Beaufort Republican. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1871-1873, 1872-01-11
Travellers Sketches.
IS Fixing" the Hair in China.

submitted to the operation in Pekin
as an experiment, and have to this day
lively recollection Of the performance.
Stretched at full length on bamboo seat
or easy chair, was pummelled all over
the body, but more particularly on the
chest, legs and arms by stout, brawny
attendant with his partially closed fists,
after the style once 80 popular at the
"Hammam," till was fain to cry Peccdr1.
Sometimes the douche" is administered,
but only rarely. The BARRIERS outfit is
simple, consisting of good razor, which
costs about three pence, strop which is
usually nothing more than strip OF stout
ish calico cloth costing penny more. The
chief items of expense in this elaborate
exit" are the accessories. The metal ba-
sin and the bamboo pal; underneath, and
the pole surmounting all. which serves as
the emblem of his craft, are, however,
scarcely more expensive than the razor
and strop, 80 that on the whole 1t does not
cost very much to furnish BARRIERS shop
in China The tariff of charges of those
engaged in this branch of industry is cor
respondingly low. Three cash" equal to
about half farthing of British money is
the sum ordinarily asked for simply shaw
ing the head. If the queue is plated and
interviewer with fresh silk the scale of
charge correspondingly rises Shaving
and braiding the queue, retailing worn
ou; stump and shampooing constitute all
the arts required of the barber. False
moustaches and boards Of rude kind,
such as are worn by actors IN the public
shows, are not made by his hands, and of
making perukes and wigs, so much in
vogue among the civilized nations of Eu-
rope, he is altogether ignorant In fact
the Chinese gentleman is far from being so
particular about his head as the English
gentleman is about his beard where the
latter shaves at all he usually shaves daily,
if he dimes out he will often repeat the
operation during the twenty-tour hours.
On the other hand, the majority of even
the better classes in China shave but twice
a week, AMI the laboring classes but once.
In the case of mourning. the law-or
rather recognized custom, more powerful
than LAWS to permit the head to go un-
shaven for months, the precise time being
regulated by the measure of relationship
to the deceased. But as the thirteen
months exemption from shaving pres
crbed for the loss of either of ones
parents. If rigidly enforced. would produce
a crop Of hair too exuberant for even Chi
nese society to endure. where strict regard
for etiauette forbids the clean polish of the
razor. blade, other expedients are brought
into reluisitiol to keep the stuinps of the
hair within due bounds. Since the incom-
ing of the Mantchou power, BARRIERS shops,
prihitive and simple as they are now, must
have undergone more marked change
than those we are accustomed to see nearer
home. for the native Chinese, till they re-
ceived this badge Of q foreign yoke, did
not allow either knife or scissors to pass
upon their head. but were the long haired
race" which the Tapping insurgents are
wishing to become. Previous to their
suhicction by the Tartars, the fashion was
to bind the long hair in knot on the top
of the head, and there tR fasten it with a
wooden or metal pin, as is often repre-
sented in the old pictures Of the Ming
dynostry The art OF hair-cutting as prac-
tised in the West, is as yet unknown 10
the Chinese barber. 1t is but rarely there
fore, that foreigner calls in the aid of
native skill. Only, indeed, when he as
sumes the garb of the country and goes
into the interior does he find it necessary.
This, indeed, foims the coup de grace to
the foreigners mctamorphosis The tail"
fastened on to the back hair deceives even
the practis d eye of the native, and, as Mr..
Fortune has drily observed, "eyen the dogs
cease to notice him.