CHAPTER VII.

FEASTING AND MERRYMAKING.

Muslim meals and mode of eating--Principal dishes--A typical feast--Public dinners--Clean and unclean meats--Drinks--Hospitality--Bread and salt--A thief thwarted--An Arabian room--A hall or saloon--The use of wine--Date wine, etc.--Prevalence of the habit of drinking wine in the present day and in history--A bout interrupted--Moderate drinking--Effects of wine--´Abd-el-Melik and his slave--Preparations for a banquet--Fruits--A rose-lover--Favourite flowers--Music--Ibráheem El-Móṣilee and Hároon Er-Rasheed--Isḥáḳ El-Móṣilee--Mukháriḳ--Performers--Unveiled women singers--Arab music--Lyric songs--Other amusements--The Bath--Hunting and hawking 135