st
cravings of the appetite of the hunters. The fires had been replenished,
the gridirons again covered, and such a supply kept up as should not
only satisfy the chieftains, but content their followers. Tancred could
not refrain from contrasting the silent, business-like way in which the
Shehaabs, the Talhooks, the Djinblats, and the Habeish performed the
great operation that was going on, with the conversation which is
considered an indispensable accompaniment of a dinner in Fran-guestan;
for we must no longer presume to call Europe by its beautiful oriental
name of Christendom. The Shehaabs, the Talhooks, the Djinblats, and the
Habeish were sensible men, who were of opinion that if you want to talk
you should not by any means eat, since from such an attempt at a united
performance it generally results that you neither converse nor refresh
yourself in a satisfactory manner.

There can be no question that, next to the corroding cares of Europeans,
principally occasioned by their love of accumulating money which they
never enjoy, the principal cause of the modern disorder of dyspepsia
prevalent among them is their irrational habit of interfering with the
process of digestion by torturing attempts at repartee, and racking
their brain at a moment when it should be calm, to remind themselves of
some anecdote so appropriate that they have forgotten it. It has been
supposed that the presence of women at our banquets has occasioned this
fatal and inopportune desire to shine; and an argument has been founded
on this circumstance in favour of their exclusion from an incident
which, on the whole, has a tendency to impair that ideal which they
should always study and cherish. It may be urged that if a woman eats
she may destroy her spell; and that, if she will not eat, she destroys
our dinner.

Notwithstanding all this, and without giving any opinion on this latter
point, it should be remembered that at dinners strictly male, where
there is really no excuse for anything of the kind, where, if you are
a person of ascertained position, you are invited for that position
and for nothing else, and where, if you are not a person of ascertained
position, the more agreeable you make yourself the more you will be
hated, and the less chance you will have of being asked there again,
or anywhere else, still this fatal frenzy prevails; and individuals are
found who, from soup to coffee, from egg to apple, will tell anecdotes,
indulge in jest