630 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



emperors only in seeming, to whom almost divine homage was 

 paid, but who were carefully freed from the burden of govern- 

 ment and from all actual power. In comparison with this race, 

 whose first ancestor lived during the first century after the 

 foundation of Rome, all the royal houses now reigning in 

 Europe are children of yesterday. Its present representative 

 does not look to be very strong. During the whole audience 

 he stood so motionless that he might have been taken for a 

 wax figure, if he had not himself read his speech. Prince 

 Kita-Shira-Kava has the appearance of a young lieutenant of 

 hussars. Most of the ministers have sharply marked features,^ 

 which remind one of the many furious storms they have sur- 

 vived, and the many personal dangers to which they have been 

 exposed, partly in honourable conflict, partly through murderers' 

 plots. For, unfortunately, a political murder is not yet con- 

 sidered in Japan an infamous crime, but the murderer openly 

 acknowledges his deed and takes the consequences. Repeated 

 murderous attempts have been made against the men of the 

 new time. In order to protect themselves from these, ministers, 

 when they go out, generally have their carriages surrounded by 

 an armed guard on horseback. 



On the 18th September several of the members of the Vef/a 

 expedition were invited to a dejeuner a la fourchette by Admiral 

 Kawamura, minister of marine. This entertainment had an in- 

 terest for us because we were here for the first time received into 

 a Japanese home. I sat at table by the side of Lady Kawamura. 

 Even the children were present at the entertainment. Lady 

 Kawamura was dressed in the Japanese fashion, tastefully but 

 very plainly, if we except a heavy gold chain encircling the 

 waist. In other respects the entertainment was arranged accord- 

 ing to the European mode, with a succession of dishes and 

 wines, both in abundance, according to the laws of gastronomy. 

 When it was over our host offered us an airing in a carriage, 

 during which I rode with the lady and one of the children, a 

 little girl about ten years of age, who would have been very 

 beautiful if she had not been disfigured, in the eyes of Euro- 

 peans, by the thick white paint that was evenly spread over her 

 whole face, and gave it a sickly appearance. Lady Kawamura 

 herself was not painted, nor was she disfigured with blackened 

 teeth. Most of the married women of Japan are accustomed 

 after marriage to blacken their formerly dazzlingiy white teeth ; 

 but it is to be hoped that this unpleasant custom will soon 

 disappear, as the women of distinction have begun to abandon 



^ At first it strikes a European as if all the Japanese had about tlie 

 sirae appearance, but when one has got accustomed to the colour of the 

 skin and the traits of the race, the features of the Japanese appear as 

 various in form and expression as those of Europeans. 



