Chap. XII. 
DINNER AND ITS CEREMONIES. 
193 
tion, except the fish already noticed. Rice was also set 
before each of us, and formed the principal part of our 
dinner. 
While the meal was going on the priests continuallj' 
pressed me to eat. They praised the different dishes, 
and as they pointed them out, said, " Eat fish, eat cab- 
bage," or " eat rice," as the case might be. Not unfre- 
quently their politeness, in my humble opinion, was 
carried rather too far ; for they not only pointed out the 
dishes which they recommended, but plunged their own 
chopsticks into them, and drew to the surface such deli- 
cate morsels as they thought I should prefer, sapng, 
" Eat this, eat this." This was far from agreeable, but 
I took it all as it was intended, and we were the best of 
friends. 
An interesting conversation was carried on during 
dinner between Sing-Hoo and the priests. Sing-Hoo 
had been a great traveller in his time, and gave them a 
good deal of information concerning many of the pro- 
vinces both in the north and in the south, of which 
they knew little or nothing themselves. He told them 
of his visit to Pekin, described the Emperor, and 
proudly pointed to the livery he wore. This immediately 
stamped him, in their opinions, as a person of gTeat im- 
portance. They expressed their opinions freely upon the 
natives of different provinces, and spoke of them as if 
they belonged to different nations, just as we would do of 
the natives of France, Holland, or Denmark. The Canton 
men they did not like ; the Tartars were good — the 
Emperor was a Tartar. All the outside nations were 
bad, particularly the Kwei-tszes, a name signifying 
VOL. II. K 
