Now, like the "goosie gander" of nursery memory, we must wander again
into the lady's chamber. Were you to wander to such a place after a
Japanese maiden became a wife, you would see, as we have often seen, how
the outward form of a Japanese maiden assumes that of a Japanese matron.
First, then, the maiden wears a high coiffure that always serves as a
sacred symbol of her virginity. It is not easy to describe its form, but
even foreigners think it very beautiful, and will regret the day when
the Japanese _musume_ wears her hair like her sisters across the ocean.
Indeed, it would be no strange thing were Queen Fashion to ordain that
American maidens should adopt the style of dressing the hair now in
universal vogue in Japan. The _shimada_ or virginal coiffure, however,
is changed after marriage, and Kiku, like the rest of her wedded
friends, now wore the _maru-mage_, or half-moon-shaped chignon, which is
wound round an ivory, tortoise-shell or coral-tipped bar, and is the
distinguishing mark of a Japanese wife. So far, however, the transition
from loveliness to ugliness has not been very startling: Kiku still
looked pretty. The second process, however, robbed her of her eyebrows,
and left her without those dark arches that had helped to make the
radiant sun of her once maidenly beauty. With tweezers and razor the
fell work, after many a wince, was done. With denuded brows and changed
coiffure surely the Japanese Hymen demands no more sacrifices at his
shrine? Surely Kiku can still keep the treasures of a set of teeth that
seem like a casket of pearls with borders of coral? Not so. The fashion
of all good society from remotest antiquity demands that the teeth of a
wife must be dyed black. Kiku joyfully applied the galls and iron, and
by patience and dint of polishing soon had a set of teeth as black as
jet and as polished as the best Whitby. Not strange to tell to a
Japanese, either, the smile of her husband Taro was a rich reward for
her trouble and the surrender of her maiden charms. Japanese husbands