Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1886-02-18
Dining with an Ex-King.

My fortune has never carried me
much among the great, but L have
dined with king, albeit king depos-
ed. When Ekbal ood Dawlah, the ex-
King of Oudh, came over to England
to press his claims l was introduced to
him by Mr.. Hector, who had married q
dear and charming friend of mine, and
who had been twenty-six years mer-
chant in Bagdad. Hence it was that as
Mr. Hector's friend, he being also the
old Kings was included in the famous
dinner given by Ekbal ood Dawlah at
his house in Brompton. 1t was din
ner entirely in the Eastern style, where
we sat on the floor and ate with our
| fingers. Mr. Hector was very earnest
in lmpressing on his wife and me the
most scrupulous attention to two
things, to touch nothing with our le t
hands-do we not all remember the
men in the arabian Nights" whose
right hands were wrapped in their
cloaks, and who thus were obliged to
eat with their left t?-and not to soil our
fingers beyond the first joint. We all
sat on cushions ON the floor, where
also the dinner was laid. Sir Henry
Layard, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Captain
Felix Jones, late resident at Bushire,
and his wife, pretty Chaldean and a
HISTORIAN Christian, Professor YAM
berry and ourselves formed the party.
We first had q couche of rice on our
plates, on which were afterward placed
all the meats of the table. When the
King wished to honor us he scooped up
some rice and laid it with his own
hands on the plate designated. Wish
ing to specially honor Mrs. Hector, he
made up ball of rice and put it into
her mouth. I do net remember the
dishes, besides kabobs and pheasants
dressed to look like pears; but the
food was beyond measure delicious.
After dinner gorgeous creatures,
dressed in white, with Lullion fringe on
their sashes, brought round basin,
rose water, scented soap and q fringed
and embroidered towel, when we all
washed our hands and were clean.
Thon canna tha -ts-s. Of tlo sorvants
Though water drinker for his own
part, the King allowed wine, notably
champagne, to those who liked it. And
what struck me as specially royal and
fine was that when the servants began
their meal he went in and gravely
served them himself with wine-a bot
tie of champagne in each hand. Mrs.
Hector aud L were rather out of the
run of things, for the conversation was
carried on in Persian, Hindustan, or
Arabic indifferently, and pretty little
Mrs. Jones was the only woman who
could talk with the men. That all
sorts of "merry iests" were said, per-
haps broader than would quite suit
English tastes, was evident by the faces
and the loud laughter of the men. Some
times they translated for our benefit and
sometimes they would not, and never
regretted more my ignorance of the
environment in which found myself.
1 remember, too, how Sir Henry Lay
ard teased us-all in good humor-by
saying how incomparably more beauti-
full, more attractive altogether, was
Mrs. Jones in her Eastern dress and
Eastern childlike simplicity than were
Western women in their starch and
stays. This was about the time when
Wild Dayrell won the Derby, and we
who loved and believed in Layard
looked to the ful6llment of the ana
grammatic prophecy, and hoped that
the partnership would some day fall to
the second conqueror of Nineveh. An
other striking incident took place that
evening. Before dinner, and while the
King was out of the room, Prof. Vam-
berry disappeared. Presently there
glided in wretched being, oil in rags
and seeming dirt, gaunt, wild-looking
creature, who stole in like shadow
and sank down in noiseless bundle
close to the wall by the doc. When
the King came in and saw this fakir, he
called out, in voice of thunder, "Who
is this dogf" His face was really ter
lible. He drew back with a look Of
disgust and rage that made him look
like some wild animal rathor than q
man. When Vamberry revealed him
self, and explained that it was simply q
joke, his royal wrath little subsided.
but he o. dered him to leave the room
at once, and to have done with such
detestable fooling. Lu1,ql Lin
ton, in the FortnighHy ReUtetc.