Ctau-san usual size, and bandaged like the stump ©f an amputated
...' - limb. They undergo, indeed, much torment, and cripple
themselves in great measure, in imitation of ladies of
higher rank, among whom it is there the custom to stop,
by pressure, the growth of the ancle as well as foot from
the earliest infancy; and leaving the great toe in its natural
position, forcibly to bend the others, and retain them
under the foot, till at length they adhere to, as if buried
in the sole, and can no more be separated.
Notwithstanding the pliability of the human frame in
tender years, its tendency to expansion at that period
must, whenever it is counteracted, occasion uneasy sensations
to those who are so treated ; and before the ambition
of being admired takes possession of those victims
to fashion, it requires the vigilance of their female parents
to deter them from relieving themselves from the
firm -and tight compresses, which hind their feet and
ancles. Where those compresses are constantly and
carefully kept on, the feet are symmetrically small.
The young creatures are indeed obliged, for. a considerable
time, to be supported when they .attempt to walk *
even afterwards they tetter, Mid always walk upon their,
heels. An exact «model was afterwards procured ©f a
Chinese lady’s foot, from which the annexed «engraving
has been taken.
This artificiaLdiminutiveness of the feet, though it does
not entirely prevent their -use, must -certainly cramp the
general .growth, and injur,e.the constitution of those who ch^-am
hsMPhefm,. subjected.to it. Some of the very lowest
classes of the Chinese, of a race confined chiefly to .the
mountains and.remote places, have not adopted this unnatural
custom. But foe females of.this^ass are held by ‘
the rest-in the ^utmost degree of cqntempt, and are em-
plnyBrl rynjly fo ihfonost menial domestic offices. So inveterate
is, thexustom, which gives pre-eminence,to mutilated
before perfect limbs,-that.the interpreter averred,
and e^eryrSifos^luent information confirmed the assertion,
that if, of t\yo,sisters, otherwise every way equal,
thcone, had thip|>fon maimed, while.naqire,vp.s|suffered
to make its,usual ^progress in the- othgr, -the latter would
be-considered .as in an abject state, unworthy of associ