Ix.]

233

THE CUSTOM OF COMPRESSING THE FEET. following day she was arraigned before the elders, and excused herself on the ground that the child was sickly. On the entreaties of her husband, who, in the most importunate manner, begged for her pardon, they liberated the murderess, for by no other name can she be designated. The elders were thus lenient, although a governor-general, who some twenty years before had ruled over the united provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, had issued an edict declaring that all mothers found guilty of a crime so unnatural and so diabolical as infanticide, would be severely punished. In 1848, the chief-justice or criminal judge of Kwang-tung issued an edict, in which he condemned it in very strong terms. In this edict the attention of the people was directed to the teaching of Nature, with the view of reproaching them for such acts of barbarity. "You should," he said, " consider that insects, fish, birds, and beasts, all love what they produce. On leaving the womb they are as weak as a hair, and can you endure instantly to compass your offspring's death?"

The custom of compressing the feet of female children is much practised. Many reasons have been given for the observance of this foolish custom. Some regard it as originating in a desire to mark the characteristic which eminently distinguishes the Chinese from the Tartars and Hakkas. The latter from the earliest times have been nomadic. The Chinese have always been children of the soil-naturally adscripti glebæ. In the northern provinces I noticed that nearly all the women had contracted feet; and the same may be said of the island of Formosa. In some other portions of the empire the custom does not prevail to the same extent. The process of binding the feet, generally done with bandages of cloth, is commenced when the child is five or six years old. It is at first very painful, and the child cries bitterly for days. In some instances the feet are compressed to such an extent as to render walking almost impossible. It is not unusual to see women with small feet riding along the high roads on the backs of their female attendants. When houses are on fire, the female inmates who have small feet often perish from sheer helplessness.

There is apparently no law to restrict parents in the exercise of authority over their children. They can even sell them; and

in some cases sons are taken as bondsmen by creditors, for debts which have been contracted by their fathers. Sometimes, with the view of relieving their parents from pecuniary embarrassments, children voluntarily sell themselves as bondsmen or slaves. The similarity which exists in this respect between the ancient Jews and the Chinese of to-day is very striking. Amongst the Jews children were often taken as bondsmen for debts contracted by their parents (2 Kings iv. 1, Isaiah 1. 1, Neh. v. 5); and a father had unlimited power over his children, even when they had attained manhood (Gen. xxi. 21, Exod. xxi. 9, 10, 11, Judges xiv. 2). The power of a Chinese father over his daughter is still greater than that which he can exercise over his sons; and here again the history of the Jews furnishes us with a parallel. A Jewish father could set aside a sacred vow made by his daughter, whereas he had no power to do so in the case of a son (Numbers xxx. 4). Chinese parents are evidently great believers in the maxim that to spare the rod is to spoil the child. Thus, though they may sometimes be seen showing much love towards their children, at other times they may be observed chastising them very severely. I have frequently seen Chinese mothers beating their children with great severity. Should a child die under chastisement, the parents are not called upon to answer for their conduct before any tribunal. Among the boat population on the Canton river, I have seen mothers when very angry with their children, deliberately throw them into the river, and when the children on rising to the surface clung to the sides of the boats, sometimes the infuriated mothers pushed them off into the current again. I once witnessed a very alarming scene of this nature. A youth belonging to a ferry boat which plied on the Canton river, had gone ashore to gamble at a fruit-stall, and lost more than he could afford to pay. The keeper of the fruit-stall threatened to settle the matter by taking a portion of his wearing apparel. The youth strongly objected to this, and requested that his parents might be sent for. When his mother came she paid the debt, but dragged the offender on board her boat, and then immediately cast him headlong into the stream. The youth when he rose to the surface of the water clung to the sides of the boat, and most earnestly begged for