ave never heard of a girl
who refused the ju yi.[3]

Very erroneous ideas of the life and occupations of the Chinese ladies
of the noble and official classes are held by those not conversant with
their home life. The Chinese woman is commonly regarded as little
better than a secluded slave, who whiles away the tedious hours at an
embroidery frame, where with her needle she works those delicate and
intricate pieces of embroidery for which she is famous throughout the
world. In reality, a Chinese lady has little time to give to such work.
Her life is full of the most exacting social duties. Few American
ladies in the whirl of society in Washington or New York have more
social functions to attend or duties to perform. I have often been
present in the evening when the head eunuch brought to the ruling lady
of the home (and the head of the home in China is the woman, not the
man) an ebony tablet on which was written in red ink the list of social
functions the ladies were to attend the following day.

She would select from the list such as she and her unmarried daughters
could attend,--the daughters always going with their mother and not
with their sisters-in-law,--then she would apportion the other
engagements to her daughters-in-law, who would attend them in her stead.

The Chinese lady in Peking sleeps upon a brick bed, one half of the
room being built up a foot and a half above the floor, with flues
running through it; and in the winter a fire is built under the bed, so
that, instead of having one hot brick in her bed, she has a hundred.
She rises about eight. She has a large number of women servants, a few
slave girls, and if she belongs to the family of a prince, she has
several eunuchs, these latter to do the heavy work about the household.
Each servant has her own special duties, and resents being asked to
perform those of another. When my lady awakes a servant brings her a
cup of hot tea and a cake made of wheat or rice flour. After eating
this a slave girl presents her with a tiny pipe with a long stem from
which she takes a few whiffs. Two servants then appear with a large
polished brass basin of very hot water, towels, soaps, preparations of
honey to be used on her face and hands while they are still warm and
moist from the bathing. After the bath they remove the things and
disappear, and two other women take their places, with a tray on which
are combs, brushes, hair-pomades, and the framework and accessories