The other Chinese fruits are apricots, cherries, lemons, and oranges, which are grown in the gardens of the country people; they also eat the young shoots of the fragrant ash, the flowers of the yulong, and the soft shoots of the juicy-bamboo. The leaf which the itinerant fruit-seller holds, is that of the “nelumbriem,” an aquatic plant, the canes of which sometimes grow large enough for an umbrella. The engraving represents a retail dealer in fruit, sitting at his stall, in the shade of an ample umbrella made of rushes.
The middle classes of the Chinese live upon pork, venison, and shark-fins. Horse-flesh is eaten by the Tartars, and sold in the markets with beef. Cats, too, are a favourite dish, and dogs are the crowning delicacy of the cookery-book.
The Chinese towns swarm with hawkers of all sorts, and among the most numerous are the flower-sellers. They carry their flowers about in two flat baskets, suspended like a pair of scales from the two ends of a bamboo. The flowers common to China are, many of them, now common with us. The plant for which they have the strongest liking is the peony, which they call “moutein.” It is also called the “king of flowers,” and “pe-lean-king,” which means one hundred ounces of gold on account of its beauty, and of the enormous price given for it by the curious.
The Chinese, as I have said, eat cats and dogs. They also eat snakes and vipers: the former for food, the latter for physic. The Chinese are very dexterous in catching these animals, and they will also play various tricks with them. It is no unusual thing to see a Chinaman put a viper in his mouth, and ask a bye-stander to pull it out by its tail. Here is a picture of a viper-seller; the board in his hand contains a list of his reptiles.
The engraving in the next page is the representation of a Chinese barber. He goes from house to house, carrying with him his instruments—a stool, a small furnace, water, razors, brushes. The barbers are also ready to shampoo a customer, if the state of his health require it. The mode of shampooing in China has been thus described:—“First,” said my informant, “the shampooer placed me in a large chair, and then began to beat me with both hands very fast, upon all parts of my body. He next stretched out my arms and legs, and gave them several sudden pulls; he then got my arm on his shoulder, and hauled me sideways a good way off the chair, giving my head at the same time a sudden switch or jerk, almost enough to pull my neck out of joint. Next he beat with the ends of his fingers very softly and very quickly, all over my body and legs, every now and then cracking my fingers. Then he stroked my ears, temples, and eye-lashes. After this he began to scrape, pick and syringe my ears, every now and then working with an instrument close to them. The next things were my eyes, into which several small instruments were thrust. He then proceeded to paring, scraping, and cleansing the nails of my fingers and toes, and then cutting my corns. For all this he only charged the sum of one penny.”
The Chinese are very fond of fishing, and although they are not so scientific in throwing a line as Albert Smith, still they manage to get the fish somehow—indeed fishing is very common in China. The waters of the rivers contain a great number of fish unknown to us, one of which is called the flour-fish, on account of its whiteness, and is very delicious eating. The hoang-zy, or yellow fish, sometimes grows to such a size, as to weigh 800 lbs.