DINING WITH A MANDARIN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 48, 24 February 1872, Page 4

DINING WITH A MANDARIN.

(From Belgravia) When an entertainment is about to be given by a Mandarin, he sends three invitations to all those whom he wishes to partake of it — one on each of the two days preceding, and odb immediately before it. These are generally received by the invited with much self-abasement and ceremony, and, unless it is owing to the most pressing and important circumstances, an invitation is never refused. When the guests arrive, they are received by the master of the house with certain laid-down ceremonies and prescribed speeches. Pointing to a chair with a profound reverence, he wipes it with his robe, and generally commences the conversation by expressing his delight at the great and unmerited honor the other has conferred upon his unworthy house by adorning it with his sublime presence, and earnestly ..hopes that his never-to-be sufficiently-honored wife and most beautiful children are well in health; to which the guest will respond, that words fail to express his gratitude at being spired to bring his vile person into that magnificent abode, and encounter the lightning glance of his lord; his unworthy wife and miserable offspring have but preserved life to be assured of bis lord's health being all that they his miserable slaves, could wish it to be ; and so on. While these little amenities are being exchanged, the other guests walk about the room, admiring its furniture and adornments with all the high-flown eulogium which the language of the Flowery Land is so capable of expressing. To omit to do this would be a mark of the greatest illbreeding. It may be imagined, that as all the compliments above specified (and a great many more) have to be paid to each guest, and that one person left out, or one necessary speech omitted, would be a culpable piece of rudeness, some little time is taken up before the way is led to the dining hall. However, all ceremony and speechifying must at length have an end, and at last the ' guests are seated. The scene is a striking one: the walls are covered with native inscriptions sometimes handsomely gilt, and adorned with banners and worked tapestry. When the Mandarin is of the Royal dynasty, the hangings are of yellow silk emblazoned with dragons of such fierce and hideous aspects, that, if the one St. George encountered was anything like them, the saint must have had a hard time of it. The blue silk robes and white satin boots of the guests form a strong contrast of colors to the surroundings, while the myriads of Chinese lanterns suspended

from the ceiling throw an ample but subdued light upon a really very picturesque scene. The table which is generally of a horse shoe form, in the centre of which a play is sometimes acted during dinner, is covered with little saucers piled one upon the other as we see plates in eatinghouses at home ; some are uncovered, and contain sea slugs, ginger, cumquats (a sort of small orange), and pickles and preserves of all sorts and descriptions. The first course is generally shark's fin and birds'nest soup, this latter much-vaunted delicacy appearing, at least to European notions, more like a solution of glue and lime-wash than anything else. To these succeed roasted crabs, and boiled aud stewed mandarin fish, resembling in appearance a large yellow carp ; the flesh of this (if it can be so described) is really very good, and would be palatable were it not served up with a sweet acrid sauce, which gives it a flavor that one would imagine oysters to have were they soaked in treacle and alum. Pork, roasted, stewed, and boiled, forms a staple portion of the repast, with wild-fowl stuffed in a manner which must have been borrowed from the supper after the manner of the ancient Romans, described in " Peregrine Pickle ; " and very rarely, stewed mutton. The vegetable world is represented by yams, bringalh*, and sweet potatoes ; aud huge dishes of (he inevitable curry fill up what few interstices there may remain in the corporalities of tho guesls, and concludes the more solid portion of the entertainment.