Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/271

CUSTOMS OF ARABS.] A 11 A B 1 A 251 sities, among the Arabs. Thus, the inhabitants of Hejaz are noted for courtesy and blamed for fickleness ; those of Xejd are distinguished by their stern tenacity and dignity of deportment ; the nations of Yemen are gentle and pliant, but revengeful ; those of Hasa and Oman cheerful and fond of sport, though at the same time turbulent and unsteady. Anything approaching to a game is rare in Xejd, and in the Hejaz religion and the yearly occurrence of the pilgrim ceremonies almost exclude all public diversions ; but in Yemen the well-known game of the " jereed," or palm-stick, with dances and music the latter very barbarous, it must be allowed is not rare. In Oman such amusements are still more frequent. Again, in Yemen and Oman, coffee-houses, where people can resort for conversation, and where public recitals, songs, and other diversions are to be met with, stand open all day ; while nothing of the sort is tolerated in Xejd. So it is also with the ceremonies observed on occasion of circum cision or marriage occasions of gaiety and pastime on the coast, but passed over with little of the like observ ance in the central provinces. An Arab town, or even village, except it be the merest hamlet, is invariably walled round ; but the ramparts are low, and seldom of any stronger material than dried earth ; they are occasionally flanked by towers of like construction, such as befit a country where cannon are unknown and fire-arms are yet at the matchlock stage. A dry-ditch often surrounds the whole. The streets are utterly irregular some broad, some narrow, all tortuous ; the houses are of one or two storeys, very rarely of three, with flat mud roofs, little windows, and no external ornament. If the town be large, the expansion of one or two streets becomes a market-place, where are ranged a few shops of eatables, drugs, coffee, and, very rarely, cottons or other goods. Many of these shops are kept by women. The chief mosque is always near the market-place ; so is also the governor s residence, which, except in size and in being more or less fortified Arab fashion, does not differ from a private house. Drainage is unthought of ; but the extreme dryness of the air obviates the inconvenience and disease that under other skies could not fail to ensue, and which in the damper climates of the coast make themselves seriously felt. But the streets are roughly swept every day, each householder taking care of what lies before his own door. Whitewash and colour are occasionally used in Yemen, Hejaz, and Oman ; elsewhere a light ochre tint, the colour of the sun-dried bricks, predominates in an Arab town or village, which looks at a distance like a large dust-heap in the centre of the bright green ring of gardens and palm-groves all around. Baked bricks are unknown in Arabia, and stone buildings are rare, espe cially in Xejd. Palm branches and the like, woven in wattles, form the dwellings of the poorer classes in the southern districts. Many Arab towns possess watch- towers, like huge round factory chimneys in appearance, built of sun-dried bricks, and varying in height from 50 to 100 feet, or even more. Indeed, two of these construc tions at the town of Birket-el-Mawj, in Oman, are said to be each of 170 feet in height, and that of Nezwah, in the same province, is reckoned at 140; but these are of stone. Some of these watch-towers are so built as to serve also for citadels or places of refuge; but none could offer a minute s resistance to any kind of artillery, though formidable obstacles to men whose only means of attack are lances and matchlocks. of The principal feature in the interior of an Arab house is the " kahwah," or coffee-room, as from its destination it is commonly called. It is a large apartment spread with mats, and sometimes furnished with carpets and a few c ishiong. At one extremity is a small furnace or fire place, for preparing coffee. In this room the men congre gate ; here guests are received, and even lodged ; women rarely enter it, except at times when strangers are unlikely to be present. Some of these apartments are very spacious, and supported by pillars ; one wall is usually built trans versely to the compass direction of the kaabeh ; it serves to facilitate the performance of prayer by those who may happen to be in the kahwah at the appointed times. The other rooms are ordinarily small, and appropriated to the use of the females of the family and to domestic life. In hospitality the Arabs of our time have in no degree Hospi- degenerated from their former reputation, though Shomer, tality. Xejd, Yemamah, and Hasa excel in this respect the other provinces. A stranger s arrival is often the occasion of an amicable dispute among the wealthier inhabitants as to who shall have the privilege of receiving him ; and though three days are often popularly spoken of as the limit of such entertainment, practice sets no precise bounds to its length ; and an Arab host always carefully abstains from putting any question to his guest as to when he is going, or where. Indeed, if the guest be discreet and acceptable in his manners, he will soon find himself on the footing of one of the family ; and even the women of the house will come in to sit and converse with him not less freely than they would with their own relations. Arab cookery is of the simplest. Roughly-ground wheat Cookery cooked with butter ; bread, in thin cakes, prepared on a heated iron plate or against the walls of an open oven ; a few vegetables, generally of the leguminous kinds ; boiled mutton or camel s flesh, if the circumstances of the host allow of such luxuries ; dates and fruits, this is the menu of an ordinary meal. Roast meat, fried, stewed in a word, anything but boiled is rarely seen, such dishes exceeding the skill of the cooks, who, as a rule, are the women of the household. Rice is eaten in wealthy houses, and fish is common on the coasts. Among the Bedouins, millet-cakes, half -cooked in ashes, or a broth prepared from the gritty seeds of the " samh " (a species of Mesemhry- antkemum}, often take the place of bread ; and their meat cookery is equally wretched. Game, such as venison, partridge, and hare, is served up on rare occasions. Camel meat is a favourite, but to a stranger a very insipid dish, in southern Xejd, Yemamah, Hareek, and Aflaj. Spices are freely employed in town cookery; butter much too largely for a European taste. After eating, the hands are always washed with soap, or Entertain- some substitute for it, commonly the ashes of an alkaline merit plant. A covered censer with burning incense is then passed round, and each guest perfumes his hands, face, and sometimes his clothes ; this censer serves also on first receptions, and whenever special honour is intended. In Yemen and Oman scented water often does duty for it. Coffee, without milk or sugar, but flavoured with an aro matic seed brought from India, is served to all This, too, is done on the occasion of a first welcome, when the cups often make two or three successive rounds ; but, in fact, coffee is made and drunk at any time, as frequently as the desire for it may suggest itself ; and each time fresh grains are sifted, roasted, pounded, and boiled a very laborious process, and one that requires in the better sort of estab lishments a special servant or slave for the work. Among the Bedouins the use of coffee is rare, though they are fond of it when they can get it. Arabs in general make only one solid meal a-day that of supper, soon after sunset ; nor even then do* they eat much, gluttony being rare among them, and even daintiness esteemed disgraceful. Wine, like other fermented drinks, is prohibited by the Koran, and is, in fact, very rarely to be met with, though the inhabitants of the mountains of Oman are said to

indulge in it. On the coast spirits of the worst quality