I replied that it was no longer considered an accomplishment and sign of good breeding to drink another man under the table, and that popular opinion condemned the practice, and therefore I could not join them; neither could my stomach, unused to alcohol for so long, endure the spirit. Yet he did not desist, and at last, at the risk of seriously offending him, I told him that if the presence of a stranger and a guest who did not drink was repugnant to him and his companions, I would not force my company upon them, at which he became very apologetic and left me in peace, and the dinner arriving just then--many dishes of pilau and baked meats--the discussion closed, and we drew round a table they set, and dipped our fingers into some particularly savoury dishes. Here, again, I was unpopular, for having been used for a long time to eat little more than dry bread and fruit, a diet I found sufficient in every way, I could not eat much of these dishes, and made a meal from the bread that accompanied them, much to the disgust of my hosts, who, like all these sedentary Christians, put away enormous quantities. Unpopularity, however, among such people is of no disadvantage, for it permitted me to say I was tired, and retired to my bench, where I lay smoking and looking up at the stars, thinking, while I listened to the rising voices of the Christians, who were growing more noisy as the drink got into them, of the contrast between them and the Musulman; and rather wishing I had continued as a Musulman, among whom I made and kept good friends, and lived in the reasonable manner possible among people the preservation of whose self-respect was at least a factor in their character. As the night drew on these creatures began to get drunk, and shouted dirges and ditties in monotonous Arabic, hiccupping and breaking into screams of laughter, an inane and futile gathering of sots. The night was made hideous by their clatter, and, as no one slept till drink overcame him on the ground or couch, it was late before I could sleep, and the last sound I heard was of violent vomiting over the roof edge into the courtyard. I had caught a cold in the head, a very bad one, too, and in the morning I woke with a strong fever, and crawled to my room out of the sunlight and lay down on my bed, a piece of thin carpet on the bricks. Here I lay all day burning in the heat of both fever and climate. Kirkuk is a place where temperatures at this time of the year are over one hundred and ten degrees in the shade, and that little room, which had no outlet to the air except the door, just stored up the heat reflected from the walls of the caravanserai, and never felt the breeze to cool it.