the Turks, where ceremonial is the bond, _rank_ is given to bread. If a Mussulman sees a bit of bread on the ground, he reverentially picks it up, kisses it, and then places it in some position where it may be seen and used, if requisite, by man or beast.[267] If the Sultan were to come into a room where the humblest were sitting at food, they would not rise to receive him--his dignity is effaced in presence of the “gift of God;” thus, a mendicant may place himself at the table of the Vizir. A person who could not be asked to partake of coffee, who could not presume to be seen with a pipe, may be invited to sit down to dinner. The breaking of bread, the most solemn mystery of our faith, has, in this respect, a meaning which we cannot read. In the East, the injunction of Christ to turn not away from him who asketh, is universally observed.[268] We cannot observe that rule, because we have produced such an amount of pauperism that no private charity can suffice, and we have destroyed the practice of charity, so that it _shall_ not suffice; then we reconcile faith and disobedience by treating the injunction as a metaphor. In the Moorish government, the practice of the tribes is now reversed,[269] but still the traces are not all lost. “The Kings of Fez,” says Marmol, “have a custom to have their food brought publicly to the Hall of Audience, where, every morning, they receive the compliments of the princes and the great men. After the king has eaten two or three mouthfuls--for he never eats more in public--the dish (of kuscoussoo) is turned from before him, and his children, or his brothers, if they are present, approach, and each take a mouthful and return to their places. Then the great personages and the common come by order of their degrees, till, at last, the very porters and the guards; for all those who are in the hall, great or little, must taste much or little, because they believe that it is a sin to eat alone, without offering to those who look at you. The princes and governors in the province do each the same thing. Every one eats once a day of kuscoussoo, because it costs little and nourishes much.”[270] “Fill not thy belly in presence of the longing eye.” What are all our homilies on charity to this? What all our constitutions? This is not a proposition; it is a maxim, a rule of conduct; it is a habit--that is, a self-enforcing law.