"Yes, we know."

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Illustration: PUZZLE OF THE THIRTY MEN.]

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

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

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

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

XVI

GOLD, FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH

In olden times Arabia was a much more important country than it is to-day.
Before there were large seagoing ships, all the trade between India,
Persia, even China, on the east, and Egypt on the west, was carried on
camels. The caravans at that time used to cross Arabia in all directions,
and the men who drove these camel-trains grew wealthy, as railroad
magnates do to-day. We read about this early traffic on these highways of
the desert in the Old Testament as well as in the old Greek histories. The
province of Yemen was celebrated for its wealth and civilisation as early
as the time of Solomon. It was then called Sheba and the old capital was
called Marib, a little northeast of the present city of Sanaa. There are
still many extensive ruins and ins