“By dint of their extraordinary industry, thrifty habits, an unceasing desire to accumulate wealth by any amount of plodding, cunning, or hardship, the Chinaman has wormed himself beyond the Great Wall, built towns and villages, cultivated every rood of land, and is at once the farmer and the trader everywhere. He claims the best part of Mantchuria as his own, and dares even to scandalize the Tartar race in their own capital, though it is barely two centuries since that race filed in long cavalry troops through those gates at Shan-kis-Kwan, and were introduced by an indiscreet Chinese general to the vast empire which they soon conquered and sternly governed.

“Now the Chinese seem the conquerors, for they have not only obtained possession of the land, and converted it into a region thoroughly Chinese, but they have imposed their language, their habits and customs, and every trait belonging to them, on those of the original occupants who choose to mix with them, and ousted out every grim old banner-man who would not condescend to shopkeeping, or handling the spade or plough.

“There is not the most trifling Mantchu word to designate town, hamlet, mountain, or river, in use among the people nowadays, and anything that might at all tell of the character and power of the original proprietors is entirely effaced. If the Mantchus obtained possession of the Dragon Throne at Pekin, partly by force of arms in military prowess, and partly by perfidy, aided by rebellions among the Chinese themselves; if they compelled the hundreds of millions over whom they found cause to rule to alter their dress, wear tails, and perhaps smoke tobacco,—the people thus subjugated have made ample retaliation by wiping out every trace of their invaders in their own country, and leaving the existence of the usurpers all but traditionary in the metropolis where, two hundred years ago, they held their court, and where one of their kings boldly vowed vengeance for seven great grievances that he imagined had been brought on him by the Chinese Emperor.

“Nothing prevents the invasion of the Corea by these wonderful Chinese but the high palisade that keeps them within the limits of Mantchuria. For, if once they got a footing in that country, the Coreans would suffer the same fate as the Mantchus, and there is no telling when these sons of Ham would stop in their bloodless aggrandizement and territorial acquisitiveness.”

Arrows
Section

REPEATING CROSSBOW. (From my Collection.)
(See [page 1434].)

CHAPTER CLIII.
CHINA.
APPEARANCE—DRESS—FOOD.

APPEARANCE OF THE CHINESE — MODE OF PLAITING THE “TAIL” — THE CHINESE BARBER — THE REFUSE HAIR AND ITS USES — CEREMONIOUS EMPLOYMENT OF THE TAIL — DRESSING THE HAIR OF THE WOMEN — MUTUAL ASSISTANCE — POWDER FOR THE SKIN, AND MODE OF APPLYING IT — SMALL FEET OF THE CHINESE WOMEN — ORIGIN AND DATE OF THE CUSTOM OF COMPRESSING THE FEET — DRESS OF THE WOMEN — DRESS OF THE MEN — THE “BUTTON” OF RANK — SYSTEM OF EXAMINATION — INGENIOUS MODES OF EVASION — EXCEPTION IN FAVOR OF OLD AGE — THE FAN AND ITS VARIOUS USES — CHINESE LANTERNS — THE “STALKING-HORSE LANTERN” — FEAST OF LANTERNS — THE GREAT DRAGON — CHOPSTICKS, AND THE MODE OF USING THEM — THE CASE OF CHOPSTICKS — FOOD OF THE CHINESE — LIVING CRABS — BIRDS’-NEST SOUP — TEA, AND MODE OF PREPARATION.

We now come to China, a country of such extent, so thickly populated, and containing so many matters of interest, that justice could not be fully done if an entire volume were devoted to it. We will therefore restrict ourselves to a selection of those particulars in which the Chinese appear to offer the greatest contrast to Europeans.