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habit of taking wine and spirits rarely do so in their own houses if Europeans are not there. After dinner they drink their mint tea or coffee, and friends come in to see them, or they go out themselves and sit in the shops or cafés and drink more tea, and talk and laugh until it is time to go to bed.

Their meals are eaten on the floor. They keep a kind of narrow mattress on which they sit, and the dishes are placed on a small table about a foot high known as a maida. A common napkin some eight feet long is placed on their knees all round the circle. All the food, except the soup and sometimes the kous-kous, is eaten with the hand, and before the meal and after, soap and warm water are carried round and every person washes his hands and face. ablutions bring prosperity. It is said that these There are usually no glasses, and a common mug is handed round from which sips are taken.

Of course, when receiving guests of note, or Europeans, the meal is much more sumptuous, and among the Europeanized chiefs there is a gaudy dining-room kept for the friends from over the seas. Crockery of all kinds is produced, knives and forks, a jumble of wines and a general atmosphere of inconsequent confusion. But the meal is excellent, though sometimes a trifle long.

This is an average menu for a short dinner: