iage_ must be given, not only on the return from an evening of
pleasure, but also on the return from a journey or pleasure trip of any
kind. As a rule, the longer the absence, the finer and more costly must
be the presents given on returning.

By ten o'clock, when the crowds have dispersed and the purchasers have
all gone home and gone to bed, the busy booth-keepers take down their
stalls, pack up their wares, and disappear, leaving no trace of the
night's gayeties to greet the morning sun.

Beside these evening shows, which occur monthly or oftener, there are
also great festivals of the various gods, some celebrated annually,
others at intervals of some years. These _matsuri_ last for several
days, and during that time the quarter of the city in which they occur
seems entirely given over to festivity. The streets are gayly decorated
with flags, and bright lanterns--all alike in design and color--are hung
in rows from the low eaves of the houses. Young bamboo-trees set along
the street, and decorated with bits of bright-colored tissue paper, are
a frequent and effective accompaniment of these festivals, and here and
there throughout the district are set up high stands, on the tops of
which musicians with squeaky flutes, and drums of varying calibre, keep
up a din more festive than harmonious. It takes a day or two for the
rejoicings to get fully under way, but by the second or third day the
fun is at its height, and the streets are thronged with merrymakers. A
great deal of labor and strength, as well as ingenuity, is spent in the
construction of enormous floats, or _dashi_, lofty platforms of two
stories, either set on wheels and drawn by black bullocks or crowds of
shouting men, or carried by poles on men's shoulders. Upon the first
floor of these great floats is usually a company of dancers, or mummers,
who dance, attitudinize, or make faces for the amusement of the crowds
that gather along their route; while up above, an effigy of some hero in
Japanese history, or the figure of some animal or monster, looks down
unmoved upon the absurdities below. Each _dashi_ is attended, not only
by the men who draw it, but by companies of others in some uniform
costume; and sometimes graceful professional dancing-girls are hired to
march in the _matsuri_ procession, or to dance upon the lofty _dashi_.
At the time of the festivities which accompanied the promulgation of the
Constitution, three days of jollification were held in T[