which I would advise all sailors to adopt in their dealings
with the slippery race if they would not be robbed. The vendor dare not
say nay to a mandarin; and, though it is a point of etiquette on the
part of the big man to offer payment, it is equally a point of etiquette
for the tradesman to refuse: a fact, it is said, the mandarin always
calculates on.

In addition to the orthodox shop, the streets are lined with itinerants,
orange stalls, betel-nut tables, heaps of rags, and sundries, baskets of
vegetables of very strange appearance and strong penetrating odours,
half-cooked roots and leaves--for the people never eat a well-cooked
root or vegetable; it is from these principally that the intolerable
stench is proceeding.

What the Chinese eat is a mystery, and such queer compounds enter into
their _menu_ that I would give everybody who dines with a Chinaman this
advice--don't enquire too minutely into what is placed before you, or
you will eat nothing, and so offend your host; bolt it and fancy it is
something nice--and _fancy_ goes for something at times, I can assure
you. That it requires a tremendous effort on the part of the human
stomach, the subjoined "Bill of Fare" of a dinner given to Governor
Hennessey by one of the Chinese guilds will, perhaps, serve to shew:

Birds' Nest Soup.

Pigeons' Egg Soup.

Fungus Soup.

* * *

Fried Sharks' Fins.

Beche-de-mer[1] and Wild Duck.

Stewed Chicken and Sharks' Fins.

Fish Maw.

* * *

Minced Partridge.

Ham and Capon.

Meat Ball and Fungus.

Boiled Shell Fish.

Pig's Throat, stewed.

Minced Shell Fish with Greens.

Chicken Gruel Salad.

Stewed Mushrooms.

Pig's Leg, stewed.

* * *

Roast Capon. Roast Mutton.

Roast Pig. Roast Goose.

* * *

Fruits. Melon Seeds.

Preserves. Almonds.

[Footnote 1: The _Holothuria_ of naturalists--a species of
sea-slug or sea-cucumber found on the shores of Borneo and on
most of the islands of the Pacific, and which being dried in
the sun is considered a dainty by Chinese epicures.]

Cats, too, are entertained as food, though I believe only by the
extremely poor, to whom nothing seems to come amiss. One may frequently
meet in the streets vendors of poor puss, easily recognisable by their
suggestive cry, "mow (miow?) you