Culture is a Double-Edge Omelet
©2017 Marvin E. Fuller

"Alas, understanding can come at a steep price.  Two hundred of your years ago, my people attempted an alliance with Qual'sais, another powerful nation of our world.  As was sometimes customary, our emirate at the time offered the freshly cooked eggs of his wife to the visiting Qual'sai archon.  To us, this was a great honor.  In some respects, it is like a female sharing herself without the improprieties of out-and-out adultery.

"Unfortunately, the Qual'sai took this to be a grievous insult.  To them, the archon had been offered the worst of offal.  Naturally, the archon refused, thereby insulting us as well.  The alliance promptly collapsed and war broke out, lasting for, I think, nearly eight of your years.  Even today, our cultures have little to do with each other.  To many of us, they're stomachless plucks.  To them, we're– well, considering the company, I shan't repeat it.  It's quite vulgar.

"It has been long debated whether the offer was an error in judgment or a deliberate insult.  I lean towards the former myself.  Emirate Nihaan was more plumage than brains."