Page:Sketches of Tokyo Life (1895).djvu/103

Rh and lips vermilion; her teeth are well-set, white, and bright; and her ears are large, thick, and pink in colour. (3) A woman of the meanest sort is low in stature, round, and corpulent; her face is flat; the hair coarse and thick at the borders, which are irregular and angular over the forehead; the eye-brows are low and covered with thick down; the eyes are round and turn down at the corners; the ears are small and almost without ear-lobes, appearing as if they had been pasted on; the nose is flat and retroussé; the mouth is large, and the cheek-bones are low and laterally protruding; the arms and legs are short; the teeth irregular; and the voice is hoarse. Though many Japanese may take exception to thin-slit eyes in a beautiful woman and prefer large ones, there can be no two opinions regarding the physiognomy of the very mean woman.

Palmistry is as popular as physiognomy. The left hand is examined in a man and the right in a woman. Long fingers are signs of dexterity, and short ones the reverse. The nails should be long. The shape of the thumb determines one’s relations to one’s father; that of the index