WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
concubinate probably grew in the reaction that followed this attempted reform of sexual morality. Every man who had the means and the opportunity took to himself another woman besides his legal wife.
In the imperial seraglio the women were secluded and vowed to secrecy. The Emperor was permitted to maintain a large crowd of concubines, but only the wife was deemed a royal personage.
The women of Japan rival their Burmese sisters in physical charm and amiable traits of character. They are vivacious, intelligent and domesticated, with æsthetic taste in dress and the decoration of their houses. In literature they have excelled men. The most imaginative romances and the finest poems are the work of women.
A young Japanese girl is always an attractive picture in her native dress. Some of the women are extremely beautiful. They have small, well-shaped bodies, and in height they are usually about five feet, and often less. The black hair is long and copious, the skin of the features warmly tinted, the mouth small, and the teeth white and regular. The lips are painted red. Womanhood is attained at an early age, and sometimes girls marry at fourteen. Boys often become husbands at fifteen. The approved marriageable age in both sexes is about sixteen.
248
