ike to know how they make bread in Arabia? First the wheat is
sifted and cleaned and then it is put into one of the hand-mills. It
consists of an upper and nether millstone with a hole in the upper one and
a wooden handle. Two women usually sit and grind because the stone is
heavy and they love to talk while they work. One swings it half way and
the other pulls it around. Then the coarse flour is taken out and put into
a bowl with water and salt and mixed to the right consistency. A piece
of this dough is then taken between the hands and gradually beaten until
it is about the thickness of a book cover and twelve inches in diameter--a
round, flat cake of dough. The oven is usually under ground and is shaped
like a large jar with the mouth above the ground a little. A fire is built
_inside_ the oven and when the sides of the oven are quite hot the fire is
allowed to die out. Then the large pan cakes of bread are deftly clapped
on to the side of the oven until the space is covered and one by one the
cakes are taken out when done. In some houses they have a shallow oval pan
which is placed over an open fire and on this the cakes are baked. The pan
is put on the fire upside down, so even here we are again in Topsy-turvy
Land. Twenty or thirty of these flat loaves are baked at one time, for a
hungry Arab can eat five or six at one meal.

[Illustration: BEDOUIN WOMEN EATING THEIR BREAKFAST.]

Now the men come in to eat the food that the housewife has prepared. With
a short prayer called _bismillah_ they begin and then shove the rice and
meat or the bread and gravy into their mouths as fast as they can.
Whatever is left when the men get through is for the women. You can see a
group of Arab women in the picture eating their meal from one common dish
in front of their tent. They use their hands instead of spoons or forks
but get along very well and always wash before and after their simple
meal.

Now the women always have to wait on their husbands and eat by themselves.
When things get right side up in this dark land we hope to see the whole
family sitting down together and taking their meal with joy and
thanksgiving.

XIV

BOAT-BUILDERS AND CARPENTERS

Sinbad the sailor died long ago but the sea he sailed is still called the
Persian Gulf and is just as full of curious islands as it was in his time.
The boats are also just like Sinbad's and the sailors sing the same songs,
I think, for there are very few changes in