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CHAPTER XX.
THE HOUR OF THE OX.
THE three gentlemen whom we heard conversing
together at Doctor Sano's house sat down
at midnight to a hot supper of boiled rice, pea-soup,
tea, broiled fish, beans, and macaroni, which the
chubby housemaid served up on three tiny tables.
At the end of the radius of the semi-circle sat Mrs.
Sano, who presided over the teapot and rice-pail.
Each eater sat on his knees and heels before a little
black-lacquered wooden table only six inches high
and a foot square. In the center of each table was
a little dish of sweet pickled black beans, and
occupying each of the four corners stood a ricebowl,
a soup-bowl with a cover, a tea-cup without
saucer or handle, and a low-edged plate full of mac-
aroni. The fish was served on an extra dish. Part
of the furnishing of the table was a pair of fresh
cedar-wood chopsticks thrust into a paper envelope,
except at Doctor Sano's table, where the eating implements
were of ivory. A guest, in taking food at
a house, would make use of the virgin wood for the
first time, and, after eating, was accustomed to break
up the sticks and throw them away. In this way,
the use of an eating-tool so useful and elegant as to
be worthy of a better name in English than " chopm