Therefore, before changing her morning toilette,
Behold her setting forth for the garden with a pair of scissors in her hand.”
When flowers are wanting, butterflies, made in every conceivable shape, and of all kinds of materials, are placed in the hair above the temples. At grand ceremonies imitation flowers, made in jewels, are used instead of natural flowers.
The forehead is always left free. Only young girls wear fringes, the rest of the hair being allowed to fall down loose at the back of the head, or being gathered up into two bunches on either side. The enormous coiffure that you see in pictures, and which forms a kind of bull’s head, is known as the coiffure in the style of “a crow with outstretched wings.” It is now only to be seen in Canton.
Ladies in China never wear hats or bonnets. At ceremonies they wear a helmet-shaped crown, and on less solemn occasions a little band of embroidered stuff, which crosses the forehead and terminates in points behind each ear. In the centre is a large pearl or other precious stone, and round it a single or double row of pearls is entwined. Women wear shorter clothes than the men, the shape being about the same for both sexes. The clothes come down to the knees. On special occasions a petticoat, which comes down to the feet, is worn, while indoors a pair of trousers is added; which in the north is fastened round the ankles with ribbons, and left loose in the south. The upper garment has wide sleeves, with facings of embroidered satin. The uniform—for ladies in China wear a uniform on grand occasions suited to the rank of their husbands—consists in a dress of red satin, embroidered with dragons, over which is a garment shaped like a waistcoat, also embroidered. If the husband has a high rank, the wife also wears a pearl necklace. Whatever may be the rank of the woman, she always makes her own shoes. There are no shops in China for the sale of women’s shoes.
Jewels are never used for trimming dresses; at the very utmost, a few gold or jewelled buttons are sometimes used; but bracelets are worn in great numbers, according to the position and fortune of the wearer. Some young girls wear ankle-bands, also necklaces in the shape of collars, either in silver or gold, and fastened with a locket in the shape of a padlock.
The general custom of wearing the nails very long has caused the use of a special nail-glove, which is made of gold. It is shaped like a thimble, open at both ends, and is prolongated by a gold nail, which is intended to cover the real nail and to protect it. I may mention that in China, as everywhere else, it is the demi-monde that creates the fashions. But fashion varies considerably in the different provinces. Only a few ladies, who have travelled a great deal, know how to combine the various styles, often with the happiest effect. As a rule, one can tell at a glance to what province a woman belongs.
One of the most feared of our Censors, a man before the severity of whose criticism the whole world used to tremble, and who was all the more feared that nobody could find any fault in him, was one day surprised in the act of painting his wife’s eyebrows. I leave you to judge how delighted his enemies were to be able to tell the sovereign that this rigid guardian of public morality was, after all, but a very frivolous man. The Censor was sent for and asked if the report were true.
“Yes, your Majesty,” he answered; “but what is there frivolous in that? Is not everything allowed between man and wife?”