The guests sit at small round tables, each accommodating
about four. There are, of course, no plates or knives or forks
though small china spoons are used for the soups. All the
food is cut into small pieces before being brought to the table,
so that no further cutting is supposed to be necessary. Each
article of food is brought on in a single dish, which is placed
in the centre of the table, and then each guest helps himself
out of the common dish with his chop-sticks, the same chop-
sticks being used during the entire meal. It is considered a
mark of distinguished courtesy for the host to fish around in
the dish with his own chop-sticks for a choice morsel and place
it in front of the guest. With profound emotion, at almost
every feast that I attended in China, I saw my considerate
hosts take the chop-sticks which had made many trips to their
own mouths, stir around in the central dish for a particularly fine
titbit and deposit it on the table before me. And of course,
not to be outdone in politeness, I ate these dainty morsels with
smiles of gratified pride. As each of the Chinese at the table
deemed himself my host, and as the Chinese are extremely
polite and attentive to their guests, the table soon became wet
and greasy from the pieces of pork, slugs and chicken placed
upon it as well as from the drippings from the chop-sticks in
their constant trips from the serving bowls.

However, two small brass bowls, fitting together, are placed
beside each guest, who is expected to sip a little water from the
upper one, rinse his mouth with it and expectorate it into the
lower one. The emotion of the foreign visitor is intensified
when he learns that it is counted polite to make all the noise
possible by smacking the lips as a sign that the food is delicious,