It was a unique ceremony.

Fancy a picnic-party of a hundred thousand persons, nearly all men.

There must have been made beforehand vast and elaborate preparations, ramifying through the whole nation.

Each section had brought provisions sufficient for their own consumption in addition to several special dishes for the guest-tables; but the contribution of each section was not consumed by its own members.
It was evidently a part of the scheme that all should derive from a common stock, so that the feeling of brotherhood and common property should be preserved in this monumental fashion.
The guest-tables were the only tables to be seen.

The bulk of the feasters sat on the ground.