Dealings with the Dead, Volume 2 (of 2)Sargent, Lucius M. (Lucius Manlius)
History
Dealings with the Dead, Volume 2 (of 2)
Sargent, Lucius M. (Lucius Manlius)
Death; Funeral rites and ceremonies; Funeral rites and ceremonies -- United States
Miss Yekoo is said to be seventeen, which appears to be her age. With the
costume of the Chinese, which, in our eyes, is superlatively graceless, we
have become sufficiently familiar, by the exhibition of the living males
and the stuffed females, in our Chinese Museums. Of their music, we had an
interesting specimen, a few years since. Being fortunately deaf, I can say
nothing of the performances of Miss _Yekoo_ and Professor _Chune_. Their
features and complexions are Chinese, of course, and cannot be better
described than in the words of Sir John Barrow, as applicable to the race:
"The narrow, elongated, half-closed eye; the linear and highly-arched
eyebrow; the broad root of the nose; the projection of the upper jaw a
little beyond the lower; the thin, straggling beard, and the body
generally free from hair; a high, conical head, and triangular face: and
these are the peculiar characteristics which obtained for them, in the
_Systema Naturæ_ of Linnæus, a place among the varieties of the species,
distinguished by the name of _homines monstrosi_."
Apart from these and other considerations, it was well for all, who had it
in their power, to avail themselves of an opportunity, which is not likely
to be presented again, for years, and examine, with their own eyes, those
"_golden lilies_," for the production of which this little Chinese
spinster, Miss _Pwan Yeekoo_ has been severely tortured, from her cradle.
She is neither very large, nor very small, for a girl of seventeen, and
her feet are precisely _two inches and a half_ in length. A small female
foot, as it came from the hand of the great Creator, has ever been
accounted a great beauty, since Eve was born. But, to the eyes of all
beholders, on this side of the Yellow Sea, no more disgusting objects were
ever presented, than the horribly contracted and crippled deformities,
upon the ends of Miss Yekoo's little trotters.
The bare feet are not exhibited; but a model of the foot, two inches and a
half in length, on which is a shoe, which is taken off, by the exhibitor,
and put upon the real foot of Miss Yekoo, over a shoe, already there. This
model is affirmed to be exact. As it is presented in front, the great toe
nail alone is visible, forming a central apex, for the foot. On being
turned up, the four smaller toes are seen, closely compacted, and inverted
upon the sole. It is not possible to walk, with the weight of the body
upon the inverted toes, without pain. Miss Yekoo, like all other Chinese
girls, with these crippled feet, walks, with manifest uneasiness and
awkwardness, upon her heels. The _os calcis_ receives the whole weight of
the body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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