The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-08
HOSPITALITY OF THE ARAB.
A Woman Traveller Describes it Fron
 Her Personal Experience.

A Woman Traveller Describes it From
 Her Personal Experience.
 "Fifty-three pairs of dark eyes were fixed upon us in unwaverlng scrutiny; 1t was dark, and trisre was silence" {" says Louisa Jebb, in Longman's Maga- zine. The eyes as they gleaned out of the darkness might have belongd to a herd of wild beasts watching their prey; but we were privileged guests of the Arab sheik in whose tent we were sitting, and the gaze was but that of friendly curiosity. We had besn placed on the seat of honor-a rush mat at one side of the tent, Opposite to us squat ted our host, a venerable old man, with white beard, which flowed over his bare, wrinkled chest; with one arm he supported small boy, who played with the beads round the old chiefs neck
 Between us, in the csnter of the hut, glowed dying fire, apd beside 1t, si- lently watching the pot on the ashes, sat the coffee maker. Now and then he scraped the ashes together round the pot. A thin veil of smoke rose up slow ly and dispersed itself under the low roof of the tent. The silence was al most religious; the darkness suggested witchcraft rather than night; a hob goblin might have sprung out of the coffee makers pot and not have been out of keeping with the natural se- quence of events.
 "All at once, at the back of the tent. hand was raised, and"a a bundle of fine brushwood came down onto the fire; in sudden blaze it mom&ntarily lit up the fire; in sudden blaze it momentarily lit up the -fifty-three dark faces, fiared an instant, fiickered, then as rapidly died away, and we only felt the gaze we had seen before. We silently watched the coffee maker and our host, who, bing nearest to the fire, were dimly visible in its remaining light. The attention of the one was concentrated on his pot; that of the other, in common with his companions, was fixed on us. There was no call for speech, for we spoke in tongues unintelligible to one another, and the only sound which fitfully broke the ghostly silence was that language understood by all nations alike-the wall of an infant in it's mothers arms.
 "'Salaam Aleikum,' we had been re- ceived with as the sheik stood up to wlcome us on our arrival unexpected and uninvited, in the midst of his tribe We had been guided to his tent by the long spear which stood upright at the door; and when he had offered us the token of Arab good villa cup of cof- fee-we knew that we were among friends. He waved us to our seats, and then, seating himself, had pullsd the child toward him; he patted his own chest, and then pointed to the lad with pride.
 "His youngest child interpreted the Turkish soldier who accompanied us, and who understood a few words of Arabic.
 "We nodded back our looks of appre- citation, and these preliminary acts of courtesy having established the requl- site good feeling, all need for further converse seemed at an end, and com- fortable silence fell upon all
 '"The whole village had followed us into their chiefs tent as a matter of course, and those for whom there was no room inside horded together at the door. The eastern standard of ideas, which allows respectful equality with ones superiors, was responsible for the total absence of ill-mannered jostling which would have characterized a civil ized crowd in similar circumstances on the reception of strange foreigners.
 "rhe coffee maker reached out his hand without turning and one among the crowd at his back handed him a. massive iron spoon on to which was chained a copper ladre. The sheiks lit- tie son, obeying a nod from his father, pulled a bag out of a dark recess be- hind him: another bundle of brushwood was thrown upon the fire, and by the light of it's sudden, almost startling blaze the lad united the bag and care- fully counted out the allotted number of coffee berries. The coffee maker dropped them into the spoon, for which he had raked out a hole in the ashes. The slight stir caused by these pro- ceedings subsided, the blaze died away, and the attention of all was again riv- eted on us, save that only of the coffee maker, who, sitting close up to the em-