There is no conversation. Occasionally one of the guests speaks to a servant standing behind the diners, asking for a glass of water, which is brought from outside the room. The main attention of all, it is obvious, is in doing justice to the feast provided. Dinner table conversation such as Americans make a specialty of has already been disposed of over the tea and the coffee. It is simple logic to assume that when a man invites you to his house for dinner, he invites you to come and eat.
Conversation is for the majlis, for leisure, for business hours, for over tea and coffee.
At dinner time, one eats. He would be equally surprised if a guest delayed his departure from the meal just because the host had not finished eating, or if anyone stopped before he was filled just because the host had left the table. In a short time, by Western standards, the guests have all finished and have adjourned to the courtyard where servants hold brass urns of warm water, soap and towels. Stooping over a brass ewer, our guest washes his hand with the soap as the servant pours the warm water over it, rises, and wipes it dry on a towel held out by another. He learns later that no stigma.