r it. Coffee, without milk or sugar, but flavoured with an
aromatic seed brought from India, is served to all. This, too, is done
on the occasion of a first welcome, when the cups often make two or
three successive rounds; but, in fact, coffee is made and drunk at any
time, as frequently as the desire for it may suggest itself; and each
time fresh grains are sifted, roasted, pounded and boiled--a very
laborious process, and one that requires in the better sort of
establishments a special servant or slave for the work. Arabs generally
make but one solid meal a day--that of supper, soon after sunset. Even
then they do not eat much, gluttony being rare among them, and even
daintiness esteemed disgraceful. Wine, like other fermented drinks, is
prohibited by the Koran, and is, in fact, very rarely taken, though the
inhabitants of the mountains of Oman are said to indulge in it. On the
coast spirits of the worst quality are sometimes procured; opium and
hashish are sparingly indulged in. On the other hand, wherever
Wahhabiism has left freedom of action, tobacco-smoking prevails; short
pipes of clay, long pipes with large open bowls, or most frequently the
water-pipe or "nar-ghileh," being used. The tobacco smoked is generally
strong and is either brought from the neighbourhood of Bagdad or grown
in the country itself. The strongest quality is that of Oman; the leaf
is broad and coarse, and retains its green colour even when dried; a few
whiffs have been known to produce absolute stupor. The aversion of the
Wahhabis to tobacco is well known; they entitle it "mukhzi" or "the
shameful," and its use is punished with blows, as the public use of wine
would be elsewhere.

Dress.

In dress much variety prevails. The loose cotton drawers girded at the
waist, which in hot climates do duty for trousers, are not often worn,
even by the upper classes, in Nejd or Yemama, where a kind of silk
dressing-gown is thrown over the long shirt; frequently, too, a brown or
black cloak distinguishes the wealthier citizen; his head-dress is a
handkerchief fastened round the head by a band. But in Hejaz, Yemen and
Oman, turbans are by no means uncommon; the ordinary colour is white;
they are worn over one or more skullcaps. Trousers also form part of the
dress in the two former of these districts; and a voluminous sash, in
which a dagger or an inkstand is stuck, is wrapped round the waist. The
poorer folk, however, and the villagers often content