“Determined to do as the Chinese did, I tried this novelty also with one. With two I succeeded, finding the shell soft and gelatinous, for they were tiny creatures, not more than a day or two old. But I was compelled to give in to the third, who had resolved to take vengeance, and gave my lower lip a nip so sharp and severe as to make me relinquish my hold, and likewise desist from any further experiment of this nature.”
The celebrated birds’-nests, which the Chinese convert into soup, are not, as some persons seem to think, made of sticks, and straws, and wool, but are formed from the gelatinous substance obtained by masticating a sort of seaweed. The nests are transparent, as if made of gelatine, and when placed in hot water they dissolve as readily. The nest, when dissolved, is very much like the well-known “Irish moss,” or carrageen; and I fully believe that, if the Chinese were to obtain the seaweed itself, and prepare it like the nests, it would answer every purpose. I possess specimens both of the seaweed and the nest, and, after tasting both, have found them to be identical in flavor and consistence. And, as the seaweed might be obtained for about ten shillings per hundredweight, and the finest kind of nest costs eight hundred pounds for the same amount, the importation of the seaweed instead of the nests from Java might be a good speculation.
With regard to the great staple of the country, namely tea, very little can be said here. In the first place, the public is very well informed on the subject, and, in the next, the tea question is so large that it would occupy far too great space. The mode of preparing tea differs much from that practised by ourselves. Instead of allowing the tea to be made and then to stand for a considerable time, the Chinaman puts a little tea into a cup, pours boiling rain-water on it, inverts the saucer over it, so as to prevent the aroma from escaping, and drinks it immediately, using the saucer as a strainer whereby to keep the tea-leaves out of his mouth. As to adulterating the tea with such abominations as cream and sugar, he would be horrified at the idea. The Chinese never use milk for themselves, though of late years they have learned to milk their buffaloes for the service of the foreigner, and they consume sugar in almost every shape except in tea.
We who use either of these accessories cannot understand the true flavor of tea, the aroma of which is as much destroyed by such admixture as would be that of the choicest wine. Even those who do not spoil their tea in the usual manner can seldom know what the best tea is, because it is never sent to this country. Not in China can a foreigner purchase it, as it is not made for general sale, but is reserved for “cumshaws,” or presents.
CHAPTER CLIV.
CHINA—Continued.
WARFARE.
WEAPONS OF THE CHINESE — BREECH-LOADING CANNON — VARIOUS FORMS OF THE JINGALL — CHINESE ARTILLERYMEN AND THEIR MAGAZINE — BOWS AND ARROWS — THE REPEATING CROSS-BOW AND ITS MECHANISM — CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARROWS — CHINESE SWORDS — THE DOUBLE SWORD, AND MODE OF USING IT — TWO-HANDED SWORDS — CRUELTY OF THE VICTORS — VARIOUS MODES OF TORTURE — KNEELING ON THE CHAIN — THE CANGUE — FINGER AND ANKLE SQUEEZING — USE OF TORTURE IN MONEY-GETTING — THE LARGE AND SMALL BAMBOO — MODE OF EVADING IT — EXPOSURE IN A CAGE — THE HOT-WATER SNAKE — CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS — SUICIDE BY ORDER — STRANGLING — CRUCIFIXION PREFERRED TO BEHEADING — EXECUTION OF A THIEF — SAWING ASUNDER — CONDUCT OF THE MANDARINS — THE “UMBRELLA OF A THOUSAND PEOPLE” — THE ROBE OF HONOR — TRANSFER OF RANK.
Without going into the question of warfare in China, we will mention one or two of the characteristic weapons.
Fire-arms have apparently been known to them for ages, but in all the years that we have been acquainted with China, no improvement has been made in these weapons, the cannon, the jingall, and the hand-gun being as rude and ineffective as they were two centuries ago. The cannon are little more than thick tubes of iron, mostly hooped to strengthen them, and of various lengths and bores. As to preserving any exactness of size in the bores, the Chinese care little for it, and if the ball is too small to fit the cannon, they wrap it up in cotton and then push it upon the powder. Wadding is thought to be needless in fire-arms. It is rather remarkable, however, that the Chinese have used breech-loading cannon from time immemorial. Each of these guns is supplied with several separate chambers, which can be kept loaded, and dropped one by one into the aperture of the gun as fast as they can be fired.
Clumsy as may be the jingall, it appears to be the most efficient of the Chinese firearms. It looks something like a duck-gun, and is supposed to carry an ounce ball, though the missiles sent from it are generally of a very miscellaneous character. Some of these guns are pivoted and fixed on tripod stands, while others are either supported on the shoulder of an assistant gunner while the firer takes aim, or rest upon two supports which are pivoted to the stock not very far from the muzzle of the gun. Of the manner in which the jingall is fired, Captain Blakiston gives a very amusing account, the whole proceeding having a very ludicrous aspect to an English artillery officer.
“We explained to them that we should like to see some practice with their artillery, on which the bombardier, as he seemed to be, went to the powder magazine, which was an old sack carefully tied up and lying under a bed in the hut, and brought forth the charge in a tea-cup. Then he mounted on a stool, and poured the powder in at the muzzle; the jingall was thumped on the ground, and with a long bamboo, which served as a ramrod, they rammed the powder home. A little of the already soft powder was then mealed, and the touch-hole filled with it.