In Eastern Seas: Or, the Commission of H.M.S. 'Iron Duke,' flag-ship in China, 1878-83Smith, J. J.
History
In Eastern Seas: Or, the Commission of H.M.S. 'Iron Duke,' flag-ship in China, 1878-83
Smith, J. J.
Iron Duke (Ship); Voyages and travels
The inhabitants of this little-known part of the great asiatic
continent, are mongolian Tartars. They are possessed of a rather
forbidding cast of feature, have great square, flat faces, the nose
scarcely distinguishable, and swallowed up in the flattening process
(this though, by the way, is an index of beauty amongst them), low
foreheads, and dreamy-looking obliquely-set eyes. Their head-gear is
much after the Chinese style, except, that in addition to the queue,
they allow the remainder of the hair to develop itself, which it does in
the wildest and most elfish manner. For dress, the untanned skins of the
animals caught in the chase, with the hair outboard, answers all their
requirements. At first one experiences a great difficulty in
distinguishing the sexes, for the ordinary bearings by which we sight
"danger" ahead are entirely wanting. Stay, are they _all_ absent?
Scarcely, for the vanity inherent in woman displays itself even here.
These ladies have large _iron_ rings in their ears, and through the
cartilage of the nose a similar pendant is hung, on which is an
additional ornament of a green stone, much resembling the mineral
malachite. Their dress is a very capacious, continuous garment of the
yellow skin of the hair seal, seamed with sinews, and very rudely put
together. Hundreds of yelping dogs lay about in all possible attitudes
of laziness, whilst a few other village pets, _e.g._, a great
bald-headed eagle, of a most bloodthirsty and ferocious aspect, and a
couple of large brown bears with uncomfortable looking teeth and arms,
suggestive of a long embrace, stood unpleasantly near, though their
owners had thought fit to secure them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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