NATURAL HISTORY. n., 



iigue, and all the other hardships of life. Their ce- 

 remonies, or rather grimaces, in eating, are numerous 

 and uncouth. They are laborious, are very skilful 

 artificers, and, in a word, have nearly the same dispo- 

 sition, the same manners, and the same customs, as 

 the Chinese. 



One custom which they have in common, and which 

 is not a little fantastic, is, so to contract the feet of 

 the women, that they arc hardly able to support them- 

 selves. Some travellers mention, that in China, when 

 a girl has passed her third year, they break the foot 

 in such a manner, that the toes are made to come un- 

 der the sole ; that they spply to it a strong water, 

 which burns away the flesh ; and that they wrap it 

 up in a number of bandages, till it has assumed a cer- 

 tain fold. They add, that the women feel the pain of 

 this operation all their lives ; that they walk with 

 great difficulty ; and that their gait is to the last de- 

 gree ungracefjl. Other travellers do not say that 

 they break the foot in their infancy, but they only- 

 compress it with so much violence as to prevent its 

 growth ; but they unanimously allow, that every 

 woman of condition, and even every handsome woman 

 must have a foot small enough to enter, with ease, the 

 slipper of a child of six years old. 



Though the inhabitants of the kingdoms of Pegu 

 and Aracan are blacker, yet they bear all a consider- 

 able resemblance to the Chinese. Those of Aracan 

 put great value upon a forehead large and flat ; and, 

 in order to render it so, they apply a plate of lead to 

 the forehead of their children as soon as they are born. 

 Their nostrils are large and extended ; their eyes ant 

 small and lively ; and their ears are of such length as 

 to hang over their shoulders. They feast with a 

 VoCl. Q 



