Topsy-Turvy Land | Page 8

pepper, cinnamon, nutmegs, curry-powder and such things of
which Arab housewives are very fond.
The big bowl on the left probably has olives in it or other kind of

pickled vegetables. On the right you can see the big pair of old
fashioned scales on which he weighs his wares. I hope he is an honest
man, although I do not think he looks very honest, do you? The scale
hangs true I have no doubt; but it is in the weights that deception lurks.
In 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 cold water. But
just pour the water in one of these earthen pots and hang it in the wind
and then in a few minutes the water gets cold. We missionaries always
have such water-jars hanging or standing in our windows to catch the
breeze. Perhaps this kind of water-cooler is very old, and Solomon
himself looked at one when he wrote the words: "As cold waters to a
thirsty soul so is good news from a far country."

VI
BLIND FATIMAH
It was on a Sunday afternoon that I first met Blind Fatimah and greeted
her with Salaam aleikum and she answered aleikum es salaam! "Peace
be to you and on you be peace." I asked if she could read. She said she
could "read by heart," but could not see anything. She at that time could
repeat twenty-six chapters of the Koran, the sacred book of the
Mohammedans. Now I think she can repeat it nearly all; it contains one
hundred and fourteen chapters. Some are very short and others are very
long; some parts of the book are very good, but most of it is a jumble of
events and of things that never happened--all mixed up topsy-turvy.
A slave woman was Fatimah's teacher and now she is helper in the
school of this teacher. She is the prompter, and always begins each
sentence of the recitation, and the other children follow on. If any
mistakes