er so
slightly, he is required to leave the table instantly and perform
his ablutions over again, or else to take the dish from which he was
eating to himself, and touch no other during the meal. In drinking
they exercise the same caution, adroitly throwing the liquid into the
mouth or throat without touching the lips with the cup or glass. The
left hand is the one with which food is always taken; and the reason
assigned is, that the right, having of necessity to perform most
labor, is more frequently brought in contact with things unclean.

I once made a voyage with an American lady and gentleman in a Bombay
ship that was owned and commanded by a wealthy Parsee merchant, though
the real sailing-master and mate were Englishmen. Our party ate at one
table, and the Parsee nabob had his own in solitary state. I was then
quite a youthful wife, and, as my husband was not of the party, the
Parsee supposed me unmarried, and overwhelmed me with the most gallant
attentions, among which were frequent invitations to our party to dine
in his cabin. But, though he would stand at my side all the time I
was eating, fill my cup or glass with his own hands, and urge me to
partake of certain dishes that were favorites of his own, nothing
could induce him to eat or drink in our presence, even after we had
left the table. And I learned afterward that the costly service of
rare china, silver and glass from which we had eaten and drunk at his
table, though carefully laid aside, was never again used by the owner.
One evening, as we sat on the upper deck inhaling the balmy air, he
invited me to smoke. Of course I declined, and when he insisted I told
him that it was contrary to the customs of good society in our country
for ladies to use tobacco in any form. He laughed heartily, and said,
"Did you suppose I would ask a lady to pollute her fragrant breath
and dewy lips with so foul a thing as vile tobacco? Taste and see." He
brought his splendid hookah, which I found filled with the "fragrant
spices of Araby" perfumed with attar of roses, while a long slender
tube rested in a vessel of rose-water at my feet; and the fumes were
certainly as agreeable as harmless. But this, my first experiment in
smoking, cost my Parsee friend three hundred dollars, the estimated
value of his gold-mounted hookah, with its complicated array of tubes
and vessels of the same precious metal, none of which he durst ever
use again.

As we sat chatting together in the