EASTE~~
137
The Hui-t sai System.
32675
163
30 JUN 21
In any consideration of this subject, it must be bome in mind that it is common to all part a
of China, and is in fact an almost necessary result
of the conditions that obtain in that country.
Though it may be a rich country, the vast majority
of the population lives in circumstances of grinding
poverty; and even in the stage above, where a reason-
able hand to mouth existence should be normally
possible, the ever-recurring troubles of flood,
drought, civil war, piracy and robbery make the
matter of a single extra mouth in the family one of
life and death.
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The religion of China ancestor worship, with the duty of observing it in the hands of the male succession exclusively at once marks the female
months as those to be most easily dispensed with. Girls belong even to prosperous families only to the time of their marriage, when they are absorbed into the husband's families: and among the poor, it is not a long step to anticipate the realisation of a girl's money value (a regular part of the marriage settlement) by parting with her earlier.
And action of this nature by no means necessarily connotes any lack of parental affection. The life of poverty is a terrible one; an extra month and extra mouths arrive in direct proportion to increased poverty - means so much less for the others: andit may be and often is the best that even fond parents can do for those who can be beat spared to part with them by "deed of gift" into better
circumstances
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