Nature must have been in a sportive mood when
she evolved the durian. This singular Malay fruit smells like all the
concentrated drains of a town seasoned with onions. One single durian
can poison out a ship with its hideous odour, yet those able to
overcome its revolting smell declare the flavour of the fruit to be
absolutely delicious.
It is a little humiliating for a middle-aged gentleman to find that on
arriving in China he is expected to revert to the language of the
nursery, and that he must request his Chinese servant to "go catchee
me one piecee cuppee tea." On board the Admiral's yacht, it required a
little reflection before the intimation that "bleakfast belong leady
top-side" could be translated into the information that breakfast was
ready on deck. Why adding "ee" to every word should render it more
intelligible to the Celestial understanding, beats me. There are
people who think that by tacking "O" on to every English word they
render themselves perfectly clear to Italians and Spaniards, though
this theory seems hardly justified by results. "Pidgin English," of
course, merely means "business English," and has been evolved as an
easy means of communication for business purposes between Europeans
and Chinamen.
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