The ceremony was began by the recital of a kind of litany, containing the life of Mahomet from his birth to his death.

About a hundred sheiks, sitting in a circle, on carpets, with their legs crossed, recited all the verses, swinging their bodies violently backwards and forwards, and altogether.
A grand dinner was afterwards served up, at which the guests sat on carpets, with their legs across.

There were twenty tables, and five or six people at each table.

That of the General-in-Chief and the sheik El Bekri was in the middle; a little slab of a precious kind of wood ornamented with mosaic work was placed eighteen inches above the floor and covered with a great number of dishes in succession.
They were pillaws of rice, a particular kind of roast, entrees, and pastry, all very highly spiced.

The sheiks picked everything with their fingers.