Curious Customs.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 71, 3 December 1889, Page 3

Curious Customs.

By ! a Chinese Journalist,

' A Chinese.'ioUrualist has been writing in 1 a ..native : paper :an account of Westerncustpihs as observed .by him lv the course of . a visit to England . Speaking, of the; meals taken by- Englishmen he Explains- that' tea aa fits' are i -taken'- Jtwice a 'day, and a heav^' meal^twice ; or tea and comfits ohce.and.thWheayyj.nieaLtwice. About the time for ? the latter a bell is rung once, to let people, know, ; ; so that they may change: their clothes and wash .their hands; when thev-bellVis again Tung:, they assem hie iv the -dining ropax^feThey- alsi .sound a ,'gohgv^;-,,;;-, ':.-.-•;'. •'-"■■■'.■

-*' COWS' MILK MIXED WITH - BLACK TEA." • ' At tea, time they take cows' milk

and white sugar mixed; with or black tea..; Either is taken with bread accompanied-by butter/o.r cooked deli■cacies such as l ham The meal is in fact what is' called in the Middle Xihgdom,iietthsiji (" stay : the. stomach"). Their green meat is exceedingly tender It is the custom to, eat it uncooked, Tihsed in water, and dried, then mixed with sesamuih oil/ ■•-■•salt,-'; and vinegar, Clean, iresh, and: sweet to munch, it is exceedingly delicious] and may be described 1 as extremely superior. | concerning ftve o'clock, tea and,. | " skip- and. posture." • *"*^

Men-; and „woman. woman (continues the Eastern; gossip) y are - seated indiscriminately round the same' dish and at the same table. ; Even a man and his daughterrin'-law do not avoid each others' -.^'company.' Besides invitations to dinner 'there are ..invitations to tea-, gatherings,.; such as are. occasionally given by wealthy merchants or distinguished officials. -, When the time comes, invitations are sent to an equal number of > men and women, and after they are all assembled, tea and sugar, milk jbread, and the 'like are. set out as aids to conversation. 7 More i particularly are there invitations skip and posture, when therhost" desides what man is' to. be the -partner of what woman, and what . woman, :of what man. Then with botharms grasping

each ot her -..'they-v leave the ta ble in

pairs, : and leap,^ skip;- posture, and A prance for their mutual gratification. A * main ' arid a woman previously una known to one another may take part in it „ They call -this skipping tanshen (dancing).. - d