Chinese.—The great staff of life in China is rice, which is either eaten dry or mixed with water, so a,s to resemble a soup. Out of rice they make their chief intoxicating liquor, which, when good, is something like strong whisky, both in its colour less appearance and its smoky flavour. Vege tables are largely consumed, such as the sweet potato, yams, millets, peas, beans, turnips, carrots, etc. Of their fruits, the orange, leechee, loquat, and mango, are much in" use. Their favourite drink is tea ; and the favourite animal food of the poor is pork, the taste for which is national. There is a maxim prevalent araong them, that a scholar does not quit his books nor a poor man his pigs.' The flesh of the bullock, sheep, deer, dog, cat, wild cat, rat, a,nd horse is eaten, but, compared with that of swine, it is a rarity. Fish are eaten in great abundance, either fresh, dried, or salted; and they rear great quantities of ducks and various species of fowl for the table. The comprehensive principle on which Chinese diet is regulated, is to eat everything which can possibly give nourishment. The luxuries consumed by the very rich consist of the edible birds' nest, beche de-mer or sea-slug, shark fins, fish maws, cow sinews, points of stag antlers, buffalo hides, which afford the gelatinous food considered so restora tive. Amongst their delica,cies also are dishes made of the larvm of the sphinx moth, and of a grub bred in the sugar-cane. In China, the various modes of catching and rearing fish exhibit the contrivance and skill of the Chinese, quite as much as their agricultural operations. According to the Repository, at least one-tenth of the popu lation derive their food from the water, and necessity lea,ds them to invent and try many ingenious ways of securing the finny tribes. Great bag-nets and stake-nets are in use, also hand-nets with a, diameter of 30 feet, which they throw with a swing over-head ; and they teach cormorants to fish and bring the prey to the boat. Amongst molluscs eaten, are the sepia, octopus, turbo, hippopus, tridacna, cerithium, arica, holo thuria, species of monodonta. Amongst reptiles, turtle and their eggs, tortoises, frogs, crocodiles, iguanas ; amongst crustacea, prawns, shrimps, crabs ; amongst birds, all but the carrion birds, and the'edible nest of a swallow. Amongst other mammals, the Chinese eat the dog and eat; they and the Japanese eat whales. When Chinese fishermen take one of the huge rhizostoma, which abound on their coast, they rub the animal with pulverized alum to give a dcgree of coherence to the gelatinous mass.
Dead Animals. —Many of the Dher, Pariah, Mhar, and Chuckili or leather-workers of India eat crea.tures that die of disease. It is said that, in S. Africa, eating the flesh of animals that have died of peri-pneumonia causes in the eater a malicmant pustule, and that the virus is neither desttsroyed by boiling nor roasting. But, after minute inquiries throughout India, no injury seems to result from such food. In 1863, when many horned cattle died throughout Burma, of what was supposed to be the rinderpest ailment, there was a considerable amount of sickness and death from a typhoid fever ; but whether eating diseased animals was the cause, was not ascertained.
Milk, butter, ghi, curds, poultry, eggs, mutton, beef and game, are eaten in some form by almost all nations in the S.E. of Asia. The adult Khassya, Garo, and Burmese wholly abstain from milk.
The extent to which vegetable food is produced in India may be estimated by mentioning that 56 per cent. of the population of British India are agriculturists, with 16 per cent. of labourers, most of whom also are employed in the fields. The area cultivated for food-crops is a little more than 1 acre for each 'individual in the Panjab ; 0.76 of an acre in the N.W. Provinces and Oudli ; in Bengal, 0.81 ; Central Provinces, 1.8 ; Berar, 1.75 ; Bombay, 1.4 ; Madras; 0.93 ; and Mysore and Burma, each 1 acre ; and the produce of food grain per acre is as under :— Panjab, . . . . 11 bushels, or 0'29 of a t011.
N.W. Prov. and Oudh, and Bengal, . . . 13 „ or 0'36 „Central Provinces, . . 8 „ or 0'21 „ Berar, . . . . „ or 0'16. „ Bombay, ex Sind and N. .
