West Side High School - Legenda Yearbook (Saginaw, MI)

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are paid by the students, so that the professors have to support themselves by teaching: in private houses and by donations. The instructor sirs cross-legged on a straw mat and directs an advanced student to read the Koran to the circle of pupils crouching around him. After each sentence he adds an ex¬ planation. The students either listen attentively or take notes. The eagerness and earnestness that they display might well be imitated in our high school. The primary students are en¬ gaged chiefly in learning the alphabet. Some are not over six years old. They write with a black paste on tin slates, using reed pens. The school-master often commands obedience by resorting to blows. When something exceptionally diffi¬ cult is accomplished they sit in groups of two and sway their little bodies to and fro hoping that Allah will give them divine inspiration and make their memories retentive. The courses of study vary in length from three to six years. After master¬ ing the letters and numbers, a knowledge of the Arabic gram¬ mar is obtained. The chief aim and object of all Moham¬ medan education is, of course, the learning of the Koran. When this has been accomplished mental development has practically reached its limit. Other less important branches of study are religious science and law. Logic and rhetoric receive slight attention. Independent investigation is not en¬ couraged in any way. As we left, the call of the priest, summoning to prayer was heard. Five times daily he repeats in Arabic “Allah is great. I testify that there is no God but Allah.” Those who are unoccupied respond to these imperative summons by ap¬ pearing at the nearest mosque. Others stop work for a mo¬ ment and kneel down for prayer wherever they happen to be. After a day’s stay in Cairo many peculiarities of Eastern life were brought before us. Of the several hundred mosques in Cairo only two are open to women. The latter generally occupy an insignificant position. As I yesterday saw in the temple of Luxor, this disregard for women dates from an¬ tiquity. Several colossal statues of Kameses II. twenty-three feet high have an exceedingly small image of the Queen, as

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Iii the Orient, business principles are vastly different from those prevalent in America. Time is considered of no con¬ sequence. This accounts for the fact that bargaining comes so natural to the shop-keepers. They ask from two to four times the amount that they expect, and then come down on a graduated scale fo the sum really wanted. Cheating is re¬ garded merely as an exceedingly valuable accomplishment. The best way in purchasing is to go into the store and price the goods, then to visit an adjoining shop, and finally to return to the first one, where the dealer is now ready to sell at fair prices. One of the merchants in the Brass Bazaar wanted to sell us a lamp for eight dollars, my father offered four, and my mother three and a half. This was too much for the shop¬ keeper, he turned towards me and said: “Now you say two.” After much parley we bought it for three. We concluded the day’s sight-seeing with a visit to the Gamiael Azhar, a mosque built in 973 A. D., but now con¬ verted into the largest Moslem school and university. It has 12,000 students and 450 teachers. In the door way we were stopped and slippers were tied over our shoes, lest we profane the sacred edifice. This constitutes another peculiarity of the Oriental. Instead of taking off his hat he removes his shoes on entering the house of a friend, or on visiting a mosque. In the open court several hundred Mohammedans are engaged in prayer, kneeling, bowing their heads, and kissing the ground. Most of the columns in the side colonnades were stolen by the Arabians from Roman temples. On the left is a huge water-basin, where by a sanitary regulation of the Prophet, the worshippers must wash their feet before prayer. A pulpit for preaching and an elegantly adorned niche for prayer, facing Mecca, are provided for the “faithful.” Most of the students are natives of Egypt. Consequently the divisions alloted to these are the largest. Each pupil has a locker for his bread, books, and clothes, which are supplied to the poorer ones by the state. This however entails no great burden on the government, as our guide informed us that the ordinary Egyptian lives for about ten cents a day. No fees

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large as an ordinary doll, beside him. The men in bloomers remind one of the ‘‘new woman,” who is causing so much a citation in America. Turbans are worn by many. W bite shows descent from the prophet, while green is an indication that the wearer has made three pilgrimages to Mecca. A tur¬ ban should be seven times as long as the head so that it may be used after death for a winding-sheet. Women of the lower classes wear only the blue gown and a veil. Those of the upper classes have a silk cloak and a kind of mantle. A white gauze, after the fashion in Constatinople veils the face up to the eyes. If they are wealthy one or more runners, called eunuchs, pre¬ cede their carriages. It is a universal custom to color the eyelashes black and the finger nails a light brown. As a rule, babies are carried by the women astride on their shoulders. Here, as in Italy, burdens are balanced on the head. Water carriers with goat skins on their backs are also frequently encountered. A visit to Heliopolis and the Virgin ' s Tree, to the north¬ east of Cairo, was very attractive. A drive through an avenue of tamarisks, acacias, and eucalyptus—trees brought us to the gardens and blue palace of Abbas II. Hilmi, the present Khedive of Egypt. Every morning at nine o ' clock his High¬ ness drives to his Cairo palace to transact public business, returning late in the afternoon. He does not care to stay in town, as he is very superstitious. His grandfather was a victim of a mutiny and his father died there. An old-fashioned well, with an ox going blind folded round and round was next passed. The energy is communicated by a shaft to a large wheel with jars, which, when down, are filled with w T ater. Half a revolution turns them upside down, thus allowing the water to flow into the trough. In this way, the whole of an ex¬ tensive field of barley is irrigated. A short ride on the edge of the Arabian Desert took us to the site of Heliopolis, the city of the sun. This was one of the most ancient Egyptian cities. During the reign of one of the early Pharaohs, a famous temple was built here. Later, the most learned and celebrated college of priests in all Egypt was established. Frequent