Travels in India (Tavernier) 129.1.3

129.1.3

The Grand Brahmin, then, distributes to the pilgrims whatever food is required, each day, as butter, milk, rice, and flour; but to the poor, who are in want of utensils to cook their food with, it is given ready cooked. It is a surprising thing, and well worthy of notice, to observe how the food is distributed to the poor people who have no pots. In the morning the rice is cooked in earthen pots of different sizes, and when the hour has come when these poor pilgrims arrive to ask for food, if, for example, there are five, the Chief Brahmin orders another Brahmin to take a pot full of cooked rice, which he lets fall, and the pot breaks itself equally into five parts, of which each pilgrim takes one, and likewise in proportion, more or less, according to the number of people who present themselves to whom the rice is to be distributed. The Brahmins never cook twice in the same earthen pot, but use copper pots frequently, and they have for plates certain leaves larger than our walnut leaves, which are stitched together. They have, however, a kind of dish about a foot in diameter, which is used to melt butter, in which they dip the rice with their fingers when eating, and a small ladle for the melted butter, which is drunk as we drink a glass of Spanish wine after a repast. I come now to a more detailed description of the idol on the altar of the pagoda of Jagannath.