Book Description:
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: tunic of some bright flowered silk, trimmed with braid which is woven with silk and gold thread. Her sleeves are more than a yard round, and adorned with strips of beautiful embroidery. She wears loose trousers underneath the tunic, and when in full dress a kilted skirt, which is also richly trimmed. She can boast of a large stock of jewellery, and she wears many pins of elaborate workmanship in her dark locks. Her ears are quite weighed down by her large heavy earrings, and she has several rings upon her fingers, and massive bracelets on her arms. When relatives and friends are invited to dine at their house, the baby's mother never sits down to a meal with them. She remains always in her own apartment; but sometimes, when there is a merry company in the guest hall, you may hear a rustling and a sound of THE BABX'a MOTHER. hushed laughter, and so be made aware of the fact that the lady of the house and her attendants are having a sly peep at what is going on ; or it is easy to make small holes in the paper screens, or to peer from behind a curtain which shields the door. The baby's mother is quite unable to read or write, and very wearily the days pass with her. It takes a long time for her attendant to dress her hair, and fix it in its place with long pins and a sort of glue. Then she adorns it with bright coloured, sweet scented flowers. Her face also has to be powdered, and a touch of rouge put on here and there. By and by she will spend a little time at her embroidery frame, or play with baby till she gets tired even of that amusement. Afterwards she takes a turn at smoking or card playing, and so the weary hours of the day slip by. It is quite a relief when every few days she has a call from one of the ancient dames who make their living by flower selling, ...
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