"THE FLOWER OF PARADISE" 



185 



No Yemen wedding would be complete 

 without khat. When I asked my Arab 

 boy what part it played in the marriage 

 feast, he wrote out his version of the 

 matter in (his) English for me. As I 

 am sure he did it better than I can, I take 

 the liberty of quoting his version here, 

 verbatim : 



THE PART KHAT PLAYS AT A WEDDING 



"From 12 at noon all the people invited 

 will begin to come, not in crowds, but by 

 threes and two, into the makhdara. The 

 seats inside here for the people to sit on 

 are long pieces of rafters resting on 

 empty cases of kerosene oil and laid with 

 beautiful carpets and pillows. They col- 

 lect the pillows and carpets from their 

 relations and the empty kerosene cases 

 from the shopkeepers. Madayeh, or 

 water bubbles, are also ready ; but rich 

 men like to bring their own to show off. 

 Lot of little water chatties are also kept 

 ready filled, and lot of murbkhs (fire- 

 pots) will be seen outside the makhdara 

 with a dozen boys, fans in hand, ready to 

 refill with tobacco and fire on the first 

 call of "Ya yi-yall !" or "Boys!" Rich 

 people will be seen nicely dressed, um- 

 brella in hand, fine shawl on shoulder, a 

 boy after him with the bubble, little cock- 

 shaped water jettie, etc., on their way to 

 makhdara. Reason why rich people like 

 to get everything from home is that all 

 things they use for khat eating are spe- 

 cially made and very amusing, so they 

 like to be proud of them in large assem- 

 blies. 



"Well, when the makhdara is full up, 

 khat distribution will go on and khat 

 chewing begins. The way how they dis- 

 tribute it is that as soon as a man has 

 come in the marriage makers will politely 

 come to ask him whether that man is rich 

 or poor and take him to a seat where they 

 will make him sit and put a bunch of 

 khat in his hand. About i o'clock the 

 tarab man with his company will be seen 

 going to the makhdara. A special place 

 wide enough to seat ten men is provided 

 for them and the bridegroom sits among 

 them. And now the singing begins. On 

 this occasion two tarab men play, and 

 one little drum, the songsters being the 

 tarab men only. Suddenly noise of fall- 



ing rupees is heard, and by finishing time 

 in the evening hundreds of rupees mav 

 be seen gathered. All this is for the 

 tarab men. 



"Just at 4 o'clock 'Asha,' evening food, 

 will be ready. As soon as the food will 

 be brought in nobody will touch it till 

 one of the relations of the bridegroom 

 will shout out, 'Bismallah !' or 'Begin in 

 the name of God.' Suddenly they will 

 all be seen got up with the Asha (usually 

 fried rice with mutton or mutton pillau ) 

 hardly touched. Well, it is a rotten cus- 

 tom among the Arabs on marriage cere- 

 monies that as soon as one has got up all 

 will follow him, and they never be eating 

 more than two minutes. The custom 

 among the Indians is quite contrary to 

 this. They when they have finished what 

 is brought to them will not get up, but 

 shout for more till their bellies are quite 

 full. Now, again, sounds of rupees will 

 be heard the second time, when they will 

 be found washing their hands and com- 

 ing out of the makhdara. All this money 

 now collected goes to the father of the 

 bridegroom. The same thing what hap- 

 pened in the afternoon takes place at 

 night. The next morning piles of khat 

 branches and rotten leaves may be seen 

 outside of the makhdara." 



NEVER USED AS A BEVERAGE IN YEMEN 



Contrary to the general opinion held 

 by those who pretend to know anything 

 about it at all, khat is never used as a 

 beverage in the Yemen, but the fresh 

 leaves are invariably chewed. The young- 

 est leaves are the best. They have a 

 sweetish, slightly astringent taste, not 

 unpleasant to the European palate, but 

 certainly not alluring. When brewed, 

 they lose most of their strength and the 

 fiavor of the decoction is much like that 

 of those grapevine "cigarettes" which 

 most of us enjoyed ( ?) in boyhood days. 

 The old leaves are tough and ought to 

 tan a leathern tongue. 



Just what is the exact toxic effect of 

 khat on the human system has never yet 

 been ascertained. It is certainty a stim- 

 ulant with a lively and nearly immediate 

 effect upon the brain and nerve cells ; the 

 gloomiest man becomes cheerful under 

 its influence, the most enervated active. 



