Identifier: desertgatewaybis00leed (find matches)
Title: The Desert gateway, Biskra and thereabouts
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Leeder, S. H
Subjects: Islam Biskra -- Description and travel Algeria -- Social life and customs
Publisher: London, New York (etc.) : Cassell and company, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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g the only son of his mother, and she a widow,he is the man of the house and is already deferredto by the women of his family—we witnessed thequiet courtesy with which alone it is proper for aMoslem to enter a dwelling. By the Prophets example, on coming to a door,one should stand not in front of it, but on the side,and say in a low voice, The Peace of God be withyou ! In the Koran the most particular instructions aregiven as to the observance of good manners in enter-ing a house not your own, and as we found thatTaibs mother shared their home with anotherfamily, it was necessary for him to keep these rules. Oh ye who believe ! enter not into other housesthan your own, until ye have asked leave, and havesaluted its inmates.* Having saluted the house, Taib pushed open therough outer door, and entered the dark, windowlesshole, with a mud floor, which, for want of a betterword, one must call the vestibule. Here he sangout in Arabic his request for admission, upon which * Sura xxiv, 27.
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Iholo: Hoic.iaittI, Itia-ia THK IKF-:TIV KOAI) IKOM HISKKA ro KAS-KLGUIiKKIA WE VISIT TAiBS HOME 69 after a few seconds of waiting—for it shows greatrudeness to enter any house abruptly—the innerdoor was opened by a child, and Taib asked us toenter the room to which it led. It was a fairly large room, with rough mud wallsand uneven mud floor. It had no window, but therewas a square hole in the middle of the ceiling—which was supported by the trunk of a palm-tree—■and through this the smoke from the fire on the floormade its way out. In one corner a well-grown lambwas tethered. There was no furniture whatever in the room, butwe could discern in the half-light that Taibs poorold mother was rising from one of the mats whichare spread upon the floor and take the place of thechairs and sofas which we think necessary for com-fort. Our hostess was not veiled, and as she cameshyly forward Taib proudly introduced us. Weshook her hand, and she requested her boy, in whomit was plain to

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