of digestion, then at the fire, and
lastly in an upward direction, thereby signified to any not of stunted
intellect that he had reached such a condition of mind and body that he
was ready to consume whatever the ruling deities were willing to allot,
whether boiled, baked, roast, or suspended from a skewer. In this
resolve nothing would move him, until--after many maidens had approached
with outstretched hands and gestures of despair--there presently entered
a person wearing the helmet of a warrior and the manner of a high
official, who spoke strongly, yet persuasively, of the virtues of
immediate movement and a quiet and reposeful bearing.

Assuredly a people who devote so little attention to the study of food,
and all matters connected with it, must inevitably remain barbaric,
however skilfully they may feign a superficial refinement. It is said,
although I do not commit this matter to my own brush, that among them
are more books composed on subjects which have no actual existence
than on cooking, and, incredible as it may appear, to be exceptionally
round-bodied confers no public honour upon the individual. Should a
favourable occasion present itself, there are many who do not scruple to
jest upon the subject of food, or, what is incalculably more depraved,
upon the scarcity of it.

Nevertheless, there are exceptions of a highly distinguished radiance.
Among these must be accounted one into whose presence this person was
recently led by our polished and harmonious friend Quang-Tsun, the
merchant in tea and spices. This versatile person, whose business-name
is spoken of as Jones Bob-Jones, is worthy of all benignant respect,
and in a really enlightened country would doubtless be raised to a
more exalted position than that of a breaker of outsides (an occupation
difficult to express adequately in the written language of a country
where it is unknown), for his face is like the sun setting in the time
of harvest, his waist garment excessive, and the undoubted symmetry of
his middle portions honourable in the extreme. So welcome in my eyes,
after witnessing an unending stream of concave and attenuated barbarian
ghosts, was the sight of these perfections of Jones Bob-Jones, that
instead of the formal greeting of this Island--the unmeaning "How do
you do it?"--I shook hands cordially with myself, and exclaimed
affectionately in our own language, "Illimitable felicities! How is your
stomach?"

"Well," replied Jones Bob-Jo