The four bearers, the servants and the samurai pass down along the
beautiful Kanda River, whose waters mirror the stars, and whose depths
of shade re-echo to the gurgling of sculls, the rolling of ripples and
the songs of revelers. The cortége enters one of the gate-towers of the
old city-walls, passes beneath the shade of its ponderous copper-clad
portals, and soon arrives at the main entrance of the Yamashiro
_yashiki_. Here they find the street in front and the stone walk
covered with matting, and a friend of Taro's, in full dress, waiting to
receive the cortége. Of course the gazers of the neighborhood are
waiting respectfully in crowds to catch a glimpse of the coming bride.

The go-between and a few friends of the bridegroom come out to receive
the bride and deliver her to her own servant and two of her own young
maiden friends, who had gone before to the Yamashiro mansion. The room
in which the families of the bride and groom and their immediate friends
are waiting, though guiltless of "furniture," as all Japanese rooms are,
is yet resplendent with gilt-paper screens, bronzes, tiny lacquered
tables and the Japanese nuptial emblems. On the wall hang three pictured
scrolls of the gods of Long Life, of Wealth and of Happiness. On a
little low table stands a dwarf pine tree, bifurcated, and beneath it
are an old man and an old woman. Long life, a green old age, changeless
constancy of love and the union of two hearts are symbolized by this
evergreen. In the _tokonoma_ (or large raised recess) of the room are
the preparations for the feast, the wine-service consisting of kettles,
decanters and cups. On two other tables are a pair of white storks and a
fringed tortoise. All through the rooms gorgeously painted wax candles
burn. The air of the apartment is heavy with perfume from the censer, a
representation in bronze of an ancient hero riding upon a bullock. All
the guests are seated _à la Japonaise_--upon the floor. Two or three