Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-09-25
STRANGE FOOD IN CHINA
The Philosophy of the stomach i'm ii
Celestial KInPdnm.

Pekin Letter to st. Petersburg MESSENGER.
! To be able to eat well means, in the
! Chinaman's opinion, to be happy All
| his cares, troubles and desires centre i'm
! 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
J be Wlse,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 OF man. The head,
in their opinion, is Il poor dependent on
the bounty of the stomach. Not the head.
but the stomach, ought to be crowned.
/ They hold as 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
| nerS forty days fast as a clever trick
! They assert that the American doctor de-
ceived the public by drinking some color
/ less nutritious substances dissolved i'm
water. Otherwise, they argue. he would
necessarily turn first an idiot and then a
corpse.
When we ponder on some difficult sub
Under the same circumstances the China
man puts his fingers below his belt. BY
| touching his abdomen he facilitates his
| mental process. In view of the supremacy
of the stomach the Chinese came to the
conclusion that the better it is filled the
wiser is its pOsSessOr: hence fairness and
! cOrpulence are the best mirror of the
mind, the best indication of superior in
! tellect. And, as wisdom brings man to a
] n n a W hoo do
therefore the Cinnamon regard eXtraordi-
nary stOutneSs as symbol of the future
heavenly state. The idol of Buddha-
! Shahemuny, the idol of supreme beati-
tude, is represented as an abnormally fat
man, with a smile of perfect satisfaction.
There is no need to put any sign under the
idol, for without words everybody would
read in its looks that 81 am quite full.v
The superior spiritual advisers of the
Buddhlsts are distinguished for their cor
| pulence. | am told there are divines
amongst them who devOur whole sheen
for breakfast. No wonder they regard the
severe fasting of the Christian hermits as
a 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 20 centuries ago in
the Celestial Empire there was estab-
lished OK worship, as a reward for the
| great assistance in agriculture rendered
by that horned animal. Then it was for
hidden to Kill either OK or COW. 1t be-
came also sacred habit to leave the
cows milk exclusively for the calves, to
whom II rghtfully belonged. Cinnamon
do not use the milk of sheep or she goats,
! though they are very fond of the meat of
these animals. But, then, they
are exceedingly fond of woman's
milk. The Well-tC-dO parents often
keep wet-nurses for their children up to
! the seventh and even ninth year. Some
times even men of age, and particularly
old men, resort to WOman's milk either as
an article of luxury or as dietetic means.
Among rich Cinnamon it is point of
pride to keep 4 number of wet-nurses. OF
the rich Celestial it may be truly said that
ne is worth so many wet-nurses," as of
the rich MOhammedan that she is worth
so many wives" or of the American that
The is worth so many dollars" No Chi
neSe woman would milk a COW, for such
practice, in her opinion, would stain for
ever her chastity.
Excluding beef and dairy products, Chi
namen eat everything that is edible, horses
and ass flesh, snakes, rats, mice, dogs,
grasshOppers, spiders, worms, cOcoons
sea-cucumbers, swallows nests, and so
on. Once, while living in a villa near
Pekln, saw very strange scene. There
appeared cloud of grasshOppers. Sud-
denly the field was covered with China
men who ran frantically hither and
thither gathering them iii. They filled
large sacks and bags with the insects
They carried portable stoves on which
they roasted their curious game. Other
Cinnamon greedlly deVOured the grass
hOppers, 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 a China
man man why ne VIII answer you proudly;
Because it was the hog from which
the Chinaman descendedv' Don't you
see, the CelestialS have beaten Oar
win on the theory of the descent of man.
1t is only natural, then, that among
Cinnamon hogs should enjoy full rights of
citizenship. Like dogs, they wander
wherever they please. A Chinese street
without number of hogs is an impossi-
bllity. Are there many hogs in China?
] should think so, On a single holiday in
memory of their ancestOrs-nOt the erigi-
nal ancestors, the hogs, but merely human
ancestOrs-the Celestials eat fully $4,000
hogs. | must admit that the Chinese pork
is superior to any found elsewhere on the
globe. Poor Cinnamon who cannot afford
to buy pork eat meat of dogs, asses, horses,
rats, mice, rabbits, hares, goats and
sheep. But never saw them eating cats.
OF birds the Chinese eat silver pleas
ants, ducks, geese, chickens, jackdaws,
crows, and many others. Curiously
enough, the sO-called Cochin China fowls
are very rarely seen here. salt eggs are
in great use here.
Among the choice delicacies of the Chi
nese must be mentioned the fins Of sharks
and the nests of sea swallows. Under the
latter is understood not the whole nest.
but only the mucilaginOus inner coating
of the nests. 1t is believed that the swaI-
lows who build their nests on the sea
rocks cover their nests and glue them to
rocks with the juice of sea cane, which,
on being dried, looks like mucilaginous
membrane, On the market these nests
are found in the shape of hemisphere of
the size of half orange peel. The nests
are sold here at from $15 to $25 per pound.
They are used principally for making
broth, to which they give a peculiar
aroma and taste, much valued by CASTRO
homes.
Rice stands, of course, at the head of
vegetable foods. Without rice Cruel
no meal Is served here. "Fan" means
both ''to have meal' and "tO eat rice
Cruel" The brown rice, which is COM