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298 HONDA THE SAMUKAL
cups are dipped and rinsed before each drinking.
Previous to going into the festal room where the
supper is served, the friends all
go out to look at
the grand array of fish, fowl, flesh, vegetables,
pastry, and all the good things which are to be
eaten. The cook has done his best for the occasion,
and artists have assisted the cook ;
for all these delicacies
and these solid foods are arranged in a most
artistic manner to represent the whole landscape of
Japan. Here are edible mountains, rocks, and precipices
there are rivers of ; liquid, and semi-solids of
jelly, and here are bays and promontories and shores ;
and all these pictures of geography are represented
in things which are good to eat. Here are also
fountains and cascades, and trees and plants, and
vegetables arranged so as to resemble a garden.
short, a most wonderful picture has been created,
which is to be destroyed for the sake of eating.
Husband and wife now took their seats again with
the whole company in the main hall and joined in
the supper, during which apparently innumerable
courses were served. Neither salads, ices, nor black
cake appeared, but the bill-of-fare contained many
choice items best appreciated in Japan. Let us
enumerate a few. There were salmon from Hakodate",
tea from Uji, young rice from Higo, pheasants'
eggs, fried cuttle-fish, tai, Tcoi, maguro, and many
other sorts of toothsome fish. There were sea-weed
of various sorts and from many coasts, bean-curd,
many kinds of fish-soups, condiments of various
flavors, eggs in every style, and shell-fish of every
In