BOTCHAN
been started at all.
After a while, they began singing ditties in outlandish voices. One of the geishas came in front of me, and taking up a samisen, asked me to sing something. I told her I didn’t sing, but I’d like to hear, and she droned out:
“If one can go round and meet the one he wants, banging gongs and drums… bang, bang, bang, bang, bing, shouting after wandering Santaro, there is some one I’d like to meet by banging round gongs and drums… bang, bang, bang, bang, b-i-n-g.”
She dashed this off in two breaths, and sighed, “O, dear!"”She should have sung something easier.
Clown who had come near us meanwhile, remarked in his flippant tone:
“Hello, dear Miss Su-chan, too bad to see your beau go away so soon.” The geisha pouted, “I don't know.” Clown, regardless, began imitating “gidayu” with a dismal voice,–“What a luck,
–211–
