In the blue waters of the Persian Gulf there lies a coral island called
Bahrein. At a few hundred yards to the northeast of it is a still smaller
island shaped like a pack-saddle, where palm trees and white coral rock
houses are reflected in the salt water at high tide. The little island
town is called Moharrek, that is, the "Burning Place," because it is very
hot there in summer. After sailing across in a boat one day, and wending
our way through a dirty bazar full of flies and Arabs, we were directed to
the house of the man called "The Shepherd of the Sewing Machine." His real
name is Mohammed bin Sooltaan, but nobody knows him by any other name or
title than _Räee el karkhan_, which literally means shepherd of the sewing
machine. Let me tell you his story and how he got that queer name.
Years ago, as pilot on the native boats that sail from Bahrein to Bombay,
Calcutta, Zanzibar and Jiddah, he had experience of a wider world than the
little island where he was born. But the life was a hard one and his wages
were small. Moreover, the coming of steamships up the Gulf took away the
profit of the sailing craft, and so Mohammed fared from bad to worse. He
loved an Arab lass with plaited, well-greased locks of hair and a pleasant
face, but her father asked a larger dowry than he could ever pay.
An Arab young man must always pay a good price to the father of his
sweetheart before he is allowed to marry her. But this Mohammed was too
poor to pay the price asked. What a queer topsy-turvy custom it is for a
man to buy his wife just as he buys a horse or a camel! The Arabs often
ask how much a wife costs in America and wonder that we are not allowed by
the Christian laws to send away our wives and marry others.
Mohammed could not stay at home so he once more went in a ship to Jiddah,
the port to Mecca, where pilgrims from all the Moslem world exchange
thought and money for bad bread and fanaticism. And yet even here the
civilisation of the West tries to enter. Wandering through the bazars
Mohammed for the first time saw a sewing machine, in the hands of an
Indian tailor. A marvel to the sailor fisherman, indeed! Almost as great a
miracle to him as the Koran. The more he looked the more he coveted, and
he could not pass the place without reckoning up the possible profits of
such an investment should he return with it to his native island. The
result was that he forswore the sea and preferred another kind of wheel to
that of the pilot. With many mutual _wallahs_ the bargain was concluded
and the machine reached Bahrein. It was the first on the islands, and all
the sheikhs came to see its marvellous build and wonderful work. Mohammed
has a Western head on Eastern shoulders, and there was not a screw or
tension from treadle to shuttle, which he did not learn the use of. It is
unnecessary to state at the cost of how many broken needles he became
proficient. Amid cries of _ajeeb, ajeeb_, the first Arab shirt was
stitched together, and even the youngsters on the street imitated the
whirrr-clic-whirrr of the machine. As for Mohammed, he sewed on, and while
his sandalled feet worked the treadle his mind worked out a problem
something like this: Three long-shirts a day and an _abba_, at one _kran_
per shirt and two for the abba, thirty-five krans per week, how long will
it take to pay the dowry? An _abba_ is a large over-garment worn by both
men and women in Arabia. It is like a cape or overcoat but has no sleeves
nor buttons. The Arabs in Bahrein put a great deal of pretty embroidery
work on these garments and some of them are worth twenty or thirty
dollars. But the sewing is done very cheaply. A kran is a Persian coin
worth about ten cents; can you figure out how much Mohammed earned in a
month?
The Shepherd of the Machine kept working away and when his hopes grew
strong he sang at his work. In a few months he paid a visit to the Mullah
(the Moslem priest or teacher), and that same night the Arab fiddles and
drums rang out merry music around the palm-leaf hut of his beloved bride.
But the music of the machine sounded still sweeter next morning. Daily
bread, with rice, fish and dates, and on rare occasions even mutton, all
came out of the machine. He loved the very iron of it and, as he told us,
read a prayer over it every morning: _Bismillahi er rahman er raheem._ His
was the only machine, and a small monopoly soon makes a capitalist. His
palm branch hut was exchanged for a house of stone; and Allah blessed him
greatly. No shepherd was ever more tender to his little lambs than
Mohammed to the old machine.
When we entered the house on our first visit, there stood the machine! Not
much the worse for wear, and with "_Pfaff_. C. Theodosius,
Constantinople," still legible on the nickel-plate. But the old machine
had found a rival. By its side stood another make of machine which looked
strangely familiar to American eyes. It was while comparing the machines
and drinking Arab coffee that we learned from Mohammed why he prized the
old one as better. "Wallah," he said, "I would not sell it for many times
its original price. There is blessing in it, and all I have comes from
that machine, praise be to Allah." And so we sipped his cups and heard his
story and ceased to wonder why he was called the Shepherd of the Sewing
machine. The shepherd has a brother who wants to learn English and goes to
Bombay every year--but that is another story.
There are many other sewing machines in Bahrein now, but Mohammed's was
the first, and he introduced the others. Do you not think that he should
be called the Christopher Columbus of Bahrein tailors?