412 CHINESE LITERATURE
bad. It has been well said that words are inadequate to describe the nuances of taste. How much less then must a stuttering sot be able to appreciate them !
" I have often seen votaries of guess-fingers swallow choice food as though so much sawdust, their minds being preoccupied with their game. Now I say eat first and drink afterwards. By these means the result will be successful in each direction."
Yuan Mei also protests against the troublesome custom of pressing guests to eat, and against the more foolish one of piling up choice pieces on the little saucers used as plates, and even putting them into the guests' mouths, as if they were children or brides, too shy to help themselves.
There was a man in Ch'ang-an, he tells us, who was very fond of giving dinners ; but the food was atrocious. One day a guest threw himself on his knees in front of this gentleman and said, "Am I not a friend of yours ?"
" You are indeed," replied his host.
"Then I must ask of you a favour," said the guest, " and you must grant it before I rise from my knees."
"Well, what is it?" inquired his host in astonishment.
"Never to invite me to dinner any more !" cried the guest ; at which the whole party burst into a loud roar of laughter.
" Into no department of life," says Yuan Mei, "should indifference be allowed to creep ; into none less than into the domain of cookery. Cooks are but mean fellows ; and if a day is passed without either reward- ing or punishing them, that day is surely marked by negligence or carelessness on their part. If badly cooked food is swallowed in silence, such neglect will speedily become a habit. Still, mere rewards and
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