'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎672] (771/905)

672
food of the arabs.
[chap. xxv.
bread, half baked. They, however, readily eat jerboas, 1 lizards.
Locusts eaten, hedgehogs, locusts, and, in general, every animal which they
happen to meet with during their journeys, except the hog.
Locusts, strung together, are exposed for sale in some of the
petty bazaars; these are usually broiled, although it is by no
means uncommon to eat them without any kind of dressing;
and the liver of the sheep is eaten in a raw state. 2
The milk of the camel, which is poor and slightly saline,
forms a part of the food of the Arabs and of their horses, and
sometimes an inferior kind of butter is made from it. The
Camel's flesh flesh of that animal is so much esteemed, that when lame-
Tdainty!* 1 aS ness, illness, or any other cause arrests its progress during a
journey, it is speedily killed and divided amongst all who have
any claim to a share of what is sought with the utmost
avidity.
Sour milk, Cheese, and goat's or sheep's milk, dates, bread, or dhurrah,
honey cake, some boiled rice mixed with butter, a preparation of bruised
wheat called burghul, or a cake composed of honey and butter,
form the chief food of the Bedawins. The common evening
meal of the poorer sort is a dish called ayesh, of flour and
sour camel's milk, made into a paste and boiled. On the
arrival of a stranger, a kid or lamb is either baked whole, or
put into a pilaf. Fish is not much in request, nor is it eaten
from choice even when it happens to be abundant, which is
often the case near the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris.
The favourite beverage is sour milk, called Leben, the prepa
ration of which is understood everywhere throughout Arabia.
Cheese is universally eaten, and in some places it is very good.
Throughout Mesopotamia, and especially in the market of
Baghdad, it is scarcely inferior to our Chedder. But the
greater part of the Arab cheese is of a very different quality ; it
is usually formed into small lumps, less than the size of a
bean, much salted, and is kept in leathern bags for use, both
at home and on a journey.
Butter is almost as common as cheese, and it is made in a
most primitive manner. A skin half filled with milk being
1 The Anizeh regard the jerboa as a great dainty.—Burckhardt's Bedawin
and WahMbi, p. 35. « Ibid ^ p 138