Part 1 (1/2)
Topsy-Turvy Land.
by Samuel M. Zwemer Amy E. Zwemer.
PREFACE
This is a book of pictures and stories for big children and small grown-up folks; for all who love Sinbad the sailor and his strange country. It is a topsy-turvy book; there is no order about the chapters; and you can begin to read it anywhere. It is intended to give a bird's-eye view to those who cannot take birds' wings. The stories are not as good as those of the Arabian Nights but the morals are better--and so are the pictures.
Moreover the stories are true. You must not skip any of the chapters or the pictures but you may the preface, if you like.
{S.M.Z.
{A.E.Z.
_Bahrein, Arabia._
I
WHY IS ARABIA TOPSY-TURVY LAND?
On this big round earth there are all sorts of countries and peoples. Men walk on it on every side just like flies crawling over a watermelon and they do not fall off either. On the next page you can see how they travel all around the world; some in steams.h.i.+ps, some in carriages or on horses, some in jinrickshaws and some in the railway coaches. In Topsy-turvy Land they have no railroads and not even waggon-roads or waggons. A horse or a camel or a donkey is used for pa.s.sengers and the camel caravan is a freight train.
Or if you wish, the camel is a topsy-turvy s.h.i.+p which sails in the sand instead of in the water. It is called the s.h.i.+p of the desert. The masts point down instead of up; there are four masts instead of three; and although there are ropes the desert-s.h.i.+p has no sails and no rudder--unless the rudder be the tail. When the s.h.i.+p lies at anchor to be loaded it feeds on gra.s.s and the four masts are all snugly tucked away under the hull. In Arabia you generally see these s.h.i.+ps of the desert in a long line like a naval procession, each battles.h.i.+p towing its mate by a piece of rope fastened from halter to tail! But not only is the mode of travel strange in Topsy-turvy Land, even the time of the day is all upside down. When the boys and girls of America are going to bed the boys and girls of Arabia are thinking of getting up. As early as four o'clock by western time the muezzin calls out loud from the top of the minaret (for Moslem churches have no steeples and no bells) to come and pray. Arabs count the hours from sunrise. It is noon at six o'clock and they breakfast at one; at three o'clock in the evening all good boys and girls are asleep.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MODES OF TRAVEL.]
In Topsy-turvy Land all the habits and customs are exactly opposite to those in America or England. For instance when a boy enters a room he takes off his shoes but leaves his hat on his head. I do not know whether we should call it a _hat_, however. His hat has no rim and is not made of felt or straw, but is just a folded handkerchief of a large size and bright colour with a piece of cord to hold it wound round his head--a sort of a hat in two pieces. The girls go without shoes but carefully cover their pretty (or ugly) faces with a black veil.
At home you eat with a spoon or use a knife and fork. Here the Arabs eat with their fingers; nor do they use any plates or b.u.t.ter dishes, but a large piece of flat bread serves as a plate until it is all eaten. So you see in Arabia the children not only eat their rice and meat but their plates also. You read a book from left to right but in Arabia everybody begins at the right-hand cover and reads backward. Even the lines read backward and in Arabic writing there are no commas or capitals and the vowels are written not next to the consonants but stuck up above them.
_Potato_ in Arabic would be written with English letters this way:
O A O T T P
Can you read it?
In your country a carpenter stands at his bench to work, but here they sit on the ground. With you he uses a vise to hold the board or stick he is planing; here he uses his bare toes. With you he _pushes_ the saw or, especially, the plane away from him to cut or to smooth a piece of wood, but in Topsy-turvy Land he _pulls_ his tools towards him. b.u.t.tons are on the b.u.t.ton-hole side and the holes are where you put the b.u.t.tons. Door keys and door hinges are made of wood, not of iron as in the Occident. The women wear toe-rings and nose-rings as well as earrings and bracelets.
Everything seems different from what it is in a Christian country.
One strange sight is to meet people out riding. Do you know that the men ride donkeys side-saddle, but the women ride as men do in your country?
When a missionary lady first came to Bahrein in Eastern Arabia and the boys saw her riding a donkey they called out: _”Come and see, come and see! The lady has no feet!”_ Because they saw only one side of her. Then another one called out and said: _”Yes she has, and they are both on this side!”_
[Ill.u.s.tration: EUROPEAN VISITORS ON DONKEYS.]
Another odd custom is that Arabs always turn the fingers of the hand down as we turn them up in beckoning or calling anybody. Many other gestures seem topsy-turvy as well.
In your country boys learn the lesson of politeness--ladies first; but it is not so over here. It is _men first_ in all grades of society; and not only men first but men last, in the middle, and all the time. Women and girls have a very small place given them in Topsy-turvy Land. The Arabs say that of all animal kinds the female is the most valuable except in the case of mankind! When a girl baby is born the parents are thought very unfortunate. How hard the Bedouin girls have to work! They are treated just like beasts of burden as if they had no souls. They go barefoot carrying heavy loads of wood or skins of water, grind the meal and make fresh bread every morning or spin the camel's hair or goat's hair into one coa.r.s.e garment. They are very ignorant and superst.i.tious, the chief remedies for sickness being to brand the body with a hot iron or wear charms--a verse from the Koran sewn up in leather or a string of blue beads, which are supposed to drive away evil influences.
How very thankful girls should be that in all Christian lands they have a higher place and a better lot than the poor girls and women of Arabia! For the greatest contrast is the religion of the inhabitants of Topsy-turvy Land. That is all upside down too. The Lord Jesus teaches us to pray in secret not to be seen of men; we are to go quietly alone and tell G.o.d everything. But Mohammed, the prophet of Arabia, taught his followers to pray openly on any street corner, or on the deck of a s.h.i.+p, in public, just like the Pharisees whom Jesus condemns. And when these people fast, as they are supposed to for a whole month, they do not really go without food, but each day at _sunset_ they begin to eat in larger quant.i.ty than usual!--because they think by such fasting to gain favour with G.o.d and do not know that to fast from sin and evil habits is the fast G.o.d wants.