Part 5 (2/2)

There is perhaps only one good street in the colony, Victoria street or Queen's road; this traverses the city from end to end, and const.i.tutes the great business thoroughfare of the place. After about an hour's walk along it, for the first part under an arcade of trees, we find ourselves in the filthy, unsavoury Chinese quarter, as the nose is careful to remind you if there be any doubt about it. They are certainly a very dirty race, these Chinamen; the dirtiest on earth, I should be inclined to say, considering their boasted civilization and vaunted morals; and, though compelled by our sanitary laws to live somewhat more cleanly than their enthralled brethren on the continent, still they are dirty, and I'll hazard to say a sight of the Chinese of this town would soon dispel any illusions one might have nourished to the contrary. A subsequent visit to the native city of Shanghai shewed us to what disgusting depths humanity can descend in this particular.

This enterprising people possess some very fine shops, where you can purchase every known European commodity at cheaper rates than of the European firms. Every shop has a huge sign-board depending from the top of the house to the bottom, whereon is recorded in vermillion and gold characters, not so much the name as the virtues of the man within, sometimes, too, his genealogical tree is appended. Such expressions as ”no cheating here” or ”I cannot deceive,” are common, but, in nearly every case, belie the character of the proprietor, who is a living libel on the word honesty. Honesty! old Shylock even would blush for them.

Here, where there is protection for life and property, a shopkeeper surprises you at the rich and grand display of his wares. In China proper, a dealer dare not show all he is worth for fear of the mandarins, who, should one chance to pa.s.s that way, would in all probability, cast his covetous eyes on the poor man's property, and demand whatever had taken his fancy. Nor may a poor man be in possession of an article inconsistent with his position in the social scale--he may not be the owner of a tiger's skin, for instance, as none but mandarins and people of similar position, are permitted such luxuries. This reminds one of the time, not so very remote, when similar restrictions were placed on dress in England.

This system of mulcting is known all over China as ”_c.u.m-shaw_,” a system, too, which I would advise all sailors to adopt in their dealings with the slippery race if they would not be robbed. The vendor dare not say nay to a mandarin; and, though it is a point of etiquette on the part of the big man to offer payment, it is equally a point of etiquette for the tradesman to refuse: a fact, it is said, the mandarin always calculates on.

In addition to the orthodox shop, the streets are lined with itinerants, orange stalls, betel-nut tables, heaps of rags, and sundries, baskets of vegetables of very strange appearance and strong penetrating odours, half-cooked roots and leaves--for the people never eat a well-cooked root or vegetable; it is from these princ.i.p.ally that the intolerable stench is proceeding.

What the Chinese eat is a mystery, and such queer compounds enter into their _menu_ that I would give everybody who dines with a Chinaman this advice--don't enquire too minutely into what is placed before you, or you will eat nothing, and so offend your host; bolt it and fancy it is something nice--and _fancy_ goes for something at times, I can a.s.sure you. That it requires a tremendous effort on the part of the human stomach, the subjoined ”Bill of Fare” of a dinner given to Governor Hennessey by one of the Chinese guilds will, perhaps, serve to shew:

Birds' Nest Soup.

Pigeons' Egg Soup.

Fungus Soup.

Fried Sharks' Fins.

Beche-de-mer[1] and Wild Duck.

Stewed Chicken and Sharks' Fins.

Fish Maw.

Minced Partridge.

Ham and Capon.

Meat Ball and Fungus.

Boiled Sh.e.l.l Fish.

Pig's Throat, stewed.

Minced Sh.e.l.l Fish with Greens.

Chicken Gruel Salad.

Stewed Mushrooms.

Pig's Leg, stewed.

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