,,children ,,of ,,persia ,uniform with this ,volume ,,children ,,of ,,india ,by ,,janet ,,harvey ,,kelman ,,children ,,of ,,china ,by ,c4 ,,campbell ,,brown ,,children ,,of ,,africa ,by ,,james ,b4 ,,baird ,,children ,,of ,,arabia ,by ,,john ,,cameron ,,young ,,children ,,of ,,jamaica ,by ,,isabel ,c4 ,,maclean ,,children ,,of ,,japan ,by ,,janet ,,harvey ,,kelman ,,children ,,of ,,egypt ,by ,l4 ,,crowther ,,children ,,of ,,ceylon ,by ,,thomas ,,moscrop ,illustration3 ,,persian ,,shepherd ,,boy ,,children ,,of ,,persia ,,by ,,mrs ,,napier ,,malcolm ,,with ,,eight ,,coloured ,,illustrations ,illustration ,,fleming ,h4 ,,revell ,,company ,,new ,,york ,,chicago ,,toronto ,,my ,,dear ,,boys ,,and ,,girls1 ,this is a book about ,persia1 intended to be read by children2 and1 on this account1 much has had to be left out4 ,do not think1 when you have read this book1 that you know how bad ,muhammadanism is1 for a great deal of its sin and cruelty is too terrible to tell to young folks4 ,but ,i hope enough has been said to show you that ,persian children do need to be rescued from ,muhammadanism and brought to the ,lord ,jesus ,christ to be ,his children4 ,he needs them and they need ,him4 ,so for ,his sake and theirs we must do all we can to win the ,persians for ,christ4 ,i am1 ,your sincere friend1 ,u4 ,,malcolm4 ,,broughton1 ,,manchester1 #aiaa4 ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,muhammad #g ,,ii4 ,,persia #aa ,,iii4 ,,persian ,,babies #ah ,,iv4 ,,persian ,,clothes #bd ,v4 ,,persian ,,games ,,and ,,toys #ca ,,vi4 ,,persian ,,sweets #cf ,,vii4 ,,persian ,,prayers #da ,,viii4 ,,fasting ,,and ,,pilgrimages #dg ,,ix4 ,,sav,,bs #eb ,x4 ,,muhammadan ,,charms ,,and ,,superstitions #eh ,,xi4 ,,persian ,,schools #fb ,,xii4 ,,christian ,,schools #fi ,,xiii4 ,,work #gd ,,xiv4 ,,child ,,wives #gi ,,xv4 ,,sick ,,children #hd ,,xvi4 ,,conclusion #ib ,,illustrations ,,page ,,persian ,,shepherd ,,boy ,frontispiece ,a ,,street ,,of ,,shops #ae ,a ,,baby ,,in ,,hammock #bj ,,ladies' ,,out-,,door ,,and ,,in-,,door ,,costumes #be ,,persians ,,at ,,prayer #dc ,,reading ,,the ,,quran ,,to ,,the ,,sick #eh ,a ,,persian ,,school #fd ,a ,,mission ,,hospital #ij ,,children ,,of ,,persia ,,chapter ,i ,,muhammad ,before we look at the ,persian children of to-day1 let us go back nearly thirteen and a half centuries to the year of our ,lord #egj1 and take a look at two adjoining countries in ,europe and two adjoining countries in ,asia4 ,in ,western ,scotland1 ,st ,columb is teaching the people ,christianity1 and is writing out copy after copy of the ,bible1 until tradition tells that he copied it out three hundred times4 ,in ,england the heathen ,saxons are conquering the ,midlands and crushing out the ,christianity of the ,britons4 ,in ,persia there is a ,christian ,church1 but most of the people are ,zoroastrians1 that is1 they belong to the ,parsee religion4 ,they worship ,god and believe in a prophet called ,zoroaster1 who lived long before the birth of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and so knew nothing about ,him4 ,he seems to have taught his people much that was very good1 but their religion has become full of superstitions4 ,lastly1 we must go to ,arabia1 where a ,muhammadan legend describes a curious scene4 ,a number of ,arab women are riding into the town of ,mecca4 ,their animals are weary and very thin and weak1 for it is a year of famine4 ,last of all comes a woman with a crying baby1 riding on the thinnest and most miserable looking donkey of all the company4 ,they are nurses from the healthiest part of ,arabia1 come to find children to take home and nurse1 each hoping to get the child of a wealthy man1 who will pay her well1 and give her handsome presents4 ,they are not long kept waiting4 ,the babies are brought out1 and questioning and bargaining begin4 ,one baby is not popular--the whisper goes round that it is an orphan--there is no father to give presents--the grandfather who is looking for a nurse will surely not do much for it4 ,and so one after another all the women refuse the baby1 and the old man begins to despair of success4 ,all the women have found nurslings except one1 the woman who rode in last4 ,she1 too1 has refused the orphan1 but now1 seeing no hope of a better bargain1 rather than have taken her journey for nothing1 she tells the old man she has changed her mind1 and carries the baby home4 ,and the story runs that the thin weak donkey that could hardly drag itself along as it entered ,mecca1 ran along so nimbly on the way home that the rest could scarcely keep up with it4 ,the orphan baby was ,muhammad1 the founder of the religion called after him ,muhammadanism4 ,some of the details of this story 7told by a ,muhammadan writer7 are probably quite untrue4 ,little ,muhammad's grandfather was known to be very rich and in a very high position1 and if the baby was refused it was probably because he was a sickly child1 and would be difficult to rear4 ,however1 in due course he grew bigger1 and came home to his mother1 and after her death lived with his old grandfather1 who thought all the world of him4 ,mecca was an interesting town to live in1 for once a year pilgrims from all parts of ,arabia came to the great idol temple1 and little ,muhammad would see all there was to be seen1 for his grandfather kept the keys and superintended everything4 ,when his grandfather died he went to live with his uncle1 who used to take him on business journeys1 going through the wide deserts to distant towns with long strings of camels loaded with goods to sell4 ,so the boy grew up a good man of business and saw much of foreign countries and something of foreign religions1 ,christianity1 ,judaism1 and ,parsiism1 and he grew discontented with his own country and his own religion4 ,all the great peoples round worshipped one ,god4 ,surely ,arabia would be a better and greater country if it did the same4 ,all the great religions had a prophet and a book4 ,the ,christians had ,jesus ,christ and the ,gospel1 the ,jews had ,moses and the ,law1 even the ,parsees had ,zoroaster and his book the ,zend ,avesta4 ,surely what the ,arabs needed was a prophet and a book4 ,muhammad was not the only person who thought this4 ,there was a group of people1 several of whom were relations of him or of his wife1 who shared this view4 ,some of them thought that ,moses and the ,law would be best for ,arabia2 but many of them saw that ,jesus ,christ and the ,gospel were what they needed1 and most of these in the end became ,christians4 ,if ,muhammad had joined them1 the history of the world from then to now might have been very different4 ,but ,muhammad had set his heart on an ,arabian prophet and an ,arabian book1 and the more he thought of it the more sure he felt that this was the real way to unity and greatness for ,arabia4 ,he himself belonged to the family which took the lead in religious matters in ,arabia1 he had always been made much of1 and told he would be a great man2 he used to have fits which seemed to him and to others to mark him out as something out of the common2 so it is not surprising that he at last came to believe that he was to be the new ,arabian prophet who seemed to him to be so badly wanted4 ,his fits began to take the form of visions1 and he believed that the words of the longed for book were being revealed to him4 ,but it was a long time before he came forward publicly1 and when he did he was a good deal laughed at1 and only a few became his followers4 ,then he got an invitation to the town of ,medina1 where he had a number of cousins4 ,the people of ,medina were very jealous of ,mecca1 and all1 whether they believed in him or not1 joined in giving ,muhammad a great welcome4 ,it was in ,medina that ,muhammad really founded his religion1 and there he became a very great man4 ,but sad to say1 as his religion developed all its bad points came out1 and ,muhammad became a very cruel tyrant and very self-indulgent1 excusing himself by saying that ,god allowed him1 because he was a prophet1 to do things which were sinful when other people did them4 ,the people who joined ,muhammad's religion were called ,muhammadans or ,muslims1 and they went everywhere making as many converts as they could1 by fair means or foul4 ,they had learnt that there was one ,god1 but they knew nothing of the ,bible2 they only knew the ,quran1 the book which ,muhammad was revealing1 and they knew nothing of the example of ,jesus ,christ3 their only example was ,muhammad1 who was a murderer4 ,you may wonder what all this has to do with ,persian children4 ,one of the first countries conquered by the ,muhammadans was ,persia--and the ,persian children to-day are themselves ,muhammadans4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,persia ,there is a story that when the ,muhammadans took ,persia and killed the ,parsee king ,yazdigird1 their ,khalif #8,omar asked ,yazdigird's son where he would like to live4 ,he said he would like to settle in ,persia out of reach of any cultivated spot4 #8,omar accordingly sent him off with an escort of soldiers to find a suitable place4 ,after three years he returned and said he could not find any place such as he had asked for4 #8,omar saw that he was doing all this with some purpose1 and asked him what it was4 ,yazdigird's son answered that he wanted to show #8,omar how prosperous and well cultivated the land had become in the hands of the ,parsees1 and begged him to see to it that it remained so under the ,muhammadans4 ,but it did not1 and to-day a great deal of ,persia has relapsed into desert4 ,in our country all is green1 and stones have to be put up to show where one village ends and the next begins4 ,in most parts of ,persia you may look over the plain and see the villages quite distinct--each a little green blot on a vast sheet of sand or dry earth4 ,the very fruitfulness of the ground makes it less green than it would otherwise have to be to support the population1 for when three crops can be got off the same piece of land in one year1 only a third of the amount of land that you would expect to be needed to support the village is under cultivation4 ,the villages vary very much4 ,some count their population by hundreds1 while one village1 marked on the map1 contains just two families1 seven persons in all1 including two children4 ,their nearest neighbours live six miles off1 over the sand4 ,how bare the world must appear to those two little children4 ,children here who live in the country can hardly imagine any boundary to the wonderful green tangle that they can see on every side of them4 ,and children who live in towns look out every day upon wonderful human works1 which1 although they are not as marvellous as ,god's country1 yet puzzle them very much as to how they were ever made4 ,with a ,persian child it is quite different4 ,in many places the children do not know what wild growth is1 and if you talk of continuous country1 hundred miles after hundred miles of field and wood and meadow1 they think you are telling an impossible fairy tale4 ,while as for the little town children1 the buildings which they see all round them made of sun-dried bricks and earth1 the barrels and the thousand and one household utensils formed of exactly the same material1 or perhaps of clay very roughly baked in a primitive kiln1 seem to them hardly more artificial and man-made than the corn in the walled gardens outside the city1 which they see watered twice a week4 ,they have a very different life from you and me4 ,little ,ahmad was a sturdy1 jolly little lad of four when ,i knew him1 and1 though he ought to have known better1 he used to call after me 7if his parents were out of hearing7 the rhyme so familiar to ,europeans in ,persia-- ,ferangi1 ,chi rang-i1 ,palang-i1 which1 translated into ,english1 means-- ,european1 ,what colour art thou8 ,thou art a leopard4 ,he lived in a really beautiful house1 built of sun-dried bricks and clay1 and whitened inside with a smooth coat of plaster of ,paris4 ,the rooms were large and very nicely furnished with beautiful ,persian carpets1 and a mattress and pillows of gay designs1 and ,ahmad1 little rascal though he was1 would never have dreamed of treading on those carpets with his shoes on2 all shoes were left at the door4 ,one small table for the tea-urn completed the furniture4 ,and upstairs8 ,upstairs was the roof1 such a lovely large flat roof1 ,ahmad loved it1 and he often terrified his mother by the way he leaned over the low wall to look down at the street1 for the house had no window looking to the road4 ,all the windows looked into the garden1 which might be said to be in the middle of the house1 for the rooms were built round it4 ,the windows1 too1 were all doors2 some of the rooms had as many as five double doors all in a row1 and when they were all open the room was very airy and bright4 ,there was no grass1 and no gravel path for ,ahmad to play on1 but there was a nice wide brick-paved walk all round the garden1 which gave him plenty of room4 ,in the centre were the beds1 which were watered by turning a stream in and flooding them once a week4 ,there were watering cans1 but they were only used for watering the path and roof1 and even the rooms1 to keep them cool1 not for the flower beds4 ,there was a large tank1 too1 in the garden with gold fish in it1 where ,ahmad loved to cool his feet on a hot day1 and the days can be hot in ,persia4 ,when it was dinner-time in ,ahmad's home a cloth was spread on the floor1 and he sat on his heels beside it1 and had a loaf of bread for a plate4 ,it was flat and round1 and about as thick as a plate1 so it did very well4 ,but he had no spoon or fork4 ,one of the things he liked best was rice1 and when his mother put a few handfuls on his bread he would eat it quickly and tidily with one hand1 without spilling any1 which is not as easy as it sounds4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,street ,,of ,,shops ,sometimes ,ahmad went out for a walk in the town with his father1 or with his mother and a servant1 and he passed along streets that had not any names1 and by houses that had not any names or numbers4 ,there was no pavement except sometimes a narrow strip in the middle of the road for the mules and donkeys4 ,there were no gardens in front of the houses1 there were no windows facing the road1 all he saw was a sandy road with a high mud wall on each side1 and a heavy wooden door here and there1 the front door of a house4 ,sometimes they came to a 8bzr0 or street of shops4 ,here the street was covered over with a mud roof so that goods and sellers and purchasers might keep cool in hot weather and dry in wet weather4 ,he did not need to go into the shops1 for the counters were all along the street and there were no windows4 ,when the summer was getting very hot1 it was decided that ,ahmad and all his family should go for a summer holiday to a village in the hills4 ,what a packing up there was6 ,they packed the carpets1 they packed the beds1 they packed the kettles and saucepans4 ,then a number of mules were brought to the door and such a shouting and bustle began as the loads were roped together1 two and two1 and slung across the big padded pack-saddles4 ,one mule carried two great covered panniers and these were filled with cushions1 and ,ahmad's great-grandmother got into one1 and his mother got into the other to balance her1 and they pulled the curtains well over the front1 so that no one might see them4 ,ahmad himself sat in front of a servant who held him safe1 and some of the bedding made a nice broad soft seat for them on the mule's back4 ,at last all the mules were ready with their loads and off they set through the streets1 and soon they found themselves outside the town1 going mile after mile across the bare desert plain4 ,this went on for fifteen miles and then they reached a large village at the foot of the hills4 ,they had been riding five hours and were tired and hungry1 so they dismounted at the caravansarai or inn4 ,one of the servants took a carpet off one of the loads and got a cloth and some food wrapped up in a large handkerchief out of the saddlebags and spread a meal on the ground1 while another got the tea-urn and charcoal1 boiled the water and made the tea4 ,after a few hours' rest on the roof1 the shouting and loading began again and off they went1 up the hill1 which was terribly steep in some places4 ,now they saw scattered and stunted plants growing here and there1 and finally1 after another seven hours1 they reached their summer holiday quarters in a little hill village4 ,how ,ahmad enjoyed the hills and fields and trees1 the flowers and birds and butterflies4 ,a little brook ran down the valley and on either side were cornfields and orchards and gardens1 as many as the brook could provide water for4 ,and at night ,ahmad would hear the shouting1 as #8,ali ,muhammad declared that ,husain had had his fair share of water and now it was his turn to have it for his orchard4 ,for water is very precious in ,persia1 and must be made the greatest possible use of1 day and night alike4 ,but the little children who live in the village are not so fortunate as little ,ahmad4 ,they work all the summer at gardening1 shepherding1 and other work2 but in winter they have to stay in1 and they live upstairs and their sheep and goats downstairs4 ,but the stairs are outside and sometimes it is too cold for them even to go down to feed the animals4 ,if they can they make a little fire of