102 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



ordinary type. They are square and do 

 not taper upward, and instead of a bal- 

 cony arrangement for the muezzin, or 

 caller to prayer, a window is provided 

 on each side, the top terminating in a 

 sort of dome. 



THE UBIQUITOUS ADVIi;RTISEME;NT 



Homs, the ancient Emesa, which has 

 a varied and interesting history, today 

 gains its living as a market for the large 

 Bedouin tribes of the adjacent country. 

 The bazaars remind one quite a good 

 deal of Damascus, as one wanders 

 through them, seeing here a man work- 

 ing a primitive hand loom, on which he 

 turns out bright fabrics for which Homs 

 is noted, and there a small spice shop, 

 and again a dyer, with hands stained 

 dark with indigo, hanging up his wet 

 cloths in the street. 



When we had lost ourselves in these 

 strange surroundings, which seemed to 

 place civilization at a remote distance, 

 our eyes were struck by a placard, on 

 which appeared in bold English "Use 

 Fel's Naptha Soap." 



On the outskirts we came across nu- 

 merous potters' shops, where large water 

 jars, some 20 inches high, were being 

 turned out by ancient methods. The 

 plain ones retailed at 2^ cents each, 

 while those striped with bands of red 

 and otherwise decorated sold at double 

 this price. Further on were extensive 

 threshing floors, where the grain was 

 being threshed out with appliances that 

 have probably been in use for thousands 

 of years. 



Here we also found limekilns, the fuel 

 being a common pricker that grows in 

 the wheat fields and which has to be col- 

 lected and transported from a distance 

 requiring two to three hours' travel (see 

 page 103). 



We were often told that we would 

 find the people of Homs and Hama very 

 fanatical and anti-European, but our ex- 

 perience did not bear this out. We found 

 them very polite and not averse to being 

 photographed. 



Moreover, we never heard the familiar 

 word "bakshish," the only person who 

 asked for a tip being a tired native wo- 

 man, who had been carrying bunches of 



thorns all day to the limekiln, when she 

 was asked to hold her bundle up while a 

 picture was being taken. When the 

 money was handed her she seemed to be 

 ashamed of herself and only took it after 

 much persuasion. The secret lies in the 

 fact that they have not been spoiled by 

 Europeans. 



If you want to see the Arabs at their 

 best, take them where they have not been 

 tainted by outside influence, for, like 

 most primitive peoples, they more readily 

 take on the vices than the virtues of civ- 

 ilization. 



A TEST OF KEEPING RAMADAN 



On our return to the town we were 

 stopped by a native, who seemed to be a 

 friend of our carriage driver and who 

 asked him if he was keeping the fast. 

 The driver replied that he was. "Then," 

 answered the friend, "by Mohammed, 

 the prophet of Allah, show me your 

 tongue." The driver produced that mem- 

 ber and the questioner used both hands 

 to draw the jaws open wider in order to 

 complete his examination, after which 

 he turned away, shaking his head with a 

 kind of unexpected satisfaction, mutter- 

 ing to himself, "By Allah, he is really 

 fasting." We said nothing, for not long 

 before we had seen him, while waiting 

 for us, go into an obscure corner to sat- 

 isfy his hunger with some bread he had 

 with him. 



Curious windmills are to be seen here 

 on the tops of some of the houses. 

 Round disk-like pans of sheet-iron are 

 fastened to wooden arms and are so dis- 

 posed that the wind striking them causes 

 them to revolve. 



A curious custom also obtains of en- 

 snaring domestic pigeons. Our atten- 

 tion was called to it by seeing a man on 

 his housetop swinging round over his 

 head what resembled a huge tennis 

 racket, only instead of the tight strings a 

 loose bag was attached to the frame. 

 Over him hovered a large flock of pig- 

 eons. We were told that his own pigeons 

 decoyed others which followed and were 

 caught. After being taken, if they proved 

 to be the property of a friend they were 

 returned, but if of an enemy they were 

 kept. They did not regard it as stealing, 



