ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



953 



f Acf, the Chinese are not singular, if 

 •V. e may credit the Natural Historian 

 of Antiquity,* v. ho observes that, to 

 open the f;Ttile fields of Byzacium 

 in Africa, it was necessary to wait 

 until the rains had soaked into the 

 ground ; '' after which, a little 

 weaklv ass, and an old woman, at- 

 tached to the same yoke, were sufii- 

 cient to drag the plough through the 

 soil," po^t hubrcs vili (neUo, et a 

 parte alicrajugi aim vomerem tia- 

 henic vidimus scindi. 



" In the province of Kiarg-seeno- 

 thing is more common than to see a 

 Avoman drawing a kind of light 

 plough, with a single handle, through 

 ground that has previously been pre- 

 pared. The easier task of direct- 

 ing the machine is left to the hus- 

 band, who, holding the plough with 

 one hand, at the same time, with the 

 other, casts the seed into the drills. 



" The advantage which those wo- 

 men ])ossess in a higher sphere of 

 life, if any. are not much to be en- 

 vied. Even at home, in her own 

 family, a woman must neither eat at 

 the same table, nor sit in the same 

 room, with her husband. And the 

 male children, at the age of nine or 

 ten, arc entirely separated from their 

 sisters. Thus the feelings of atlcc- 

 tion, not the Instinctive products of 

 nature, but the oll'spring of frequent 

 intercourse and of a mutual commu- 

 iiicdtion of their little wants and 

 pleasures, arenipijed in the very bud 

 of dawning sentiment. A cold and 

 < eremonious conduct mu..t be ob- 

 served on all occasions between the 

 members of the same family. There 

 is no common focus to attract and 

 concentrate the love and lespect of 

 iliililron for their parents. Eatli 

 lue» retired and apart from the 



other. The little incidents and ad- , 

 ventures of the day, which furnish 

 the conversation among children of 

 many a long winter's evening, by a 

 comfortable lire side, in our own 

 country, are in China buried in si- 

 lence. Bovs, it is true, sometimes 

 mix together in schools, but the stiff 

 and ceremonious behaviour, which 

 constitute no inconsiderable part of 

 their education, throws a restraint 

 on all the little playful actions inci- 

 dent to their time of life, and com- 

 pletely subdues all spirit of activitj 

 and enterprize. A Chinese youth 

 of the hi.i,^her class is inanimate, for- 

 mal, and inactive, constantly endea- 

 vouring to assume the gravity of 

 years, 



" To beguile the many tedious and 

 heavv hours, that must unavoidably 

 occur to the secluded females, totally 

 unqualitied for mental pursuits, the 

 tobacco-pipe is the usual expedient. 

 Every female from the age t^f eight 

 or nine years wears, as an append- 

 age to her dress, a small silken purse 

 or ])ocket, to hold tobacco and a 

 ])ipe, with the use of which many of 

 them are not unacquainted at this 

 tender age. Some indeed are con- 

 stantly employed in working em- 

 broidery on silks, or in painting 

 birds, insects, and flowers on thin. 

 gauze. In the ladies' apartments of 

 the great house in which we lived at 

 Pekin, wc observed some very beau- 

 tiful specimens of both kinds in the 

 pannels of the partitions, and I 

 brought home a few articles, which 

 1 understanil have been much ad- 

 mired ; but tlic women who employ 

 their time in this manner are gene- 

 rally the wives and daughters of 

 tradesmen and artificers, who are 

 usually the weavers both of cottons 



* Plin. lib, xvi. cap. 21. 



and 



