Part 2

But what about the Arab boys and girls? What do they wear? Most of the boys run around without shoes or stockings. But some of them wear little red shoes turned up at the toes, and others wear small sandals. They also wear loose trousers and jackets and little red caps. The girls commonly wear cotton dresses that are made very plain. Sometimes they have veils over their heads. In the country places the girls do not wear veils.

[Illustration: Arab Girl with Veil.]

Only the boys go to school. Before they enter the school they must take off their sandals. They have no seats in their schools. They all sit on the floor. Their lessons are not like your lessons. They have only one book. It is called the Koran. The Koran is the Arab Bible. The Arab boys must learn the Koran by heart. At school, they all shout out together when they are learning their lessons.

[Illustration: A School in Arabia.]

But the Arab boys learn many things at home. They learn to read and to write. They also have plenty of time to play. They play ball. They fly kites. They ride ponies. Often they play with old guns and swords. Thus they learn to be soldiers.

The Arab girls do not go to school. But they do not play very much. They must help their mothers do the work at home. The mothers grind corn to make bread. They spin and weave cloth for clothes. They grind the corn with two flat stones. One of these stones is placed on top of the other. There is a hole in the middle of the upper stone. They pour the corn into this hole. The upper stone is then turned round by a handle. So the corn is ground between the two stones. The girls often have to turn the stone around. They must also take care of the baby. They help to carry home water from the well. They carry the water in earthen jars.

[Illustration: Arabs Grinding Corn.]

You will say, then, that the Arab girls have a hard time. But they do not work always. They have some time for play. They have very funny dolls. Would you not laugh if some one gave you two sticks joined like a cross, and told you it was a doll? That is the kind of doll the Arab girls have. And they are very fond of their dolls. They dress them, and take great care of them.

The Arabs are very fond of tales and stories. Perhaps you have heard of a book called the "Arabian Nights." It is full of wonderful stories about kings and giants and witches, and other strange things. This

## book came from Arabia. When you are older you will read the "Arabian

Nights." In it you will learn many more things about Arabia and the Arabs.

KOREA.

What funny hats they wear in Korea!

But, you will ask, where is Korea? It is near Japan, a country you have read of in this book.

The people of Korea look a little like Chinamen. They have yellow skin and slanting eyes. Their hair is long, straight, and black, and they wear it in a very strange way. The boys and girls wear their hair down their backs in braids tied with ribbons. The men and women have their hair in little topknots that stand straight up.

[Illustration: A Korean.]

But I must tell you about the strange hats they have. Some of the men wear hats that go down over their shoulders. This is the kind of hat they wear when they are in mourning, after the death of a father or mother. Some wear hats made of straw. These hats look like large flowerpots turned upside down. Some have hats made of horsehair.

But the hats made of straw and the hats made of horsehair do not keep the rain out. So they have umbrellas. Their umbrellas are as funny as the hats. They are made of oil paper, and have no handles. They look like fans. When it rains, the people open their umbrellas and tie them on top of their hats.

The boys in Korea wear loose jackets, and wide trousers which go under their stockings. The stockings are padded with cotton, and are tied at the ankle. The girls wear very pretty little jackets, sometimes red, sometimes pink, and sometimes green.

The shoes they wear in Korea are of many kinds and shapes. Some are made of leather. Others are like the wooden shoes the Chinamen wear, which turn up at the toes. The funniest shoes they have are made of paper. The paper is very thick and strong, and so their paper shoes last a good while. But the shoes that are worn by most of the people in Korea are made of straw. They are like sandals, and they are worn so that the large toe is not covered.

The people in Korea have a strange way of keeping themselves cool in hot weather. They have something like a basket made of rods of bamboo. This basket is round and long, and open at the top and bottom. They put their heads through this basket, and it hangs downward from their shoulders around their bodies. Then they put their clothes over it, so that the basket is inside. It is next to their skin. How would you like to have such a summer dress?

The boys in Korea go to school when they are very young. The girls do not go to school. They stay at home to help their mothers. But girls whose parents are rich have teachers at home to teach them reading and writing and other things.

