e, especially in Nejd. Palm branches and the like, woven in wattles,
form the dwellings, of the poorer classes in the southern districts.
Many Arab towns possess watch-towers, like huge round factory chimneys
in appearance, built of sun-dried bricks, and varying in height from 50
to 100 ft. or even more. Indeed, two of these constructions at the town
of Birkat-el-Mauj, in Oman, are said to be each of 170 ft. in height,
and that of Nezwah, in the same province, is reckoned at 140; but these
are of stone.

The principal feature in the interior of an Arab house is the "kahwah"
or coffee-room. It is a large apartment spread with mats, and sometimes
furnished with carpets and a few cushions. At one end is a small furnace
or fireplace for preparing coffee. In this room the men congregate; here
guests are received, and even lodged; women rarely enter it, except at
times when strangers are unlikely to be present. Some of these
apartments are very spacious and supported by pillars; one wall is
usually built transversely to the compass direction of the Ka'ba; it
serves to facilitate the performance of prayer by those who may happen
to be in the kahwah at the appointed times. The other rooms are
ordinarily small.

The Arabs are proverbially hospitable. A stranger's arrival is often the
occasion of an amicable dispute among the wealthier inhabitants as to
who shall have the privilege of receiving him. Arab cookery is of the
simplest. Roughly-ground wheat cooked with butter; bread in thin cakes,
prepared on a heated iron plate or against the walls of an open oven; a
few vegetables, generally of the leguminous kinds; boiled mutton or
camel's flesh, among the wealthy; dates and fruits--this is the _menu_
of an ordinary meal. Rice is eaten by the rich and fish is common on the
coasts. Tea, introduced only a few decades back, is now largely drunk. A
food of which the Arabs are fond is locusts boiled in salt and water and
then dried in the sun. They taste like stale shrimps, but there is a
great sale for them. Spices are freely employed; butter much too largely
for a European taste.

After eating, the hands are always washed, soap or the ashes of an
alkaline plant being used. A covered censer with burning incense is then
passed round, and each guest perfumes his hands, face, and sometimes his
clothes; this censer serves also on first receptions and whenever
special honour is intended. In Yemen and Oman scented water often does
duty fo