" You will wish to know
whether the Englishman went on eating; but I cannot tell you this.
While the poor are in want of food, the rich eat a great deal too much. A
Chinese feast in a rich man's house lasts for hours. The servants bring
in one course after another, till a stranger wonders when the last course
will come. The food is served up in a curious way; not on dishes, but in
small basins--for all the meats are swimming in broth. Instead of a knife
and fork, each person has a pair of chop-sticks, which are something like
knitting-needles; and with these he cleverly fishes up the floating
morsels, and pops them into his mouth. There are spoons of china for
drinking the broth.
You will be surprised to hear that the Chinese are very fond of eating
birds' nests. Do not suppose that they eat magpies' nests, which are made
of clay and sticks, or even little nests of moss and clay; the nests they
eat are made of a sort of gum. This gum comes out of the bird's mouth,
and is shining and transparent, and the nest sticks fast to the rock.
These nests are something like our jelly, and must be very nourishing.
The Chinese like nothing cold; they warm all their food, even their wine.
For they have wine, not made of grapes, but of rice, and they drink it,
not in glasses, but in cups. Tea, however, is the most common drink; for
China is the country where tea grows.
The hills are covered with shrubs bearing a white flower, a little like a
white rose.
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