take a
little fish, but our guide warns us not to take too much raw fish as we
are not accustomed it. By this time another tray of pretty lacquer is
put beside you on the floor and on it is a tiny tray or platter of
lacquer on which are placed two little fish browned to perfection, and
trimmed with two little cakes of egg and powdered fish, very nicely
rolled in cherry leaves. Every dish is a work of art in its arrangement.
These two fish are the favorite of the last emperor, and you do not
blame him. They are cooked in mirin, a kind of sweet liquor made from
sake, and you eat all you can pick off the bones with your hashi. As
soon as this tray is in place you see a lovely little girl with her
long, bright-colored kimona on the floor around her, and she has in her
hand a blue and white china bottle placed in a tiny lacquer coaster, and
you know the feast is really under way. She is followed by the older
girls, and little by little one at a time and quite gradually the
dancing girls come in and bow to the floor while they pour out the
sake. They laugh at the ways of the foreigners who always forget it is
the part of the guest to hold out his tiny cup for the poison. Everybody
drinks to the health of everybody else and there stops my sake, but the
Japanese drink on and on, one cup at a sip and the hand reaching out for
more. Talk gets livelier, the girls take more part in it. They are said
by some to be the only interesting women in Japan. At any rate, no wives
are ever there but me, and the girls are beautifully cultured, moving at
the slightest suggestion of voice or gesture and always seeing quickly
and very pleasantly what each one wants. As soon as they see we do not
drink sake they bring many bottles of mineral water for us. Then they
do their beautiful dances. Two, about seventeen years old, did one
called "Twilight on the east hill of Kyoto." In Nagoya, in Tokyo, or
wherever you are, the theme is always some natural event connected with
the nature near by. Always simple and classic. Then the famous old
dancer did a subtle thing called "The nurse putting the child to sleep."
That is another favorite theme. This was lovely, but sometimes too
subtle for us to grasp all the movements. These girls all dress in dark
colors like the ladies, only with the difference prescribed by the
profession, such as the low neck in the back and the full length of the
kimona on the floor like a wave around her. With the young ones the o