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I was immediately given a chair; a mattress was found for the cheik, and once more we learned that in this country you are expected to have some coffee before a glass of tea, and then roasted almonds and melon-seeds. I like to think it was the children who decorated their little cat’s ears with pink tassels in our honour, much to the animal’s annoyance. While the pig had been also “decorated,” to his intense delight!

Madame retired immediately on our arrival; but when “tea” was finished, I begged that she might join us. Though veiled and shy, she came. Then she and her husband brought their outes (a Turkish guitar played with a feather) and sang to us without any restraint.

We stayed with them so many hours that, at last, I began to fear I was expected to make the first move. At three o’clock I asked the cheik when we were going to continue our journey, and he quickly answered: “When you please”—confirming my suspicions.

I was now informed that we should probably be too late for the one train in the day, and have to face a journey of many hours in bullock-wagons, drawn perhaps by mules. No one even hinted that I was to blame; yet no one would have dreamt of being so rude as to tell me that it was my place to break up the party!