When They Were All Assembled, She And Her Very Graceful Mother,
Squatting Before Each, Presented Tea And Sweetmeats On Lacquer
Trays, And Then They Played At Very Quiet And Polite Games Till
Dusk.
They addressed each other by their names with the honorific
prefix O, only used in the case of women,
And the respectful affix
San; thus Haru becomes O-Haru-San, which is equivalent to "Miss."
A mistress of a house is addressed as O-Kami-San, and O-Kusuma -
something like "my lady" - is used to married ladies. Women have no
surnames; thus you do not speak of Mrs. Saguchi, but of the wife of
Saguchi San; and you would address her as O-Kusuma. Among the
children's names were Haru, Spring; Yuki, Snow; Hana, Blossom;
Kiku, Chrysanthemum; Gin, Silver.
One of their games was most amusing, and was played with some
spirit and much dignity. It consisted in one child feigning
sickness and another playing the doctor, and the pompousness and
gravity of the latter, and the distress and weakness of the former,
were most successfully imitated. Unfortunately the doctor killed
his patient, who counterfeited the death-sleep very effectively
with her whitened face; and then followed the funeral and the
mourning. They dramatise thus weddings, dinner-parties, and many
other of the events of life. The dignity and self-possession of
these children are wonderful. The fact is that their initiation
into all that is required by the rules of Japanese etiquette begins
as soon as they can speak, so that by the time they are ten years
old they know exactly what to do and avoid under all possible
circumstances.
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