Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/30

6 club together temporarily to buy eggs and rear the grubs, distributing one family among the homes of the rest, and devoting one entire house to the shelving and trays for the feeding of the myriads of silk-spinners. Horses and carriages are also held in shares, as are ships in England, especially amongst relatives. Family circles are often large, and clannish to an inconvenient extent. One is recommended to make a purchase, for instance, of a shopkeeper or merchant. It is pretty certain you are recommended to a near relation of your friend, who has lOO or 150 uncles and cousins ready to do anything for you — for a consideration — and probably for your friend too. One schoolmaster in a certain village has actually at least 150 near relatives, and the school is largely composed of the younger ones, who would be withdrawn should he be dismissed. The peasantry live in stone houses with flat earthen roofs, mended with fresh layers of mud from time to time, and carefully rolled with a stone roller, kept always at hand. These roofs are often merry-making places on summer evenings, when pipe and drum keep up for hours the sound which is so peculiarly trying to European nerves. They are to the natives what courtyards are to us, and when crops are drying are covered with peas, beans, flax, pine-cones, or what not. In all but the very poorest houses is a Leewān, or reception room, beyond which a stranger is seldom admitted. Around the Leewān is a divan, or low sofa. Seated on this, the guest is presented with some of the rich sweetmeats and lemonade and rose-water of the country. On entering, you have saluted with hand on heart and forehead, and been greeted with "Mar haban" (welcome, lit. "Our house is white ") ; or with "Ahlān wa sahlān" ("We are friends, our house is yours"). If you are very much the superior personage, your hand has been kissed and raised to your host's forehead. After partaking of the sweets and cooling drinks, you replace your glass on