In the banquet-scenes of the sculptures, it is drinking and not eating that is represented.
Attendants dip the wine-cups into a huge bowl or vase, which stands on the ground and reaches as high as a man's chest and carry them full of liquor to the guests, who straightway fall to a carouse.

[PLATE CXXXVIII., Fig.

1.] [Illustration: PLATE 138] The arrangement of the banquets is curious.

The guests, who are in one instance some forty or fifty in number, instead of being received at a common table, are divided into messes of four, who sit together, two and two, facing each other, each mess having its own table and its own attendant.

The guests are all clothed in the long tasselled gown, over which they wear the deeply fringed belt and cross-belt.