A Woman's Journey Round The World, From Vienna To Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, And Asia Minor By Ida Pfeiffer
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The Europeans Have
Nothing To Do With The Money, And, In Fact, Never Even Carry Any For
Their Private Use.
The comprador has no fixed salary, but receives a stated per-centage
upon all business transactions:
His per-centage upon the household
expenses is not fixed, but is not on that account less certain. On
the whole, these compradors are very trustworthy. They pay down a
certain sum, as caution-money, to some mandarin, and the latter
answers for them.
The following is a tolerably correct account of the mode of life
pursued by the Europeans settled here. As soon as they are up, and
have drunk a cup of tea in their bed-room, they take a cold bath. A
little after 9 o'clock, they breakfast upon fried fish or cutlets,
cold roast meat, boiled eggs, tea, and bread and butter. Every one
then proceeds to his business until dinner-time, which is generally
4 o'clock. The dinner is composed of turtle-soup, curry, roast
meat, hashes, and pastry. All the dishes, with the exception of the
curry, are prepared after the English fashion, although the cooks
are Chinese. For dessert there is cheese, with fruit; such as pine-
apples, long-yen, mangoes, and lytchi. The Chinese affirm that the
latter is the finest fruit in the whole world. It is about the size
of a nut, with a brown verrucous outside; the edible part is white
and tender, and the kernel black. Long-yen is somewhat smaller, but
is also white and tender, though the taste is rather watery.
Neither of these fruits struck me as very good.
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