ools and industrial
missions so that the Arab boys may learn to handle tools and make
furniture and build houses.

[Illustration: AN ARAB CARPENTER'S TOOLS.]

In America there is hardly a boy living but he can drive a nail and saw
off a board and put up a shelf. In Arabia only carpenters' sons can do
these things; the ordinary boy does not even know how to use a jack-knife;
he never had one. A short definition of Arabia would be "a land without
tools." Ritter, the great geographer, calls Arabia "the anti-industrial
centre of the world," which is only the same definition in other words.

XV

ARABIC PROVERBS AND ARABIC HUMOUR

The people of Topsy-turvy Land, like all orientals, are very fond of
proverbs and short, bright sayings. You know that even to-day there are
men who go about in the coffee shops of Arabia to tell stories, just as
you have read in the Arabian Nights. Some of their stories are very
interesting and some of their proverbs are wise. Others are not
interesting and many of their stories are too bad to repeat. Even some of
their proverbs bear the mark of their topsy-turvy religion and are only
half true. Judge them for yourself. Here are fifty examples; which do you
think is the best proverb among them? Are they all good?

First seek your neighbour, then build your house.

First get a companion, then go on the road.

Whoever dies in a strange land, dies a martyr.

When the judge is oppressive, the very air is, too. Don't cut your head
off with your tongue.

Keep your dog hungry and he will follow you.

Leave off sin, then ask forgiveness.

Every horse knows its rider.

Talk is feminine, but a good answer is masculine.

With little food a bed tastes good.

A trotting dog is better than a sleeping lion.

Every girl is beautiful in her father's eyes.

His tongue is sweeter than dates but his hands are as hard as sticks.

There is no perfume after the wedding.

Clouds do not fear the barking of dogs.

A bird catches a bird.

Poverty is the mother of deceptions.

The fruit of haste is repentance.

That man is like the _Kaaba_; he goes nowhere but every one comes to him.

The tongue of a fool is the key to his destruction.

The needle clothes others but is itself naked.

If the owl were game to eat, the gunner would not have passed by the
ruined castle.

Happy is the man whose enemy is wise.

Time is stingy of honour.

The best generosity is quick.

If your neighbou