Page:Twelve Years in a Monastery (1897).djvu/51

 frugal but substantial enough: it usually consisted of soup, two courses of meat and two vegetables, and fruit—with a pint of beer to each friar. Many of us had hardly reached the age of strong drinks, but we were obliged to take our two pints daily (at dinner and supper) with the rest, and frequently a few glasses of wine in addition.

After dinner tongues are loosened at last, and recreation is indulged in until 2.30. There is a curious custom for two of the friars (a priest and a student) to wash the dishes after dinner. A large tank of hot water containing the dishes is suitably mounted in the kitchen, and the two friars, armed with cloths tied to the end of sticks, hurry through their task, chanting meanwhile alternate verses of the ‘Miserere’ in Latin, freely interspersed with ejaculatory comments on the temperature of the water.

The recreation is, in all monasteries, a very desultory episode, and usually resolves itself into a walk round the garden, chatting or disputing together. We were allowed cricket at the commencement of our term, but it was quickly vetoed by a foreign authority as contrary to religious modesty. Tennis and handball are also indulged in by the students. The lay-brothers play dominoes and the priests often follow their example, but the three sections—priests, students, and lay-brothers may never intermingle; they are never even permitted to speak to each other without necessity. Cards are expressly forbidden; bagatelle