well have migrated into forms so passing fair.

After they had been carefully fattened, a kiddier was sent for to give
them the happy dispatch, but no sooner had he set eyes on his quarry
than he scuttled off in alarm, and nothing would induce him to return,
nor could any other butcher be prevailed upon to officiate, so that,
my friend declared, he was obliged to roll up his sleeves and perform
the gruesome, though necessary operation himself.

"Old custom" is almost a religion with the celestials, to subvert
which requires great caution, persistency and strength. If anything
can be justified by old custom, or even precedent, it is considered to
be unassailable, no matter how harmful or irrational it may be.

Take the matter of foot-binding.

Laws have been passed, and are still extant, expressly forbidding this
cruel and senseless habit, and the ruling race, the Manchus, have
never practised it, still the Chinese, and the women more than the
men, cling to it with fanatical stubbornness for the sole reason that
it is old custom, and that if girls' feet were not bandaged it would
outrage the universal sense of propriety.

I have frequently talked the subject over with Chinamen, who readily
acknowledge that it is useless, besides being extremely painful to
young children, but they say if their daughters had natural feet they
would most probably fail to get husbands, as no man wishes his wife to
be in any way extraordinary or different from other women. "In any
case," they frequently retort, "we do not know that foot-binding gives
much more pain than do the tight-laced stays of foreign women, and
certainly it is not so ugly or prejudicial to the health."

The Chinese, contrary to ourselves, look back to the past for
inspiration and guidance, and to concern oneself about novelty or
change appears to them as savouring strongly of shiftiness and want of
tone.

A curious instance of how quickly precedent can be established, and of
its binding force, came to my notice some years ago at Peking.

At a certain point the now shallow waters of the moat encircling the
city wall had for long years been spanned by a foot-bridge, but which,
having become rotten and weak, duly crumbled away.

With Oriental dilatoriness no attempt was made to rebuild it for some
months, and it was then found that two men, who during the interval
had been earning a livelihood by wading to and fro carrying
pedestrians between the opposite banks,