172 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



In Brittany they have a plan of salting well fatted 

 ducks after drawing them. When the flesh has been in 

 a tub of salt with bay leaves and saltpetre about a fort- 

 night, and has acquired a fine red colour, the bird is cut 

 into four quarters, larded with cloves, and put into a 

 pot with some spice. Geese and ducks' breasts are also 

 pickled for three weeks or a month, then rolled in wheat 

 or rye bran, strung together on long wooden skewers, 

 and suspended in a light smoke for a week. They are 

 then hung up in a draught for three days, after which 

 the coating of bran is brushed ofi" and they are stored in 

 any suitable dry and airy place. 



In Java and the principal Philippine islands, large 

 flocks of ducks are kept for their flesh and eggs ; the 

 first being preserved by drying, and the last, when salted, 

 forming a principal part of the stock of animal food in 

 native sea voyages. Salted ducks form the basis of a 

 large commerce from Cochin China to the Chinese 

 Empire. 



" In China ducks are usually cut open and made per- 

 fectly fiat and then dried ; and a man will hawk about 

 near a hundred such dried ducks hanging on a pole 

 across his shoulders. What particular delicacy there 

 can be in ducks' bills I did not make trial of, but they 

 are common articles hanging suspended in the provision 

 shops. So also are dried rats, similarly split open and 

 hung up in front of the shops for sale, their rodent teeth 

 betraying them in their otherwise disguised condition." — 

 Collingwood. 



The tongues of ducks are among the dainties of 

 Chinese epicures. A writer in the Chinese Repository 

 says : " One article in the shop puzzled me much, and 

 by inquiry I found it to be nothing more nor less than 

 a string of dried tongues obtained from ducks. They 

 were stretched out to the utmost length, resembling 

 awls in shape, and hardened almost to the firmness of 

 iron." 



The great antiquity of the goose as an article of food, 

 may be determined by examining some of the Egyptian 



