The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-07-03

Society," Washington. D. c.
HE newest nation to be extended
formal recognition by the United
i States is the kingdom of Hejaz
and Nejd. 1t might almost be
called the kingdom of Arabia, for it
embraces the greater portion of that
huge peninsula, including the vast
sweep of the interior, parts of which
have never been penetrated by white
men. Importance is lent to the dual
kingdom, too, by the fact that it in
cludes the two hottest cities of holy
cities of the Moslem world-Mecca and
Medina. Mecca is the chief capital of
Hejaz and Nejd.
The port of Jidda, Red Sea gate
way to hidden Mecca, sprawls over
hot, treeless ills-whitewashed, sim
lister and forbidding, as if 10th to give
up her long guardianship of Arabia's
secrets and isolation.
In Jidda the Arabs will show you a
long stone tomb, shaped like an air.
ships hangar; here, they claim, Eve is
buried. Adam and Eve were big peo-
pie, the Arabs say; Eve was so tall
she could hold a grown lion in her
lap and stroke it as we stroke a kit
ten. When you note the size of her
tomb you can readily believe she was
rather a stalwart dame.
Forty-fve miles east of Jidda,
poured into the canyons and valleys
of mass Of rough hills, lies Mecca
itself, the famous holy city of Islam.
In spite of its vast political and reli-
gious Importance, the town is mean
and small, with less than 100000 Mo-
hammedan souls. 1t has almost no
trade, and it manufactures nothing.
But it has the largest tourist traffic of
any city on earth, and, like other tour
list towns, it lives on the traveller.
The Meccans peddle food and cloth
ing to the pilgrims, rent them houses,
act as guides, make contracts for
transporting pilgrims by land and sea,
craftily exploit Ito their own personal
benefit) the vast benefactions that flow
to the holy city. Even temporary mar
riages are arranged for the visiting
pilgrims.
And the country Arabs or Bedouins,
likewise thrive on the bounty of the
pilgrim, either by outright robbery and
pillage Of the caravans or by impos-
ing taxes, for protection" on those
who pass through their tribal regions.
E.,:t
But even among the Bedouins the
Meccans have a bad reputation. They
say the worst birth certificate an Arab
can have Is the Tashrift, three paral-
lei gashes, distinguishing the bearer as
one born in Mecca.
Ever since Mohammed purged the
Kaaba of early Arab idols and made it
the chief sanctuary Of Islam, adapting
this heather temple to Moslem wor-
ship by the fiction that Gabriel threw
the black stone down from heaven to
Abraham, 'the unspeakable vices Of
Mecca have been a scandal to all Is
lam and a constant source of wonder
to pious pilgrims"
mostly from Moslem writer's and pho
tographers, and from the meager re-
ports Of the few Christians like Bur-
ton, Heroine, and others, who braved
the dangers of discovery and succeed
ed in visiting the hidden city.
In America our knowledge of Arabs
is mostly limited to a glimpse Of
drowsy, turbaned persons in worn,
shabby zibboons and red sandals, lead
ing few blase, moth-eaten camels in
circus parade, or to occasional troupes
Of acrobats doing dizzy pyramids or
wild Arab "bat dances" and whirling
dervish tricks on the vaudeville stage
The modern Arab has so lost his
place in the world that we forget his
race once ruled from the Indus to the
Atlantic, and that his schools of phi
losophy, medicine and other sciences
were world famous.
In appearance the Arab is singular
~ handsome. tall and 1.-THE. with beau
tifully nodded limbs. dark-eyed and
dark-haired Dwarfs, hunchbacks, and
mlSSnapen persons are seldom seen In
Arabia. Hereditary disease, too, is
almost unknown, and the race is gen.
orally strong and healthy The Arabs
persona habits are simple and clean,
the careers of those born in Mecca be-
ing apparently an exception.
Bedoulns Are Rovers.
Few races excel the Arabs, either
physically or morally. And mentally
they are perhaps second to none, espe-
cially in alertness Of perception, de-
ductive powers, and feats Of memory.
Like some other people Of the East,
however, they seem to lack the powers
Of organized effort and combined ac-
ton. a defect which may have tended