- The Travel Writings CHICAGO II IF YOU GOT THE BREAD YOU WALK “The people of these parts address each other as Mulai (Lord) and Sayyid (Sir), and use the expressions ‘Your Servant’ and ‘Your Excellency.’ When one meets another, instead of giving the ordinary greeting he says respectfully, ‘Here is your slave,’ or ‘Here is your servant at your service: They make presents of honorifics to each other. Gravity with them is a fabulous affair. “Their style of salutation is either a deep bow or prostration, and you will see their necks in play, lifting and lowering, stretching and contracting. Sometimes they will go on like this for a long time, one going down as the other rises, their turbans tumbling between them. This style of greeting, inclining as in prayer, we have observed in female slaves, or when handmaids make some request. “They apply themselves with assiduity to things that proud souls disdain. What odd people! The tail is equal to the head with them. Glory to God who created men of all kinds.
