OCR Text |
Show 1 PAPERMAKIN IN INDO-CHIN crowds are always interesting and picturesque: dignifie Chinese merchants in their long robes, loose velvet slippers, and little round close-fitting hats of fine brocade beautiful fair-skinned Anamese and Tonkinese wome and girls in straight loose trousers and long form-fitte dark coats, their dense glossy black hairaristically braided withstrandsof purewhitesilk elderly Chinese wome insleek glazed trousers, their tiny bound feet protruding from each pantaloon leg, hopelessly inadequate in supporting bodies grown fat through forced lack of exercise Oneelderl lady, handsomely robe in vividsilks, was th proud possessor of feet scarcely larger than those ofa dol and herattendants had to support or carry her every tim she rose from her wicker chair. The binding of womens feet is not entirely a thing of the past in China, but it i encouraging that the number of mothers who pradic this ancient form of deformation upon their daughter grows fewer every year. There were hundreds of nativ travellers,- Chinese, Tonkinese, Cambodians, Indians Anamese, Siamese, and Japanese. Every description o baggage was hoisted aboard: painted metal strong-boxe with flimsy locks, carved teak furniture, mirrors painte with garlands of flowers, bales of spirit-paper, emaciate chickens, pigs tied into palpitating bundles with stou rattan, caged birds, gilt Buddhas in ornamental shrines carved figures of Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, fres vegetables and exotic fruits, ornate artificial flowers o wax and paper,-a conglomerate variety ofimpediment Digital mage© 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah, All rights reserved |