s I
live, for that was a bad day for everyone. As usual we went to Her
Majesty's bedroom quite early that morning. She could not get up and
complained that her back ached so much. We rubbed her back, in turns,
and finally she got up, though a little late. She was not satisfied.
The Emperor came in and knelt down to wish her good morning, but she
scarcely took any notice of him. I noticed that when the Emperor saw
that Her Majesty was not well, he said very little to her. The eunuch
who dressed her hair every morning was ill, and had ordered another one
to help her. Her Majesty told us to watch him very closely to see that
he did not pull her hair off. She could not bear to see even one or two
hairs fall out. This eunuch was not used to trickery, for instance, in
case the hair was falling off, he could not hide it like the other one
did. This poor man did not know what to do with any that came out. He
was frightened, and Her Majesty, seeing him through the mirror, asked
him whether he had pulled her hair out. He said that he had. This made
her furious, and she told him to replace it. I almost laughed, but the
eunuch was very much frightened and started to cry. Her Majesty ordered
him to leave the room, and said she would punish him later. We helped
her to fix up her hair. I must say it was not an easy job, for she had
very long hair and it was difficult to comb.

She went to the morning audience, as usual, and after that she told the
head eunuch what had happened. This Li was indeed a bad and cruel man,
and said: "Why not beat him to death?" Immediately she ordered Li
to take this man to his own quarters to receive punishment. Then Her
Majesty said the food was bad, and ordered the cooks to be punished
also. They told me that whenever Her Majesty was angry everything went
wrong, so I was not surprised that so many things happened that day. Her
Majesty said that we all looked too vain with our hair too low down
at the back of the head. (This Manchu headdress is placed right in the
center of one's head and the back part is called the swallow's tail, and
must reach the bottom part of one's collar.) We had our hair done up the
same way every day, and she had previously never said a word about it.
She looked at us, and said: "Now I am going to the audience, and don't
need you all here. Go back to your rooms and fix your hair all over
again. If I ever see you all like that again I am going to cut your hair
off." I was never mo