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She combs her hair in a neat coil on the back of her head, uses
few flowers, but instead prefers profuse decorations of pearls.
Her upper garment extends but little below her knees, and her
lower garment is an accordion-plaited skirt, from beneath which
the pointed toes of her small bound feet appear as she walks or
sways on her "golden lilies," as if she were a flower blown by
the wind, to which the Chinese love to compare her. Her waist is
a "willow waist" in poetry, and her "golden lilies," as her tiny
feet are often called, are not more than two or three inches
long--so small that it not infrequently requires the assistance
of a servant or two to help her to walk at all. And though she
may not need them she affects to be so helpless as to require
their aid.
Until very recently education was discouraged rather than sought
by the Manchu lady. Many of the princesses could not read the
simplest book nor write a letter to a friend, but depended upon
educated eunuchs to perform these services for them. The Chinese
lady on the contrary can usually read and write with ease, and
the education of some of them is equal to that of a Hanlin.
Socially the ladies of these two classes never meet. Their
husbands may be of equal rank and well known to each other in
official life, but the ladies have no wish to meet each other.
One day while the granddaughter of one of the Chinese Grand
Secretaries was calling upon me, the sisters of Prince Ching and
Prince Su were announced
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