He never ate proudly, leaning on anything, or sitting down square, but resting upon his knees, saying, 'I am one of God's servants, and eat as servants eat and sit as servants sit.' Sometimes, however, he would sit on his left leg, posting up the right; and if he was very hungry, he would sit down altogether and post up both legs. He liked best not to eat alone, but with a goodly number at the table, saying, 'The worst of men is he who eats alone.' When he ate in company with other people, no one ever took anything which lay just in front of that Excellency.

He generally ate at a table, but at times also on the ground. After a meal he would thank God for it. It is said that whoever, on eating, recites the words, 'Praise be to Him who has fed us with this food, and provided us with it, without our own efforts and strength,' he will have his sins forgiven. When he ate with other people, as their guest, he prayed for them. He used to wash his pure hands, both before and after meals, and then stroked his blessed face and arms, saying, 'The blessing of a meal consists in the washing of the hands before and after it.' He forbade eating and drinking with the left hand, saying, 'Satan eats and drinks with the left hand.' After he had finished eating, he licked his blessed fingers: first the middle one, then the prayer-finger, and last the thumb. He never wiped his fingers before having licked them. He also commanded his friends to lick their fingers and to scrape the basin, saying, 'You do not know in which particular part of the food the blessing is contained; besides, the basin which ye scrape after eating will ask pardon of God for you.'

He used to converse during the meal, and repeatedly offered food to the guests, saying, 'Eat!' He never ate from a table with legs, nor drank from a cup with a broken rim. Very flat bread, bread with air-dried meat, lizards, the milt, kidneys, onions, garlic, and leek he did not eat, and said, 'Let every one remain far from me who eats these ill-smelling vegetables.' If the tradition derived from Aisha the faithful is correct, that at a later period the Prophet ate onions, it must have been either as a medicine, or to show that it is lawful to eat them. That Excellency never combined fish or sour things with milk; or grilled meat with boiled meat; or

dried meat with fresh meat; or meat with milk or milk with meat; or two binding and two relaxing dishes; or two heavy and two light ones. Nor did he eat very hot food, but let it stand for a moment, till the greatest heat had passed. He never rejected any lawful food, but ate of it, if he had an appetite, and if he had not, he did not taste it. Once, when they brought lizards to his table, and he did not taste them, his friends said, 'O Apostle of God, thou didst not eat of these: is it because they are not lawful?' He answered, 'I do not declare them unlawful, but as they are not found in our own country, I do not relish them.' On another occasion, when they again served lizards to him, he said, 'Once, in ancient times, these were a people, but were transformed into lizards.'

That prince ate exceedingly little. He said, 'When you have eaten, spend the strength of the food in prayer and praise, and do not sleep directly after a meal, lest your hearts should be oppressed.' He used to eat barley-bread, made of unsifted barley-flour, retaining all the bran. He ate the meat of sheep, camels, wild asses, hares, bustards, and fish, and sometimes also dried meat. Meat was the food he liked best, and he used to say, 'Meat strengthens the power of hearing,' yet was he not very greedy for it, nor ate too much of it. He habitually preferred the meat of the fore-leg and shoulder, but also praised the meat of the back. He also ate fried sheep-liver. He cut the meat with his teeth, not with a knife, and used to say, 'To cut the meat with a knife is the work of the Persians: ye had better cut it with the teeth, for then it is more digestible and wholesome.' The Ulemas say that this prohibition of the use of the knife refers only to such meat as does not require being cut with a knife; or that its import is, 'Do not form the habit of cutting the meat with a knife.' For it is an established fact that his Excellency himself cut up roast shoulder or baked loin with a knife.

What that prince ate most frequently were dates, so that if he ate two meals a day, one of them was sure to be dates. He also liked Helwa, honey and fresh butter; and ate dates mixed with milk. When he ate fresh or dried dates, he took the stones out of his blessed mouth, and laying