method of fasting observed in England,
by eating salt fish and cross-buns in addition to the usual viands--but
digressing without an interval from fasts to feasts, we next find him a
guest at a splendid banquet, given by the Lord Mayor. Though Mirza
Abu-Talib, at the beginning of the present century, was present at the
feast given to Lord Nelson during the mayoralty of Alderman Coombe, the
description of a civic entertainment, as it appeared to an Oriental, must
always be a curious _morceau_; and doubly so in the present instance, as
given by a spectator to whom it was as the feast of the Barmecide--since
Kerim Khan, unlike his countryman, the Mirza, religiously abstained
throughout from the forbidden dainties of the Franks, and sat like an
anchorite at the board of plenty. To this concentration of his faculties
in the task of observing, we probably owe the minute detail he has given
us of the festive scene before him, which we must quote, as a companion
sketch of Feringhi manners to the previously cited account of the ball at
Guildhall:--"At length dinner was announced: and all rose, and led by the
queen of the city, (the lady mayoress,) withdrew to another room, where
the table was laid out in the most costly manner, being loaded with dishes,
principally of silver and gold, and covered with _sar-poshes_, (lids or
covers,) some of which were of immense size, like little boats. When the
servants removed the _sar-poshes_, fishes and soup of every sort were
presented to view: some of the former, I was told, brought as rarities
from distant seas, and at great expense. Before every man of rank there
was an immense dish, which it is his duty to cut up and distribute,
putting on each plate about sufficient for a baby to eat. I turned to a
friend and enquired why the guests were helped so sparingly? 'It is
customary,' said he, 'to serve guests in this way.' 'But why not give them
enough?' rejoined I. 'You will soon see,' replied he, 'that they will all
have enough.'[11]

[11] To explain the Khan's ignorance of the form of an English
entertainment, it should be remembered that his religious scruples
excluded him from dinner parties--and that, except on occasions of
form like the present, or the party on hoard the Oriental at
Southampton, he had probably never witnessed a banquet in England.

"Soon after, all the dishes, spoons, &c., were removed by the servants. I
thought the dinner was over, and was prepar