largest, and the most expensive. Patna rice is almost as good; the grains
are long, small, and white, and it is the best rice for curry. Madras rice
is the cheapest.

Rice, pure and simple, is the food most suited for hot climates and where a
natural indolence of disposition results in one's day's work of an ordinary
Englishman being divided among twenty people. As we move towards more
temperate zones it will be found the universal custom to qualify it by
mixing it with some other substance; thus, though rice is largely eaten in
Italy, it is almost invariably used in conjunction with Parmesan cheese.
Rice contains no flesh-forming properties whatever, as it contains no
nitrogen; and with all due respect to vegetarians, it will be found that as
we recede from the Equator and advance towards the Poles our food must of
necessity vary with the latitude, and, whereas we may start on a diet of
rice, we shall be forced, sooner or later, to depend upon a diet of
pemmican, or food of a similar nature.


RICE, TO BOIL.--The best method of boiling rice is, at any rate, a much
disputed point, if not an open question. There are as many ways almost of
boiling rice as dressing a salad, and each one thinks his own way the best.
We will mention a few of the most simple, and will illustrate it by boiling
a small quantity that can be contained in a teacup. Of course, boiling
rice is very much simplified if you want some rice-water as well as rice
itself. Rice-water contains a great deal of nourishment, a fact which is
well illustrated by the well-known story of the black troops who served in
India under Clive, who, at the siege of Arcot, told Clive, when they were
short of provisions, that the water in which the rice was boiled would be
sufficient for them, while the more substantial grain could be preserved
for the European troops. Take a teacupful of rice and wash the rice in