Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/359

 Concubines are rarely, if ever, employed by unmarried men—at least among the Japanese; I do not refer to the foreign element—it being regarded as a grave breach of social laws. Where the mekakés mostly find a place is in the home of a long-married or childless couple. How does the wife tolerate the presence of the concubine? In the majority of cases, very well; for but few Japanese wives expect absolute loyalty on the part of their husbands.



Although, as a rule, the husband remains true to his wife, he nevertheless is not bound to do so by any legal or moral obligation.

There have been several efforts made by reformers to discountenance the system of concubinage, and to make it illegal. But it would be decidedly a case of "people in glass houses," should the present Emperor of Japan enforce any such law, or allow it to be enacted. For not only is the Emperor himself the child of a mekaké, but so is also the present heir apparent to the throne,