prefer; I am completely accustomed to it. When I have been drinking this wine, I can smell in the recesses of my palace a perfume preferable to that of the la-meï which sweetens the mountains of Hiang-chan!"
Callery communicated to us Pan's words, and we exclaimed spontaneously,—
"Dignus, dignus es entrare!"
We would willingly have embraced him.
After the homage thus paid to this joyous product of the West, the Mandarin desired that I should be asked how I liked Canton. Thanks to the good humour I was in, my answer must have peculiarly flattered his national self-lore. However, on concluding, I told him I deplored having been able to see only half of Canton. Pan did not at first understand my meaning, but when Callery explained to him the regret I felt at not being able to penetrate into the walled city, he burst out laughing, and replied:
"Why, the city inside the walls is not as fine as that outside them. If it were preferable, I should live in it. Every day rich men leave the enclosed part, and settle upon the banks of the stream, for the purpose of breathing the air which is rendered fresh by the water; while men who have become rich never return into the Tartar city."
"But," I returned, "there are numerous palaces, temples, and elegant houses there."
