s entirely out
of sight has already been noted.

I once passed through a village and was not a little amazed to see two
or three bathtubs on the public road, each occupied by one or more
persons; nor were the occupants children alone, but men and women
also. Calling at the home of a gentleman in Kyushu with whom I had
some business, and gaining no notice at the front entrance, I went
around to the side of the house only to discover the lady of the place
taking her bath with her children, in a tub quite out of doors, while
a manservant chopped wood but a few paces distant.

The natural indifference of the Japanese to the exposure of the
unclothed body is an interesting fact. In the West such indifference
is rightly considered immodest. In Japan, however, immodesty consists
entirely in the intention of the heart and does not arise from the
accident of the moment or the need of the occasion. With a fellow
missionary, I went some years since to some famous hot springs at the
foot of Mount Ase, the smoking crater of Kyushu. The spot itself is
most charming, situated in the center of an old crater, said to be the
largest in the world. Wearied with a long walk, we were glad to find
that one of the public bath tubs or tanks, some fifteen by thirty feet
in size, in a bath house separate from other houses, was quite
unoccupied; and on inquiry we were told that bathers were few at that
hour of the day, so that we might go in without fear of disturbance.
It seems that in such places the tiers of boxes for the clothing on
either side of the door, are reserved for men and women respectively.
Ignorant of this custom, we deposited our clothing in the boxes on the
left hand, and as quickly as we could accommodate ourselves to the
heat of the water, we got into the great tank. We were scarcely in,
when a company of six or eight men and women entered the bath house;
they at once perceived our blunder, but without the slightest
hesitation, the women as well as the men went over to the men's side
and proceeded to undress and get into the tank with us, betraying no
consciousness that aught was amiss. So far as I could see there was
not the slightest self-consciousness in the entire proceeding. In the
tank, too, though it is customary for women to occupy the left side,
on this occasion they mingled freely with the men. I suppose it is
impossible in England or America to conceive of such a state of
unconsciousness. Yet it seems to be univers