189 



hall, when it is full of people, and smaller when there are fewer 

 persons ; at the same time they serve up the provisions, beginning 

 with the bread. In Turkey all eat together, and many out of one 

 dish; and I apprehend the Turks do not consider it as forbidden 

 and unlawful to eat with people of a different religion. It is 

 otherwise in Persia, Arabia, and India; the people of these coun- 

 tries would think themselves defiled, and made impure, by being 

 touched by people of a different faith, or by eating out of the 

 same dish: it is for this reason I am of opinion, that they are 

 wont to serve up every one's food by itself. A carver parts each 

 dish into as many portions, put into different plates, as there are 

 people to eat; which are placed before them. There are some 

 houses where they place several plates in large salvers, either 

 round, long, or square; and they set one of these before each 

 person; or before two or three persons, according to the magni- 

 ficence of the house. The great men of the state are always by 

 themselves, and are served with greater profusion; their part of 

 each kind of provision being always double, treble, or a larger 

 proportion of each kind of meat, in the feasts that are made for 



them." 



A passage in Dr. Pococke's Travels exactly illustrates the con- 

 cluding circumstance in our Saviour's parable of the great man's 

 supper; which was doubtless very familiar to the company assem- 

 bled at the house of the chief Pharisee, whose guest he then was, 

 and to whom he was making the application for a very different 

 purpose. In Dr. Pococke's account of an entertainment made 

 by the governor of an Egyptian village for the cashif, or chief of 

 the district, with whom he travelled, he says, the custom was for 



