prematurely under the heat of the sun when
severed from the stem, the sheath bursting in the middle of a game,
very grave accidents might occur. The movements of the girls were so
ordered that the game appeared almost as much a dance as a conflict;
but though there was nothing of unseemly violence, the victory was
evidently contested with real earnestness, and with a skill superior
to that displayed in the movements of the actual soldiers who have
long since exchanged the tasks of warfare for the duties of policemen,
escorts, and sentries. I held Eveena's hand, the others followed us
closely, venturing neither to break from our party without leave nor
to ask permission, till, at Eveena's suggestion, it was spontaneously
given. They then quitted us, hastening, Eunane to seek out her
favourite companions of a former season, the others to mingle with the
younger girls and share in their play. We walked on slowly, stopping
from time to time to watch the exercises and sports of the younger
portion of a community numbering some fifteen hundred girls. When we
entered the hall we were rejoined by Eunane, with one of her friends
who still wore the ordinary school costume. Conversation with or
notice of a young lady so dressed was not only not expected but
disallowed, and the pair seated themselves behind us and studiously
out of hearing of any conversation conducted in a low tone.

The spectacle, as I had anticipated, was to me anything but pleasant.
It reminded me of a slave-market of the East, however, rather than of
the more revolting features of a slave auction in the United States.
The maidens, most of them very graceful and more than pretty, their
robes arranged and ornamented with an evident care to set off their
persons to the best advantage, and with a skill much greater than they
themselves could yet have acquired, were seated alone or by twos and
threes in different parts of the hall, grouped so as to produce the
most attractive general as well as individual effect. The picture,
therefore, was a pretty one; and since the intending purchasers
addressed the objects of their curiosity or admiration with courtesy
and fairly decorous reserve, it was the known character rather than
any visible incident of the scene that rendered it repugnant or
revolting in my eyes. I need not say that, except Eveena, there was no
one of either sex in the hall who shared my feeling. After all, the
purpose was but frankly avowed, and certain