two: honey and hatalis of bir

’Dough ’possum meat is glo’yus wid ’taters in de pan,/ But put ’longside pork sassage it takes a backward stan’;/ Ub all yer fancy eatin’s, jes gib to me fur mine/ Sum souse or pork or chidlins, sum sphar-rib, or de chine.
Hog Meat, Daniel Webster Davis

Suleiman is the son of Saif bin Darwish bin Mohammed al Hatali, an old man who lowered himself to the edge of the mat spread out for us in Bir, in a nook of a little tributary wadi that unravels itself between Wadi Bani Auf and Wadi Bani Kharus, far away from the traffic that grinds over their rocky beds. We would eat melons over that carpet, between dates and coffee, surrounded by farmers of chilli, radish, watermelon, sweet melon and something they called gilgilan. Saif is brother to the sheikh, Said bin Darwish al Hatali, an old man with a grand beard and kind eyes.

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