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play such games as go, or draughts, according to Japanese rules.
As regards more manly accomplishments, they are expert archers on horseback and good marksmen with the matchlock. Their skill in boxing is such that a well-trained fighter can smash a large earthen water-jar, or kill a man with a single blow of his fist.
The men spend their lives away from home, and despise all other than official occupations, while the women remain within doors and keep house. Girls begin to learn their duties, which consist in spinning and weaving cotton, hemp and silk, at the age of four or five, and are married at fourteen or fifteen. In the higher classes valuable presents are made on these occasions, but the common people are not expected to go to greater expense than a bag of rice and two strings of cash. Formerly, when a male child was born his hair was allowed to grow naturally, but in more modern times it has become the custom to shave the head until the second or third year. The female children are tattooed on the arms, from the fingers up to the elbows, with small black dots. Their under-clothing is longer than that worn by boys, while the upper garment, which is shorter, is turned up outside. Though they wear no girdles, the wind cannot disarrange their dress, because they keep the opening of the gown closed with the hand as they walk along. Married women are seldom allowed to see any men but their husbands, with the exception, perhaps, of very intimate friends, and even then they may not converse. If a visitor calls when the husband happens to be from home, no matter how excellent the terms of intercourse may usually be, he is not allowed to come inside the door. These precautions are adopted in order to prevent suspicions of unfaithfulness from being excited. In the market places throughout the country only women are to be seen exchanging their wares, the men have no concern in the matter. It follows from this that they have no one to carry home their purchases for them, and they have to do this themselves, supporting the burden on a bundle of straw placed on the
