244 
THROUGH ASIA 
We had not got further than the preliminary “appetiser” 
when the presence of Adam Ignatieff started his Excel- 
lency off on the subject of the missionary activity of 
Europeans in China. He spoke in terms of great 
admiration of the Christian missionaries, praising their 
self-abnegation and disinterested zeal for the well-being 
of their fellow-men ; but, speaking with marked emphasis, 
he went on to add, that he felt bound to look upon them 
as the authors and instigators of discord, setting members 
of the same family at variance, undermining the time- 
honoured ordinance of domestic subordination, dividing 
the population into two hostile camps. 1 ventured to 
remind him of the murder of two Swedish missionaries 
in Simg-po, of which I had just heard ; but the Dao Tai 
professed total ignorance of the affair. 
Our host then conducted us and his Chinese guests 
to a little pavilion in the garden, where dinner was to 
be served. Chinese etiquette prescribes, that the host 
shall touch his forehead with the cup each guest drinks 
out of, and thereupon present it to him ; similarly with 
the chopsticks each guest eats with. The Dao Tai 
also shook each chair, to prove that it was in a sound 
condition, and passed his hand over the seat as if to 
brush away the dust. This performance over, we took 
our seats round the big, red, lacquered table. Next came 
in a string of servants, each bearing a little round 
porcelain dish with some preparation of food upon it. 
They put down the dishes along the centre of the table. 
There were dozens of them ; and the first supply was 
followed by others, time after time. In front of each 
o-uest stood still smaller dishes containing spices, sauces, 
and soy. 
If the ofuests neglected to help themselves, the host 
occasionally sent them portions of the delicacies which 
lined his own dishes — -such as the skin, fins, and cartilage 
of different varieties of fish found in the seas and rivers 
of the Chinese empire, fungi, salted mutton fat cut into 
long strips, lizards (salamanders), ham with a great variety 
of widely different adjuncts, besides a multitude of strange 
