As I entered and kicked off my slippers—for having so far resorted to oriental ways as to adopt the _tarboosh_, or fez, I held also to their custom of not walking on their carpets in boots—one of the group rose to meet me. He was a stout elderly man, with a kindly pleasing expression, dark in colour; and although not strictly handsome, he possessed a manner, common to most Orientals of position, that could not fail to charm. Grasping me by the hand, he led me to the divan, where I seated myself beside him, and, salutations over, proffered me the amber mouthpiece of his pipe and a bunch of _kat_, a shrub to which the Yemenis are much addicted. This plant is known to us as the _Catha edulis_. It resembles rather a young arbutus in the form and shape of its leaves. The leaves are eaten green, growing on the stalk, and are said to cause a delightful state of wakefulness. The taste is bitter and by no means pleasant, though one easily accustoms one’s self to eating it. An amusing remark was made by my Moorish servant in the presence of the Sultan which tickled the old gentleman exceedingly. He held out to Abdurrahman a bunch of _kat_, which he politely refused. When asked by the Sultan why, he naively replied, “That is what the goats eat in my country,” thinking it to be the common arbutus of Morocco. In Yemen it is considered a necessary luxury; and as it only grows in certain parts of the country, where it is carefully cultivated, and has to be transported often a long distance, it fetches a high price. That we ate with the Sultan of Lahej had been brought some forty miles or more that very morning, for it must be eaten fresh. [Illustration: MY RECEPTION BY THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ.] Sitting next to the Sultan was a Shereef, a descendant of the Prophet in other words, a tall handsome young man, clean shaven, and richly dressed. A gold dagger of great antiquity that he wore in his belt, and which he kindly showed to me, was as perfect a thing of its kind as it has ever been my lot to set eyes upon. The Sultan himself was robed in a long loose outer garment of dull olive-green, displaying a _kuftan_ beneath of yellow-and-white striped silk, fastened at the waist by a coloured sash. On his head he wore a large yellow silk turban, surrounded by a twisted cord of black camel’s hair and gold thread.