136 
CHINESE BARBERS. 
into which I patiently suffered several small instruments to be thrust 
and turned about, by which operation he brought away half a tea-cup- 
full of hot, waterish stuff. He next proceeded to scraping, paring, 
and cleaning the nails of my fingers and toes ; and then to cutting my 
corns. I only wanted to have had a lock of hair plaited, to complete 
the operation. But after he had spent half an hour with me, it ended 
here, for which I gave him to the value of a penny. He departed 
well satisfied, and afterwards called several mornings.” * 
Their razors looked clumsy and inconvenient ; but I can state 
from experience, that their edge is keen, and that they are used 
by expert manipulators. At the commencement of an illness that 
required the shaving of my head, I was induced by curiosity to com- 
mit myself to the hands of a Chinese barber ; and at a more advanced 
period of my disorder, put myself for the same purpose under another 
of the fraternity, after suffering from the inferior skill of one of my 
countrymen. 
* Voyage to the East Indies. 1762. 8vo. p. 226. 
