Chinese Footbindmg 185 



sick unto death, and that she had come to pray for his re- 

 covery, and was now receiving an answer to her prayers. 

 The reply was somewhat ambiguous, but generally favourable, 

 and the old lady hobbled down the steep flight of steps, 

 holding her staff in one hand, and leaning on her boy with 

 the other, doubtless highly comforted. Long as I have 

 lived in China, I can never become reconciled to this 

 hideous and painful mutilation of the feet, and I can but 

 wish that some despot like the conquerors of old would 

 ascend the throne and issue an ukase against a practice 

 which entails gratuitous torture on one-half of the population. 

 It would be obeyed, for thinking Chinamen regret the 

 cruelty to which the despot fashion alone compels them to 

 conform. On the accession of the Mongols, the private 

 graves and public cemeteries, which then, as now, absorbed 

 an enormous proportion of the arable land, were all ploughed 

 over by imperial edict, and, as is well known, upon the 

 accession of the present dynasty in 1644, the dress of the 

 Manchus, together with the obnoxious pigtail, was accepted 

 by the whole nation almost without a murmur. This shows 

 what determination among an apathetic people like the 

 Chinese will effect. 



Setting out again on our journey, the range of hills, in 

 which were situated the coal-mines which formed our 

 destination, came into view. The range itself is about a 

 thousand feet above the level of the surrounding country, 

 about two thousand above the level of the river, and three 

 thousand by my aneroid above the sea : it runs for some 

 distance in a N.N.E. and S.S.W. direction, and is cut 

 through at right angles by the Siao river, which has thus 

 manufactured a picturesque gorge on a small scale, similar 

 to the magnificent cuttings on the main river below. We 

 traversed one or two flourishing villages, small ports situated 



