To handle our food we had forks and chopsticks, and each guest had a small saucer of soy, or vinegar, at his right hand.  The food was roast pig and roast duck, cut into bits the size of one’s thumb nail, and each piece was to be dipped in the vinegar before going into the mouth.  Then there were dishes of hashed meat or stew, followed by minced pies in miniature.  I was a little suspicious of the last articles and preferred to stick to the pig.

[Illustration:  CHOPSTICKS, FORK, & SAUCER.]

We had good claret and bad sherry, followed by Chinese wine.  Champagne was brought when we began drinking toasts.  Chinese wine, sam-shoo, is drank hot, from cups holding about a thimbleful.  It is very strong, one cup being quite sufficient.  The historic Bowery boy drinking a glass of Chinese wine might think he had swallowed a pyrotechnic display on Fourth of July night.

We conversed as before, going through English, French, Russian, Mongol, and Chinese, and after dinner smoked our pipes and cigars.  The sargoochay had a pipe with a slender bowl that could be taken out for reloading, like the shell of a Remington rifle.  A single whiff served to exhaust it, and the smoke passing through water became purified.  An attendant stood near to manage the pipe of His Excellency whenever his services were needed.  We endeavored to smoke each others’ pipes and were quite satisfied after a minute’s experience.  His tobacco was very feeble, and I presume mine was too strong for his taste.

The sargoochay had ordered a theatrical display in my honor, though it was not ‘the season,’ and the affair was hastily gotten up.  When all was ready he led the way to the theatre; the pipe-bearer came respectfully in our rear, and behind him was the staff and son of the sargoochay.  The stage of the theatre faced an open court yard, and was provided with screens and curtains, but had no scenery that could be shifted.  About thirty feet in front of the stage was a pavilion of blue cloth, open in front and rear.  We were seated around a table under this pavilion, and drank tea and smoked while the performance was in progress.  There was a crowd of two or three hundred Chinese between the pavilion and the stage.  The Mongol soldiers kept an open passage five or six feet wide in front of us so that we had an unobstructed view.

[Illustration:  CHINESE THEATRE.]

A comedy came first, and I had little difficulty in following the story by the pantomime alone.  Female characters were represented by men, Chinese law forbidding women to act on the stage.  Certain parts of the play were open to objections on account of immodesty, but when no ladies are present I presume a Chinese audience is not fastidious.  The comedy was followed by something serious, of which I was unable to learn the name.  I supposed it represented the superiority of the deities over the living things of earth.