Highroads of Geography Part 8

11. A Chinese boy becomes a man at sixteen years of age. He chooses his work in life when he is quite a baby. Let me tell you how he does it.

12. When he is one year old he is seated in the middle of such things as money, books, and pens. Then the parents watch him to see what he will play with.

13. If he takes up the money, they say that he must be a trader or a banker. If he takes up a book or a pen, they say that he must be a writer or a teacher or a scholar.

21. HAIR, FINGERS, AND TOES.

1. Chinese men shave their heads, all but a small patch of hair. This is allowed to grow very long, and is plaited into a pigtail. I have seen Chinamen with coloured ribbons woven into their pigtails.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Two Chinamen}]

2. When men are at work they twine their pigtails round their heads.

When they wish to show respect to any person they let down their pigtails. A man who has a long, thick pigtail is very proud of it.

3. Sometimes men who are sent to prison have their pigtails cut off.

This is thought to be a great disgrace. When they leave prison they buy false pigtails to wear.

4. When Chinamen fight they pull each other about by the pigtail.

Sometimes a schoolmaster punishes bad boys with his pigtail.

5. Rich women are very proud of their tiny feet. Chinese ladies can wear shoes about four inches long. Fancy mother wearing a doll's shoes!

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Chinese women holding fans}]

6. Girls have their feet bound up tightly when they are five years of age. The bandages are made tighter every week, until the foot stops growing. Of course, the poor girls suffer very much. The Chinese have a saying: "Every pair of bound feet costs a bath of tears."

7. When the girls grow up they cannot walk. They can only totter along, and they have to lean on the arm of a maid to keep themselves from falling.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Woman walking with the support of her maid}]

8. I am glad to say that many parents do not now bind the feet of their girls. They have learnt that it is both wicked and foolish to do so. At one school in China all the girls have their feet unbound. They skip and play about almost as well as Kate and May.

9. You and I think that only dirty, untidy people let their nails grow long. Rich people in China never cut their nails. They let them grow so long that they have to wear s.h.i.+elds to keep them from being broken.

10. The dress of a Chinaman is very simple. He wears trousers and several cotton or silk tunics. The outside tunic has very long, wide sleeves; these are used as pockets.

11. The trousers are loose, and are covered up to the knee by white stockings. When a Chinaman is in full dress he wears a long gown. The Chinese boy wears the same kind of clothes as his father. Every man, woman, and child carries a fan.

12. Chinese boots are made of cloth or satin, never of leather. The soles are made of rags or paper. We blacken the uppers of our boots.

Chinamen whiten the soles of theirs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Chinese boots}]

13. Now I must end this letter. When I come home you must ask me to tell you about the rice fields and the silk farms and the Great Wall. I have a hundred more things to tell you about this wonderful land.--Your loving FATHER.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Rich Chinaman's House.

(From the photograph by J. Thomson, F.R.G.S.)]

22. A LETTER FROM j.a.pAN.

1. MY DEAR CHILDREN,--Once more I have made a long sea voyage, and once more I am safely on sh.o.r.e. I am now in j.a.pan.

2. The j.a.ps live on islands, just as we do. They are brave and clever and busy, and they have many fine wars.h.i.+ps. Because of all these things they are sometimes called the Britons of the Far East.

3. Most of the people in the East are very backward. They have stood still while the people of the West have gone forward. Not so the j.a.ps.

They have learnt everything that the West can teach them. You will see in j.a.pan all the things on which we pride ourselves.

4. The j.a.ps are first-rate sailors. Some of their captains learnt to be sailors on board our wars.h.i.+ps. They are also fine soldiers. You know that not many years ago they beat the Russians both by land and by sea.

5. I like the j.a.ps better than any other people that I have met in the East. Many of them still wear the dress of olden days, and keep to their simple and pretty ways. Their country is beautiful, and they love beautiful things.

6. They are very fond indeed of flowers, which they grow very well.

Their gardens are lovely. When the flowers are in bloom the j.a.ps troop in thousands to see them. It is pretty to watch the delight of fathers and mothers and children at the form, colour, and scent of the flowers.

7. The j.a.ps are very clever workmen. I have often stood and watched them at work. They always try to beat their own best. Good work of any kind gives them joy; bad work gives them pain.

8. I have bought j.a.p fans for Kate and May. On these fans there are pictures of a snow-clad mountain shaped like a sugar loaf. There is no more beautiful mountain in all the world.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Snowy mountain}]

9. This mountain began as a hole in the ground. Melted rocks boiled up out of the hole and built up the mountain. In time the rocks grew cool and hard. Some j.a.ps believe that it was formed in a single night!

10. Steam still comes out of a crack in the side of the mountain. This shows that any day melted rocks may boil forth again. About two hundred years ago the mountain threw out so much ash that it covered a town sixty miles away.

11. Sometimes the earth shakes and opens in great cracks. When the earth "quakes" houses tumble down, and the tops of tall trees snap off. Very often lives are lost.

23. j.a.p CHILDREN.

1. When a j.a.p boy is born there is great joy in his home. His mother's friends all come to see him. They bring him presents, such as toys, dried fish, and eggs.

2. Very early in his life the little j.a.p baby is strapped on to his sister's back. He goes with her wherever she goes. If the weather is cold, the little girl covers him with her coat. When the sun is hot she shelters him with her sunshade.

3. When she plays she jumps and skips and runs about, and all the time baby's little head jerks to and fro. He does not mind; he is quite happy. You never hear a j.a.p baby cry.

4. When a boy is about three years of age he learns to walk. He soon finds his feet, and runs about on high wooden clogs.

5. j.a.p boys are fond of pets and games. Wherever a boy goes he carries with him a long pole. With this he makes flying leaps and does many clever tricks.