Note 4 — Chapter IV

They do not use knives, forks, and spoons at the table, not because they are ignorant of their services, but they do not need them. So is the case with the table. They sit all separate as the custom requires, and wash everything, even the floor, after the meal. They use the right hand for food, and the left for the drink. If rice or any boiled food should fall on the clothes, they will be washed after the meal. Owing to these peculiarities, the Hindoos do not use table, knives, &c., like Christians, who hardly wash themselves after the meal as the Hindoos do. I have occasionally used the “table” in the place of floor, in order to follow the English idiom.