Page:The young Moslem looks at life (1937).djvu/22

 family had been taught to believe? No, never! Such thoughts were intolerable.

The two pilgrims were so excited they could scarcely eat before the train came. At last with a great ringing of bells and tooting of whistles the train rolled into the station from Peshawar. Gingerly Mohammed Beg and old Abdullah climbed into a thirdclass compartment, crowded with men, women and children from the many provinces and religious groups of India. All stared at the two travelers from Kashgar, with their Mongolian features, and their curious, heavy wool clothes, which were so hot and which seemed so strange beside the loose white garments of the others.

In fact, Mohammed Beg and his grandfather did not feel very comfortable. They began to realize that they not only were in another world, but that they did not fit into it. It all seemed to be moving too fast for them. They wondered if they could get used to it. The train traveled so fast that at first it frightened them, but gradually they accepted speed as an inseparable part of their new experience. When they saw their first airplane soaring overhead at a hundred miles an hour they took it as a matter of course. "One need be surprised at nothing now," said Mohammed Beg to old Abdullah, who nodded and muttered a half-dazed assent.

As time slipped by, and Mohammed Beg had occasion to notice the habits and customs of his fellow Moslems in the train compartment, he was continually