As It Would Be
Considered An Affront To Buy Any Corn, The Horse Must Remain Ill-Fed,
Unless The Traveller Has The Precaution To Carry A Little Barley In His
Saddle-Bag, To Make Up The Deficiency In The Host's Allowance.
On
returning to Aaere to the house of the Sheikh, after my tour through the
desert, one of my
Druse guides insisted upon taking my horse to his
stables, instead of the Sheikh's; when I was about to depart, the Druse
brought my horse to the door, and when I complained that he had fallen
off greatly in the few days I had remained in the village, the Sheikh
said to me in the presence of several persons, "You are ignorant of the
ways of this country [Arabic]; if you see that your host does not feed
your horse, insist upon his giving him a Moud of barley daily; he dares
not refuse it." It is a point of honour with the host never to accept of
the smallest return from a guest; I once only ventured to give a few
piastres to the child of a very poor family at Zahouet, by whom we had
been most hospitably treated, and rode off without
[p.295] attending to the cries of the mother, who insisted upon my
taking back the money.
Besides the private habitations, which offer to every traveller a secure
night's shelter, there is in every village the Medhafe of the Sheikh,
where all strangers of decent appearance are received and entertained.
It is the duty of the Sheikh to maintain this Medhafe, which is like a
tavern, with the difference that the host himself pays the bill:
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