There
are different forms of salutation to superiors, equals, and inferiors.
Different ranks of life have their own ways of performing certain actions,
and it is said that a girl's rank may easily be known merely by the way
in which she hands a cup of tea to a guest. From the earliest years the
children are trained in these observances, and they never make a mistake.
The Japanese baby is taught how to walk, how to bow, how to kneel and
touch the floor with its forehead in the presence of a superior, and how
to get up again; and all is done in the most graceful manner and without
disturbing a single fold in its kimono.
A child is taught very carefully how to wait on people, how to enter the
room, how to carry a tray or bowl at the right height, and, above all, how
to offer a cup or plate in the most dainty and correct style. One writer
speaks of going into a Japanese shop to buy some articles he wanted. The
master, the mistress, the children, all bent down before him. There was
a two-year-old baby boy asleep on his sister's back, and he, too, was
awakened and called upon to pay his respects to the foreign gentleman. He
woke without a start or a cry, understood at once what was required of him,
was set on his feet, and then proceeded to make his bows and to touch the
ground with his little forehead, just as exactly as his elder relatives.
This done, he was restored once more to the shawl, and was asleep again in
a moment.
The art of arranging flowers and ornaments is another important branch of a
girl's home education.
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