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habit they become great sufferers, and they would be still greater were it not for the custom of living so much in the open air. Their love of ease and pleasure, combined with the defects of education, and their attachment to antiquated custom, debases their minds.

COSTUME, AND DOMESTIC MANNERS.

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In Europe there is a never-ending change of costume: fashion is there so capricious, that what is worn to-day may be cast aside to-morrow as useless. It is not so with the Chinese. To them Morier's observations concerning oriental manners in other Asiatic countries, are equally applicable. The manners of the east," says he, "amidst all the changes of government and religion, are still the same: they are living impressions from an original mould; and at every step some object, some idiom, some dress, or some custom of common life, reminds the traveller of ancient times."

The same costume as was worn in the remotest ages, is worn at this day, unchanged either in shape or material, in almost all Asiatic nations; and this may solve the enigma, why it is that European manufactures have not hitherto found an extensive or even ready sale in the east, China included.

There is a marked distinction existing between the summer and winter dress of the Chinese, arising from the extremes of heat and cold which prevail throughout the country at opposite seasons of the year. This difference is principally marked by the cap. The summer cap is a cone of finely-woven filaments of bamboo, and surmounted, in persons of rank, by a red, blue,

white, or gilded ball at the point of the cone. From this ornamental ball, a bunch of crimson silk or red horse-hair descends all around over the cap, and sometimes a single pearl is worn in front. The winter cap fits close to the head, and has a brim of black velvet or fur, turned sharply up all round, and rising a little higher in front and behind than at the sides. The domeshaped top is surmounted by the ball, like the summer cap, and from the point of its insertion a bunch of fine crimson silk descends, just covering the dome. The summer garment is a long loose gown of light silk, gauze, or linen, hanging free at ordinary times, but, on occasions of dress, gathered in round the middle by a silken girdle, which is fastened in front by a clasp. To this girdle are fastened a fan-case, tobacco-pouch, flint and steel for lighting the pipe, and sometimes a sheath with a small knife and a pair of chop-sticks. In winter, over a longer dress of silk or crape, which reaches to the ancles, the Chinese wear a large-sleeved spencer, reaching down to the hips, and made either of fur, or silk, or broad-cloth, lined with skins. The neck, which in summer is left bare, is protected in winter with a collar of silk or fur. The nether garment is loose in summer, but in winter a pair of tight leggings are drawn on separately over all, and fastened up to the sides of the person, leaving the upper garment to hang out behind in a very unpleasant manner. Stockings of cotton or silk, woven, are worn at all seasons; and in winter persons of rank wear boots of cloth, satin, or velvet, with thick soles,

which are kept clean by whiting, instead of the European mode of blacking.

The dress of ceremony among the Chinese is very rich and handsome. The colour of the spencer is usually dark blue or purple, and the long dress beneath is of some lighter or gayer colour. On state occasions this long dress is embroidered with dragons, or other devices, wrought in silk and gold.

The Chinese have no "particular passion for clean linen." Their very body-garments are sometimes made of a species of light silk, and all the rest of their dress being of silk or furs, there is little demand for white calico or linen. Even sheets and table-cloths are unknown among them. The natural result of this want of cleanliness is, that the people are subject to cutaneous and leprous complaints. The latter may be increased, as some suppose, from their fondness for pork, and, perhaps, from the nature of the climate.

The dress of females is very modest and becoming, and, in the higher class, as splendid as it can be made with silks and embroidery. The ordinary dress is a large-sleeved robe of silk, or of cotton among the poorer sort, over a long garment, sometimes of a pink colour, under which are loose trowsers, which are fastened round the ancle, just above the shoe. Unmarried women wear their hair in long tresses; but matrons wear it twisted up towards the back of the head, ornamented with flowers or jewels, and fastened with two bodkins stuck in crosswise. Sometimes they wear an ornament representing the foong

háng, or Chinese phoenix, composed of gold and jewels, the wings hovering, and the beak of the bird hanging over the forehead on an elastic spring. In such a costume the females in China would frequently appear handsome, were it not for the custom of daubing their faces with white and red paint, together with their mutilated feet. The young women have their eyebrows fashioned until they represent a fine curved line, which the Chinese compare to "the new moon," or to "the young leaflet of the willow."

The costume of the peasantry in China is adapted to give freedom to the body. In summer it consists of a pair of loose cotton trowsers tied round the middle, and a frock equally loose hanging over it. In very hot weather the trowsers only are worn. The head is defended from the sun by a broad umbrella-shaped hat of bamboo slips interwoven, which is exchanged for the felt cap in winter. In rainy weather they have cloaks of a species of flags or reeds, from which the water runs as from a penthouse. Generally they wear no shoes, but sometimes they wear sandals made of straw.

It would seem that the party-coloured coat, with which Jacob clad his beloved Joseph, is an universal mark of regard in oriental countries. Such a coat is frequently given by the Chinese to a retiring public magistrate whose government has been marked by moderation and justice. A deputation waits on him with a habit composed of every variety of colour, as if made by a general contribution from the people. With this habit he is solemnly invested, and it is

preserved with much care as a relic in his family for generations.

Notwithstanding the dress of the Chinese is defined by custom, and rendered sacred by antiquity, there is a vanity sometimes displayed in it which exhibits the natural pride of the human heart. There are fops among them, as among Europeans. But private character is more legibly displayed in their domestic manners than in their costumes; and here the defective principles of their religion and education are clearly unfolded: they have left them as mariners without a compass, exposed to the danger of making shipwreck of their happiness both in this world and the

next.

Among the most fatal temptations to which the Chinese are exposed, and to which they most yield, may be reckoned the use of opium. On this subject Lay remarks: "In China the spendthrift, the man of lewd habits, the drunkard, and a large assortment of bad characters, slide into the opium-smoker: hence the drug seems to be chargeable with all the vices of the country. Opium, doubtless, has its victims in persons who, but for its fascinating lures, might have escaped ruin; but in the great majority of instances it only adds one stain more to a character already polluted. . . . . . Many use it in moderation, and are sufficiently masters of themselves to keep on the right side of slavery; but it is a subtle and traitorous inmate, and no one who has once felt the exhilarating effects of it, is sure that he will not one day fall a prey to its delusions. This great metropolis has a choice of wretched and degraded

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