There is a great abundance of schools at Mecca but no education. Everything is on the old lines, beginning and ending with the Koran, that Procrustean bed for the human intellect. “The letter killeth.” And it is the _letter_ first, foremost and always that is the topic of study. The youth learn to read the Koran not to understand its meaning, but to drone it out professionally at funerals and feasts, so many chapters for so many shekels. Modern science or history are not even mentioned, much less taught, at even the high-schools of Mecca. Grammar, prosody, caligraphy, Arabian history, and the first elements of arithmetic, but chiefly the Koran commentaries and traditions, traditions, traditions, form the curriculum of the Mohammedan college. Those who desire a postgraduate course devote themselves to Mysticism (_Tassawaf_) or join an order of the Derwishes who all have their representative sheikhs at Mecca. The method of teaching in the schools of Mecca, which can be taken as an example of the best that Arabia affords, is as follows. The child of intellectual promise is first taught his alphabet from a small wooden board on which they are written by the teacher; slates are unknown. Then he learns the _Abjad_ or numerical value of each letter—a useless proceeding at present as the Arabic notation, originally from India, is everywhere in use. After this he learns to write down the ninety-nine names of Allah and to read the first chapter of the Koran; then he attacks the last two chapters, because they are short. The teacher next urges him through the book, making the pupil read at the top of his voice. The greatest strictness is observed as to pronunciation and pauses but nothing whatever is said to explain the meaning of the words. Having thus _finished_ the Koran, that is, read it through once, the pupil takes up the elements of grammar, learning rules by rote both of _sarf_ (inflection) and _nahw_ (syntax). Then follow the liberal sciences, _al-mantik_ (logic), _al-hisab_ (arithmetic), _al-jabr_ (algebra), _al-ma’ana wa’l beyan_ (rhetoric and versification), _al-fikh_ (jurisprudence), _al-akäid_ (scholastic theology), _at-tafsir_ (exegetics), _ilm ul-usul_ (science of sources of interpretation) and lastly, the capstone of education, _al-ahadith_ (traditions). Instruction is given by lectures; text-books are seldom used; lessons begin in the morning and continue for a few hours; in the afternoon they are interrupted by prayer-time. Even at Mecca the favorite place for teaching is in the Mosque-court where constant interruptions and distractions must make it pleasant for a lazy pupil. [Illustration: A WOMAN OF MECCA] [Illustration: A MECCAN WOMAN IN HER BRIDAL COSTUME] IV THE HOLY LAND OF ARABIA—MEDINA