Part 6 (1/2)

The people of Arabia seldom or never engage in practical jokes, but they are often very witty in their remarks. The Caliph Mansur once met an Arab on the desert and said to him: ”Give thanks to G.o.d who has caused the plague to cease that ravaged thy country.”

”G.o.d is too good,” the Arab answered, ”to punish us with two such scourges at the same time as the plague and thy government.”

An Arab poet sent his book to a famous author. ”Dost thou want fame?”

said the latter, ”then hang thy book up in the market-place where all can see it.”

”But how will they know the author?”

”Why, just hang yourself close to the book!”

Here is another story that is told about a Moslem preacher. One Friday when the people were gathered in the mosque to pray and to hear the sermon, he got up in the pulpit and asked the audience if they knew what he intended to preach about.

”No,” they replied.

”Well, then, I shall not tell you,” and he stepped down. The next Friday he asked the same question, and now, taught by experience, they answered:

”Yes, we know.”

”Well, then, I need not tell you,” and again he stepped down.

The third Friday when the same question was put, the people said, ”Some of us know and some don't know.”

”In that case,” said the preacher-wag, ”let those of you who know tell those that don't know.” And again there was no sermon.

And now to close this chapter here is a very topsy-turvy story with a puzzle in it:

The Arabs relate that when the prophet Jonah fled from Joppa to Tars.h.i.+sh, there were thirty pa.s.sengers, all told, in the s.h.i.+p. The storm grew very fierce, and out of fear, the captain determined to throw half the crew overboard, that is, fifteen men. But he knew that fifteen of the thirty were true believers, and fifteen were infidels, and among them, Jonah also. To avoid suspicion and accomplish his purpose he put the thirty men all in a row in such a way that by counting out every ninth man, the believers alone remained and the unbelievers were all of them one by one cast into the sea.

This is the way he arranged them; every _dot_ stands for an _unbeliever_, and the strokes for believers--thirty altogether.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PUZZLE OF THE THIRTY MEN.]

You begin to count from the left, as the captain did, and if you mark out every ninth man you can keep on counting out the ninth men until only upright strokes are left.

From your knowledge of arithmetic, can you tell me the reason of this puzzle?

The Arabs remember the puzzle by some verses in which every dotted letter stands for an unbeliever and those that have no dots stand for Moslems.

You see that even the story of Jonah and the whale is topsy-turvy out in Arabia!

XVI

GOLD, FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH

In olden times Arabia was a much more important country than it is to-day.

Before there were large seagoing s.h.i.+ps, all the trade between India, Persia, even China, on the east, and Egypt on the west, was carried on camels. The caravans at that time used to cross Arabia in all directions, and the men who drove these camel-trains grew wealthy, as railroad magnates do to-day. We read about this early traffic on these highways of the desert in the Old Testament as well as in the old Greek histories. The province of Yemen was celebrated for its wealth and civilisation as early as the time of Solomon. It was then called Sheba and the old capital was called Marib, a little northeast of the present city of Sanaa. There are still many extensive ruins and inscriptions which testify to the height of their civilisation. We read of one of the queens of Sheba (the Arabs say she was named _Bilkis_) who came to prove Solomon with hard questions. She came with a large caravan of camels bearing spices and gold in abundance; her present to Solomon consisted of ”an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices great abundance, and precious stones.” Gold is no longer found in Arabia but it was undoubtedly once very plentiful there.

All the old writers speak of Arabia as a-gold country. One of the Greek geographers speaks of a stream in which large nuggets of gold were found.