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النشر الإلكتروني

III.

CONDUCT IN YOUR OWN FAMILY.

Never quarrel with your brothers and sisters, but live in peace and unity. Have no favourites.

Use respectful and courteous language towards all servants. Never be domineering nor insulting, for it is the mark of an ignorant, illnatured, and bad-hearted child.

IV.

CONDUCT AT TABLE.

To be well received, you must pay some attention to your behaviour at table; where it is extremely rude to scratch any part of your body, to spit, or blow your nose, if you can possibly avoid it, to eat greedily, to lean your elbows on the table, to pick your teeth with a fork, or, before the dishes or the cloth are removed, to leave the table.

Eating quickly, or very slowly, at meals, is vulgar. The former infers poverty, and that you have not had a good meal for some time; the latter, if abroad, that you dislike your

entertainment; if at home, that the food which is set before your family, you cannot eat. When partaking of soup, do not do so bending your head, as it were, into your plate. This is very vulgar, and must carefully be avoided. Never smell your food, for it has the appearance of your being accustomed to eat that which is tainted.

Come not to table without having your hands and face washed, your dress and nails clean, and your hair combed.

Sit not down until your elders and all the ladies are seated: it is unbecoming to take your place first.

Offer not to carve for yourself, or to take any thing, though it be that which you much desire. Ask not for anything, but wait till it be offered you.

Find no fault with anything which is placed before you.

When you are helped, begin to eat.

At table, if others are discoursing, meddle not with the matter; but be silent, except when spoken to.

If you wish anything from the servants, call them softly.

Eat not too fast, nor greedily.

Eat not too much, but moderately.

Eat not so slowly as to make others wait for you.

Avoid making any noise with your tongue, mouth, lips, or breath, while you are eating or drinking.

Be sure never to speak with food in your mouth.

Endeavour so to eat that no one can see your food whilst chewing.

Stare not in the face of any one, more especially your elders, at table.

Grease not your fingers if it can be avoided, at all events, not more than necessity requires; nor wipe them on the table-cloth.

Bite not your bread, but break it with your fingers; neither crumble it about the tablecloth.

Lean not your elbow on the table, nor on the back of your chair; nor loll in an indolent

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Take salt with the salt spoon.

from the side of the spoon.

Drink soup

Eat fish with a

fork in your right hand, and a piece of crust,

about two inches long, in

your left.

Never use

a knife to fish. Leave the piece of crust in your plate.

• Never come to table, if you have a cold, without first clearing your throat and nose.

Never raise phlegm into your mouth at table and swallow it. It is very disgusting.

Stuff not your mouth so as to fill your cheeks; be content with small mouthfuls.

Blow not your meet when too hot, but wait with patience till it be cool.

Turn not the other side of your meat up to inspect it on your plate. This is very offensive, and ought to be avoided.

Keep not your

time.

hands in your pockets at any

Hold not your knife upright in your hand, but sloping; lay it down at your right hand upon your plate; and in sending your plate for more of any dish, place your fork, point downwards, on the table before you, at your left hand, and your knife across it.

Put not in your mouth, nor spit forth any thing that is inconvenient to swallow, such as the stones of plums, cherries, or the like; but with your fork, neatly move them to the side of your plate.

Fix not your eye upon the plate of another, nor upon the meat on the table.

Lift not up your eyes, nor roll them about while you are drinking.

Throw nothing under the table.

Bend your body a little downward to your plate when you carry anything to your mouth.

Look not earnestly at any one while engaged in eating, as if you envied him the food he was enjoying.

Pick not bones at table, but clear them with your knife, unless they are very small ones, and then hold them not with your whole hand, but with your finger and thumb.

Put not a second piece in your mouth until the former one is swallowed.

Before and after you drink, wipe your lips with your finger-napkin if you have one, if not, with your handkerchief.

Put not your knife to your mouth on any pretext whatever.

Eat nothing with a spoon which can be done with a fork.

Never drink until you have quite emptied your mouth.

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