sticks in the oven1 which is only a deep1 round hole in the floor1 and when the flame has died down they sit round with their legs hanging into the oven and cover over the opening to keep it warm as long as possible4 ,one very severe winter there was a report current in the town that in this village the water was all frozen and that the animals were dying because there was not enough fuel to melt the ice and give them water4 ,the poor children must have had a very hard time that winter4 ,even in the town ,ahmad is one of the fortunate children4 ,little ,soghra had a very different home4 ,she lived with her grandmother in a single small room4 ,the floor was mud1 covered in one place by a small ragged piece of coarse matting4 ,on this the grandmother lay1 for she was old and ill4 ,the bedclothes were filthy and torn4 ,one side of the room was filled with a pile of pomegranate skins1 which are used for making dye1 and there were several fowls wandering about4 ,there was no furniture1 nothing but a few old pots and cups and a waterbottle4 ,and yet ,soghra was a cheery little girl1 and she and her grandmother were very fond of each other4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,persian ,,babies ,a ,persian baby--what a funny little mortal6 ,it looks for all the world like a little mummy1 rolled up in handkerchiefs and shawls till only its little face peeps out1 and tied up with a long strip of braid exactly like a parcel tied up with string4 ,hasn't it got any arms and legs8 ,oh1 yes1 safely put away inside all those wrappings and put away carefully too--straightened out and rolled up so thoroughly that it will stand up stiff and straight against the wall though it is only a week old4 ,how surprised and shocked the ,persian mothers are to see the ,english babies kicking and throwing their arms about4 8,o ,khanum1 aren't you afraid its limbs will grow crooked8 ,why don't you bind them straight8 ,aren't you afraid its legs will get broken if you leave them loose like that80 ,so at its very start on life's journey the poor little ,persian baby is checked and prevented from growing up properly2 for how can its little legs grow strong without kicking8 ,it is no wonder that ,persian babies as a rule learn to walk much later than ,english babies4 ,but perhaps the ,persians are not quite so foolish as they seem when they roll their babies up in these stiff little bundles4 ,very likely the little arms and legs would be broken or bent if they were left loose1 for many of the ,persian mothers are very young--much too young to know how to look after babies4 ,they often treat them like dolls and would very likely break them just as ,english girls break their dolls4 ,even the grown-up mothers are often very careless4 ,one woman ,i knew laid her baby1 not quite a year old1 on a chair1 and left it there4 ,of course it fell off--it was sure to2 and yet she did this over and over again1 and a few days later dropped it into a stream of water4 ,she was very much surprised that it began to have fits at this time1 and she said she could think of nothing to account for them4 ,a new missionary1 who did not know the ways of ,persians1 went one day to see another woman and found her in bed1 that is1 lying on a mattress on the floor under a large quilt4 ,her friends invited the missionary to sit on the quilt beside her1 for they do not use chairs in most ,persian houses4 ,after she had sat for some time she enquired for the baby4 ,they pointed to a little lump in the quilt1 and there1 close beside her1 entirely covered up and invisible1 was the baby1 and it gave the poor missionary a terrible shock to see how near she had been to sitting down upon it4 ,after that1 she always asked to see the baby before she sat down4 ,a baby less than a week old was brought one day to the ,julfa hospital with its face badly torn by a cat4 ,a few days later the doctor went into the ward and found the mother smoking and gossiping with the other women1 but the baby was nowhere to be seen4 8,where is the baby80 8,it is all right10 said the mother2 8,i put it under the bed40 ,and sure enough1 a little way off1 under a bed 7this time an ,english bed7 lay the poor little bundle1 its arms bound to its sides1 only its little face exposed1 or rather half-exposed1 for the torn half was covered with a dressing1 while close at hand there prowled in search of food a large half-wild cat1 which frequented the hospital and had slipped in at an open door4,a ,when they get a little older the babies are laid in broad comfortable leather hammocks slung between rings let into the walls of the room4 ,most ,persian rooms have these rings in the walls4 ,these hammocks save the ,persian mothers a great deal of trouble1 for a single push will set the hammock swinging for a long time and keep the baby quiet or send it to sleep4 ,no baby may be left alone in a room till it is forty days old4 ,from the very first the baby is given kaif every-day1 that is1 something to make it sleep2 this kaif is almost invariably opium4 ,after the first week most babies are also given tea every day1 without milk but with a great deal of sugar in it1 or better still sugar-candy4 ,this is considered specially good for babies1 but it takes a long time to dissolve4 ,both opium and tea are very bad for the baby's digestion1 so we are not surprised to find that nearly all ,persians suffer from indigestion4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,baby ,,in ,,hammock ,there is one ,persian custom connected with babies that boys and girls of other lands would probably like to introduce into their own country4 ,the newly-arrived baby is weighed and its weight in sweets is handed round to the people in the house1 and it is supposed to bring bad luck to the baby if anyone refuses its sweets4 ,plenty of people always drop in when they hear that a new baby has arrived4 ,another ,persian rule for babies would not please your mothers at all4 ,after the first bath no baby must be washed all over till it is a year old4 ,one ,persian lady1 who was better educated than most1 and had been reading about ,european ideas on health and cleanliness1 told the missionaries that she was bringing up her little boy just like a ,european baby4 ,she said she gave him a bath every day and generally let him kick instead of tying his legs up to make them straight4 ,she was delighted and triumphant when1 instead of getting crooked1 his legs grew so strong that he walked at about half the usual age4 ,but when he was nearly a year old his body became covered with sores and the missionary doctor told the mother to wash them not with ordinary water in the bath1 but with a lotion4 8,i should never think of washing them in the bath10 she said4 8,his body must not be washed till he is a year old40 8,but ,i thought10 said the doctor1 8that you gave him a bath every day40 8,oh dear no10 she replied2 8,i don't wash his body4 ,it is his legs that ,i wash every day40 ,when a ,persian baby learns to talk it begins just like any other baby1 so that the ,persians declared with great glee that the ,english babies were talking ,persian when they said 8,baba0 and 8,dada40 ,but instead of 8,daddy0 and 8,mummy0 ,persian babies call their father and mother ,bb and ,nana4 ,when the baby is shown to anyone the mother generally remarks that it is an ugly little thing1 and similarly the visitors are expected to say how ugly and dark it is1 though there is no need to say it with any great conviction4 ,it is possible to say 8,how ugly you are0 just as affectionately as 8,you little darling40 ,but such uncomplimentary remarks are used to avert bad luck and to guard against any suspicion of the evil eye4 ,if the visitor makes any complimentary remark she must add 8,msh' allh0 7i4e48,may ,god avert it071 or the parents will be seriously alarmed1 and ,baby's admirer may be held responsible for any calamity which befalls him for weeks afterwards4 ,bibi ,fati was the mother of four dear little children1 ,rubabeh1 ,hasan1 ,riza1 and ,sakineh1 and very dearly she loved them4 ,one day they were all gathered together for dinner when in walked a poor old beggar woman in search of a meal4 ,she was very anxious to please the mother1 and looking round at the children said3 8,what a nice little family you have2 you are like a hen surrounded by her chickens40 ,poor ,bibi ,fati did not feel at all comfortable at such a complimentary speech and quickly gave the old woman some food and sent her about her business4 ,for a day or two all went well4 ,then one after another ,rubabeh1 ,hasan1 ,riza1 and even little ,sakineh sickened and died1 probably of some infectious disease1 and the poor mother was left childless and heartbroken4 ,nothing would convince her and her neighbours that the old beggar woman had not caused the catastrophe by her admiration4 ,baby girls do not get such a good welcome as baby boys4 ,when little ,ferangz ,khnum was born1 her father was staying at a garden a few miles away1 and no one troubled to send him word4 8,i would have sent a message if it had been a boy10 said the mother1 8but it is not worth while for a girl4 ,it will do when he comes home next week40 ,persian fathers and mothers are often very fond of their little girls1 but there is no doubt that they very much prefer boys4 ,the father and mother1 but especially the mother1 are often known by the name of their son1 so much so that sometimes the neighbours know them by no other name than 8the father of ,hasan10 the 8mother of #8,ali40 ,perhaps one reason for preferring boys is that the girls marry so young1 just as they might begin to be of some use to their mothers2 and the father has to pay a sum of money to his daughter's husband on her marriage4 ,a son1 on the other hand1 does not generally marry till he is grown up1 and then he almost invariably brings his little wife home and continues to live with his parents4 ,a greater reason is that the ,persians are ,muhammadans1 as you have already heard1 and in a ,muhammadan country the men are allowed to treat the girls and women very badly1 and parents who care at all for their girls must always feel great anxiety as to their future4 ,we shall never get the ,persians to treat their girls and women much better till we teach them the religion of our loving ,saviour1 ,who cares for us all equally and wants us to be equally kind to one another4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,persian ,,clothes ,persian boys and girls are white1 almost as white as ourselves1 though they generally have black hair and dark eyes4 ,the chief difference in appearance between ,tommy ,jones and #8,ali ,muhammad is that ,tommy wears trousers while #8,ali ,muhammad appears to wear a skirt4 ,tommy's sister on the other hand wears a skirt1 and #8,ali ,muhammad's sister wears trousers4 ,the fact is that if #8,ali ,muhammad is a poor boy1 his trousers are short and so very wide as to be practically a divided skirt4 ,indeed they catch like a skirt in running1 so that if he wants to go fast he pulls one trouser-leg up out of the way4 ,if he wears a coat at all1 it is a long cotton one1 or more probably two long cotton ones1 reaching nearly to his knees and adding to the skirt-like appearance4 ,the sons of well-to-do men often wear frock coats with the skirts pleated all round almost like a kilt1 so that in spite of their longer and narrower trousers they still have a look of wearing skirts4 ,illustration3 ,,ladies' ,,out-,,door ,,and ,,in-,,door ,,costumes #8,ali ,muhammad's girdle too1 which binds his coats to him and prevents their blowing about in the wind1 is more suggestive of a sash than a belt4 ,i once saw a little boy putting on his girdle on ,new ,year's ,day4 ,it was a long folded scarf or shl and he put one end round his waist while his brother took the other to the far end of the long room and drew it tight4 ,then my little friend turned round and round1 so winding his shl round him1 gradually moving up the room as the length grew less1 and he finished by tucking in the end4 ,but whether they wear long trousers or short ones1 wide trousers or narrow ones1 the boys all fasten them by drawing them up with a string round the hips--braces are not the fashion4 ,as we have found that1 in spite of appearances1 #8,ali ,muhammad after all wears trousers1 we may perhaps find that his sister1 ,rubabeh1 wears a skirt1 and so indeed she does1 but it is so short as not to be very noticeable indoors1 while out of doors it is completely hidden by the big baggy over-trousers1 gathered in at the ankles and footed1 which she wears when she goes in the street4 ,an ,english missionary once suggested to a young woman that a skirt reaching to the knees would look better1 but she said she was not an old woman yet4 ,the old women generally wear quiet colours and long skirts1 reaching down to the knee1 but young women and girls like something more dressy4 ,they like a nice bright-patterned skirt about a foot long1 but wide enough to reach half across the room4 ,this they draw up with a string over the white cotton trousers1 and the short shirt hangs loose outside4 ,the shirt is generally white but may be coloured1 and a short coloured jacket is worn over it1 varying from plain coarse cotton to velvet embroidered with gold and pearls4 ,the indoor chdar1 or 8prayer-chdar10 is often of pretty print or muslin1 and when ,rubabeh puts on her clean white trousers1 shirt and headkerchief1 with a bright frill of skirt round the waist and a pretty jacket and chdar1 she makes a very bright and effective picture4 ,but when she goes out she must put on dark over-trousers which cover everything up to the waist1 and over her head1 in place of the pretty prayer chdar1 she must throw a large black chdar which hangs over everything1 while a long strip of white cotton hangs down in front of her face with drawn thread work in front of the eyes1 so that she may be able to see without being seen4 ,so1 unlike our streets1 the ,persian ones get their colour from the men and boys1 while the women and girls supply the darker1 duller element4 ,bright blue is the commonest colour for the men's coats1 and green is not uncommon1 while1 at the ,new ,year1 pink1 yellow1 lilac and other colours make the streets very gay indeed4 ,the children are dressed just like their fathers and mothers1 and are little imitation men and women4 ,the little tots look so funny sometimes2 tiny boys toddling about in long trousers1 frockcoats1 and grown-up hats1 and wee girls1 who cannot yet speak distinctly1 in the long trousers1 short skirts and chdars of the women4 ,it seems to suggest that no great distinction is made between children and grown-ups1 and really there is not as much difference as we find at home4 ,the children are taught to take life very seriously and are treated as little men and women before their time1 and so they have no time to grow up into proper men and women1 and the result is that we find the children too grown-up and the grown-ups too childish4 ,you will find1 roughly speaking1 if you look at animals that the higher the animal1 the longer its childhood lasts1 because it has more growing up to do4 ,caterpillars and tadpoles look after themselves from the time of coming out of the egg1 mice grow up in a few weeks1 horses in a few years1 and man takes longer to grow up than any animal4 ,now ,muhammad1 the false prophet whom the ,persians believe in and obey1 had no such high standard to set before them1 no such high ideal for them to grow up to1 as our ,lord ,jesus ,christ set before ,his followers and enables them to grow up to2 and so his religion provides only a short time for growing up1 and stunts instead of assisting the growth both of individual ,muhammadans and of ,muhammadan nations4 ,but we must get back to our ,persian children and their clothes4 ,their day-clothes we have seen2 what about their night-clothes8 ,they have none4 ,they just take off their outer garments and lie down in the rest1 and in the morning they just get up and put on their outer garments again4 ,sometimes they do not put off anything4 8,we are so tired10 said some ladies one ,new ,year's morning4 8,with all our new clothes on we could not lie down1 we should have crushed them1 so we sat up all night40 ,you wonder why they were so foolish as to put them on on ,new ,year's ,eve in that case1 instead of on the morning of the ,new ,year itself4 ,the reason is simple4 ,a ,persian only puts on new clothes after a bath1 and a bath in ,persia is not a mere matter of half an hour2 it takes half a day1 and sometimes a whole one4 ,some of the richer people have baths in their own houses1 but most people go to the public baths4 ,all ,persian women and girls love a day at the bath1 and will not shorten it if they can possibly help it4 ,it is something like a ,turkish bath1 and there they meet their friends and sit about in steamy rooms1 talking1 laughing1 gossiping4 ,no wonder they look forward to it1 for a ,persian girl has a much more secluded and restricted life than girls in ,europe and her intercourse with her friends is much less free4 ,one girl of fifteen told me that except for her weekly visit to the bath she had only left her house once in a period of six months1 and in her own house she received very few visitors1 the calls of her ,english missionary friends being great events for the whole household4 ,at the bath they wash their hair1 dye it with henna1 and plait it up in a dozen or more long plaits