Prope
[Printed for the use of the Colonial Office, Hy
Корит
17 Mining
THE MUI TSAI SYSTEM.
262
Sylttm)
EASTERN NO. 137.
MEMORANDUM BY MR. E. R. HALLIFAX. A
This may be considered to have become the means by which the mand for domestic servants is supplied. The circumstances of the country (for reasons given below) have made board and lodging in a family which can afford it something to be fervently desired for their female children by very many parents. The girls' maintenance and training become the wages of the work done, whilst a single yment to the parents represents the support a child in other rcumstances might be expected voluntarily to afford. The age at hich children must work if they are to live is so low that any idea of trusting the average mui taai with wages to be disposed of at her own will is out of the question at the beginning, and the Chinese of the class which would supply mui tani cannot afford to look far ahead. Bome idea of the ultimate money value of the girl on marriage may ven be considered in the payment made; though the exact ideas derlying the deeds of gift". the formal documents of transfer of mui taai-are left to be inferred from a comparison of the many arying conditions they contain. The deeds take many shapes, down to the most illiterate, and have little in common beyond the
se of the word "Sung" (present) and the avoidance of "i bell).
They generally contain conditions as to treatment, and perhaps to marriage; they may go further and enter the details of the Control which the parents may continue to exercise; but all this as a rule omitted and has to be regulated by the customs applicable to the facts.
F
For in theory still parents do not lose all control over the destinies of their daughter who goes out to work as a mui taai-unless (and the stom is not common among girls) she is formally and fully adopted.
In her employer's house the girl is set to ordinary domestic duties. She may have to do no more than attend on one of the daughters of the house, or she may have a full share of the housework; but, even
(5 3/6939 W. 18989-7606 2
RAS. Ezd. 03
0. B.E.
11
mai