Mid. Kingd., II (Google Books ⧉, Amazon ⧉, Bookshop ⧉)

The Travels of Marco Polo

Note 7.—At the present day, according to Williams, the Chinese use little spice; pepper chiefly as a febrifuge in the shape of pepper-tea, and that even less than they did some years ago. (See p. 239, infra, and Mid. Kingd., II. 46, 408.) On this, however, Mr. Moule observes: “Pepper is not so completely relegated to the doctors. A month or two ago, passing a portable cookshop in the city, I heard a girl-purchaser cry to the cook, ‘Be sure you put in pepper and leeks!’”