THROUGH WILD EUROPE 117 



glass containing several, help myself with it to a 

 mouthful of a sweet, sticky conserve of some fruit, 

 and then place the spoon I had used in an empty 

 glass on the other side of the tray put there for that 

 purpose. Then cigarettes and coffee were handed 

 to us as we sat on divans round the room, while 



B and our host exchanged compliments, and I 



tried to look interested in a conversation I couldn't 

 understand. It was settled that we should dine and 

 sleep there ; but I was warned that dinner was likely 

 to be a long time preparing. And it was a long 

 time, finally appearing a little before midnight. We 

 were very hungry, so that when a tray was brought 

 in with various snacks of roast chicken, olives, pine 

 pips, and small trifles of a similar nature, I was glad 

 to help myself with my fingers like the rest, but for 

 some time very sparingly, as I didn't want to spoil 

 my dinner. However, the hours went by, and still 

 the dinner didn't turn up, so that in desperation I 

 made a meal on what was before me. These were 

 washed down with small glasses of raki, a colourless 

 spirit flavoured with aniseed. Our host, though a 

 Mohammedan, drank copiously, until I calculated he 

 must have had at least twenty-five glasses, and 

 when the dinner finally appeared he was in a jovial 

 mood. The piece de resistance came first in the 

 shape of a lamb roasted whole. This alone was 

 sufficient to account for the delay, as no doubt the 



