52 MAMMALIA — MAN. 



other hardships of life. Their ceremonies, or rather their grimaces, in 

 eating, are numerous and uncouth. They are laborious, are very skilful 

 artificers, and, in a word, have nearly the same disposition, the same man- 

 ners, and the same customs as the Chinese. 



One custom which they have in common, and which is not a little fantas- 

 tic, is, so to contract the feet of the women, that they are hardly able to 

 support themselves. 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 under the sole ; that they apply to it a strong water, 

 which burns away the flesh ; and, that they A\Tap it up in a number of 

 bandages, till it has assumed a certain fold. They add, that the Avomen 

 feel the pain of this operation all their lives ; that they v.^alk with great 

 difficulty ; and that their gait is to the last degi-ee ungraceful. Other travel- 

 lers do not say that they break the foot in their infancy, but that they only 

 compress it with so much violence as to prevent its growth ; but they unani- 

 mously 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. 



The Moguls, (Hindoos,) and the other inhabitants of the peninsula of 

 India, are not unlike the Europeans, in shape and in features ; but they 

 differ more or less from them in color. The Moguls are of an olive com- 

 plexion ; and yet, in the Indian language, the word Mogul signifies Whiic. 

 The women are extremely delicate, and they bathe themselves very often : 

 they are of an olive color, as well as the men ; and, contrary to what is seen 

 among the women of Europe, their legs and thighs are long, and their body 

 is short. 



The inhabitants of Persia, of Turkey, of Arabia, of Egypt, and of the 

 whole of Barbary, may be considered as one and the same people, Avho, in 

 the time of Mahomet, and of his successors, invaded immense territories, 

 extended their dominions, and became exceedingly intermixed with the 

 original natives of all those countries. The Persians, the Turks, and the 

 Moors, are to a certain degree civilized ; but the Arabians have, for the 

 most part, remained in a state of independence, which implies a contempt 

 of laws. 



The Egyptian women are very brown; their eyes are lively; their stature 

 is rather low ; their mode of dress is by no means agreeable ; and their con- 

 versation is extremely tiresome. But though the women of Egypt are com- 

 monly rather short, yet the men are of a good height. Both, generally 

 speaking, are of an olive color ; and the more we remove from Cairo, the 

 more we find the people tawny, till we come to the confines of Nubia, where 

 they are as black as the Nubians themselves. 



" The women of Circapsia," says Struys, " are exceedingly fair and beau- 

 tiful. Their complexion is incomparably fine ; their forehead is large and 

 smooth ; and, without the aid of art, their eyebrows • are so delicate, that 



