During the massacre of the Babis, a dissenting sect of Muhammadans, in 1903, it was considered a _savāb_ to kill a Babi, but some of the kindlier people thought it also a _savāb_ to save a life, even if it was a Babi’s. One man is said to have been seen with a prisoner, in great perplexity, saying, “I am quite sure of Hell for my sins, unless I can do a big _savāb_; if this man is a Babi, my chance of salvation is to kill him, but I am not sure whether he is, and if I kill a true believer I shall be worse off than ever.” But there are _savābs_ of a very different sort. There was an old woman friendless and ill, and a Persian man found her in the street, too ill to get home to the one wretched room where she lived all alone. He did not know her, but he decided to undertake the _savāb_. He sent across the town for a medical missionary, knowing the Christians had the reputation of never refusing to help the sick poor. He stayed there till the doctor arrived, and said that if she would visit the old woman and provide the medicines he would send for them, and would provide the food and nursing, and this he did until the old woman died a few days later. The adoption of a destitute child is not an uncommon _savāb_, and these children are often treated very well and given a good start in life. A kind action, as we have seen, is always considered a _savāb_, whether it is helping a fallen mule to get up, giving a copper to a beggar, or tending a friendless stranger in sickness and death. We may almost say that this is the one redeeming point of a Persian’s religion. Generally speaking, Persians are not improved by their religious ideas, for the stronger their religious ideas are the worse their lives are, and what one most admires in Persian character is least in accordance with their religious beliefs. CHAPTER X MUHAMMADAN CHARMS AND SUPERSTITIONS