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treat my steps again. In order to awaken a spirit of prayer for this great region, this account of my second visit is written. My first visit to El Hofhoof, the capital of Hassa, was in October, 1893; it was a tour of exploration, for missionary work was then scarcely possible. Our colporteurs have been there twice since that date, in each case with great difficulty and persecution. In 1904 I made a second visit, accompanied by Salome Antoon, a colporteur, and we

changed much since I saw it ten years before and was closely watched as a British spy by the Turkish officer then in charge. The mud-brick castle, with its garrison of a score of unkempt soldiers; the dilapidated custom-house, with its filth of accumulated hospitality in the guestroom; the waving crescent and star on the crooked flagstaff; even the crowd of shouting boatmen and camel drivers and the curs crowding the causeway-all seemed very familiar.

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nomad custom, is only a short distance beyond Ojeir, and when the caravan halted we were invited to the tent of the commander of the Turkish troops at Hassa. So utterly unsafe is all travel beyond the coast in Turkish Arabia that no one goes except in caravan and with soldier escort. Two hundred horsemen from the Turkish cavalry in Hassa accompanied the caravan, and they were continually on the lookout for nomad robbers. Yet at our first night's encampment some Bedouins stampeded twelve camels with their baggage and escaped with the booty! The Turkish officers carry their own flag, but the Arab guides had a banner of

Jisha is desert, with a few tamarisk shrubs and some desert-thorn. At Subgha we halted for the night. Here there are wells of fairly fresh water, and brushwood for camp-fires. At this season of the year it was bitterly cold for Arabia, and we needed blankets, as we slept on a bed of sand under the glorious stars.

We were called out after supper to see a merchant in the caravan, who was dying from dysentery, and to minister to him. Medicine seemed of no avail, as the man had suffered for many days; but he was very grateful to receive a cup of warm camel's milk with a stimulant, and listened eagerly to the story of the Cross. He re

peated a prayer after me, and, coming from Bagdad, seemed to have heard. the Gospel previously. The poor man died the same night, and was buried in the desert.

We left at daybreak, and were in sight of the palm country at 9 o'clock. Jisha is a walled village with perhaps two hundred houses. Salome left a copy of the Gospel with the Mullah. Jiffra is a much larger place in the midst of palms and with a weekly market. From here palms and gardens, with springs and streams of fresh water, stretch all the way to the capital.

It was interesting to note the character of the trade by studying the cargo of the desert fleet. Over onehalf of the camels carried piecegoods for Nejd, and every bale was plainly marked "Smith, Hogg & Co., New York and Boston." There was also Russian oil from Batoum, timber from Zanzibar, charcoal from Kerachi, and rice from Rangoon. How even in the far-off deserts of Arabia the world grows smaller and the antipodes meet! Our baggage had Bibles from the Beirut Press and medicines from London.

We arrived at Hofhoof on December 2, and were most hospitably welcomed by the colonel in his large house. It was still Ramadhan, the Moslem fast, so our principal meal was at sunset; during the long day we fasted from sheer politeness and necessity. About fifteen hundred soldiers are quartered in the capital to defend it from the nomads, and we had the music of a brass band every morning and evening On the first Sunday of our stay we held a Christian service at the house of an Ar

menian employed in the army. There were eight present-the total of nominal Christians in the army staffand our message was from Matthew v: 13, 14. On the following Sunday no one was willing to risk attendance for fear of persecution. We, too, were watched from the day of our arrival, and soon summoned to 'the Turkish governor's palace to give an account of our errand. The gov

ernor said there was no demand for Christian books, and no need for our Gospel in a Moslem city. Salome replied that the Gospel was for all men, Moslems, Jews, and Christians, even for the heathen; and he spoke in such a fearless, straightforward way that he won respect of all present. Our books were inspected and with some hesitancy declared "permitted," as they were all printed by permission of the censor in Syria. There was some difficulty and much loud argument in regard to an Atlas among the educational books. Some said the sultan had prohibited such like and others denied it. We solved the question by presenting the doubtful book to the governor. One of Dr. Worrall's old Busrah patients was present, and his friendship won the battle; this is only one of many instances where where medical medical missions break down prejudice and exert a wide influence for good.

Every day we went to the bazaar of the town, and mingled freely among the thousands of Arabs who came to buy and sell. Long before we were ready to return our small stock of nearly one hundred portions of Arabic and Turkish Scriptures were sold out. Much of this had to be done with caution to avoid the

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work was among the soldiers, and to them the door of access seemed open because of their life of misery. They are all exiles from home, coming from Anatolia and Syria; they are surrounded by temptations; paid only a pittance of wages at irregular intervals; compelled to do duty as public scavengers when not on parade; hated by the people and hating them; mostly illiterate, and with no provision for amusement, except gambling and tobacco. No wonder that they all have a homesick countenance and that desertions desertions are frequent.

about the hope of Israel and Ishmael, and he finally expressed his belief that Islam was waning in the world and in his heart.

A is a captain in the army. For six years he has been seeking. First saw a Gospel in Mosul five years ago, and had the mind of a child. He is trying to lead his wife to Christ, and asked us "to try to persuade him that Jesus was the true prophet, so that his wife might hear the arguments from behind the curtain." She did not know he was already persuaded. He asked us to write out

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tions to Christianity was gone over, and no offense was taken at my plain speech. When I called again the next day he asked me to pray for him. He has many books written in Turkish against the Bible. God grant he may find the Truth and the Life.

Jis of the class of MoslemMullahs. He is the ignorant, learned teacher of the Turkish school at Hofhoof. His pupils are very few, as none of the orthodox Arabs will entrust their sons to a Turkish teacher. His library, of which he was so proud, was typical of Islam-erotic poetry, abstruse works on versification and

One day we mounted donkeys and rode to Mubarrez, ten miles north of the capital, along a palm-garden road with many villages, and met a large company who listened to our message. There was greater interest and less fanaticism than I had expected. Hassa hospitality is extraordinary, even for Arabia. The host does everything he can for the comfort of the guest until one feels ashamed of being a mere Occidental.

There is no doubt that from Hofhoof as a base a great and effectual door is ajar for inland Arabia, altho there are still many adversaries. Our

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