3 182202465 1721 s$J%*mf- m^W Jfe*'^^*^ *'* WWW;: -'W - Library

294 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
Here with her maidens she finds her own property,
which has been brought to her future home
during the day and unpacked. Toilet-stands and
cabinets and the ceremonial towel-rack are prominently
displayed. On a tall clothes-frame of gilt
her silk robes and the other arti-
lacquer are hung
cles 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 supposed to be trained.
On some of those articles of lacquer the artist in
Kumamoto has spent long and patient years of toil,
finishing but one of the important pieces in a twelvemonth.
In a box of finest wood, shining with lacquer
and adorned with her shining 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, with many others not here
named, constitute the trousseau of a Japanese bride.
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 twice
sipped the sacramental marriage-cups. 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.
The castle hall, in which the families of the bride
and groom and their immediate friends are waiting,