Page 239 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (2)

I

A nhm.an an .ikmua

We remained in Shugra sixteen days. During twelve working day*
we treated 953 patients, did 32 major and lb minor operation*, and
gave 19 Neo-salvarsan injections. The people of Sliugra are extremely
bigoted and we bad a great many religious discussions here. The
religious Sheikh and his son were both operated on for henna, and of
all the people I met on this tour old Sheikh Ibrahim stands highest in
my estimation. He is a most devout Moslem, but a sincere one. He
was honestly worried about my soul and tried his best to convert me.
He urged me to read the Koran—“the Word of God.” "the light of
life” which would be a blessing to me in this world and in the life to
come. He was a real friend to the day we left, though neither per
suaded the other to change his religion. His sons. too. were alniu.it
as active as their father in trying to convert me to Mohammedanism.
Their methods were very much as ours would be, by visits amj

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CITIZENS OK SHUGRA RETURNING FROM ATTACK ON BEDOUIN

personal conversation. It was at Shugra that I had the first experience
later several times repeated in other places, of being offered money'
houses, and women if 1 would become a Moslem.
We left Shugra on January 15th and arrived at Aneiza on January
19th. The greater part of this journey is through desert, sandy and *
stony, but there are also a number of small towns and villages and
some “Muzera.” These are houses built as forts around a well. Th< f
owner, or a renter, comes here during the winter months to plant wheat
and to water it from the enclosed well. There may be as many as lifter*
to twenty acres of ground cultivated from this one source of water.
Some of the walls of these forts are more or less in ruin at present]
indicating of course that there is no danger of Bedouin attacks then *
days.