known men who were habitual sufferers from toothache to prefer the
martyrdom of ugliness to that of pain, and apply the black colouring
when the paroxysms were severe. One man told me that he experienced
immediate relief by the application, and that so long as he blackened
his teeth he was quite free from pain.

ON THE BIRTH AND BEARING OF CHILDREN

(FROM THE "SHO-REI HIKKI.")

In the fifth month of a woman's pregnancy, a very lucky day is
selected for the ceremony of putting on a girdle, which is of white
and red silk, folded, and eight feet in length. The husband produces
it from the left sleeve of his dress; and the wife receives it in the
right sleeve of her dress, and girds it on for the first time. This
ceremony is only performed once. When the child is born, the white
part of the girdle is dyed sky-blue, with a peculiar mark on it, and
is made into clothes for the child. These, however, are not the first
clothes which it wears. The dyer is presented with wine and condiments
when the girdle is entrusted to him. It is also customary to beg some
matron, who has herself had an easy confinement, for the girdle which
she wore during her pregnancy; and this lady is called the
girdle-mother. The borrowed girdle is tied on with that given by the
husband, and the girdle-mother at this time gives and receives a
present.

The furniture of the lying-in chamber is as follows:--Two tubs for
placing under-petticoats in; two tubs to hold the placenta; a piece of
furniture like an arm-chair, without legs, for the mother to lean
against;[119] a stool, which is used by the lady who embraces the
loins of the woman in labour to support her, and which is afterwards
used by the midwife in washing the child; several pillows of various
sizes, that the woman in child-bed may ease her head at her pleasure;
new buckets, basins, and ladles of various sizes. Twenty-four
baby-robes, twelve of silk and twelve of cotton, must be prepared; the
hems must be dyed saffron-colour. There must be an apron for the
midwife, if the infant is of high rank, in order that, when she washes
it, she may not place it immediately on her own knees: this apron
should be made of a kerchief of cotton. When the child is taken out of
the warm water, its body must be dried with a kerchief of fine cotton,
unhemmed.

[Footnote 119: Women in Japan are delivered in a kneeling position,
and after the birth of the child they remain night and day in a
squatting