Chap. X. AN INQUISITIVE HOST. 189 



inquiring look as if I had never seen him before. I 

 now observed him whispering to his companion, and 

 thought I heard the word Fankwei used. In the 

 mean time Sing-Hoo, who had just arrived, came in 

 and began to bustle about and get in the dinner, 

 which was soon ready. The host was a civil sort of 

 man, but very inquisitive, and as he set down the 

 dinner he put various questions to me. With Chi- 

 nese politeness, he asked me my name, my age, 

 where I had come from, and whither I was bound, 

 and to all such questions he received most satis- 

 factory answers. For example, when asked where I 

 had come from, I replied, " From Chang-shan ;" and 

 to the question as to whither I was bound I answered, 

 " To Fokien." These answers were perfectly true, 

 although not very definite. The Canton merchants 

 were all eyes and ears while this conversation was 

 going on, and one of them quietly prompted the inn- 

 keeper to ask a few more questions. 



These gentlemen wanted to know the starting-point 

 of my journey, the particular part of Fokien to which 

 I was bound, and the objects I had in view. As I 

 could not see that answers to these questions con- 

 cerned them very much, or could be of any use, I 

 judged it better to keep them in the dark. 



Several dishes being now set before me, and a cup 

 of wine poured out by the host, I took a sip of it, 

 and taking up my chopsticks went on with my 

 dinner. Having had great experience in the use of 

 the chopsticks, I could handle them now nearly as 

 well as the Chinese themselves ; and as I had been 



