The retainers feasted,
when all was over, in the open air.
Every man found his knife in his girdle, forks were unknown. Fakredeen
prided himself on his French porcelain, which the Djinblats, the
Talhooks, and the Abunekeds glanced at very queerly. This European
luxury was confined to his own carpet. There was, however, a
considerable supply of Egyptian earthenware, and dishes of pewter and
brass. The retainers, if they required a plate, found one in the large
flat barley cake with which each was supplied. For the principal guests
there was no want of coarse goblets of Bohemian glass; delicious
water abounded in vases of porous pottery, which might be blended, if
necessary, with the red or white wine of the mountain. The rice, which
had been dressed with a savoury sauce, was eaten with wooden spoons
by those who were supplied with these instruments; but in general the
guests served themselves by handfuls.
Ten men brought in a framework of oaken branches placed transversely,
then covered with twigs, and over these, and concealing everything, a
bed, fully an inch thick, of mulberry leaves. Upon this fragrant bier
reposed a wild boar; and on each side of him reclined a gazelle. Their
bodies had closed the moment their feet had been loosened from the
stakes, so that the gravy was contained within them.
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