Chap. IV. WAITING-MAIDS. 69 
tainly in my opinion did not improve her appear- 
ance. However, there is no accounting for taste ; 
and certainly our own taste, in . many respects, is 
not so pure as to warrant us in “ throwing the first 
stone” at the Japanese. The young girls who 
were in attendance upon me had glittering white 
teeth, and their lips stained with a dark crimson 
dye. The Japanese innkeeper always secures the 
prettiest girls for his waiting-maids, reminding me 
in this respect of our own publicans and their bar- 
maids. 
These inns and their waiting-maids seem to have 
been much the same in the days of Ksempfer, in 
the year 1690, as I found them in 1860. “ Nor 
must I forget,” he says, “ to take notice of the 
numberless wenches the great and small inns, and 
the tea-booths and cook-shops, in villages and ham- 
lets, are furnished withal. About noon, when they 
have done dressing and painting themselves, they 
make their appearance, standing under the doors 
of the house, or sitting upon the small gallery 
around it, whence, with a smiling countenance and 
good words, they invite the travelling troops that 
pass by to call in at their inn, preferable to others. 
In some places, where there are several inns stand- 
ing near one another, they make, with their chat- 
tering and rattling, no inconsiderable noise, and 
prove not a little troublesome.” 
The Japanese ladies differ much from those of 
China in their manners and customs. It is etiquette 
with the latter to run away the moment they see 
