Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-09-26
What The Cinnamon Eat.

| WHat tHt OHlndUteu Ea'.
A recent Peking letter to the St. Peters
burg Messenger says: To eat well means
in the Chinamen'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 car.
to satisfy his appetite in the hest possible
way; but the Chinese differ from Other
people in the philosophy of the subject
They hold that only the satiated man car
be wise, and those who cannol make them
selves full are surely fools. Their mos
sacred philosophical and medical treatses
deal with the stomach as the prineipa
source of the spiritual, moral and physca
life of man. The head, in their opinion
is door dependent on the bounty of The
stomach. Not the head, but the stomach
ought to be crowned. They hold a
cardinal axiom that the stomach is the
spring of every thought, feeling and mus
cular 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.. Tanners forty Gays
fast as a clever trick. They assert that
the American doctor deceived he public
by drinking some colorless nutritious sub.
stances dissolved in water. Otherwise,
they argue, be would necessarily turn first
an idiot and then corpse.
When we ponder on some difficult sub
ject we often touch or rub our forehead
Under the same circumstances the China
man puts his fingers below his belt. b,
ouchIng his abdomen he facilitates his
mental process. In view of the suprema.
macy of the stomach the Chinese came to
H. 4. ,L,.x th.~ = =. - 4
the wiser is its possessol ; hence fatness and
corpulence is the best mirror of the mind,
the best lndica'io of superior intellect
And. as wisdom brugs man to blissfu
state and to a heavenly beatltude, there
fore the Chnamen regard raordlnary
,,oulness as Il symbol of The future he wen
ly STATE. The idol uf Buddha- -Shahemuny,
he ideal OF supreme beallude, is repre-
-ented MS he abnormaly tat man. with
smile of pc, feet satisf C ion. There is no
need TO put any sign under that idol, tor
without words everybody would read in
lis looks that II am quite iull." Toe
superior spiritual adviser of lhe Buddniss
are distinguished Tor their corpulence.
am told there are divines among them
who devour II whole sheep for breakfast
No wonder they regard the severe fasting
of the Christian hermits as n hopeless
folly
Now, what are the agencies which
bring the Cninaman to his blsstul stateP
they are manifold; yet beef, milk and
DAIRY products in general sre strictly
excluded from the list. About twenty
centuries ago in the Celestial Empire
there was established OK worship, AS a
reward for the great assistance in agricul
ture rendered by that horned animal.
Then it was fol bdden to kill either OK or
COW. 1t became also sacred habit to
leave the cows milk to the calves to
whom it rightfully 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 exceed
ingly fond of woman's milk. The we'll
to do parents often keep wet nurses for
their children up to the seventh and even
ninth year. Sometimes even men of age,
and particularly old men, resort to
woman's milk either as an article of lux
ury or as dietetic means. Among rich
Cinnamon it is point of pride to keep
number of wet nurses OF the rich Cees
tal it may be truly said that she is worth
so many wet nurses as of the rich
Mohammedan that "he is worth so many
wives" OF of the American that "he is
worth SO many dollars" No Chinese
woman would milk a COW, for such prac
tice 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,
logs, grasshoppers, worms, cocoons, sea-
cucumbers, swallows nests and SO on.
Once, while living in villa near Peking,
| saw very strange scene. There
appeared cloud grasshoppers. Sudden
ly the field was covered with Cinnamon,
who ran fran ically hilher end thither.
gathering them in. They filled large
sacks and bags with the insects. They
carried portable stoves, on which they
roasted their curious game. Olher China,
men greedily devoured the grasshoppcrs,
paying penny for ten.
AT the head of all meats Cinnamon put,
of course, pork. In their opinions, to the
hog belongs the first place in the list of
domestic animals. If you ask the China
man why, he will answer you proudly:
because it was the hog from whom the
Cinnamon descended" Dou't you see,
the Celestials have beaten Darwin on the
theory of the descent of man. 1t is only
natural, then, that among Chipam hogs
should enjoy full rights of citizenship
Like dogs they wander wherever they
please. A Chinese street without a mum
Der of hogs is an impossibility. Arc there
many hogs in Chinap should think So
On single holiday in memory of their
ancestors-not the original ancestors, the
hogs but merely human ancestors-the
Celcstials eat fully 650,000 hogs. must
admit that Chinese Pork is superior to any
found elsewhere on the globe Poor
Cinnamon who cannot afford to buy pork
eat meat of dogs, horses, asses. rats
mice, RABBITS, hares, goats and sheep; but
never saw them eating cats.
OF birds tho Chinese eat silver pheas
ants, ducks, geese, chickens, jackdaws,
crows and many oth,rs. Curously
enough, the so-called Cochin China fowls
are very rarely seen here. Salt eggs are
in great use here
Among the choice delcacies 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 nests,
but only the mucilaginous inner coating
of the nests, 1t is believed that the
swallows who build their nests on the sea
rocks cover their nests and glue them to
he rocks with juice of sea cane, which on
being dried, looks like mucilaginous mem
brano On the market these nests are
found in the shape of the hemisphere OF
the size of half orange peel. The nests
are sold here at from $l5 TO $25 per pound
they are principally for making broth, TO
which they give peculiar aroma and taste,
much valued by astronomers.
Rice stand, 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 CON.