to conclude, that maiming the feet o f the Chinefe ladies
derived its origin from a period o f time when they were yet in
a favage ftate, fince we are in the daily habit o f ohferving the
molt civilized and enlightened focieties ftudying to find out
beauties in defefis, and creating them where nature had
intended perfection. The Chinefe would no doubt be equally
furprized at, and confider as egregioufly abfurd,: the cuftom
o f circumcifion, as praCtifed by a great portion o f Afiatic
nations; nor have. w e any reafon to think they, would not
condemn the refinement o f docks and crops among our horfes
as an abfurd cuftom, not lefs ridiculous in their eyes, than the
little feet o f their ladies are in ours. I f they could not refrain
from burfting into fits o f laughter on examining the greafe and
powder with which our hair was disfigured ; and if they fome-
times lamented, that fo much oil and flour had unneceflarily
been wafted, we might, perhaps, in the vanity o f felf-import-
ance, afleit to pity their tafte; but fetting cuftom and prejudice
apart, we had certainly no great reafon to defpife and
ridicule the Chinefe, or indeed any other, nation, merely
becaufe they differ from us in the little points o f drefs and
manners, feeing how very nearly we can match them with
fimilar follies and abfurdities o f our own..
The filence o f the earlieft travellers into China on fo extraordinary
a cuftom, would almoft warrant a conjecture that,
notwithftanding the pretended ignorance o f the Chinefe with
regard to its origin, both the faihion and the fentiment o f its
being vulgar for ladies to be feen abroad, were only adopted
within the period o f a few centuries. T he Venetian traveller,
although
although he makes frequent mention o f the beauty and
drefs o f the women, takes no notice o f this Angular fa-
fh ion ; and he obferves that on the lake o f Hang-tchoo-foo
the ladies are accuftomed to take their pleafure with their
huibands and their families. The Embafladors alfo o f Shah
Rokh, the fon o f Tamerlane, who in the year 1419,
were fent to congratulate .the Emperor o f China, ftate in
the narrative o f their expedition that, at their public reception,
there ftood two young virgins, one on each fide o f the
throne, with their faces and bofoms uncovered ; that they
were furniihed with paper and pencils and took down
with great attention every word that the Emperor fpoke.
Thefe Embafladors faw alfo numbers o f women in open
baths near the Yellow riv e r ; and, in one city, they remark
that “ there were many taverns, at the doors o f which fat a
“ number o f young girls o f extraordinary beauty.” Nor .do
the travels of two Mahomedans into China in the ninth
century, publiihed by Mr. Renaudot, make any mention o f
the unnatural fmallnefs o f the women’s feet j and they are not
by any means deficient in their obfervations o f the manners and
cuftoms o f this nation, at that time fo very little known to
the reft o f the world. Almoft every thing they have related
concerning China at this early period is found to be true at
the prefent day, and as they particularly notice the drefs
and ornaments worn by the women, one would think they
would not have omitted a cuftom fo fingular in its kind as that
o f maiming the feet, i f it had then been as common as it
now is.
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