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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



mercurial and arsenical preparations of 

 the materia medica, the sulphates of sev- 

 eral metals, the properties of acids and 

 alkalis, and the distillation of alcohol 

 were, with their practical application, 

 known to Er-Razi and Geber, professors 

 of Bagdad. In fact, the numerous terms 

 borrowed from the Arabic language — 

 alcohol, alkali, alembic, and others — with 

 the signs of drugs and the like still in use 

 among modern apothecaries, show how 

 deeply science is indebted to Arab re- 

 search." 



All of which leads the Christian world 

 to believe that the Arab people, as a na- 

 tion, can "come back." 



SEVEN-YEAR SLAVES AND INTERMARRIAGE 



On one occasion, while hunting wild 

 guineas in the licorice brush along the 

 lower Euphrates, our party put up for 

 the night at an Arab village. To make 

 friendly conversation (through our in- 

 terpreter), I expressed admiration of the 

 splendid physique of the big black who 

 served us. He really was a magnificent 

 man, straight and muscular, and dignified 

 as a Chinese mandarin, as he marched 

 proudly in, carrying on his head a giant 

 copper tray holding a sheep, roasted 

 whole. 



Pleased that I should admire his slave, 

 and with characteristic Arab politeness, 

 the old sheik, our host, promptly made 

 me a present of the man ! I felt some 

 embarrassment in refusing, but explained 

 that in America slavery had been abol- 

 ished. The sheik, however, kept repeat- 

 ing, "But you are not in America now !" 



Slave traffic along the Arab coast is 

 illegal under the terms of certain conven- 

 tions, but slavery, nevertheless, is said 

 still to exist to a rather considerable ex- 

 tent. A few years ago members of the 

 American Arabian Mission' at Bahrein 

 rescued a whole boatload of black boys 

 who had been smuggled up from Africa 

 in a "blackbird" dhow for sale along the 

 Oman coast. In the interior towns slaves 

 are used mostly as personal servants, 

 body guards, and hostlers. 



By an old law in Arabia, a slave is 

 freed after seven years of service, pro- 

 vided he has embraced the Moslem re- 

 ligion, and it is said that most of the 

 slaves do so. There is no prejudice 



against marriage with blacks in Arabia, 

 especially after they are freed. This 

 intermarriage has scattered a black popu- 

 lation all over Arabia ; in ports like 

 Maskat and Aden mulattoes and mixed 

 breeds are so common that the pure Arab 

 strain is almost a rarity. 



AMAZON TONGUES AS WEAPONS OE WAR 



There is no better fighting man any- 

 where than the Arab. The Turks will 

 tell you this ! History says that in the 

 seventh century the Arabs raised an 

 army, swooped out, and whipped half the 

 then civilized world. 



Today Arabia could readily raise and 

 maintain an army of 400,000. And no 

 doubt the British will recruit and equip 

 many regiments of native troops for use 

 as constabulary along the caravan routes 

 and in the big cities, after the manner of 

 their colonial troops elsewhere. 



The women fight, too, in emergency, 

 and Arab myths and legends are full of 

 tales of heroic women. History tells the 

 story of Ayesha, a wife of the Prophet, 

 who led a charge at the "Battle of the 

 Camel," in 656 A. D. To this day it is 

 an Arab custom to have a woman along 

 in battle — usually mounted on a black 

 camel — to sing songs of cheer to the men 

 and to insult the enemy. 



And the Arab shares the universal hu- 

 man trait of wanting to be on the win- 

 ning side. The Beni Lam tribe in Meso- 

 potamia quit their Turkish allies and went 

 over to the British as soon as the Turks 

 began to lose. 



THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OE ARABIA 



In physical character, flora, and fauna, 

 Arabia is more like Africa than Asia. In 

 shape, it is almost a triangle, and it runs 

 from northwest to southeast, between 30 

 and 12 45' north latitude and between 

 32 30' and 6o° east longitude. It is 

 bounded on the east, south, and west by 

 the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, and 

 the Red Sea respectively ; on the north it 

 joins Syria. As Josephus of old wrote, 

 "Arabia is a country that joins on Judea." 

 xAnd Roman geographers drew a map of 

 Arabia that included Mesopotamia and 

 the Syrian desert back of Palestine. 



The length of the peninsula from the 

 head of the Gulf of Akabah to the Straits 



