Page:Beckford - Vathek (1816).djvu/268

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fragrance than is known to our more humid climates. The rose which yields this lotion is, according to Hasselquist, of a beautiful pale bluish colour, double, large as a man's fist, and more exquisite in scent than any other species. The quantities of this water distilled annually at Fajhum, and carried to distant countries, is immense. The mode of conveying it is in vessels of copper, coated with wax. Voyag. p. 248.


Page 105.lamb à la crême.

No dish amongst the Easterns was more generally admired. The Caliph Abdolmelek, at a splendid entertainment, to which whoever came was welcome, asked Amrou, the son of Hareth, what kind of meat he preferred to all others. The old man answered: "An ass's neck, well seasoned and roasted."—"But what say you," replied the Caliph, "to the leg or shoulder of a lamb à la crême?" and added,

"How sweetly we live if a shadow would last!"

M.S. Laud. Numb. 161. A. Ockley's Hist.
of the Saracens, vol. II. p. 277.