Another World: Fragments from the Star City of MontalluyahLumley, Benjamin
Science
Another World: Fragments from the Star City of Montalluyah
Lumley, Benjamin
Utopias
There is another peculiar mode of choosing partners--"by foot"--but
this is conducted in a different manner, and is made to depend on the
superior beauty of the foot, as decided by an arbiter, who is chosen by
the company, and who is, of course, a man famous for his taste and
knowledge of the beautiful.
While the arbiter pursues his duties, the ladies are concealed behind a
screen, which is, however, open sufficiently at the bottom to disclose
the foot and ankle. She to whom the palm is awarded has the first choice
of a partner, and the others follow in succession in the order in which
they have been ranked. This diversion, though exciting great interest,
is not so happy as "the choice by hand." The ladies whose feet are
placed in a lower rank often think themselves aggrieved, and are
slightly jealous of their rivals, for in spite of the efficacy of my
laws, I could not--whilst giving just triumphs to superior beauty--
altogether prevent a feeling of disappointment in ladies who saw the
palm given to others by one recognised as an honest and able judge,--a
man whose taste was known to be irreproachable.
When the hand and foot of a young lady are inclined to coarseness, while
at the same time her talents and goodness entitle her to a superior
position, the fingers or toes, and afterwards the hand and foot
themselves, are bound up, for a certain number of hours each day. We do
not like "contradictions," or, as I have before observed, we object to a
garment partly of rich brocade, partly of common stuff.
GIRLS' DORMITORIES.
At the head of all the means for preserving beauty are cleanliness,
frequent ablutions, and a habit of early rising. In these girls of all
ranks are well schooled, and to show you that in their education we do
not neglect what are erroneously called trifles, I will tell you of one
of the modes of treatment commonly employed in connexion with such
matters.
In the colleges each girl has a separate sleeping-room, as we have a
great objection to young girls sleeping together in one room, and
inhaling each other's peculiar gas thrown off in the form of breath
during their slumbers. Besides, when that practice prevailed, as it did
formerly, the girls were in the habit of talking to each other upon
subjects which often suggested inconvenient thoughts, even to the best
disposed, and confirmed others in tendencies which eventually grew into
confirmed vices.
On the pupil's retiring to rest, the door of her sleeping-room is
fastened from the outside by one of the matrons. The girl has no means
of opening it herself, but by touching a little spring at the head of
her couch she can at any moment communicate with the matron
night-watchers. These matron night-watchers--two for a certain number
of girls--are on the alert during the night, remaining in a place called
the "watch," where are suspended the electric bells, underneath each of
which is the name of the girl occupying the room to which it
corresponds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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