730 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



who hope to cure affections of the respiratory organs by a draught of 

 fresh blood, but who would inspire a Hindoo with a cannibal terror 

 more intense than that produced in the Algerian settlements by the 

 above Kabyle. Herodotus relates that the Scythians executed their 

 criminals by a potion of fresh ox-blood, and recommends this as a 

 more humane method than capital punishment by the sword, though in- 

 ferior to the hemlock-cup. " For opening the gates of Tartarus," says 

 Haller, " there is nothing like a good narcotic. If I should have oc- 

 casion to leave this world, I would no more think of shooting myself 

 than of leaving town by being fired from a mortar, when I could take 

 the stage-coach." 



The Turks shudder at seeing a Frank swallow oysters, and even in 

 the cities of Europe and North America we find individuals with simi- 

 lar antipathies ; and I know an old professor who passed half a cen- 

 tury in St. Petersburg, and suffered grievously from an unconquerable 

 aversion to caviare. Caviare is the salted or pickled roe of the stur- 

 geon — not quite so bad as Schnepfendreck, a North German delicacy, 

 which consists chiefly of the faeces of the common woodcock. 



Professor H, Letheby, food-analyst for the city of London, is respon- 

 sible for the following account of a mandarin's dinner, given to an Eng- 

 lish party and some distinguished natives of Hong-Kong : 



The dinner began with hot wine, made from rice, and sweet biscuits of buck- 

 wheat. Then followed the first course of custards, preserved rice, fruits, salted 

 earthworms, smoked fish and ham, Japau leather (?) and pigeons' eggs, having 

 the shells softened by vinegar; all of which was cold. After this came sharks' 

 fins, birds' nests, deer-sinews, and other dishes of an appetizing and dainty char- 

 acter. They were succeeded by more solid foods, as rice and curry, chopped 

 bear's paws, mutton and beef cut into small cubes and floating in gravy ; pork 

 in various forms, the flesh of puppies and cats boiled in buffalo's milk ; shantimg 

 or white cabbage and sweet potatoes ; fowls split open, flattened and grilled, 

 their livers floating in hot oil, and cooked eggs of various descriptions, contain- 

 ing embryo birds. But the surprise of the entertainment was yet to come. On 

 the removal of some of the flower-vases a large covered dish was placed in the 

 center of the table, and at a signal the cover was removed. The hospitable board 

 immediately swarmed with juvenile crabs, who made their exodus from the ves- 

 sel with surprising agility, for the crablets had been thrown into vinegar before 

 the guests sat down, and this made them sprightly in their movements ; but, fast 

 as they ran, they were quickly seized by the nearest guests, who thrust them into 

 their mouths and crushed them without ceremony, swallowing the strange gelat- 

 inous morsel with evident gusto. After this soy was handed round, which is a 

 liquor made from a Japan bean, .and is intended to revive the jaded palate. 

 Various kinds of shell and fresh fish followed, succeeded by several thin broths. 

 The banquet was concluded by the costly bird's-nest soup, the dessert being a 

 variety of scorched seeds and nuts, with sundry hot wines and tea. 



But the mandarin was astonished in his turn by finding ice-cream 

 among the delicacies of an English refreshment-table, and predicted dis- 

 astrous consequences from its habitual use. Ice, without doubt, is in- 