Canara, . . . 7 „ or 0'19 „ Madras and Mysore, . 11 „ or 0'3 „In the Central Provinces, in 1872-73, the average produce of wheat per acre was in Hush angabad only 267 lbs. ; Sagar, 324 lbs. ; Raipur,
432 lbs. ; Narsingpur, 440 lbs. ; and Jubbulpur, 600 lbs.—or from 41- to 10 bushels ; and that of rice in Balaghat, 360 lbs. ; Bilaspur, 426 lbs. ; Bhandara, 448 lbs. ; Raipur, 602 lbs. ; Seoni, 654 ; and Chanda, 675 lbs.—or from 6 to 11 bushels. With periodically recurring famines, and a population increasing at a little under 1 per cent. per annum, the importance of increasing in India the yield of grain and fodder has become a matter for serious thought, Mr. Lawes of England having shown that in the four years 1874 to 1877 inclusive, in Great Britain, the average yield of 23 kinds of wheat (dressed corn) was as under :— 1874. 1375. 1876. 1877.
Average bushels, 501 36i 42i 42 Aver. weight per bushel, . . . 61i lbs. 60i lbs. 63i lbs. 60.1. lbs.
Many of the ancient customs noticed in the Scriptures find illustrations in modern Eastern life. With regard to unclean and forbidden animals, Mahomedans follow generally the law of Moses, and only use animals that chew the cud and divide the hoof. They do not eat shrimps. Brahmans do not use the onion, saying it so resembles flesh ; neither are the fruit of the Moringa pterygosperma or Sura kai or the radish articles of diet -with Brahmans, and sugar from the palmyra tree wine is also avoided by them. Hindus eat sitting on the floor, off metal, usually brass, dishes, for the facility of purifying them by fire, but many are now usiug glazed china-ware, which they purify with ashes. In a large enter tainment, however, leaf platters are used, made of the leaves, pinned togethtr, of the banyan, the I pulas (Butea frondosa), or the plantain leaf.
Tho pig, which many rams avoid, is used by the Naidu Hindus of the Indian Peninsula, and by all the aboriginal races and humbler Christians. Most llindus avoid crabs, but many cat shrimps. Eggs are eaten by many of the Hindus ; and all I l indlis partake freely of milk, which the Burman and Chinese in its natural state never touch. Hindus and Buddhists make food offerings to , the deity, and bestow the first portion. With the Humans the act of offering is the merit; and the quantities of food presented at the temple at Promo and at the great Shoay Dagen at Rangoon is so enormous, it is simply got rid of by being all thrown over the wall down the slope of the rock. Hindus make sacrificial offerings to the deity, the elements of sacrifice being a lamp, frankincense, camphor, and sandal-wood, which are burnt, and they eat the sacrificial offering., whatever it be. Food is often presented by Hindus to the pitri or manes of their ancestors; many of the races of Northern India, who follow 13rahmanism, cook within a sacred circle, and a stranger stepping within it makes all unclean. A sect of Vitishnava Hindus will not permit a stranger to cast a look on the food they cook, nor even to look on them while eating ; and every Hindu of that sect above the rank of a labouring man, eats his food dressed in a silk cloth.
It is mentioned, when describing the local noticed in Genesis xliii. 32, that they set one for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians by themselves, bemuse the Egyptians might not eat food with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians ; and so, amongst the Hindus, different castes will not even eat food cooked in the same earthen vessel. If a person of another caste touch a cooking vessel, it is thrown away. Similarly, in Genesis xliii. 34, it is mentioned of Joseph that he sent messes unto them from before him ; and this is still the method among some Hindus. The dishes aro not placed on the table, but messes are sent to each individual by the roaster of the feast, or by his substitute. Feasting is everywhere in the East a great social duty, in the manner described 1 Kings i. 9. Food is eaten with tho hands, as in Matthew xxvi. 23 ; and after meals, hand washing, as in 2 Kings iii. 11, and Matthew xv. 2, 1 Mark vii. 5, Luke xi. 38.—Eng. Cyc. ; Powell ; Annals, Indian Admin. xii. ; Hunter's Rural Bengal ; Craufurd, Dict.; Dr. Cornish on Dietary ; Ward, Hindoos ; AL E. J. R. ; Fortune's Residence 1 in China ; Robinson's Trards, ii. p. 132 ; Tomlin i son ; Hassan ; Statistique des Cereales de la France, par Moreau de Jonnes, quoted by Simmonds. See Agriculture ; Fish ; Famine ; H usbandry.