long
expostulation with Yosoji we are allowed to have the outer shutters open
an inch or two, though he explains they must be shut and bolted before
we go to bed at night or the police will be down upon us. There are two
loose, flowing Jap gowns lying ready for our use, and very delightful
they are. As they are quite clean we slip into them instead of coats and
laugh across at each other. In comes the little maid, once more
prostrating herself, then she goes out and returns with a lacquered tray
on tiny legs a few inches high. This she sets on the floor, and after a
considerable interval, during which she has brought up many tiny dishes
and bowls, she suddenly seats herself on one side of the tray and
motions to us to begin.

We wriggle across the floor inelegantly and squat opposite to her. The
first thing we see are two steaming bowls of soup; we make short work of
these, drinking from the bowl, and find at the bottom some tough-looking
bits of something. Then we discover all at once there are no knives,
forks, or spoons, only chopsticks, like forks with one prong. We try to
fish out the bits of something, but even when we have caught them the
result is not satisfactory; it is like eating leather. Next comes bowls
of rice, and if it was difficult before, it is doubly so now. I should
certainly never be able to pick up grains of rice with a chopstick while
that solemn little maid sits opposite; it would take a Cinquevalli to do
it! I make a desperate attempt and explode suddenly, the maid giggles,
you roar, and even Yosoji, who is somewhere in the background, begins
tittering. After this the ice is broken; we entreat Yosoji to get the
maid away without hurting her feelings, and when she has departed we
finish the rice with our fingers. There are various other things--beans
which can be skewered on the chopsticks, and funny little bits of stuff
like mixed pickles, but even when we have eaten everything we are as
hungry as when we began. Just as we are realising it our little friend
appears again with a decent-sized fish on a dish, decorated with onions,
and we quickly fall to, using a funny kind of bean-paste made up like a
cake, instead of bread. By the time we have finished we are rather fishy
but very much more satisfied.

The meal taken away, our handmaiden slides back a panel in the more
substantial side of the room, which is of wood, and produces various
stuffed rugs which she spreads on the ground--these are ca