blessing those jars are to all the people of this hot and dry country. We
have no ice in Arabia and so no refrigerators; the wells are never very
deep and the water comes a long distance. So if it were not for the
crockery man and his water-jugs we could never drink _cold_ water. But
just pour the water in one of these earthen pots and hang it in the wind
and then in a few minutes the water gets cold. We missionaries always have
such water-jars hanging or standing in our windows to catch the breeze.
Perhaps this kind of water-cooler is very old, and Solomon himself looked
at one when he wrote the words: "As cold waters to a thirsty soul so is
good news from a far country."




VI

BLIND FATIMAH


It was on a Sunday afternoon that I first met Blind Fatimah and greeted
her with _Salaam aleikum_ and she answered _aleikum es salaam!_ "Peace be
to you and on you be peace." I asked if she could read. She said she could
"read by heart," but could not see anything. She at that time could repeat
twenty-six chapters of the Koran, the sacred book of the Mohammedans. Now
I think she can repeat it nearly all; it contains one hundred and fourteen
chapters. Some are very short and others are very long; some parts of the
book are very good, but most of it is a jumble of events and of things
that never happened--all mixed up topsy-turvy.

A slave woman was Fatimah's teacher and now she is helper in the school of