DOG-LORE AND SUPERSTITION 



setting forth that the flesh of black dogs and cats can be 

 served up at a moment's notice. On the walls of the dining- 

 rooms are bills of fare. The following is a translation of one : 



Cat's flesh, one basin . . . . 10 cents. 



B12ck cat's flesh, one small basin . . 5 cents. 



Wine, one bottle . . . . . . 3 cents. 



Wine, one small bottle . . . . i J cents. 



Ketchup, one basin .. .. 2 cash. 



Black dog's grease . . . . i tael 4 cents. 



Black cat's eyes, one pair . . . . 4 cents. 



" The persons who frequent such eating-houses are re- 

 spectable shopkeepers and artisans, and the sum which they 

 pay for a good dinner is on an average 15 cents., or yd. I 

 have occasionally seen poor men dining at these restaurants, 

 but they form a very small proportion of the visitors. At 

 Peking I found two or three shops in which dog's flesh was 

 exposed for sale as food ; and Dr. Williams has stated that 

 dog hams are exported from the northern province of Shan- 

 tung. At the commencement of summer a ceremony called 

 A-chee, which consists in eating dogs' flesh is observed 

 throughout the Empire by persons of all ranks. The Can- 

 tonese think that to eat the flesh of dogs is to act in opposition 

 to the will of the gods, and on many Buddhist temples I have 

 seen placards calling upon the people not only to abstain from 

 the flesh of bulls, goats, and swine, but from that also of dogs, 

 as these are the faithful guardians of their masters' homes." 



The public marketing of dogs' flesh has been prohibited 

 in Canton only from about the middle of 1915. It is exposed 

 for sale openly in the butchers' shops in the suburbs to this 

 day. In Quangtung Province, too, a dish said to have 

 powerful protective properties against cold is made with a 

 combination of the meat of snakes and cats, called by the 



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