which hang down their backs under the headkerchief and chdar1 not to be undone again probably until the next visit to the bath4 ,the henna is a reddish dye and though it does not show on black hair it turns fair or grey hair a carroty red4 ,the newcomer to ,persia wonders to see so much red hair1 till he finds that this is the explanation4 ,but the boys and girls nearly all have black hair4 ,boys have their heads shaved1 though sometimes a handful of hair is left over each ear1 or a lock in the middle of the scalp4 ,this shaving is probably the reason why ,persian boys always keep on their caps or hats indoors and only take them off to sleep4 ,instead of taking off their caps1 ,persian boys1 and girls too1 take off their shoes when they come into a room1 and this1 together with the absence of chairs and tables explains how ,persian carpets last a hundred years4 ,they are actually more valuable after several years wear than when they were new4 ,besides the hair1 the fingernails1 palms of the hands and soles of the feet must1 by ,muhammadan rules1 be dyed with henna4 ,the richer bathers have all these things done by the bath attendant1 but the poorer ones do it all themselves1 and the very poor often omit the henna1 except on special occasions4 ,just as no ,persian likes to put on clean clothes without going to the bath1 so he will not go to the bath without putting on clean clothes4 8,khanum1 give me a new shirt10 begged one old woman1 displaying a ragged one she had on4 8,for want of one ,i have not been able to go to the bath since this was new40 ,but where there's a will there's a way1 and some people who are too poor to have a change of clothes go to the bath1 take off their clothes and wash them1 and then wait in the bath till they are dry4 ,there is a large tank in which the people wash and a ceremonial washing requires a dip right under the water4 ,the usual idea of changing the water is to take out canfuls to water the tiles round1 and then fill up the tank again with clean water1 so simply adding a little clean water to the dirty4 ,during a cholera epidemic the ,governor of a ,persian town ordered that the bath water should be changed at least once a month4 ,one cannot help wondering whether the monthly change was carried out as described above1 and ,i am sure you would prefer the little village baths where there is often so small a tank that no one can get into it1 and they ladle out the water and wash in basins4 ,the common use of the one tank1 with the only partial changing of the water1 and the general carelessness of infection1 make the bath one of the greatest means of spreading disease4 ,the ,muhammadan religion provides strict rules as to clothes and baths and washing4 ,in the washings before prayers it even decides which hand and which side of the face shall be washed first4 ,and all this the parents teach the children as carefully as1 generally much more carefully than1 such matters as truthfulness1 honesty and kindness4 ,here again we see ,muhammad giving his people what we may call 8nursery rules10 treating them as children1 while our ,master expects us to grow up so that we can arrange these matters for ourselves4 ,as children we must live under detailed rules1 but always with the object before us of growing up right4 ,the very fact that the detailed rules of ,muhammadanism are binding through life shows that the ,muhammadan is not expected to grow up as we understand growing up4 ,,chapter ,v ,,persian ,,games ,,and ,,toys ,it is curious to go thousands of miles to ,persia--to cross vast sandy deserts--and at last to find little skirted boys in the mudwalled streets playing tipcat just like their counterparts in our own cities4 ,hop-scotch and duck-stone too are favourite games1 and kites are very popular4 ,the kites are large and square and fly very well1 and the boys often fly them from the roofs1 sending 8messages0 up the string just as our boys do4 ,there is a regular game of 8wolf0 too1 played almost exactly as it is in many parts of the world by ,english-speaking children4 ,i am sorry to say that pitch and toss and gambling with cards are very common4 ,there is nothing like cricket and football1 but in ,yezd there is a kind of 8rounders0 which is played for a fortnight only at the ,new ,year--the ,persian ,new ,year1 that is1 in ,march4 ,any evening during that fortnight if you go out into the desert just outside the town walls you will see a crowd of men and boys1 some playing1 some watching4 ,and any day during that fortnight if you visit the women1 some small boy will proudly show his chaftar or rounders stick4 ,for a week or two afterwards an occasional chaftar may be seen but after that it is a puzzle where they disappear to1 not one is to be seen till the next ,new ,year4 ,the little girls in ,persia1 as everywhere else1 depend largely on dolls4 ,the dolls are home made--rag-dolls without much shape1 with the features worked in fine cross-stitch1 and dressed of course1 as ,persians4 ,good ,european dolls are great treasures1 even to the women1 and ,i knew one rich lady who had eight very nice ones all for herself4 ,in ,shiraz they make wooden horses for the children and little models of the kajavehs or covered panniers in which women and children often travel4 ,in ,yezd1 where the workers in clay are cleverer than the carpenters1 little model kuzehs or waterpots are commoner and clay money-boxes and nightingales4 ,roughly moulded and gaily painted clay animals and men too1 are made in quantities--but only at the 8,festival of the ,sacrifice0 when a camel is sacrificed4 ,at the time of this festival there are stalls and shops in the bazaars full of clay toys and toy drums1 but they cannot be got at any other time of year1 and as clay animals are quickly broken they are only to be seen for a very short time4 ,among the toys may sometimes be seen a figure evidently copied from an ,italian statuette of the ,virgin and ,child--copied by ,muhammadans without any idea of what it represents4 ,but when all is said the games and toys are very few in ,persia1 as compared with those you are accustomed to4 ,perhaps they are not so much needed there4 ,the grown-ups are so childish that it is no great hardship to a child to practice grown-up ways instead of playing games of its own4 ,there is so much in ordinary grown-up life that is really a very good substitute for a game--the elaborate greetings to be gone through with each person in turn according to their importance1 the tea served in tiny cups no bigger than a child's teaset1 the sweet-eating1 the pressing of roseheads into the visitor's hand1 or the more elaborate arrangement of stiff sticks closely covered with roses1 the presentation of tiny unripe first-fruits1 of melon seeds or nuts ornamented with fluffy bits of silk1 of oranges inlaid with velvet1 all these would seem a very attractive game to a child4 ,perhaps they really prefer to join in the games their elders play in earnest rather than play their own in jest4 ,the conversation too is seldom over their heads1 but generally interests them as much as their parents4 ,the entertainments of the elders are of a kind to suit the children too4 ,what child does not enjoy the ,fifth of ,november with its ,guy ,fawkes1 its fireworks1 and its bonfires8 and the ,persians1 too1 have their firework day1 when they burn not ,guy ,fawkes1 but #8,omar1 the ,muhammadan leader who conquered ,persia4 ,they do not burn him1 because he conquered ,persia1 but because he was ,khalif or head of the ,muhammadans1 and the ,persians say that #8,ali1 ,muhammad's son-in-law1 ought to have been ,khalif and that #8,omar was a usurper4 ,there are torchlight processions1 in which #8,omar's effigy is carried1 bonfires illuminations1 and fireworks in plenty4 ,all the year round fireworks and illuminations are very popular1 so much so that the main work of the ,government ,arsenals seems to be the manufacture of fireworks4 ,another very popular form of entertainment is the ruzehkhn1 or religious reading4 ,it is considered a very pious act for a man to have a ruzehkhn in his house in the two months of ,muharram1 and his friends come in crowds and greatly prefer it to an ordinary party4 ,muharram is the time of mourning for ,husain and ,hasan1 ,muhammad's grandsons4 ,the courtyard is crowded with people sitting on the ground1 and as the professional reader recites the story of the death of ,husain and ,hasan the people sway their bodies to and fro to the rhythm and gradually work up their excitement4 ,then they all begin to beat on their bare chests with the open hand and raise a wail that gradually grows in strength1 till the wailing and the sound of the blows can be heard several streets off and the tears stream down their cheeks4 ,it is very exciting1 and grown-ups and children alike enjoy it thoroughly4 ,but the day of the year is the day of the death of ,husain when the nakhl is carried and the great passion play of the death of ,husain and ,hasan is played4 ,this is a general holiday and all through the early part of the day1 the villagers come trooping in to the towns4 ,the streets are now full and processions pass along them carrying the nakhls from the squares outside the smaller mosques4 ,in some towns1 too1 they carry alams1 or long poles with a series of handkerchiefs tied to them4 ,when the processions from two different quarters of the town meet there is generally a struggle1 often ending in a free fight2 so both alams and nakhls are now forbidden in some towns4 ,i only once met a procession myself1 and then it most politely halted to allow me to pass comfortably4 ,the smaller processions being over1 everyone crowds to the large squares to see the carrying of the great nakhls of the big mosques4 ,the nakhls are wooden frameworks carried on poles and hung on one side with looking-glasses1 on the other with daggers4 ,those in the large squares are of immense weight4 ,they are said on this day to be carried across the square by ,fatimeh1 ,muhammad's daughter1 but it is a work of great merit to help her1 so as many as can possibly get within reach of the poles join in the work1 and the nakhl moves across the square4 ,but the afternoon is the best part when the great play of the death of ,husain and ,hasan is acted4 ,then1 indeed1 there is wailing and beating of breasts4 8,i enjoy it more than anything in the year10 one lady told me4 ,one year there was a little boy dangerously ill with inflammation of the lungs when the great day came round4 ,it was considered quite out of the question for any of the family to stay away from the play to nurse him1 and being a boy he was not likely to obey the woman servant who was being left in charge of the house4 8,he would have been all over the roof trying to get a glimpse of the play10 his mother said1 8and probably would have fallen off1 so we had to take him40 ,so they took a mattress for him1 and he lay and listened to the play from a gallery1 and of course got up to watch the exciting parts4 ,it very nearly killed him1 but they seemed to feel they had taken the only reasonable course1 and he eventually recovered4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,persian ,,sweets ,in a ,persian town there is a curious arrangement of the shops4 ,all the shops where one kind of article is sold are generally grouped together in one street or bzr4 ,to buy shoes we go to the shoe bazaar1 for cooking pots to the copper bazaar4 ,the copper or brass bazaar is almost always worth a visit in a ,persian town4 ,it is a long roofed-in street with a continuous row of small shops on either side4 ,the 8shop0 consists of a lock-up room with a small mud platform in front of it1 raised a foot or two above the street4 ,on this platform are two or three stumps on which the pots are placed for hammering1 for after being heated over a charcoal brazier they are hammered and beaten into the required shape1 thickness and pattern4 ,on nearly every platform is a man1 sometimes two or three men and boys1 hammering each on his copper pot and the noise produced by a hundred or more men hammering vigorously on copper vessels1 which give different notes according to size1 shape and thickness1 is deafening1 but not wholly disagreeable4,b ,but there is another bazaar well worth a visit in ,yezd at any rate4 ,the shops here have counters rising in tiers1 so as to display the very tempting goods to advantage4 ,the goods themselves are chiefly laid out on huge round copper trays1 about a yard across and very heavy1 made in the bazaar we have just left1 but whitened over1 as all copper vessels are4 ,surely we are in ,fairyland at last4 ,shop after shop shows tier upon tier of the most delicious sweets in the most tempting profusion4 ,here is pashmak1 looking like cotton wool and tasting something like butter creams4 ,there are two or three kinds of almond toffee1 or sn--some with green pistachio nuts in it4 ,huge fondants1 or lz1 in diamond-shaped cakes1 nearly as large as the ordinary penny fancy cakes in ,england1 alternate with similar cakes of green pari-t's 7peacock's feathers71 and brown bghalav1 richer and stickier than either4 ,those white nuqls are delicious burnt almonds1 which seem to melt away in your mouth1 the long ones have strips of cocoa-nut instead of almonds1 and the little round ones burnt peas4 ,here are little flat round cakes of gaz1 a kind of nougat only made in ,isfahan1 but sent to all the towns in ,persia4 ,one variety of gaz contains little sticks of a gum which is supposed to cure rheumatism1 a very pleasant remedy4 ,there is a great bowl a foot across1 and over an inch thick made wholly of sugar candy1 which has taken the shape of the basin in which it crystallised1 and in the middle of which three long sticks of sugar candy stand up high above the top4 ,such a bowl a kind ,persian friend sent to a missionary's little boy1 when he was a few days old1 to provide him with 8sugar-candy water10 which is considered particularly good for young babies4 ,these are only a few of the sweets1 there are too many to mention all4 ,some kinds are only made in the fast month of ,ramazn1 and others only at the ,new ,year4 ,the sweets are delicious but they are as a rule very simple and very sweet4 ,so the ,persians do not hand them round in little paper bags1 nor even in pretty little boxes2 they pile them on plates and dishes1 as we do cakes2 and1 as you have seen1 many of them are as large as cakes4 ,when you go to visit a ,persian1 you have not tea and cakes1 but tea and sweets4 ,for a quiet call on quiet people1 two or three plates of sweets are enough1 but at a regular sweet-eating at a big house1 one or two great trays will be set on the ground before the guests1 each with five dishes of sweets on it1 each dish holding about a pound and a half to two pounds of sweets4 ,the ,persian women are often very pressing with their sweets1 even to the point of putting them into their visitors' mouths1 and in their hospitality they sometimes over-estimate the size of the mouth4 ,often too1 the guests are made to carry home what is left1 or a part of it1 tied up in a handkerchief4 ,this is so common that where the ,european is shy of pressing the custom1 the ,persian ladies will sometimes carry home the remains of ,european dishes out of courtesy1 to show that they have appreciated them4 ,this custom probably exists and has existed in many ,eastern countries1 and may very likely be the reason why ,joseph gave ,benjamin five times as much as his other brothers4 ,benjamin was probably intended to take what was over away with him4 ,i was visiting some ,persian women one day1 and they asked for my handkerchief to wrap up the remainder of the sweets in4 ,i apologised for being unable to take them as ,i had not a clean handkerchief1 on which they all eagerly assured me that it did not matter in the least1 they would be quite content with the one ,i had4 ,the ,persian dastml or handkerchief serves every purpose except the one we connect it with4 ,your ,persian servant1 always carries a large coloured one in his pocket4 ,he dusts the rooms with it1 puts his purchases from the bzr into it1 polishes your boots with it before you enter a ,persian house1 and carries home sweets or nuts in it4 ,at the ,new ,year1 there are twenty-one days set apart for holiday making and visiting1 and in every house tea and sweets and sherbet are ready for all comers4 ,in those twenty-one days people are expected to visit all their friends1 and even with strict moderation the most sweet-loving schoolboy of your acquaintance would probably be glad of a rest by the end of the three weeks4 ,all this sounds delightful1 doesn't it8 ,but unfortunately it is more for the grown-ups than for the children4 ,the children like sweets well enough and get a good many1 but they have not the same opportunities as the grown-ups4 ,but sweets have their serious uses among the ,persians4 ,we have seen that rheumatism may be cured with nougat1 and we find that sweets in general are very strengthening4 ,it is not at all uncommon1 after a small operation or the extraction of a tooth1 to see the friends pressing sugar or sweets into the patient's mouth1 to restore her strength after the shock1 and in the same way after a fright a few sweets make you feel much better4 ,bread and sweets are not an uncommon dinner1 and a child who was ordered by the doctor to take plenty of milk because it was good strengthening food1 was given three-quarters