JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HABITS. 185 



a very rare thing ; how can it be otherwise where the 

 fair sex are so frail, so easily won? Obedience is so 

 innate in the woman, that she appears to have no 

 opinion in the matter, but to please the man who says, 

 " I will take you for my wife." 



Truthfulness is not a matter of any moment 

 amongst them; but they are just as likely to tell what 

 is really the case as not. It depends very much on 

 what subject the conversation may refer to, whether 

 the information you desire is given truthfully or 

 untruthfully. In comparison with our own poorer 

 classes, I would feel far more dependence upon the 

 word of a Japanese. They are more innocent in their 

 untruthfulness — more childlike. They do not syste- 

 matically lay themselves out to lie, to swear black is 

 white with brazen effrontery, as our lower orders are so 

 apt to do. Like their morality, truth is not looked 

 upon in the same light as it is by Western civilisation. 

 Untruthfulness is not being untruthful with them. 

 There is no sin attached to it. It is strange how inno- 

 cent it then becomes or seems. It is the custom to say 

 what at the moment may appear the best thing to say, 

 however contrary to the facts of the case it may be ; 

 however plain it is to both parties that it is diametri- 

 cally opposite to the reality. 



