A very good idea of the manners and customs of the people may be
easily obtained by strolling, on Sundays and fete days, near
Polanka, and visiting the eating-houses.
I will introduce my reader to one of these places. In one corner,
on the ground, burns a fierce fire, surrounded by innumerable pots
and pans, between which are wooden spits with beef and pork,
simmering and roasting in the most enticing manner. An ungainly
wooden framework, with a long broad plank on it, occupies the middle
of the room, and is covered with a cloth whose original colour it
would be an impossibility to determine. This is the table at which
the guests sit. During the dinner itself the old patriarchal
customs are observed, with this difference, that not only do all the
guests eat out of one dish, but that all the eatables are served up
in one, and one only. Beans and rice, potatoes and roast beef,
Paradise apples and onions, etc., etc., lie quietly side by side,
and are devoured in the deepest silence. At the end of the repast,
a goblet, filled with wine, or sometimes merely water, is passed
from hand to hand, and after this had gone round, the company begin
to talk.
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