of a pound of sweets for her dinner instead4 8,so much more strengthening than milk10 the mother said4 ,persian sweets are very soft and in the dry climate quickly get hard and lose their first freshness1 and to offer a ,persian stale sweets is like offering you stale cakes4 ,they are at their best only on the day they are made1 and the servant sent to buy sweets will sit down with his tray of plates at the shop-door and wait till the new sweets are ready1 when they can be put quite fresh and new on the plates on which they are to be served4 ,in ,yezd1 where the best sweets are made1 our servants seemed to regard the moving of sweets to a fresh plate much as we should the removal of a pie to a fresh pie-dish1 and many sorts are certainly the worse for being shifted after they have got cold4 ,all better-class ,persians make their own sweets at home and consider 8shop sweets0 very inferior4 ,the fame of ,persian sherbet has spread far1 and nearly every visitor to ,persia looks forward to a treat when he tastes it4 ,but it by no means comes up to expectation4 ,it is often made fresh in the presence of the guests1 so the recipe is no secret4 ,a sugar loaf is put in a basin1 by preference a pot pourri bowl1 and cold water is poured over it1 and it is allowed to melt with an occasional stir4 ,a little rosewater is then added to flavour it1 and it is handed round in glasses1 with ice if possible4 ,at meals1 however1 the bowl is placed on the tablecloth1--there is no table1--and a large carved wooden spoon is passed to each in turn from which to drink it4 ,sometimes lime or orange juice is offered as an alternative flavour to rosewater1 which makes it much more palatable to ,europeans4 ,but insipid as the ordinary sherbet is1 it seems the most delicious compound imaginable when it is taken1 well-iced1 after a long walk with the thermometer at #ajj in the shade4 ,perhaps that is why it has been so much praised4 ,another favourite beverage is sekunjibin1 which is like raspberry vinegar with mint instead of raspberry4 ,sherbet and good things to eat figure largely in ,muhammad's description of the joys of ,heaven4 ,his ideals were ideals that did not need much growing up to4 ,he expected his followers to have childish ideas and childish desires even in heaven4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,persian ,,prayers ,persian boys and girls need not say their prayers till they are seven years old4 ,sometimes they begin sooner1 but that is considered unnecessarily good4 ,they are not to be beaten for not saying them till they are ten1 and ,i have not seen many children under ten years old saying their prayers4 ,we cannot remember learning to pray1 for as soon as we could understand anything about ,god1 we were taught to ask ,him to take care of us1 to ask ,him to forgive us when we were naughty1 and to help us to be good1 to thank ,him for ,his kindness and ,his gifts4 ,it is so simple that a child of three or four can come to ,god in this way1 we need not wait till we are seven to bring simple petitions to our ,heavenly ,father4 ,but little ,ghulm ,husain's prayers are far from simple4 ,he has first to learn to wash his face1 hands and arms1 and feet and legs4 8,that does not need much teaching10 you say4 8,he can surely wash himself at that age40 ,but there is a right and a wrong way of washing in ,persia before prayers4 ,there is a right and a wrong side of your face to wash first1 there is a right and a wrong hand and a right and a wrong foot to wash first4 ,if a ,persian is very religious and careful there is even a right and a wrong side of his arm and leg to wash first1 but few ,persian children are as careful as that4 ,no soap is wanted1 just plain water1 or1 if there is no water1 sand4 ,so our our little ,ghulm ,husain learns his washings1 and now he is ready to learn the prayers themselves1 which are all in ,arabic so that he does not understand them4 ,illustration3 ,,persians ,,at ,,prayer ,he is shown the direction of ,mecca to which he must always turn when saying them1 and he is taught when to stand1 when to kneel1 when to bow himself till his forehead touches the ground1 and when to make various gestures4 ,and when he has learnt all this he is ready to begin saying his prayers regularly1 and he is told that if he says them correctly1 and with the right movements1 they will be pleasing to ,god1 and count as good works4 ,he must say them three times a day1 and he cannot choose his time4 ,when the prayer-call sounds from the mosque roofs1 and is taken up by people on the house roofs1 he must leave what he is doing1 and wash and say his prayers--the same prayers every time4 ,first in the early dawn1 before sunrise1 he hears the call1 and he must get out of bed for washing and prayers4 ,in the summer it may be as early as four o'clock1 in winter not till six or seven4 ,then1 again1 when the sun-dial on the mosque marks noon1 the call is heard1 and again at sunset1 and each time the prayers must be said within half an hour4 ,half an hour's grace is allowed1 so if ,persians have visitors when the prayer-call sounds1 they are able to go in turns to say their prayers1 so as not to leave the visitor alone4 ,some ,persians are very particular about their prayers1 but many are not so particular and will leave them unsaid if there is any excuse2 and1 as in other religions1 there are people who neglect their prayers altogether4 ,there are many who are very regular in their prayers and very particular as to the direction towards which they face1 and their positions and gestures at various parts of the prayers1 but who are not in the least really reverent over them4 ,medical missionaries especially cannot always choose the time of their visits1 and sometimes cannot avoid prayer-time4 ,then1 instead of going to a quiet room1 the ,muhammadans often say their prayers in the room where the missionary is being entertained1 and the conversation is never hushed for them2 indeed1 they will often themselves join in the conversation even while they are supposed to be praying4 ,one day a party of women from a ,mull's house were visiting a missionary1 when the evening prayer-call sounded4 8,we shall hardly have time to get home in half an hour10 the ,mull's wife said4 8,may ,i say my prayers here80 ,the missionary readily gave her consent1 but only the one lady availed herself of the permission1 and1 having asked in which direction ,mecca lay1 placed her prayer-stone in front of her and knelt down to say her prayers4 ,the rest went on talking loudly round her1 calling out and stretching across just in front of her in a way that must have attracted her attention4 ,when the missionary asked them to be quiet they assured her that their friend did not mind1 and she herself turned from her prayers to beg them not to stop for her4 ,but the missionary insisted on quiet until the prayers were over1 explaining that it was not a question of respect to the lady1 but of reverence to ,god1 and1 in the conversation which naturally followed1 she was able to tell them some of the ,bible teaching on prayer4 ,the prayer-stone is a small slab of about an inch and a half across1 made of the earth of ,kerbela where ,husain1 the grandson of ,muhammad was killed4 ,the ,kerbela earth is said to be scented with 8the blood of the martyrs10 and is much used for prayer-stones and rosaries4 ,a ,muhammadan places his prayer-stone on the ground before him when he says his prayers4 ,if anyone passes in front of a ,muhammadan as he is saying his prayers it is supposed to greatly reduce their value4 ,but if he puts the prayer-stone in front of him it acts as a church wall and cuts him off from the outside world1 and nothing passing on the far side of the stone can affect his prayers4 ,if he has no prayer-stone he sometimes draws a line on the earth instead1 and this is said to be just as effectual4 ,at certain points in the prayers the forehead must touch the ground1 and when a prayer-stone is used the forehead touches the prayer-stone1 and perhaps the holiness of the earth touched is supposed to increase the value of the prayers4 ,after the regular ,arabic prayers have been said any further prayers may be added in ,persian1 but the people seem generally to content themselves with the set prayers and to be shy of adding any of their own wording1 and in any case the ,arabic prayers are considered the more important4 ,although the ,persians use their prayers like charms1 repeating forms which convey to them no meaning1 yet they have great faith in the efficacy of prayers as charms4 ,one ,sunday a ,persian woman brought her little girl to the doctor's house1 covered with smallpox and very ill4 ,finding that it was service time she thought the prayers might do the child good1 so she put off asking for medicine till later1 and1 hiding the child under her chdar1 she sat down among the other women and children through the whole service4 ,i have never known ,persians refuse ,christian prayers over their sick friends1 and generally they join in with a heartfelt ,amen to prayers which they have been able to understand4 ,at one house where they were afraid of the medicine they entreated the missionary doctor to come daily to pray over the patient4 ,the patient was one of five cases of typhoid fever in the house4 ,the others were being treated by a ,persian doctor1 but this woman had very serious complications and seemed so unlikely to recover that he suggested their calling in a ,christian doctor for her4 ,for many days she lay quite unconscious1 but every day the missionary walked a mile and a half to pray beside her1 and every day the same entreaty was repeated1 8,you will come again to-morrow1 won't you80 ,and the prayers were answered1 for at last signs of improvement appeared1 and the poor woman was restored to health and strength again4 ,god has given us a wonderful privilege in allowing us to come freely to ,him as our ,father1 and lay all our joys and sorrows1 troubles and perplexities before ,him4 8,oh6 ,what peace we often forfeit1 ,oh6 ,what needless pain we bear1 ,all because we do not carry ,everything to ,god in prayer60 ,and1 if that is true of us1 how much more true it is of the ,muhammadans who do not know ,god as their ,father1 who do not know that ,god is love1 who do not know that they may carry everything to ,god in prayer4 ,when we think of the want of peace1 the needless pain1 the sin1 the sorrow1 the wretchedness in ,muhammadan lands1 and yet see the people so ready to pray1 surely it is our plain and urgent duty to teach them how to pray1 as our ,lord has taught us1 and to teach them to ,whom they must pray--not to an unknowable1 unloving ,allah1 but to a tender1 pitying ,father1 ,who so loved them that ,he gave ,his only begotten ,son to die for their salvation4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,fasting ,,and ,,pilgrimages ,one month in every year ,muhammadans have to fast4 ,persian boys begin to fast at twelve years old1 but the girls have to begin at nine4 ,sometimes they begin sooner if they want to store up merit early4 ,but even little four-year-old ,ibrahim1 who is considered too young to join in the fast1 shares it to a certain degree4 ,for no one is going to cook anything for him or make him his usual cup of tea when they may not share it4 ,he gets a bit of dry bread and a drink of water when he wants it1 but little more all through the day4 8,it makes me hungry to see him eating10 his mother said4 ,the name of the fast-month is ,ramazn1 and through ,ramazn it is often difficult to get eggs1 because the sweetmakers buy them up to make sweets4 ,it is a great month for sweets1 and there are several kinds that are only made in ,ramazn2 and1 so far from having 8self-denial boxes10 as many ,christians do in ,lent1 the more devout ,muhammadan servants ask for an advance of wages to buy better food in ,ramazn4 ,this all seems strange in a fast-month1 but a ,muhammadan fast only lasts from dawn to dark4 ,at night people may eat what they like1 and they take full advantage of the permission and have nightly feasts1 ending up with a great feast on the last night4 ,boys and girls are not late for supper in ,ramazn4 ,they gather round the tablecloth as the time draws near1 ready to start directly the signal is given that it is dark4 ,in towns there is generally a gun fired1 and at the sound of the gun the meal is begun in every house4 ,one day such a party was waiting round the supper1 listening for the gun1 and they got hungrier and hungrier1 but they heard no gun and waited on4 ,at last they realised that the wind had carried the sound away from them1 and they had fasted far longer than they need have done4 ,this was bad enough1 but another family fared worse1 for they overslept themselves in the morning1 and woke to find they had missed their breakfast and must eat nothing till night4 ,people might differ as to when it was dark1 so a test has been appointed--as long as you can distinguish a black thread from a white one it is light1 and you must fast4 ,it does not sound a very difficult fast1 and in winter1 when the days are short1 it is not so bad1 but on a long summer day it is very hard4 ,no food1 no drink1 and a blazing sun all day4 ,it takes a plucky boy or girl to get through it without complaining4 ,it is no wonder that in ,ramazn 8bed-time0 is forgotten and all the children sit up half the night and sleep half the day--the longer they can sleep in the day the better1 poor little things4 ,towards evening tempers are apt not to be very good1 but everyone enjoys the night4 ,no one wants to work in ,ramazn2 they do not want to get more hungry than they need2 and1 of course1 the schools are all closed4 ,the dispensaries and hospitals are nearly empty1 for the taking of medicine1 or the use of drops for the eyes or ears1 would be a breaking of the fast1 and there was a great discussion once as to whether having a tooth out would have the same effect4 ,it seems curious to have to tell the people to take their medicine twice a night instead of twice a day4 ,after ,ramazn the dispensaries are full of patients who have made themselves ill by fasting all day and overeating themselves at night4 ,besides the younger children there are a good many other people who get off the fast4 ,opium-eaters need not fast2 travellers need not fast on a journey2 sick people can get a dispensation from a mulla4 ,a great many people take advantage of this1 and make a small ailment an excuse for not fasting1 but they are supposed to make it up at some other time of year4 ,if anyone forgets and thoughtlessly breaks his fast no great harm is done1 but he must fast an extra day in the year to make up for it4 ,some people 8forget0 every day1 but such people do not usually make it up at any other time4 ,just before ,ramazn a good many people are fasting1 having put off to the last minute the making-up of the fast days for the previous ,ramazn4 ,people who want to be very good sometimes fast on ,saints' ,days too1 and one old lady always fasted on the day when ,muhammadan tradition says that our ,lord ,jesus ,christ was born4 ,another way in which ,muhammadans think they can gain merit is by making a pilgrimage to some holy place4 ,pilgrimages may be made to any place where a ,muhammadan saint is buried1 but there are four special places to which the ,persians go--,qum1 ,meshed1 ,kerbela1 and ,mecca4 ,mecca is considered far the greatest place of pilgrimage1 because it is the place where ,muhammad was born4 ,a pilgrimage to ,qum gives the pilgrim no commonly used title1 but if he goes to ,meshed he becomes ,meshedi2 if to ,kerbela1 ,kerbel2 and1 if to ,mecca1 ,hj2 and a ,hj always uses his title4 ,in accosting a working-class stranger it is polite to call him ,meshedi1 and more polite to call him ,kerbel1 but ,hj is too important a title to be used in this way4 ,quite little boys and girls are sometimes ,hjs--they have been taken to ,mecca by their parents4 ,but the people who most frequently go are the business men and the old people4 ,the business men manage to make a business journey1 which will include ,mecca1 and the old people1 old women especially1 are often sent as a polite way of getting rid of them when they are cranky and ill-tempered4 ,if they die on the way1 they are supposed to go straight to ,heaven4 ,a good many do die on the road1 which is a very rough one4 ,it reminds one of the man who said of his enemies that he should like to convert them and send them to ,heaven before they had time to backslide4 ,one day in a caravansarai1 or native inn1 ,i met a young woman who told me a friend who was going on a pilgrimage had passed through her village and had persuaded her to come too4 ,she was going to walk all the way and trust to charity for food1 as many pilgrims do1 for it is considered a greater work of merit to give to a pilgrim than to an ordinary beggar4 ,the journey would take several months4 ,i asked her a few questions4 ,yes1 she said1 she had a husband and children4 8,and are they with you80 8,no1 they are in my village40 8,are the children grown-up then80 8,oh no1 they are quite little40 8,then who is going to take care of them while you are away80 8,i do not know4 ,there was no time to make arrangements4 ,i had not even time to tell my husband ,i was going4 ,he was at work4 ,my friends tell me it will be a very great work of merit if ,i go4 ,what do you think80 ,we had a long talk1 and ,i believe she went back the same