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MEN, MONKEYS, HOUSES, AND SOYS. 155
They were paid a salary in koku, or bags of rice, and
in return were free from all taxes or tolls such as
the merchants, farmers, and lower class had to pay.
The general rule about the use of the daimio's
horses was that all the samurai and their sons whose
income amounted to
about one thousand bushels of
rice a year, among whom were Honda and Rai, could
ride on the horses or take riding exercises twice a
month.
In addition to horsemanship the young men
learned fencing, wrestling, and military drill. Reading
and writing were taught at two separate schools,
reading being learned in the morning and writing in
the afternoon ; yet in the whole school of five hundred
lads there was not one son of a merchant,
farmer, or mechanic. It was considered a disgraceful
thing for a samurai to study arithmetic, and in the
old-time school this branch of knowledge was not
allowed to be taught. Useful knowledge, except as
it related to war or the military life, was not considered
worthy of a samurai's attention. Some even
thought it disgraceful to know how to count money.
Trade was regarded as a mean thing, and the term
merchant was regarded as synonymous with liar or
miser. A marriage between a samurai and a merchant's
daughter was almost unheard of, though it
sometimes did take place. In some instances also a
trader or brewer was able to purchase the right of
wearing swords, and even of entering the samurai
class. The proprietor of a sake'-brewery was often
the best dressed and most important personage in