high and honourable level. Second, many Japanese servants are of good birth
and excellent family. Only a generation ago their fathers were samurai,
followers of some great Prince, a Daimio, and members of his clan. In the
feudal days of Japan, so recently past, the position of the samurai was
exactly the same as the clansmen of a Highland chief, say at the time of
the "Forty-Five."

The Daimio, the Japanese chief, had a great estate and vast revenues,
counted in measures of rice; one Daimio had as much as 1,000,000 koku
of rice, the koku being a weight of about 132 pounds. But out of these
revenues he had to maintain his clan, his samurai, the members of his
private army. The samurai clansmen were the exact counterparts of
Highlanders. The poorest considered himself a gentleman and a member of
his chief's family; he held trade and handicrafts in the utmost disdain:
he lived only for war and the defence of his lord. But he regarded service
in his lord's household as a high honour, and thus all service was made
honourable. When the feudal system came to an end, when the Daimios retired
into private life, and the samurai were disbanded, then the latter and
their families found that they must work for their own support, and great
numbers entered domestic service.

Boys and girls who are meant for servants have to go through a course of
training in etiquette, quite apart from the training they receive in their
duties. This training is intended to maintain the proper distance between
employer and servant, while, in a sense, allowing them to be perfectly
familiar. The Japanese servant bows low and kneels to her mistress,
and addresses her always in the tone of voice used by an inferior to a
superior, yet she will join in a conversation between her mistress and
a caller, and laugh with the rest at any joke which is made.