'Southern Arabia, by Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., Author of 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland' 'The Sacred City of the Ethiopians' 'The Cyclades, Or Life Among the Insular Greeks' etc. and Mrs Theodore Bent' [‎112] (155/552)

112
THE HADHRAMOUT
He placed at our disposal a room spread with Daghestan
carpets and cushions, furnished with two tables and three
chairs, and not a mouthful of our own food would he
allow us to touch, a hospitality which had its drawbacks,
for the Arab cuisine is not one suited to Western palates.
"We were very glad of this hospitality at first as it would
give Matthaios a holiday, which he could devote to the
washing of clothes, water being so plentiful. I will describe
one day's meals, which were invariably the same. At eight
o'clock came several cups, all containing coffee and milk,
honey, eggs, hard boiled and peeled, and a large thin
leathery kind of bread made plain with water, and another
large thin kind made with ghi, and like pastry.
About 2.30 came two bowls like slop-bowls, one contain
ing bits of meat, vegetables, eggs and spices in sauce, under
about an inch of melted ghi> the other a kind of soup.
They were both quite different, but at the same time very
much alike, and the grease on the top kept them furiously
hot. There were little pieces of boiled lamb, and little pieces
of roast lamb; tiny balls of roast meat and also of boiled; a
mound of rice and a mound of dates; and upon requesting
some water we were given one large glassful. Identically
the same meal came at 9.30, an hour when the hona-fide
traveller pines to be m his bed. These things were laid
on a very dirty coloured cotton cloth, but no plates or
knives, &c. were provided.
At several odd times through the day a slave walked in
and filled several cups of tea, a few for each of us. The
cups were never washed by him.
After struggling for a few days, many of the party
having had recourse to the medicine-chest, we were at
length compelled humbly to crave his majesty to allow us to
employ our own cook. This he graciously permitted, and
during the three weeks we passed under his hospitable roof.