Before Orientalism. Kim M. Phillips

They may (according to Carpini) be “dirty in the way they take food and drink,” lack tablecloths and napkins, and wipe greasy hands on leggings or grass, but they are not devoid of dining etiquette.³⁹ Rubruck comments on the formal dining arrangements witnessed at the imperial court.⁴⁰ Hetoum, whose motive of persuading the pope to form an Armenian-Mongol-French crusading alliance made his account of the Mongols more positive, states they are generous and courteous in sharing their food and if others are not quick to share in return they do not hesitate to take supplies by force.⁴¹ A Mongolian law stating “[w]hen a wayfarer passes by people eating, he must alight and eat with them without asking for permission, and they must not forbid him this” echoes Hetoum’s account of Mongol hospitality.⁴²