What Victor of Waterloo Did at 'a Royal Lunch srrctat 70 NCO.
In the mango season the fruit course to any meal grows distinetiz humorous. Very few civilized people have satisfactorily solved the prob-Tem. of getting the velvety fruit inside the mouth without smearing it on the outside from ear to ear. The best way, of course, is to use the piccaninny-with-watermeton method, But that is hardly approved in the best society. The early Eng-Tish arrivals in India had a method which proved effective though noisy. "They made a small hole in the top and sucked, much like the youngster Who is allowed to eat oranges that way. Some of them became 30 proficient in the art of sucking that the seed inside was left dry as a bone, Some Pathans and all Turkis simply cannot be bothered about Tittle things like seeds and skin They eat right through, skin, bone and all, They don't, however, think much of the fruit," saying that it tastes like turpentine. Tt never has occurred to them that the turpentine is in the skin, There are many Ways now in vogue in Shanghai by which a mango may be devoured. The most approved method is to stick a fork in one end and try and ep your fingers out of the pulp while you peel the other. Then you ent the exposed fruit with a spoon, dimly cursing the seed which protests every time you think you have a nice big bite, A. somewhat more convenient method, but one which takes practice to perfect, is to slice the fruit length-wise, avoiding the seed. One side you eat with comparative comfort. Then you have to remove the seed from the other, This is done with a little gentle coaxing at the end of a knife. While consuming the scanty remainder you eye the juicy seed with approbation and wish you had it out the back-yard. Another good method is to calmly glare at your hostess with that whatare-you-going-to-do-about-it. air, peel the fruit, pick it up in the same manner you would a corn cob, and proceed to enjoy yourself, After which you 1 for a couple of wet towels wit an inward satisfaction at having got own more of the delicious fruit than the politer company.
Then there's the question of mango-poisoning. Some people can't eat mangoes at all without acquiring a rim of little around the mouth, Others can eat one oF two with perfect safety. The tem tion, in Shanghai at least, to cat more than two mangoes is usually ince they are a bit expensive and they do not flood the market, Shanghai mangoes are mostly imported from Manila, But to multitudes of Indians the mango is not a fruit but a food. During the season many live on mangoes: and there is so substantial a falling off in the demand for grain-stuts fand sweet-stuffs that, the market is definitely affected. Thirty or forty mangoes a day is nothing to a pea ant of India. He eats them just lls cherries, Some men eat sixty mangoes a day. Sixty mangoes used to be a good excuse for cholera but the Indian theory now is that if pint of milk is drunk after a mango cal all will be well. Sometimes they cause boils but boils are considered. to be conducive to good health in India, so no one minds.
In the tropics the mango is teemed as the king of fruits.
it native home is in southern Asia where they have been cultivated for thousands of years. Most of the mangoes in China have been imported from the Philippines. The mango tree, however, is well known in this country and make valuable ornamental and shade trees, casting the heaviest shade of the common trees in China, When the leaves first appear they are of a del reddish or wine colour, turning green fas they mature. When the fare crushed they exude a white juice with t mango smell. Some mango trees reach a height of 60 feet. They were first introfluced into China from the East Indies. Black dye may be made from the bark and yellow dye from the roots. The fruit is believed, by many matico eaters, to induce sleep, but it is more likely that they merely produce a state of blissful contentment. The mango trees flower
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.