Another fallacy which prevails in regard to the Chinese, is that their food consists of dogs, cats, rats, and other garbage, and I have sometimes even been asked by persons, otherwise well informed, whether foreign residents in China are not unfortunate enough to find themselves restricted to the same diet. This impression has, no doubt, got abroad from the fact that early travellers have observed puppies and kittens exposed for sale in the markets of Canton amongst articles for table consumption, and have been led to infer too hastily, perhaps, that these animals are vended for food, whereas they are thus sold for domestic uses almost exclusively. I will not assert that dogs and cats are never eaten; for there are poor, more particularly in the south, who do not object to dine off a plump rodent when they can procure nothing better, and there are actually restaurants, in Canton especially, devoted to the preparation of canine dishes, for the delectation of a particular class of gourmands to be found in that city. There are always strong suspicions, moreover, cherished by foreign residents, who are unlucky enough to lose their pet dogs, that these have been purloined in view of their goodly condition, it being the Chinese idea that we foreigners feed our canine pets upon the best of mutton; and as a proof that Chinese are to be found whose appetites are not of the most fastidious, I myself once saw a mob of boat-people fight for the carcases of some horses which our military had caused to be shot on the river-side by reason of their being affected with glanders.