Japan and the Japanese

MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. 433
from the situation of her parents, to be a suitable match, he first
seeks to obtain a sight of her. If he likes her person, a mediator,
selected from among his married friends, is sent to negotiate a
match. People of quality have neither lantern nor mediator,
because the parents affiance the children in
infancy, and marriage
that the husband dislikes the
always follows. Should it so happen
wife, he takes as many concubines as he pleases. This is also the
case among persons of the inferior classes. The children are
adopted by the wife, who is respected in proportion to the number
of which she is either the actual or nominal mother."
Formerly the bride was not allowed, in case of the bridegroom's
death before the consummation of the nuptials, to marry again. A
moving story is told of a romantic Japanese young lady, who, being
urged by her friends to a second betrothal, to avoid such a sacrifice
of her delicacy, cut off her hair, and, when that would not answer,
her nose also. But this antique constancy has, in these latter
depraved times depraved in Japan as well as elsewhere entirely
disappeared, as well among the nobility as the common
people.
The match having been agreed upon, the bridegroom's father
sends a present nothing is done in Japan without presents
to the bride's father. The bearer, accompanied by the mediator,
delivers not only the presents and a written list or invoice of them,
but a complimentary message also. For these presents a written
receipt is given, and, three days after, the bearer and those who
attended him are complimented by a counter present.
The following
articles are then got ready at the bride's house by
the way of outfit : A white wedding-dress, embroidered with
gold or silver ; four other dresses, one with a red, a second with
a black ground, one plain white, a fourth plain yellow ; a num-
ber of gowns, both lined and single, and all the other requisites
of a wardrobe, as girdles, bathing-gowns, under robes, both fine and
coarse, a thick furred robe for a bed-gown ; a mattress to sleep
on; bed-clothes; pillows; gloves; carpets; bed-curtains; a silk cap;
a furred cotton cap ; long and short towels ; a cloak ; a covering for
a norimon ;
a bag with a mixture of bran, wheat and dried herbs, to
be used in washing the face ; also, a bag of toothpicks, some skeins
of thin twine, made of twisted paper, for tying up the hair ; a small
37