[266] The Lydians had the same practice. It may account for their enduring the long famine, which led to the emigration of the Tyrseni, and for the provisioning of their ships.—See Drummond’s Origines, b. vi. c. 7.
[267] Lord Clarendon relates, that in the fire of London, a servant of the Portuguese Ambassador was seized and roughly handled, on the accusation of a citizen, who swore that he saw him throw a fireball into a house, which immediately burst into flames. The foreigner, so soon as the charge was translated to him, explained that he saw a piece of bread lying on the ground, and according to the custom of his country, picked it up and laid it on a shelf in the nearest house. The house was searched: the bread was found upon a board just within the door.
[268] “We had quarters assigned us; I with one peasant, and my comrade with another. We had free board, and the peasants (Turkish) exercised hospitality as though it was a matter of course.”—Wanderings of a Journeyman Tailor, p. 97.
[269] One of the charges against Koulayh Wail, the first tyrant of Southern Arabia, was, that he “monopolised hospitality.”—See Lamgal Alareb.
[270] Africa, vol. ii. p. 193.
[271] “If I have witheld the poor from his desire, or caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten with me. If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering. If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep.”—Job xxxi.
“Many, of course, were the Telzemi used against the evil eye. I have selected the hand only as affording the key. The Bulla were worn by the Etruscans, from whom the Romans copied them, as protection against it. The Bulla (five in number) were likewise in use among the Arabs, but abolished by Islam. “Most of them still wear on their necks the ornaments of infancy.”—Motenabbi. These ornaments were berries of plants, سخاب—Chreath, Arabe, t. iii. p. 41.
The Phallus was also used for the same purpose.—Pliny. Three together are sculptured on polygonal walls, in the Sabine territory at Zerui; and in the Etruscan land at Todi in Umbria, &c.—Dennis, vol. ii. p. 122. Also in Lydia. See Fellows’ Lydia.
CHAPTER III.
THE HAÏK.
However extensive the culinary operations in the chieftain’s tent, they did not absorb the whole care of his household. Simultaneously were going on the plaiting of baskets, the weaving of stuffs, the churning of butter, the preparing of skins, and the casting of bullets. The mould is two pieces of slate for half-a-dozen bullets at a time. The bow and arrow of the Numidian hunter having given way to the musket, this might be considered, at least, a modern invention. But no, they were slingers as well as bowmen, and in the manufacture of leaden pellets, they were so expert, that, as Ælian tells us, Cæsar had supplies from hence. The dwarf palm presents them with materials for tents, ropes, baskets, dishes, &c. The plant is called Doum or Jumard; the fan-like leaf, Lyzaf, serves for baskets, and their dishes are baskets. From the fibrous substance round the stalk or root, Liff, they spin thread, which they weave for the tent-covering, and spread out upon the ground, passing the thread with the hand. The haïks are, of course, home-made: those for the women and children have sprigs or lines of bright and lively colour. The weaving is more ancient[272] than the “flying shuttle” of Job, and is done by hand, as the Cashmere shawls, or Arras tapestry. The warp, which is very slender, is suspended; the woof, thick and slightly twisted, is passed by the hand; when there are colours, there is a ball for each; every colour in the pattern, is one thread. After the thread is passed, a flat heavy iron with short spikes, protruding like a comb, is used to beat it down, when it gains the character of felt.