It is not a very long distance from the Arab coffee-shop where we left our
friend smoking, to the grocer. The streets are very narrow and unless we
are very careful that camel will crowd us to the wall or those water-skins
on the white donkey wet our clothes--see how they drip! Well, one turn
more and here we are. The grocer in the picture on the next page is
leaning on his elbow waiting for a customer. And if he keeps his groceries
as free from flies and ants as he does his spotless white turban we will
buy our day's supplies here. The shops in Arabia are not very large and
they have no place for customers except outside. Sometimes there is a sort
of raised seat or bench on which the purchaser sits when he bargains for
something; but generally you have to stand up outside while the crowds
push and the traffic goes on. One curious custom is that all the shops of
one kind cluster close together in one street or section of the town. You
will see for example in one street a long row of shops where they sell
drugs and perfumery; in another place there are only hardware merchants;
again a whole street of nothing but grocers. I think the reason is that
Arabs love to bargain and to beat down prices and so it is easier to have
all the merchants of one kind close together. At any rate this arrangement
makes it quite convenient for the purchaser. Indeed it is becoming
somewhat customary to group the shops in this way in some of your Western
cities. Occidental civilisation can learn some things from the Orient!
[Illustration: ARAB GROCER.]
Our shopkeeper has a mixed lot of groceries in his shop; many things which
you would find at your grocers' he has never heard of. Everything is
topsy-turvy. Just fancy how strange to hang up the sugar in a row of cones
on strings like sausages! Do you see them on the ceiling of the shop in
our picture? That is the way white sugar comes wrapped from France and is
sold in Arabia. A sugar _barrel_ would soon be full of ants in this
country; but when it hangs up on a string the ants have a hard time
getting it away. Maybe there is a suggestion here for your homes if you
are troubled with ants.
In those big Arab baskets the grocer keeps his carrots and other
vegetables; carrots are white in Arabia and there are curious vegetables
of which you have never heard.
Do you see the bottles and tin boxes on his shelves? Those are for spices;
pepper, cinnamon, nutmegs, curry-powder and such things of which Arab
housewives are very fond.
The big bowl on the left probably has olives in it or other kind of
pickled vegetables. On the right you can see the big pair of old fashioned
scales on which he weighs his wares. I hope he is an honest man, although
I do not think he looks very honest, do you? The scale hangs true I have
no doubt; but it is in the weights that deception lurks. In Arabia we can
every day see illustrations of the words of Solomon in the book of
Proverbs about "divers weights" and "false balances." The most of the
shopkeepers do not have proper weights of iron or brass, but use ordinary
cobblestones and pebbles. Only a few days ago I bought some walnuts and
the grocer weighed them so many stones' weight! Do you know what a "stone"
weight is. Maybe you had better look it up in your dictionary. That
covered kettle near the scale-pans on top of the little box contains
_semn_, which is the Arabic name for sheep's fat. You would hardly believe
me if I told you what a lot of this greasy yellow stuff the boys and girls
eat on their rice, and how much is used in an Arab kitchen. It is sold by
weight, just as well as all other things, even _milk_ in Arabia. If we
wait long enough you will see Fatimah and Mirjam and the other girls come
with empty bowls to buy so many pennies' worth of grease.
Do you notice that the shop has queer little doors on the lower part of
the front opening? The other part of the shop is closed by a flap-door
that does not show on the picture. This is hinged from the top and is used
when the shop is open as a sort of blind to keep off the sun or the rain.
When the shopkeeper leaves his shop for a half hour or so he hangs a sort
of fish-net over the opening of his shop and never needs to lock it. This
is a curious custom, and I have often wondered how the shops were safe
from stealing boys or robbers in such cases. It is one more instance of
how different the East is from the West.
The shopkeepers generally close their shops at sunset, and only in a very
few places are there people who buy and sell or go about to do shopping
by lamplight. Our grocer on the corner has provided for emergencies, and
the large Arabian lantern ought to light up all his little shop.
Across the street is the place where they sell crockery. The salesman is
out, but his boy, as you see, has taken the opportunity to eat some
apples. I wonder whether he got them at the grocer's?
[Illustration: ARAB BOY IN A CROCKERY SHOP. (Float this image to the
right.)]
His father sells water-jugs and jars made of porous earth. Oh what a
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."