The first one to be rid of his cards is the winner, and the one who holds
the last card is the loser. If a boy is the loser, he has a dab of ink or
of paint smudged on his face; if it is a girl, she has a wisp of straw
put in her hair. The game is so called because each proverb begins with a
letter of the Japanese alphabet.
Japanese children have many holidays and festivals, and they enjoy
themselves very much on these joyous occasions. With their beautiful
dresses of silk shining in the sun, a crowd of them looks like a great
bed of flowers. Mr. Menpes speaks of a merry-making which he saw: "It
was a festival for girls under ten, and there were hundreds of children,
all with their kimonos tucked up, showing their scarlet petticoats, and
looking for all the world like a mass of poppies.... Two rows or armies of
these girls were placed several yards distant from each other in this long
emerald-green field, and in the space between them stood two servants, each
holding a long bamboo pole, and suspending from its top a flat, shallow
drum, covered with tissue-paper.
"Presently two young men teachers appeared on the scene, carrying two
baskets of small many-coloured balls, which they threw down on the grass
between the children and the drums. Then a signal was given, and all the
girls started running down the field at full tilt towards one another,
pouncing on the balls as they ran, and throwing them with all their force
up at the paper drums.
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