CUSTOMS. 281 Africa is cuscasoe, a granulated paste cooked by steam, and garnished with vegetables, and chickens, or mutton ; this is a very nutritive, palatable, and wholesome dish. They are not incumbered at their meals with a variety of dishes ; but a large bowl, or spacious plate, is introduced on a round table, supported by one pillar, like the Monopodia of the ancients, rather larger than the bowl or dish, and about six inches high. Half a dozen Moors sit round this repast, on cushions or on the ground, crosslegged ; a position which they remain in with perfect ease and pliability from custom and the loose dress they wear. When the company have seated themselves, a slave or a servant comes round to the guests, to perform the ceremony of (togreda) washing of the hands ; a brass bason or pan, which they call tas, is brought round to all the company, the slave holding it by his left hand, while, with the right hand, he pours water on the hands of the guests from a {garoff) pitcher, in the form of an Etruscan vase, having {zeef) a towel thrown over his shoulder to dry their hands. This ceremony is performed before and after meals. The master of the feast, before they begin to eat, pronounces {Bismillah) the grace before meat, which signifies, ** In the name of God ;" after the repast, he says {El HavpUd u lillaK) " Praise be to God." Each guest eats with the fingers of his right hand, none ever touching the food with their left. If a piece of meat, or a joint of a fowl or chicken is to be Q 4