Читать книгу The House We Live In; or, The Making of the Body онлайн

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Many persons give the bones of the feet a wrong shape by wearing tight boots or shoes. This causes “corns” to grow, which become very sore and painful. Perhaps you have heard how the Chinese women bind the feet of their little girls, and pinch them up, till they look more like clubs than like feet. The little one often cries and moans for days, but the mother and father pay no attention to her sufferings, for they think it would never do for their girl to have big feet.

“See her tiny shoes!”

Amy: O, yes, mother; here is the picture of a woman with little feet! See her tiny shoes! They are no longer than a baby’s. In the other picture you see one of her feet with all the toes doubled under. I don’t see how she can walk at all.

Helen: She must be silly. I think God knew how big to make our feet, as well as other parts of the body.

Mother: That is true, but the poor Chinese women do not know better, and they think Christian women are more foolish than Chinese women, and that they bind the bones in a way they themselves would never dream of doing.