ANTIQUITY OF TOBACCO-SMOKING 133 



drink tobacco) the charming hostess nods and laughs, and 

 with her own delicate fingers tries her best to light the pipe 

 with an English match, and only after repeated attempts 

 can she accomplish the difficult feat. While thus occupied 

 a sprightly, intelligent, little gentleman enters, and is intro- 

 duced as the husband of the hostess. He is brimful of 

 Western ideas, and readily joins his wife in ceaseless 

 questions concerning England and the English; more 

 particularly he seeks information about the habits, manners 

 and government of the country ; for he is most anxious to 

 learn whether what he has just heard in the city is really 

 true, namely : that in England no gentleman is allowed to 

 smoke in the presence of a lady without first obtaining her 

 permission. He cannot credit it, but he explains that the 

 question is greatly perturbing men's minds in Japan. It is 

 feared that if this Western custom should spread and take 

 root amongst them, men's authority over women would 

 be gone ; certainly their pre-eminence would be seriously 

 imperilled. The visitors try to reassure him. They tell 

 him that as a rule gentlemen do pay this deference to ladies 

 out of considerations of delicacy, as behoves men towards 

 women, as well as from a chivalric regard for ladies 

 generally. But this was a line of argument he seemed 

 unable to follow ; he was dominated with the idea that the 

 custom if adopted in Japan would be the thin end of the 

 wedge which ultimately would sever men from their proper 

 control over their wives and women-folk generally. With a 

 countenance expressive of perplexity and dismay he foretold 

 of endless domestic storms issuing from the fuming pipe. It 

 was not without amusement that the English ladies witnessed 

 this curious reflex of a Western spectre which a few idle 

 people have raised for their diversion, and it required some 

 effort to suppress their feelings. They did their best, how- 



