CO129-473 - Individuals - 1921 — Page 219

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toith

The Mui-tsai System

217

teasing this general preliminary Explanation of this position of the mui tear

In my consideration of this subject, it hisonite in come fo

sum or other? must be borne in mind that, is common to all parts

of China, and is in fact an almost necessary result

there of the conditions that obtain 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

mouths 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

jncluding the payment which is a regular part of the maskept girl's money value, (a regular part of the marriage element,

when cercumstances have make it neccesary to part with her settlement) by parting with her earlier. forc she kar kinthed Karriagesóli 2gb, 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 mouth, and extra mouths arrive in direct proportion

to increased poverty

others:

means so much less for the

and it may be and often is the best that even fond parents can do for those who can be best spared to part with them by "deed of gift" into better

circumstances