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292 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
o'clock, is the time for marriage as it often is for
burial in Japan. In the starlight of a June evening
the bride set forth to her intended husband's
home, an honorable part of the castle amid lovely
gardens in which were a tiny lake and a waterfall,
as is invariably the custom. Her toilet finished, she
stepped out to take her place in the norimono, or
palanquin, which, borne on the shoulders of four
men, was to convey her to the main castle hall
where the ceremony was to be solemnized.
Just as Kiku stands in the vestibule of her temporary
lodgings, let us photograph her for you. A
slender maiden of seventeen with cheeks of carnation
; eyes that shine under lids not so broadly open
as the Caucasian maiden's, but black and sparkling
;
very small hands with tapering fingers, and very
small feet encased in white silk mitten-socks ;
her
black hair glossy as polished jet, dressed in the style
betokening virginity, and decked with a garland of
blossoms. Her robe of pure, snowy silk folds over
her bosom from the right to left and is bound at
the waist by the gold-embroidered girdle, which is
supported by a lesser band of scarlet silken crepe,
and is tied into huge loops behind. The skirt of the
dress sweeps in a round trail and her sleeves touch
the ground. Her under-dress is of the finest and
softest Kyoto
silk. In her hands she carries a halfmoon-shaped
cap or veil of floss-silk. Its use we
shall see hereafter. She salutes her cousin who,
clad in ceremonial dress, with his ever-present two
swords, is waiting to accompany her, in addition to