Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/273

Rh serving slaves by the simplest sign of his hand. As he did not understand French, he conversed with us through Monsieur Delarue.

The dinner was excellent and gave me one more proof that the Moorish cuisine is distinguished by refinement and good taste. We were served pigeons cooked in oil with maize and other vegetables, boiled mutton with beans and olives, roast mutton with a sweet puree of squash, fried chicken, the ever-present kouskous, green peppers with an almond sauce and, as dessert, pomegranates.

After the slaves had cleared the tables and had brought us once more water for washing our hands, there followed the traditional tea with mint, which was prepared by the eldest son of the host, a pale, thin youth, very modest and well bred. Monsieur Delarue told us that the young man was a cause of great sadness in the life of his parents, as he was not attracted by the most beautiful of women and would not marry.

"A month ago," explained our host, "I found for him a slave with a beauty that far surpassed anything I could have believed was of this earth, and yet he would not even look at her but sent her off to the women's quarters without ado. Evidently it is not the wish of Allah, Whose Name be praised!"

While we drank our tea, the host and his son went off to eat their dinner with the men of the house, leaving one of his cousins to act for him. The etiquette and general features of this dinner were quite the same as those of the one described by my wife, as the customs are practically identical throughout all Maghreb. Here also we