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530 The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games |
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boned turkey with pickled chrysanthemum petals, and a dish of seaweed and rice, chicken cooked in sherry and served with stewed chestnuts, mushrooms, lily roots and rice in bowls, and a shrimp salad, called " Sashimi." The repast concluded with confectionery. At each cover was a pair of chop-sticks, split apart for only half their length—the assurance of their newness. All was served in small dishes of lacquer or porcelain, and certain ones were garnished with butterflies and flowers, cut with great skill from vegetables.
Every now and then weak sak£ was served, and we were instructed how to drink healths according to Japanese fashion—each proposing some one else until all present had been included in the compliment. The cup was rinsed each time, refilled, raised to the forehead and drained while the eyes were fixed upon the recipient of the good wishes implied.
As we rose stiffly to our feet, after our cramped position, we returned in a measure to our natural selves and enjoyed a concession to habitual customs in the serving of ices and cakes, in the form of birds, flowers, butterflies, and odd, grotesque little idols. A small orchestra meanwhile discoursed music, Oriental in character, but happily more pleasing to Western ears than the genuine article.
As in Japan the usual after-dinner entertainment of dancing Geishas and singing girls was not possible, we divided ourselves into groups and played the Japanese game of "Goban" (elsewhere described in this volume). Each victory was marked by a gift from the hostess of a tiny paper fan with very long handle. The women put them in their hair, Japanese fashion, and the men through the buttonhole in their coat-lapels.
A chime of Japanese bells announced that the time- |
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