NOTE 7. - It would seem that the habits of the Chinese in reference to the
use of pepper and such spices have changed. Besides this passage, implying
that their consumption of pepper was large, Marco tells us below (ch.
lxxxii.) that for one shipload of pepper carried to Alexandria for the
consumption of Christendom, a hundred went to Zayton in Manzi. At the
present day, according to Williams, the Chinese use little spice; pepper
chiefly as a febrifuge in the shape of pepper-tea, and that even less
than they did some years ago. (See p. 239, infra, and Mid. Kingd., II.
46, 408.) On this, however, Mr. Moule observes: "Pepper is not so
completely relegated to the doctors. A month or two ago, passing a
portable cookshop in the city, I heard a girl-purchaser cry to the cook,
'Be sure you put in pepper and leeks!'"
NOTE 8. - Marsden, after referring to the ingenious frauds commonly related
of Chinese traders, observes: "In the long continued intercourse that has
subsisted between the agents of the European companies and the more
eminent of the Chinese merchants ... complaints on the ground of
commercial unfairness have been extremely rare, and on the contrary, their
transactions have been marked with the most perfect good faith and mutual
confidence." Mr. Consul Medhurst bears similar strong testimony to the
upright dealings of Chinese merchants. His remark that, as a rule, he has
found that the Chinese deteriorate by intimacy with foreigners is worthy
of notice;[3] it is a remark capable of application wherever the East and
West come into habitual contact. Favourable opinions among the nations on
their frontiers of Chinese dealing, as expressed to Wood and Burnes in
Turkestan, and to Macleod and Richardson in Laos, have been quoted by me
elsewhere in reference to the old classical reputation of the Seres for
integrity. Indeed, Marco's whole account of the people here might pass for
an expanded paraphrase of the Latin commonplaces regarding the Seres. Mr.
Milne, a missionary for many years in China, stands up manfully against
the wholesale disparagement or Chinese character (p. 401).
NOTE 9. - Semedo and Martini, in the 17th century, give a very similar
account of the Lake Si-hu, the parties of pleasure frequenting it, and
their gay barges. (Semedo, pp. 20-21; Mart. p. 9.) But here is a
Chinese picture of the very thing described by Marco, under the Sung
Dynasty: "When Yaou Shunming was Prefect of Hangchow, there was an old
woman, who said she was formerly a singing-girl, and in the service of
Tung-p'o Seen-sheng.[4] She related that her master, whenever he found a
leisure day in spring, would invite friends to take their pleasure on the
lake. They used to take an early meal on some agreeable spot, and, the
repast over, a chief was chosen for the company of each barge, who called
a number of dancing-girls to follow them to any place they chose.
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