sat lolling back in a great elbow-chair, being a heavy corpulent man,
and his meat being brought him by two women-slaves: he had two more,
whose office, I think, few gentlemen in Europe would accept of their
service in, viz. one fed the squire with a spoon, and the other held the
dish with one hand, and scraped off what he let fall upon his worship's
beard and taffety vest, with the other; while the great fat brute
thought it below him to employ his own hands in any of those familiar
offices, which kings and monarchs would rather do than be troubled with
the clumsy fingers of their servants.

I took this time to think what pain men's pride puts them to, and how
troublesome a haughty temper, thus ill-managed, must be to a man of
common sense; and, leaving the poor wretch to please himself with our
looking at him, as if we admired his pomp, whereas we really pitied and
contemned him, we pursued our journey: only Father Simon had the
curiosity to stay to inform himself what dainties the country justice
had to feed on, in all his state; which he said he had the honour to
taste of, and which was, I think, a dose that an English hound would
scarce have eaten, if it had been offered him, viz. a mess of boiled
rice, with a great piece of garlick in it, and a little bag filled with
green pepper, and another plant which they have there, something like
our ginger, but smelling like musk and tasting like mustard: all this
was put together, and a small lump or piece of lean mutton boiled in it;
and this was his worship's repast, four or five servants more attending
at a distance. If he fed them meaner than he was fed himself, the spice
excepted, they must fare very coarsely indeed.

As for our mandarin with whom we travelled, he was respected like a
king; surrounded always with his gentlemen, and attended in all his
appearances with such pomp, that I saw little of him but at a distance;
but this I observed, that there was not a horse in his retinue, but that
our carriers' pack-horses in England seem to me to look much better; but
they were so covered with equipage, mantles, trappings, and such-like
trumpery, that you cannot see whether they are fat or lean. In a word,
we could scarce see any thing but their feet and their heads.

I was now light-hearted, and all my trouble and perplexity that I had
given an account of being over, I had no anxious thoughts about me;
which made this journey much the pleasanter to me; nor had I any il