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The Arab women, though almost invariably veiled, are anything but shy, do not object to going about alone and in quarrels, bargaining etc. do not seem at all inhibited by their veils. Arabs seem to attach less importance than most orientals to touching and being touched. Arab men often go about hand in hand, and sometimes hand in hand with a woman (unthinkable in some oriental races.) In the buses mild flirtations between Arab women and European men. The Mahometan rules about not drinking seem to be strictly kept and drunkenness unheard of. On the other hand there is much smoking of a sort of drug called kiff, which is at any rate supposed to have narcotic effects, It is said to [be] illegal but is obtainable everywhere. No Europeans are admitted to the mosques here.
