Once, a Turk at such a table, wishing to conform to the customs of civilized life, endeavored to use the fork. Failing in several attempts to take a piece of meat, and determined to overcome his gaucherie, he resolutely took hold of the morsel with his fingers, and placing one end of the fork against his breast, stuck the meat upon it with an immense effort, and then carried it to his mouth, quite contented with his own success, amid the applause of the company. During the sacred month of Ramazan, however, the European mode of eating is never practised, even by the most enlightened and liberal. Knives, forks, tables and chairs, are then altogether set aside, as being too profane.
His majesty usually breakfasts at the Mabeyn, and always quite alone; for no one being equal to him, none can have the honor of his company; and his evening repast is often taken, weather permitting, at some beautiful watering-place.
The time between these two meals is usually occupied with some of his ministers, or the audiences of the foreign ambassadors, and in excursions on the Bosphorus or elsewhere.
Whatever transpires at the Porte, is reported to him every evening, through the Ameddjy, or state chancellor, expressed in the most beautiful and elegant style of which the Turkish language is capable. In fact, the bureau of the Ameddjy is considered the best school for polite literature, and those who have once served in that department, invariably acquire a remarkable elegance of diction. The sultan reads over these documents every evening, together with the Arzou-hals, or petitions, which are presented to him on Fridays; and after giving his imperial sanction or veto, returns them to the Porte, to be acted upon accordingly.
The approval of the sultan is not expressed by the application of any royal seal or cypher, but by a bold stroke of his majesty's reed, representing the Arabic letter S, which is termed sah, meaning correct or approved. And those which are rejected are torn in one corner.
The sultan's cipher, called Toora, is formed from the names of the reigning monarch, and that of his father. It reads thus, "Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid, son of Sultan Malmoud Khan, the sultan of sultans." This is the imperial seal, and Ottoman coat of arms, and it is affixed to all royal edicts, engraved upon public buildings, and stamped upon the various current coins of the empire.