friends, and the baby swings to and fro on her shoulders, its little head
wobbling from side to side as if it were going to tumble off. But it is
perfectly content, and either watches the game with its sharp little black
eyes, or goes calmly off to sleep.

In the form of their dress both boys and girls appear alike, and, more than
that, they are dressed exactly like their parents. There is no child's
dress in Japan. The garments are smaller, to fit the small wearers--that is
all.

The main article of dress is a loose gown, called a kimono. Under the outer
kimono is an inner kimono, and the garments are girt about the body with a
large sash, called an obi. The obi is the pride of a Japanese girl's heart.
If her parents are rich, it will be of shining costly silk or rich brocade
or cloth of gold; if her parents are poor, they will make an effort to get
her one as handsome as their means will allow. Next to her obi, she prides
herself on the ornaments which decorate her black hair--fine hairpins,
with heads of tortoiseshell or coral or lacquer, and hair-combs, all most
beautifully carved.

A boy's obi is more for practical use, and is not of such splendour as
his sister's. When he is very small, his clothes are of yellow, while his
sister's are of red. At the age of five he puts on the hakama, and then he
is a very proud boy. The hakama is a kind of trousers made of silk, and is
worn by men instead of an under-kimono. At five years old a boy is taken
to the temple to thank the gods who have protected him thus far; and as he
struts along, and hears with joy his hakama rustling its stiff new silk
beneath his kimono, he feels himself a man indeed, and that his babyhood of
yesterday is left far behind.