Peeps Into China Part 7

"No; they put him into a cage in which were holes for his head and feet, but in which he could neither sit down nor stand upright. Round the cage was an inscription relating the nature of his crime."

"How long was he left there?"

"That I was not able to hear, but the day he was incarcerated I saw his daughter feeding him with chop-sticks. These, which consist of two sticks that people hold in the same hand wherewith to feed themselves, instead of knives and forks, the Chinese always use when they eat. She must have found it difficult to get to him, as she was carrying a basket, as well as a baby on her back, for she had small feet, and women with small feet cannot walk any distance, even without a load at all. It is not the rule for lower cla.s.s girls to have their feet made small, though in some cases it is done. This woman had once been better off."

"Why do Chinese ladies have small feet?" Leonard asked.

"But, father," Sybil put in, "please tell us first what became of that poor old man. I am so sorry he stole."

"I heard that great poverty had tempted him to do so, but that he afterwards bitterly repented of the crime which he had committed. How long he remained in the cage I was never able to ascertain; but I really think now that we must close our 'Peep-show' for to-day."

"After we've heard about the small feet ladies, father. I think you have just time for that."

"The feet of Chinese women would be no smaller than, perhaps not as small as, other women's feet, were they not compressed."

"What does that mean?"

"Made smaller by being pressed."

"How painful it must be!"

"So it is. When very young, a little girl's foot is tightly bandaged round, the end of the bandage being first laid on the inside of the foot, then carried round the toes, under the foot, and round the heel till the toes are drawn over the sole, in which an indentation becomes made and the instep swells out. After a time the foot is soaked in hot water, when some of the toes will occasionally drop off. Every time the bandage is taken away another is put on, and tied more tightly. For the first year there is, as we can imagine, dreadful pain, but after two years the foot will become dead and cease to ache. You can therefore understand that it is very uncomfortable for Chinese ladies to walk, and if they go any distance they are carried on the backs of their female slaves."

"Are all Chinese parents so silly as to have their little girls' feet bandaged?"

"A few are strong-minded enough to break through the rule, and all the Tartar ladies have natural feet. Anti-foot-binding societies have now been formed by the Chinese gentry in Canton and Amoy."

"I wonder what made people first think of doing this?" Sybil said.

"Some people think that it was first done to help husbands to keep their wives at home; others say that it was to copy an Empress who had a deformed foot which she bandaged; but whatever the reason may have been, we cannot but wish very, very strongly, that the cruel custom might be soon completely done away with!"

"I shall like to see the ladies being carried on their slaves' backs,"

Leonard said. "That will be fun!"

"You will soon see it now," was his father's answer, "for we have been six weeks at sea, and the captain says we may expect to be at Shanghai in another ten days' time, so I think I had better not tell you any more, and let you find out the rest for yourselves."

"I think we might have just one more 'Peep-show,'" Sybil replied, "and hear how we get our tea-leaves. I think we ought to know about that before we arrive."

The missionary smiled, and the next time his children wanted a "Peep-show" very much, only a very little persuasion was required to make him sit down between them and let them have it.

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CHAPTER V.

THE MERCHANT SHOWMAN.

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"WELL, so it is to be about tea to-day," Mr. Graham at once began.

"Supposing I do not know anything about it, though; what are we to do then? I know tea comes from an evergreen plant, something like a myrtle, but that isn't much information, is it? Wait a minute, though, children," he then went on, "and you shall have a proper lesson to-day."

And as he spoke Mr. Graham disappeared, soon to return with a fellow pa.s.senger, a tea merchant, who would be the kind "show-man" for to-day.

"How far did you get?" he asked, as he sat amongst the group of father, mother, and children, for Mrs. Graham had also come to "the show"

to-day.

"That tea was an evergreen plant, something like the myrtle," Sybil said, laughing; and all laughed with her.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GATHERING TEA-LEAVES.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIFTING TEA.]

"Then I have it all to do, it seems. Well, the tea-plant yields a crop after it has been planted three years, and there are three gatherings during the year: one in the middle of April, the second at midsummer, and the third in August and September. I suppose it will do if we begin here. The plant requires very careful plucking, only one leaf being allowed to be gathered at a time; and then a tree must never be plucked too bare. Women and children, who are generally, though not always, the tea gatherers, are obliged to wash their hands before they begin their work, and have to understand that it is the medium-sized leaves which they have to pick, leaving the larger ones to gather the dew. When the baskets are full, into which the leaves have been dropped, they are carried away hanging to a bamboo slung across the shoulders, which is a very usual way of carrying things in China. The tea-plant is the most important vegetable production of the 'Flowery Land.' But as there are, you know, several kinds of tea, I think I had better tell you how that called Congou, which, I suppose, you generally drink yourselves, is prepared. The leaves are first spread out in the air to dry, after which they are trodden by labourers, so that any moisture remaining in them, after they have been exposed to the air or sun, may be pressed out; after this they are again heaped together, and covered for the night with cloths. In this state they remain all night, when a strange thing happens to them, spontaneous heating changing the green leaves to black or brown. They are now more fragrant and the taste has changed.

"The next process is to twist and crumple the leaves, by rubbing them between the palms of the hands. In this crumpled state they are again put in the sun, or if the day be wet, or the sky threatening, they are baked over a charcoal fire.

"Leaves, arranged in a sieve, are placed in the middle of a basket-frame, over a grate in which are hot embers of charcoal. After some one has so stirred the leaves that they have all become heated alike, they are ready to be sold to proprietors of tea-hongs in the towns, when the proprietor has the leaves again put over the fire and sifted.

"After this, women and girls separate all the bad leaves and stems from the good ones; sitting, in order to do so, with baskets of leaves before them, and very carefully picking out with both their hands all the bad leaves and stems that the sieve has not got rid of. The light and useless leaves are then divided from those that are heavy and good, when the good are put into boxes lined with paper."

"What is scented Caper Tea?" Mr Graham asked.

"Oh, father! I am so glad that there's something you have to ask,"

Leonard said, "as you seemed to know _everything_."

[Ill.u.s.tration: SORTING TEA.]

"The leaves of scented Orange Pekoe," the merchant answered, "obtain their fragrance by being mixed with the flowers of the Arabian jessamine, and when scented enough, they are separated from the flowers by sieves. Scented Caper Tea is made from some of the leaves of this Orange Pekoe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PRESSING BAGS OF TEA.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TEA-TASTING.]

"Those leaves which are prepared at Canton are black or brown, with a slight tinge of yellow or green. The tea-leaves growing on an extensive range of hills in the district of Hokshan are often forwarded to Canton, where they are made into caper in the following manner. But I wonder if Leonard knows what 'shan' means?" the merchant interrupted. He did, for he had seen in his geography that "shan" meant mountain. "A tea-hong," the merchant continued, "is furnished with many pans, into which seventeen or eighteen handfuls of leaves are put. These are moistened with water, and stirred up by the hand. As soon as they are soft they are put into coa.r.s.e bags, which, tightly fastened, look like large b.a.l.l.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WEIGHING TEA.]

"These bags are moved backwards and forwards on the floor by men holding on to wooden poles, and standing upon them. In each bag the leaves take the form of pellets, or capers.

"The coa.r.s.e leaves, gathered from finer ones, thus made into Caper, after being well fired, are put into wooden troughs, and chopped into several pieces, and it is these pieces which become the tea which we call Caper."

"Thank you very much," said Mr. Graham. "I did not know anything of this."

"Tea-merchants are most particular, before buying and selling tea, to taste it and to test its quality.