If a dinner-party is being given and some light or inappropriate subject of conversation is brought up in the presence of the father and son, the son will endeavor to change the subject or even leave the room. Apart they will tell as good a story as any one, but together it is not considered respectful. Should a chief come into a café with friends, and a younger member of the family happen to be there, the latter will leave immediately so as to lay no restraint on the older man. Many is the time when Europeans, ignorant of all this etiquette, have asked a party of Arabs to dinner and have suddenly found that four or five of the party have not put in an appearance. The host may be hurt, he may be puzzled, but the solution of the riddle is easy—those four or five guests have found out that one of the party was a senior man with whom they could not sit down at table. In return for all this the head of the family looks after the whole of the welfare of his descendants, and any relatives are welcome to eat and reside in his house or tent as long as they like. By nature the Arab is very easy-going. Even the shopkeepers do not worry people to buy, and will often tell a customer that the article he requires is not stocked rather than interrupt a conversation with a friend over the counter. Their prices are usually rather vague, and bargaining is quite normal, the result of the deal depending a great deal on the mood of the shopkeeper. If the deal is not brought off there is no ill-feeling, and the customer will often be asked to come in and drink a cup of tea. The very poor people, and there are a great many, live on charity and the wages of odd jobs, but it is amazing to see how body and soul hang together with practically no clothes or substantial nourishment. Their occupations and pastimes are varied. They are either landowners in the northern districts, or sheep-farmers and date-growers in the south—all very profitable occupations and the source of great fortunes quite unsuspected by the visitor. In their leisure they ride and hunt with falcons, and shoot; they enjoy horse-racing and everything to do with riding, and though a great many of them have motor-cars they consider them merely as conveniences, and the greatest ambition of a young Arab is to own a horse. As in all Oriental countries, European vices become exaggerated, and once a native starts gambling or drinking he does little else.