evening to her home4 ,if so1 she would get back within twenty-four hours of having left it4 ,the ,muhammadans themselves generally allow that they are no more agreeable or kind or truthful or good after their pilgrimages--at least those who do not go say so freely4 ,they even have a proverb3 8,if your friend has been to ,mecca1 trust him not4 ,if he has been there twice1 avoid him4 ,but if he has made the pilgrimage the third time1 flee from him as you would from ,satan40 ,even dead people make pilgrimages1 generally to ,qum1 or1 if they are very important people1 to ,kerbela4 ,i have not been to ,kerbela1 but ,i have been to ,qum1 and we met quite a number of corpses going to the burying-ground outside the big mosque4 ,sometimes the relations bring them1 but often they cannot afford the journey and pay a muleteer to take them1 and to pay the fees1 which are very large4 ,sometimes the muleteers bury the bodies elsewhere and pocket the fees4 ,qum itself is considered such a holy city that they do not allow dogs inside it4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,sav,,bs ,there is a little ,persian book1 which many of the little boys learn to read1 called 8,sad ,hikyat0 or 8,a ,hundred ,stories40 ,some of the stories are very like sop's ,fables1 and they are all supposed to teach the children something4 ,one story tells them that at the end of the world ,god will take a great pair of scales1 and as each person comes up for judgment ,god will put his good deeds in one scale and his evil deeds in the other4 ,if the good deeds weigh heaviest he will go to ,heaven1 if his evil deeds weigh the balance down he will go to ,hell4 ,these good deeds are called savbs1 and every ,persian1 whether child or grown-up1 hopes to get to ,heaven by doing enough savbs to outweigh his sins4 ,so a little ,persian boy or girl is not taught to try to always do right or to always try to please and serve ,god1 but only to do enough right to outweigh the wrong he does1 and if he feels he has done wrong instead of confessing his sin to ,god and asking ,his forgiveness he simply tries to balance it by a good deed4 ,and what a ,persian boy or girl is taught of what is right and wrong is very different from all you have learnt4 ,first there is a definite list of sins1 which they can learn by heart1 and nothing outside of this list is considered a 8sin10 though other things which are not right may be called 8errors10 which is a much less strong word4 ,as to good deeds there is more difference of opinion4 ,one of the 8,hundred ,stories0 deals with this point4 ,a man was travelling in the desert and came to a well4 ,he dismounted1 drove a stable-pin into the ground1 and tied his horse to it while he ate his meal4 ,when he resumed his journey he left the pin in the ground that other travellers coming there might tie their horses to it4 ,presently a man on foot came along1 and1 not seeing the pin1 knocked his foot against it and hurt himself4 ,he pulled up the pin and threw it into the well lest any one else should hurt himself in the same way4 ,a discussion arose as to which of the two had done a savb1 the man who drove the nail in or the man who took it out1 and finally a learned and holy man was consulted4 ,after much thought he gave it as his opinion that both had done savbs4 ,every little act of kindness is a savb1 and this encourages good nature and kindliness4 ,the children are taught to look out for chances of doing a kind action and so balancing their wrong-doing4 ,but at the same time they are taught to think that if they do a certain number of kind deeds it will not matter if they do wrong at other times4 ,little ,rajab #8,ali1 the muleteer's boy1 would run to fasten up the trailing head-rope of another man's mule1 he would lend a helping hand to some stranger whose donkey had fallen under its load1 and between whiles he would treat his own mules and donkeys most cruelly4 ,he thought his cruelty did not matter1 because he had been kind as well4 ,a dishonest lad will try to wipe out his dishonesty by being regular with his prayers or by an extra day's fast4 ,a man who has cheated someone of ten krns will give a krn to a beggar and consider his account settled4 ,one man tried to atone for the most outrageous extortion and injustice by spending part of his ill-earned gains on good roads for the villagers and a free school1 while all the time he made no pretence of giving up his evil ways4 ,those he had injured complained that now he would escape the punishment of ,god4 ,the ,persians seem unable to realise the possibility of any other motive for good works4 ,when the missionaries first went to ,yezd and opened a medical mission1 the people said1 8,what terribly wicked people they must be to have to do so much good40 ,one curious result of this idea of winning ,heaven and securing better places there by good works is that it almost destroys gratitude4 ,the beggar feels that he has helped you one step up in ,heaven by accepting your alms2 then surely he has done you more good than you have done him1 and why should he be grateful to you8 ,the patients who are treated free at the dispensary have the same feeling2 the doctor improved their bodily state1 but they have improved his spiritual position4 ,it is considered a special work of merit to do anything for a ,seyid1 that is1 a descendant of ,muhammad1 so everyone tries to be kind to ,seyids1 and they are so spoilt and are made so much of that they are generally unbearably selfish1 and think themselves the most important people in the world4 ,often in the dispensary the doctor is exhorted to do his utmost or to break through some rule because the patient is a ,seyid1 and they are incredulous and rather shocked when they are told that an ordinary patient's pain is just as great as a ,seyid's1 and that all must be taken in their turn4 ,another result of this doctrine of works of merit1 or savbs1 as they call them1 is that even when a ,muhammadan seems straight and honest and altogether a good fellow you cannot entirely trust him1 because he has so many good works to his credit that he feels a few sins do not matter1 they are more than paid for beforehand4 ,a ,persian's idea of what is a savb is sometimes curious4 ,prayers1 fasting1 pilgrimages1 and the reading of the ,quran are1 of course1 all considered works of merit4 ,marrying your father's brother's daughter is a savb1 though there is no particular merit in marrying your father's sister's daughter or your mother's brother's daughter4 ,some ,persian women inquired one day what each of three missionaries living together ate for breakfast1 and hearing that two had eggs1 while the third had not1 they nodded at each other1 as much as to say1 8,i told you so10 and remarked1 8,it is a savb4 ,she wants to get a higher place in ,heaven40 ,giving money to beggars is always considered a savb1 but it is considered a greater savb on ,thursday than on any other day4 ,friday is the ,muhammadan holy day1 and they call ,thursday 8the ,eve of ,friday10 and on ,thursday the beggars all call out as you pass1 8,it is the ,eve of ,friday2 give me a copper40 ,the grown-up beggars generally1 but not always1 sit by the roadside begging1 but the children run alongside of you and are often very persistent4 ,there are nearly always beggars at the gate of any town1 asking those who are starting on a journey to give them an alms1 and so secure safety on their journey4 ,if ,jericho was anything like a ,persian town it was most natural that our ,lord should find one blind beggar as ,he went into the town 7,st ,luke #ah1 v4 #ce71 and one or two more as ,he came out by another gate 7,st ,matt4 #bj1 v4 #cj71 and that they should address ,him in almost exactly the same language4 ,begging is often a very paying occupation1 for so many people feel that they have sins to make up for1 that the cry1 8,give me a copper4 ,it will be a savb10 is a difficult one to refuse1 especially if the copper is only worth a farthing4 ,so well does begging pay that on more than one occasion the mothers and wives of well-to-do tradesmen have been detected in old chdars begging in the streets and at houses4 ,the difficulty of recognising a woman who is completely covered up with a black chdar makes disguise easy4 ,during the massacre of the ,babis1 a dissenting sect of ,muhammadans1 in #aijc1 it was considered a savb to kill a ,babi1 but some of the kindlier people thought it also a savb to save a life1 even if it was a ,babi's4 ,one man is said to have been seen with a prisoner1 in great perplexity1 saying1 8,i am quite sure of ,hell for my sins1 unless ,i can do a big savb2 if this man is a ,babi1 my chance of salvation is to kill him1 but ,i am not sure whether he is1 and if ,i kill a true believer ,i shall be worse off than ever40 ,but there are savbs of a very different sort4 ,there was an old woman friendless and ill1 and a ,persian man found her in the street1 too ill to get home to the one wretched room where she lived all alone4 ,he did not know her1 but he decided to undertake the savb4 ,he sent across the town for a medical missionary1 knowing the ,christians had the reputation of never refusing to help the sick poor4 ,he stayed there till the doctor arrived1 and said that if she would visit the old woman and provide the medicines he would send for them1 and would provide the food and nursing1 and this he did until the old woman died a few days later4 ,the adoption of a destitute child is not an uncommon savb1 and these children are often treated very well and given a good start in life4 ,a kind action1 as we have seen1 is always considered a savb1 whether it is helping a fallen mule to get up1 giving a copper to a beggar1 or tending a friendless stranger in sickness and death4 ,we may almost say that this is the one redeeming point of a ,persian's religion4 ,generally speaking1 ,persians are not improved by their religious ideas1 for the stronger their religious ideas are the worse their lives are1 and what one most admires in ,persian character is least in accordance with their religious beliefs4 ,,chapter ,x ,,muhammadan ,,charms ,,and ,,superstitions ,muhammad did not write down his teaching1 for he could not write1 but his followers learnt it by heart1 and wrote it down1 and after his death it was collected into one book called the ,quran4 ,it was arranged in a haphazard way1 and probably the early chapters were really spoken last1 and the later ones first4 ,however1 the ,muhammadans believe it to be1 as it now stands1 the ,word of ,god1 and they treat it with great respect4 ,when they pick the book up or lay it down they put it first to the forehead and then to the lips1 and they hold it in both hands4 ,many ,christians might learn from them to treat ,god's ,word more reverently4 ,they consider it a work of merit to read the ,quran or listen to it1 and they read it over their sick folk in hopes of curing them4 ,but perhaps the commonest and most popular edition is a two-inch hexagonal one which is almost illegible4 ,this is sewn up in two little round or hexagonal cases1 each containing half1 and is worn on the arms to keep off evil of every kind4 ,the cases may be plain leather or cloth1 or they may be more elaborate and ornamental1 or silver cases may be used with texts from the ,quran engraved upon them4 ,illustration3 ,,reading ,,the ,,quran ,,to ,,the ,,sick ,smaller and cheaper charms are made of texts from the ,quran enclosed in the same way4 ,these charms1 and also beads made from the blue clay of the holy city of ,qum1 are used for animals as well as people1 especially young mules4 ,i once had a charm given me for a kitten4 ,children often wear a very large number of charms sewn on to the cap or hung on a chain round the neck1 as they are supposed to be much more susceptible than grown-up people to evil influences4 ,one quaint-looking charm is a little cloth camel1 ,abraham's camel1 sewn on the cap4 ,what the ,persians fear more than anything for their children is the evil eye1 and it is especially to protect them from this that they cover them with charms4 ,they say there are certain people who have an 8evil eye40 ,no one seems to know many such people1 but most people say they know at least one4 ,these people injure everything that pleases them1 and that they admire4 ,if they admire a baby it will get ill and very likely die2 if they admire a mule it will probably go lame2 if they admire a tree it will wither2 if they admire a cup it will break4 ,there does not seem to be necessarily any wish to do harm1 the mere taking pleasure in the thing causes the disaster4 ,persons with the evil eye are quite impossible to distinguish1 so the ,persians are afraid of all strangers lest they should have it4 ,this is why you must not admire a baby1 and ,persian mothers cover up their young babies completely in the street for fear a casual passer-by should admire them and should prove to have the evil eye4 ,the men carry iron in their pockets as a protection1 and a magnet is considered specially powerful in this way4 ,a more common form of iron to carry is an iron chain1 which is useful for driving mules and donkeys and beating off savage dogs4 ,the women sometimes wear charms to make their husbands love them4 ,one poor thing gave me hers--two large beads3 they had not proved of much use1 for her husband beat her and treated her very badly4 ,another charm is a tiny bag of the scented earth of ,kerbela1 where ,muhammad's grandson ,husain was killed1 and if rubbed on the eyelids it is said to cause the eyes to shine brightly4 ,the beads of the ,muhammadan rosaries are often made of this ,kerbela earth4 ,every ,muhammadan has his rosary--many of them have quite a collection1 for pilgrims to ,kerbela bring back rosaries for all their friends4 ,these rosaries are never used for counting prayers1 but occasionally for counting the attributes of ,god or invocations4 ,but the main use is a very different one4 ,they are the ,persian's ordinary means of trying to find out ,god's will4 ,they are used both in serious and in frivolous matters2 no ,persian will settle anything without 8taking the beads40 ,he takes the beads before making a business appointment1 but he takes them again to see whether he shall keep it or not4 ,he takes the beads to see what doctor he is to send for1 and again to see if he shall follow his instructions4 ,he takes the beads to see if it is a good day to buy a new coat1 and again to see if it is a good day to put it on4 ,you often see a pious ,muhammadan fingering the beads under her chdar before she answers your questions4 ,the rosaries are made of a large number of small beads all alike1 and three only1 which are different and are called 8,sheikhs10 placed in different parts of the string4 ,to take the beads a ,muhammadan turns towards ,mecca and says an ,arabic collect4 ,then he divides the beads without looking1 and tells them off two by two1 saying over and over1 as he does so1 8,subhnu'llh0 7,god is glorious7 8,alhamdu'li'llh0 7,praise be to ,god71 8,va'llh0 7and ,he is the ,god71 passing two beads for each word until he comes to a ,sheikh1 when he stops4 ,if there are two beads for the last word1 the answer is much more emphatic than if there is only an odd one4 ,if the last word is 8,subhnu'llh0 the answer is favourable1 8,alhamdu'li'llh0 is doubtful and 8,va'llh0 is unfavourable4 ,if the answer is doubtful a ,persian generally follows his own inclinations4 ,if the answer is not what the questioner likes1 the beads may be taken again in the mosque1 and the answer in the mosque take precedence of that in the house4 ,if1 however1 the answer is still the same1 there is a third method4 ,for a small fee a mulla will do the same sort of thing with the ,quran1 and the text selected overrules the two previous answers4 ,a ,persian lady sent for an ,english missionary to extract an aching tooth4 ,the missionary found her in great pain1 but she said she could not have the tooth out as the beads were against it1 but she had sent to the mosque and was hoping for a favourable answer from there4 ,however1 all methods gave an unfavourable answer1 so she put off the extraction to another day4 8,it would be much better for me to have it out10 she said1 8but it is not ,god's ,will40 ,the ,wise ,men from the ,east looked for ,god's guidance among the stars1 and there ,god sent them a message4 ,and here and there where a ,muhammadan earnestly seeks ,god's guidance1 because he is trying to really live as ,god's servant1 who shall say that he does not receive it where he has been taught to look for it4 ,but taken as a system1 how trivial1 how childish1 how irreverent it all is4 ,they use ,god's name1 but they take ,his name in vain4 ,they profess to seek ,god's will1 and profess to receive an answer from ,him1 and often try the next moment to set it aside and force or coax an opposite answer out of ,him4 ,the ,muhammadans think that through their beads they can use ,god for settling the every-day matters of this world in a lucky way1 while they are disobeying ,him in the greater matter of godly living4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,persian ,,schools ,a great many things are topsy-turvy in ,persia1 but perhaps reading is as topsy-turvy as anything4 ,it is not only that the lines1 and indeed the whole book1 begin at the wrong end1 but the lessons begin at the wrong end too4 ,an ,english boy learns to read his own language first1 and does not always