The custom among the country people is to eat out of a common dish.[95] If it contains rice the food is rolled into balls and put into the mouth with the fingers. The bread is held on the knee, as one sits in squatting posture, and bits are torn from it. With these bits of bread the food may be dipped up, especially if it be oil or leben. Portions of meat are taken with the fingers. A wooden spoon is sometimes used. When guests are eating, the women of the family are not present, but often eat in another place and use the remains of the men’s feast. In the field the workers gather around the dish that has been brought from the village. They may be sitting in the broiling sun. It is customary to invite the passer-by to the repast.
The first meal of the day is not usually taken until the middle of the forenoon, and is a light one. The second one, at or after noon, may be heartier. The evening meal is the best. Meat is almost a luxury, the increase in its use denoting progress in prosperity.
Almost any discriminating person will decide for the native peasant costume as more modest, graceful and artistic than the European styles. One feels disappointed and defrauded at sight of a villager togged in European trouserings. The village woman descends in the scale of attractiveness just so far as she submits to the fashion of Western dressmaking. Stockings are seldom worn by the country people when they are in vigorous health. At best the stocking is an unsanitary snare. Men generally wear the roomy shoe having buffalo rawhide from India for the soles and a red or brown goat-skin for the uppers. Women seldom wear shoes inside the village for fear of ridicule. When they are out in the rough places they wear the same kind of shoe as the men.
The fully dressed _fellâḥ_, (peasant) has in his outfit the following articles:
_Dîmâyeh_, or _ḳumbâz_, a long dress or tunic. _Shirîhah_, a girdle studded with the _razât_, which are ornaments like little silver buttons. _Ṣadrîyeh_, a vest. _Ṭuḳṣîreh_, a small blue jacket made of _jûkh_, a blue cloth. Sometimes a European jacket is worn or a sheepskin is used. _‛Abâh_ (colloquial, _‛abâyeh_), a homespun woolen overcoat, striped. _Ṣirmâyeh_, a shoe, heavy or light according to the season. _Leffeh_, a general name for the entire head-dress.