To make his queue thicker, sometimes a Chinaman wishes to grow more
hair, and the barber will leave his head unshaven for, perhaps, a
quarter of an inch all round the old circle of hair. When the new
hair is an inch or two long, being very stiff, it stands up in a
fringe--like a kind of black halo--all round his head, looking very
comically, and annoying the Chinaman very much, until it is long
enough to be put into the braid.
When a man is at work, he finds his queue very much in his way, and
he binds it about his head, or winds it up in a ball behind, where
he sometimes fastens it with a small wooden comb; but, in his own
country, on all occasions of form and dress, he wears it hanging, and
it would not be polite to do otherwise.
As it would take a long time to dry it, he dislikes to wet it, and, if
rain comes on, hastens to roll it up and cover it.
Sometimes beggars, to make themselves look very wretched, do not dress
their hair for a long time, and it becomes so frizzed and matted that
hardly anything could be done to it, but to cut most of it off.
When a culprit is arrested in China, the officer takes hold of his
queue and leads him to prison by it, often treating him very cruelly.
Little girls, as well as little boys, have their heads shaven when
they are about a month old. This is done before an idol, with a good
deal of parade. Young girls also wear their hair in queues, but as
when older their heads are not shaven like those of the boys, a larger
quantity of hair is drawn back into the braid, making it much heavier.
When married their hair is put up in the fashion of the women of the
district where they live, but married women never wear their hair
braided.
One who has lived long in China does not like to see a thin, uneven
queue, tied with a cotton string; it has a slovenly, poverty-stricken
air; while a thick, glossy braid, with a heavy bunch of silk in the
end of it, looks tidy and prosperous; and a neat plat of silvery hair
betokens comfortable old age.
MEXICAN WATER-CARRIERS
A Mexican water-carrier is always an oddly, dressed fellow. He looks
something like the man some one met "one misty, moisty morning," who
was all clothed in leather. He has a leather cap, jacket and trousers,
the last reaching only to his knees, and held aside with bright
buttons of silver, so as to show the white cotton drawers beneath.
Down the front of his jacket, too, and around the rim of his cap, are
bright buttons. Fastened at his side is a leather wallet holding his
money. On his feet are leather sandals. Over his head are two stout
leather straps, holding two jugs of earthernware, one resting on his
back and the other hanging in front.
[Illustration: ALWAYS ON A LITTLE INDIAN TROT.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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