blems. On the wall hang three pictured
scrolls of the gods of Long Life, of Wealth and of Happiness. On a
little low table stands a dwarf pine tree, bifurcated, and beneath it
are an old man and an old woman. Long life, a green old age, changeless
constancy of love and the union of two hearts are symbolized by this
evergreen. In the _tokonoma_ (or large raised recess) of the room are
the preparations for the feast, the wine-service consisting of kettles,
decanters and cups. On two other tables are a pair of white storks and a
fringed tortoise. All through the rooms gorgeously painted wax candles
burn. The air of the apartment is heavy with perfume from the censer, a
representation in bronze of an ancient hero riding upon a bullock. All
the guests are seated _a la Japonaise_--upon the floor. Two or three
young ladies, the bridesmaids, go out to meet the bride and lead her to
her dressing-room. Here she finds her own property, which has been
brought to her future home during the day. Toilet-stands and cabinets
and the ceremonial towel-rack are prominently displayed. On a tall
clothes-horse of gilt lacquer are hung her silk robes and the other
articles of her wardrobe, which are bridal gifts. Over the doorway, in a
gilt rack, glitters the long spear or halberd to the dexterous use of
which all Japanese ladies of good family are trained. In a box of finest
wood, shining with lacquer and adorned with her family crest, are the
silk sleeping-dresses and coverlets, which are to be spread, as all
Japanese beds are, on the floor. The articles above mentioned constitute
the trousseau of a Japanese bride.

Here Kiku rearranges her dress, retouches her lower lip with golden
paint and puts on her hood of floss silk. This is of a half-moon shape,
completely covering her face. She does not lift it until she has drunk
the sacramental marriage-cup. Many a Japanese maiden has seen her lord
for the first time as she lifted her silken hood. Kiku is all ready, and
she and the groom are led into the room where the ceremony is to be
performed, and assigned their positions.

With a Japanese marriage neither religion nor the Church has anything to
do. At the wedding no robed priest appears officially among the guests.
The marriage is simply a civil and social contract. In place of our bans
is the acceptance of the suitor's presents by the family of the sought,
the announced betrothal and intimation of the marriage to the police of
the ward. In