64 ANIMAL FOOD KESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



puppies, as amongst us in the days of Charles II., is a 

 dish fit for a monarch. 



Humboldt tells us that, though the custom of eating 

 the dog is disused on the banks of the Orinoco, it still 

 exists in some parts of Guiana and Mexico. 



In Australia the aborigines will even eat the wild 

 dingo when hard pressed for food. 



The Chinese, it is well known, have more curious 

 habits and customs than any other people under the 

 sun; fattening dogs for the purpose of human food is 

 one of them, and in which a considerable trade is done. 

 They are small, and fed on an exclusively vegetable 

 diet. Mr. Cooper, who has been labouring to establish 

 an overland route from China to India, says that one 

 morning, as he was sitting down to breakfast at a " tea- 

 shop " in Hung-zachien, in the country of the Upper 

 Yang-tse-Kiang, he was informed that he was in luck, 

 as the proprietor just then happened to have a dog-ham 

 in cut, some slices of which he should have fried, a-deli- 

 cacy reserved only for mandarins like himself. At first 

 he was on the point of ordering away the horrid dish, 

 but, on second thoughts, he proceeded, with " stoical 

 fortitude to taste doggie ; one taste led to another," and, 

 in summing up, he pronounced the dog-ham to be de- 

 licious in fiavour, well-smoked, tender, and juicy. " It 

 was small, not much bigger than the leg of a good-sized 

 sucking-pig ; the flesh was dark, and the hair had been 

 carefully removed, while the paw had been left as a 

 stamp of its genuineness, as the proprietor remarked. 

 Dog-hams are justly considered a great delicacy in 

 China, and as such bring a very high price, costing as 

 much as five taels (1 tael = 6s. 6d.) per pound. They 

 are chiefly cured in the province of Hoonan, where 

 dogs of a peculiar breed are fattened for the purpose. 

 Hoonan is also famous for its pigs, and possesses a large 

 trade in bacon and ham, especially in pig-hams which 

 have been cured in the same tubs with dog-hams, and 

 are thereby considered to have acquired a finer flavour." 

 In Cochin-China also dogs and foxes are eaten. 



