A Mongolian Lady and a Manchu Gentleman

       Did you ever see two more curious dolls than the Mongolian lady and the Manchu gentleman that are shown on this page? There is no need for me to tell you much about them, for you can see for yourself the splendid silks and charming colors in which they are dressed. Chinese dollies are certainly amongst the most wonderful of all the world's dolls, and remarkable copies of the living people that they represent.

       Almost every phase of Chinese life is shown by these dolls, and if you were a Chinese girl it is quite possible that you might have one dressed as a farmer as he appears when walking in his rice fields. And a very curious fellow he looks too, with his straw garments and big straw hat. He wears no shoes upon his feet, because he is always working in the wet fields; for rice always grows in fields that are soaking wet, and shoes would quickly be ruined.

       Two more unusual Chinese dolls that I should like to tell you about are the widow and chief mourner. When a man dies, the widow mourns most extravagantly, and at the funeral she cannot show too many signs of her grief. The clothes worn, both by the widow and the chief mourner, are made of hemp, and strange hats are placed upon the head. That of the chief mourner is the most remarkable of the two, for in the front are three large tears that are as big as oranges, and which are bought with the hat.

Representing a lady and a gentleman from Mongolia.

       Dolls just exactly like these can be bought in the shops, and you would be greatly surprised at the marvelous modelling and coloring of the faces and limbs. Everything about them is perfect, even down to each tiny finger and toe. Years ago it used to be the custom to bind the feet of the better-class Chinese girls so that they could not grow very big; the smaller the feet, the more beautiful she was considered to be, and I have seen a wee Chinese dolly with the tiniest feet, and correspondingly tiny shoes splendidly embroidered in vari-colored silks. A poor, pitiful little figure she looked, and one can but be glad that this cruel custom is now a thing of the past, although dollies are still made to show how the living girls used to be crippled.

       Not only are wonderful dolls made that are exact models of live people and their clothes, but other objects are manufactured too. For instance, there is the coolie doll and his barrow. He wears short pantaloons that only just reach to the knee, a short coated tunio with a broad sash, and a twisted turban-like cap of the same color as the sash. Pad! pad! pad! His bare feet flop over the road as he trundles his barrow in front of him. This barrow is quite different to the English one, for it has a big wheel towards the center, and it has two feet at the back to balance it when stood down. The top of the barrow is quite flat, with two boards at the center, so that the wheel does not rub against the baskets or whatever is being carried. Usually two large baskets are roped upon this, one on either side, and thus goods and merchandise are carried from place to place.

       One of the most showy Chinese dolls is the girl bride ; and how very different she appears to our own English girl who is going to be married! Brilliant color and embroidery are a great feature, including the shoes, which are simply one mass of finely worked silk. Down the front of the skirt hangs a kind of apron, gorgeous in gold and silver embroidery, the sleeves of the coat being similarly decorated. On her head she wears a cap upon which beads and strings of beads are lavishly used, with a covering for the face that comes nearly to the waist, and over which strings of pearl beads are hung. Her hands are most carefully concealed, it being the height of bad manners for these to be shown.

       Of the more common dolls that the girls play with, there is a great distinction in the way they are dressed according to the age they are supposed to be. A young girl doll would not have a skirt, but a pair of silk trousers reaching to the ankles, while she wears a piece of her hair loose and hanging over the right shoulder. Should she be a young lady, however, her hair would be gathered up beneath a close-fitting cap; instead of the trousers, she would wear a long skirt, from beneath which only her toes, with their tiny shoes, would show.

       In Central China, where they are less civilized, dolls are nothing like so good as those I have described to you, and are but crude representations indeed. One that is very common is made of china, a squatting figure with a round head and funny little short arms. The head is the most life-like part of it, and the whole is decorated in different colored paints, then burned and glazed. There is nothing lovable at all about it, but the other and earlier described dolls are certainly as perfect as anything that is made in the most up-to-date European factory. 

"Sublime beauty, elegance, and grace describe the 

clothing of traditional Chinese people."