THE STRANGER AS THE GUEST OF ALLAH. 445 



emphatic than those of the Koran, in inculcating the 

 duties of charity and hospitality, and the remarkable 

 words of the great Apostle St. Paul will doubtless be 

 familiar to many, where he reminds the followers of 

 Christianity to " Let brotherly love continue. " " Be 

 not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some 

 have entertained angels unawares. " * 



In the days of old, as history teaches us, the cus- 

 tom of entertaining the' passing traveller was almost 

 universal, and at sunset, the wayfarer could knock 

 without scruple at the nearest door, confident that a 

 night's food and lodging would not be denied him. 



But this was before the days of hotels and poor 

 laws and as we travel further back into the times of 

 antiquity, we shall not fail to discover that the well- 

 to-do, and wealthy householder of those days, not 

 unfrequently prided himself upon the largeness of his 

 hospitality, which was gratuitously extended alike both 

 to the rich and to the poor. 



The advance of civilization, however, has changed 

 all this, and the traveller will occasionally experience 

 its advantages by observing the exorbitance of the 

 charges now sometimes exacted by those of " advanced " 

 opinions even among the Arabs for trifling services. 

 Among the desert nomads, however, a good deal of 

 the open-handed liberality descended from the patri- 

 archal times, nevertheless still survives these blessings ; 

 and, as a rule immediately upon the stranger's arrival, 

 even if only for a short halt, a cup of sweet coffee is 

 offered, if there is any; or otherwise a draught of 

 milk, generally in a curdled state. This to European 

 palates is often at first distasteful. Nevertheless after 



* Hebrews xiii., verses I and 2. 