go on to a foreign language4 ,a ,persian boy learns to read a foreign language first1 and does not always go on to his own language4 ,when a little ,persian boy goes to school he is given a big ,arabic book1 with a great many long words in it1 and he is not taught how the words are spelt1 but is told what they are1 and made to repeat them from memory1 pointing to each word in the book as he says it1 and gradually he gets some idea of which word is which4 ,the boys sit on the floor round the room1 all reading at the top of their voices at the same time in different parts of the book4 ,they read in a monotonous sing-song voice1 swaying their bodies in time to the sound4 ,the master sits and listens through the din to one and another correcting mistakes here and there1 and calling up any boy who seems perfect in his lesson to learn the next bit1 and then return to his seat and read it over and over till he knows it too4 ,the book is the ,quran1 which the ,muhammadans think was dictated by ,god to ,muhammad through the ,archangel ,gabriel4 ,it would not be surprising if the ,persians1 being ,muhammadans1 wished all their boys to learn what they believe to be ,god's ,word2 but the book is written in ,arabic1 which ,persian boys do not understand1 and even the letters are not quite the same as in ,persian2 so when the little pupil reaches the end of the book he can read the ,quran with the proper intonation1 but he can read nothing else1 and he cannot understand the ,quran4 ,the ,muhammadans1 however1 think that reading the ,quran1 quite apart from understanding it1 is a very good action1 so the little ,persian boys work away at it1 and they do not think it hard lines because they know all the men1 and big boys began in the same way1 so it seems the natural thing to do4 ,and perhaps it is a little consolation to know that when they reach certain points they will be given sweets4 ,one little boy1 who was asked how far he had got in the ,quran1 said that he had just got to his first sweets4 ,having finished the ,quran our little ,persian boy goes on to ,persian books4 ,these1 too1 he studies in much the same way as he did the ,quran1 but it is more useful1 because now he understands what he reads4 ,after plodding through the ,quran it is a pleasant change for little ,ghulm ,husain to turn to the ,war between the ,cats and ,mice1 the ,hundred ,fables1 or ,stories of ,husain and ,hasan 7,muhammad's two grandsons74 ,later on he reads the poems of ,hfiz and ,sa'adi1 and other great ,persian poets1 for there is a great deal of beautiful poetry in ,persian4 ,there is no convenient desk or table for ,ghulm ,husain to write on4 ,he sits on the floor and holds the paper in his hand or on his knee4 ,his pen is a bit of fine cane1 cut like a quill1 but with a slanting end4 ,as he holds it the handle points directly to the right and it is the horizontal lines which he must make broad1 while the up and down strokes must both be fine4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,persian ,,school ,ghulm ,husain never spills his ink4 ,each boy has his own inkpot1 which contains a tangled piece of silk soaked in ink4 ,it dries up between the lessons1 so when ,ghulm ,husain wants to write he moistens it with water so that the silk is thoroughly wet1 but there is no water lying in the inkpot4 ,in among this wet silk he dips his pen4 ,if you look into ,ghulm ,husain's pen-box you will find pens cut to various breadths for large or small writing1 a penknife1 and a little slab to rest the pen-point on for the final cut2 an inkpot1 and a tiny brass ladle for adding water4 ,many an ,english boy finds it tiresome to have to dot his i's1 but little ,ghulm ,husain has to dot almost every letter1 some above the line and some below1 some with one dot1 some with two1 and some with three4 ,these dots are not round1 but square1 and the height of the letters is measured by the size of the dots4 ,this letter must be one dot high1 that letter two dots high1 another three1 and yet another five dots high4 ,the size of the dot itself depends on the breadth of the pen4 ,as he learns to write better he will run his letters into curious combinations1 and group his dots picturesquely in parts of the word to which they do not belong1 or leave them out altogether1 until at last1 when he can write a really beautiful hand1 the schoolmaster himself will not be able to read the letter without careful study1 and may even have to guess at the meaning of particularly well-written passages4 ,one great beauty of a ,persian letter is the way each line runs up at the end1 making a pile of words1 syllables1 and even single letters1 something in this style3-- rew s sc ,persian way the 8,,my ,,dear ,,children1--,this is the ers4 lett write en they up the ends of their lines wh f k o thin ey can words th ,they also use all the longest eir at th so th arly all els or ne and leave out all their vow ops40 no st they use ecially as read1 esp letters are very hard to ,the ,persians do not apparently think much of their own system of education1 for they are always laughing at their schoolmasters4 ,they have a story of a chrvdr1 or muleteer1 one of whose mules strayed one day into a school4 ,it was quickly driven out1 and the muleteer claimed damages from the schoolmaster to the extent of half the value of the mule4 ,the schoolmaster indignantly asked on what he based his claim4 ,the muleteer turned to the crowd which had gathered to listen to the argument4 8,my beast10 said he1 8went into his school a mule and it has come out a donkey40 ,you see a donkey counts half a mule in caravan travelling1 just as a child counts half a person in train travelling4 ,the punishments are as topsy-turvy as the lessons4 ,when a boy is caned he lies on his back and holds out his feet instead of his hands4 ,sometimes his feet are held in a kind of stocks while he is caned across the soles4 ,they call it 8eating sticks0 or 8eating wood0--the words are the same4 ,some missionaries were picnicking one day in an orchard in a hill village1 and the village children gathered round to watch the foreigners' strange ways4 8,do you often come and eat plums here80 one of the ladies asked2 and she was greatly bewildered by the curious tastes of ,persian boys1 when the owner of the orchard answered for them1 that the boys who came into his orchard ate not the plums but the wood4 ,this beating on the soles of the feet is a common punishment for every one1 from the slave and the schoolboy to the criminal and the political offender4 ,with schoolboys it is of course not very severe1 but in more serious cases it may be very severe indeed1 even resulting in death4 ,the culprit in these cases is ordered not so many blows but so many sticks1 i4e4 he is to be beaten till so many sticks have been broken4 ,a hundred sticks is not an uncommon punishment4 ,if the culprit is rich enough he may bribe the farrshes to strike the stocks when possible and so break the sticks quickly1 and not over his feet2 but a poor man has to take his punishment4 ,there is no compulsory education in ,persia and very little free education4 ,there was one man who tried to atone for sins1 which he made no pretence of giving up1 by founding a large free school in one ,persian town1 but it is not a common form of benevolence4 ,so it is only those who can spare a little money who send their boys to school1 and a great many never get beyond a very early stage of reading and writing4 ,as for the girls very few parents care to waste their money over their girls' education4 ,a certain number are taught to read the ,quran1 a less number go on to reading such books as they have studied1 but very few can read at sight1 and writing is even rarer4 ,still in the matter of the education of girls ,persia is in advance of other ,muhammadan countries4 ,in these days of general education it is difficult for us to realise in this country how hard it is for the missionaries to teach the gospel truths to the ,persians4 ,there is so much to be taught and there are so many to be taught1 and when it has to be done orally to people whose intelligence and memory have never been developed by study of any kind1 whose minds and brains have never grown up properly1 and who forget so easily1 it means an amount of work that would take up all the time and strength of far more missionaries than are now in the field4 ,many of the converts cannot come regularly for oral teaching1 and they are liable at any time to move out of the missionaries' reach1 so the missionaries try to teach all the converts and their children to read their ,bibles at any rate1 so that they can get teaching direct from ,god's ,word themselves4 ,besides the ,persian schools there are now several ,christian schools in ,persia1 but we will talk about those in the next chapter4 ,since they were started there has been an attempt in some of the big towns to introduce an improved system of teaching1 and ,persian reading-books are now printed with ba-bi-bu1 pa-pi-pu1 etc4 etc42 but this is the exceptional method of teaching1 and not the rule in ,persia1 and ,i doubt if any orthodox schoolmaster would care to teach ,persian before he taught the ,arabic ,quran4 ,the ,parsees have a very good school in ,yezd1 largely supported by the ,parsees in ,bombay1 but this is only for ,parsee boys4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,christian ,,schools ,there are two branches of mission-work in ,persia that bring the missionaries into close touch with ,persian children3 one is the hospital1 the other is the school4 ,you will hear about the medical work presently2 in this chapter we will look at the school work4 ,there are ,europeans in ,persia1 wanting ,english-speaking servants and employs2 there are rich ,persians wanting secretaries who can write ,french and ,english2 there are business firms trading with ,england and ,india who want ,english-speaking clerks and correspondents2 so naturally many ,persians want their sons to learn ,english2 and who should teach it better than the ,englishman8 ,but this is not all they want4 ,as they get to know the ,christians they see that there is something in ,english ways and ,english character that the ,persian lacks4 ,and they bring their boys to the missionary1 and ask him not merely to teach them ,english1 not merely to teach them book-learning of any sort1 but to teach them to be good boys4 ,they do not so often ask for a girls' school1 for they do not think a girl needs any book education as a rule1 and only a few of the ,persian women can even read4 ,yet in some of the ,mission-stations girls' schools have been started with great success1 and year by year the demand for them is growing4 ,english is less taught in these schools1 but some of the girls learn it1 especially those most closely connected with the mission4 ,the girls1 of course1 have to give a good deal of time to sewing and embroidery1 which are more necessary for them than foreign languages4 ,but in all the ,mission-stations sooner or later1 generally sooner1 a boys' school is started1 and these schools vary very much according to the needs of the different towns4 ,in one school ,armenians and ,muhammadans work side by side1 in another we find ,muhammadans and ,parsees1 while a third contains all three4 ,in one school only ,english is taught1 in another advanced ,persian and ,arabic are added4 ,in yet another1 everything is taught from the ,persian alphabet onwards4 ,one missionary works alone in his own house1 another has a full staff of ,armenian and ,persian teachers and monitors1 and a well-built convenient school4 ,but whatever the race of the boys1 whatever the subjects taught1 whatever the organisation1 there are difficulties to be faced4 ,it is difficult to get teachers2 sometimes none can be got on the spot1 and they have to be fetched from some other town1 perhaps several weeks' journey away4 ,sometimes the missionary has to be the only teacher till he can train some of his own boys to be first monitors and then masters in the school4 ,then there is the school itself4 ,sometimes the small beginnings of a school are started in the missionary's own dining-room2 sometimes he is able to spare a room entirely for school purposes4 ,in one case this was supplemented by a rough tent or shed made of matting in the compound4 ,but as the school grows1 separate buildings have to be found or built4 ,books are another difficulty4 ,all books for teaching ,english have to be got from abroad1 and many are not suitable4 ,readers which are very suitable for the size of boy who reads them in ,england or ,india1 are not suitable for the young men who often use them in ,persia4 ,if you give an educated young man1 well read in the finest ,persian poetry1 the childish stories and rhymes in many of the readers1 he thinks ,english books are very1 very foolish1 and his opinion of ,english intelligence in both literary and religious matters falls very low4 ,all these things need money4 ,the boys generally pay a very small fee and buy their own books1 but the fees do not go far towards paying for the schools and the teachers' salaries1 and the getting together of the necessary money is another difficulty4 ,the pupils themselves present three great difficulties4 ,in our country boys under fourteen generally go to different schools from boys over fourteen1 and those who wish to continue their education after seventeen or eighteen leave school and go to college1 or attend special lectures4 ,but in ,persia the missionary is asked to take them all together in one school1 even middle-aged men wishing to become pupils4 ,but it is quite impossible to make a satisfactory school of boys and men together4 ,it is sometimes possible1 especially in the larger schools1 to arrange separately for the men1 but generally an age limit has to be set4 ,the second difficulty arises from the number of boys who want to learn ,english and who are never likely to have any use for it4 ,they have an idea that it is so new and uncommon that any one who knows it is bound to get work at a good salary1 and so they want to waste their time over it when they ought to be learning the subjects they will really need for their work4 ,it takes some time and trouble to sort these boys out from those who are really likely to need ,english4 ,the third difficulty is not peculiar to ,persia1 though it presents some peculiarities there4 ,it is the problem of managing the boys4 ,boys in ,england1 ,i am sorry to say1 sometimes tell lies1 but in ,persia it would be more correct to say that they sometimes tell the truth4 ,then again the boys are of different ranks2 some of them come with their servants1 and a certain amount of tact has to be used to get them to accept the ordinary rules of discipline4 ,but in a school where everybody comes to learn most of these difficulties can be overcome4 ,persian boys want knowing1 like all boys1 but when one tries to do one's best for them one finds them thoroughly lovable and possessed of a large number of exceedingly good points4 ,lastly1 the ,mulls1 or ,muhammadan clergy1 see in the schools the greatest danger to their religion1 and they oppose them strongly4 ,they know that such close contact with ,christians must open the boys' eyes to some extent to the contrast between ,muhammadanism and ,christianity1 and they know ,muhammadanism cannot stand such a comparison4 ,many ,muhammadans1 who believe that ,muhammadanism is a true religion given to them by ,god through ,muhammad1 still see that ,christianity is the better religion1 and ,muhammadans have told me that ,god had given us a better religion than ,he had given them4 ,so the ,mulls try to persuade or frighten the fathers into not sending their boys to the ,mission-school1 they try to frighten the boys out of going1 and they try to get the governors to close the schools4 ,but it is ,god's work1 and ,he does not allow them to stop it for long4 ,the boys themselves show the greatest interest in whatever they are told about the ,bible1 and naturally in one way or another ,bible reading is always a prominent feature of every class of ,mission-school4 ,sometimes there is a regular lesson on the ,bible as one of the school subjects1 but in other places there are no ,bible lessons1 but only prayers and ,bible-reading1 with very simple explanations4 ,but however this may be1 the gospel story of ,christ ,jesus1 which is known by name to every ,muhammadan1 but by more than name to very1 very few1 is always of absorbing interest1 and is not likely to be forgotten4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,work 8,to the house of #8,ali ,akbar the pea-roaster10 ,i said to my servant4 8,there are two #8,ali ,akbars pea-roasters10 he replied1 8one is alive1 and one dead2 which do you want80 ,it proved to be the widow who had sent for me1 and we were soon great friends4 8,and do you go to school80 ,i asked ,husain1 a merry little boy of eight4 8,no1 ,i am an apprentice-baker10 he said with an evident sense of importance2 he felt he was a wage-earner--a halfpenny a day1 ,i think was the amount1 but where a labourer often only earns fivepence a day1 even a halfpenny a day counts for something in the family4 ,seven years old seems to be a very common age for apprenticing boys in ,persia4 ,a boy of that age can make himself useful and gradually learn his trade1 and if his master and his fellow-apprentices are kind he may be very happy1 like my little baker4 ,he probably