Note 152 — XV.

As another example of an interview with the highest class of Chinese officials, we must briefly describe one enjoyed by some of our Expedition with a Mandarin named Li-hoi-wan. He received them in a chamber of his house, in which were a few small tables and chairs, while at the other end was an elevated cushioned seat on which sate Li-hoi-wan, a large stout man. He wore a Mandarin hat, with a blue button, and a greyish blue coat reaching to the ground. He saluted the foreigners by folding his palms across his breast, invited them to be seated on the daïs beside him, and ordered cigars and tea to be brought. Afterwards sweetmeats of every description, confectionery, and fruit were served, as also Chinese wines, the latter, to judge by their flavour and their fragrance, seeming as though they must have hailed from a perfumery store rather than a wine cellar. Two days after the Chinese, with delicate courtesy, returned the visit at their quarters in the residence of M. Probst, the Consul for Oldenburg. Punctually at the appointed hour three far-resounding taps of the gong were heard, a foot-soldier of police presented a flaming red "carte de viste," bearing the name and titles of Li-hoi-wan, who forthwith was received by the travellers at the threshold, in compliance with Chinese customs. He was attired in heavy silk clothes, his fan in an elegantly worked sheath, a gold lever watch in his girdle, and was in excellent spirits. The hospitable host had, according to the custom of the country, prepared a chow-chow, or collation, at which, however, instead of Samschoo, champagne was the prevailing beverage. A few days later the Mandarin visited his newly acquired friends on board the frigate, and begged their acceptance of a variety of presents, such as silks, nuts, tea, dried fruits, and Chinese maxims and proverbs, written on long rolls of paper, that, as he naïvely expressed it, we might think of him "as a brother."