Jellies are called ṭoṭleh. They are often served to guests, in such cases being offered before the coffee, which must always be the last of any number of refreshments. A dish of jelly or jam, with several spoons and a tumbler of water, is passed around. Each guest takes a spoon and helps himself to a taste of jelly, then puts the soiled spoon into the vessel of water. The people are very fond of honey. Many kinds of pastes, cakes and confections have honey as a prominent ingredient. Some of them seem very cloying to the unaccustomed Western taste. _Ḥelâweh_ and _mulabbas_ are the very common confections in the villages. The first looks like light-colored molasses candy and comes in bulk. It is used as a food with bread. It is made from the root of the simsim plant, the oil of which imparts to it its peculiar flavor. There is a local hit to the effect that “the people of Nâblus eat their sweets first.” The word used to express satisfaction with a flavor is _zâky_, which is equal to our colloquialism, “it tastes fine,” or the German, “grossartig.” A rebuke of an inordinate appetite is apparent in the proverb, “Let a dog take a taste, but not a son of Adam [_i. e._, a man].” The list of foods should include some of the many varieties of edible wild growths.[93] ----- ----- _Khurfaysh_ is a plant with a little notched leaf having milk-white veins. The edible stalk that grows up from the center is very delicious and refreshing when tender. _Murrâr_, a bitter herb, looks, during its early growth, a little like the dandelion. Later it develops a thorn. _Ḳurṣ‛anneh_ bears a small leaf suitable for salad. _Ḥumayḍeh_ has a leaf with red veins and a red back. It is used less commonly than the others. _Dhanbat faras_ (tail of a mare) looks like young onion leaves. _Ḥasak_ is used more especially for cows, and _ḥalîbet es-sukûl_ is fed to the kids when milk is scarce. It yields, when broken, a thick milky juice. The fruit of the cactus or prickly-pear is yellow, seedy and sweetish. For some reason or other the name for this plant, in Arabic, and the word for _patience_ are the same, _ṣubr_. This cactus fruit is much esteemed. A story is told of a man with a prodigious appetite for it who was going along by the hedges of prickly-pear near Ludd and followed by some cows which ate up the peelings of the fruit as he dropped them. The story says that the cows had to stop eating the peelings before the man’s appetite for the fruit had been fully gratified. This is only a sample of the many stories told about great eaters. The carob-pod is chewed.[94] It has a flavor like that of sweetened chocolate. Green carob-pods may be cooked in a toothsome way with milk. ----- -----