 but with his left  hand, and he does it twice. The Bedu shows no reaction, but he  should: among the desert Bedouin tribes, who eat by hand, the left  is kept away from the food as it is the hand with which they clean  themselves after defecating. It could be that the guide is observing  another Bedouin custom, that of warm hospitality and unstinting  generosity to strangers, and is too polite to mention the gaffe (he  would probably be aware that many outsiders do not know of the  taboo), but it is more likely that it is a genuine error. Peter  OToole is left