Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/61

 will be no change in the new;" "On the contrary, it is I that have to be grateful for your services and to beg for their continuance;" "I am ashamed to offer such an exceedingly insignificant object, but I entreat that you will do me the honour of accepting it as a mere token;" " I am overwhelmed to find that you have come to me when I should have hastened to wait upon you;" and so forth and so on, each sentence punctuated with profound bows and polite inspirations. Meanwhile the streets are converted into playgrounds. Business is entirely limited to the sale or purchase of "treasure-ships" (takara-bune),—a favourite toy typical of good fortune,—sweet saké and bean-jelly (yokau), carried about by hucksters whose musical cries enhance the general festivity. The shops are not shut, but ingress is denied by means of bamboo blinds hanging underneath tablets which bear the name of the householder and are fastened in place with cords of red and white. There is a sound of laughter everywhere, for all the young people turn out, in bright costumes, and play battle-board (hago-ita) and shuttlecock, the penalty for dropping the shuttlecock being to receive, on a tender part of the body, a whack from the battle-boards of all the other players, or a smudge of ink on the face, each of which visitations evokes peals of mirth. The shuttlecock is a diminutive affair, flying swiftly and requiring to be struck true and full. Tradition ascribes to it originally the shape of a dragon-