aigrette on the middle of the head, and the wings wave over the front.

The Chinese trace the institution of marriage as far back as their first sovereign, Fo-Hi, supposed to be coeval with Noah. The law permits but one wife; but though the emperor only can legally keep several mistresses, custom sanctions the practice, and it generally prevails among all who can afford it. These women are generally purchased as slaves, and the wife has control over them and their children; but the latter have a right to a share of the paternal inheritance. These female slaves call the lawful wife "mother," and at her death are obliged to observe the same ceremonies of mourning prescribed for a real parent.

The emperor never marries a foreign princess. When he ascends the throne, people of the highest rank present their youngest and handsomest daughters to him, that he may choose a wife among them. The empress, who is called Hoang-heou, has peculiar prerogatives; and her family acquire great credit and influence. Next to the empress in rank are two queens with their numerous attendants; and the third rank consists of six queens and their attendants. The children of all these women are considereď a part of the imperial family. The emperor has arbitrary power to name his successor, either in his family or out of it; but he generally chooses one of the sons of the empress.

The emperor's daughters never succeed to the throne. They are usually married to Tartar princes.

and mandarins of high rank, who always consider such an alliance a mark of distinction. The great men of the Celestial Empire keep their women most carefully concealed from all eyes but their own. If there is occasion to remove them from one place of residence to another, they are conveyed in close carriages, with gauze drawn over the small windows, and a eunuch to guard them on each side. On state occasions, they are sometimes admitted to the theatre, where they are concealed behind a screen of close lattice-work. The scenes represented on the Chinese stage are said to be so indecent and disgusting, that European spectators are absolutely driven away. They have no actresses. Female characters are performed by beardless young men, in the costume of women. The ladies amuse themselves with embroidery, music, dancing, puppet-shows, and painting birds, flowers, and insects, on rice-paper, or thin gauze. Some of the emperors, willing to gratify the curiosity of their wives, built within the parks of their palaces miniature towns, to represent, on a small scale, the most remarkable objects in Pekin. The gardens belonging to the imperial palaces are exceedingly picturesque and beautiful. Here the princes spend many tranquil hours, while their wives play on musical instruments, and their children frolic around them.

Chinese education consists principally in learning certain ceremonials of behavior; such as what kind of salutation to make to a superior, what to an inferior, how to give a present, and how to receive one.

When an emperor dies, his widows cannot marry again. They are removed to a palace peculiarly appropriated to their use, and never again allowed to leave it. It was formerly customary to immolate a number of slaves on the grave of an emperor, or prince; but this has given place to the harmless custom of burning images of tinfoil, cut in the human form.

A bridegroom knows nothing of the character or person of his intended wife, except what he gathers from the report of some female relative, or confidant, who undertakes to arrange the marriage, and determine the sum that shall be paid for the bride. Very severe laws are made to prevent deception and fraud in these transactions. On the day appointed for the wedding, the damsel is placed in a close palanquin, the key of which is sent to the bridegroom, by the hands of some trusty domestic. Her relations and friends, accompanied by squalling music, escort her to his house; at the gate of which he stands in full dress, ready to receive her. He eagerly opens the palanquin and examines his bargain. If he is pleased, she enters his dwelling, and the marriage is celebrated with feasting and rejoicing; the men and women being all the time in separate apartments. If the bridegroom is dissatisfied, he shuts the palanquin, and sends the woman back to her relations; but when this happens, he must pay another sum of money equal to the price he first gave for her. A woman who unites beauty with accomplishments brings from four to seven hundred louis d'ors; some sell for less than one hundred.

The apartments of the women are separated from those of the men by a wall, at which a guard is stationed. The wife is never allowed to eat with her husband; she cannot quit her apartments without permission; and he does not enter hers without first asking leave. Brothers are entirely separated from their sisters at the age of nine or ten years.

Divorces are allowed in cases of criminality, mutual dislike, jealousy, incompatibility of temper, or too much loquacity on the part of the wife.

The Chinese character is grave, ceremonious, and taciturn. It is said that women are in the habit of answering concisely, and seldom speak unless spoken to; nevertheless the Chinese proverb declares, "What women have lost in their feet they have gained in their tongues." If female loquacity be a ground for divorce, it may render the marriage contract very precarious, even in China. A husband can neither put away his wife, nor sell her, until a divorce is legally obtained. If she leaves him, he may immediately commence an action at law, by the sentence of which she becomes his slave, and he is at liberty to sell her to whom he pleases. If he leaves her for three years, she may, by permission of the mandarins, marry again; but if she were to anticipate their consent, she would be liable to very severe punishment.

A husband has always a right to sell an unfaithful wife for a slave. Women do not inherit property, but it may be left to them by will.

Next to submission, industry is inculcated as the

greatest of female virtues. The following are extracts from a Chinese ballad: "Employment is the guardian of female innocence; do not allow women time to be idle; let them be the first dressed, and the last undressed, all the year round.”

"No in-door household work is repugnant to a modest and sensible woman. The shuttle and the needle are only the occupation of her leisure; the neatness of her house is the work of her cares; and it is her glory either to nurse the sick, or prepare a repast."

"The pearls and precious stones, the silk and gold with which a coquette so studiously bedecks herself, are a transparent varnish which makes all her defects the more apparent.'

It seems difficult to imagine such a thing as coquetry, where there are no opportunities for display. However, the Chinese must be more stupid than women in general, if they are beautiful and cannot contrive some means to let the world know it. Travellers say they have sometimes seen pretty Chinese girls sitting smoking pipes at the doors, but that they always ran away at their approach. Perhaps when they see a young man of their own na tion and rank, they take time to knock the ashes from their pipes before they run.

Most of the houses in cities have terrace roofs, on which flowers and shrubs are planted; and these form a favorite promenade for the ladies. The Chi nese being a sedentary people, their florists, fruit dealers, &c. are obliged to walk about the streets