II.] A DINNER WITH JAPANESE. 45 



l3ut the champagne being evidently very much approved of, it be- 

 came more lively as dinner went on, and before long everything 

 was progressing merrily. English being our chief medium of com- 

 munication, Uyeno acted as interpreter, and commenced every 

 sentence with a fluent " I say." "\^^lat followed, however, was by no 

 means always so easy of comprehension. Their French, unfortu- 

 nately, was not even of the " scole of Stratford atte bowe," so we 

 were constramed at times to wander in the thorny paths of sign 

 language, or to pour libation to fill up awkward pauses. Knives 

 and forks were evidently almost unknown to our visitors, but they 

 managed them with really praisew^orthy dexterity after closely 

 watchmg our movements for a time. Among the many dishes 

 that must have been new to them was asparagus, and it evidently 

 puzzled them to guess its origin. Uyeno's first essay at eating it 

 was not very successful. Looking nonchalantly round, he dis- 

 covered, and doubtless made a mental note of the fact, that this was 

 apparently one of the few things that Englishmen eat with their 

 fingers, and, with the habitual good breeding of his race, en- 

 deavoured to follow his host's example. Seizing the vegetable by 

 its head, he was at first somewhat dismayed to find it come off in 

 his fingers, but, nothing daunted, he again returned to the charge, 

 got a firm hold lower down, and commenced operations. There are, 

 doubtless, many things in the cuisine of our country which are 

 more interesting than the butt end of a shoot of tinned asparagus, 

 and he was munching it with a comical air of mingled wonder and 

 resignation, when one of us, whose gravity was least disturbed by 

 the proceeding, took compassion upon him, and mildly suggested 

 that, in general, there was more nutriment to be obtained at the 

 soft end. His advice was at once adopted, but the sudden change 

 of expression to one of complete satisfaction and approval was so 

 irresistibly comic that we were one and all convulsed with sup- 

 pressed laughter. 



However much accustomed one may be to the odd incidents of 

 travel, there is always something about a dinner with Japanese 



