. Wanderings east of Suez in Ceylon, India, China and Japan. e lin-guistic representative of the management endea-vors to play the bountiful host to most visitors. Hetakes one through the building, permits you topeep within a chamber filled with oleaginous Chi-namen in brocade petticoats, sleeping off the ef-fects of the opium pipe, explains painted fans andother attempts at decoration on the walls, and in-dicates a retiring room where you may rest oreven pass the night, all without charge. Then he orders refreshments brought, and withthe manner of a veteran courtier proffers a trayheaped with
. Wanderings east of Suez in Ceylon, India, China and Japan. e lin-guistic representative of the management endea-vors to play the bountiful host to most visitors. Hetakes one through the building, permits you topeep within a chamber filled with oleaginous Chi-namen in brocade petticoats, sleeping off the ef-fects of the opium pipe, explains painted fans andother attempts at decoration on the walls, and in-dicates a retiring room where you may rest oreven pass the night, all without charge. Then he orders refreshments brought, and withthe manner of a veteran courtier proffers a trayheaped with oranges, an egg-shell cup filled withtea that is almost without color, and dried water-melon seeds that you might munch after the man-ner of the neck-or-nothing gamblers on the lowerfloor. When you politely decline these, thecourtly one most likely says, You no likee teaand seeds—then have whiskysoda. Chinesecourtezans, with feet bound to a smallness makinglocomotion difficult and obviously painful, wear-ing what in the Western World would be called 286. Macao, Monte Carlo of the East trousers, and invariably bedecked with ear-rings or bracelets of exquisite jade, edge their wayto the gambling table, and put their money downin handfuls as long as it lasts. To spend an even-ing in the liberally-conducted establishment ofMessrs. Ung Hang and Hung Vo is enlightening invarious ways. Because fan-tan is the passion of Asiatics, thepopular idea is that it must be the wickedest of allgames, if not the most complicated. Fan-tan as afact is simplicity itself, being no more than thecounting off into units of four several quarts oflittle metal discs called cash, until there re-main one, two, three or four discs. The result de-termines what bets, laid about a four-sided spaceon the table, win—a single remaining cashmakes the 1-side win, two the 2-side, and so hazard is a one-to-three wager, and the bankpays on this basis after deducting the recognizedpercentage supporting the e
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecteastasiadescriptiona
