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In the Company of Bedouins
- University of Pittsburgh Press
- Chapter
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27 In the Company of Bedouins If you run into Bedouins in the desert, you must stay with them for three days. Such is the custom in the land of sand. So you call your wife. Tell your boss you’ve been delayed. And drink tea and camel’s milk with your hosts. You eat the grilled flanks of goats and at midnight your new friends tutor you in their constellations. You may even be obliged to dance with their daughters and in extreme cases take one as a wife. It is an ancient tradition. To dishonor it would bring them shame. After the third day they offer you an escort and water for the way. Years later one of these Bedouins might show up at your doorstep and you must tie his camel to your maple tree and set a place for him at the table between your wife and daughter. In the evening you can teach him how to use your television. And take him for a ride in your sedan. And because you too are an honorable man, you give him your bed and pillow while you and your wife sleep out on the lawn. After three days of him splashing in your bathtub and sitting on your roof and taking tea with your neighbors, you pack him a sandwich, hand him some bottled water, and explain to the neighborhood children that they have to get off the back of his camel because the time has come for your guest to go. ...