There is as much character in the foot as in the hand. The tall, slim, long-limbed person has invariably a long slim hand, and a slim and narrow foot. The plump short girl or boy has the plump hand and foot. The long-fingered hand usually goes with the long thin toes.
Fashion inflicts queer shapes on the foot. At one time it insists that all our shoes shall be narrow and peaked, another time squat and round-toed; then heels must be worn like stilts, or shaved down to the thinnest substance.
In China we all know what a fetish was once made of the
tiny foot. When swaddled and compressed, the poor little foot has no chance at all. And there was a time in English history when the toes of the shoes were so long that they had to be buckled back to the knees.
All of which indicated the absolute necessity of knowing the shape of the foot. Fashion may deceive the many, but the artist must know that it only tries to disguise the true form.
If we want to see the foot unspoiled then we must go to the countries where fashion and manners have not affected it, where generation after generation has walked the earth on the bare foot, or with only the slightest protection of a sandalled sole. Then we see how finely it supports the body, what a thing of strength and beauty it can be!—firm heel, arched instep, springing muscles of the sole imprinting the ground with its firm tread!
