Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-09-05
THE CHINESE, OF WHAT
THEIR FOOD CONSISTS.
His Intense Desire to be Corpu-
lent-The Philosophy Of the
Stomach in the Celestial
Kingdom-Strange
Food Products.

Kingdom-Strange
Food Products.
PEKIN, July Ito be able to eat
well means, in the Chinaman's opinion,
to be happy. All his cares, troubles,
and desires centre in the same point,
namely, good eating. True, everybody
the world over takes care to satisfy his
appetite in the best possible way. But
the Chinese differ from other people in
the philosophy of the subject. They
hold that only the satiated man can be
wise, and those who cannot make them
selves full are surely fools. Their
most sacred philosophical and medical
treatises deal with the stomach as the
principal source of the spiritual, moral,
and physical life CT man. The head,
in their opinion, is poor dependent
on the bounty of the stomach. Not
the head but the stomach ought to be
crowned They hold as q cardinal
axiom that the stomach is the spring of
every thought, feeling and muscular
action. He who does not eat loses all
energy. Man differs from wood and
stone only because he fills up his
stomach. They look upon DR.. Tan
ner's forty days fast as clever trick.
They assert that the American doctor
deceived the public by drinking some
colorless nutritious substances dissolv-
ed in water Otherwise, they argue,
he would necessarily turn first an idiot
and then a corpse.
When we ponder on some difficult
subject we often touch or rub our fore
head. Under the same circumstances
the Chinaman puts his fingers below
his belt By touching his abdomen he
facilities his mental process. In view
of the supremacy of the stomach the
Chinese came to the conclusion that
the better it is filed the wiser is its
possessor; hence fatness and corpulence
are the best mirror of the mind, the
best indication of superior intellect.
And, as wisdom brings man to a bliss
full state and to heavenly beatitude,
therefore the Cinnamon regard extra
ordinary stoutness as a symbol of the
future heavenly state. The idol of
Buddha-Shahemuny, the ideal of su-
preme beatitude, is represented as an
abnormally fat man, with a smile of
perfect satisfaction. There is no need
to put any sign under that idol, for
without words everybody would read
in it's look that 81 am quite full" The
superior spiritual advisers OF the Budd-
hists are distinguished for their corpu-
lence. l am told there are divines
among them who devour whole sheep
for breakfast! No wonder they regard
the severe fasting of the Christian
heretics as hopeless folly.
Now, what are the agencies which
bring the Chinaman to his blissful
state? They are manifold; yet beef,
milk and dairy products in general are
strictly excluded from the list. About
twenty centuries ago in the Celestial
Empire there was established OK
worship, as reward for the great as
sistance in agriculture rendered by that
horned animal Then it was forbidden
to kill either OK or COW. 1t became
also a sacred habit to leave the cows
milk exclusively for the calves, to whom
it rightfully belonged. Chinameu do
not use the milk of sheep or she goats,
though they are very fond of the meat
of these animals. But, then, theySare
exceedingly fond of woman's milk
The well-to-do parents often keep wet
nurses for their children up to the
seventh and even ninth hear. Some
times even men of age, and particularly
old men, resort to woman's milk either
as an article of luxury or as a dietetic
means. Among rich Cinnamon it is
point of pride to keep number of wet
nurses. Of the rich Celestial it may
be truly said that che is worth so many
wet nurses,n as of the rich Mohamme-
dan that "he is worth so many wives"
or of the American that "he is worth
so many dollars" No Chinese woman
would milk COW, for such practice, in
her opinion, would stain forever her
chastity.
Excluding beef and dairy products
Cinnamon eat everything that is edible,
horse and ass flesh, snakes, rats, mice,
dogs, grasshoppers, spiders, worms, CO.
coons, sea cucumbers, swallows nests
and so on. Once, while living in
villa, near Pekin, saw very strange
scene. There appeared cloud of
grasshoppers. Suddenly the field was
covered with Cinnamon, who ran
frantically hither and thither gathering
them in. They filled large sacks and
bags with the insects. They carried
portable stoves on which they roasted
their curious game. Other Cinnamon
eagerly devoured the grasshoppers,
paying penny for ten.
At the head of all meats Cinnamon
put, of course, pork. In their opinion,
to the hog belongs the first place in the
list of domestic animals. If you ask
Chinaman why, he will answer you
proudly: Because it was the hog
from whom the Chinaman descended"
Don't you see, the Celestals have
beaten Darwin on the theory of the
descent of man. 1t is only natural.
then, that among Cinnamon hogs
sh ould enjoy full rights of citizenship.
Lii Ike dogs, they wander wherever they
please. A Chinese street without a
number of hogs is an impossibility
Are there many hogs Sin China l
should think So On single holiday
in memory of their ancestors-not the
original ancestors, the hogs, but merely
human ancestors-the Celestials eat
fully $50, 900 hogs, | must admit that
Chinese pork is superior to any found
elsewhere 'on the globe. Poor China
men who cannot afford to buy pork eat
meat of dogs, asses, horses, rats, mice,
rabbits, hares, goats and sheep. But l
never saw them eating cats.
OF birds the Chinese eat silver pleas
! ants, ducks, geese. chickens, jackdaws,