THE DAUGHTER OF THE NAWAB OF HYDERABAD, INDIA Type of the educated and wealthy Moslems in this great province. The total population of Hyderabad is 13,374,676, and the Moslem population 1,380,990.

The same writer, basing his testimony on reliable sources, says in regard to Nigeria:

"Our local government identifies itself with Islam against Christianity, and actually adopts an attitude toward Christian missions which the Islamic Government of Persia itself no longer ventures to take up. The missionaries are actually afraid to inform the English public of the worst details of the way in which their work is restricted and the Mohammedan religion recognized as patronized by the government and treated as if it were the established religion of this English Protectorate, lest worse oppression should follow. But in the Times, some two years ago, an Englishman in high position was permitted to urge that no religious instruction except Mohammedan should be allowed in the government schools, nor did that journal allow a reply to appear. Hence the Koran is now taught by Moslem teachers in all government schools in Mohammedan districts, and Islamic law is now being introduced and administered in pagan tribes in Northern Nigeria. This 'is worse than a crime; it is a blunder.'"'

Whatever governments do for the welfare of childhood must be done now. One generation of children trained in the best of our Western civilization, and above all, led to a personal knowledge of Him Who is the Saviour of all men and the

Friend of little children, would lead these backward races toward progress and enlightenment. The urgency of this claim is evident when we remember how short is the period of Moslem childhood, and how early the responsibilities of manhood and womanhood are forced upon them. Mrs. Stanley Emerich, of Mardin, in writing concerning the shepherd Kurds gives a conversation between them which typically sets forth the brevity of Mohammedan childhood:

"His grandmother looks for a wife for him,' our informant went on.

"'What!' I gasped. 'But he can't be more than nine years old.'

"He is eleven,-and in two years he will marry. He will have children, and beat his wife, and care for his sheep, and some day die.' Tomas outlined the tragic life impassively. 'He's only a Kurd. What are Kurds?' he asked, dismissing the small Sheikh Musa with a wave of his hand. "They are nothing,' he answered himself."

At the age of eleven or twelve, and sometimes even earlier, the girls commence to be secluded and veiled. Boys in Egypt and Turkey are often married at fifteen and sixteen. In comparison with the majority of children in Western lands we might almost say that these children have no childhood at all. Of the Moslems in the Punjab we are told by Miss Dora Whitely: "The baby girls

are engaged, often to men of middle age or more, and are actually married when under twelve years of age, but sometimes remain in their father's house for another year or two. A girl's earliest recollection must be that of hearing her parents talking about the 'arrangement' which they have made for her." And a missionary in Egypt writes: "We recall hearing one Moslem girl tell that she only knew her father by seeing him through a lattice window from the second story as he passed along the street below, her mother pointing him out to her. The girls are robbed of the happy, care-free life of girlhood, and are thrust, all unprepared, from childhood into the burdens and responsibilities of motherhood."

In the chapters that follow, the environment in which these children live, the physical conditions and neglect that are their lot, the mental and moral training they receive through Islam, and which is the privilege of only a few, are laid before the reader. If any part of the Moslem missionary problem can appeal to the heart of Christians, it surely is this great world of childhood.

"The great world's heart is aching, aching fiercely in the night,

And God alone can heal it, and God alone give light;

And the men to bear that message, and to speak the living

word,

Are you and I, my brothers, and the millions that have

heard.