Chap. IV. ARAB FEAST. 59 blows. When I first met Bu Bekr in Benghazi, I was astonished at the loud, rough tone in which he spoke ; but after seeing a little more of the Bedawin (who all speak as if from the mountain-tops), and assisting at a council at Caicab, it was easy to account for it. Indeed, the good man could not whisper: he tried to do so, putting his arms round a servant's neck, and placing his lips close to his ear, when he ordered a luncheon, dinner, or whatever it must be called, to be prepared for me. I had arrived too late for their dinner; and, after much whispering in a loud tone, and the interchange of one or two notes with his Secretary (perhaps to show me that there is one Bey who can write), he ordered another dinner for me. I was not supposed to hear or understand anything of his hospitable intentions; and, after an hour and a half of fatiguing inaction, in the midst of this Babellike hubbub, I rose to take my leave. This he would not allow, and seizing a shoulder with one iron hand, and a leg with the other, he pulled me back to my place. I thus had to sit, making what little conversation my confined vocabulary would admit of, for four hours longer, whilst the banquet was being prepared. When the carpet was at last spread, and the tray placed upon it, I confess I was disappointed, though little inclined to eat, to find that the ladies of the harem had not profited by this long interval to furnish some delicate cates. There was soup-a sort of greenish porridge, filled with rice and onions; then came two dishes of stewed mutton, with vegetables; this was followed by two dishes of stewed mutton, with potatoes; and, finally, a huge wooden bowl of rice, some thirty inches in diameter, crowned with an entire roasted lamb. Plates of water-melon, from Benghazi, completed the feast. I have described the dinner, all fear of criticism notwithstanding, as it was meant to be a splendid feed, and the host is the wealthiest man in the country. The chief fault I found with it was the long time it detained me in Caicab, thereby occasioning me two hours' ride in the dark. The Bey, his brother, and Mohammed (whose last wife, by the way, was a divorcée of Bu Bekr's), did honour to the entertainment; the two former picking out, and putting beneath my fingers, the delicate morsels; and I must do them the justice to say, that, with true politeness, not an effort was made to make me eat more largely than I was inclined to do. The appetite which comes in eating aided me to make a most substantial luncheon; but, beside the others, I was like a canary-bird amongst ostriches. Mohammed, I heard, could eat no supper; he was ill and useless all the next day. This rough, but abundant hospitality, not unbefitting the traditional idea of an Arab sheikh, is exercised on Chap. IV. THE BEY'S HOSPITALITY. 61 a most liberal scale by Bu Bekr; and the enormous drain it must be on his fortune may, possibly, justify him in his own eyes for the unscrupulous means by which he augments it. At some seasons, the expenses of his court can be little short of 207. a day; and to meet this, the Turkish Government allows him 117. a month. An acquaintance, who spent some evenings with him this summer, told me that he had counted 378 rations for horses, given out in one evening for the guests; while 86 sheep had been slaughtered, to supply their personal wants. Perhaps he is by nature thus liberal, and only from education succumbs to the Arab fondness for the clinging metal. CHAPTER V. Nicopolis Meditations at Sunrise.-Violation of the Tombs.-Description of the Tombs.-Allegorical Figures.-Splendid Tomb.—Curious Tombs,-Lively Vale.-Unartistic Statues. AUGUST 23.-I have described, as I can, the ancient city; but the Necropolis, which yet remains to be visited, is, in fact, still, as in old times, the glory of Cyrene. Among its thousands of monuments, many retain traces of their ancient magnificence, and some still present great beauties of detail. My descriptions, such as they are here given, were written on the spot, after repeated visits; and this morning, in no unfit The growling camels ting mood, I began my task. |