dames of the suburbs, we are told, receive them with such exclamations of joy and wonder, and almost tear their coats to get from them a sacred token. For you must remember, they are from the Holy Land. Unlike their goods, they at least are genuine. And every Saturday night, after beating the hoof in the country and making such fabulous profits on their false Holy-Land gewgaws, they return to their cellar happy and content.
“In three years,” writes our Scribe, “Khalid and I acquired what I still consider a handsome fortune. Each of us had a bank account, and a check book which we seldom used. … In spite of which, we continued to shoulder the peddling box and tramp along. … And Khalid would say to me, ‘A peddler is superior to a merchant; we travel and earn money; our compatriots the merchants rust in their cellars and lose it.’ To be sure, peddling in the good old days was most attractive. For the exercise, the gain, the experience—these are rich acquirements.”
And both Shakib and Khalid, we apprehend, have been hitherto most moderate in their habits. The fact that they seldom use their check books, testifies to this. They have now a peddleress, Im-Hanna by name, who occupies their cellar in their absence, and keeps what little they have in order. And when they return every Saturday night from their peddling trip, they find the old woman as ready to serve them as a mother. She cooks mujaddara for them, and sews the bed-linen on the quilts as is done in the mother country.
“The linen,” says Shakib, “was always as white as a dove’s wing, when Im-Hanna was with us.”
And in the Khedivial Library Manuscript we find this curious note upon that popular Syrian dish of lentils and olive oil.
“ Mujaddara ,” writes Khalid, “has a marvellous effect upon my humour and nerves. There are certain dishes, I confess, which give me the blues.