- There is no mention of pork, the characteristic animal food of
China, and the only one specified by Friar Odoric in his account of the
same city. Probably Mark may have got a little Saracenized among the
Mahomedans at the Kaan's Court, and doubted if 'twere good manners to
mention it. It is perhaps a relic of the same feeling, gendered by Saracen
rule, that in Sicily pigs are called i neri.
"The larger game, red-deer and fallow-deer, is now never seen for sale.
Hog-deer, wild-swine, pheasants, water-fowl, and every description of
'vermin' and small birds, are exposed for sale, not now in markets, but at
the retail wine shops. Wild-cats, racoons, otters, badgers, kites, owls,
etc., etc., festoon the shop fronts along with game." (Moule.)
NOTE 5. - Van Braam, in passing through Shan-tung Province, speaks of very
large pears. "The colour is a beautiful golden yellow. Before it is pared
the pear is somewhat hard, but in eating it the juice flows, the pulp
melts, and the taste is pleasant enough." Williams says these Shan-tung
pears are largely exported, but he is not so complimentary to them as
Polo: "The pears are large and juicy, sometimes weighing 8 or 10 pounds,
but remarkably tasteless and coarse." (V. Braam, II. 33-34; Mid.
Kingd., I. 78 and II. 44). In the beginning of 1867 I saw pears in Covent
Garden Market which I should guess to have weighed 7 or 8 lbs.
