Storia do Mogor 88.1.8

88.1.8

The food was flesh of camels and of horses cooked with salt in water, and some dishes of pulao of goat's flesh. The cloth, spread upon a carpet, was very dirty. To wait on us were two men with bare feet, who, walking upon the cloth, distributed the food, each with a big spoon in his hand. It was disgusting to see how these Uzbak nobles ate, smearing their hands, lips, and faces with grease while eating, they having neither forks nor spoons. The only implements each had on him were three or four knives, large and small, which they usually carry hanging from their waistbelt. Mahomedans are accustomed after eating to wash their hands with pea-flour to remove grease, and most carefully clean their moustaches. But the Uzbak nobles do not stand on such ceremony. When they have done eating, they lick their fingers, so as not to lose a grain of rice; they rub one hand against the other to warm the fat, and then pass both hands over face, moustaches, and beard. He is most lovely who is the most greasy. They render thanks to God with 'Alaham dilaha' (Al-hamdu-l'illahi). Each man then begins to take tobacco, and remains for a time talking. The conversation hardly gets beyond talk of fat, with complaints that in the Mogul territory they cannot get anything fat to eat, and that the pulāos are deficient in butter. As a salute to their repletion, they emit loud eructations, just like the bellowing of bulls.