_Butchers Meat._ Cows and camels are slaughtered daily for this supply, but sheep very seldom. I did not hear that they were in the habit of emasculating the animals destined for the shambles. The tallow is sold by particular merchants, who wash and cleanse it, in order to make it fit for anointing the hair and skin. Close by the butchers shops are sold pieces of roasted fat, upon which and a little Bouza, the Bedouins of the desert usually dine when they come to the town. The flesh is not weighed, but sold in lots of about two or three pounds weight. Weights, in general, are only met with in the merchants own houses; in the market they use for this purpose stones, by means of which the sellers have often an opportunity of cheating. The pound or rotolo is equal to that of Cairo. _Milk._ In the morning both fresh and sour milk is brought in by Bedouin girls, and exchanged for Dhourra; they carry with them small wooden bowls, one of which the buyer fills with the grain, and receives in return three measures of milk; these girls also sell boiled chick-pease and boiled Tormous, both of which are a favourite breakfast, and called Belileh (بِليله). Bread is never sold in the market; but there are many women living in poor huts in different parts of the town, who, for a trifling recompense, immediately grind the Dhourra, and make it into bread. It is an established custom not to eat in the market-place, nor any where in public; it is even considered very indecorous for a person to be seen chewing any food beyond the threshold of his own house: the reason of this is a superstitious notion that a hungry man may observe the eater and may envy the morsels he puts into his mouth; for there is no blessing, they say, or nutriment in food upon which another has cast an envious eye (الطعام المحسود مافيه بَرَكة). It is for the same reason that in the Levant, the meanest peasant never eats his dinner of bread and onions without exclaiming (بِسمللّه) Besmillé, and inviting every one who passes by to partake with him; and he considers it a great favour if a small portion of his loaf is accepted, and as great an insult if his offer is silently refused; he expects, according to the custom of the country, that the person invited should answer him at least with the word Hannyan (هَنّياً _prosit_), if he does not choose to eat with him. In Turkey, this custom is not observed; and people may often be seen eating in the market places, and before their own houses. I often bought milk early in the morning in the market at Shendy, and then retired into a neighbouring hut, to drink it; but I was obliged to give the woman of the hut a handful of Dhourra for permission to do so.