ovoking attitudes, until, finally, the wasp having been caught and
miserably exterminated, the girl resumes her innocent smile and modest
pose.

VII

JAPAN WEAR AND BOMBAY DUCKS

Throughout Asia, dancing is marked by certain characteristics which do
not greatly differ, save in degree, among the various peoples who
practice it. With few exceptions, it is confined to the superior sex,
and these ladies, I am sorry to confess, have not derived as great moral
advantage from the monopoly as an advocate of dancing would prefer to
record.

Dancing--the rhythmical movement of the limbs and body to music--is, as
I have endeavored to point out, instinctive, hardly a people, savage or
refined, but has certain forms of it. When, from any cause, the men
abstain from its execution it has commonly not the character of grace
and agility as its dominant feature, but is distinguished by soft,
voluptuous movements, suggestive posturing, and all the wiles by which
the performer knows she can best please the other sex, the most
forthright and effective means to that commendable end being evocation
of man's baser nature. The Japanese men are anti-dancers from necessity
of costume, if nothing else, and the effect is much the same as
elsewhere under the same conditions the women dance, the men gloat and
the gods grieve.

There are two kinds of dances in Japan, the one not only lewd, but--to
speak with accurate adjustment of word to fact--beastly, in the other
grace is the dominating element, and decency as cold as a snow storm. Of
the former class, the "Chon Nookee" is the most popular. It is, however,
less a dance than an exhibition, and its patrons are the wicked, the
dissolute and the European. It is commonly given at some entertainment
to which respectable women have not the condescension to be
invited--such as a dinner party of some wealthy gentleman's gentlemen
friends. The dinner-served on the floor--having been impatiently tucked
away, and the candies, cakes, hot saki and other necessary addenda of a
Japanese dinner brought in, the "Chon Nookee" is demanded, and with a
modest demeanor, worn as becomingly as if it were their every day habit,
the performers glide in, seating themselves coyly on the floor, in two
rows. Each dancing girl is appareled in such captivating bravery as her
purse can buy or her charms exact. The folds of her varicolored gowns
crossing her bosom makes combinations of rich, warm hues, which it were
f