KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



259 



The following description of a Chinese 

 dinner, from the pen of Captain Laplace, of 

 the French Navy, is given with so much of 

 the characteristic vivacity of his countrymen, 

 and so well conveys the first impression of a 

 scene not often witnessed by Europeans, that 

 I introduce it without further apology : — 



The first course was laid out in a great number 

 of saucers of painted porcelain, and consisted of 

 various relishes in a cold state, as salted earth- 

 worms, prepared and dried, but so cut up that I 

 fortunately did not know what they were until I 

 swallowed them ] salted or smoked fish, and ham, 

 both of them cut into extremely small slices ; 

 besides which there was what they called Japan 

 leather, a sort of darkish skin, hard and tough, 

 with a strong, and far from agreeable taste, which 

 seemed to have been macerated in water for some 

 time. All these et caderas, including among the 

 number a liquor which I recognised to be soy, 

 made from a Japan bean, and long since adopted 

 by the wine-drinkers of Europe to revive their 

 faded appetites or tastes, were used as seasoning 

 to a great number of stews, which were contained 

 in bowls, and succeeded each other uninterruptedly. 

 All the dishes, without exception, swam in soup ; 

 on one side figured pigeons' eggs, cooked in gravy, 

 together with ducks and fowls, cut very small, and 

 immersed in a dark colored sauce ; on the other, 

 little balls made of sharks' fins, eggs prepared by 

 heat (of which both the smell and taste seemed 

 to us equally repulsive,) immense grubs, a peculiar 

 kind of sea-fish, crabs, and pounded shrimps. 



Seated at the right of our excellent Amphitryon, 

 I was the object of his whole attention ; but, 

 nevertheless, found myself considerably at a loss 

 how to use the two little ivory sticks, tipped with 

 silver, which, together with a knife that had a long, 

 narrow, and thin blade, formed the whole of my 

 eating apparatus. I had great difficulty in seizing 

 my prey, in the midst of these several bowls filled 

 with gravy ; in vain I tried to hold, in imitation of 

 my host, this substitute for a fork, between the 

 thumb and the two first fingers of the right hand, 

 for the chopsticks slipped aside every moment, 

 leaving behind them the unhappy little morsel 

 which I coveted. It is true that the master of 

 the house came to the relief of my inexperience (by 

 which he was much entertained) with his two in- 

 struments, the extremities of which, a few moments 

 before, had touched a mouth, whence age, and the 

 use of snuff and tobacco, had cruelly chased its 

 good looks. However, I contrived to eat, with 

 tolerable propriety, a soup prepared with the 

 famous birds' nests in which the Chinese are such 

 epicures. The substance thus served up is reduced 

 into very thin filaments, transparent as isinglass, 

 and resembling vermicelli, with little or no taste. 

 At first I was much puzzled to find out how, with 

 our chopsticks, we should be able to taste of the 

 various soups which composed the greater part of 

 the dinner, and had already called to mind the fable 

 of the fox and the stork, when our two Chinese 

 entertainers, dipping at once into the bowls with 

 the little saucer placed at the side of each guest, 

 showed us how to get rid of the difficulty. 



I confess I was never witness to this slovenly 

 manoeuvre, as the Chinese tables are generally 



supplied with a species of spoon, of silver or 

 porcelain, sufficiently convenient in shape. 



To the younger guests, naturally lively, such a 

 crowd of novelties presented an inexhaustible 

 fund of pleasantry ; and, though unintelligible to 

 the worthy Hong merchant and his brother, the 

 jokes seemed to delight them not at all the less. 

 The wine, in the meantime, circulated freely, and 

 the toasts followed each other in rapid succession. 

 This liquor, which to my taste was by no means 

 agreeable, is always taken hot ; and in this state 

 it approaches pretty nearly to Madeira in color, as 

 well as a little in taste ; but it is not easy to get 

 tipsy with it, for, in spite of the necessity of fre- 

 quently attending to the invitations of my host, 

 this wine did not in the least affect my head. We 

 drank it in little gilt cups, having the shape of an 

 antique vase, with two handles, of perfect work- 

 manship, and kept constantly filled by attendants 

 holding large silver vessels like coffee-pots. 



After all these good things served one upon the 

 other, of which it gave me pleasure to see the last, 

 succeeded the second course, which was preceded 

 by a little ceremony, of which the object seemed 

 to be a trial of the guests' appetites. Upon the 

 edges of four bowls, arranged in a square, three 

 others were placed, filled with stews, and sur- 

 mounted by an eighth, which thus formed the 

 summit of a pyramid ; and the custom is to touch 

 none of these, although invited by the host. On 

 the refusal of the party the whole disappeared, 

 and the table was covered with articles in pastry 

 and sugar ; in the midst of which was a salad com- 

 posed of the tender shoots of the bamboo, and 

 some watery preparations, that exhaled a most 

 disagreeable odor. 



Up to this point the relishes, of which I first 

 spoke, had been the sole accompaniment of all the 

 successive ragouts ; they still served to season the 

 bowls of plain rice, which the attendants now, for 

 the first time, placed before each of the guests. 



It must be remembered that this was a 

 formal dinner ; rice forms a much more integral 

 part of an every-day meal. 



I regarded with an air of considerable embar- 

 rassment, the two little 6ticks, with which, not- 

 withstanding the experience acquired since the 

 commencement of the repast, it seemed very 

 doubtful whether I should be able to eat my rice, 

 grain by grain, according to the belief of Euro- 

 peans regarding the Chinese custom. I therefore 

 waited until my host should begin, to follow his 

 example, foreseeing that, on this new occasion, 

 some fresh discovery would serve to relieve us 

 from the truly ludicrous embarrassment which 

 we all displayed ; in a word our two Chinese, 

 cleverly joining the ends of their chopsticks, 

 plunged them into the bowls of rice, held up to 

 the mouth, which was opened to its full extent, 

 and thus easily shovelled in the rice, not by grains, 

 but by handsful. Thus instructed, I might have 

 followed their example ; but I preferred making 

 up with the other delicacies, for the few attractions 

 which, to my taste, had been displayed by the 

 first course. The second lasted a much shorter 

 time, the attendants cleared away everything. 

 Presently the table was strewed with flowers, 

 which vied with each other in brilliancy ; pretty 



