A Kazakh feast: mutton, broth and thumbs for napkins
Editorial contextAt a Kazakh host's tent, the guests ate boiled mutton with no bread or vegetables, the men first and the women afterwards. Abbott is squeamish and scornful, but he records exactly how the meal was served and cleaned up.
It consisted of boiled mutton, soused in its own soup. Bread and vegetables are things quite unknown in these parts. Kuzzauks are exclusively carnivorous. … The bowls were handed to the women, who scraped them clean with their thumbs … The thumb and tongue are the only napkins in Khaurism … The Tartars are right not to eat with their women.
James Abbott
About Kazakhs (Kuzzauks), called Tartars by Abbott
Keep in mind
Abbott's sneering tone is his own; the facts of the meal are what he saw.