three Europeans and five or six Chinese, our hosts, clad in their
beautiful silk official robes, while we wore black morning coats.

The tables were of plain wood and without table-cloths, while the
luxuriously-cushioned divans of Far East imaginings were hard wooden
stools.

Numbers of little dishes containing dried fruits, sweets, pickles,
slices of ham, preserved eggs (more than a year old, black and highly
offensive), vegetables, etc., loaded the festive boards.

Each feaster was provided with a pair of chopsticks and two small
sheets of brown paper with which to wipe them after each course.

Warm yellow wine of a peculiar musty flavour and sadly lacking in
potency, was poured by attendants from pewter kettles into small
wine-cups, to be tossed off in bumpers all round with great frequency,
each guest immediately presenting his empty cup to the gaze of his
neighbours to show that there had been no heel-taps. It looked as
though we were simultaneously levelling revolvers at each other's
heads.

At a given signal the fray began. All the Chinese rose up, took their
chopsticks, and plunging them into various dishes began helping us,
the guests of honour. On my one small plate were quickly deposited
some sweets, sour pickles, dried fruit, slices of ham, and one of the
notorious eggs.

Now we in turn were expected to rise up and return the compliment by
helping our helpers. I clutched my sticks, drove them into a piece of
fish and dropped it into my neighbour's wine. Tableau! Never mind, I
tried pickles and preserves in detail with about an average success.
No good came of my efforts, but neither did any harm, for our
entertainers smiled and bowed and rose from their seats in gracious
acknowledgment of our strenuous but futile attempts to do the correct
thing.

All this was but a preliminary canter taking the place of our dessert,
albeit coming before the meal instead of at the end.

Hot courses were now placed on the table, our Chinese friends helping
us from them with their chopsticks, which they manipulated with
marvellous dexterity.

1. Puddings of several kinds Too sweet.
2. Fresh-water Fish (boiled) Insipid.
3. Chickens (boiled) Fair.
4. Sea Slugs Passed.
5. Shrimps Nasty.
6. White Mushrooms Good.
7. Eels First-rate.