English: John Thomson: THE Manchu or Tartar lady may, on the whole, be said to approach more nearly than her Chinese sister to our Western notions of female beauty and grace. The former enjoys greater freedom, and her feet, which are never compressed, appear to be naturally small and well-formed. Their rich dresses, too, are always elegant, but their faces, alas ! they paint to imitate the natural peach bloom ol health which heightens the beauty of our English belles. Although these Tartar ladies are probably less secluded than the Chinese, yet these coatings of paint serve like veils to conce
English: John Thomson: THE Manchu or Tartar lady may, on the whole, be said to approach more nearly than her Chinese sister to our Western notions of female beauty and grace. The former enjoys greater freedom, and her feet, which are never compressed, appear to be naturally small and well-formed. Their rich dresses, too, are always elegant, but their faces, alas ! they paint to imitate the natural peach bloom ol health which heightens the beauty of our English belles. Although these Tartar ladies are probably less secluded than the Chinese, yet these coatings of paint serve like veils to conceal their true complexion from the outer world, and we may, perhaps, say of them in the language of Moore : — ' Oh ! what a pure and sacred thing Is beauty, curtain 'd from the sight Of the gross world, illumining One only mansion with her light.' In Manchu families, when a son has reached the age of fourteen or sixteen years, his mother selects him a partner, and the latter will be brought into the family, and entirely subjected to her new parent's rule; so that should the young bride have a hard-hearted mother-in-law, she may look forward to spending the first years of married life in a state of abject slavery, and is even liable to be beaten by her mother-in-law, and husband too, if she neglect to discharge her duties as general domestic drudge. It is therefore always deemed fortunate by the girl's friends if the mother of the bridegroom be already dead. The sons of the rich are married at an earlier age than are those of the poor, but no Manchu maiden can be betrothed until she is fourteen years of age. Usually some elderly woman is employed as a go-between to arrange a marriage, and four primary rules exist (though they arc by no means regularly followed) to guide the matron. First, the lady must be amiable. Secondly, she must be a woman of few words. Thirdly, she must be of industrious habits, and lastly, she must neither want a limb nor an eye, and, indeed, sh 258 MA
Size: 2273px × 2198px
Photo credit: © History and Art Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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