While  our  hosts  are  passing  around  the  strange  dishes,
a  signal  is  made,  and  the  musicians  enter.  They  are  maid-
ens, with  fiiir,  pale  faces  and  small,  dark,  serious  eyes.  You
are  pleased  to  see  that  their  teeth  have  not  been  blackened,
as  was  the  custom  in  past  days,  and  is  even  now  almost  a
prevalent  custom  among  the  lower  classes.  We  are  told
that  the  maidens  who  have  come  to  grace  our  feast  are  not
of  the  common  singing-class,  but  the  daughters  of  the  mer-
chants and  leading  citizens  of  Nagasaki.  The  first  group
is  composed  of  three.  They  enter,  sit  down  on  the  floor
and  bow  their  heads  in  salutation.  One  of  the  instruments
is  shaped  like  a  guitar,  another  is  something  between  a
banjo  and  a  drum.  They  wear  the  costume  of  the  country,
the  costume  that  was  known  before  the  new  days  came  upon
Japan.  They  have  blue  silk  gowns,  white  collars,  and
heavily  brocjidcd  pearl-colored  sashes.  The  principal  in-
strument was  long  and  narrow,  shaped  like  a  coffin-lid,  and
sounding  like  a  harpsichord.  After  they  had  played  an
overture,  another  group  entered,  fourteen  maidens  similarly
dressed,  each  carrying  the  small  banjo-like  instrument,  and
ranging  themselves  on  a  bench  against  the  wall,  the  tapestry
and  silks  suspended  over  them.  Then  the  genius  of  the
artist  was  apparent,  and  the  rich  depending  tapestry, blended
with  the  blue  and  white  and  pearl,  and  animated  with  the
faces  of  the  maidens,  their  music,  and  their  songs,  made  a
picture  of  Japanese  life  which  an  artist  might  regard  with


AROUND     THE     WORLD.
