The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-03-15 00:00:00

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LECTURE ON ARAB LIFE IN THE
CORN EXCHANGE.

A lecture was given in the Corn Exchange, on
Monday evening last. (under the auspices of the
Church of England Young Men's Association)
by Seyyiii Mustafa Ben- Yassuf, on" Arab Life."
There was a highly respectable and numerous
auditory present. Several young gentle:nen of
the town were present on the platform with the
lecturer, habited in the costume of Shepherds,
Merchants, Beduoins, &c., to enable the lecturer
more thoroughly
..to illustrate his subjects.
. . . .

The Rev."J.- J. Welch, headulaat;r of the
Grammar School, briefly iutroduced the lecturer
to the audience.

The Lecturer, who was a remarkably good-
looking young man, about five feet ton inches in
height, posseseime a sweet soft voice, (with
scarcely any foreign accent) delivered his lecture
in an easy cenversational manlier, constantly
illustrating what lie was describing by gesture
and action, and displaying to his hearers the
different implements of warfare and articles of
domestic use amongst the Arabs. He coin- ,
menced by saying he felt certain that every one ;
in the room must feel interested in the subject
of which he was about to treat. In England
they were once barbarians, and were accustomed
to paint their bodies, and the Arabs were at i
that time as umeh advanced in civilisation over
them as they were now before the Arabs. The I
cause of this was that England progressed with
the times, whereas the Arabs did not. Arabia
was the only place were primitive matters have
remained the saute till this day. If a lady
wielied to make a morning call, or go out in
England, she could order her carriage; but in
the East the only animal a lady could g) t, no
matter what her rank, was the donkey. It was
true that iii the far desert you would meet with
the h. wee—real specimens of the f ;Lwow; Arabian
breed— but in the towOs ti.ere were no horses;
nothine, in fact, but doukeye, so the first person
he would introduce to them wee the indispen-
field° donkey-driver. (Thu lecturer ten brought
forward one of the yoaug nae,a habite l as a
donkey-die; or, and described his dreg aud sup-
posed occupation to the audience. He said that
in the early part of the day the donkey-driver
was a baker, and went round to the various
houses and received the bread for baking from
the iuhabituuts, who only opened the doors just
sufficiently to allow the basket containine the
bread to be put through. The people of the
East were customarily lazy, and did as little
werk as they possibly could. He would now
turn the doukey-driver into a slave. The slave
must not have his coat on; it was only for out
of doors. Nearly every person in the East has
a slave. Every visitor tee lurk has business
with, before a word of hie errand is spoken, is
tarnished by the slave with a long pipe, or
chibouk. He then introduced to them a young
man whom he described as a merchant. They
could tell he was a merchant by hie leathern
purse. It was large; but not too large for his
money, which was copper. They always carry
a dagger, or some weapon of defence; not
because it was necessary, but because they think
it looks manly. On the day they are parried
for the first time in their lives they fear the
turban, because they are then supposed to have
established their claims to be considered men
of sense and responsibility. (The lecturer here
! introduced pipes, and, with his conapeuious,
seated himself on the carpet). Resuming, he
' said the first sight a European was anxious to '
see on entering a city in the East was the
bazaar. The weaning of the word "bazaar,"
was simply the principal street of the town ;
equivalent to our High-etreet. It is generally a
long narrow street, full of shops, where the
whole trade of the place is carried on. The
most prominent figure they would see was the
merchant, sitting smoking his pipe. The shops
are immensely nigh, and there the merchant,
wuo is seated in his window, will be glad to see
you whether you are a purchaser or not, for he
loves a chat. As soon as you enter he will wel-
come you, tell you to sit down, and call for
coffee. When the slave brings it in he presents
it to his master in a kneeling peeition. The
merchant and his customer, or ethereise, then
partake of coffee together, and discuss the topics
of the day. Everyone in the East even a black.
smiths site down to do his work, said rests a bit,
and works a bat, and smokes a bit ; and he the
lecturer) attributed the tine temper of the
Damascus steel to the dilatory manner in which
it was forged. The bazaars, like the streets,
are so narrow that the shopkeepers are able to
shake hands with one another across the street.
Tuey must never be so ill-bred as to ask for
what they waut when they first go into the shop.
if they did the inerchent would curse them and
their whole generation. They generally sit
chatting with their customers for an hour or
an hour and a half before the latter introduces
businees. The shop is about three yards square,
so small that the merchant can reach his goods
without getting up. They generally have a
long stick with which to reach articles that may
be out of their reach. If the nierchant should
not happen to have one by him with which to
reach something that is asked for, he will calmly
bid his customer to smoke his pipe and wait
until some one misses with a stick which he can
borrow for the purpose of reaching the article.
It sometimes happens that they have to wait for
an hour and a half bet ire a person comes by
with the necessary stick, but this will not put
the merchant about, as he is in no hurry and
has no ill :a of the value of time. A person who
enters a shop in the East must never be so rude
as to refuse a pipe ; though he may detest tobacco
he meet make a pretence of smoking, if only
a little. If it was a rich man he would have a
slave to go about with hint to carry his own
pipe, and he was called d pipe-bearer." (lie
thea showed them a lady's pipe, which had a
long tube with a vessel containing water near the
bowl, similar to what is sometimes seen in
tobacconists' shops in England). He said that
sometimes when a ffien was married to, perhaps,
five or six wives he could not afford to supply
them till with pipes, so of late they had found
out a new dodge; that was to put five or six
tubes to one pipe, which was placed in the
centre of the apartment, and then ell the ladies
could smoke out of one pipe). In the East they
never bought by cubic measure. They measure
cloth an I other articles of wearing apparel from
the tip of the middle finger to the joint of the
elbow. He did not know how they did in this
ceuntry, but in his they tried to cheat one
am:eller, by pushing the arm forward when
meesuriteg, and the merchant watches his cus-
tomer closely during the operetion, and if he
detects him in the act, he curses him and throws
his slipper at him. No doubt they would laugh,
and thiuk how simple they must be to measure
ie such a manner as some men's arms were
longer than others; but it was wily recently that
in Englan i they knew what the yard measure
meant. Only a short time ago in England when
one went into a draper's shop they would have
te) fabrics measured to them by the salesman
ideeing one part on his nose while he extended
hie right arm with the other part of it, and that
was called a yard. In dealing with a merchant
in his country they must not offer him more than
half of what he asked or else they would pay
exorbitantly for his wares. Re (the merchant)
would curse them and smite them with his
slipper but they must not mind that ; and even-
tually he would let them have the goods at their
own, price which would leave a good Margin for
profit. In dealing they tell most unconscionable
lies, and the only oath which they will not break
is that when they swear by their beard ; then,
FM then only could they believe them. He
then intrcdueed a scribe. They could tell he
was a scribe because he had an inkhorn in his
girdle. Their chief occupation was that of
Copying books, because they had no printing in
their country. He also writes letters for people
in all s'ations of life. Even amongst the better
class of people there are very few who can read
aterwrite. In their country they did not write
in the crooked way iu which English people do
they write from left to right. Every morning