46 THE LIU-KIU ISLANDS. [chap. 



which is trjdng in the extreme to the gravity of the most sober of 

 Englishmen. I am not referring to the Anglicised individual with 

 whom the ordinary globe-trotter is brought in contact, whose 

 manners are as irreproachable as his Lincoln and Bennett, but to 

 those whose dress is the kimono, and to whom English is an 

 unknown tongue. Both are equally well-bred; if anything, the 

 balance is in favour of the one who, as yet, is not overlaid with the 

 veneer of "Western civilisation. But there are customs and customs, 

 and those of Europe are still very different from those of the 

 kmgdom of the Mikado, in spite of the advance of the vanguard of 

 Swedish matches and Bass's Pale Ale. The unsophisticated 

 Japanese delivers himself of no trite phrase to express his 

 gratification at the hospitality he has received at your hands. No 

 " many thanks for the charming evening I have had " (an expres- 

 sion which Mr. Max O'Eell informs us is de rigucur on all such 

 occasions in English polite society) ever passes his lips. But he 

 considers it incumbent on him physically to express his sense of 

 the excellence of the comestibles placed before him. Is the 

 champagne undeniable ? — then let it be imbibed with such suckings 

 and swizzlings as shall manifest his appreciation of the cru. Are 

 the quenelles de volaille a la matador a success ? — his audible 

 guzzlings and smackings of the lips should show that he has 

 recognised the fact. Eatmg, as well as reading, maketh a full 

 man, and repletion and content are synonymous terms in other 

 languages besides Japanese. " Estando contento no tiene mas que 

 desear," says Sancho Panza, and the fact is accordingly announced 

 with the accompaniment of various natural phenomena to which it 

 is unnecessary to allude, and which are, to say the least of it, 

 somewhat subversive of European decorum. 



Dinner over, we took an unfair advantage of our guests, and 

 again approached the subject of our visit to the capital of the 

 island. This time, thanks to the "good familiar creature, well 

 used," things went smoothly, and it was arranged that we should 

 start on the morrow if fine. We finished the evening over 



