JAPAN
ing the service they were required to swear an oath of twelve articles, one pledging them to serve until death, and another forbidding them to reveal the smallest detail of Palace life even to their own parents or sisters.
The apartments constituting the O-oku covered a very large area, and were built and furnished in sumptuous style. A sum of two hundred thousand pounds sterling, approximately, was assigned for the annual support of this little city. Not much of it was paid in the form of direct emoluments. The "Seniors" had fifty koku of rice yearly (the equivalent of about as many sovereigns), rations for ten persons, thirteen bundles of wood and eight bags of charcoal per month, eighty ryō in gold and a new suit of robes twice a year. The Chiuro received about one-third of that amount. Three thousand ryō (as many pounds sterling, approximately) was appropriated as pocket-money for the Midaidokoro, but her highness did not receive that amount to dispose of as she pleased: she could only obtain portions of it from time to time by regular process of written application. There is no accessible record showing how such a great sum as two hundred thousand pounds sterling was spent annually on the maintenance of the O-oku, but in connection with economies introduced in the middle of the nineteenth century, information is obtained that a system of wholesale peculation prevailed. Thus a sum of £2,000 was allowed for entertainment
40
