Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/210

Rh found the Agha's people preparing dinner. They had dug two broad, shallow pits in the ground, in which they had made fires of wood and thorns. In one a lamb was being baked whole, and over the other a caldron of rice was boiling.

In a short time the whole party was assembled. The panting dogs rolled themselves in the grass, the horsemen dismounted, and with difficulty the frisky and loudly-neighing horses were tethered. Some were fastened to iron stakes or pins driven in the ground. Grooms and horsemen generally carry them when they journey in places where there are no trees or rocks to which to bind the animals. All the men, however, had not been equally provident. Heavy stones were sought for and halters fastened to them, but not quite securely. The consequence was that two horses escaped and galloped away. I could not help being amused with the chase after these runaways, through marshes and tangled masses of vegetation. I preferred it to the pursuit of the swift-footed, poor little frightened gazelles, whose escape gratified me more than their capture did. The horses were caught at last, together, by the banks of a stream. When we reassembled we took our seats in the shade of the dome of the fountain, with acres of wild flowers round us. Dinner was ready. Two men brought the lamb on a large metal dish or tray; two others carried a mountain of rice, yellow with butter. Boys arrived with bowls of sweet clotted cream and new milk, and dishes of lebbeny. These provisions were arranged on a carpet of clover and mallows and grass. We washed our hands, the servants pouring water over them from earthenware jars. Large Bedouin cloaks and saddle-cloths were spread for us, and we gathered round the smoking and savory fare.

Each one of the Arabs on preparing to touch food uttered the words, "In the name of God the most Bountiful." The lamb was soon skillfully dissected by Saleh with his hunting-knife. A servant handed a flat, thin, large, leath-