Ch. XX.] DOG-EATING. 339 



meet aE conditions of purse where a man cannot forage for 

 himself. Dried provisions are here very much esteemed ; 

 the small ducks which are sent out to feed in the duck- 

 hoats are usually cut open and made perfectly flat and then 

 dried; and a man will hawk about near a hundred such 

 dried ducks strung on a pole across his shoulder. "What 

 particular delicacy there can be in ducks' -bUls I did not make 

 trial of, but they are common articles hanging suspended 

 in the provision shops. So also are di-ied rats, similarly 

 spHt open and hung up in front of the shops for sale — their 

 rodent teeth betraying them in their otherwise disguised 

 condition. But dogs are never seen in this respectable 

 situation; nevertheless dogs are eaten in Canton, and that 

 largely. The dog consumed by the Chinese is of a small 

 size and usually of a light brown colour, covered with a 

 coat of soft, short hair, so thick as to look almost hke wool. 

 But the CMnese housewife refuses to cook dogs in the 

 family pot, or in the domestic kitchen, and they are driven 

 to the alternative of being boiled in the streets. On any 

 morning, in certain open spaces at street comers, the execu- 

 tion of a certain number of unfortunate chow-chow dogs may 

 be witnessed; after which, having been skinned, they are 

 forthwith placed in a suspended cauldron, and the disjecta 

 membra are there to be seen simmering, and inviting the 

 passer-by to stop and dine, which they do there and then. 



But whatever be the nature of his diet the Chinaman 

 consumes a large amount of salt ; and salt is a commodity 

 for which the paternal government makes him pay an 

 exorbitant price. Salt is in China a government monopoly, 

 upon which a large duty is payable, and no foreign salt is 

 allowed to be imported. It may easily be calculated that 

 two millions of tons of salt are annually consumed by the 



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