Sultan Tyrab one day gave a great festival. The Sultan began examining the dishes one after another, in order to see which were the best. Some of them had been prepared by the hands of the Yakoury Kinaneh herself. Tyrab tasted them, and, finding them excellent, ordered them to be reserved for the Ulemas. Kinaneh objected, saying,—“Shall I be Yakoury to cook for Sheikhs, whilst others cook for Viziers and Kings?” The King replied, that she would thereby gain the blessings of these holy men. But an altercation ensued; she swore by her head that the Ulemas should not taste them, and female perseverance prevailed. I must add that the buffoons are generally chosen amongst the poorest kind of people. They go begging from door to door, always with success, for the great people fear them as spies. Whoever treats them well acquires their praises; but those who seem to check them are sure to be despised and scandalised. In this they resemble poets, who have incense for their friends and sarcasms for their enemies. The Yakoury is the mother of the Sultan. I have seen the mother of Sultan Mohammed Fadhl. She was an ugly slave, who would not have fetched ten dollars. I have also seen his grandmother, a hideous old woman, more hideous than any other in the whole country, and nearly imbecile. It was her pleasure, whenever she travelled, to be carried on a kind of stool on the shoulders of men, and surrounded by a numerous escort of soldiers. One day she was told that the people said, speaking of her, “This slave tyrannises over and torments us.” She caused herself to be carried to the divan, and cried, “The slave! The slave has brought forth silver, and silver has brought forth gold!” alluding to her relationship to the Sultan. CHAPTER VII. The Fasher — The Ligdabeh — A Race — Audience on Horseback — Tendelty — Fountains — Huts — The Palace — Police Regulations — Costume — The Litham — Materials of Clothing — Women’s Dresses — Ornaments — Lovers — Jealousy — Intercourse of the Sexes — A Story of Love — The Sultan’s Interference — War against Drunkenness — Marriage Expenses — Strange Customs — Buying a Wife — Betrothal.