permitted to you to apply your tongue to each digit in turn in the
following order; fourth (or little finger), second, thumb, third,
first; but a few moments later the slave appears, and after bearing
away the table with the remains of the feast gives the opportunity for
a most satisfactory ablution. In this case you are expected to use
soap, and to wash both hands, over which water is poured three times.
If you are at all acquainted with Moorish ways, you will not fail at
the same time to apply soap and water to your mouth both outwardly and
inwardly, being careful to rinse it three times with plenty of noise,
ejecting the water behind your hand into the basin which is held
before you.

Orange-flower water and incense now again appear, and you may be
required to drink three more glasses of refreshing tea, though this is
sometimes omitted at the close of a repast. Of course "the feast of
reason and the flow of soul" have not been lacking, and you have been
repeatedly assured of your welcome, and invited to partake beyond
the limit of human possibility, for the Moor believes you can pay
no higher compliment to the dainties he has provided than by their
consumption.

For a while you linger, reclining upon the mattress as gracefully as
may be possible for a tyro, with your arm upon a pile of many-coloured
cushions of embroidered leather or cloth. Then, after a thousand
mutual thanks and blessings, accompanied by graceful bowings and
bendings, you say farewell and step to the door, where your slippers
await you, and usher yourself out, not ill-satisfied with your
initiation into the art of dining-out in Barbary.

[Illustration: _Photograph by Dr. Rudduck._