fetched and carried1 brought sticks for heating the oven1 laid out the long thin flat loaves in rows as they were handed to him from the oven1 and later carried them in a tray on his head1 or hanging over his shoulder1 to some of the customers4 ,probably our ,lord ,jesus ,christ ,himself started work in the carpenter's shop at ,nazareth as soon as ,he could be of any use4 ,he would fetch and carry tools1 sort out the nails1 help to clear away the shavings1 and later ,he would learn to hammer nails1 to saw and plane1 just as the little ,persian apprentices do to-day1 and ,he would thoroughly enjoy helping ,joseph in the workshop and ,mary in the house4 ,there was a little 8apprentice-carpenter0 who looked such a baby he can hardly have been as old as seven4 ,he used to run back to the shop for tools or nails1 and hold the hammer1 and he even succeeded in pulling some nails out of a packing-case4 ,but his master was not always kind to him1 and sometimes beat him1 and he did not seem as happy as the baker boy4 ,servants will often bring their little boys to the house to help them in their work1 and gradually fit themselves for service4 ,when they begin to be really useful the master generally gives them a small wage4 ,a servant who has no boy of his own will often bring a nephew or a cousin4 ,in every trade you find them1 little boys whose business it is to lighten their elders' work a little in any way they can1 for the ,persians are not over fond of hard work4 ,you find them too in the houses of poor people1 who cannot afford to keep a regular servant1 but pay a few coppers or a meal to a little boy to come in and make himself useful1 sweeping the floor and watering it in hot weather1 preparing the qalin1 or hookah1 running errands1 chopping firewood1 and a hundred other things4 ,it is a system that works very well when it is worked with kindness and consideration1 but it is a terrible system when it is abused4 ,in the ,persian carpet trade we see this4 ,in the villages the whole family works at one carpet1 and as the children grow old enough they are taught and made to join in the work4 ,there need be no cruelty in this1 and often the little things are only too proud and happy to do as their elders do1 and join in the family task4 ,but unhappily even in the family there are many cases of cruel overwork and ill-treatment4 ,but for the horrors of child labour in the carpet trade we must turn to the factories of ,kirman4 ,these factories are filled with children from four years old upward1 underfed1 overworked1 living a loveless1 joyless1 hopeless life4 ,the factories are built without windows lest the children's attention should be distracted1 and the bad air1 want of food1 and the constantly keeping in one position produce rickets and deformity in nearly all4 ,of thirty-eight children examined in one factory thirty-six were deformed4 ,one of the ,governors of ,kirman forbade the employment of children under twelve in the factories1 but the order did not last beyond his governorship4 ,the same ,governor gave the order still in force1 which forbids the employment of children before dawn or after sunset1 thus reducing their working hours to an average of twelve hours a day4 ,a recent ,governor added to this an order limiting the ,friday work to about two and a half hours1 8from sunrise to full sunshine10 so now the children share in part the general ,friday holiday of ,muhammadanism4 ,one of our medical missionaries was called to attend the wife of the owner of one of these factories1 and consented to do so on condition he made windows in his factory to allow the children air and light4 ,he objected at first1 saying that it would prevent their working1 but finally consented1 and admitted afterwards that the children did more work with the windows than they had done without them4 ,the factory owners are glad to get the children1 for they say children work better than grown-up people at carpet-making1 and of course they expect less wages4 ,but how can the parents allow their children to live this cruel life8 ,you will find the answer in the ,persian saying that 8of every three persons in ,kirman1 four smoke opium40 ,the man who takes opium regularly becomes a wreck2 first his digestion is ruined1 then his heart gets weak and he get bronchitis and other chest troubles1 and he become unreliable physically and morally2 he is untruthful and deceitful1 and when he is once well under the power of the habit1 he goes almost mad if he cannot get his opium at the usual time1 and would sell his soul for it1 and does sell his children4 ,over and over again comes the terrible story1 the father and mother smoke opium2 the little deformed child toils through the long days to earn the money that buys it4 ,in the villages the children begin almost as soon as they can run about to take out the sheep and goats1 not in green fields1 for there are none1 but among the scattered plants on the mountain-side or under the village trees4 ,only the boys are allowed to take the flocks out on the hills at any distance from the village1 and on mountains where there are thought to be wolves1 even the boys are forbidden to go without a man4 ,but in and around the villages boys and girls alike turn out4 ,often they carry a long pole1 generally more than twice as long as themselves4 ,this pole serves at times as a fence to keep the flock from wandering into crops as they pass them on their way1 or as they graze on the stubble of the neighbouring crops which have been already gathered in4 ,the stubble itself is not much1 but there are more weeds there because the ground has been watered4 ,but neither on the hills nor in the fields can they find much pasture in the heat of summer1 so the little shepherds and shepherdesses take their flocks under the trees and beat the leaves down with their poles for the animals to eat4 ,when the lower leaves are finished they climb1 boys and girls alike1 into the trees1 often to considerable heights1 and beat the higher branches4 ,the leaves that are not eaten are dried and kept for the winter as we keep hay4 ,it is an awkward thing for a child to climb trees encumbered with a long pole1 and in the districts where they do this there are often accidents4 ,one little boy of eight or nine was brought to the ,yezd hospital with a bad compound fracture of his skull through falling out of a tree while tending the sheep4 ,he got nearly well1 and then his mother took him home1 so ,i do not know whether he fully recovered or not4 ,among the richer classes the children sometimes undertake nominal work at a very early age1 but not actual work4 ,one boy of about sixteen in our school held a position in the ,persian army corresponding to that of ,colonel1 and there was said to be a ,field-,marshal of twelve in the army4 ,merchants consider it good training for their sons to do a little business on their own account1 and some of our schoolboys imported goods from ,bombay or elsewhere while they were still at school1 and disposed of them at a profit4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,child ,,wives ,the ,persian girls stay at home longer than the little apprentices1 but not so long as the richer schoolboys4 ,the usual age for a ,muhammadan girl to marry is thirteen or fourteen1 but in many places they marry as early as eight or nine4 ,this perhaps explains why the girl is given no voice in the choice of a husband1 and all is left to the parents4 ,it perhaps partly explains too why ,muhammadans are allowed to beat their wives1 though they will tell you1 as a proof of their prophet's kindness to women1 that he forbade them to do it with a chain4 ,a little girl who has not had time to grow up and learn to behave herself1 will often no doubt be difficult to control4 ,the young wife of a shoemaker one day lost her temper because her husband said he could not afford to buy her something she wanted4 ,she proceeded to break all the ornaments in the house and to tear her best chdar to rags4 ,her husband1 who was a ,christian1 went to the ,english missionary to ask whether it would be allowable under the circumstances to beat her4 ,another girl refused to cook her husband any food when he came home from his work1 and would not even speak to him4 ,she admitted that he was very kind to her1 and that she liked him better than her own brothers1 but still continued to sulk in this way4 ,her own relations said a good beating was what she wanted1 but her husband had scruples about wife-beating1 and would not do anything4 ,but not many ,persian husbands are so forbearing4 ,another necessary result of these early marriages is the custom of living with the husband's parents4 ,a girl of even fourteen is not fit to be given sole charge of a house4 ,so the bridegroom takes his bride home to his father's house1 and puts her under the charge of her mother-in-law4 ,when1 however1 the mother-in-law becomes a widow1 she has to take a secondary place1 if her daughter-in-law is at all of an age to manage her own affairs4 ,then the old lady often prefers to leave her son's house1 and to go and live with a married daughter1 and the men are generally very good in taking in their mothers-in-law4 ,poor little girl wives6 ,they are taken away from home before they are grown up1 and although they are now married women they cannot help behaving as children4 ,there was one young wife of a ,government official who received her visitors with the utmost dignity and propriety1 and then could not resist the temptation to pinch the old black woman who was handing the tea and make her jump4 ,and they hardly know what to do with their babies4 ,they love to nurse them and play with them1 but they get very tired of them and are often glad to hand them over to the grandmother4 ,i went to condole with one girl on the death of her dear little baby1 and she said1 8,it was just as well it died before the winter4 ,it would have been such cold work getting up in the night to look after it40 ,even when the children grow older their mothers1 grown-up children themselves1 do not know how to manage them4 ,what do you think of mothers who lose their tempers with their children1 and fly at them and bite them8 ,and they are not ashamed of it1 and their neighbours do not seem surprised or horrified4 ,one woman bit her little boy's hand1 till it bled badly4 ,he was about seven1 and had cried to have his best coat on when he went to see the missionary4 ,another woman bit the cheek of a poor little consumptive girl of eight or nine1 so that there was a great bruise1 and the skin was broken4 ,she told a neighbour1 with a laugh1 that she had got angry with the child because she was tiresome about taking her medicine1 which was very nasty4 ,there is no command in the ,quran that girls should be married so young1 but the mothers declare that it was the command of ,muhammad1 and certainly he himself set the example by marrying a girl of nine4 ,so when a mother thinks her girl is getting old enough to marry she begins to look out for a suitable husband1 and talks things over with the mother or sister of any man she thinks likely4 ,the man's mother is allowed to see the girl1 but not the man himself1 so you see even the men cannot choose their own wives4 ,then the money matters are arranged4 ,it is settled how much the girl's father will give her1 and how much her husband will settle on her1 and there is often a great deal of haggling over this4 ,if a girl has a cousin who is the son of her father's brother1 he is considered the most appropriate husband for her1 and it is considered an act of merit for him to marry her4 ,if a girl has a large dowry she can generally get a good husband as husbands go out there4 ,if she is poor she has more difficulty1 but a capable1 industrious girl may do fairly well4 ,but a penniless girl with nothing to recommend her fares badly indeed4 ,when her mother fails to get any husband who is at all desirable instead of letting her girl remain single1 she marries her to a madman or a drunkard or a deformed man1 or someone utterly undesirable4 ,the engagement is celebrated by a formal sweet-eating to which the friends on both sides are invited4 ,the bride and her family prepare her trousseau1 and she also has to make a complete suit of clothes for the bridegroom4 ,in one town now it is customary for every well-to-do bride to have one ,european dress in her trousseau1 and for her father to give her a table and chairs4 ,the wedding itself is a great affair1 lasting a week1 if the bride's father can afford it1 but only a day or part of a day in the case of poor people4 ,the little bride in her finest clothes1 of which she is very proud1 looks very disconsolate and cries a great deal4 ,no doubt the tears are sometimes genuine enough1 for the child is leaving her home and going to people she knows little of1 but even if she feels inclined to laugh and smile she must not do anything so improper4 ,after the wedding she must not leave her husband's house for a year1 but she may receive visitors4 ,as we have seen the marriage and wedding are arranged by the women1 but generally the bridegroom has more say in the matter than one young man ,i knew4 ,he had been engaged for some time1 and on going home from work one evening found his wedding prepared without his having been consulted1 and had to be married then and there4 ,he was fond of children1 and quickly won the heart of his little wife1 who cried when he had to go back to his work4 ,we do sometimes find happy family parties in ,persia1 the husbands treating their wives with consideration1 and the wives being very fond of their husbands4 ,one old lady told me1 with tears in her eyes1 how good her husband always was to her1 and how he always got up and made a cup of tea for her in the morning if she was not well4 ,but this is the exception and not the rule4 ,there does not generally seem to be any great affection between husband and wife4 ,the husband expects implicit obedience from his wife1 and is prepared to enforce it4 ,on the other hand she has certain privileges4 ,she generally has the best courtyard in the house1 to which no men are admitted but near relations1 and the smaller courtyard is given up to her husband to receive his guests in4 ,except in the highest classes ,persian women go about a good deal1 but always have to wear a veil in the street or draw the chdar over their faces4 ,the man is absolute master in his own house1 and unless his wife has powerful relations he may do what he likes to her and her children1 and no one will take any notice4 ,i knew one woman whose husband treated her like a slave4 ,he forced her not only to do all the work of the house1 but the work of the stable too1 for he was well enough off to keep a horse4 ,he killed one child in her arms1 and twice stole another away from her1 sending it once to a town a week's journey off1 and once to another part of the town4 ,finally he divorced her1 without giving any reason1 and left her ill and destitute4 ,and she had at no time any redress4 ,certainly ,muhammadanism does not tend to make good husbands1 nor perhaps good wives either4 ,the ,persians are many of them kindly people1 however1 and treat their wives better than ,muhammad taught them to do4 ,otherwise the lot of women in ,persia would be harder than it is4 ,one great evil they are spared1 for the widows are not despised and ill-treated as the ,hindu widows are1 but are allowed to marry again1 and generally do so if they are of a suitable age4 ,still the condition of girls in ,persia is not a happy one1 and ,i think that all of you who have ,christian mothers1 and know what the love of such a mother can be1 will have something to pray about1 when you think of mothers and their children in ,persia4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,,sick ,,children ,measles1 scarlet fever1 whooping cough1 mumps1 chickenpox1 ,persian children have them all4 ,typhoid fever1 diphtheria1 rheumatic fever are all common4 ,but almost the commonest illness of all is smallpox4 ,a woman brought a child into the dispensary waiting-room one day covered with a smallpox rash4 ,the doctor1 new to the country1 ordered her out1 condemning her reckless disregard for infection4 8,is there anyone who has not had smallpox80 she asked1 looking round at the thirty or forty other people in the room4 ,as she expected1 all had had it1 and she came in4 ,it is considered a children's illness1 because people hardly ever grow up without having had it4 ,in fact1 their parents take care they shall not1 for they are so afraid they will take it badly at an awkward time that they choose a convenient time1 and either put the child with a person who has smallpox mildly1 or1 oftener1 inoculate him with it1 just as we inoculate our babies with vaccine4 ,my cook asked me one day1 with tears1 to go and see his baby2 they had given it smallpox to get it over1 and it had taken it badly4 ,i am glad to say it recovered4 ,he had not thought it necessary to make any difference in his cooking for us1 while he was spending his nights with a baby with smallpox4 ,another missionary's cook brought his little boy with smallpox to the kitchen because it was more cheerful for him than being at home2 he could lie and watch his father cooking4 ,so the ,persians do not take much trouble to prevent their children from getting ill4 ,how do they care for them when they are ill8 ,first of all they start doctoring them themselves1 except