MOHAMMEDANS 381 



the nights as a compensation. In Constantinople, should 

 a man openly break his fast, he would be arrested, and 

 fined or imprisoned. The fast is not obligatory in the 

 case of weak men or of women or youth. But when a 

 lad grows to be twelve or thirteen his soul rests not until 

 he has won permission to keep Ramazan. On working- 

 men it is hard, especially when Ramazan comes in the hot 

 months, as, being l)y the Moslem lunar calendar made a 

 shifting feast, it does about a third of the time. On sol- 

 diers it is still more hard ; and though in war-time Ram- 

 azan is more honored in the breach than in the observ- 

 ance — much as Sunday was in our Civil War in the way 

 of battles — in times of peace the sentry does his rounds 

 unfed and thirsty. 



I have a hearty respect for the best Mohammedan 

 element. I have found them as liberal, sensible, and 

 gentle-minded as the lower classes can be fanatical — a 

 fact I ascertained to my sorrow when they stoned me and 

 ray son out of Hebron last year. One day in Jerusalem 

 I had a long and interesting discussion with an Arab 

 gentleman, which drifted from travelling to social matters, 

 from social to political, and from political to religious. I 

 found no grain of prejudice in the man. To him, as to all 

 Moslems, Abram was one of the great and holy men of 

 the past, Christ was one of the wisest teachers. " But," 

 said he, most reasonably, '' we Mohammedans do not think 

 that you Christians of the present day teach the just and 

 beautiful doctrines of Jesus. We look around us and we 

 see many sects, each expounding a separate dogma ; we 

 look at the Mohammedans, and we find them believino- 

 absolutely the same doctrines in every section of the 

 world. The Koran means but one thing to all of us ; 

 there have practically never been quarrels as to what it 

 contains. So ought it to be with the Bible, which, to me, 



