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putting them into your mouth. I have had this done for me by digits not particularly fair, or even clean. You observe that things correspond with one another. And there is this great economic advantage in their way, that it demands much less labor than ours. If our system was introduced at once, and the females of the family (who do all the work) were required to carry it out correctly and decently, their labor would be increased tenfold. Not only must an entirely new apparatus be procured, and kept clean and bright, but also the table, table-linen, and chairs, and the separate room must be provided. Indeed, an entirely new and foreign department must be instituted, and maintained under every disadvantage. Where this has been attempted in the families of native consuls, and others aping European manners, it has generally proved a miserable failure. The knives, forks, and spoons are rusty; the plates, dishes, and glasses ill assorted, dirty, badly arranged, and not in sufficient quantity; the chairs are rickety, and the table stands on legs spasmodic and perilous. The whole thing, in short, is an uncomfortable burlesque or a provoking caricature. Then the cookery must be Frank as well as the furniture, which is worst of all. I have stood in terror before some

ARAB COOKERY-WASHING HANDS.

183

of these compounds of dyspepsia and nightmare. No, no; let the Arabs retain their own commissary and dietetic regulations, at least until things are better prepared for a change than at present. In their own way their cooking is good, and their set-out respectable.

Of course, after such a meal as we have described, washing the hands and mouth, is indispensable (it ought to be before, but is not), and the ibrîek and tûsht—their pitcher and ewer-are always brought, and the servant, with a napkin over his shoulder, pours on your hands.

TUSHT AND IBRIEK.

If there is no servant, they perform this office for each other. Great men have those about them whose special business is to pour water on their hands. Thus it was in ancient times. One of the servants said to Jehoshaphat, Here is Elisha, the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah.' It was an apparatus somewhat like this tûsht and ibrîek that our Lord used at the close of his last supper with his disciples, when he girded himself with a napkin, and washed, not their hands, but their feet, and thus gave the most affecting lesson on humility the world has ever seen or heard.

There are many minor contrasts, some of which are rather amusing. When friends meet, they do not shake hands, but strike the tip of the fingers together, and sometimes grasp

12 Kings iii. 11.

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tightly the whole hand. If it is a priest, emeer, or high officer of any kind, the back of the hand must be kissed. This is strictly enforced, and the neglect or refusal is a great offense. The clergy are particularly stringent in claiming this mark of respect. The more common mode of salutation is to raise the hand to the breast, or to the lips and forehead. Friends who have been long separated embrace, and kiss either one or both cheeks, and generally each shoulder. This kissing among men strikes us as very odd, but there are numberless references to it in the Bible. The "brethren" are often enjoined by the apostles to salute one another with the kiss of brotherly love and holy charity. The women kiss each other on all occasions, and ad nauseam; but the different sexes are very reserved in their mutual salutations, and do not even touch each other's hands.

Arab ladies, particularly the married, are extravagantly fond of silver and gold ornaments; and they have an endless variety of chains, bracelets, anklets, necklaces, and rings. It is also quite common to see thousands of piastres, in various coins, around the forehead, suspended from the neck,

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tached to the back of the head-dress, which spreads over the shoulders, and falls down to the waist. These jewels can not be taken for the husband's debts. A poor man often

NECKLACE.

EAR-DROPS.

are

goes to prison for a few piastres, while thousands glitter and jingle on the dress of his wife. This is very provoking to the creditor, who knows that his money has been purposely attached to these inviolable ornaments, so that he may not get hold of it. Married women much more eager after ornaments than unmarried. The former also adorn themselves more elaborately, and endeavor to add to their beauty by wearing gay flowers, by painting their cheeks, putting kahl around their eyes, and arching their eyebrows with the same, and by staining their hands and feet with henna. It is considered indelicate for the unmarried thus to deck themselves, and conveys an impression highly injurious to the girl's moral character. They do not even wash their faces, or at least not openly. It is one of the strange anomalies of Oriental society that the tailors make the ladies' dresses; but, as their garments are infinitely large, and never designed to fit, there is no measuring needed, nor trying on of garments under the hand and eye of the tailor. This, in some degree, removes

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