These people boil
the fat of the whale and walrus with roots of _setage_. A principal
dish at their feasts, consists of various roots and berries pounded
with caviar, and mixed with the melted fat of whale and seal. They are
fond of spirits, but commonly drink water. For the _Arabs_, lizards
and locusts, afford food, but with better articles. The _Persians_
live like the Turks, or nearly so, but for the want of spoons, knives,
and forks, their feasts, if the provisions are good in themselves, are
disgusting; besides which, the _sofera_, or cloth on which the dinner
is spread, is, from a superstitious notion that changing is unlucky,
so intolerably dirty and offensive in odour, that the stranger can
scarcely endure to sit beside it. With the _Chinese_, rice is the
"staff of life," but all kinds of animal food are eagerly devoured;
and pedlars offering for sale rats, cats, and dogs, may be seen in the
streets of Chinese towns. It is uncertain whether a depraved taste or
lack of superior animal food, induces a really civilized people to
devour such flesh. Weak tea, without sugar, or milk, is the common
beverage of the Chinese; in the use of ardent spirits they are
moderate. The _Peguese_, worshipping crocodiles, will drink no water
but from the ditches wherein those creatures abound, and consequently
are frequently devoured by them.
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