Note 130 — Chapter XIII · THE LAND OF PRESTER JOHN (QUDSHANIS)

This advice applies even more forcibly to travellers in the remoter villages. There almost the only food obtainable is the local pancake bread. The sole delicacies are “butter (i.e. curds) and honey,” as they were in the days of Isaiah. Eggs may be got occasionally; but the pampered European who lusts for flesh meat had better bring it with him in tins. Life is too hard in the mountains to yield more than the barest necessaries; and the slaughter of a sheep for a banquet is a very exceptional extravagance indeed.