Page:The costume of China, illustrated in forty-eight coloured engravings.pdf/287

 A TRADESMAN.

The dress worn by this person is common among the middle class of the people. The jacket without sleeves is of silk, having a collar made from slips of velvet; the stockings are of cotton quilted, with a border of the same, and his shoes are embroidered.

His pipe, pouch, knife, and chopsticks are suspended from a sash; in his right hand is a basket of birds' nests, which he carries for sale to the epicures of China.

These nests are constructed by birds of the swallow kind, and appear to be composed of the fine filaments of certain sea-weeds, cemented together with a aielatinous substance collected from the rocks and stones on the sea-shore. They are chiefly found in caverns on the islands near the Straits of Sunda, and on an extensive cluster of rocks and islands, called the Paracels, on the coast of Cochin-China.

These nests, when dissolved in water, become a thick jelly, which to a Chinese taste has a most delicious flavour, and communicates, in their opinion, an agreeable taste to whatever food it is combined with. They are therefore highly prized by the upper ranks, and their great expence excludes their use among the poor.

On the bank near which he stands, is a post to which a lantern is attached; the back ground is a scene at Han-tcheou-foo.