The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

DANCING AND SINGING GIRLS. 203
of music to plixy for us at large banquets iu Amei'iea, and no Japanese
gentleman who was giving a dinner to a friend or friends would tliiuk lie
had done tlio proper thing unless there were 'geislias' to sing and dance
for them. The other evening Doctor Bronsou oi-dered a dinner for us at
a Japanese restaurant in the true st\de of the country ; he told the mana-
ger to get it up properly, and the answer was that it should be perfect.
When we went there, we found the dinner ready ; and there were two sing-
ing geishas, and two dancing ones, to entertain us. I cau't say that I con-
sidered it much of an entertainment after the novelty had gone, as the
music was monotonous, and we couldn't understand a word of the singing.
Their dancing consisted of sliding about the room, and taking a variety of
postures with their arms and hands, and it wasn't a bit like what we call
dancing. But it was all perfectly proper and nice, and the girls behaved
like real ladies. The}' are educated for dancers or singers, as the case may
be, and some of them are great favorites and get high wages. But if I
were to have my way, and have them dress to my taste, I should make
them put less paint on their faces; they consider that the one mJio can
put the most paint on her face and neck is the prettiest, and so they cover
themselves till they look as though they were vencei'ed. One of those
that danced for us had her face covered so thickly that she couldn't smile
without cracking the varnish, and so she didn't smile at all.
"We are outside of treaty limits, and so we were obliged to have pass-
ports to come here. Foreigners may go freely within twenty-five miles
of any of the treaty ports without special permission, but Kioto is just be-
yond the limit, as it is thirty miles from Osaka, and therefore the Japanese
permit is needed. We had ours from the consul at Kobe, and had no
trouble at all on coming here. A Japanese official called for them soon
after we came to the hotel, and he bowed low as he received them. Then
he spread the documents on the floor, and as he did so he fell on his hands
and knees so as to bring his nose within six inches of the papers, and
curve his back into the shape of an arch. He read the passports and
copied our names into his note-book ; or, at least, I suppose he did so,
though I can't say positively. We can stay the time named in the permit
without further interfei-ence ;
but if we stopped too long, we should prob-
ably be told some morning that a gentleman at Kobe was anxious to see
us, and we had better start for there by the first ti'ain. The Japanese are
so polite that they will never say a rude thing if they can help it, and they
will even tell a plump falsehood rather than be uncivil. But the same
thing has occurred in America, and so the Japs are not much w'orse than
others, after all.