At first Morrison conformed as exactly as he could to Chinese manners. He tried to live on Chinese food, and became an adept with the chopsticks. He allowed his nails to grow long, and cultivated a queue. Milne noted that "e walked about the Hong with a Chinese frock on, and with thick Chinese shoes". In time he came to think this was a mistaken policy. So far as the food was concerned, he could not live on it in health; and as for the dress, it only served to render him the more unusual, and to attract attention where he was anxious to avoid publicity. A foreigner dressed up in Chinese clothes excited suspicions, as one who was endeavoring by stealth to insinuate himself into Chinese society, so as to introduce his contraband religion surreptitiously. Under these circumstances Morrison resumed the European manners of the Americans and English.