IV.
The commerce in children in the 17th century, as we have explained, wasconnected with a trade. The Comprachicos engaged in the commerce, andcarried on the trade. They bought children, worked a little on the rawmaterial, and resold them afterwards.
The venders were of all kinds: from the wretched father, getting rid ofhis family, to the master, utilizing his stud of slaves. The sale of menwas a simple matter. In our own time we have had fighting to maintainthis right. Remember that it is less than a century ago since theElector of Hesse sold his subjects to the King of England, who requiredmen to be killed in America. Kings went to the Elector of Hesse as we goto the butcher to buy meat. The Elector had food for powder in stock,and hung up his subjects in his shop. Come buy; it is for sale. InEngland, under Jeffreys, after the tragical episode of Monmouth, therewere many lords and gentlemen beheaded and quartered. Those who wereexecuted left wives and daughters, widows and orphans, whom James II.gave to the queen, his wife. The queen sold these ladies to WilliamPenn. Very likely the king had so much per cent. on the transaction. Theextraordinary thing is, not that James II. should have sold the women,but that William Penn should have bought them. Penn's purchase isexcused, or explained, by the fact that having a desert to sow with men,he needed women as farming implements.
Her Gracious Majesty made a good business out of these ladies. The youngsold dear. We may imagine, with the uneasy feeling which a complicatedscandal arouses, that probably some old duchesses were thrown in cheap.
The Comprachicos were also called the Cheylas, a Hindu word, whichconveys the image of harrying a nest.
For a long time the Comprachicos only partially concealed themselves.There is sometimes in the social order a favouring shadow thrown overiniquitous trades, in which they thrive. In our own day we have seen anassociation of the kind in Spain, under the direction of the ruffianRamon Selles, last from 1834 to 1866, and hold three provinces underterror for thirty years--Valencia, Alicante, and Murcia.
Under the Stuarts, the Comprachicos were by no means in bad odour atcourt. On occasions they were used for reasons of state. For James II.they were almost an _instrumentum regni_. It was a time when families,which were refractory or in the way, were dismembered; when a descentwas cut short; when heirs were suddenly suppressed. At times one branchwas defrauded to the profit of another. The Comprachicos had a geniusfor disfiguration which recommended them to state policy. To disfigureis better than to kill. There was, indeed, the Iron Mask, but that was amighty measure. Europe could not be peopled with iron masks, whiledeformed tumblers ran about the streets without creating any surprise.Besides, the iron mask is removable; not so the mask of flesh. You aremasked for ever by your own flesh--what can be more ingenious? TheComprachicos worked on man as the Chinese work on trees. They had theirsecrets, as we have said; they had tricks which are now lost arts. Asort of fantastic stunted thing left their hands; it was ridiculous andwonderful. They would touch up a little being with such skill that itsfather could not have known it. _Et que meconnaitrait l'oeil meme de sonpere_, as Racine says in bad French. Sometimes they left the spinestraight and remade the face. They unmarked a child as one might unmarka pocket-handkerchief. Products, destined for tumblers, had their jointsdislocated in a masterly manner--you would have said they had beenboned. Thus gymnasts were made.
Not only did the Comprachicos take away his face from the child, theyalso took away his memory. At least they took away all they could of it;the child had no consciousness of the mutilation to which he had beensubjected. This frightful surgery left its traces on his countenance,but not on his mind. The most he could recall was that one day he hadbeen seized by men, that next he had fallen asleep, and then that he hadbeen cured. Cured of what? He did not know. Of burnings by sulphur andincisions by the iron he remembered nothing. The Comprachicos deadenedthe little patient by means of a stupefying powder which was thought tobe magical, and suppressed all pain. This powder has been known fromtime immemorial in China, and is still employed there in the presentday. The Chinese have been beforehand with us in all ourinventions--printing, artillery, aerostation, chloroform. Only thediscovery which in Europe at once takes life and birth, and becomes aprodigy and a wonder, remains a chrysalis in China, and is preserved ina deathlike state. China is a museum of embryos.
Since we are in China, let us remain there a moment to note apeculiarity. In China, from time immemorial, they have possessed acertain refinement of industry and art. It is the art of moulding aliving man. They take a child, two or three years old, put him in aporcelain vase, more or less grotesque, which is made without top orbottom, to allow egress for the head and feet. During the day the vaseis set upright, and at night is laid down to allow the child to sleep.Thus the child thickens without growing taller, filling up with hiscompressed flesh and distorted bones the reliefs in the vase. Thisdevelopment in a bottle continues many years. After a certain time itbecomes irreparable. When they consider that this is accomplished, andthe monster made, they break the vase. The child comes out--and, behold,there is a man in the shape of a mug!
This is convenient: by ordering your dwarf betimes you are able to haveit of any shape you wish.