177^ ROUND THE WORLD. 333 



halter, that the Chinese will not readily do for mo- 

 ney. But though they work with great diligence, 

 and patiently undergo any degree of labour ; yet no 

 sooner have they laid down their tools than they 

 begin to game, either at cards or dice, or some other 

 play among the multitude that they have invented, 

 which are altogether unknown in Europe : to this 

 they apply with such eagerness, as scarcely to allow 

 time for the necessary refreshments of food and sleep ; 

 so that it is as rare to see a Chinese idle, as it is to 

 see a Dutchman or an Indian employed. 



In manners they are always civil, or rather obse- 

 quious ; and in dress they are remarkably neat and 

 clean, to whatever rank of life they belong. 1 shall 

 not attempt a description either of their persons or 

 habits, for the better kind of China paper, which is 

 now common in England, exhibits a perfect repre- 

 sentation of both, though perhaps with some slight 

 exaggerations approaching towards the caricatura. 



In eating they are easily satisfied, though the few 

 that are rich have many savoury dishes. Rice, with 

 a small proportion of flesh or fish, is the food of the 

 poor ; and they have greatly the advantage of the 

 Mahometan Indians, whose religion forbids them to 

 eat of many things which they could most easily 

 procure. The Chinese, on the contrary, being under 

 no restraint, eat, besides pork, dogs, cats, frogs, 

 lizards, serpents of many kinds, and a great variety 

 of sea animals, which the other inhabitants of this 

 country do not consider as food : they eat also many 

 vegetables, which an European, except he was perish- 

 ing with hunger, would never touch. 



The Chinese have a singular superstition with 

 regard to the burial of their dead ; for they will upon 

 no occasion open the ground a second time, where a 

 body has been interred. Their burying-grounds, 

 therefore, in the neighbourhood of Batavia, cover 

 many hundred acres, and the Dutch, grudging the 

 waste of so much land, will not sell any for this pur- 



