DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4794#0257
dish of coffee with ceremony to a personage, to
whom it is desired to shew'peculiar respect:
this waiter is of silver or gold, and sometimes
it is even adorned with gems: no saucer is
used in the east, but, that the cup may not
burn the hand, this, which is of porcelain, is
put into a. kind of second cup, which is of sil-
ver or gold, and most ingeniously pierced : an-
other is an aspersor, or sprinkler with which
rose-water is thrown on those whom it is
wished to treat hospitably, after a repast, or at
the end of a visit, when it is intended to give
or take leave. There is also an ewer and its
bowl, for washing the hands and face before
and a after repast, and in general when any thing
is touched: the bowl has a double bottom,
pierced with holes, through which the water
passes, thus taking away and concealing from
the second person that water which had been
used by the first. A fourth is a censor and its
plate: this opens in the middle, and is used to
burn aloes-wood, benjamin, or compound pas-
tils, upon chatcoal. Large censors of two or
three feet in height, are constantly placed in the
center of the room; the smaller ones are car-
ried round, and each throws the fume upon
his beard or his clothes. This superfluity is
well adapted to people who seek enjoyments
divested of motion, who gravely ponder on their
sensations, love taciturnity, and who find in
these sort of customs an additional civility to
oiler to those whom they would treat and dis-
tinguish. It is their slaves only that move :
a motion of the hand suffices for doing honours,
whom it is desired to shew'peculiar respect:
this waiter is of silver or gold, and sometimes
it is even adorned with gems: no saucer is
used in the east, but, that the cup may not
burn the hand, this, which is of porcelain, is
put into a. kind of second cup, which is of sil-
ver or gold, and most ingeniously pierced : an-
other is an aspersor, or sprinkler with which
rose-water is thrown on those whom it is
wished to treat hospitably, after a repast, or at
the end of a visit, when it is intended to give
or take leave. There is also an ewer and its
bowl, for washing the hands and face before
and a after repast, and in general when any thing
is touched: the bowl has a double bottom,
pierced with holes, through which the water
passes, thus taking away and concealing from
the second person that water which had been
used by the first. A fourth is a censor and its
plate: this opens in the middle, and is used to
burn aloes-wood, benjamin, or compound pas-
tils, upon chatcoal. Large censors of two or
three feet in height, are constantly placed in the
center of the room; the smaller ones are car-
ried round, and each throws the fume upon
his beard or his clothes. This superfluity is
well adapted to people who seek enjoyments
divested of motion, who gravely ponder on their
sensations, love taciturnity, and who find in
these sort of customs an additional civility to
oiler to those whom they would treat and dis-
tinguish. It is their slaves only that move :
a motion of the hand suffices for doing honours,