OBSERVANCES AND PASTIMES
and her professional eclipse is glorious in proportion to its costliness.
In this context a problem presents itself which deserves some comment, if only for the sake of correcting false impressions that have been created by imperfectly informed critics. It has been shown in a previous chapter that the sale of human beings found a place among the transactions of Japanese trade from very ancient times, and that, though the dimensions of the practice varied at different epochs, prohibitive legislation never succeeded in stamping it out. From that source the ranks of the "priestesses of humanity" were chiefly recruited. Concerning the origin and growth of the social evil in Japan, it may be supposed that, the family being regarded by the Confucian system of ethics as the very pivot of the State, a powerful motive must have operated to preserve the domestic circle against the incursions of irregular passion. It may also be supposed that, since the military structure of Japanese society did not adapt itself to permanent marital obligations, ephemeral agents of indulgence must have been in large demand. Both hypotheses are correct in a measure, but it would be wrong to infer either that an instinctive desire to maintain the purity of family life imparted moral sanction to extra-matrimonial irregularities, or that the samurai's prudent and often necessary abstention from marriage ties created exceptional facilities for less embarrassing relations. As to
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