WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The Costume of China / Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the Chinese cover

The Costume of China / Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the Chinese

Chapter 9: Plate VIII. CHILDREN COLLECTING MANURE.
By William Alexander
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

ArtHistory - OtherTravel Writing

About This Book

An illustrated volume presents fifty colored engravings with descriptive text that surveys dress, occupations, and social customs across urban and rural settings. Plates depict court and military attire with insignia indicating rank, everyday laborers, domestic servants, entertainers, religious practitioners and rituals, market and transport scenes, and tools and weapons, often accompanied by explanations of materials, costume elements, and local practices such as fishing methods and funerary observances. The commentary mixes observational notes on appearance and behavior with practical details about trades, ceremonies, and the visual markers of status.

Plate VIII.
 
CHILDREN COLLECTING MANURE.

The collecting and preparing of manure of various descriptions, and making it up into cakes for sale, occupy a very considerable population of the lowest class of society, and for the most part is the employment of the aged and children. No agriculturists, perhaps, understand the value of manure better than the Chinese, and certainly none are so well skilled in the economical distribution of it. It is quite ridiculous to see the avidity with which young children follow a traveller on horseback for the chance of catching what the animal may emit, which is immediately caught up, and thrown into the basket; and if the traveller himself should contribute his portion, it is considered as more valuable than that from the animal.

China—Plate 9