Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 345

1812.

Illustrations of Men and Things in China.

327

added, from a notion of its strengthening properties, and intimately mixed up in the mass. The purchaser eats it as he buys it, or else cooks it to suit himself; sometimes lie simmers it in fat, and some- times takes it along with soy; the cakes are hashed up with pork, and then fried, or dressed in some other way; but in some form or other, it is found on almost all tables from the beggar upwards. A similar condiment of beans is used as a relish by the Japanese The taste of this preparation to a palate unused to it is insipid, nor does the gypsum seem to alter the flavor, or prove noxious to the

cater.

Sonnets of Yuen Yuen.-The original of these two pieces arc found in the Indochinese Gleaner. The author was governor of Can- ton in 1818, and wrote the first on his birthday, having retired from his office on that day to avoid his visitors, and take a ramble in the country. From some of the expressions in it he seems then to have been dissatisfied with his honors in this "dusty world," but it was not till about three years ago that he could get permission from his im- perial master to retire to his native place in Kiángsú, where he is till living, upwards of 82 years old.

We insert them here merely as specimens of the occasional verses of an educated man, one who finally attained to a seat in the cabinet of the empire.

SONNET ON A BIRTHDAY.

The forty years the vernal winds have blown, Do just accord with all the years I've seen;

But when my mind the rolling time recalls,

My thoughts like tangled silk at once become. My duty to my tender mother, I've long foregone,

But I now recall her care for me when callow and unweaned My princely sire is still strong at threescore and ten, And for this robust age I can and will rejoice. He who has reached the time of forty years, Must look back at his prime, and on to his decay; Although my hair has not yet turned to ashy gray, I cannot sleep nor eat as in the days gone by. My life has been spent like that of Lí Táipe,

But compared with him, alas! how paltry has it passed ; All kinds of cares distract my jaded mind,-

But my toils are not those of flesh and limb.

My learning's rusty, which makes my rule so bad,

I'm always fearing lest I err or do some crying wrong i

Yet I entered office younger than Lá Táipe,

And even Pe Lónen was later still than be.

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