In school, the teacher sits on a straw mat on the floor. The boys also sit on the floor on straw mats. They say their lessons out loud. They write their lines from the top to the bottom of the page. The people in China and Japan, as you know, write in the same way. The boys of Korea learn to count on a _chon-pan_. The chon-pan is much like the counting box they have in the schools in China. It is made of little balls on a frame of wires fixed in a box. The boys also learn by heart the wise sayings of great men.

The boys in Korea have some very nice toys. But the best playthings they have are their kites. They make their kites fight battles in the air, just as the boys do in Japan. Every boy tries to tear down every other boy's kite. This is done by pulling the strings across one another. Sometimes the sky is full of beautiful kites, which jump and dash about as if they were alive.

The boys also have fine, large pinwheels. They make these pinwheels whirl around in the wind. The boys also spin tops, and they play "seesaw," and jump the rope.

The boys in Korea are fond of fishing. Nearly every boy has a fishing rod and goes fishing whenever he can. Sometimes the boys have great fun going around dressed like their fathers. They wear wooden swords and little bows and arrows like soldiers. They make straw figures of men, and with their swords they strike off the heads of these straw men.

But the boys have to work as well as play. Many of the peddlers in Korea are boys. They sell candy and other things. The girls do a great deal of work at home. The first thing they learn to do is to sew.

Would you like to know how the women iron their clothes? They wrap each piece around a stick and lay it on the floor. Then they sit down and beat the piece on the stick with wooden clubs. In this way they make the clothes as smooth as a Chinaman makes the linen which he irons.

[Illustration: Korean Girls Ironing Clothes.]

The houses in Korea are one or two stories high. They are made of wood or clay, and sometimes the roofs are of straw. The windows are high, and the doors are often so low that the people have to stoop down to go in. The rooms are very small and have hardly any furniture. There are no chairs. The people sit on mats on the floor. The walls between the rooms are made of paper, and the floor is made of stone.

[Illustration: Korean Houses.]

They have a strange way of heating their houses. They have no stoves or fireplaces. But under the floor they have a cellar like an oven. In this cellar a fire is always kept, and the rooms are sometimes so hot that the people can hardly walk on the stone floors.

People who are poor sleep on mats on the floor. They sleep in their clothes. People who are rich have mattresses. The mattresses are laid on the floor at night, and are taken up in the morning.

The people of Korea eat a great deal of rice. But they have other kinds of food. They have meat and fish and eggs and also fruit. You would think that they would use a great deal of tea, as they live so near China. But they do not drink tea. They drink rice water instead. The rice water is water that rice has been boiled in.

At their meals the men always eat first and the women wait on them. When the men have eaten as much as they want, then the women and children eat.

The tables they have are very low. It would not do for them to have high tables, as they sit on the floor.

They have no knives or forks. They eat with spoons, and they use chopsticks, as the Chinamen do.

They have no water-pipes in their houses. In the towns men carry water in pails. They have no gas. For light at night they use candles.

They have only one kind of coin. It is a small piece of copper. It has a square hole in the middle. They put these coins on strings and carry them around their necks. It would take many such coins to make a dollar.

[Illustration: Korean Money.]

There are farms in Korea, where they grow wheat, rice, rye, tobacco, cotton, watermelons, and many kinds of fruit.

If you were in Korea, you would think it the strangest country in the world. They do many things very unlike the way we do them. With us bright-colored things are worn by women. In Korea the men wear bright colors. They have a funny way of selling eggs there. They place ten eggs end to end in a row, and put straw around them. Then they tie strings around the straw between the eggs. This is called a stick of eggs. When people go to buy eggs, they ask for one or two sticks, or as many as they wish. One stick of eggs costs less than five cents.

[Illustration: A Stick of Eggs.]

Instead of a president they have a king. The king lives in the largest town. There is a thick, high wall all around this town. There are gates in the wall, and these are shut at night. After the gates are shut, no one can get in or out until they are opened in the morning.

The people show very great respect for the king. When they go to speak to him they throw themselves down on their faces before his throne. The people love their country very much. They think it is the most beautiful country in the world.

INDIA.

How would you like to go to school at six o'clock in the morning? That is the time many children go to school in India. India is a large country in Asia. The children stay in school till nine o'clock. Then they go home for breakfast, and go back to school at ten. At two o'clock they go home for dinner. They go back again at three to stay till evening. You will think that this is a long time to be at school.

