milled (paddy), a fourth name when polished white, and a final name when it is cooked. It is cooked in only one way—plain boiled or steamed, whether it is meant for the table of the Emperor or for a peasant. But there are as many varieties of rice as there are of apples. There is cheap, dark, small-grained "coolie" rice, and big, fat, white "mandarin" rice. The finest rice of all, like the finest tea, is used by the royal family.
Thousands of years ago the Emperor of China used to head in a splendid procession, and sow the first rice seeds of the season in the palace water fields. That ceremony was supposed to insure good crops to the toiling millions. Perhaps that was the origin of the little good-luck god, Dai Goku, of Japan. He certainly looks very old and wise and kind. See Rice, page 1610.
