But as soon as he can,
he gets the barber to put him on a false pigtail, as a closely-cropped
convict might wear a wig. They roll them up when they are at work if
they are in the way, but if a servant came into your room with his tail
tucked up you would be very angry with him, It would be like a
housemaid coming in with her sleeves and skirt tucked up for
house-cleaning--_most_ disrespectful!"
"Were these the men you showed something to that _they_ thought
wonderful?"
"Yes, Fred. And now I'll tell you what it was. You must know that I
could speak no Chinese, and my new friends could speak no English, so
they chattered like magpies to each other, and laughed like children or
Chinamen--for the Chinese are very fond of a joke. When they laughed I
laughed, and we bowed and shook hands, and they turned me round and felt
me all over, and _felt my hands_."
"What about your hands, Cousin?"
"I had on dog-skin gloves, yellow ones. Now when all the male population
of the hamlet had stroked these very carefully, I perceived that they
had never seen gloves before, and that they believed themselves to be
testing the feel of a barbarian's skin."
"Barbarian?"
"Certainly, Bessie. They give us the same polite name that we feel
ourselves more justified in applying to them.
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