Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/736

716 upon piles of fagots at 8, and are totally consumed by 6 The relations are admitted early in the morning, and the ashes are collected and placed in urns. The scale of charges is 3s. 6d., 7s. 6d., 15s., and 20s., the process in each case being the same, the only difference being that the highest charge insures a solitary chamber, while for the lowest the corpse may be consumed in company with five others, each, of course, occupying a separate stone platform."

Chinese Cookery.—It appears, from the Pall Mall Budget, that the great number of strange dishes spoken of in books of travel are seen only at official banquets, and do not constitute the meals even of the wealthy Chinese. These public dinners are usually given in restaurants, which are built two or three stories high, the kitchen and public rooms being on the first floor, the private rooms above. A correspondent of the Journal des Débats gives the following as the bill of fare at a banquet given by a French official of the Chinese Government to Chen Pao-Chen, the Viceroy of the Two Kiangs: "Four large 'classical' or stock dishes—swallows'-nest soup with pigeons' eggs, sharks' fins with crabs, trepang (bâche de mer) with wild duck, duck with cabbage. Dishes served in cups placed before each guest—swallows' nests, sharks' fins, wild cherries, vegetables, mushrooms with ducks' feet, quails, pigeons in slices, dish of sundries. Four medium-sized dishes—ham and honey, pea-soup, vegetables, trepang. Four large dessert dishes—pea-cheese with bamboo roots, bamboo roots, chicken, shell-fish; four dishes of dried fruits as ornaments, four kinds of dry fruits, four kinds of fruits in sirup, four kinds of fresh fruit; four dishes of hors d'œuvre (two varieties in each dish)—ham and chicken, fish and gizzard, tripe and vermicelli, duck and pork chops. Dishes set before each guest—almonds and watermelon pips, pears and oranges. Sweet and salt dishes served in cups set before each guest—two kinds of salted cakes, hambroth, a broth composed of pork, chicken, and crab boiled down, two sweet cakes, a cup of lotus fruit, a cup of almond milk. Roast and boiled meats—sucking pig, roast duck, boiled chicken, boiled pork. Entremets—a dish of cakes with broth, slices of pheasants. Last service—mutton broth, almond jelly, white cabbage, pork and broth, bowls of rice, cups of green tea." Notwithstanding this elaborate "bill of fare," the Chinese are generally an abstemious people. A coolie will subsist upon eight shillings a month, and live comfortably upon twice that sum. Boiled rice is the staple article of food. In the north of China wheat and canary seed, boiled and made into small rolls, are much used. Small cakes made of boiled wheat, together with a little fish or some vegetables, constitute an excellent dinner for a Chinaman. Some light refreshment is frequently taken between meals by the well-to-do Chinaman—"the kuo tsâ leading up to the morning, the kuo tsong to the midday, and the tien chen to the evening meal, while the chian ya and the kuo yia are partaken of during the night by those who can not get to sleep."

A Defense of Opium-smoking.—That there is no cause without its advocate is evident from the fact that Consul Gardner, in a trade report for the past year, plausibly defends the practice of opium-smoking. We gather the following from the Pall Mall Budget: About 12,000,000 pounds of opium are yearly consumed in China. The smokers are of three classes—occasional smokers, habitual moderate smokers, and excessive habitual smokers. When a Chinaman is said to smoke opium, the recognized meaning is that he belongs to the third class, just as with us when we say that a man "drinks," excessive drinking is understood. In smoking, only part of the drug is consumed; the ash when re-prepared yields fifty per cent of opium. This accounts for the fact that the saloon-keepers sell opium at what appears to be cost price; the ash yields the profit and pays for light, house-rent, and attendance. It is estimated that the immoderate smoker consumes not over four pounds a year, and the average annual consumption of all classes is half a pound. If, as this implies, half the adult population smoke, and opium-smoking is the evil it is represented to be, why are there not visible inherited ill effects? Consul Gardner, in reply, says: "The length of the intestines in man shows that a due admixture of animal and vegetable food is the diet best suited