All These
Meats Were Served Up At Once, Before We Sat Down.
Our drink was simple
water, or boiled with an herb called Cauhaw,[415] giving it a somewhat
bitter taste.
Dinner being over, the governor led me into an inner room,
where he was attended by four little boys, who were his catamites. Being
here seated on a crimson velvet carpet, all the rest of the room covered
with rich carpets, one of these boys, having in his hand a linen napkin,
ushered in two other boys, one of whom carried a silver chaffing-dish,
with burning coals, and the other a dish with sundry rich perfumes, as
ambergris, lignum aloes, and others. The governor desired me to permit
the boy to cover my head close with the napkin, after which the other
boy held the chaffing-dish with perfumes under my head, that I might
receive the perfume, which was very pleasant. The governor, and two
principal persons who were with him, then did the like, which seemed a
ceremony much used among them.
[Footnote 415: It ought to be called Kahwah, that is, coffee, which
every one knows is a berry; but perhaps it was made of the husk, which
the French say is most delicious, and never exported. See Voy. de
l'Arabie Heureuse, p. 243, et seq. - Astl. I.461. d.]
After conversing for some time, three of the boys came in again, one
carrying a vest, or gown, of cloth of gold, wrapped in a covering of
taffety, which was dyed with saffron to preserve the colour of the gold;
another had a sash, or turban, twenty-two yards long, all striped with
gold; and the third bore a damaskeen, or Turkish sword, richly mounted
in silver gilt, both hilt and scabbard.
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