126 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



order that all Chinese should adopt their coiffure as a sign of allegiance on pain of death. 

 As they overthrew the ruling dynasty at that time with ease, and the chief of the Manchus 

 was made emperor, they enforced the order with such merciless rigour that the Chinese 

 throughout the land eventually submitted. The queue was imposed on the people as a badge 

 of subjection; but before the Manchu dynasty (the present rulers of China) had been fifty 

 years established, the "tail" had become an appendage of which the Chinese were proud, and 

 a long thick queue was an object of intense desire to every honest Chinaman. 



The head-dress of married women is at once tasteful and becoming. The plentiful black 

 hair is bound upon the head in an oval knot, which is secured in its place by a pin placed 

 lengthwise in it, and fastened by a shorter pin thrust across and under the bow. In front of 

 the knot a tube is often worn, in which flowers can be placed. A widow is known by white 

 flowers in her hair, a maiden by one or two plaits instead of a knot; but in some parts white 

 flowers are worn by all women. Matrons wear an embroidered fillet on the forehead, about 

 an inch wide, pointed between the eyebrows, and covering the front of the hair. This fillet, 

 embroidered or adorned with pearls, is a favourite ornament with Chinese ladies. Along the 

 Yang-tse-kiang Kiver women wear a band of fur around the head. The hair of children is 

 unbound; but girls advancing in age allow the side-locks to grow until the hair reaches the 

 waist, and plait a tress down the neck. False hair is made use of by men and women, the 

 men particularly being fond of making their queues as long as possible. 



The population of China as we know it is the result of a fusion of tribes of connected 

 lineage. Different classes from beyond the bounds of China Proper, as the Mongolo-Tartars 



under Genghis Khan and 

 his successor, and the 

 Manchu Tartars under 

 Tsen-ning, at different 

 periods assumed the mastery 

 of the settled inhabitants. 

 But the Chinese were only 

 governed and plundered by 

 their new masters, not 

 destroyed. They invariably 

 absorbed into their own 

 nation intrusive neighbours 

 whom they were unable to 

 expel, for common sense 

 and practicality are strongly 

 developed traits in the 

 character of the people. 

 The Chinaman thinks 

 nothing is worthy of serious 

 regard but that which is 

 visibly useful or materially 

 beneficial. His arts and 

 sciences, his poems and 

 romances, his religions 

 and philosophies, all re- 

 volve around and minister 

 to the needs and pleasures 

 of his daily life. Abstract 

 virtue, the universal, the 

 ideal, are terms which 

 A CHINESE WOMAN WITH INFORMED FOOT. have hardly the shadow of 



[Hony-itong. 



