Page 149 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

110 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [di.

meal, after the usual style, was sumptuous
and plentiful; but so strictly do the Arabs

regard the laws of hospitality, that it required
much entreaty to induce our host, a man of

high birth, to seat himself with us. This
originates in a prevalent belief that if he

partakes of the meal he will neither have
leisure nor opportunity to look after his

guests, and he, therefore, insisted upon wait­
ing on us in the capacity of an attendant. It
was not until I told him that we would not

commence unless he did so, that he could be
prevailed on to join in, and then we per­

ceived he could play his part as well as the
best of us. On returning to the tent I found,

as usual, a great crowd collected there, but
they were kept in tolerable order by a little

urchin about twelve years of age, whose
father, a man of great influence in these

parts, had, a few years before, been killed by
the Bedowins. He had taken complete pos­

session of our tent, and allowed none of his
countrymen to enter but with his permission.

He carried a sword longer than himself, and
also a stick, with which he occasionally laid

about him. I was excessively amused at the