Fig. 4.Fig. 5.Fig. 6.Fig. 7.Fig. 8.
Fig. 4.Fig. 5.Fig. 6.Fig. 7.Fig. 8.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.Fig. 6.Fig. 7.
Fig. 8.
In eastern countries we find the Japanese wearing a shoe of rice and straw woven together (Fig.5). This material is very light and soon wears out; so, when starting on a journey of any length, it is customary to take a number of pairs of shoes with one, leaving the old ones along the roadside as they become unfit for use.
The Japanese, on entering a house, observe the same rule as the Turk on going into his mosque, always taking off their shoes and leaving them at the threshold, lest they might soil the door-mats, for which they have a peculiar and marked respect. The military in Japan wear a kind of clog, covered with movable metallic plaques (Fig.4). To this is attached a sole of wood or plaited straw, which is held on the foot by means of a roll passing between the toes.
The Chinese, we all know, have, for ages past, religiously devoted themselves to dwarfing the feet of their women of the higher classes, so that it is not at all uncommon to find a full-grown woman with a foot as small as a child’s of four or five with us.
Of late years this barbarous custom has been gradually dying out, and now one can occasionally come across a woman whose feet have not been distorted; still, when they are allowed to wear shoes of natural size and form, they are usually fixed on high, conical soles, like Figure8, which renders walking very difficult. But the Chinese women are not expected to walk much, as their lives are passed in seclusion and retirement.