the bride took it again, and drank two, and lastly the mother-in-
law drank three more cups. Now, if you possess the clear-
sightedness which I laboured to preserve, you will perceive that
each of the three had inbibed nine cups of some generous liquor!
{16}

After this the two bridesmaids raised the two-spouted kettle and
presented it to the lips of the married pair, who drank from it
alternately, till they had exhausted its contents. This concluding
ceremony is said to be emblematic of the tasting together of the
joys and sorrows of life. And so they became man and wife till
death or divorce parted them.

This drinking of sake or wine, according to prescribed usage,
appeared to constitute the "marriage service," to which none but
relations were bidden. Immediately afterwards the wedding guests
arrived, and the evening was spent in feasting and sake drinking;
but the fare is simple, and intoxication is happily out of place at
a marriage feast. Every detail is a matter of etiquette, and has
been handed down for centuries. Except for the interest of the
ceremony, in that light it was a very dull and tedious affair,
conducted in melancholy silence, and the young bride, with her
whitened face and painted lips, looked and moved like an automaton.
I. L. B.



LETTER XXV