she introduced as the young lady procured for her father-in-law. She
explained that she had bought her from a poor country family for three
hundred and fifty ounces of silver.

"Don't you think it is cruel for parents to sell their daughters in
this way?" I asked.

"Perhaps," she answered. "But with the money they received for her,
they can buy land enough to furnish them a good support all their life.
She will always have rich food, fine clothing and an easy time, with
nothing to do but enjoy herself, while if she had remained at home she
must have married some poor man who might or might not have treated her
well, and for whom she would have to work like a slave. Now she is
nominally a slave with nothing to do and with every comfort, in
addition to what she has done for her family."

While we were having tea she asked to see Mr. Headland, as many of the
older of my friends did. I invited him in, and as he entered the
dining-room the young woman stepped out into the hall.

My friend greeted my husband, and with a mysterious nod of her head in
the direction of the young woman she said: "Chiu shih na ke,--that's
it."

XVI

The Social Life of the Chinese Woman

The manners and customs of the Chinese, and their social
characteristics, have employed many pens and many tongues, and will
continue to furnish all inexhaustible field for students of sociology,
of religion, of philosophy, of civilization, for centuries to come.
Such studies, however, scarcely touch the province of the practical, at
least as yet, for one principal reason--that the subject is so vast,
the data are so infinite, as to overwhelm the student rather than
assist him in sound generalizations.--A. R. Colquhoun in "China in
Transformation."

XVI

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHINESE WOMAN

The home life of a people is too sacred to be touched except by the
hand of friendship. Our doors are closed to strangers, locked to
enemies, and opened only to those of our own race who are in harmony
and sympathy with us. What then shall we say when people of an alien
race come seeking admission? They must bring some social
distinction,--letters of introduction, or an ability to help us in ways
in which we cannot help ourselves.

In the case of a people as exclusive as the Chinese this is especially
true, so that with the exception of one or two women physicians and the
wife of one of our diplomats no one has ever been admitted in a social
as well as p