Spinach, per lb. 1.00 Fleshy stemmed lettuce, peeled, per lb. 2.00 Fleshy stemmed lettuce, unpeeled, per lb. .67 Bean curd, per lb. 3.93 Shantung walnuts, per lb. 4.30 Duck eggs, dozen 8.34 Hen’s eggs, dozen 7.30 Goat’s meat, per lb. 6.45 Pork, per lb. 6.88 Hens, live weight, per lb. 6.45 Ducks, live weight, per lb. 5.59 Cockerels, live weight, per lb. 5.59—­ --------------------------------------------------------- re>

This long list, made up chiefly of fresh vegetables displayed for sale on one market day, is by no means complete.  The record is only such as was made in passing down one side and across one end of the market occupying nearly one city block.  Nearly everything is sold by weight and the problem of correct weights is effectively solved by each purchaser carrying his own scales, which he unhesitatingly uses in the presence of the dealer.  These scales are made on the pattern of the old time steelyards but from slender rods of wood or bamboo provided with a scale and sliding poise, the suspensions all being made with strings.

We stood by through the purchasing of two cockerels and the dickering over their weight.  A dozen live birds were under cover in a large, open-work basket.  The customer took out the birds one by one, examining them by touch, finally selecting two, the price being named.  These the dealer tied together by their feet and weighed them, announcing the result; whereupon the customer checked the statement with his own scales.  An animated dialogue followed, punctuated with many gesticulations and with the customer tossing the birds into the basket and turning to go away while the dealer grew more earnest.  The purchaser finally turned back, and again balancing the roosters upon his scales, called a bystander to read the weight, and then flung them in apparent disdain at the dealer, who caught them and placed them in the customer’s basket.  The storm subsided and the dealer accepted 92c, Mexican, for the two birds.  They were good sized roosters and must have dressed more than three pounds each, yet for the two he paid less than 40 cents in our currency.

Bamboo sprouts are very generally used in China, Korea and Japan and when one sees them growing they suggest giant stalks of asparagus, some of them being three and even five inches in diameter and a foot in height at the stage for cutting.  They are shipped in large quantities from province to province where they do not grow or when they are out of season.  Those we saw in Nagasaki referred to in Fig. 22, had come from Canton or Swatow or possibly Formosa.  The form, foliage and bloom of the bamboo give the most beautiful effects in the landscape, especially when grouped with tree forms.  They are usually cultivated in small clumps about dwellings in places not otherwise