290 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



supplied wlfh the material necessary for the exercise of their gastronomical propensities. The 

 poorer classes are accustomed to the use of boiled rice only, mixed with small proportions of 

 dried fish, and occasionally with some simple condiments, and they consaime enormous quan- 

 tities of this food, if they have the means of procuring it. Dogs and cats, which are carried 

 about the streets for sale, must be considered delicacies above the reach of the poorer classes, 

 judging from the prices demanded for them. Eats, mice, and other vermin, are also eagerly 

 sought after, and are made up into various savory dishes. To the fixmilies belonging to the fast 

 boats attached to the ship a good fat rat was one of the most acceptable of presents, which they • 

 cooked and served up with their rice, making a dish very much like the French one of Poidet- 

 au-riz in appearance ; but as for tlie taste, that question must be referred to Chinese authorities, 

 as no American or European has yet been found, it is believed, to test it by actual experiment. 



Those Chinese emploj'ed in the ships of the squadron have always found the navy ration 

 insufficient to satisfy their gluttony, notwithstanding that of the United States vessels is far 

 more abundant and of better quality than the ration of the navy of any other country. A mess 

 of ten American seamen usually stop each two rations, for which they receive the commutation 

 in money. The Chinese, however, although the most sordid of beings, not only devoured the 

 entire ration served out to them, but went about the decks collecting what they could pick up 

 from the leavings of the messes, and invariably beset the ship's cooks for the scrapings of the 

 coppers. 



The Chinese servants emploj'^ed in the Commodore's cabin ate, in miscellaneous food, including 

 rice, bread, beef, pork, and the leavings of the table, three times as much as the other 

 attendants. In fact, the enormous quantities of rice they consumed, with whatever else they 

 could seize irpon, is almost incredible. As for siigar and other sweets, there would have been 

 no end to their pilfering, if they had not been carefully watched by the steward. This gi-oss 

 feeding exhibited its effects upon the Chinese servants, as it does upon dvimb animals, for they 

 soon became fat and lazy. 



Most of the Chinese servants employed in the European and American families settled in China 

 engage to find their own food. Their wages vary from four to six and seven dollars per month ; 

 the cooks, however, receive from seven to ten. All articles for household consumption, in the 

 foreign establishments, are procured through the agency of a person called a comprador, who 

 hires the servants, pays them their wages, and becomes security for their honesty ; he keeps a 

 regular account of the domestic expenditure, and settles with his employers at established 

 periodical seasons. In the large mercantile establishments the profits of these compradors are 

 very considerable. However ample a dinner may have been furnished, it would be difficult to 

 secure at some of the residences, where little attention is paid to the economy of the household 

 by the proprietors themselves, anything for a late guest arriving half an hour after the meats 

 had been served. Scarcely are the dishes taken from the dining room, before they are on their 

 way to the neighboring eating houses, there to be rehashed into stews, and sold to the middle 

 classes. In the hongs of the merchants, who are called upon, as a part of their business, to 

 keep up abundant tables, great waste must necessarily take place, but as the expenditure goes 

 to the profit and loss of the concern, it is of little consequence. The missionaries and others, of 

 small means, are necessarily hard put to it to make both ends meet. 



In the houses of the foreign merchants, where there happen to be no ladies, female servants 



