10 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



in a manner preferable to that which prevails with us. 

 The flesh is first perforated and little bits of lard in- 

 serted, and after being baked in an oven, it is served in 

 a quantity of white sauce. Some of the purely national 

 dishes, such as lut-fisk on Christmas-eve, are most extra- 

 ordinary things. 



A writer in "Temple Bar," giving an account of a grand 

 Chinese dinner of which he partook, says : — " Some of 

 the intermediate dishes were shark's fin; birds' nests 

 brought from Borneo Ceosting nearly a guinea a mouth- 

 ful) ; fricassee of poodle, a little dog rather like a pig, 

 except for its head ; the fish of the honk shell, an elastic 

 substance like paxwax or india-rubber, which you might 

 masticate but could not possibly mash ; peacock's liver, 

 very fine and recherche ; putrid eggs, nevertheless very 

 good ; rice, of course; salted shrimps ; baked almonds ; 

 cabbage in a variety of forms ; green ginger ; stewed 

 fungi ; fresh fish of a dozen kinds ; onions ad libitum ; 

 salt duck cured like ham, and pig in every form, roast, 

 boiled, fried : Fouchow ham, which seemed to be equal 

 to Wiltshire. In fact, the Chinese excel in pork, but 

 Europeans will rarely touch it, under the superstition 

 that pigs are fed on babies. Of course a pig will eat a 

 baby if it finds one, as it will devour a rattlesnake, 

 but that does not prevent us eating American bacon, 

 where the pigs run wild in the wood, and feed, from 

 choice, upon any vermin they can find and are fattened 

 with garbage. When in the Southern States I got two 

 magnificent rattlesnakes, and my pigs ate them both. 

 That did not prevent the pigs being eaten in their turn ; 

 and I think I would as soon eat transmutation of baby- 

 flesh as of rattlesnake, especially the rattle. But I 

 believe the whole to be a libel. The Chinese are most 

 particular about their swine, and keep them penned up 

 in the utmost cleanliness and comfort, rivalling the 

 Dutch in their scrubbing and w^ashing. They grow 

 whole fields of taro and herbs for their pigs, and I do not 

 believe that one porker in a million ever tastes a baby. 

 The whole was cooked without salt, and tasted very 



