Topsy-Turvy Land: Arabia Pictured for Children

Part 1

Produced by Curtis Weyant, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.

TOPSY-TURVY LAND

ARABIA PICTURED FOR CHILDREN

TOPSY-TURVY LAND

ARABIA PICTURED FOR CHILDREN

BY SAMUEL M. ZWEMER AND AMY E. ZWEMER

Fleming H. Revell Company NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO

Copyright, 1902 by Fleming H. Revell Company (July)

DEDICATED TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS WHO ARE HELPING TO TURN THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN

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.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. WHY IS ARABIA TOPSY-TURVY LAND? 15 II. A LESSON IN GEOGRAPHY 21 III. THE SQUARE-HOUSE WITH THE BLACK OVERCOAT 27 IV. SABBACH-KUM BIL KHEIR! 31 V. AT THE CORNER GROCERY 37 VI. BLIND FATIMAH 43 VII. DATES AND SUGAR-CANE 47 VIII. THE SHEPHERD OF THE SEWING-MACHINE 54 IX. THE CHILDREN OF THE DESERT 58 X. NOORAH'S PRAYER 64 XI. PICTURES WITH WORDS ONLY 69 XII. THE QUEER PENNIES OF OMAN AND HASSA 73 XIII. ARAB BABIES AND THEIR MOTHERS 79 XIV. BOAT-BUILDERS AND CARPENTERS 85 XV. ARABIC PROVERBS AND ARABIC HUMOUR 92 XVI. GOLD, FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH 97 XVII. SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADERS 101 XVIII. ABOUT SOME LITTLE MISSIONARIES 108 XIX. TURNING THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN 113 XX. TURNING THE WORLD DOWNSIDE UP 118

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

ARAB BOYS Facing Title. MODES OF TRAVEL 16 EUROPEAN VISITORS ON DONKEYS 18 MAP OF ARABIA 23 READY FOR A CAMEL RIDE 24 THE SQUARE HOUSE WITH THE BLACK OVERCOAT 29 SABBACH-KUM BIL KHEIR! 33 ARAB GROCER 38 ARAB BOY IN A CROCKERY SHOP 41 HOW A MOSLEM BOY PRAYS 45 WOMEN SELLING SUGAR-CANE 48 DATES GROWING ON A DATE PALM 50 FIRE WOOD MARKET, BUSRAH 52 ARAB RIDERS WITH LANCES 60 PEARL MERCHANTS 62 ARABIAN WATER-BOTTLE 63 [From the Sunday School Times, by permission.] DESIGNS MADE OUT OF ARABIC WRITING 70 ARABIC LETTER FROM A POOR CRIPPLE 72 OMAN COIN 73 HASSA COINS 76 DATE-STICK CRADLE 80 WOMEN GRINDING AT THE MILL 82 BEDOUIN WOMEN EATING THEIR BREAKFAST 84 CARGO BOATS, BAHREIN 86 RIVER BOAT BUSRAH 87 SAWING A BEAM 89 AN ARAB CARPENTER'S TOOLS 90 PUZZLE OF THE THIRTY MEN 96 BRANCH OF THE INCENSE TREE 98 SLAVE GIRL IN ARABIA 102 LIBERATED SLAVES AT BAHREIN 104 MISSION HOUSE AT BUSRAH 110 THE SULTAN'S SOLDIERS 114 MUSCAT HARBOUR 122 AN OLD FRIEND IN A NEW DRESS 124

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 steamships, 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 passengers and the camel caravan is a freight train.

Or if you wish, the camel is a topsy-turvy ship which sails in the sand instead of in the water. It is called the ship of the desert. The masts point down instead of up; there are four masts instead of three; and although there are ropes the desert-ship has no sails and no rudder--unless the rudder be the tail. When the ship lies at anchor to be loaded it feeds on grass and the four masts are all snugly tucked away under the hull. In Arabia you generally see these ships of the desert in a long line like a naval procession, each battleship 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.

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 butter 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. Buttons are on the button-hole side and the holes are where you put the buttons. 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!"

Part 2

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 coarse garment. They are very ignorant and superstitious, 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 God everything. But Mohammed, the prophet of Arabia, taught his followers to pray openly on any street corner, or on the deck of a ship, 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 quantity than usual!--because they think by such fasting to gain favour with God and do not know that to fast from sin and evil habits is the fast God wants. Another thing very sad in this land of Topsy-turvy is that there are no Sunday-schools--they do not observe our Sabbath--and the boys and girls do not have bright Sunday-school lesson leaves or a picture-roll. They spend Sunday and every other day in learning all the evil they see in those that are grown up. Poor children! They have never heard the sweet words of Jesus, "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." We tell you all this about them that you may pray for them that God may soon send more missionaries to preach to them these precious words. We want you all by prayer and offerings to help put a silver lining in the dark clouds of their lives.

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