she had to perpetrate self-destruction.  For example, little as she was taught in anatomy, she must know the exact spot to cut in her throat:  she must know how to tie her lower limbs together with a belt so that, whatever the agonies of death might be, her corpse be found in utmost modesty with the limbs properly composed.  Is not a caution like this worthy of the Christian Perpetua or the Vestal Cornelia?  I would not put such an abrupt interrogation, were it not for a misconception, based on our bathing customs and other trifles, that chastity is unknown among us.[25] On the contrary, chastity was a pre-eminent virtue of the samurai woman, held above life itself.  A young woman, taken prisoner, seeing herself in danger of violence at the hands of the rough soldiery, says she will obey their pleasure, provided she be first allowed to write a line to her sisters, whom war has dispersed in every direction.  When the epistle is finished, off she runs to the nearest well and saves her honor by drowning.  The letter she leaves behind ends with these verses;—­

    “For fear lest clouds may dim her light,
     Should she but graze this nether sphere,
     The young moon poised above the height
     Doth hastily betake to flight.”

[Footnote 25:  For a very sensible explanation of nudity and bathing see Finck’s Lotos Time in Japan, pp. 286-297.]

It would be unfair to give my readers an idea that masculinity alone was our highest ideal for woman.  Far from it!  Accomplishments and the gentler graces of life were required of them.  Music, dancing and literature were not neglected.  Some of the finest verses in our literature were expressions of feminine sentiments; in fact, women played an important role in the history of Japanese belles lettres.  Dancing was taught (I am speaking of samurai girls and not of geisha) only to smooth the angularity of their movements.  Music was to regale the weary hours of their fathers and husbands; hence it was not for the technique, the art as such, that music was learned; for the ultimate object was purification of heart, since it was said that no harmony of sound is attainable without the player’s heart being in harmony with herself.  Here again we see the same idea prevailing which we notice in the training of youths—­that accomplishments were ever kept subservient to moral worth.  Just enough of music and dancing to add grace and brightness to life, but never to foster vanity and extravagance.  I sympathize with the Persian prince, who, when taken into a ball-room in London and asked to take part in the merriment, bluntly remarked that in his country they provided a particular set of girls to do that kind of business for them.