A DAINTY DINNER.

Waipa Post, Volume 39, Issue 3087, 10 December 1929, Page 6

A DAINTY DINNER.

AMONG THE ARABS.

A friend of mine writes a correspondent) recently lent me Grave’s fascinating* book about Lawrence of Arabia; and if any girl reader has fallen in love with an Arab Sheik, of the films or of filmy fiction, let her pay particular attention to Lawrence’s experiences at a splendid feast given by a famous Sheik. A great cauldron, or lidless boiler, stood on the ground in the centre of the tent. It was overflowing with boiled sheep, flesh, and bones, swimming about in a sea of oily stuff. Round this boiler the chief’s guests “ hunkered,” picking chunks of flesh and pieces of meaty bone out of the surging sea of oily stuff, picking them out. with their bare hands! It was incumbent upon the guests to partake of this gorgeous gorge in complete silence, so far as words were concerned, while the romantic Sheik walked to and fro in the tent encouraging his guests to “ walk into ” the good things so lavishly provided for their enjoyment — an expression which one seems to have heard before. To disobey the Sheik’s hospitable invitation would have been regarded as an insult; so Lawrence swallowed his squeamishness and as much boiled sheep as he felt he could possibly hold without a sudden unshipment of “ the same.” How would my Sheik-worshipping girl reader like to form even a remote and secluded member of a domestic sphere in which hubby’s honoured guests hunker round a boiler and gorge themselves with their bare hands ? There is such a thing as civilisation, no matter what the disgruntled asses may say. As Kipling observes, “ East is East and West is West, and ” —thank goodness —“ never the twain shall meet,” so far, at least as table manners and oil-boiling are concerned.