Page 74 - Neglected Arabia 1906-1910 (Vol-1)
P. 74

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               use  at some time or another on the mission field, enabling us to become
               all things to all that we might by all means win some.





                                INCIDENTS AND OCTCIDEXTS;'
















                                        MISS FANNY LUTTOX.
                    This title is not original. A missionary told me, lie heard a man
               once  pray. “That we might be kept in all our 'incidents and outci-
               dents.’ ’’ After all, the word that was coined tor the occasion is very
               appropriate in the lives of missionaries.
                    In the morning  one   may plan a day's work, but in the evening
               when he reviews it, how different it has been to what he has planned;
               —people come in contact with tind places entered, that clicl not dawn
               upon the worker’s mind.
                    A few days ago I accompanied a woman from the hospital to her
               home. I have found this an excellent plan, it keeps one in touch with-
               the women, and new houses are entered and a cordial welcome given.
                    As I was returning I passed by one of the reading  rooms.    These
               places are set apart by the Shiah sect of Mohammedans.
                    Women have their reading places quite apart from the  men.
               Women readers are employed and paid tor their services. Their of­
               fice is something similar to that of a precentor. I thought I would
               venture into this reading room : and as it was the month ot Moharram,
               they were having daily readings for ten days.
                    This mourning is observed and kept by Shiahs only. It is a
               regular tragedy play in memory ot Husain the grandson ot Moham­
               med—who was slain in battle at Kerbela. The Shiahs look upon him
               as a  martyr, they believe he interceded for them, and all this mourn­
               ing in memory of him, is like an open gate into paradise.

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