528 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



were not passed round before the meal. After eating, 

 we stepped outside and washed. These are country 

 manners, but even in Taif there was no washing before 

 meals. As for the desert, the Arab theory is that it is a 

 perfectly clean place where it is not necessary to wash 

 at all or at any rate not necessary to use soap, as is 

 always done in the towns. 



After dinner and coffee we prepared to start, as the 

 camels always go best towards evening. In ordinary 

 cases in this district a guest can offer to his host without 

 hesitation a sum of money, and indeed he is expected 

 to do so, if his means permit. But as our host was a 

 Shereef, we had to observe a more formal etiquette, and 

 found that the proper thing was to leave four or five 

 dollars with his son, and give a trifle to the servant who 

 had cooked for us and filled our water skins. Europeans 

 often complain of the mockery of hospitality which lies 

 in the custom of paying considerably beyond its value 

 for an entertainment at which one is nominally a guest. 

 But when there are many passers to and fro, the exercise 

 of gratuitous hospitality would be an intolerable burden 

 to a man of moderate means, and as the poor must be 

 entertained for nothing, it is not unreasonable that a 

 European, who always passes for a rich man, should pay 

 pretty well. The present practice of the Hejaz is no 

 doubt anomalous, and the fiction of hospitality is cumber 

 some both to the entertainer and the entertained. But 

 it has its good side also, and in favourable cases the cordial 

 welcome and assiduous attention of the host are still in 

 the spirit of the ancient generosity of the Arab towards 

 his guest. Our Shereef certainly did all he could for us, 

 and when we left we carried with us a store of fowls and 

 mutton, sufficient to provide for our wants till we reached 

 another habitable spot. Instead of continuing our way 

 along the main valley, our plan was to seek a shorter 

 road through a desert mountain valley called Wady 

 Jirana. We therefore struck into the great pilgrim 