in smallpox1 when they say it is dangerous to give any medicine4 ,for other illnesses they give plenty of medicine1 not in little teaspoonfuls1 but in nice big bowlfuls1 and the nastier it is the more good they think it will do4 ,on the whole ,persian children are exceedingly good about taking their medicine1 but whether they are or not they have to take it4 ,one way of giving it to naughty children is to pour it through their noses from a little tin cup with a long narrow spout4 ,if the child gets no better the doctor is consulted2 very often two or three doctors are called in1 and sometimes the parents follow the doctor's advice1 but very often they do not4 ,it depends partly on the beads1 and a good deal on how much they have paid4 ,if they pay much they generally make the patient take all the medicine for fear their money should be wasted4 ,if the doctor seems unable to cure the patient a reader is called in1 sometimes a man1 sometimes a woman1 who reads the ,quran over the patient in the hope that it may effect a cure where medical treatment has failed4 ,in the case of a long1 tiresome illness1 or when they despair of recovery1 it is not uncommon for the patient's friends to hasten the end by giving a dose of poison4 ,one girl1 who had very little the matter with her1 but was always making a fuss over her ailments1 gave her family a great deal of trouble with her fancies4 ,they found her recovery was likely to be slow1 and although she was going on well they one day told the doctor that 8they had given her sherbet and she had died40 ,i myself was several times asked to give poison in the form of medicine1 and ,i think they were rather surprised when ,i told them how ,christians regard such a thing4 ,when the medical missionary starts work he may be puzzled by the very common request that he will give the second medicine first4 ,it appears that the people think1 with how much truth ,i cannot say1 that their doctors give first a medicine to make the patient worse and then one to make him better4 ,perhaps that was what the devoted old grandmother was thinking of1 who had brought her poor little granddaughter in from a village many miles away1 very1 very ill with rheumatic fever4 ,she called in the ,english doctor1 and got her medicine from the dispensary1 but when the doctor called next day1 she said she had not given the child any1 because she remembered she had never asked if it would do her good and so she was afraid to try it4 ,it must surely have been in the minds of the friends of one patient who came to the missionary1 and said their friend was worse every time she took her medicine1 and they wanted some more1 it was doing her so much good4 ,when you are very ill1 ,mother keeps you very quiet and does not let you see visitors1 but when a little ,persian is very ill all the neighbours crowd in to see him1 and the more ill he is the more people come in4 ,and they do not tread on tiptoe and talk in a whisper1 they all talk quite loud out and smoke qalins and drink tea1 and make noise enough to give anyone in good health a headache1 much more a sick child4 ,one day ,i was called in to see a child who was dangerously ill4 ,instead of showing me into her room1 the mother1 together with a variety of aunts1 sisters1 and other relations1 escorted me to their receiving-room4 ,i asked for the sick child1 and was told ,i should see her after tea1 which meant at least half an hour's delay4 ,as the account they had given of her sounded very bad1 ,i said ,i could not wait1 that it was not our custom to think of tea-drinking and entertainment when our patients were perhaps dying4 ,with great difficulty ,i managed to persuade them to take me to the poor little girl1 whom they had left alone while they all came to have tea and sweets with me4 ,she was1 as they had said1 very ill1 her recovery was very doubtful1 yet as soon as we left the room1 and had sent for the medicine1 they were all eager to entertain me1 and ,i do not think anyone would have stayed with the child if ,i had not insisted1 and they were all as gay and lively as if they had had no one dangerously ill in the next room4 ,the ,persians are very hospitable and like to put their best before a visitor1 and they consider it very necessary to provide something nice for the doctor4 ,some ,persian doctors send word beforehand what refreshments they would like got ready4 ,sometimes this deters the very poor from calling in even the mission doctor1 who1 they know1 would treat them free4 ,they cannot even provide tea and sugar4 ,it was a great relief to more than one poor person1 when it was discovered that the mission ladies were fond of boiled turnips1 for a plate of turnips was within the reach of the poorest1 costing only about a halfpenny4 ,the news spread1 and several sick people were able at once to have a doctor4 ,but it is in surgery that one sees the ,persian doctor at his worst4 ,here comes little ,husain with his head plastered up with mud2 on removing the mud we find a broken skull and a large wound in a foul condition4 ,next comes little ,sakneh with both hands burnt2 the burns are smeared with sticky white of egg covered over with leaves2 it will take days of proper dressing to get the wounds clean4 ,but she is not so badly off as ,rubbeh1 whose burn has been dressed with camphorated oil1 and is so inflamed that she screams and cries the whole time4 ,a more fortunate child was the little girl who was scalded nearly all over1 but not deeply1 and who looked like a little nigger with the ink they had put on4 ,she got well very quickly4 ,it is like ,indian ink1 and seems to be the best of the remedies the ,persians use for burns4 ,with broken bones the ,persian doctors are not very successful either4 ,little ,hasan1 aged four1 fell and broke both arms4 ,the ,persian doctor as usual tied them up with splints that were too small to be any real use1 but he tried to make up for that by tying the bandages very tight1 and poor little ,hasan had both arms partly destroyed4 ,how proud he was when1 after some weeks at the ,c4,m4,s4 hospital1 he was able to carry an ,english doll clasped to his heart with the two poor bandaged stumps4 ,there was some truth in what one doctor said1 that more than half the cases that came into the hospital had come there in consequence of the ,persian doctors' treatment4 ,the remedy is generally worse than the disease4 ,there are exceptions1 and ,i have met ,persian doctors1 who not only had real knowledge of medical treatment1 but had some of the true doctor's spirit of pity and self-sacrifice4 ,especially ,i would mention the brave ,persian doctor who stayed at his post in ,shiraz in the cholera epidemic of #aijd1 and fought that terrible disease instead of yielding to the panic that had seized his fellow countrymen4 ,it is evident1 however1 that there is a great and crying need for dispensaries and hospitals in ,persia4 ,so in the north the ,american ,presbyterians1 and in the south the ,church ,missionary ,society1 have founded them in a number of towns4 ,as a rule a dispensary is started first1 to which out-patients can come to get medicines and have their hurts attended to4 ,later a hospital is opened4 ,generally the first hospital is a very poor affair1 but as the work grows money is collected1 and nice1 clean1 convenient hospitals are built and furnished4 ,armenian and ,persian boys and girls are trained as nurses and assistants1 the boys for the men's hospital1 the girls for the women's and children's4 ,here ,hasan and #8,ali1 ,ftimeh and ,rubbeh1 and a great many other little ,persian children are made as comfortable as their illness allows1 and are kept clean and happy in comfortable beds1 and well fed and cared for4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,mission ,,hospital ,morning and evening they hear prayers read1 and soon they too venture to join in the 8,our ,father40 ,and every day someone reads and explains in the ward something about the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and ,his love and ,his teaching1 and they learn that ,he knows and loves each little ,akbar or ,sakneh and wants them for ,his own1 and they learn to love ,him because ,he first loved them4 ,they learn hymns too1 and love to sing them1 the same hymns that you know so well1 8,whiter than snow10 8,simply trusting10 8,here we suffer grief and pain10 and many others4 ,the last recalls the story of little ,bgum1 the child-wife1 who was deliberately and cruelly burnt by her husband1 and was brought to the mission hospital4 ,there was no hope of recovery1 but all was done that was possible to relieve her pain and brighten her last days4 ,she had heard something of the ,gospel story from a missionary who had paid a visit to her native village1 and she had been so interested that she had asked two ,persian children to teach her more4 ,when she was brought to the hospital even the terrible pain she was suffering did not make her forget the wonderful story1 and she begged to be told more and more4 ,and resting in the love of ,christ and trusting wholly in ,him and ,his salvation1 she loved to sing of the joy to which ,he was going to take her and kept begging for 8,here we suffer grief and pain10 and repeating over and over the refrain1 8,shd1 ,shd10 7joy1 joy71 until even the ,muhammadan women would sit beside her and sing the hymn that comforted her so much4 ,in a small village in another part of ,persia lived a little lame girl4 ,she could not walk at all1 and her leg was drawn up so that she could not straighten it1 and she suffered very much4 ,she was a good deal of trouble to her parents1 and they got tired of taking care of her1 and neglected her a good deal1 till at last her father heard of the mission hospital in the neighbouring town1 seventeen miles off1 and took her there to see if the ,ferangis 7,europeans7 could cure her4 ,she was taken in1 washed1 and dressed in clean clothes and put to bed4 ,at first she used to scream when her leg was touched1 but it was operated on1 and gradually1 very gradually1 the pain grew less1 and the leg grew straighter4 ,but still1 as the months went on1 the recovery was very slow1 and when the weather grew so hot that the hospital had to be closed and her father took her home1 though free from pain while she lay still in bed1 the pain was so great when she tried to stand that she could not walk a step4 ,but as she lay alone on her bed at home she thought over all she had heard at the hospital1 and one day a new thought struck her4 ,surely the ,khnums had told her that the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 ,who used to cure people so wonderfully1 was alive still and could hear when anyone spoke to ,him4 ,why had she never asked ,him to make her leg well8 ,and then and there1 in her ignorance and simple faith1 she asked ,him1 ,who in the old ,gospel days had made the lame to walk1 to make her walk1 and1 confident in ,his love and power1 she 8arose and walked40 ,when the hospital was reopened she came back again still lame1 still in pain1 but able to walk about with a stick4 ,and she loved more than ever to hear of ,him who had not only done so much for the sick ,jews of old times1 but had done so much too for her4 ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,conclusion ,a ,persian was one day talking to an ,english missionary and asked why our ,king did not annex ,persia4 8,it is not right10 said the missionary1 8to take what belongs to someone else1 and ,persia belongs to your ,shah40 8,still your ,king is surely bound to do as the ,bible tells him1 and the ,bible tells him to annex it40 8,where does the ,bible say that80 8,does it not say that if you see your neighbour's ox or ass fallen into a pit you are to pull it out8 ,and ,persia is an ass fallen into a pit1 and your ,king should pull her out40 ,yes1 ,persia has indeed fallen into a pit1 and we must pull her out1 but the pit is not simply one of political difficulty1 it is the pit of ,muhammadanism1 ,persia's most real difficulty1 and we must annex ,persia for the ,king of ,kings4 ,as long as the ,persians are ,muhammadans lying and dishonesty will be the rule1 cruelty and injustice will go hand in hand1 the poor will be oppressed1 the girls and women will be treated as inferior creatures1 the children will be liable to overwork and cruelty1 and religious persecution will continue4 ,and the ,persians are finding out that they are in the pit and they are struggling to get out1 they are crying to us for help4 ,are we going to help them8 ,thousands of ,muhammadans in ,persia are dissatisfied with their religion1 and are looking for something better4 ,many are trying a dissenting form of ,muhammadanism1 called ,bbism1 but many are looking to ,christianity for help4 ,at first they distrusted the ,christians1 and ,christian work was constantly hindered or stopped4 ,now they have learnt to know and trust the ,christians1 and the work is not greatly interfered with4 ,indeed everywhere the ,persians are asking for teachers and doctors1 for schools and hospitals1 and for ,christian teaching4 ,if we do not help them in their search after the ,way1 the ,truth1 and the ,light1 ,muhammad's mistake1 which has caused so much misery1 may be repeated1 and ,christianity rejected in favour of some new religion made to suit the needs of the moment1 but not the needs of eternity4 ,we must all put our shoulder to the wheel to prevent that4 ,the ,persians are well worth an effort4 ,numbers of ,babis went to their death in #aijc rather than deny their prophet1 and even children have stood persecution for ,christ4 8,i have a foolish husband10 said one little girl4 8,he says he will beat ,jesus ,christ out of me1 but he can only beat my body1 and ,jesus ,christ is in my heart1 so he cannot beat ,him out40 ,and the ,persians are naturally a religious people1 and if their religious energy could be turned from dead works1 formal prayers1 fastings1 pilgrimages1 divining1--turned to the service of the true and living ,god1 what a splendid people they might be again1 what a force for ,god in ,asia1 and in the world4 ,for the wave of true religious life would act again on us and help us on4 ,god grant we may yet see the ,persian1 stunted as he is by ,muhammadanism1 grow up to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of ,christ4 ,and what is our part in this great work8 ,it is threefold4 #a4 ,prayer4 ,persia wants our prayers4 ,god wants our prayers for ,persia4 ,we none of us know all the power and possibilities of prayer1 and most of us are surprised when we get direct and obvious answers to our prayers4 ,it takes us a long time to find out that ,god answers all our prayers1 but ,he does4 ,and there are many in ,persia who need our prayers3 the missionaries2 the converts1 often standing alone in a ,muhammadan house or even in a village or in a quarter of the town1 with no ,christian friend to encourage them2 the inquirers1 perplexed as to the truth1 or struggling with their fears of confessing the ,saviour in ,whom they have learnt to believe2 the untouched ,muhammadans1 oppressing or oppressed2 the schools1 the hospitals and dispensaries1 and the services held week by week in the name of ,jesus ,christ4 #b4 ,giving4 ,we may help to send out missionaries and to keep up the schools and hospitals1 either by giving some of our money1 or our time and work4 ,have you only five loaves and two small fishes8 ,our ,lord can use them to feed five thousand men besides women and children4 #c4 ,personal service4 ,we cannot all be missionaries in the foreign field4 ,no1 but those who cannot give themselves for foreign service can do 8garrison duty0 at home4 ,people often try to dissuade missionaries from going abroad1 telling them they are wanted at home4 ,but they ought not to be wanted at home2 every ,christian who cannot go abroad ought to be doing his share of the work at home1 so that those who can go abroad may be spared4 ,and you who read this book1 if you want to help forward ,god's kingdom in heathen and ,muhammadan lands1 set to work now at once to fit yourselves to work as ,christian teachers1 that you may be ready to take your place in the ranks here or there as the great ,captain places you4 ,get to know your ,bibles well1 studying them if possible with commentaries or aids4 ,do not let shyness stand in the way of your undertaking direct ,christian work if you are old enough4 ,do your lessons or your work thoroughly and well1 and so make yourselves more fit to be used when the time comes4 ,get into good habits of healthy living and simple food4 ,put away all unkind words and thoughts and learn to live in charity with all men4 ,be regular in your prayers morning and evening1 and if possible get a regular time for midday prayer1 even if it is only two minutes1 but speak to ,god too all through the day--get into the habit of turning to ,him at all times4 ,for whether we work here at home or far away in foreign lands we can only do ,god's work by keeping in close touch with ,him4 ,,footnotes3 ,a ,for the credit of the hospital authorities it must be stated that they were making every effort to destroy the cat1 but had hitherto failed owing to its wildness and cunning4 ,b ,this description is taken from the ,shiraz copper bazaar4 ,,transcriber',s ,,notes3 ,italicized text is surrounded by underscores3 italics4 ,obvious typographical errors have been corrected4 ,inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized4