mit no intrigue [on the
stage] by which the character of a married woman is
compromised."[1497] The Europeans and Japanese, in contact with
each other, find that it is not possible to infer each other's
character from each other's folkways. Hearn says: "The ideas of
this people are not our ideas; their sentiments are not our
sentiments; their ethical life represents for us regions of
thought and emotion yet unexplored, or perhaps long
forgotten."[1498] The two cases in contrast, however, show the
power of the folkways and their tremendous control. We know as
to our own women that there is no conscious or unconscious
purpose to stimulate sensuality. They wear what has been and is
customary in their society. The Japanese get their customs in the
same way and attribute to them the same authority. Neither has
any reason to be amazed at or despise the other. Baelz quotes
Mrs. Bishop, who after spending twenty years traveling in the
East said, "I know now that one can be naked, yet behave like a
lady." The above story of the crippled Aino girl gives
credibility to Becke's story[1499] of a Polynesian woman, wife of
a European, who died after child bearing rather than submit to
treatment by a physician which would be attended by exposure of
her person.

+467. Standards of decency as to natural functions, etc.+ The
natives of New Georgia (Solomon Islands) "have the same ideas of
what is decent with regard to certain acts and exposures that we
ourselves have." They build retiring places over the water, "but
their language is quite unlicensed."[1500] In Micronesia reserve
as to natural functions is lacking.[1501] Amongst central African
negroes the king alone had a hut for retirement. "The heathen
negroes are generally more observant of decorum in this respect
than any Mohammedan."[1502] In Lhasa, Tibet, there are no
latrines either public or private. The street is used.[1503] The
Andamanese women are modest and very careful about decency of
dress and conversation. For the unmarried there is complete
license.[1504] When Middendorf asked a Tungus girl to sing, she
sang a song which was so indecent that he could not translate
it.[1505] Children of the Eskimo on the eastern coast of
Greenland go naked in the house until they are sixteen years old.
Then they put on the _natit_, a simple band around the loins, and
tha