[10] The ten days’ lamentation for the martyred imams, Hassan and Hussein, the grandsons of the Prophet, who were murdered by the Ommiyades.  Some notice of this ceremonial is given at the beginning of his narrative by the Khan, who attended it just before he sailed from Calcutta.

We shall offer no comment, as we fear we can offer no contradiction, on the Khan’s account of the singular 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 preparing to go, not a little astonished at such scanty hospitality, when other dishes were