in, proceed from
sources utterly dark and unknown to us; even the oldest records fail
to explain them to us in anything but a superficial and cursory
manner, _simply because we have absolutely nothing in common with this
people_. We pass in the midst of their mirth and their laughter
without understanding the wherefore, so totally does it differ from
our own.

* * * * *

Chrysantheme with Yves, Oyouki with me, Fraise and Zinia, our cousins,
walking before us under our watchful eye, slowly move through the
crowd, holding each others' hands lest we should lose one another.

All along the streets leading to the temple, the wealthy inhabitants
have decorated the fronts of their houses with a quantity of vases and
nosegays. The peculiar shed-like buildings habitual in this country,
with their open platform frontage, are particularly well suited for
the display of choice objects; all the houses have been thrown open,
and the interiors are hung with draperies that hide the back of the
apartments. In front of these hangings and slightly standing back from
the movement of the passing crowd, the various exhibited articles are
methodically placed in a row, under the full glare of hanging lamps.
Hardly any flowers compose the nosegays, nothing but foliage,--some
rare and priceless, others chosen as if purposely from amongst the
commonest plants, arranged however with such taste as to make them
appear new and choice; ordinary lettuce leaves, tall cabbage stalks
are placed with exquisite artificial taste in vessels of marvelous
workmanship. All the vases are of bronze, but the designs are varied
according to each changing fancy: some complicated and twisted;
others, and by far the largest number, graceful and simple, but of a
simplicity so studied and exquisite that to our eyes they seem the
revelation of an unknown art, the subversion of all acquired notions
on form.

* * * * *

On turning a corner of a street, by good luck we meet our married
comrades of the _Triomphante_ and Jonquille, Touki-San and Campanule!
Bows and curtsies are exchanged by the mousmes, reciprocal
manifestations of joy at meeting; then, forming a compact band, we are
carried off by the ever-increasing crowd and continue our progress in
the direction of the temple.

The streets gradually ascend (the temples are always built on a
height); and by degrees as we mount up, there is added to the
b