red by
men. She is exempt from the punishment of the bamboo, and, as a party to
a case, is always more or less a source of anxiety to the presiding
magistrate. No Chinaman will enter into a dispute with a woman if he can
help it,--not from any chivalrous feeling, but from a conviction that he
will surely be worsted in the end.

If she becomes a widow, a Chinese woman is not supposed to marry again,
though in practice she very often does so. A widow who remains unmarried
for thirty years may be recommended to the Throne for some mark of
favour, such as an honorary tablet, or an ornamental archway, to be put
up near her home. It is essential, however, that her widowhood should
have begun before she was thirty years of age.

Remarriage is viewed by many widows with horror. In my own family I once
employed a nurse--herself one of seven sisters--who was a widow, and who
had also lost half the little finger of her left hand. The connecting
link between these two details is not so apparent to us as it might be
to the Chinese. After her husband's death the widow decided that she
would never marry again, and in order to seal irrevocably her vow, she
seized a meat-chopper and lopped off half her finger on the spot. The
finger-top was placed in her husband's coffin, and the lid was closed.

This woman, who was a Christian, and the widow of a native preacher, had
large, _i.e._ unbound, feet. Nevertheless, she bound the feet of her
only daughter, because, as she explained, it is so difficult to get a
girl married unless she has small feet.

Here we have the real obstacle to the abolition of this horrible custom,
which vast numbers of intelligent Chinese would be only too glad to get
rid of, if fashion did not stand in the way.

There has been in existence now for some years a well-meaning
association, known as the Natural Foot Society, supported by both
Chinese and foreigners, with the avowed object of putting an end to the
practice of foot-binding. We hear favourable accounts of its progress;
but until there is something like a national movement, it will not do to
be too sanguine.

We must remember that in 1664 one of China's wisest and greatest
Emperors, in the plenitude of his power issued an Imperial edict
forbidding parents in future to bind the feet of their girls. Four years
later the edict was withdrawn.

The Emperor was K'ang Hsi, whose name you have already heard in
connection with the standard dictionary of the Ch