After sleeping, we all set out in a body to the Harim, as this is a duty which must not be delayed by the pious.  The boy Mohammed was in better spirits, the effect of having borrowed from Hamid, amongst other articles of clothing, an exceedingly gaudy embroidered coat.  As for Shaykh Nur, he had brushed up his Tarbush, and, by means of some cast-off dresses of mine, had made himself look like a respectable Abyssinian slave, in a nondescript toilette, half Turkish, half Indian.  I propose to reserve

[p.295] the ceremony of Ziyarat, or Visitation, for another chapter, and to conclude this with a short account of our style of living at the Shaykh’s hospitable house.

Hamid’s abode is a small corner building, open on the North and East to the Barr al-Manakhah:  the ground floor shows only a kind of vestibule, in which coarse articles, like old Shugdufs, mats and bits of sacking, are lying about; the rest are devoted to purposes of sewerage.  Ascending dark winding steps of ragged stone covered with hard black earth, you come to the first floor, where the men live.  It consists of two rooms to the front of the house, one a Majlis, and another converted into a store.  Behind them is a dark passage, into which the doors open; and the back part of the first story is a long windowless room, containing a Hanafiyah,[FN#14] or large copper water-pot, and other conveniences for purification.  On the second floor is the kitchen, which I did not inspect, it being as usual occupied by the “Harim.”

The Majlis has dwarf windows, or rather apertures in the northern and eastern walls, with rude wooden shutters and reed blinds; the embrasures being garnished with cushions, where you sit, morning and evening, to enjoy the cool air.  The ceiling is of date-sticks laid across palm-rafters stained red, and the walls are of rough scoriae, burnt bricks, and wood-work cemented with lime.  The only signs of furniture in the sitting-room are a Diwan[FN#15] round the sides and a carpet in the centre.  A

[p.296] huge wooden box, like a seaman’s chest, occupies one of the corners.  In the southern wall there is a Suffah, or little shelf of common stone, sunk under a single arch; upon this are placed articles in hourly use, perfume-bottles, coffee-cups, a stray book or two, and sometimes a turband, to be out of the children’s way.  Two hooks on the western wall, hung jealously high up, hold a pair of pistols with handsome crimson cords and tassels, and half a dozen cherry-stick pipes.  The centre of the room is never without one or more Shishas[FN#16] (water pipes), and in the corner is a large copper brazier containing fire, with all the utensils for making coffee either disposed upon its broad brim or lying about the floor.  The passage, like the stairs, is spread over with hard black earth, and is regularly watered twice a day during the hot weather.

The household consisted of Hamid’s mother, wife, some nephews and nieces, small children who ran about in a half-wild and more than half-nude state, and two African slave girls.  When the Damascus Caravan came