_Quant ta bouche tu laveras,_ _Ou bacin point ne cracheras._
The reason for this rule was evidently the circumstance that one basin might serve for all the company; but the alternative again was of course to spit the water out upon the floor. Again, in one of these codes, the learner is told that when he makes sops in his wine, he must either drink all the wine in the glass, or throw what remains on the floor:--
_Enfant, se tu faiz en ton verre_ _Souppes de vin aucunement,_ _Boy tout le vin entierement,_ _Ou autrement le gecte à terre._
Or, as it is expressed in another similar code more briefly--
_Se tu fais souppes en ton verre,_ _Boy le vin ou le gette à terre._
There can be no doubt that all this must have made an extremely dirty floor. Another rather _naïve_ direction shows that no more attention was paid to the cleanliness of the benches and seats; it is considered necessary to tell the scholar always to look at his seat before he sits down at table, to a assure himself that there is nothing dirty upon it!--
_Enfant, prens de regarder peine_ _Sur le siege où tu te sierras,_ _Se aucune chose y verras_ _Qui soit deshonneste ou vilaine._
The fireplace at the side of the hall, with hearth and chimney, were now in general use. An example is given in our last cut; another will be seen in our cut No. 239, and here, though evidently in the hall, and a monastic hall too, the process of cooking is pursued at it. The monks appear to be taking a joyous repast, not quite in keeping with the strict rule of their order, and the way in which they are conducting themselves towards the women who have been introduced into the monastery does not speak in favour of monastic continence. This picture is from a manuscript bible, of the fifteenth century, in the National Library at Paris (No. 6829).
Manners at table appear to have been losing some of the strictness and stiffness of their ceremonial, while they retained their rudeness. The bowl of water was carried round to the guests, and each washed his hands before dinner, but the washing after dinner appears now to have been commonly omitted. In one of the directions for table already quoted, the scholar is told that he must wash himself when he rises from bed in the morning, once at dinner, and once at supper, in all thrice a day:--