FOOD OF THE CHINESE, 
231 
means of human sustenance are much more numerous and widely 
diffused than is commonly supposed. The wealthy, indeed, live 
upon food which all over the world would be considered whole- 
some and luxurious ; and of the kinds of meat consumed by other 
nations, like beef the least and pork the most ; to these they add 
venison, sharks’ fins, beche de mer, and birds’ nests bought at 
enormous prices. The middling classes live chiefly upon rice and on 
pork, which we found the best meat in China : horse flesh is eaten 
by the Tartars, and is sold in the markets at a higher price than beef. 
It has been justly remarked by some writer, that it would be much 
more difficult to say what the lower class of Chinese do not, than 
what they do eat. Dogs, cats, and rats, are exposed for sale in the 
markets, and eaten by those who can afford to purchase other food. 
In a shop at Ta-tung the same price, about eighteen-pence, was 
asked of one of the Embassy for a pheasant and a cat. In a coun- 
try where a dreadful destruction of vegetable food is sometimes pro- 
duced by the ravages of locusts, it is fortunate if the inhabitants 
can find nourishment in the bodies of their plunderers ; and that 
Such is the case in China, where, according to the statement of 
various writers, swarms of locusts in some provinces often eat up 
every “ green thing,” is not improbable, as our boatmen considered 
grasshoppers roasted alive a very delicate repast. * The ordinary 
nutriment of these people, like that of all the lowest class of Chinese, 
was what Adam Smith has fitly called the “ nastiest garbage.” They 
fattened on the blood and entrails of the fowls killed in our boats, and 
eagerly seized the vilest offals that could be rejected from a slaughter- 
house ; and when these could not be obtained, ate rice or millet, 
seasoned with a preparation of putrid fish that sent forth a stench quite 
* The species which they were seen most generally to eat was the Gryllus nasutm. 
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