The Throne of Solomon
with no one to observe us, she lost interest and began to entice
me back again as fast as she could to call on various important
people she thought I ought to Icnow—just as the distinguished
visitor in an English village may be taken to call on people who
will be " so interested to meet him," regardless of his feelings.
There was in all this a lot of drama which I missed. I
noticed that while I was induced to linger in some places with
an obvious effort to make me show off nicely, I was hurried
past others inhabited, as I learnt that evening, by Ali Ilahis,
whom the Kurds consider unbelievers. One would think that
in a prosperous district full of villages, it would be possible so
to arrange things that one would not have to live door to
door with one's enemies; the mere discomfort of lifelong hatred
would be too much for our weaker European nerves. The
East does not feel this, or perhaps looks on the excitement of a
next-door enemy as something to enliven life: you will find
people in one place for generations and centuries, closely
united as oil and vinegar in one cruet, and as incapable of
mixing.
"When we got back to the house, I found that a cloud had
fallen over the geniality of the party. It was the fascination of
either 'Aziz or The Refuge of Allah that was to blame. The
master of the house had been asking his wife what she meant by
inviting strange men. He would have nothing to do with us,
and my escort, with very black brows, were preparing to camp
in the courtyard. The blot of inhospitality was threatening our
host, and through him the whole village, and perturbed Elders
went to and fro between the parties, trying to save the name of
Lahu in the mouths of strangers.
I sat aloof, on a sort of raised dais in the living-room, count-
ing the family belongings hung from rafters in the ceiling and
watching the women, now thoroughly cowed and flustered, as
they held up bits of chicken for my supper against the flame of
[326]