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P L A T E X.
TORTURING THE FINGERS.
THIS is effected by placing small pieces of wood betwixt them, and
then drawing them very forcibly together with cords. It is frequently
inflicted as a punishment upon disorderly women.
There are no people existing, who pay so sacred an attention to the
laws of decency as the Chinese; habituated in preserving the constant
appearance of modesty and self-controul, nothing is more uncommon
amongst them, tlian deleterious examples of unblushing v i c e ; and if
there be truth in the old maxim, that want of decency, either in action,
or in word, betrays a deficiency of understanding, they certainly indicate
more sense than some other nations, who affect to excel them in
education and refinement. T h e general manners of people of every
condition in China wear as modest a habit, as their persons T h e y
discover no gratification in wrest ing their proper language into impure
meanings ; and grossly offensive phrases are only to be heard amongs t
the v e r y dregs of the communi ty, and at the risk of immediate and
severe judicial correction.