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Reaching, however, a humble hut at which an old motherly-looking woman sat spinning cotton, he made signs that he was hungry. She immediately laid down her distaff, and desired him in Arabic to come in, setting before him a dish of kous-kous. In return he gave her one of his pocket-handkerchiefs, and asked for a little corn for his horse, which she readily brought him.
"What's them, sir Egyptian vegetables?" "Vegetables! Hark at him! Did you ever hear of Kous-kous?" "Can't say I ever did, sir; but look here, I'll buy `Cookery for the Million, and I'll soon learn." "Oh, you're improving!" said the professor sarcastically. "Here, I'll try you on something else. Could you ride and drive a camel?" "What, one of them wobbly, humpy things at the Zoo?
He had lived, too, at headquarters, and shared the officers' mess where "cherba," "tadjines," "kous-kous," and "méchoin" formed the menu, and a "Kreima Kebira" served as his roof.
The food of the Negro consists chiefly of rice, millet, &c. seasoned with palm oil, butter, or the juices of the cocoa-nut tree mixed with herbs of various kinds. They frequently regale themselves with other dishes, kous-kous, and country mess, to which they sometimes add fowls, fish, and flesh, heightened in the flavour by a variety of savory applications.
It is no matter whether the girl has an appetite or not, the kous-kous and milk must be swallowed, and obedience is frequently enforced by blows." DORA. "How very disagreeable! I scarcely know which is the worst stage of the affair, the cause or the effect."
The Danish Governor, who was dressed in a blue embroidered coat, soon made his appearance. He was a portly person, with much good humour in his countenance. At six we sat down to dinner, which was abundant, and, for the first time, I eat some kous-kous, or palm nut soup. I thought it excellent, and the pepper pot was magnificent—so a Frenchman would have said had he been one of the party.
The women worked silently, humbly, though they would have been chattering if the great Sidi stranger had not been there; but two or three little children in orange and scarlet rags played giggling among the rubbish outside the tent a broken bassour-frame, or palanquin, waiting to be mended; date boxes, baskets, and wooden plates; old kous-kous bowls, bundles of alfa grass, chicken feathers, and an infant goat with its mother.
In consequence of this depraved taste for unwieldy bulk, the Moorish ladies take great pains to acquire it early in life; and for this purpose, the young girls are compelled by their mothers to devour a great quantity of kous-kous and to drink a large portion of camel's milk every morning.
There was no moon, but a fountain of sparks spouted towards the stars; and though it was night, the sky was blue with the fierce blue of steel. Some of the Agha's black Soudanese servants had made kous-kous of semolina with a little mutton and a great many red peppers.
Inside the Agha's tent, the family took their pleasure more quietly. Though a house of canvas, there were many divisions into rooms. There were many dishes besides the inevitable cheurba, or Arab soup, the kous-kous, the mechoui, lamb roasted over the fire.
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