i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEJAZ 569 



brought from France, I was held to have &quot; done &quot; the 

 place, and my host s only further care was to give me 

 plenty to eat. I had, at all events, full opportunity to 

 make acquaintance with a characteristic local cuisine. 

 The Taif people have three meals a day, but I struck off 

 the midday repast, as otherwise the whole day would have 

 been lost. For, whenever one wished to go out, the 

 answer was, &quot; Wait a little while, you must have some 

 thing to eat first.&quot; I cannot tell you the programme 

 of a Taif dinner. Sweets, vegetables, and joints are 

 mingled in an extraordinary confusion, for which it is 

 impossible to find a law. But a few general principles 

 were discernible. The meal should end with a dish of 

 stewed rice, which may or may not be accompanied by 

 sweet pastry or vermicelli. A great dinner has for its 

 pi&ce de resistance an entire sheep stewed or baked with 

 samn (clarified butter), and stuffed with rice, eggs, and 

 almonds. On lesser occasions one eats roast fowls and 

 a variety of stews. Several large bowls of sour milk 

 are always on the table, and of this the natives eat a 

 great deal. At breakfast one begins with Areeka, or 

 with a sort of porridge prepared with milk and samn 

 and made very rich. Eggs fried with vegetables are 

 another favourite dish. Besides these, there is probably 

 a plate of muffins soaked in honey and samn, or a bowl 

 of samn and honey mixed, in which the bread is dipped 

 the butter and honey of the Old Testament. The most 

 characteristic and also the most trying dish to a stranger 

 is called Hareesa. This is a local food eaten in the Hejaz, 

 Yemen, and Hadhramaut, and prepared by boiling grits 

 along with meat, and beating up the compound with a 

 wooden spatula till it becomes a uniform paste. It is 

 eaten with samn, sometimes with sugar, and has a very 

 strong greasy taste. The great feature of Taif cookery 

 is the superabundance of samn. The people even drink 

 it by the bowl. I ought perhaps to tell how it is made. 

 The milk stands overnight, with the addition of a little 