[Illustration: Hindoo Children at School.]

In some of the schools they have no desks or chairs, but the boys and girls sit on the floor. In other schools they have long tables instead of desks.

They do not learn their letters as we do. The teachers write five letters in sand on the floor. Then the boys and girls write the letters in the sand. They write the letters many times, until they know them well. Then the teachers write five more letters, and so on until the children know all the letters. When they can make the letters in the sand, they next learn to write them on palm leaves with pens made of wood. The last thing they do is to write them on slates and on paper.

[Illustration: Native Children of India.]

In some of the large towns they learn to read and write English. But English is not the language that most of the people speak. They have a language of their own.

[Illustration: A Hindoo Family at Home.]

The people of India are called Hindoos. They have dark skin, dark eyes, and dark hair.

It is so warm that most of the people wear very little clothing. Many of the boys and girls wear no shoes. The girls are very fond of jewels. No matter how poor a family is, they try to buy some jewels for their girls. So the girls in India always have jewelry to wear.

They have no Christmas in India. They have what they call the "Feast of the Cakes." At the Feast of the Cakes they have three holidays. Then they have cakes of all kinds.

The boys are very fond of swinging. They are also very fond of swimming. In some places they have diving wells. The boys plunge from a high bank down into the water below.

[Illustration: A Tiger.]

The rich people have very fine houses, with gardens and flowers and fountains. There are carpets, cushions, and tables in the houses, but no chairs. They sit on cushions on the floor.

The beds are very low, and the legs are often of silver or gold or ivory. They have no sheets or pillow cases, but covers of velvet or satin.

The people who are poor live in houses made of dried mud, with roofs of bamboo poles and straw. They have hardly any furniture. They sleep on mats made of palm leaves.

[Illustration: Cobras.]

In many of the houses they have no tables. They eat off of leaves on the floor. Their food is mostly rice. All the family do not eat together. The father of the family always eats first. When he has eaten, the mother and children sit down to eat.

The women do most of the work. So the girls have to learn to work. But the men and boys do all the sewing. How queer this seems!

[Illustration: An Elephant Piling Lumber.]

There are a great many wild beasts in India--tigers, leopards, cobras, and crocodiles. The tigers are very fierce. They sometimes come into villages at night and carry off men, women or children, and kill and eat them. There are logs. They do work of many kinds. An elephant is much stronger than a horse. He can carry a far heavier load. Sometimes all the family ride on one elephant's back.

[Illustration: Riding on an Elephant.]

LAPLAND.

Jingle! jingle! jingle! Where does the merry sound come from? It comes from a sleigh drawn by a reindeer. The sleigh is called a "pulk'ha." It is made of birch wood. It has no runners. It goes on a little keel like that on the bottom of a boat. The sleigh is very low. It is pointed at the front like a rowboat, and is flat at the back. There are no seats in it. The driver sits in the bottom. The reindeer draws the sleigh, and goes very fast. If the driver is not very careful the sleigh may be upset.

It is in Lapland that you may see this kind of a sleigh. The people who live there are called Lapps. They are short and stout. You would think the men and women were boys and girls.

It is very cold in Lapland. The summer is short, and the winter is long. So the Lapps have to wear warm clothes most of the year.

The men and women and boys and girls in Lapland dress much alike. In the winter they wear a long outside coat called a _kap'ta_. It reaches below the knees. It is made of reindeer skin with the hair left on. Under the kapta they wear warm clothes made of wool.

[Illustration: A Lapp's Tent.]

Their shoes are also made of reindeer skin. They wear two pairs of thick woolen stockings. When they put on the stockings, they wrap their feet in dry grass. Then they put on their shoes. The grass helps to keep their feet warm. They also wear two pairs of mittens at the same time. One pair is made of wool. The other pair is made of reindeer skin. Their hats or caps are also made of reindeer skin. They are lined with eider down. Perhaps you do not know what eider down is. It is the soft, fine feathers of a bird called the eider duck. A great many of these ducks are found in Lapland. Their down is very soft and warm.

