A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

332 TURKISH DINNER.
the rest of the dinner is put down all at once ;
the ragouts and roasts in round dishes, and the
sweet things and salads in saucers. These are
dispatched in a very short time; for the Mos-
lems sit down to table to eat, and not to talk*;
each ])erson breaks off small portions of his bread,
and dipping them into whatever dish he fancies,
fishes up each time a morsel which he carries
to his mouth, and so on till he has partaken of
everything : and all this is done with the right
hand alone, for to use the left hand, either in
feeding himself or in presenting food to a stranger,
is looked upon as the greatest of abominations
by every Mahometan.
Seid Husseyn's two eldest sons only were al-
lowed to sit down at table with him ;
two younger
ones, fine young men, held lanthorns for us while
we dined, looking on w ith the stillness of statues,
while the slaves performed the service of the
table ; and they, together with his grandsons,
w^ere only suffered to eat when he had risen from
his repast. Seid Ali, one of the privileged
elder sons, did not take his place at the tray
until dinner was nearly over. Seated at the
open window with his watch in his hand, and
his eyes fixed upon the western horizon, he ap-
peared absorbed in watching the setting sun
;