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 18 esteem, and although the Japanese are undoubtedly the most polite people in the world, few of them let a week go by without eating two or three dishes of sliced raw onions. There are some features of the Japanese cuisine that are sure to seem odd to American housewives. While onions are never served in the cooked state—as the Japanese contend that heat destroys their food value—cucumbers are boiled and served hot. Radishes are boiled and offered in a very mild pickle. Celery is served in this same way. Fruit is not often seen at table. It is eaten generally between meals.

Upon first acquaintance a Caucasian who glories in his "three square meals" is not likely to be satisfied with the meals that are served in a Japanese house. A very good idea of the ordinary diet of a Japanese labourer may be gained from the conversation the writer had with a native coal-heaver while visiting a ship in Nagasaki harbor. A coal lighter lay alongside. Native men, women, boys, and girls were working like beavers. The coal was shovelled into baskets, the weight of these loaded baskets running anywhere from thirty