[p.20]pleasures of marriage, lyings-in, circumcision feasts, holy
isitations, and funerals. At home, they employ themselves with domestic
matters, and especially in scolding “Hasinah” and “Za’afaran.” In this occupation
they surpass even the notable English housekeeper of the middle orders
of society—the latter being confined to “knagging” at her slavey, whereas the
Arab lady is allowed an unbounded extent of vocabulary. At Shaykh Hamid’s
house, however, I cannot accuse the women of

“Swearing into strong shudders
The immortal gods who heard them.”

They abused the black girls with unction, but without any violent
expletives. At Meccah, however, the old lady in whose house I was
living would, when excited by the melancholy temperament of her eldest
son and his irregular hours of eating, scold him in the grossest terms,
not unfrequently ridiculous in the extreme. For instance, one of her
assertions was that he—the son—was the offspring of an immoral mother;
which assertion, one might suppose, reflected not indirectly upon
herself. So in Egypt I have frequently heard a father, when reproving
his boy, address him by “O dog, son of a dog!” and “O spawn of an Infidel—of a
Jew—of a Christian!” Amongst the men of Al-Madinah I remarked a
considerable share of hypocrisy. Their mouths were as full of religious
salutations, exclamations, and hackneyed quotations from the Koran, as
of indecency and vile abuse—a point in which they resemble the Persians.
As before

[p.21] observed, they preserve their reputation as the sons of a holy
city by praying only in public. At Constantinople they are by no means
remarkable for sobriety. Intoxicating liquors, especially Araki, are