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CHAP. XIV.] mented. Ladies walking out in them were obliged to lean on the arm of an attendant, or they would have fallen to the ground.

Thus were European ladies brought much to the same condition as that of Chinese female aristocrats, whose feet have been reduced to the much-desired shape of "golden lilies." The Chinese process is instructive, as showing to what tortures people will consent for the sake of fashion.

As soon as the child has learned to walk the feet are bandaged with strips of specially-made material, the strips being two yards long for the first year and five yards long afterwards. The toes are bandaged closely under the foot, and the arch of the foot increased by this pressure. The bandage is worn night and day for a month, after which the feet are soaked in hot water, the bandage removed, with a considerable quantity of skin adhering to it, and the joints kneaded to make them more pliable. The feet are then re-bandaged more tightly than before.

This process is repeated at intervals, and sometimes one or more toes will come away when the bandage is unwound, having mortified under the pressure. For the first year the pain is excruciating, and occasionally girls cannot be made to submit to the prolonged torture, and their feet remain imperfectly doubled together; in these cases a piece of cork is placed in the space between the front and back of the foot, so as to support the weight of the body. When the process is continued, in about two years the nerves of the parts implicated in the