Page:Inside Canton.djvu/28

Rh to my mouth; they were firm and crisp, and with the flavour peculiar to this grain ripened in the salt plains of the Tchou-kiang. After this first satisfactory attempt, I took some tao-fou; I found it insipid; then, with a boldness natural to those who are inclined to gastronomic cosmopolitism, I mixed the rice, the tao-fou, and the black liquid: it was perfection; the black liquid was only treacle, or at least a very thick syrup of sugar.

The rice thus arranged was something like rice milk, but it had not that taste of starch, nor that gluey and watery appearance possessed by the horrid soups which the poisoners, lying in ambuscade at the corners of the streets of the most civilized town in the universe (Paris), sell after midnight. On seeing what I was doing, the little Chinese, her mother and her brothers, had noisily exclaimed, at several intervals, aïa, which is peculiar to the lower classes of Canton, and some sailors from the top of their faï-ting had added their approbation to this family's expressions of astonishment.

My knowledge of Chinese customs had charmed them; and when, after having taken some mouthfuls from the young girl's bowl, I returned it to her, accompanied by half a piastre, I had from all sides offers to recommence this fraternal communion. I gave the preference to the bowl of a sailor on board; it was, as usual, the unknown which tempted me. c2