The people of the "Celestial Empire" are celebrated for their fondness for making beautiful gardens; but their houses and gardens are quite different from ours.
What a pretty scene! what a delicious cool walk is formed by the grove of trees leading to the porcelain tower. And those ladies walking towards the boat,—or hobbling, more likely; for the Chinese ladies have feet not much larger than your papa's thumb, which is there considered a great beauty.
The common women cannot afford to have little feet, as the feet of the rich girls are bandaged up in iron shoes, when they are two or three years old, to prevent their growing larger. These small feet are called "Golden Lilies;" but I am glad no such barbarous custom prevails in our own dear country. The Chinese ladies, however, are extremely accomplished, and can play on many musical instruments, paint, and embroider. The merchants of China are not at all remarkable for their honesty, though a few of them are very scrupulous. Many of them amass great fortunes.
The Chinese have sent in embroidered shawls, table-covers, teas, curious and intricate toys, and specimens of handicraft.
Why, we have even specimens of Russian industry, in the Great Exhibition; and very good specimens they are, too. Russia is not such a pleasant country, in some respects, as any of those I have been telling you of; for in the winter the frost is so severe that many of the poor Russians die from cold. The rich wrap themselves up in warm furs, and ride in fur-lined sledges, instead of the usual carriages; but the poor people are forced to continue working out of doors at their various employments, being very careful, however, to cover their legs, hands, and head with fur, lest they should be bitten with the frost, which sometimes seizes those parts and turns them white. Though many of the poor women stand for hours together, washing their linen in holes cut in the ice, without getting frozen, yet it often happens that coachmen and other servants have been frozen to death in the streets at night, while waiting for their masters.
At the end of every year, the Russians keep a long fast, and as soon as it is over, lay in their store of winter's provisions, at a market held once a-year on the river Neva, which is then frozen over. I should like you to see this market, it is so full of gaiety and singularity, while the high piles of frozen provisions look so picturesque along the ice. The Russians are remarkable for their cheerfulness and contentment, and are so fond of singing, that they are always enjoying a song when at work. Russian songs are very different from ours, and sound rather odd to us.
The food of the common people is black rye bread, sometimes, by way of treat, stuffed with onions, carrots, or green corn, and seasoned with sweet oil. They use eggs, salt fish, bacon, and mushrooms, of which last they have a great plenty. The men are ordinarily dressed in loose trousers; short coats of sheep-skin, tied with a sash round their waists, and folds of flannel, fastened round with pack-thread, on their legs, for stockings. The women are dressed just as oddly, in short gowns, and with their hair plaited and hanging down their backs, if they are unmarried; or a cap and cotton kerchief round their heads, if they are married. The peasants' houses are built of wood, and have one or two rooms only; they are miserably furnished, with no beds, as the family sleep on benches in summer, while nearly one-fourth of the principal apartment is filled by an enormous stove, or rather oven, upon which they sleep in winter; for the smoke of which, there is no chimney beyond a hole in the wall. I don't think you or I would much like to spend a winter in Russia.