Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/348

334 face, although the ministering love and tender care of the parent are not lessened one whit with the advancing maturity of the child. Again, while the relationship between brothers and sisters is most sincere and cordial, embracing, kissing, or any other caress is never thought of. An old Japanese precept goes so far as to command that, after the age of seven, brothers and sisters should not even sit together; and up to the present dynasty this rule was strictly adhered to. So, when the father of the family would read aloud to the assembled children, the daughters would always sit apart, half hidden by a screen. In contradistinction to these apparently formal relations, brother or sister, even after having attained the age of puberty, will have no hesitation in disrobing or bathing before one another; while the utmost freedom in conversation is admissible. This formality between the sexes, even in the same family, may be briefly summed up in the words, "Hands off!" and apart from this the closest intimacy and affection may exist.

The word "kiss" finds no exact equivalent in the Japanese language; the nearest approach to it being kuchi-su, literally "to suck the mouth"—a caress only admissible in conjugal relations. The principal years of a girl's life that are specially celebrated are the third, seventh, and fifteenth, at which latter age she is regarded as a woman, and no longer a child. The most important years of a boy's life are the third, fifth, and fifteenth, and at this last age he is supposed to put off childishness, and is regarded as a man and of age. Besides the two children's festivals already referred to, there are four other minor boys' festivals and four girls' festivals in the year, so that practically every month has its "children's day."

So much for the ethics of child life in Japan; and much that has been said concerning the same holds good also during later years, in so far as the family relationships are concerned. We now can turn to a consideration of the various relationships between the sexes.

Engagements for marriage are either arranged by the parents of both families, while the principals are yet children, or else through the mediumship of a nakodo, or go-between, who must be a friend of both families. In the former case, it is usually with the desire of uniting the houses, and the engagement is arranged by the parents while the contracting parties are only infants; or even—conditionally, of course—before the birth of either child. The children thus engaged are brought up to regard each other as affianced, although their relationship toward each other is no more than playmate or friend, until the consummation of the marriage.

When a youth chooses a wife for himself, and has settled upon