36
SIR JOHN BOWRING
deserving of note, and all display evidence of the inadequate proportion which the produce of the soil bears to the demands for the consumption of the people.*
The Chinese, again, have no prejudices whatever as regards food: they eat any thing and every thing from which they can derive nutrition. Dogs, especially puppies, are habitually sold for food and I have seen in the butchers' shops, large dogs skinned and hanging with their viscera by the side of pigs and goats. Even to rats and mice the Chinese have no objection, — neither to the flesh of monkeys and snakes: the sea slug is an aristocratical and costly delicacy which is never wanting, any more than the edible birds' nests, at a feast where honour is intended to be done to the guests. Unhatched ducks and chickens are a favourite dish. Nor do the early stages of putrefaction create any disgust: rotten eggs are by no means condemned to perdition; fish is the more acceptable when it has a strong fragrance and flavor to give more gusto to the rice.
As the food the Chinese eat is for the most part hard, coarse, and of little cost, so their beverages are singularly economical. Drunkenness is a rare vice in China, and fermented spirits or strong drinks are seldom used. Tea may be said to be the national, the universal beverage; and though that employed by the multitude does not cost more than from 3d. to 6d. per lb, an infusion of less costly leaves is commonly employed, especially in localities remote from the Tea districts. Both in eating and drinking the Chinese are temperate, and are satisfied with two daily meals "the morning rice" at about 10 a.m., and “the evening rice" at 5 p.m. The only repugnance I have observed in China is to the use of milk -- an extraordinary prejudice, especially considering the Tartar influences which have been long dominant in the land; but I never saw or heard of butter, cream, milk, or whey, being introduced at any native Chinese table.
* See a valuable paper on Chinese Agriculture in Chinese Repository, vol iii, pp. 121-27,