When Diego de Torres, the Spanish ambassador, in 1547, first dined
with the Emperor of Morocco at his court, he was amused by the customs
of the table; neither knives, forks, nor spoons, were provided; but
each person helped himself with his fingers, and cleaned his hands
with his tongue, excepting the emperor, who wiped the hand he took his
meat up with on the head of a black boy, ten years old, who stood by
his side. The ambassador smiled, and the emperor observing it, asked
what Christian kings wiped their hands with at meals, and what such
things were worth? "Fine napkins," replied the ambassador, "a clean
one at every meal, worth a crown a piece or more." "Don't you think
this napkin much better," said the emperor, wiping his hand again on
the black boy's head, "which is worth seventy or eighty crowns."
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