you see them on the
ceiling of the shop in our picture? That is the way white sugar comes
wrapped from France and is sold in Arabia. A sugar barrel would soon
be full of ants in this country; but when it hangs up on a string the ants
have a hard time getting it away. Maybe there is a suggestion here for
your homes if you are troubled with ants.
In those big Arab baskets the grocer keeps his carrots and other
vegetables; carrots are white in Arabia and there are curious vegetables
of which you have never heard.
Do you see the bottles and tin boxes on his shelves? Those are for
spices;