Sometimes the Lapps have to go long distances in the snow. Then they put on skees. If you saw a pair of skees, you would think that a person could not walk with them. They are flat pieces of wood, four or five inches wide, and very long. Some skees are six feet long. Some are ten or twelve feet long. They are turned up a little in the front. In the middle of each there is a hollow place. The shoe is strapped to the foot there, as you see in the picture. When the Lapps go on skees, they do not raise their feet from the ground. They slide along, one foot after the other. They have a long pole, or staff, in their hands to beep themselves from falling. They can go very fast in this way. Sometimes they go ten or fifteen miles an hour.

[Illustration: Skees.]

In some parts of Lapland the people live in houses made of earth and stone. Each house has only one room. The Lapps have no carpets. They have no tables or chairs. They cover their floor with twigs of trees. They eat and sleep on skins spread on the twigs. They burn wood for fires. The fire is made on the ground in the middle of the floor. The smoke goes out through a hole in the roof.

[Illustration: A Lapp Family at Home.]

The Lapps do not all live in the same way. Some of them are called mountain Lapps. In summer the mountain Lapps live in tents among the hills. Their tents are made of reindeer skin. They have a great many reindeer.

The reindeer is very useful to the Lapps. It gives them milk. It draws their sleighs. Its flesh is good to eat. They make clothes of its skin. They make knives and spoons of its horns.

In summer the reindeer eat the soft shoots of shrubs and trees. In winter they feed on moss called lichen. They get the lichen themselves. They would not eat it if it were gathered for them. In winter they dig down through the snow with their feet to get at the lichen. They dig first with one fore foot and then with the other. The snow is often so deep that the reindeer has to dig a hole so large that its body is almost hidden.

The reindeer are not put in stables. They like to be out in the cold and snow. They are able to take care of themselves.

The Lapps eat a good deal of meat. Their meat is the flesh of the reindeer. They are very fond of fat. All people who live in very cold countries eat a great deal of fat. It helps to keep them warm. The Lapps also have milk and cheese. They eat rye bread and fish and berries. They drink coffee.

[Illustration: A White Bear.]

In winter they have to melt snow in a pot over the fire to get water. The rivers and lakes are all frozen.

The Lapps cook their food in a large pot over the fire. They sit around the fire to eat. The father takes a piece of meat out of the pot. Then he serves a piece to each. The Lapps use no forks. They use their fingers instead.

In some places they have a funny way of storing their food. They make a little log house on the top of a post. They have a ladder to go up to it. In this little house they store cheese and milk and other things. Then wild animals cannot reach them.

[Illustration: A Lapland Wolf.]

There are bears and wolves and foxes in Lapland. These animals are sometimes very fierce. They would come into the people's tents and houses at night, were it not for the dogs. Nearly every person has a dog. Even the hoys and girls have dogs. The dogs are very brave. They are not afraid to attack wolves or bears.

But you will wish to know about the children in Lapland. You have heard about the old woman who lived in a shoe. The Lapp baby has a cradle shaped like a shoe. It is made of a single piece of wood. It is lined with moss and other warm things. The mother often carries it in her arms. Sometimes she carries it on her back, slung from her shoulders. The baby plays with strings of buttons or glass beads.

When a baby is born in Lapland they give it a reindeer. If the reindeer has any young ones, they keep them for the baby until it is a man or woman. They also give a reindeer to the person who is the first to find that the baby has cut a tooth.

The Lapp boys and girls have very few toys. The toys they have they make themselves. The boys make willow flutes and play on them. When the boys go on the water they have long, narrow boats like canoes. Some boys also make sleighs.

Many of the boys and girls go to school. They learn to read and write and count.

There are towns near the sea and by the rivers and lakes. In these towns they have schools and churches.

GREENLAND.

Very strange people live in Greenland. They are called Eskimos. Greenland is a country very far north. It is always cold there. So the children need warm clothing. Their stockings are made of birdskin. The soft feathers keep their little feet very warm. Their shoes are made of sealskin.

An Eskimo girl does not wear skirts. Her clothes are like her brother's. Her trousers are made of white bearskin. Her jacket is made of fur. When she goes out sleigh riding, she puts on fur mittens. Do you know what a fur boa is? This little girl wears one around her neck. It is made of the tail of a fox. The strings to it are made of long pieces of skin.

[Illustration: An Eskimo Girl.]

Perhaps you think the Eskimo children are white. No, they are brown. Their faces are round and fat.