which is still the present to her and to her household. So lovely, so
aesthetic, so dainty and charming seems the world into which one enters
there, that one would not care to break the spell that holds it as it
is, and let the girl-wife, with her gentlewomen and her kneeling
servants, hurry forward into the busy, perplexing life of to-day. May
time deal gently with her and hers, nor rudely break the enchantment
that surrounds her!

CHAPTER VIII.

SAMURAI WOMEN.

Samurai was the name given to the military class among the Japanese,--a
class intermediate between the Emperor and his nobles and the great mass
of the common people who were engaged in agriculture, mechanical arts,
or trade. Upon the samurai rested the defense of the country from
enemies at home or abroad, as well as the preservation of literature and
learning, and the conduct of all official business. At the time of the
fall of feudalism, there were, among the thirty-four millions of
Japanese, about two million samurai; and in this class, in the broadest
sense of the word, must be included the daimi[=o]s, as well as their
two-sworded retainers. But as the greater among the samurai were
distinguished by special class names, the word as commonly used, and as
used throughout this work, applies to the military class, who served
the Sh[=o]gun and the daimi[=o]s, and who were supported by yearly
allowances from the treasuries of their lords. These form a distinct
class, actuated by motives quite different from those of the lower
classes, and filling a great place in the history of the country. As the
nobility, through long inheritance of power and wealth, became weak in
body and mind, the samurai grew to be, more and more, not only the
sword, but the brain of Japan; and to-day the great work of bringing the
country out of the middle ages into the nineteenth century is being
performed by the samurai more than by any other class.

What, it may be asked, are the traits of the samurai which distinguish
them, and make them such honored types of the perfect Japanese
gentleman, so that to live and die worthy the name of samurai was the
highest ambition of the soldier? The samurai's duty may be expressed in
one word, loyalty,--loyalty to his lord and master, and loyalty to his
country,--loyalty so true and deep that for it all human ties, hopes,
and affections, wife, children, and home, must be sacrificed if
necessary. Those who have read the tale of "The Loya