DEFORMED FEET 91 



In spite of Imperial edicts advising its abolition, 

 foot-binding is still prevalent all over China. The 

 native women in the west, that part of the country 

 where the great Mohammedan rebellion arose, 

 must be excepted, for so many women perished 

 there owing to their inability to flee, that their 

 descendants liave allowed their feet to grow in 

 a natural manner. They conform in some degree 

 to popular taste by wearing shoes very abruptly 

 turned up at the toes, which, though hinder- 

 ing their freedom of action, does not distort the 

 foot in the unnatural manner prevalent fartlier 

 east. 



Long accustomed to it, the Chinaman regards 

 an artificially deformed foot as a thing of great 

 beauty. No well-to-do Chinaman of the old 

 school would think of marrying a girl with natural 

 feet, and as marriage is the great aim and object 

 of a Chinese woman's existence, popular feeling 

 will have to undergo a very radical transformation 

 before the practice can be stamped out. That it 

 will be stamped out eventually is no longer a 

 matter for speculation ; but it will take time. 



Those who picture the life of a missionary in 

 China as one of leisured ease ought to have seen 

 Mr. and Mrs. Steevens, for during the whole of 

 our visit I do not think I ever saw them un- 

 occupied. Patients were continually dropping in 

 in the morning to be cured of various ailments. 

 The constant reference to east and west in the 

 conversation of a Scot is apt to strike the casual 

 Sassenach. The Chinese carry their geographical 

 terminology to an even greater extent, for a 

 patient, when asked to locate the exact position 



