LAHADJ. 
115 
dancing, singing, tossing up their matchlocks, and shouting in 
the same manner as practised at Mocha when the Dola returns on 
public occasions from mosque. This scene lasted till we reached 
the first entrance of the Sultann^s house, when three irregular 
vollies of musquetry ended the ceremony. We were conducted 
thence through several passages, strongly barricadoed at each 
end, up to an apartment opening to the sky, (somewhat re- 
sembling the hall of audience at Sana, of which a drawing is 
given by Niebuhr), on the far side of which the Sultaun Hamed 
was waiting to receive us. We found him an old man, of a very 
patriarchal appearance, with a benign yet intelligent expression 
in his countenance. He received us in a very friendly manner, and 
seemed truly in his heart, as he repeated over and over again 
in the manner of the Arabians, to feel great delight in once more 
beholding an Englishman before he died. Those British subjects 
who formerly visited him have left an impression very favourable 
to our national character, and I have strong reason to believe, from 
what subsequently passed, that, should we ever have occasion for 
the friendship of this chief in any arrangement with the Arabian 
states, his good offices would be exerted to the utmost in our favour. 
After drinking '' cafe a la Sultane,'' as it is termed by French 
writers, hookahs were offered to us, and soon afterwards, to 
my great surprise, dinner was announced. We accordingly 
retired with the Dola of Aden to another apartment, where a kid 
broiled and cut into small pieces with a quantity of pillaued rice, 
was served up to us, agreeably to the fashion of the country. 
When dinner was over, Abu Bukr rose up, and considerately 
observed, that, as he knew it was usual for us to take wine after 
