tion. Scarcely one Arab in a hundred who has not some kei marks on his body. Where kei fails they have recourse to words written on paper either from the Koran or, by law of contraries, words of evil sinister import. These the patient "takes" either by swallowing them, paper and all, or by drinking the ink-water in which the writing is washed off. Their pharmacopoeia is not large, but quite remarkable. In addition to such simple herbs of the desert as the women collect and dry, they use in grave emergencies that which is haram (forbidden) and unclean. Patients have come to me for a small piece of swine's flesh (which they suppose all Christians eat) to cure one in desperate straits. Doughty tells how among the Bedouins they give the sick to eat of the carrion-eagle, and even seethe the asses' dung for a potion. The science of medicine in the towns is not much in advance of that of the desert -more book-talk but even less natural intelligence. A disease to be at all respectable must be connected with one of the four temperaments or "humours of Hippocrates." Medicines are hot and cold, wet and dry; and the same fourfold classification distinguishes all ailments. Most of the diseases of childhood, however, are supposed to be caused by demons or the evil eye. Mothers live in perpetual terror on account of this superstition. From Algiers we learn that when a child is born the people believe a little demon is brought into the world at the same time, whose birth takes place in the cupboard or the wall. If the child is prettier than the demon, the latter gets jealous and causes convulsions. The woman then goes round the court, and standing still in one corner, converses with the demon, beseeching it to leave her little one in peace. The demon specially feared for the children is called Taba. In order to pacify it all sorts of things are done, of which the following are instances: A black hen is kept in the room. Immediately the baby is born it is driven far away from the house, and woe to him who picks it up, for the demon enters him instead of the child; or a dog is kept in the room, who shares all the mother has to eat. The demon then enters her puppies; or the child is sold; the purchaser comes to see it; it is told its mother has come, and they all act as if this were true. Whooping-cough is caused by certain demons which tickle the lungs. Our Algerian correspondent goes on to say: "There are all sorts of remedies for this, such as giving the child snails and honey, or taking it to the gas works. This last would seem quite medical, but it is not so in reality, for they believe the fumes will drive the demon away. Then in cases where the cough is at its worst, they stretch the child out flat and prepare an instrument with which to cut its throat. Having pretended to do this they hold it up three times as an offering to the demon, thinking that he will then be satisfied and leave the child alone." Some of the practices are ridiculous rather than cruel. When a child is backward in learning to walk, eggs are smashed on its little feet, or figs and sugar are placed on its knees. When the baby snores in Algeria a cat is placed in a sack, and the sleeping infant is hit with it until the snores enter the cat instead! Mohammedan mothers believe that jealousy is a disease and should be so treated. All kinds of curious practices are in vogue to drive out this demon of jealousy, which the foreseen arrival of a little brother or sister produces in the child. In Algiers this malady is treated as follows: An egg is boiled in quicklime, the shell taken off, and it is given to the child to eat; or the child is put on the doorstep, two eggs are placed in its lap, which other children take away, thus causing the jealousy to enter them; or the child is given "l'eau des tombes" to drink (i.e., the water which is poured on the graves of the Marabouts), whilst the mother says some words to the effect that the heart of the little one may become as cold as the dead body of the Marabout. The jealousy of one woman for another's baby is thought to cast a spell which necessitates the following ceremony: A fire is lighted upon the ordinary family pedestal, salt sprinkled upon the flames, and the infant swung round seven times in the fumes, to the accompaniment of appropriate incantations. The ceremony is varied in the case of adults, the pedestal being swung round the individual. In Egypt the evil eye is a special danger to children, who must be protected by many strange practices. Before a child is seven days old the midwife will place near its head a loaf of bread, a lump of salt, and a sharp knife. The explanation is that devils fear the knife, and recognizing salt and bread as blessings of God, will conclude that the child is also a blessing and therefore go away. Of the effect of Moslem education and moral training-or the utter lack of moral training— even upon the physique of the child, we will speak later. The reader has already had a glimpse of the environment in which the child grows up. One thing, however, remains to be noticed, namely, the evil of child labour. The Moslem world as a whole is not one of factories and workshops, where the conditions of Western civilization have brought in the curse of child labour with its deplorable consequences, but there is no anti-childlabour law or sentiment in any part of the Moslem world. The children of the poor are made to |