THE HAINANESE MIAO 



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round caps with symbols embroidered around the bottom, 

 and sometimes with a few coloured beads on strings used as 

 additional ornaments. The special goodluck charm seems 

 to be worked only on the children's caps. The heathen Miao 

 women wear large silver earrings, and at the weddings the 

 bride wears a long silver chain attached to her two silver 

 hairpins. Physically, the Miao are quite a different type 

 from the Chinese. They are shorter, generally, and more 

 lithe and agile. They are not especially slant-eyed, and 

 their eyes are a lighter, softer brown, often sparkling with 

 a merry twinkle as they talk. They are entirely monoga- 

 mous, and the husband and wife eat together, work together, 

 and have much more of a normal family life than is seen 

 I among the Chinese. The women go to work in the fields or 

 the woods, carrying their babies strapped to their backs much 

 as the Cantonese women carry their children, with an im- 

 mense palmleaf stuck under the shoulder band, to> keep th» 

 sun and rain from the child. 

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