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 PLATE X.

TORTURING THE FINGERS.

is effected by placing small pieces of wood betwixt them, and then drawing them very forcibly together with cords. It is frequently inflicted as a punishment upon disorderly women.

There are no people existing, who pay so sacred an attention to the laws of decency as the Chinese; habituated in preserving the constant appearance of modesty and self-controul, nothing is more uncommon amongst them, than deleterious examples of unblushing vice; and if there be truth in the old maxim, that want of decency, either in action, or in word, betrays a deficiency of understanding, they certainly indicate more sense than some other nations, who affect to excel them in education and refinement. The general manners of people of every condition in China wear as modest a habit, as their persons. They discover no gratification in wresting their proper language into impure meanings; and grossly offensive phrases are only to be heard amongst the very dregs of the community, and at the risk of immediate and severe judicial correction.