Chap. HI. 



SKINNING FEOGS. 



45 



the principal streets, I found a most excellent 

 market. For fully half a mile this street was 

 literally crowded with articles of food. Fish^ 

 pork, fowls, ducks, vegetables of many kinds, and 

 the fruits of the season, lined its sides. Mush- 

 rooms were abundant, and excellent, as I after- 

 wards proved by having some cooked. Frogs 

 seemed much in demand. They are brought to 

 market in tubs and baskets, and the vender em- 

 ploys himself in skinning them as he sits making 

 sales. He is extremely expert at this part of his 

 business. He takes up the frog in his left hand, 

 and with a knife which he holds in his right 

 chops off the fore part of its head. The skin is 

 then drawn back over the body and down to the 

 feet, which are chopped off and thrown away. 

 The poor frog, still alive, but headless, skinless, 

 and without feet, is then thrown into another tub, 

 and the operation is repeated on the rest in the 

 same way. Every now and then the artist lays 

 down his knife, and takes up his scales to weigh 

 these animals for his customers and make his 

 sales. Everything in this civilised country, whe- 

 ther it be gold or silver, geese or frogs, is sold by 

 weight. 



Raw tea-leaves — that is, just as they had been 

 plucked from the bushes, and unmanufactured — 

 were also exposed for sale in this market. They 

 were sold at from three farthings to five farthings 

 a pound ; and as it takes about four pounds of raw 

 leaves to make one pound of tea, it follows that 



